Lazy Sunday

See what happens you end me up covering an elderly relative for the afternoon? I start posting like a fiend. :) Better than watching TV while he sleeps.

Now if I only had an internet connection...:)

1:28:45 PM     Discuss: []


The Next Election...

I was just reading an article over on Salon and something gelled for me, not something that I didn't already know, but it was made crystalline;

The next Election is against George Bush.

Not to elect the best possible ideologue, not to find the person who espouses the best traits that (I or anyone else think) make up a president.

To elect someone who is not George Bush.

This needs to be hammered repeatedly into anyone who is a candidate for the Democratic party (Because it's going to be a Democrat)

This needs to be hammered into the head of the voters who will vote in the next election.

Repeat after me:

"If George Bush wins in 2004, the terrorist will have won."

"To vote for the lesser evil is a vote against George Bush."

So now I have a question: What can I do, living in a state that is guaranteed to vote Dem (One of the reasons I was willing to vote Nader in 2000), to help campaign against George W. Bush? Ideas?

1:28:09 PM     Discuss: []


Freebie policies (Development and Consulting)

I periodically struggle to define some kind of policy regarding doing free development. Try as I might, I can't bring myself to outlaw it completely, but equally you can't be too giving and still stay solvent.

I'm interested in what criteria others use in assessing whether or not to benevolently grant one of these quite cheeky requests. A few obvious ones spring to mind:

1. Charitable/religious organisation.
2. Friend, relative, or potential mate.
3. Good portfolio piece.
4. The work sounds really interesting.
5. The person sounds so pathetic that you'd feel positively cruel if you didn't.
6. "But this is high-profile! It'll be great for your company!"

Of those, I would never touch anything which remotely resembled 1 or 6 - you're just begging to be fucked. 2 is a good way to end up bankrupt. 3 is reasonable, if done in moderation. 4 is fine. 5 is strictly as time permits. You can also take the hard-nosed approach and insist on payment for absolutely everything; that's also fine. I was like that once, but I've never fully recovered from releasing my first piece of source code (whenever that might have been). ... [Irate Scotsman]

Overall, I'd say you don't really need any "guidance" so I'll just chime in with agreement. While I do Macintosh/Systems technical work, I have these appear all the time, you've about covered it, so I'll just give my comments on what led me to the space:

1. Charitable/religious organisation.
If you give them a break, they still want "I'm paying for it" service at "you're giving it to me" prices. There are exceptions, but they're far and between. (Minor counter: Mind you, it is tax-deductible)
2. Friend, relative, or potential mate.
Friends I give advice, time if they have me over for beer or summat, relatives get work free only if they have Macs, otherwise they're pretty much on their own. Potential mates...hmm, do you mean 'buddy' or are we talking tech. prostitution here? :)
3. Good portfolio piece.
Back when I had more of a portfolio yes, for my company, it would have to be pretty impressive to need to be in our portfolio at this point, so probably not.
4. The work sounds really interesting.
Yes, within reason and it's a "learning" kind of thing.
5. The person sounds so pathetic that you'd feel positively cruel if you didn't.
I will admit I've "shown mercy" to a few people, broke + really dire happenstance. Should be rare, and, as you say, as time permits.
6. "But this is high-profile! It'll be great for your company!"
I got a real hoot out of this one. That sentence is a que for 2 things: First, immediately double your rate, up front, in cash. "High-profile" and "High-risk" are synonyms in my dictionary. Second, show this person the door, if they want this for free. There are exceptions, but anyone who says that to entice you is immediately suspect.

1:27:04 PM     Discuss: []


Telemarkers

Salon had an article on Tele-marketers, taking it from the perspective of the possible jobs lost. Kinda good read. Better yet, are the letters of response from both sides of the telemarketing "industry", the callers and the marks.*

Now, I worked doing telemarketing (actually it was surveys, which isn't quite the same) waaay back, in one of the darker periods of my life. It wasn't that bad, but again, I wasn't expected to sell. I actually rather enjoyed it, but I like to talk to people. Mind you, I also believe in being polite, and was always aware that i was "bugging" people. Generally, I'd rather work at Burger King™, however.

On the other hand, I've never bought anything from a tele-marketer, and never will. There's just no redeeming feature to telemarketing.

I remember once, when I was a kid, we had a door-to-door salesman come to our door. (First and only one I ever remember) My dad listened to his spiel and accompanying demonstration, and bought some of his product (some kind of cleanser). After the fellow had left, my father confided to me, "buying this [the cleanser], was worth the performance alone."

One thing that just occurred to me, is that if the majority of people who lose money to Con men and Telemarketing, then with the Baby Boomers about to start hitting retirement age, then the Con industry may be entering into a Golden Age..one that will never end. Silly Tele-marketers, they should have just bided their time. :)

*Observant readers will notice that I don't refer to the telemarketing callers as "smarts", as the slang might dictate, but in telemarketing, the employed telemarketers are actually "marks" as well. The only "smarts" are the guys who run these things. (Dictionary links to come)

1:26:47 PM     Discuss: []


Church sued for 'hell prediction'

A New Mexico family sues its local church alleging the priest said their relative was going to hell during his funeral. [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

Y'know, while a part of me can understand being ticked that someone said stuff like this during a funeral, another part of me wonders what's next; is someone going to sue the church for telling them they've committed a sin?

A Baseball player going to sue another player because they got them out during a game?

A motorist suing a cop for giving them a ticket for speeding (because they were?) Actually I'll bet that one's already hapened - Editor

1:26:14 PM     Discuss: []