What Do People in the IT Field Do for Side Jobs?

Flagg0204 asks: "Growing up in a primarily white collar household I wasn't exposed to 'side-jobs' until I met my girlfriend whose family was mostly blue collar. This got me to thinking. What do people in the IT field do for side jobs? Electricians, plumbers, HVAC, mechanic, these fields have many opportunities for a little extra cash on the side. What are some IT/IS side jobs that Slashdot readers do for extra money?"

Comments

Online/Remote works for me

[iclod]

it depends what kind of IT skills you have.

i am working for few online games like iclod and xmoo, they generate a bit of incomes and open up opportunities for other jobs.

the advantage is i don't need to be there physically to carry out works, but with that advantage, i also get the disadvantage of having thousand of similarly skilled people fighting for the same work.

i believe hardware-IT may have more opportunities. just post an ads on local newspaper to "Fix Your Computer Problems At Home" and there bound to be some elderly people who would rather get a local service from a local person at home.

what I do on my day job

[Anonymous Coward]

read slashdot.

Re:what I do on my day job

[Lev13than]

what I do on my day job... read slashdot.

Good strategy - everyone knows that the best way to make some money off /. is to use one of those clever Free iPod! sigs. They really work! People love getting spam in their newsthreads! Don't forget the exclamation marks!!!

Want to join a Free Pyramid Scheme? Click here!!

Re:what I do on my day job

[Z4rd0Z]

I totally agree with you man. What a bunch of fucking losers.

Obvious answer...

[physicsphairy]

Punch the monkey!

Re:Obvious answer...

[Brett Johnson]

Punching, Beating - how extreme. What's wrong with the old fashioned "spank the monkey"?

Gameses!

[American AC in Paris]

I write games.

I learn fun new stuff, I get to take things at my own pace, I get fun email from other people, and I make enough to cover my car payment. Best of all, it feeds my megalomania.

Re:Gameses!

[EugeneK]

Gamesss...we loves gamesess...what has it got in its pockets, my preciousss?

Re:Gameses!

[Wanker]

You are a terrible person! Are you trying to get me fired?

Perhaps he already has his side job lined up and is looking to create some openings in the IT field...

Isn't it obvious

[Nom du Keyboard]

Isn't it obvious?

The moment they know you're in I.T. everyone in your family, and all your mother's friends, want you to fix their PCs.

Re:Isn't it obvious

[2MuchC0ffeeMan]

If we could only charge our grandmothers for every time we fixed their cord not being plugged in...

Re:Isn't it obvious

[Rob the Bold]

Well, I do fix PCs for friends and family, of course, but they have to feed me.

One evening, after fixing a computer, my friends were taking me to restaurant and we passed a homeless man with a "Will work for food" sign . . .

He shoulda been an underemployed software guy.

Re:Isn't it obvious

[delfstrom]

If we could only charge our grandmothers for every time we fixed their cord not being plugged in...

I didn't know grandmothers required electricity.

Re:Isn't it obvious

[nolife]

The moment they know you're in I.T. everyone in your family, and all your mother's friends, want you to fix their PCs

I had to give up my family and friend side job of building them computers. I now reference them to the small business section of www.dell.com (much better deals then the regular home section) and www.slickdeals.net for references to Dell SB deals. I've had enough of giving out lifetime free tech support. I traveled to my home town for Thanksgiving and spent about 10 hours of my long weekend fixing computers for friends and family. Sure, I will still help them with spyware and such but I am now the second phone call after Dell for those I've pointed in that direction and not the first. Sorry for the diehard white box builders but I had to get out. Not worth it to me.

Re:Isn't it obvious

[Mr. Bad Example]

> I didn't know grandmothers required electricity.

This is obviously an early example of nanatechnology.

Re:Isn't it obvious

[Mattcelt]

...Hello.sir. My.name.is.Steve. I.came.from.a.rough. area. I.used.to.be.addicted.to.crack.but.now.Im.off. and.trying.to.stay.clean... ...That.is.why.I.am.selling.magazine.subscriptions ...

Re:Isn't it obvious

[Rorschach1]

Some do.

I have absolutely no idea why I remember that...

Re:Isn't it obvious

[gewalker]

You charge your own mother? What an ingrate. There are some things you should just do -- like move away from your parents, so that they don't call you to fix their PC.

Re:Isn't it obvious

[DrCode]

Easy solution: "Fix" their problems by wiping off Windows and installing Linux.

Then they'll either be happy with the stability, or so annoyed that they'll never bother you again.

Re:Isn't it obvious

[robyannetta]

Problem solved:

(All the "I will not fix your computer" stuff)

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/38 8b /
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/stickers/3 803 /
http://www.thinkgeek.com/cubegoodies/mugs/58c0/
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/ladies/38e8/

I've never been able to make this work.

[Skyshadow]

In my experience, the nature of IT work tends to rule out being able to hold down a side job. The biggest obstacle is the fact that almost all IT work (or salaried work in general, really) tends to have at least one or two "crunch times" per year where you have to work weird hours.

Aside from that, I've noticed that the lion's share of part-time skilled labor still takes place between 9 and 5. There are plenty of 10-15 hour a week IT jobs, but very few where you're not on regular work hours. Even if you find one, any bit of success tends to pull the work towards business hours -- I briefly had a side gig as a trainer at night, but that quickly devolved into "can you do this during the day?" once companies started demanding our services.

As a consequence, you are forced to look for jobs which are both off-hours and feature very flexible schedules. This tends to translate into low skill and thus low paying. I don't mean to sound elitist here, but when you're making good money at a regular job I think you'll find that it's just not worth surrendering your free time for what you can bring in working at Starbucks. Remember: just because you're not paid when you're not at work doesn't mean that time is worthless.

If you're not making enough money, it might be a better use of your time to continue your education. Many universities cater to people who work a 9-5, and a lot of employers will help pay for you to go. The payoff isn't as immediate, but in many situations it's a far better plan overall.

Re:I've never been able to make this work.

[RealAlaskan]

... you are forced to look for jobs which are both off-hours and feature very flexible schedules.

Many universities cater to people who work a 9-5 ...

I hope that you see the obvious side job for the white collar worker: teach an evening course at the local community college. Of course, you'll be making less per hour than the janitor, but it is white collar.

Re:I've never been able to make this work.

[Coryoth]

n my experience, the nature of IT work tends to rule out being able to hold down a side job. The biggest obstacle is the fact that almost all IT work (or salaried work in general, really) tends to have at least one or two "crunch times" per year where you have to work weird hours.

I think this is spot on. A lot of IT jobs are salaried, and there is a huge difference between hourly wages and salary. Waged employment usually has a very fixed set of hours you are expected to work, and any work outside of that is overtime and more expensive for the employer, so it's discouraged. You are being paid for a fixed set of hours, so time outside that is your own, allowing for work on the side. On the other hand salaried work is essentially paying you to "get the job done" regardless of hours. They're paying you up front for as much of your time as it takes. Side jobs just don't come into it.

Having worked both waged (as a baker) and salaried (as a research mathematician) jobs, that's exactly how it generally worked for me. Both have their advantages, and side jobs is simply one of the advantages of waged employment.

Jedidiah.

Re:I've never been able to make this work.

[Grishnakh]

If you're not making enough money, it might be a better use of your time to continue your education. Many universities cater to people who work a 9-5, and a lot of employers will help pay for you to go. The payoff isn't as immediate, but in many situations it's a far better plan overall.

I'm at a loss. What could you get an education in that pays better than IT? At first, I thought of medicine, but 1) somehow I doubt your IT employer will want to pay for your med courses, 2) it'll take 20 years if you're not doing it full-time, 3) I don't think you can go to med school part-time, and 4) doctors are facing a very bad situation in the near future between cost-cutting HMOs and insanely high malpractice insurance premiums.

My next thought was law school, but 1) again, I have a hard time imagining IT employers footing the bill for another line of coursework which has absolutlely nothing to do with their business, and 2) I'm not evil or a scum-sucking bottom-dweller, so I'd never do well in law.

I hear this "get an education" crap all the time, but no one ever says what to get an education in, which has a decent salary and decent stability, and especially which is feasible on a part-time basis since most working people can't exactly afford to take 4 years off.

Re:I've never been able to make this work.

[mypoints]

I have to agree. I have tried several times to find side work that pays immediately, fits my schedule, and provides me with something that is challenging (or at least fun); if it's not fun or challenging I find that I stop almost as soon as I start.

It's darn near impossible and for most of the reasons listed in the original post. You can always find a job that satisifies one of the needs; but, rarely two, and hardly ever all of them.

The closest thing I have found is working on my own OpenSource projects (no shameless plugs here). Working on my own projects is fun, challenging, and fits my schedule. It just won't pay immediately. If I keep at, though, other avenues will open; just look at Kent Beck.

The only way to get ahead in this business is to work really hard by devoting a lot of blood, sweat, and tears; which really sounds like a day job.

If you want easy money in IT, you'll need to generate demand in a market that you create yourself (which is not easy).

Re:I've never been able to make this work.

[RealAlaskan]

The local college here (Alaska) pays almost $1000 per credit hour, so teaching a 4 credit hour math class would pay about $3800 for four hours of class time per week, plus a couple of hours of ``office hours'', plus prep time, plus grading three or four tests.

If you're teaching the same old class from the same old book, prep time should be less than class time, but if you're teaching from a new book, with a new syllabus, it can be more than the class time. Since you're adjunct faculty, you typically don't get to choose your syllabus or book, so the prep time will generally be 1 hour plus per class. Therefore, you get $3800 for about 15 hours per week times 16 weeks, or about $16 per hour.

