How David Marcus is dismantling PayPal

On the third floor, PayPal President David Marcus shows me a sea of high-walled beige and grey hexagonal cubicles. The kind you stared at for 16 hours a day if you worked at a Peninsula-based, late-1990s tech company. They look identical to Yahoo’s except no purple and yellow. The walls block out most of the natural light in the room and any sign of coworkers. Even “Cubicle Guy” would have to stretch to prairie dog over them. Marcus can’t hide his contempt looking at them. 

On the fourth floor, you could hold a middle school prom. It’s just a huge, flat empty space. Those same cubicles are there, only they’ve been dismantled and leaning against walls. It’s so flooded with the July San Jose sun, it’s almost blinding. “The carpets are next,” Marcus says, of the ugly beige floors with darker beige squiggles on them. 

On the fifth floor, though, I see David Marcus’ vision of the future, what working at PayPal could be like. It’s an open environment with modern white and chrome desks, no walls between them. Along the walls are open collaboration seating areas meant to deemphasize conference rooms. There are still a few conference rooms that you can reserve for meetings, though very few. In their place are several small “focus” rooms that don’t operate on a schedule.The message? If you can actually see your coworkers, you don’t need more meetings,You've probably seen cellphonecases at some point. because you are always working together. Marcus mutters something about PayPal’s “meeting disease,” as we walk past.You must not use the stonecarving without being trained. 

The entire company is going to look like this soon. Nearly 3,000 cubes are getting thrown out. Marcus is going to force people to work together via every means necessary, even furniture. Force the company to operate in small teams. Force them to collaborate on everything. Force them to be — groan with me, if you’ve heard every other guy at a has-been large tech company say it — more startup-like.As he’s stripped away worker comforts, many have balked at these changes and others he’s instituted over the the year and five months he’s been in charge. Those people, Marcus says, need to go. 

“There are plenty of companies in Silicon Valley that have cubicles,” he says. “They are welcome to go find them. It’s harsh but you have to let people know it’s happened. This is how it is.” He stops just short of saying, If they don’t like it, they can leave. But it’s clearly the message. “You can’t change the culture nice and slow and gently,” he says. “You need a series of electric shocks. The more violent the better.” 

Marcus has inherited a turnaround story unlike almost any other playing out in the tech rustbelt today. PayPal is still the market leader in its category. Not just by market cap and number of employees but by transactions, too. PayPal isn’t a fading legacy brand like Yahoo– it’s still growing. PayPal is heralded as one of the best acquisitions in Silicon Valley history. It’s one of the key things that has been pushing eBay forward: Payments have increased from 24 percent of eBay’s revenue in 2006 to 43 percent last year. Its CEOs The term 'plasticmould control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag.have repeatedly said that one day PayPal will be bigger than eBay. 

Silicon Valley is obsessed with network effects, or when the benefit of others being on a site makes the experience that much better for everyone – and more valuable to the company. Network effects give you an unfair advantage over newcomers; even a challenger that’s technically better will struggle to pose a threat. (Witness PayPal’s parent company eBay.) Forget building a $1 billion company. Network effects are how you get a $10 billion company. 

But PayPal is the cautionary tale of what happens when a network effect works too well. It turns out that solving the many security, fraud, trust, marketing, and chicken-and-egg challenges of building a new system for buying and selling goods around the world creates a moat so wide and deep it can actually be a problem. 

Simply put: PayPal got soft. It stopped innovating, because it didn’t have to. PayPal was one of the most ambitious startups of the late 1990s, co-founded by the holy trinity of intense over-performers Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Elon Musk. As that talent migrated, however, the new team realized no one was chasing PayPal any longer. Its sprint slowed to an amble. It still grew. PayPal took a break, got a snack, and took a nap. It still grew. Pretty soon PayPal’s technical muscles started to atrophy. Pre-Marcus, PayPal was still dominant and growing but was also fat, slow, and out-of-touch. 

“I’ve never seen as many things broken, and a company still being successful. It was just kinda bizarre,Choose from the largest selection of turquoisebeads in the world.The ledspotlight is our flagship product.” says Bill Scott previous director of ecommerce UI at Netflix and one of the key new hires Marcus has brought in to transform PayPal’s user experience and make it a more lean, iterative organization. 

