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What it's like to own an Apple product.

But, is it _really_ ironic, and which kind of irony would that be? http://theoatmeal.com/comics/irony

I quit coffee after a decade of drinking at least two cups a day. At least 4 days a week I would have three or more cups. I bought into the stereotypical "caffeinated coder" personality in the early days, and never lost the habit... ...until two months ago when I ditched it. A couple of weeks in, I dropped all caffeinated beverages.

Quitting was painful. Four-day headaches that never fade and don't respond to Advil. I broke once, walked down to Starbucks and ordered a coffee. One sip and the pain just vanished. I dumped the rest of the cup out on the sidewalk. The rule was "one sip of coffee is allowed if a headache lasts an hour." I only had four sips after that.

The difference is astounding. I snap asleep at night and wake up in a good mood. I've been told I smile more and am generally more pleasant to be around (your mileage may vary). Weirdly, I sweat far less at the gym. Having battled depression since my late teens, I have the odd 'down' day now, but generally I feel good about things. I don't second-guess myself at work and my confidence has soared.

Moral of story? If you're feeling shitty about life, and you're a big coffee drinker, stop drinking the stuff. Really, stop. No half measures, no "just one cup a week" attempts. There is no try, young Jedi. You'll feel much better .

Just be sure to keep going to the coffee shop or wherever you used to get your fix. Order caffeine free tea. You need to be around coffee while you quit. You'll want it less.

Also, the "caffeine" section of this is interesting.

Is it what the customers should want?

That is an interesting question, and one I've asked of my customer (and potential) customers quite often. One of my most often-repeated phrases is "Your Website isn't for you it's for your customers." Unfortunately, time and time again, most Website upgrades I've helped manage and develop (I don't design, and I don't know ActionScript/Flash, but my designers do) almost always are born on the boardroom table when Carbon-Based-Lifeform #1 says to CBL #2, "Their website is so much cooler/snappier/flashier/more popular than ours".

You've definitely hit the nail on the head, and if the goal of the site is to drive people to the "Buy Now" button, but has flying toasters, etc all over the site getting in their way then we've found ourselves in a classic case of feature-creep. The Oatmeal has a great one pager that illustrates this situation nicely. This happens all too often, regardless of contracts, plans, step-by-step processes, or what have you. You can plan the site 'til the cows come home but ultimately if the boss wants the flying toasters live on the site before you get paid, then it's flying toasters all around.

Then there are the sites that are there so the CEO/Principal/Boss can take to his buddy and brag about how great his site is. There truly is no other benefit to the project, their customers all come via word-of-mouth, and they have no Web traffic to speak of. They just want to be able to whip out the laptop at CEO Happy Hour and e-stroke for the guy beside him.

I refer to this as the Internet equivalent of buying the Maserati instead of the Mercedes.

Wouldn't it be easier if they said that printer ink was made out of unicorn blood? Can you shed some light on this? The Oatmeal has a great piece on printers.

Printer ink is made from unicorn blood.

How about Ten Words You Need To Stop Misspelling?

I'm sure I've been living in a hole, but that site has some seriously funny stuff on it. Examples that made me actually laugh out loud:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/facebook_suck

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

I'm sure I've been living in a hole, but that site has some seriously funny stuff on it. Examples that made me actually laugh out loud:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/facebook_suck

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

I agree with those points, but I think The Oatmeal recently summed up the need for another Facebook competitor better than I could.

There are certainly counter-arguments.

Laymen have no real place in them. If you have design experts, trust them or fire them.

If you are not a design expert, resist the urge to micromanage design experts. That way crappy blink-laden web page design lies (for example).

A relevant link: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

Another relevant link: http://clientsfromhell.tumblr.com/

As for the guy at hand being contracted to produce code, sorry, but if they come to him saying "Write X for us", then they own it because they paid for all of the development.

You're overlooking one important aspect... When contracter writes X for you, he's using libraries he produced long before meeting you. In fact, producing X for you is mainly a matter of gluing together pre-existing, reusable code libraries A, B, and C. Libraries A, B, and C are the culmination of years worth of work. The only thing new in X is the glue code that goes between those libraries. Do you think you should now own libraries that took years to produce because you paid for two months worth of contract work?

If you write X own your own and then decide to sell copies of it, then you own it. However if someone else comes and pays for you to write X, they own it because they paid all the costs of producing it.

That is the point OP is trying to make here. You did not pay "all the costs" of the finished product. You paid for a thin layer of glue code. US Copyright law is also really clear on this. By default, 1099s own their code. Not the people who 'paid for it'.

Frankly, if I were OP, I would consider such behavior a warning sign. If they don't like it, send them packing. Clients like that are going to be nothing but trouble anyway. Being a successful contractor includes learning when to say 'no'. Bad clients can cause you to miss opportunities with good clients. They can also make your hair turn grey and fall out :) So, if they can't grasp simple concepts like this, just think of the stupidity you'll deal with once you start working for them.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe Dear poster, Have at it. Thanks, -The Grammar Cops

Not a god use of the apostrophe ;)

True, once an employee is at the executive level, they have ridiculous power, and often do ridiculous things with no recourse.

The theory is supposed to be that if you are an executive, you are held responsible for the actions of the people under you.
The reality is that executives are never held responsible for anything, even if they are grossly at fault.

Honestly sometimes it's better when the execs are NOT involved because when they are they get this idea about how they want to revolutionize the company by adding a checkbox on this web page, which leads to countless meetings and generally turns into a gigantic project for no actual company benefit.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

Basically once you get promoted to royalty, the rules don't apply anymore.
Oh and by the way, feel free to cut IT staff, because they're just a drain on your bottom line.

No they were not talking crap. Doing work in front of the client is a horrible idea unless the client is a better designer than you are, in which case each of you should consider a career change. Good design takes time which you're not going to take with a client sitting over your shoulder so even if the client leaves you alone you're going to be producing shoddy work. Even worse, their instant feedback ends up with you being nothing more than an input device, a glorified mouse providing the merely technical skills any trained monkey could master while they design it themselves with these results. For all but the absolute worst designers this is their least valuable skill, presumably what the client actually hired you for your design expertise not merely your knowledge of which menu is hiding the lens flare filter.

This is very foolish of the studio's because Netflix is more on their side then RedBox is.

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