I guess that's a little more cash than the janitors get, but you're not getting health benefits, and the janitors are.

Don't stray too far.... generally...

[skrysakj]

I sometimes to photography or video work, which as time goes on, has a lot more to do with technology than ever before.

I got into engineering because I liked building things. (Additional joy comes from seeing people use what I build). So, you're not so far off when you guess that HVAC, electrical, and plumbing work may be a good side job option. I've known some guys that do car stereo installations, or home alarm system installations as side jobs.

Another side job related to IT work is typing. Sometimes you can find a simple temp job that requires you to type in data. Because programmers are generally fast at typing, it's an easy fit.

The last thing I want to do when I go home is...

[pixel.jonah]

...turn on a computer.

Nothing

[Fraize]

Because the company I work for owns everything I think and do, according to my employment agreement. Nothing is considered "side-work."

Re:Nothing

[robyannetta]

You work for EA, don't you?

Re:Nothing

[Registered Coward v2]

Because the company I work for owns everything I think and do, according to my employment agreement. Nothing is considered "side-work."

Hmm - I wonder if they are liable for any problems that arise for any off-hours work, since they "own" it?

I doubt it, but that would be an interesting legal arguement - since IANAL any IAAL willing to comment?

As a side note - can an emplployement argeement be so braod as to own everything and be enforcable?

Me - I write on the side. A friend owns a bar. He has more fun.

Re:Nothing

[Anonymous Coward]

"Because the company I work for owns everything I think and do..."

Not if you work in California, where such abusive contract stipulations are automatically null and void, according to recent case law.

Re:Nothing

[Merkuri22]

Don't know how true this is, but I've been told that regardless of what contract you signed they cannot stake a claim for EVERYTHING you do on your free time. They can claim anything you do while at work or during time you are being paid to work. They can also claim anything you do on your free time that has something to do with their company (so if you worked for a gaming company, any freelance games you code will be property of your employer). But if it doesn't directly relate to your employer's business and you don't do it on company time then you should own all rights to your own creations/ideas.

Re:Nothing

[Lord Kano]

Because the company I work for owns everything I think and do, according to my employment agreement. Nothing is considered "side-work."

I've had similar contracts presented to me as conditions of employment. My first name begins with a "W", as does the word "Won't". On the signature line I write "Won't Agree", When people see that big cursive "W", they don't check to see what the rest of the line says.

I've never needed to take advantage of this practice, but I like having the option.

LK

Re:Nothing

[91degrees]

It's probably best to ask them to clarify this clause.

For example, if you wrote a virus, would they want to take full responsibility for the damage it caused.

What about if you inadvertantly use code that has an expensive licence for commercial use in one of your own creations.

Your HR people may be a little more amenable to rewriting that clause to clarify that it doesn't include work that's not related to the company's core business, and that you do in your own time.

Re:Nothing

[Elwood P Dowd]

If you did this with the intention of misleading someone that you had signed the document, you might be guilty of some kind of fraud.

Due to their own negligence, they might not have a very good case against you, but you are trying to mislead them in exchange for money. That's a little messed up.

Re:Nothing

[bjbest]

Somebody has likely already beat me to the punch with this idea: If your province or state allows 8 or 7 character personalized license plates, order a set that reads: "NO PLATE" . Watch the judge throw out all of your parking tickets!!!

Re:Nothing

[swillden]

My first real, full-time software development job was for a company that didn't initially give me any sort of an employment contract but decided about a year later that everyone needed to sign one. The contract included some non-compete clauses that I found really burdensome.

They said that anyone who didn't sign it would be let go, but I really didn't want to sign it. So, I just told them that I needed to take the contract home to read it over thoroughly and perhaps have my lawyer look at it. They agreed that that was very reasonable. When asked about it again a week or so later, I said I hadn't had time to see my lawyer, but that I would soon. Another two weeks went by and I was questioned again, so I told them I'd taken it to my lawyer but he hadn't gotten back to me yet. A couple of months later someone realized I still hadn't turned in my signed contract, so I told them that my lawyer had reviewed it and suggested some small wording changes, but that I'd forgotten to bring it in. About six months after that I was asked about it again and claimed that I couldn't find it, so they gave me a new copy which I said I needed to take back to my lawyer because he had some changes to make.

The subject never came up again, but I had another dozen excuses ready. I think I could have continued being politely and helpfully non-cooperative for at least another two or three years. Since everyone knew I was good-natured but very absentminded and forgetful with regard to anything not related to math or computers -- not to mention an inveterate procrastinator -- everyone just assumed my inability to get the signed paper back to them was bungling rather than intentional non-cooperation.

Removing spyware

[BrentRJones]

and spam from people in the neighborhood.

IT Consulting

[ckulpa]

I have started my own IT consulting business for home PC users. I advertise locally in the neighbor hood and work nights and weekends.

Re:IT Consulting

[josefek]

It's off topic, but still... there seem to be a LOT of folks who do home/small office IT consulting as a side venture. I've been out of full time work for some awhile now and believe that I could make ends meet supplementing my freelance development work with this type of consulting. Slashdotters out there; how are you doing it? I mean, how "official" is your side business? Business license? LLC? Contracts for clients to sign to avoid the old Being Blamed For Data Loss on a Drive That Was Dead Before You Got There? Or is it just a seat of the pants, paid under the table sort of thing?

Re:IT Consulting

[CheeseTroll]

FWIW, there have been a few discussions about similar topics in the past which I happened to bookmark because I was considering going that route myself last year. Grant Barrett wrote a couple of interesting articles about starting up your own tech consulting business. They have been re-published at http://www.koozie.org/2004/10/freelance_tech_.html .

I don't have the link to that Slashdot discussion, but it basically fell along the lines of "good advice!" and "no way it'll work."

A discussion about how to set up your consultancy was at http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/12/19/205022 0&mode=thread

That one's a little more informative.

There, now I feel somewhat justified for actually bookmarking that stuff. Good luck!

Gigalo

[samuel4242]

Women swoon when I talk to them about high-speed computing, VOIP, and the inherent tension between creator and consumer in the post-copyright world. It's a tough gig, but I'm happy if I can fall asleep knowing that I brought a smile to just one face.

Re:Gigalo

[Anonymous Coward]

Women swoon when I talk to them...

So ... you hire out as a sleeping pill substitute? Cool.

You mean aside from...

[csoto]

Cybersquatting and phishing scams? Not much!

What do I do? POKER!

[Azzaron]

I find that the logical thought process needed for my IT job was exactly the kind of skill that a poker player needs as a base. I've been playing poker online for a year now and have done fairly well.

I find that it's a very fun, and profitable, hobby to have on the side. I'm playing enough now that I do consider it a side job... in fact, I make a better hourly wage than at my real job! The best part about it is, I can play whenever I have a spare hour or two... I don't have to schedule it in.

I've started getting all of my other friends in IT hooked on it as well :)

Re:What do I do? POKER!

[Skeezix]

It's actually difficult to learn to play decent poker online for free. There are plenty of sites that offer free games and tournaments, but the problem is that when there is no money being risked people don't play as well. You'll see people betting their whole stack on bad hands and 4 people (at a 10 person table) calling with mediocre hands. This really isn't good practice. Also it's hard to learn in a format where it's mostly beginners playing. The good players generally don't waste their time on the free games (with some exceptions of course), so you're mostly playing against other beginners which isn't all that great of training. :)

My advice is to play home games with other poker players, go to local tournaments. There may even be free ones available in your area at local bars. Once you feel like you have a decent grasp of the game, deposit $100 or so to your poker site of choice (usually you'll get a deposit bonus too) and start playing. My favourite format for the value is the single table no-limit tournaments. For $10 + $1 you have a decent shot at winning $50 and the tournaments only take an hour or so.

Re:What do I do? POKER!

[jtsoong]

Best places for a n00b to learn how to play?

My place, Wednesday's.. most people bring $200-$300 with them.

Its an *easy* game...

Re:What do I do? POKER!

[Best ID Ever!]

All of the major online poker sites have play money games. Play money games are useful for familiarization with the site's software and general poker rules, but not useful at all for learning good poker strategy. People don't take it seriously enough.

I'd recommend picking up Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big With Expert Play by Ed Miller et al. or Winning Low Limit Hold 'em by Lee Jones. They will easily pay for themselves.

For poker discussion, I'd recommend the forums at
twoplustwo.com, unitedpokerforum.com, bet-the-pot.com, and remmy.net.

Re:What do I do? POKER!

[kcornell]

The thought processes behind solid poker players pertaining to most games (especially the most popular craze, Texas Hold Em) are exactly the opposite of solid computer minds.

Computer systems at the core are designed to be deterministic; under the same conditions using the same process we expect the same result. The vigilant IT worker breaks down the workings of each individual system and almost (sometimes literally) mathematically deduces a problem and a course of action to fix it. Generally they are trained for X, do Y.

With the exception of limit Hold Em (the argument continues whether or not a computer could play winning limit hold em - it's very possible), poker players often explore many different "correct" plays for the same situation. Sometimes folding is just as good as raising (but it certainly increases the variance of your bottom line).

Also, often poker requires one to play counter-intuitively (ie, raising when you have nothing because there remains a significant chance that you will when all is said and done). While there probably are a few counter-examples, most computer systems are designed to be used and maintained intuitively (such that you are required to do what you will probably do on your first try, without help). The success of software packages in that area is debatable.

Overall, unless you're playing limit hold em, playing poker deterministically is usually a formula for failure, or at the very last, mediocrity, and even if you are, most players will figure you out in no time.

Successful approaches to IT and poker are not similar.

Personally....