Under PayPal’s previous regime several sources have told me that the company actively tried not to hire the best engineering talent, because great developers are a headstrong, disruptive force. They just wanted competent coders who could get the job done.

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Land Reform in Brazil

As a key determinant of who has power and who doesn't, battles over land have been fought from time immemorial. One of the earliest may have been led by Adam and Eve as they attempted to reclaim their garden after having been evicted. Even before the Crusades, through centuries of colonization, to the oil- and water-motivated wars of the present day, land has long been the currency of religious, national, and imperial power. 

In the 1950s and 1960s, struggles for land reform throughout the global South had some success. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, economic policies, development ideology, and military crackdowns quashed government-reform advances and the social movements that drove them. 

In recent years, the voice and visibility of movements opposing land grabs and displacement, and demanding land reform, are increasing. Though relatively little land has been redistributed, organized movements of small farmers,How to carledlights Doll. indigenous peoples, and landless people are developing in size, strength, and organization. They are uniting across borders to break the nexus between land, agriculture, power, and profit. 

Brazil is home to one of the most powerful land reform movements in the world. Its work has both changed the lives and fates of millions of people within the country, and inspired land and housing struggles everywhere, including here in the US. 

Brazil's land reform has roots in the 1800s, as a response to unequal land distribution that began with the arrival of European colonists more than 500 years ago. Brazil has one of the world's highest levels of unequal land distribution. Vast properties over 1,000 hectares (2,472 acres) - many of them owned by multinational corporations - have taken over 46% of all farmland. Small and family farms are still producing much of the country's food needs, only on less land and with more labor. Unable to compete with agribusiness, an estimated 90,000 of them disappear each year. 

The 1988 constitution gave Brazilians the right to challenge ownership of tracts over a certain size in two ways: by going after the title's authenticity or by claiming that the land is not fulfilling its "social function." Social function means that at least 80% of the land is used effectively, environmental and labor standards are respected, and both owners and workers benefit. 

Many rural organizations form the land reform movement, with the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST by its Portuguese acronym) leading the way. The MST's solution to ending the country's poverty and hunger is to put agriculturally rich land back into the hands of small farmers. Since the mid-1980s, the MST has won title to 7.5 million hectares of land, on which 370,000 families now live. An additional 150,000 families live in approximately 900 squatter communities on land that is being contested. 

Jo?o Pedro Stdile, MST co-founder and co-coordinator, said, "Before, the line had been: 'No need to worry, you'll have your land in heaven.' Now it was: 'Since you've already got your land in heaven, let's struggle for it here as well.'" 

Redistribution of land works this way: The organization researches large holdings that meet the legal criteria for redistribution. When they find one, word goes out and interested families - often totaling up to 100, both landless people and unemployed city-dwellers - take up residence there. They wait it out in tents, on average for two to five years. Meanwhile, MST lawyers battle with the courts to gain collective title to the property.More than 80 standard commercial and granitetiles exist to quickly and efficiently clean pans. If the MST loses, those in the camp move to another plot of land and, together with the lawyers, start over. If the court orders the tract redistributed, settlers begin creating their collectively owned communities. 

In the communities, MST members engage in collective agro-ecological farming and other cooperative ventures, like a honey business or a tractor repair shop. They run their own education systems, resolve conflicts using restorative justice, and develop their own media and cultural empowerment programs. They also run experiments in participatory democracy, equitable social relations, and self-governance. 

Brazil's land reform movement is united with other social movements in challenging the root cause of the problem, which resides in unequal distribution of power and resources. Without deep structural change and the creation of a more just and equitable nation, land distribution will simply revert to the status quo, as struggling farmers lose their land again. 

Of course, much work remains,Cheap offerscellphonecases dolls from your photos. yet the MST shows that solutions to landlessness, homelessness, and social exclusion are available, even without an overhaul of the Brazilian state or political economy. The MST has created living, breathing examples of these solutions thousands of times over.

"Back in the early days, most women on land reform settlements didn't have a vote. It wasn't until after you'd been part of the movement that you realized you'd had an invisible role." said Neneide Eliane, an organizer with Deciding to Win, one of many organizations dedicated to obtaining rights, benefits, and power for rural and landless women. In those days, some women were handed the age-old line that their problems would be resolved when rural workers as a whole won justice. Women in the MST reported that for a long time, the group was so focused on unity among its members that it ploughed under the need to specifically address gender. 

An organized women's movement evolved in Brazil in the 1970s, aiming not only for women's rights but also for an end to the dictatorship. A decade later, a rural women's movement was born to address gender inequity. In the MST, women formed a national women's collective in 1995. They have pushed the organization to prioritize gender equality. "Gender" is now an official department of the MST, with a range of programs and policies. Of the leaders that are elected to coordinate each local,A indoorpositioningsystem has real weight in your customer's hand. regional,Choose from the largest selection of turquoisebeads in the world. and national committee, at least half must be women. Other goals include an end to gender-based violence, access to free birth control, promotion of women's micro-enterprises and cooperatives, the establishment of childcare centers, and help for women in getting the social benefits they deserve from the state. Gender analysis is a formal part of the MST's training. 

In addition to their ascending integration and leadership into landless organizations, rural women have won legal right to land and social protections - on paper, at least. The 1988 constitution enshrined women's ability to gain land rights and benefit from land reform directly, not as dependents of their husbands. The constitution also accorded women new labor rights, including unemployment and disability insurance, retirement benefits, and maternity leave. 

In practice, today women still account for only a small percentage of all beneficiaries of land redistribution, and overall receive far less revenue than their male counterparts. Many women farmers receive no salary at all, or only a symbolic income.

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Two weddings and a few false eyelashes

Some weddings are more spectacular than others. Recently I attended the evening party of the wedding of two friends that I knew was going to be very special, and indeed it was. After we were served drinks, a screen behind the stage showed a moving tableau of photographs of the couple oveOther companies want a piece of that drycabinet actionr the course of their long relationship, set to music. This was followed by clips from what must have been the speediest wedding footage edit possible, again set to music. Then the couple was announced for the first dance C it was exquisitely orchestrated and brought tears to my eyes. 

I had been apprehensive about attending, because Mr M was unable to accompany me, it being a Saturday in the middle of cricket season. But the next big wedding among my friends is one neither of us will be able to attend. I had breakfast last week with my Most Glamorous Girlfriend, who is in the throes of planning her wedding later this summer. Yes, bad luck all you single men out there, someone has snapped her up and is marching her down the aisle on August 3. My show at the Edinburgh Fringe opens on August 2, which is why I wont be attending. But I wanted all the inside information on how the preparations are coming along. 

MGG has been on a pre-wedding diet and gym routine to great effect. Her size,Best home oilpaintingsforsales at discount prices. she says, is the only number that is going backwards. Her birthday this weekend is being ignored because she doesnt want to admit to having clocked up one more year as she heads for her wedding. Well, MGG, I am not ignoring it. Happy birthday! (The number, I can uncharitably disclose, starts with a five.) 

As even the most carefully drilled wedding plans gather momentum, the Dress never fails to cause angst in any bride. MGG is the queen of shopping and you cannot leave her alone for a minute before she buys something C I once flew to the US with her and deliberately sat on the aisle side in a hopeless attempt to prevent her splashing the cash on the duty free.Compare prices and buy all brands of ultrasonicsensor for home power systems and by the pallet. She merely waited until I was asleep so that when I awoke I found that her credit card had of course been pressed into action. 

Being wonderfully self-aware, and realising that wedding dresses dont come cheap, MGG took her own MGG with her to select a dress, in the hope that her friend would urge restraint. This did not go to plan, probably because their first port of call was Philippa Lepley in London, where both of them tried on dresses with abandon,The feeder is available on drying handsfreeaccess equipped with folder only. without thinking to ask for the price until they had fallen in love with, well, everything. A mistake: Philippa Lepley makes couture dresses. 

I said that I didnt want to know what MGGs dress had cost but I did ascertain that there will be six fittings. She is getting married at 50+ and having six fittings? Plus she is going the whole Sex and the City theme and having four adult bridesmaids, whose ages I will, this time charitably, not disclose. I said that if I ever had to get married again at the age of 50+ I would be more worried about my make-up artist than my dress, and urged her to consider false eyelashes. (In fact, it would take a plastic surgeon to persuade me ever to get into a wedding dress again.) 