[chipster]

...I do IT-related side work :-)

However, I have some friends in the IT field that do general contracting (home additions, decks, drywalling, home improvements, etc.). It's apparently lucrative. One friend mentioned he loves it since he's not stuck behind a desk, and he can keep his craftsmanship skills honed.

Prostitution

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're already doing contract work its not really a stretch from your existing skill set.

Blacksmith

[Kennric]

Throughout my years as a Unix admin, I have been a working blacksmith and woodworker in exotic woods. Recently I have branched into selling BDSM gear and sex toys, but that's beside the point.

I suspect many IT workers have a more artistic/creative outlet, whether it earns them any money or not. Its amazing how theraputic hammering hot metal is after a day dealing with computers and their users.

Re:Blacksmith

[kfg]

Its amazing how theraputic hammering hot metal is after a day dealing with computers and their users.

I just get hot and hammer on the users, but hey, whatever works for you.

KFG

Re:Blacksmith

[bladesjester]

It will take quite a while before you have the skill to start working on blades. You start out with simple things like hooks, tools, etc.

The simple things teach you hammer control, curves, and let you get used to learning how the metal responds. from there you increase the difficulty of the things that you make both in forms and materials.

Re:Blacksmith

[John Whitley]

Come now, Google on "anvils" brings up some basic hits, the first one of which (http://www.oldworldanvils.com/) looks fairly interesting. ;-) Dig around online for info on hunting up new/used anvils and other forge equipment.

But first things first: 1) dig up books on the subject. Check out Jim Hrisoulas' bladesmithing books. The first has a wealth of good basic material. That and later books also move quickly into Jim's specialty of advanced pattern welding techniques (See his website at http://atar.com/). 2) Nothing beats practical mentoring in a discipline such as smith-work. See if you can arrange to get classes/apprenticeship time with a smith in your area.

Enjoy!

Re:Blacksmith

[LarfinBoy]

Well that isn't entirely true. I started in blacksmithing by doing a course at an adult education college. Then saw an anvil, forge and other smithing tools in a local paper. Turns out there is a business around the corner from my place that is a metal fabricator and does blacksmithing as well. So I hang out with my local blacksmith and pickup info that way.
He's also a fitter and turner so knows machinery pretty well.

Re:Blacksmith

[shis-ka-bob]

Is that OpenBDSM , FreeBDSM or NetBDSM ?

Re:Blacksmith

[bladesjester]

Book-wise one of the favoites at the forge I spend time in is "The Art of Blacksmithing."

Very good book with a broad spectrum look at smithing.

Re:Blacksmith

[shepmaster]

Wow, I never thought that I'd have the opportunity to pimp this particular site I manage on Slashdot, but check out http://www.abana.org

ABANA (The Artist-Blacksmiths Association of North America) is a international community for artist-blacksmiths (as opposed to farriers). They have some awesome magazines that come out quarterly, one of which is dedicated to teaching the trade. The website also has some discussion forums, and some knowledgeable people hang around.

I've hit the iron a few times myself, but I don't have the passion required. It is awfully fun though!

Haha, good question.

[robyannetta]

Write, edit, produce, direct Vampire movies. http://loudorangecat.com

Production

[claudius0425]

Well, I am not sure it counts as a side job, as I don't have a job in the first place, but when I am not toiling at either school or theatre, I do lighting work for a local production company (owned and operated by some old friends). Being production work, it is very gig-oriented, but by the same token it is well suited to side work, as there are no long term commitments involved.

So, yeah, sound and lighting design and operation for small/medium productions.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[Anonymous Coward]

...So make sure it's not turned off, then you're set!

I give back to the community

[syntap]

I spend my spare time writing open source software.

drinking!

[turbopunk]

i mostly do programming / it work, but i also bartend at a local club on weekends.

i like it cuz it actually gets me out in front of people and keeps me from completely becoming a troll . . .

Reading Is Life

[sehlat]

I proofread books, both treeware and e-books for three different publishers, including doing scan-and-proof of old books for electronic republication. It's a great way to relax and put my computer skills to use without having to dive into the details of the bits-and-bytes after hours.

Re:Reading Is Life

[mellerbeck]

How do you get hired to proofread? I love to read and am pretty sure that I can catch a lot of errors. Do they send you a test manuscript to see how many errors you can detect? Thanks for indulging my curiosity.

Re:Reading Is Life

[SamHill]

How do you get hired to proofread? I love to read and am pretty sure that I can catch a lot of errors.

Ooh, careful.... I offered to proofread a book and actually got hired to edit it (and another book by the same author). I am now hypersensitive to errors in books and magazines, not to mention all the other printer matter you run into on a day to day basis.

ObTopic: I actually volunteered after the author asked on a TeX-related mailing list I was on. I have no idea how else you'd get hired -- maybe try your local college or university, where there's lots of writing going on.

Once it's on, it might be hard to shut off, and it's amazing how many mistakes there are out there... seeing them all can really suck.

Deliver Pizza / Wardrive

[slpalmer]

I deliver pizza as a side job. Only a couple nights per week, and a few hours per night. Get $$$, and find loads of WiFi hotspots.

Photography

[sejanus]

Being reasonably technical it was kind of a natural progression to get stuck into digital cameras a couple of years ago.

I now work Mon-Friday as a Network Engineer for a ISP (as I have done for quite a few years now), and do wedding photography on weekends.

I tell ya, we complain about putting up with "lusers" and stuff like that but let me assure you that ;

1) Hell hath no fury like a bride and her mother on a wedding day

2) To do a wedding properly is serious work. On Saturdays wedding I was up at 6am, out of the house by 7am - a 1hr drive to my business partners house where we check all the gear, load all the studio lighting, reflectors, ladder, camera bags, laptops, 30" LCD (for showing photos at the reception) into the car. We then go to the brides house at 10:30am, do the photos there and then drive over 1hr to the actual wedding venue, do the stuff there and then go to the reception which was only 10mins away thankfully. The reception finished 11pm, and I was back home at about 1:30am. A long day, and on top of all that it was extremely hot, about 35c (Australia). And I then had to get up at 7am to photograph a christening.

It makes my IT job seem fairly cosy in comparison :) But I like the results after a wedding.

work in a bike shop

[kaan]

I have a full-time software development job during normal working hours, but I work part-time in a bike shop (usually only on the weekends or holidays).

Most of the time, I do minor repairs and assembly on new bikes, also safety checks for test rides. Sometimes I help customers on the sales floor. Either way, it's totally rewarding, and gives me a huge sense of satisfaction (unlike spending time at the office writing email, sitting in meetings, writing reports, etc.). Also, it's really nice to be around people who are relaxed and not on some big fscking power-trip while trying to climb the corporate ladder.

IT side jobs

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a wh0re.

opps, no, wait a minute. Thats my IT job :|

side jobs

[burnunit0]

I preach for money. (many churches look to seminary students or former seminary student to do fill in preaching - they call it pulpit supply - when a pastor is on vacation) I've been tempted to put together a business card with that side job on it, "Serving God and mammon since 1997." Also, I work in a children's home. The overnight shift at the home allows me to work online during downtime. And then sometimes I do the freelance gig too. Who doesn't?

Re:side jobs

[finkployd]

Actually the phrase you are looking for is "love of money is the root of all evil"

Finkployd

Gray Market

[Jaden42]

The gray market for services has grown consistently since I moved out to the bay area. Since the dot-com flame-out and the massive spending binges have ended, it's easier to hire someone for some quick "consulting" work than to employee people full time. A lot of people I know do on-the-side consulting for a few dollars here and there. Mostly IT stuff: companies small enough to not be able to pay someone full time but big enough to need someone to call on when they are in trouble. Lots of "checking the CEO's laptop" type jobs.

You have to be careful with this kind of work, though. As the name implies, the gray market is somewhere between the black market (totally illegal) and the normal market (regulated by industry and government). Some companies will 1099 you and report what they paid you, some companies won't. It is illegal, AFAIK, to receive money for work and not report it as income.

The money can be good, but if you are unlucky enough to be caught, the back taxes can be quite expensive.

Jeff

Re:Gray Market

[TykeClone]

Some companies will 1099 you and report what they paid you, some companies won't. It is illegal, AFAIK, to receive money for work and not report it as income.

It's only illegal if you don't report it. Keep good records, keep track of your mileage, pay your tax estimates and expense everything that you ethically can to your business and you'll be fine.

I work for the IRS

[robbo]

I hire blue-collars for odd-jobs, pay them cash and then call the IRS. ;-)

Re:I work for the IRS

[Duct Tape Pro]

Where is the "+1 Evil" mod when you need it...

Re:I work for the IRS

[akeyes]

You ment "-1 Evil", right?

Private Investigator

[krbuck]

By day I work for IBM as an engineer. By night, I'm an investigator for my wife's private investigations company http://www.travisinvestigations.com/ . I get to help spy on cheating wives and husbands, catch people in insurance fraud and other such things. Probably the part I enjoy the most is when I get to make use of new electronic tools like covert GPS tracking devices etc... What I dislike are the long nights surveiling some cheating spouse or watching someone to see if they are poor parents in custody cases. Of course I also take care of the company computers (mostly Macs believe it or not).

Military

[jacobmarble]

Just joined the Army National Guard, going to be a Chinese Linguist/Interrogator. Training is two years long, so I'll be doing CS stuff from a dorm room for a while. Looking forward to leaving college and "fixing other people's computer" behind for a while...

Fixing computeres....

[Anonymous Coward]

Fixing my sister's comuter, for pennies :,-(
Fixing my parents computer, for food :,-(
Fixing my girlfriends computer, or else! :,-(

Professional Poker Player

[Dharzhak]

It's got flexible hours and the pay is performance based.

I Teach...

[Sagz]

At the local vocational school. Linux+, Fundamentals of UNIX, and Webserver development. Its a great paycheck and it keeps your skills sharp.

Moonshine

[identity0]

Just do what schoool board members in Tennessee do... make moonshine. Remember to avoid the tax-man, though...

Off-Hours Plumbing

[gseidman]

I wouldn't normally think of this, but I was just at my parents' house for Thanksgiving and one of their pipes sprung a leak, resulting in a puddle in the basement. (It's lucky I was there, actually, since my parents don't go to the basement with any regularity. The guest room is in the basement, however, and I noticed the puddle before it became a flood.) They tried to find a plumber the day after Thanksgiving, and all they could find was someone who wanted $240/hour for emergency service. Fortunately, I was able to patch it temporarily with some rubber and a hose clamp.

It got me thinking, though, that I could do cut-rate (only $150/hour!) emergency plumbing and significantly improve my income. I wouldn't even have to be that good, just good enough to patch things until a real plumber was available for reasonable rates. Mostly idle thinking, but...

Re:Off-Hours Plumbing

[Ellis D. Tripp]

Improper plumbing (not installing a backflow preventer where required, for example) can result in waste/sewage entering the municipal water supply system, potentially endangering MANY lives.

Most plumbers also install gas/oil fired heating systems, for which the hazards of improper installation should be obvious. Even an improperly vented gas water heater could kill via CO poisoning....

I daytrade stocks and futures at work

[SpecialAgentXXX]

Of course it's against corporate policy. But while managament makes the rules, they don't know how to enforce it because us uber-geeks know how to get around all of the firewalls and network-monitoring. :-)

Seriously, I daytrade stocks and futures at the office. Been doing okay. Once I'm making more doing that compared to my IT job, I'm quitting.

My side job

[dbretton]

I eat babies.

maintenance...

[Myolp]

of my girlfriend...

Damnit, shut up!

[raehl]

There are only so many suckers, don't go telling people who are likely to be good at poker where our suckers are! You're giving away our money man!

Erm, I mean, this is a horrible idea, all of the IT people I know lose lots and lots of money playing poker online.

SIDE JOB: Volunteering for Human Rights

[Anonymous Coward]

On the side, I volunteer my time to the human-rights movement. I do not earn cash, but I earn "good feelings" because I know that what I am doing is right. Recently, during a seminar about Taiwan, I fought for the Tibetans by demanding that the speaker (who is an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taiwan) explain why Taiwan continues to insist that Tibet is part of "One China".

The speaker was, for the first time in his pathetic life, speechless. No one had ever challenged him on the issue of Tibet.

Make beer

[codewritinfool]

I make tasty beer.

I exploit the mundanes

[Lord Kano]

All of my SO's friends and relatives know that I'm into IT. So whenever one of them has a problem, they come to me. If it is something that will take more than an hour, I charge them.

When a local computer shop tells them $95/hr with a one hour MINIMUM, paying me $60 sounds a lot more reasonable.

For $60 they get a free antivirus program (Avast or AVG), Ad Aware, Spybot S & D, a scandisking, a defrag, updated drivers for all of their hardware, up to date patches for their games, and whatever else they "need" to get their computer running smoothly again.

It's an equitable solution, everyone wins.

LK

Best way to make side money...

[Shant3030]

Is by not spending any...

A penny saved, is a penny earned!

Just about anything I can.

[gargonia]

I've done all kinds of stuff on the side, but some IT highlights are building and repairing computers and then selling them off (usually in the paper), web design, custom app programming, spyware/virus removal, system upgrades, computer repair, and home or office networking.

The real sticky part is making sure your customers pay by the job... otherwise you'll end up providing indefinite support for any computer you repair, set up, work on, etc. It's amazing how some people think that once you touch a network or a machine you're bound to provide free service for it forever. I often wonder if these people pay their car mechanics once and then expect all future automobile service, maintenance, and upgrades for free.

Whatever you do, just make sure that you let customers know that they pay you by the job or the visit. Otherwise they have to put you on salary.

Sell pSeries on eBay

[thewiz]

I'm an AIX Systems Administrator and trained IBM pSeries hardware technician (network guru, etc) by day. At night I buy, refurbish, and resell IBM RS/6000s and pSeries machines on eBay. Having a side business is great and allows me tax advantages that, as just a W-2 wage earner, I can't get.

My wife certainly doesn't mind the extra income; it has helped us pay off our cars and make extra payments on our house. Nice to be out of debt and have an actual savings account!

Free Software

[GrouchoMarx]

That's how a lot of Free Software gets written. Go home, code up something useful, stick it on SourceForge, put it on your resume. You get a line on your resume, the world gets (hopefully) good code. Or help out on some existing project as a bug fixer, documentation person, fringe features (or mainline features if you're that good), etc.

Just because you don't get an immediate paycheck for it doesn't mean it's not worthwhile.

One word:

[Kissing Crimson]

embezzlement

(in case my boss is watching, I'm j/k)
(if he's not, contact me for more info.)

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[BoomerSooner]

Maybe you shouldn't be in the IT industry then. When you have a passion for something you tend to enjoy doing it when ever the opportunity is available. I cannot imagine an artist saying I cannot wait to quit painting or drawing...

Just my 2 cents.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[damiangerous]

Why is this insightful? I doubt the last thing a plumber wants to do when he gets home is unclog his sister's toilet, nor does the mechanic want to talk to his neighbor about that tapping sound his car started making. People generally take side jobs because they need the money. I don't really want to clean megs of spyware off a family members' computer, but if they want to slip me some cash I'll be right over.

CTRL-F

[John_Booty]

"Panhandle" not found

What the hell?

Not if I can help it

[Roadkills-R-Us]

I try pretty hard not to do much in the way of solving friends' and relatives' computer problems. I'll listen politely to a short complaint, and 90% of the time recommend getting away from IE and/or Outlook, and/or getting Spybot and an AV program. Of the rest, I normally point them elsewhere, or just remind them that I am not really a Windows person. My brother takes care of my mom (he is a Windows jock, and lives a lot closer) or I'd help her out. Everyone else is self-sufficient, or goes elsewhere. I do try to help out at church on occasion, but it's such a horrid hodegpodge of randomly-hacked and duct taped Windows and Mac systems that usually I'm no help. If they ever switch to *nix, though... 8^)

I do have a couple of friends I trade services or things with. But generally even if I ask a friend such as a plumber to come work on something, I'd rather just pay him, and him have the option of saying, "Nah, just call the office, I wanna go see my family at night." I hate presuming on friendship.

BUT... I repair and build vacuum tube guitar amps on the side. I haven't actually made money in any given year, yet, but I'm close. Cranking out power chords and such at full volume can be very cathartic, too!

Teaching

[eric76]

I've taught math and computer science part time at two different universities.

EMT work...

[JonToycrafter]

I've worked as a per-diem EMT, although it's mostly a volunteer endeavor for me. I also know a handful of other EMT/IT folks. The (probably false) story I've heard is that in the 80's and before, a lot of the IT folks were working in industries where you needed a security clearance (defense, aerospace), and they needed to have their own internal EMS teams as a consequence.

Re:Consulting

[SquadBoy]

You don't really. Most people do something similar to what I did. The husband of a person I work for is the head of the service dept. for a small auto dealership. Basically when the wanted somebody to build and install a firewall for them she recommended me. I now get a few hours a month out of them and a few more from other places he has told about me. Basically they are willing to put up with you only being weekends/evenings in exchange for paying less than they would for a real conslutant. It's not a lot of money but it pays the cable bill and buys me the odd toy now and then. So the answer is to do some of the other kind of networking locally.

And on this point...

[spoco2]

Well, yeah, has been happening well before I was even employed in the field, it was just assumed (Oh, he'll fix that).

So, I have an Aunt in another state, and she wanted to upgrade her computer (she's online and likes to look at the pictures of our bub up there, email us etc.)... so what did we do? I chose a computer for her, have bought it over here... am in the process of setting it all up AND I'm doing some video tutorials about how it all works so I get minimum heartache. Then we'll send it over to her.

Also... I'm installing VNC on it, so I will be able to remote access it (she's on ADSL, so reasonable bandwidth there) and fix any niggly issues from here without the painful...

Me: "OK, what's on your screen now?"
Them: "Some box thingy with a message in it"
Me: "Uh huh... ok, so what does the message say?"
Them: "The Program XXX has um... encountered an error and er... will now shut down... um... error code 1...433X....3 um, dash, Seg-men-ta-tion fault at..."
Me: "OK, OK, I've got it..."

Etc. etc.

I just hope it's going to work that's all :D

Re:And on this point...

[mesach]

You have obviously NEVER done tech support.

Me:Ok whats on the screen.
Them: Some box thing.
Me: ok what does the message say in the box.
Them: I dont know.
Me: Can you read it to me?
Them: It says something about windows.
Me: OK what does it say about windows.
Them: Something about Internet being Shut down.
Me: Were you on the internet when the problem happened?
Them: (defensive) NO!
Me: Was anything changed since it worked last?
Them: NO! CAN YOU COME OVER HERE AND LOOK AT IT?
Me: I'll be right over

So I go over because they have messed up VNC somehow and I cannot connect to the computer, and the error is something to the effect of

Your document has been sent to the printer

|OK|

Or my personal favorite, is when some issue happens and we get a bunch of calls about it, so we send out a net message asking everyone to please not call about the issue we already are working on it... Invariably 5-10 people will call immediately either stating that they have an error on thier computer what do they do, or they ask about the message and what do we want them to do about it.