I had no make-up artist on hand to assist before I arrived at my other friends spectacular celebration. I had spent the afternoon at a large charity shoot in Wiltshire in aid of Sightsavers, courtesy of Tim Eliot-Cohen, an investment banker and philanthropist who staged the event on his estate. Four hundred guns had turned out to compete and our team, curated by the lovely Louise, won the prize for the best ladies team. I wasnt there to help her lift the trophy because I was already on the way to the wedding. I really live such a glamorous life, I thought, as, in the ladies bathroom facilities at Sutton Scotney services on the A34, I struggled to apply the glue on my false eyelashes. 

Victor Alberola Salcedo was shocked when the construction of a suburban Madrid train line was halted in 2010, terminating a contract for his 17-person company. It brought home the reality of the worst economy in his countrys more than 30 years of democracy. 

Government investment had been the last hope for Alberolas Voxelstudios, which produced promotional videos to help builders win bids before Spains largest developers began going bust when markets for housing, commercial real estate and banking collapsed in 2007. Profit fell by 76 percent the year of the cancellation. He had only one more card to play: He hit the road, heading for the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. 

The decision paid off. The company won 3D-video contracts linked to the construction of metro lines in the capitals of Panama, Argentina and Qatar as well as roads and tunnels in Mexico, Kuwait and Hong Kong. Voxelstudios profit last year was more than double the 2010 level.A siliconebracelet is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card to perform certain. International sales produced 29 percent of revenue, compared with less than 1 percent in 2009. And no one was laid off even during the darkest period. 

Had we not gone abroad, wed be half as many today, said Alberola, 35, as designers huddled around computer screens in the three-room office studio in Madrid. At least every other day I tell my wife how lucky we are. Ive kept all my staff and I havent even cut wages. 

Alberola is among a growing percentage of standouts in a country with 27 percent unemployment - 56 percent for those less than 25 years old. Their success also is forging a path for the euro regions fourth-largest economy to emerge from a sixth year of recession. 

Spanish exports climbed to a record 223 billion euros ($291 billion) last year as a drought in orders at home pushed companies to upgrade products and go abroad. It was another step away from a decade of growth fueled by mass construction and tourism. 

Theres a qualitative change in exports toward more value-added products, said Pedro Nueno Iniesta, a professor of entrepreneurship at IESE Business School in Barcelona in a telephone interview. Spain will always export wine, olive oil, traditional products but its logical that there are other more sophisticated products such as pharmaceutical ones or car components that will play a bigger role in the economy.

2 out of 3 local train commuters peeved with long ticket queues

The biggest grouse is the time taken to buy a ticket, with two out of three commuters complaining about it, followed by cleanliness - both on the rakes and in the stations - and toilets. 

The fewest complaints - in a relief to the railway authorities - came about punctuality, frequency of service and space for passengers on the rakes, reflecting the operational strengths of Mumbai's suburban network.Best home luggagetag at discount prices. 

The clearest message was the need to improve passenger amenities like dispensing of tickets and cleanliness immediately. A survey of 25,We are always offering best quality carparkmanagement the affordable price.000 commuters by the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) showed that as many as 66% respondents across WR, CR and Harbour lines were unhappy with the time taken to buy a ticket. It was found that it took at least 10-30 minutes to buy tickets across 37 stations. The worst were Dadar and Bhayander (both WR), where it took half an hour. It was about 20 minutes across scores of stations in all three corridors (see box). 

Over the years, the railways have introduced coupon validating machines, smart-card operated Automatic Ticket Vending Machines and appointed agents to sell suburban tickets. These do not seem to have made much of an impact on the ground and at least 50% commuters were unhappy with the number of working ticket counters, ATVMs and CVMs.He saw the bracelet at a howospareparts store while we were on a trip. 

Importantly, the survey noted that of the 222 booking windows on WR's 13 stations, 17 were closed. On CR's main line too, nearly 37% of the total 187 booking counters were closed. "It clearly indicates that the queues could have moved faster if all the booking windows remained operational," said MRVC's managing director Rakesh Saksena. 

"At many stations, coupon and automatic ticket vending machines do not work thanks to tampering and lack of maintenance. Moreover, the interface of ATVM is not user-friendly, especially for those who are not well-versed with computers," said Shailesh Goyal, former member the National Rail Users Consultative Committee. 

Cleanliness was the top peeve for nearly 63% commuters. A break-up along the three lines showed CR commuters - both main line and Harbour - cribbing the most. "WR rakes are clean as it has a sizeable number of white-collared commuters compared to CR and Harbour. Nevertheless,The rtls is not only critical to professional photographers. we have now outsourced cleaning of rakes to a reputed firm and the results have been positive," said a CR official. 

Third on the discontentment list is inadequate toilet facilities. "The number of toilets blocks has not increased despite passenger growth. Stations like Elphinstone Road, Parel and Currey Road now witness more footfalls because of conversion of mill land into corporate offices," said RTI activist Chetan Kothari. 

The danger involved in such transactions was underlined by the recent bank heist, in which cyber crooks made away with over $43 million, the experts told TOI. 

Business and personal technology has dramatically changed over the last decade, with PC desktops commonly found side by side laptops and newer form factors like subnotebooks, smartphones and tablet PCs. "All of these are not equally secure, but we tend to use them for online payments at our convenience," said Surendra Singh, regional director for India and SAARC at security solutions firm Websense. 

Connectivity and accessibility, once limited to offices, is now available at home, in the car and even on a beach, he said. Using an unsecured or 'unpatched' device for online transactions can lead to serious financial loss. The problem is compounded by the introduction of solutions such as prepaid cards, transactions on which are processed by third party service providers, Singh said. 

What differentiates the earlier cyber frauds from this latest one is the speed with which the crooks operated. The huge sum of money was drained using fake debit cards from ATMs across the world in just 10 hours. 

McAfee product manager Vinoo Thomas said, "Cyber adversaries of today are smart and fast, and have no legal or international boundaries when sharing information. In the context of the recent cyber heist involving ElectraCard Services (ECS) and enStage Inc, it is clear that the payment card industry is increasingly becoming vulnerable to cyber attacks." 

ECS has engaged external agencies such as Verizon to conduct forensic and other investigations of the incidents. Through these investigations, there is a now a better understanding of how the theft was perpetrated. However, as the investigation has revealed, the PIN and magnetic stripe data - essential to make ATM withdrawals - seem to have been compromised outside the ECS processing environment.Large collection of quality parkingassistsystem at discounted prices. ECS has also been in touch with the US secret service, who confirmed that these attacks were committed by a large international syndicate. 

Thomas said one must use a secure connection and computer when placing orders online. "Never shop using an unsecured wireless network or a public computer, because hackers can access your payment information if the network or machine is not protected," he said. Other precautions such as a strong password are also important. Singh suggested using computers at the workplace for online transactions, as they are more secure than any other device one may use. 

According to Singh, using a credit card for online payments is better as it is more likely that a customer will be able to settle the issue of card misuse with the bank. Thomas concurred, saying, "With debit cards, it can be difficult to get your money back and you don't want money being withdrawn from your account while you're sorting things out with your bank." 

He said option-savvy shoppers can leverage a one-time-use credit card, which includes a randomly generated number that can be used only for one transaction. Even if the number is stolen, it cannot be used again. 

Arindam Mukherjee, manager for regional sales, banking and finance, Cisco India, said, "Trends indicate an increasing sophistication and targeting of network attacks and the inherent need to deploy comprehensive security solutions to protect against external and internal threats. The recent incident around the ATM heist clearly highlights that the role of an end-to-end network intelligence and control is critical to thwart such attempts. Typically, banks may not have the visibility into applications that are on the network and the devices and users accessing these applications, especially at remote locations. Without such visibility and lack of granular level controls over the applications, devising a meaningful defence is almost impossible."

Solar activity helps ability WITC campus

Though not uncommon,Bliss Glass and stonemosaic. the afterimage of solar panels assimilation up the sun still seems out of the accustomed – abnormally on a academy campus.

But acknowledgment to the accord of New Richmond Utilities and WPPI Energy, a 16-panel PV (photovoltaic) solar arrangement was afresh installed on the east backyard at Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College-New Richmond.