READ IT DAMNIT. ITS IN ENGLISH, YOU MORON!

Start a business

[twigles]

Most small businesses I have seen were started by some guy who had a 40 hour/week job and then was an entrepenuer by night. Everyone has to work a "day job" to pay bills, but what you do in your free time defines you and your lifestyle as well.

Personally I play some games, work out (Ju-Jitsu, weights, used to do Kenpo, ride a bike), read about non-tech stuff. None of this will bring in money unless I semi-retire and teach martial arts, which is something I am actually pencilling in for 5-10 years from now. This makes me a worse admin/engineer/whatever, but it makes me a better person overall I believe. Certainly more sane and pleasant, not to mention thin.

So what are your goals and priorities? Most money possible? In that case you should spend your free time getting business-savvy since there is no salary limit on salesmen or business owners. Prefer a balanced life? In that case don't work 80 hours a week, go find a non-tech hobby and sacrifice the extra cash.

After hours pager duty precludes second job

[realdpk]

Unfortunately, being on pager duty prevents me from having a second job, unless it was an online job. Finding those has proven highly difficult. I'd sure dig the extra $$ if I could find a way though.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[Wansu]

I don't really want to clean megs of spyware off a family members' computer, but if they want to slip me some cash I'll be right over.

Trouble is, many family members do not want to pay you to clean megs of spyware off their computer and straighten out lord knows what goofy symptoms it has. They want you to do it for free.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[SCHecklerX]

Having a passion for something, and wanting to work on other people's broken shit is hardly the same thing. It's about moderation. All of the computer stuff I do at home is for myself, or for my cycling team (no charge). For example, setting up mailing lists for them, with mimedefang and spamassassin protection (helps them and myself, since it is my own server).

But like the poster above, the last thing I want to do when I get home from working with computers all day is to touch another computer, even if it is something really cool. Every now and then I'll get hit with inspiration, and that is when I add cool new features to the cycling team database, or to my mail server, or my home jukebox, or whatever. The nice thing about it is that I can do it on MY TERMS. I refuse to do 'tech support' type work, however; even for family members. I didn't STOP using windows years ago just so that I could fix OTHER PEOPLE's problems with that PITA inflexible pile of crap.

writing

[rsilverman]

One side job that doesn't have the problem of clashing with office hours is writing. Over the past few years, I have co-authored two O'Reilly books: "SSH, The Secure Shell (The Definitive Guide)" and "The Linux Security Cookbook." In addition to a substantial second income, I have had several follow-on writing and consulting opportunities (white papers, articles, etc.). Of course, there's the question of whether you want to spend even more time sitting in front of a computer in your off hours...

Cabling Cabling Cabling!

[o-hayo]

Small offices crop up all the time and they always need voice and data cabling with some simple network setups and whatnot.

On average I do 2 or 3 small cabling jobs a year and for a few days of work I can make some fast cash. For an office of 10 people you've got ~30 cable runs or more depending on how much expansion they want to pay for. These kinds of jobs can usually be cranked out in 3 days or so, depending on size, and they are always afterhours.

How much you want to be involved is up to you. I usually only like putting down all the passive equipment: racks, patch panels, 110 blocks, cable, jacks, feeders, etc. I'll test the permanent lines, hand them the results and walk away (or charge them more for a lifetime warranty :). Sometimes I'll install a small switch and make some drops "hot" so they are ready for move-in. I'd advise to stick with the passive installs, much less complex.

Also I should add a disclaimer. There are licenses needed for this kind of work (at least in my area), specifically a low voltage contractor's license. You can obtain one with some studying and 1 test. Furthermore, to get into telephone rooms to run feeder to office suites, most building owners/maintenance will want to see a million-dollar liability insurance or something similar - in case you yank somebody's T1 down there or something.

Aside from that I'd recommend it. All the info you need is online and if you didn't know much about your network's physical layer you'd also gain from the experiance.

Once or twice, I've thought about setting up a "Computer Guy" shop for the apartment complex I live in. I'd limit work to only those who lived at the complex (which means no traveling everywhere) and maybe I could get the complex to post a sign up on our billboard or mailboxes or something. It'd be a few extra bucks here and there and people would have someone close to load their printer with paper and turn their monitors on ;) Maybe later...

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[BrookHarty]

The last thing I want to do when I go home is...
...turn on a computer.

WTF? Who says you have to work? Play video games, listen to music, watch some videos, IM some friends, read a Ebook, or the million of other things to do on a computer.

Every top programmer I know does side projects at home. They code for the pure fun and thrill of developing new applications, many give back to OSS since they work for a Corp all day.

Also, I guess you ONLY post to Slashdot from work?

Room Service

[trickster5378]

While it's obvious the original poster seemed more interested in IT-only side jobs, I think non-IT side jobs are worth a mention. I worked in room service in Las Vegas for a few years after college to help pay off my IT schooling. I finished paying it off just this last September so I promptly gave my two weeks notice.

Though honestly I do really miss it at times. My job is computers, my hobby is computers, it was nice to make some cash and spend my time on something other than sitting in front of a computer.

And up until my most recent IT job, I was making far more money doing room service.

Drug dealer/farner?

[Anonymous Coward]

All those stoned IT dudes need to get it some where, and if it's not me, then it's going to be somebody else. ;-)

Only joking....heh.

I'm an adult literacy tutor ...

[Draoi]

... I teach reading and writing to adults in my spare time. Of course, I don't get paid for it but some things can't be bought. It's my thanks for having had the chance at an education where my own parents didn't.

For money - well, I'm involved in web hosting. Building sites doesn't pay any more - not for me anyway - so I just do the hosting side. The money isn't great, but it's fun.

I also buy and sell stuff at garage sales. Hey, don't laugh! There's money to be made there if you know what you're doing ...

Re:I'm an adult literacy tutor ...

[Draoi]

Do you actually setup the server(s) and/or networking yourself or do you just resell?

We have a single server in a co-location house in London - just a 2U box - running our own distro. We pay a fixed rate per annum & the hosting company have been very good to us. The server box belongs to us. I look after all the sys op stuff while the co-lo folks do the hardware/networking support.

Care to share how many clients you have on your hosting project

We're running about 30 domains with one or two biggies (it's all relative, mind!). Sometimes I view it more as a co-operative scheme. The fact that we have complete control allows to write custom solutions for our customers. Postgres back-end with C++ cgis.

and the sort of revenue you're earning

Very little, trust me. We're not making the effort we could be to attract business but at least the whole setup pays for itself each year.

Rock Star

[saddino]

Or more accurately, guitar player in a local band selling CDs on the web and online stores like iTunes. And of course not for money, but certainly for the potential of "making it" (and thus making money). But given how long we've been at it such a reality is looking increasingly unrealistic. Though we did make some decent $ a couple of years ago when we were touring.

Like most indie bands of our ilk and time period we just wanted to be as "famous" as Pavement and as long-lived as Superchunk.

Side Jobs for IT geeks

[zenofjazz]

We do IT for our side jobs. We antivirus people's computers. We write software for hire. We setup networks. We do websites. We administer servers for small companies that can't afford to hire full time IT people.
The lucky one's (me included) find a couple paying customers who need help when their porn won't download properly. *grin* All for $80/hour, or better.

Good @ Lots of Jobs

[SketchyBitch]

I'm good @ all sorts of jobs - I'll even give hand jobs in the corner....

I have several

[Holi]

Besides doing database work for a few websites(as my main job), I work at a bar bouncing some nights and bartending others. I also use my experience from my years in the Navy and do handyman work (plumbing, light electrical, and some carpentry) for a few of the local businesses when they need me (and time permits). All in all I should say that at this time I make more money in my side jobs (especially tending bar) then I do in my full time work.

Bartender

[grioghar]

IT Sales and Apple Certified 10AM-7PM, 9PM-2to3AM - Bartender at the major music venue here in town. Best of both worlds.

Re:Consulting

[christopher240240]

I've been doing evening/weekend jobs for years. The secret is to tell them up front that you are only available to them during certain hours and even those are not guaranteed. Also, charge between $30 and $50 per hour and they get you for at most a third of what you're worth on paper as a consultant. Deal only with small businesses with minimal needs and very little mission-critical data. Make friends with them and be perfectly honest about everything. Also, bring in your toys when you meet with them, so you can convince them that they need them because they're cool. Build their machines for them, and charge physical labor by the job, make a higher hourly rate that way, and you'll be able to add to the system if need be. You will still get the occasional secretary to call you during work with an email crisis or whatever, but nip those in the bud through the boss. Keep detailed records of everything you do for them. Make sure they understand what is your responsibility, what is the ISP's, what is the phone company's, etc. Offer to be a liason between those companies and the business at your regular hourly rate so they don't have to know what's wrong, just that something is and you'll handle it. I get all the work I want this way, and pass unwanted work on to friends (sometimes even non-techies for the lightweight stuff). I keep about 15 clients, and I sometimes get too busy. I would say if you build up a list of about ten clients through friends, family, even putting up fliers, you'll find all the work you want.

Not all off-hour work needs to be tech related

[trackzero]

Not all off-hour work needs to be tech related. Sometimes you can get a wonderful sanity break by doing something unrelated to bit-twiddling.

My wife and I are both geeks. Both of us do AI work and manage a couple of computer networks. We are also both hard core horse geeks. In her case, she makes some money teaching riders on the side. I spend my time training the horses.

The irony of it is given the mindnumbing nature of the math I have to slog through on a regular basis, the relaxation of the barn (dodging flying hooves, etc...) actually helps me to relax. The net result is an increase in productivity in my day job when I end up producing algorithms while wearing poop on my boots. Go figure.

Re:tutoring

[nelsonal]

If you set your sights on college math tutoring, I'm sure you can work out a pretty attractive barter scheme.

Volunteer

[sward]

I suppose it's slightly off-topic, but as a "side job" I'm a volunteer paramedic with my local rescue squad. I don't get paid in money, but it's an extraordinarily worthwhile way to spend my time. I see it as being paid in karma, although our sometimes our "firehouse humor" seems to balance out that karmic gain. My regular duty shift requires between 60 and 80 hours per month, and I often put in more than that. If I had to, I could easily get a job as a paid paramedic with a private ambulance company (hello, layoff insurance), but my IT job (software engineer) pays well enough. Another local rescue squad sometimes pays people to work casually, but even for a medic the pay is pretty poor -- along the lines of $8/hr, last I checked.

I'm a Cad Monkey, so...

[Wandering Wombat]

... my side-jobs are all CAD-related, the easiest of which are doing custom house designs for people. It's quick, easy, and usually nets $2000 - $3000 for what works out to two or three weeks part-time labor.

I also take old old old drawings (many of which are done by hand) and turn them into CAD files at $20 an hour (which is such a rip-off, 30$ is the average for such menial work). Lots of real estate companies, especially people with rental buildings and munti-unit developments, need this done and have no idea how to do it.

Since most of my new family is blue-collar (really, the white-collar members of my SO's family still do farmwork in their free time) I also have some blue-collar side-jobs. I wrangle horses, plant and pick veggies, and help build stuff all around Pritchard township. Thats also a good way to meet people who needs stuff designed (see side-job number one!)

Habitat for Humanity

[Sergeant Beavis]

I don't really have a side job. Instead, I go out and help build houses for Habitat for Humanity. I'm a computer nerd by trade but I'm a carpenter by heart. I love to build things and building for those who otherwise would never own a home is very rewarding. I also do the occasional church raising out in the rural areas.

More & More on eBay ...

[adzoox]

I find that a lot of people are doing eBay as side jobs.

While this brings a lot of cool items to ebay with great descriptions (I sometimes use ebay descriptions for knowledge and research on products - not just buying) ... it also brings people to eBay that really don't have enough time to dedicate to it. ebay is either an all or nothing business if you ask me. I find that the people that the people that do it in their spare time poorly pack things, overcharge for shipping (making up wild excuses for the shipping and handling charges), and often don't respond when issues or questions arise.

I have also noticed that some items seem to be "from work" and may be "lifted" "from work" - particularly cables and routing equipment.

Side work

[sloanster]

I do linux gigs on the side. It's all been word of mouth "Hey, I heard you do linux, is that right?" from people who know people who know of a need for some linux skills - They need a vpn/firewall, a new mail server, or to migrate their webservers from windows to linux, etc, etc. Almost all of the word of mouth customers have become permanent customers, and they call me when they need something done. A few of the customers (a shipping company, a finance company) have become regular customers who have me work remotely several hours a week, and the $500-$1500 per month extra from working from home does come in handy.

There's plenty of programming contracting

[EmbeddedJanitor]

For the last 20 years I've been doing electronic + embedded contracting as a sideline activity. If you have the skills there is always a demand.I've pretty much been able to get work whenever I want it.

Another activity I've done is write for an electronics magazine. There are various publications out there that **want**, and will pay for, submissions. Apart from getting your name in print, and a cheque, it also gets your name out there for people to read.

Mutual Satisfaction

[Baby Duck]

I fix my brother's computer; he does my taxes.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[mesach]

Fortunately I make enough money where that isnt a concern, but I do work enough hours, so that when I am not at work the last thing i want to do is ANYTHING for anyone else.

Screw you, I'm doing my own thing. Of course that makes my wife kinda mad sometimes when she wants to go shopping and I'm all surly cause I dont wanna go, Guess thats why I havent gotten any in a few weeks maybe its been months, with all this porn I lose track.

Crystal Cathedral

[Jack9]

I am part of the tech crew for the Glory of Christmas show this year, presented at the Crystal Cathedral. http://www.crystalcathedral.org/

You can see my name in the program this year under Flight Operators (we fly the angels). It pays per show with a very flexible schedule. As a perk I get to hang out with the Angels, dancers, etc and am exempt from the Devotions and other religious cermonials. I am a Lutheran and not big on churches...especially money-centric evangelist churches.

Make your own

[halo8]

When you get really into computers and you have the smarts and time.. your realize its cheaper and more fun to make your own software.

BDSM is the same way.. when your really into it you make your own stuff learn a hobby save some cash.. DomDepot (Aka HomeDepot) can be a sadistic place for someone with a creative mind.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[dewke]

Trouble is, many family members do not want to pay you to clean megs of spyware off their computer and straighten out lord knows what goofy symptoms it has. They want you to do it for free.

Ahh the joys of family. Does your mom charge you for Thanksgiving dinner? No, of course not. So we all get to "fix" our families pc's for free because it's what we do.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[vrmlguy]

So, a few weeks ago my wife asked me if I could clean up the computer of one of the other Girl Scout den-mothers. After listening to the job description, I said, "Let me get this right. You're asking me to go to the home of a 27-year-old divorcee who wants me to look at a computer full of porn while her kids aren't home. No problem!"

Best Buy

[Anonymous Coward]

I work at best buy as side work. Amazingly it is great place to work, the discounts are insane, new videos cards with 100$+ off, tv's, digital cameras.. The prices are great, plus I get paid to play with a bunch of new toys.

Try this . . .

[dheltzel]

1. Write some software in your free time
2. Open source it
3. ???
4. Profit !!!

Now, ain't that easy?

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[wuice]

I know someone else has probably already said this, but..

I can't believe you charge your family members to click a couple of buttons in ad-aware for them. Granted, it may take a couple more button clicks to install the program and get it up to date. Do you charge per click? Do they get a discount on double-clicks?

Poker as a "job"

[WebCowboy]

I would never feel comfortable considering poker as a job, side or otherwise, regardless of the amount of income it generates (interestingly enough, the Canadian government agrees--playing poker is not a job and your winnings are not considered taxable income--they are "lottery winnings"--and casinos, lotteries and game shows already pay tax on the revenue they make from the losers). Casinos (online or otherwise) rely on there being more losers than winners in order to have a sustainable (duh). Given that big-time casinos offer high-rollers complementary-everything (valet parking, drinks, food, sometimes even accomodation) it is apparent that there a *great deal* more losers than winners.

If you enjoy gambling, by all means, have fun--just so long as you treat it as ENTERTAINMENT and set a budget of how much you can lose and QUIT when you reach that limit (or quit while you are ahead. Considering it as a JOB (ie. depending on the proceedings of gambling as your livelihood) is reckless and possibly immoral IMHO (your opinion may differ but I'm stating mine because gambling addiction has affected more than one person I know):

* It is reckless because by law of averages the time will come where it is your turn to pay the piper. If you rely on gambling income for your livelihood then you may put you and your family out on the street.

* It can be considered immoral to live of the proceeds of gambling because you are putting your families quality of life on the line (if you have a family you are supporting), and less directly you are profiting from the exploitation of others--every time you win big others have to lose (sometimes big). Some of these people are gambling addicts ruining their lives.

This is my personal opinion so I hope I do not offend too many people. I enjoy going to the Casino from time to time but I am by no means a big player (I've never let my losses exceed $100). In a way gambling is like sex--it is a great recreational activity but when it becomes a way of life it tends to lead towards exploitation and ruins lives.

As for what I do on the side...well my day job keeps me pretty occupied and my personal schedule is pretty full too, so there is little in the way of "side job" work right now. However, I still have a mostly-dormant side business which involves PC upgrading, repair, virus/worm/trojan removalfrom Win2k/XP machines, etc. I do not depend on this income for my livelihood (it would only by me the occasional dinner at a fancy restaurant anyways).

In the case of the virus removal, if it gets me a bit of extra spending money and that money is willingly given (and giveable) by the PC owner than I'll do it from time to time. Besides being unenjoyable work I would not like to make a living off of others peoples misfortunes. I think that if Windows requires so much security maintenance that people can actually make a living solely from that activity that Microsoft should be the one footing the bill, not the end users directly. I'd prefer to make my living as a developer, thanks.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[buysse]

After that reply, did you still get to go?

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[pixel.jonah]

Some interesting comments - My above statement is somewhat of a blanket reactionist statement that I make fairly often.

In reality - I help my keep my grandparents computer running (They're in their 80s and do an amazing amount with their computer - but it's an incredible eye-opener in regards to the huge usability failings of computers these days.), hack on some old hardware setting up a home music server, and ripping my CDs to it. (Which I'm thinking of rsync'ing with the one at work.) Etc.

But if I have the time I'd rather be working on my photography hiking, or hanging out with my girlfriend and/or other friends.

It's all about balance - Work / Play (Not necessarily in that order!)

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[OrangeTide]

Artists that paint houses as a day job can't wait to go home and "quit painting".

Having a real job generally involves a large amount of meetings, company politics and doing work that you don't want to do. Like if someone higher up mandated you use some specific tool, or setup your network topology a certain way, or put some stupid feature in a software package. You usually end up having to do it, even though you think it's a stupid. And nobody can have a passion about that.

The point is, in generally, working in the IT industry isn't something you enjoy doing 100% of the time, unless you are at an exceptional company.

I love designing, writing and debugging software. But most of my time is spent managing documentation revisions, discussing status in meetings, implementing dumb ideas that aren't mine, etc. I don't hate my job, if I did I would quit, but I can't say that I have a passion for being a software engineer.