“With the acceptable banking abutment through a admission from New Richmond Utilities and WPPI Energy, we were able to accept this PV arrangement installed at our New Richmond campus – a accomplished archetypal of accord with our bounded utility,” says Ted May, Ph.D., bookish ambassador - accepted studies, Renewable Activity and Sustainability.

“This activity demonstrates how application activity from a renewable ability like the sun can account our association and our environment,” says Mike Darrow, New Richmond city-limits administrator, and account manager. “New Richmond Utilities recognizes our aggregate albatross to advice assure the ambiance for approaching generations. Supporting bounded efforts such as the WITC solar activity is one way we’re alive to do our part.”

“This 4 kilowatt arrangement is decidedly beyond than those at our added campuses. It allows us to abide our advancing efforts to abate activity costs for academy operations, while accouterment educational opportunities for our students,” May explains.

This New Richmond PV arrangement aswell increases apprenticeship abeyant aback the acceptance in the Industrial Automation and Controls Networking affairs will plan with and apprentice from its ecology software. WITC-Ashland aswell offers a solar or wind electricity certificate, which electricians may accompany to enhance their ability and abilities for installing renewable electricity systems.

In theory, the action is basic: The panels abduction solar ability and catechumen it to absolute accepted (DC). The ability is channeled into WITC’s absolute electrical arrangement or ability grid. It’s estimated the solar PV system-produced electricity will save about $650 per year.Read my best 10 tips for getting professional-looking results and never have another oilpainting crack again.

The PV arrangement is army on a pole for bright admission to the sun and is agee as the seasons change.And a lack of a standout indoortracking Systems (IPS) technology. The arrangement will aftermath ability on blurred canicule and can handle up to one-inch hailstones and apprehension of 90 mph.

Installation of this PV arrangement on the New Richmond campus is a actual arresting assurance of WITC’s advancing adherence to sustainability. Across the 11-county district, WITC has formed to abate activity burning and advance moderately in renewable activity projects.

The Ashland and Superior campuses accept PV systems installed, and the Ashland campus aswell installed a baby (3 kilowatt) wind turbine. Among the abounding investments in sustainability in operations, the Ashland and Rice Lake campuses accept installed rain gardens; and the Rice Lake campus has an electric car for its appointment center.Bliss Glass and stonemosaic.

New Richmond Utilities is a local, municipally endemic and operated electric utility. WPPI Activity is the nonprofit ability supplier for New Richmond Utilities and 50 added consumer-owned electric utilities. Through WPPI Energy, these accessible ability utilities allotment assets and own bearing accessories to accommodate reliable, affordable electricity to added than 195,000 homes and businesses in Wisconsin, Upper Michigan and Iowa.Learn about the beauty of porcelaintiles.

Additionally, the bendable loans - at near-zero absorption ante - getting provided by the Export-Import Bank of China to those affairs from the Chinese are authoritative all the difference. India's solar mission does agree some calm sourcing, but it makes a cogent exception. Solar panels are of two kinds: those fabricated of apparent silicon, and those employing the added abreast 'thin film' technology. The closing are not necessarily bigger - absolutely globally, alone 10 per cent of installed solar ability accommodation uses attenuate film. But the bounded sourcing brake does not extend to attenuate films and about all Indian solar ability producers accept plumped for it. "There was alone one aggregation in the country authoritative attenuate blur panels," says Tarun Kapoor, collective secretary in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, of the accommodation taken in 2010. "We didn't wish to be apparent favouring them."

That aggregation was Moser Baer which today has several rivals authoritative attenuate blur panels. They accept accepted the bounded sourcing action be continued to attenuate films, with anti-dumping measures taken adjoin their Chinese rivals. They point out that even the United States has confused to assure its calm industry: on May 17 it slapped tariffs alignment from 31 per cent to 250 per cent on 61 Chinese solar console makers. But the Indian government is in a dilemma: who to back, solar ability producers or solar accessories manufacturers?

1.6 turbo at home in Citroën C5

Road testing the first-generation C5 almost ten years ago is an experience firmly etched in my memory bank.

Be sure that has nothing to do with its dull 'jelly mould' design or its plastic deluxe interior that would put an older-generation Japanese car to shame. The C5 started appealing to me when I thought to myself: “I'm sure I just went over a huge speed hump, but I didn't feel anything.”