I but I do have a passion for coding. But after a long day at work I'm really too burnt out to even play games. I end up reading a book, cooking dinner or watching a movie. By about 10pm I'm finally rested enough to do something on the computer. But that does not leave me much time if I have to wake up by 8am.

Re: Ask for BEER not CASH

[JMandingo]

My friends and family know the proper currency to ply me with - BEER. They have to have at least a six on ice for me, and they better be willing to fetch them for me while I work my magic.

Also, if it is a big job (have them describe their problem over the phone) I have them bring just the box to my place and I hook it up to a spare monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. That way I can peck at it here and there while I'm working on something else more important.

Transvestite Cabaret Dancer

[multiplexo]

But I'm not allowed to talk about it at work any more because HR says that it creates a "hostile workplace environment". Funny, I thought I was dead sexy wearing the fishnets and a pair of Manolo Blahnik fuck me shoes.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[Slime-dogg]

Maybe he should. When I get home, I know that I loathe opening up a programming environment. I've thought about some various side projects and stuff, but I never follow through on them. The reason is that I get paid to program. I think it's fun, but I don't find recreation in it.

I also have quite a bit of IT knowledge: fixing up computers, abolishing ad-ware, fixing user accounts, training, getting things to "work..." I hate it when my aunt says to me, "Mike, I've got a problem with my computer. My scanner..." First off, I dislike the headache I get when trying to fix things, when I could be doing something fun (i.e. playing pool). Second, I hate that I feel an obligation to work because she's my aunt.

A good side job is what I had a couple of years ago. I was a barista in a coffee shop. I could relax, talk to the customers, shoot the breeze with my co-workers, and generally not think about computers at all. I came home tired, but happy. I was refreshed in the morning as well.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[JanneM]

Renée Magritte (of "This in not a pipe" fame) went to his studio every morning after breakfast, then came home at the same time every day for dinner with the family, effectively treating the art as his dayjob.

Just because someone really likes doing something - even if they are passionate about it - people may well want to not do it all the time. Most scientists do not actually spend all their waking hours thinking about their work, most mucisians aren't always playing or thinking about music.

Most people, passionate or not, do want a life.

Porn cleaner ...

[crimethinker]

From a different angle:

My daughter's sunday school teacher is a single mom with teenage boys. She doesn't have a lot of money, but a family member gave her a new computer last Christmas, and the phone company is selling DSL for only a few bucks more than AOHell. Knowing she can't afford to pay anyone to set it up, I agree to help her set it up, no charge.

A few months later, she's having trouble - can't log in to some site to sign up for a credit-card processing account so she can accept CC for her Mary Kay side business, and she asks for help. I go over one night after work, and one of her boys is doing his homework at the kitchen table, PC in the living room.

She shows me the error, and I immediately point out that CyberSitter or some similar censorware is blocking the site. "Yes, I installed that to help keep the porn off the computer." I pull up the logs, and it's FULL of porn sites being blocked at times when she was at work. He tried to blame it on spam and spyware, and I was non-committal, just wanted to get the thing working for her, but I think she had a little talk with him after I left.

Can you say "uncomfortable?"

P.S. Still can't figure out why cybershitter blocks a credit card merchant site, but I just told her to disable the software when she logged in to do CC stuff.

-paul

Re:Porn cleaner ...

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

P.S. Still can't figure out why cybershitter blocks a credit card merchant site, but I just told her to disable the software when she logged in to do CC stuff.

If the particular CC company is used by porn sites to process payments, that might just be the reason!

Re:Porn cleaner ...

[Anonymous Coward]

If the particular CC company is used by porn sites to process payments, that might just be the reason!

Unless the merchant site itself hosts pr0n, I see no reason for blocking it for porn reasons since presumably they'd be unable to get there from the blocked porn site, or back from there to the pr0n site.

It's more likely that the thing blocked the site to keep the kids from sneaking the cards out of mommys purse (or some numbers off IRC) and going on a shopping spree.

Re:Porn cleaner ...

[plover]

I try to make sure the family is as bored as possible watching me clean up with Spybot. Hopefully, they lose interest and wander off before it starts listing the deleted cookies like C:\Documents and settings\14-year-old-kids-name\cookies\xxx.sexxxtr acker.sex

I don't want to be in a position to have to "pass judgement" on them, nor do I want to narc on the kids. I figure that if they're having me clean up porn popups, then they've already figured out that "someone" has been visiting naughty sites. It's their job to deal with their kids, not mine.

As for me, I don't care for blocking software, and I don't have it in my house. I think parents need to be parental, rather than hope for some automated solution. Besides, I think most kids are smart enough that they view blocking software as a sign that "dad doesn't trust them." If you're running blocking software, then guess what? They're right.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[Artifakt]

Ad-Aware has just about totally stopped me from charging people I halfway like. When someone agrees to a. change to Mozilla or Firefox, and b. Install ad-Aware, and learn how to use it, I will usually help them not only with that, but fix a few other niggling little nuisances their PC suffers from. If they are blindly loyal to IE, they tend to get charged about 30 bucks an hour.
I only charge one relative, but he's a second cousin that is convinced he can make more money in the market if he has an even faster connection. He is currently using cable internet because they said it was up to 5 times faster than local DSL, ignoring that he can't get that speed during the hours the market trades, and when he heard that the cable speeds tend to be faster early in the morning (like 4 A.M.), he decided to start trading on forign exchanges, even though he knows next to nothing about the companies involved, because he's that convinced the extra speed somehow matters. He hears a distorted explanation of resetting MTU's in the Windows registry for faster access systems, from one of his clueless friends, and I get another call. Him, I charge for calls.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[Lumpy]

I don't really want to clean megs of spyware off a family members' computer, but if they want to slip me some cash I'll be right over.

take a tip from Billy Gates.

nobody get's something for free. bill charged his family and that is how he started microsoft.

Aunt Meggie can either give you $50 bucks or she can give the computer super center $120.00 to fix her computer.

It works great, and the first time they get real prices to have a computer repaired and it returned to them with everything erased they will gladly feed you, give you a beer and 50 bones in cash.

I stopped giving away my weekends and weeknights to relatives and friends years ago. give them a deep discount like my example, but do NOT give it away free.

Getting people to read important messages

[CoughDropAddict]

When I was in college I was an administrator in the "Advanced Computing Lab" -- basically a lab that had slightly beefier machines and bigger monitors than other labs. It was intended for math and science students, but to many non-math/science people it was a place they were more likely to find a free computer than the busy general-purpose labs.

One year they clamped down and started only letting math/science people log in. I was sitting in the lab working one day, shortly after this policy was instituted. To give people fair warning, I wrote the following message on the white board:

PLEASE READ (<-- in HUGE letters)
There is a new policy in place where only people
on the ACLUsers list can login in this lab. You
are on this list if you are enrolled in a math or
science class in this building.

You could not possibly miss this sign. And yet, over the course of the few hours I was there, I saw countless people exhibit the following behavior:

1. walk in the door
2. glance momentarily at the sign (long enough to read "PLEASE READ", but no more)
3. sit down at a computer
4. try to log in
5. look puzzled
6. try a few more times
7. try a different computer
8. come over and ask me "is there something wrong with the computers in this lab?"

It was maddening! I wanted to smack them!

It's tempting to conclude from this story (as I did at the time) that most people are just ignorant and lazy. I think that the more useful lesson is: you'll never get people to pay attention to something by asking them to. Writing "PLEASE READ" is a futile effort. You have to make them WANT to read the sign; people read things because they WANT to, not because they SHOULD.

A much better strategy would have been to change the heading from "PLEASE READ" to "CAN'T LOG IN?"

I evangelicalize Apple

[ellem]

really.

Neighbor: I want to buy a new computer!
Me: Buy a Mac.
Neighbor: But...
Me: If you buy a Windows based PC you get one FREE call then I charge you 125USD/hr like I do all my clients. But if you buy a Mac you can call me anytime.
Neighbor: Well I saw this Dell.
Me: CHING! You owe me 125USD starting... now.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[ghjm]

Just like if your brother's a plumber and you have a clogged toilet.

Why should your family pay you to do what you can do? They already did what they could for you, or you wouldn't be here.

Friends and acquaintances are a different story. However, the story's not much different whether a plumber or a computer guy tells it.

-Graham

Re:Ski!

[Suburbanpride]

Oh, and since my main job is telecom, I get asked to run cabling for friends. At various times I've had my entire refrigerator full of beer because of it. barters the way to go. I help my neighbor(who owns a tire shop) set up dsl on his computer and got free mounting, balencing and liftime rotation on a new set of tires for my car. It was 20 minutes of work that he never would have paid me $80 for, but had no problem giving me $80 worth of service for it.

The only time I've seen this happen...

[PhYrE2k2]

My favourite was that about 8-10 years ago I used to work for a company that supported various K-12 schools in my final few years of schooling. Anyway, I was taking over the phones while someone was gone and received a call from *gasp* the sysadmin of my very own school. Knowing the guy would take a joke well:

[Me] *company* K12, *insert name here* speaking
[Him] My computer is freezing at the 'starting Windows' screen
[Me] Have you done anything to the computer recently? This is one of the network workstations?
[Him] Yes- I was just surfing the web
[Me] The only time I've ever seen this happening is when the customers were looking at gay porn. Would you happen to be doing that or should I file a problem report?
[Him] Ummm... I'm going to try a few things and I'll call you back if I'm still having the problem.
[Me] All right, thank you...

Hehe- Too classic.

Confessions of a True Spammer

[neowinx]

Alright alright, I fess up. As a side job I subscribe billg@microsoft.com to various pr0n and spam lists.