Long story short, after tackling that fat speed nanny many times over at a gradually increasing velocity, I found myself tackling it at speeds that would probably have sent any other vehicle flying onto the pavement. And all this with nothing more than a gentle thud.

I instantly counted myself as a fan of Citroën's Hydractive suspension, which provides nothing short of a 'magic carpet' ride and great handling to boot. That's why I was disappointed to find this piece of hydraulic suspension wizardry missing from the entry-level version of this very latest C5, the 155 THP.

Despite this, I can't say I'm disappointed by the modern C5. The styling, for starters, is leaps and bounds ahead. While perhaps a bit too mainstream for Citroën traditionalists, even resembling a BMW from some angles, it's a great fusion of sporty and elegant vibes and that continues in the cabin.

The dash design is certainly distinctive, the cherry on top being that fixed-hub steering wheel that allows the fitment of a larger airbag, and the material quality is nothing to be sniffed at. Those front seats are both supportive and cushy too. I would have expected more rear legroom from a car in this class though, although it's by no means cramped.

The 155 THP model extends the reach of Citroën's C5 to those shopping around the R300 000 bracket (the only other models, 2.0 and 3.0 diesels, approach the R400K mark). It's fitted with a 1.6-litre turbopetrol engine, credited with 115kW at 6000rpm and 240Nm at 1400rpm.

Given the much lower price, this engine is actually the perfect match for the C5. It's not overly thirsty, with its average consumption claimed at 7.7 litres per 100km, and it's a reasonably good performer. Sure, it's not a performance car by any stretch of the imagination, but it's as rapid as you'd expect from a large sedan at this end of the market and it delivers its urge smoothly enough through its six-speed automatic gearbox.

Chuck it into some bends and the C5 corners rather neatly, but the steering feels absolutely numb - it's just too light and offers virtually nothing in the way of feedback.

On the grander scale of things, one could hardly compare this car to sportier offerings from BMW and Audi but as an alternative to the likes of Hyundai's Sonata, VW's Passat and Honda's Accord, the Citroën is a stylish and refined alternative.

Designers

I’ve always liked building things. I’ve worked with clay since I was a kid. I learned mould-making at OCAD and now design housewares.

I took the new materials course thinking, “Great, show me some new materials!’ When I got there, it was all PVC, vinyl…. I was so disappointed. I think plastic can be beautiful, but I would never use it. When I use fabric, I use recycled or unused material that people send to me.

My studio partner, Erin [McCutcheon], and I also run Capacity, an exhibition of work by women designers. At first, we weren’t going to make a big deal about featuring just women, but that seems to be what people are interested in. Last year, older women from the suburbs who would never normally come downtown to a design show came. They wanted to see what women were doing.

I work a lot with acrylic, do laser-cutting and make jewellery that’s linear and graphic. I’m also working a bit more with gems, because I did study gemology.

At OCAD they encourage jewellery students to use alternative materials, which is how I got into plastics. Plastic mouldis very bold, and you can create a very graphic look with it.

Because I like crafts, I knew I wanted to go into material arts and design. Within that, you choose between ceramics, jewellery or fibre. I connected most with jewellery. OCAD is an art school, so the focus is more on ideas and concepts. There are more technical jewellery programs at other schools. I’ve taken a few continuing education courses at George Brown to learn more technique.

I run my own design company and also work for Anne Sportun Experimetal. They hired me because of my gemology background, though I also occasionally create custom pieces for customers.

I rent a studio space with former classmates. It’s small; it’s still early in my career.

If you want to get into jewellery, don’t get too influenced by other designers. Lots jewellery looks the same, so you have to do something that stands out.

I went to OCAD for advertising – I was looking for a lucrative art-related career – and hated it, so I took a summer program in jewellery and fell in love with it. I enrolled in jewellery and metalsmithing full-time. I’d always been really creative and making things. That’s what led me to art school. As soon as I started with jewellery, I saw myself running my own business, which was enticing.

School encouraged me to think outside the box. I use plastic, wood and concrete – materials that aren’t typically seen in jewellery. A diamond ring with concrete, for example. OCAD gave me the confidence to push the boundaries.

I use a lot of recycled gold and off-cut acrylic and wood. Things that would be thrown away end up in my jewellery, which is better for the environment.