Skills For Free

[nuintari]

IT people don't have side jobs, they have every friend and relative begging for free tech support. My family complains about me nonstop because I will not be a free source of tech support, and my friends either continue to ask for it, despite my actions of apathy towards their problems, or they have heard me bitch about it so much that they have learned to stop asking.

I don't get it, my old man was an electrician, he fixed minor problems for family and friends, and was always compensated. Expenses were paid, and usually something nice was done in return, not always money, but dinner, or a gift, or something. Why is it that the minute I ask for ANYTHING in return, I become the bad guy in the conversation. They can ask me to drive 45 miles through heavy fog, but refuse to give me even a dollar for gas?

When it comes to side jobs, I work exclusively in the private sector. Until people realize that I have a life I'd like to live, my time is not worthless, and I'm not always thinking about computers to the point that I have no problem fixing your stupid little outlook express problems whenever you want, it'll stay that way.

The only thing that is worse than being asked to donate your time for NOTHING, is the people that ask me for free hardware because I have so much of it laying around. You people need to just die. Last time I checked, I did pay money for that stuff.

Vegetable Gardening

[Lips]

I grow my own vegetables (and soon fruit and eggs). While this does not make money, it certainly saves money. Long term I hope to be able to do IT part time, and sell high quality organic produce on a small scale.

It you have the room for it, I would certainly recommend it. The quality of home grown produce is far better than what you can buy in stores. It also means you don't have to go around looking for work and you can do it in your own time. It provides exercise and you are somehow encouraged to eat more vegies.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[suckmysav]

I'm just damn glad I didn't choose to be a gynecologist really.

Imagine those guys doing side jobs for their families . . .

IT _is_ blue collar

[kahei]

Get used to it.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[bluGill]

Perhaps, but in return for fixing my Uncle's computer he gave me a $3000 iron filter for my water. (it was broke, but he had the parts to fix it)

Its the family joke, Christmas at his house to fix the computer, Thanksgiving at ours to fix the water. Easter, birthday parties, graduation, and other family get togethers you count on either a water softener being rebuilt, or a computer being cleaned up.

I kill people on the side

[gelfling]

After a hard day of abusing people in IT and treating them like shit. I go home and whack them for money. Hey it's a living.

RE:

[rdilallo]

I think I'm a full time tech support for my mom and all of her friends. It doesn't pay much, but it's better than working the poll!

I chase my 21 month old around in little circles..

[tenaciousdRules]

dizzy. tired.

What I'd /like/ to be doing on the side...

[tibbetts]

...is more home improvement projects for myself and neighbors. IT geeks would seem to be the ideal candidates to be moonlighting handymen.

• It provides an element of physical labor that, shall we say, is lacking in your day job.
• It's the ultimate form of hacking, and you know that you could do a better job than whatever slob worked on it before you
• There's a tangible ROI on almost anything you do. Even minor things will make your house look nicer and probably raise its value. Major things (for one person to do), like reinsulating your attic, will have a profound effect on your heating & cooling bills.
• The money isn't half bad, once you really start to know what you're doing.

volunteer? learn? women?

[danwiz]

I'm a contract Java programmer and work is spotty right now. I occasionally do volunteer work for non-profits, but they usually call me at odd hours and expect me to perform miracles on a shoe-string budget. Right now I'm helping my senior neighbors install and use their new PC. I'm moving at the end of the month and they bought a new machine and a store service contract (at my recommendation). They're paying me in free meals and beer.

I fixed a (non geek) friend's girlfriend's PC and she's asked me to help a few of her friends. I make it a point when I install things like Firefox to emphasize that I "customize it" with special features, so she when she bragged to her friends about her experience there was only one place to go to - ME. Another advantage is that if you're dating someone and she doesn't work out, either she won't bother you for tech support any more or she'll go out of her way to ensure that you remain good friends.

The best "side-job" I've found ... learning. Keeping my skills current and playing with the parts of my skillset that I like. It may not directly bring in a paycheck, but it can enhance your marketability and make you more effective/efficient at your current position.

I know some a creative mechanic who drives a "tweaked" car, an electrician with a fantastic christmas display, a chef who likes to throw dinner parties to show off, and a few carpenters with some really nice home interiors. If you're not happy using your skills outside of work, then you're probably not totally happy with your career. To me, that's difference between a career and a job.

Re:Drink. Heavily.

[ediron2]

1. stop taking off-hours support calls, or at least limit them, if they're making it at all difficult for you to be a 9 to 5 person at a company that cares about this horses**t. And know that there are companies that respect what you're doing. Mine would.
2. show up 5 minutes early.
3. leave at 5:01, or whenever is 'normal'.
4. Learn seven polite and politically-defensible ways to say no. Better yet, learn the japanese trick of saying 'yes' in a way that means 'no'. Theirs is sort of a very-polite 'yeah, right!', although the literal translation is 'That's Fine.' Use these whenever you're asked to overextend yourself. The best is to simply not pick up the phone and drop the pager/cell into some ice tea (acidic saturation is hell on circuit boards).
5. Move on as soon as you can. It's always better to quit than be fired.
6. Once you're out the door, recognize that your team lead also just (indirectly) told you that (s)he is unwilling or incapable of standing up for you. That, not the thought of getting canned, is why you need to get out now.
7. It might be possible to look up the org chart and find someone that will champion you where your lead won't. If so, ask for their mentorship and help, but be graceful. If it helps, offer to give them VERY BRIEF summaries on the stuff you're doing after hours, to show why you're concerned both for your job and the company's best interests.
8. Take to reading the daily shark. It's therapeutic. Even now, 4 years away from my last job-from-hell, I occasionally grate my teeth at the idiotic s**t people submit there. I'm still not over the damage they did... that's how bad that long-gone job was.
9. Oh, and once you're out the door, take to submitting to the shark. Even more therapeutic. Be careful about specifics, since coworkers at that job-from-hell put 2 and 2 together, showed it to the boss, and now she hates me. C'est la vie.

As for seeking greener pastures, I worked 3 or 4 truly hellish jobs. One firm moved me 4 times in a year; my colleagues had resumes that spanned 20-40 job sites in 5 to 10 years. Another was small enough that the ceo and his wife split managerial duties, and their marital strife led to us getting conflicting orders twice a day. And so on... until I got in with a company full of wizards and acolytes that was managed with an eye toward us having balanced lives. Full telecommute privileges, anything-goes flexibility to hours we worked, etc. What I'd call 'professionals leading professionals' is so much better than the crap you're enduring. Yeah, I work wicked long hours, but I do it in my own fashion: I come in late, I stay a bit late, I go home and play with my kids and then go to my computer room and work for another few hours (or not) at my own discretion. From that first good gig, I've gone to another firm with similar rules. The work's fun and cutting-edge, with plenty of time for retrospection and self-training. Oh, and I make double what I did for any of the sweatshops. As the kid says, "I highly recommend it."

One last comment: having been around the field for quite a while, I suspect that we're still shedding non-geeks from the DotBomb years. The extra pressure and strain is a good thing in that respect: it gets rid of people that don't do this out of love. A few more years and we should be back to where demand exceeds supply just enough to give us more options.

Yeah, I know that flies in the face of outsourcing/etc, but a guy can dream. Everything I see still points toward no end to the problem of expanding complexity and increased I/T security risks. That, for me, means plenty of work to be done.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[calebtucker]

You get to sleep in until 8? I hate you.

WHY you don't fix the family PC

[EvilStein]

Ok, they get the PC riddled with spyware... ..so you clean it off.

2 days later, the scanner software goes on the blink. Guess who is going to get blamed? Yeah, probably you, the kind relative that cleaned up the PC but didn't touch the scanner software.

That's why I don't touch family PCs.

Re:WHY you don't fix the family PC

[JavaLord]

2 days later, the scanner software goes on the blink. Guess who is going to get blamed? Yeah, probably you, the kind relative that cleaned up the PC but didn't touch the scanner software.

This is the worst part about doing 'freebees' for friends and family. You are liable for anything they think you might have caused over the next few weeks.

My favorite one is a friend of mind who is utterly clueless when it comes to PC's and a klutz to boot. He will invite me over to do his tech support and then suggest solutions to his problems to me. "Hey do you think my Unreal Tournament is broken because you installed that adaware thing?".... Or even better yet, last week he calls me up because he couldn't figure out why his monitor wasn't working...he had kicked the plug out while installing a new mouse and not had not noticed until I told him to check the power cord....then 5 minutes later he calls back telling me his sound isn't working. I tell him to check the plug and sure enough he knocked that loose plugging the monitor back in.

This person makes over 100K a year in a sales job. 0_o I took up the wrong profession.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[allism]

Welll...would you expect your brother to charge you if you kept throwing, say, Depends down your toilet and expected him to keep fixing it for free, despite the fact that he has repeatedly told you not to throw your goddamn incontinent diapers down the toilet? Especially since after you flushed the Depends down the toilet, you decided to flush a box of tampons and a couple of rolls of toilet paper too to see if that would clear it up?

That's what fixing my families' computers feels like anymore - they don't update their virus protection, they open anything that they get in their email, they don't plug their computers into surge protectors, and then they wonder why we dread their phone calls. Every time we make the drive to their house (nine hours away if the weather is good and my toddler is very cooperative, thirteen if the above conditions are not met), we end up working on their computers. We have friends down there that they could call that would gladly come work on their computers at the first sign of trouble for the price of a home-cooked meal, but they try to fix it themselves, hose it up even more (like doing a parallel install of an older version of Windows 98 just because someone gave them the disk, then not understanding why all their apps cease to work) and then wait until we travel home for a visit to tell us their computer isn't working, but fail to mention things like the parallel install or the lightning striking their house after they decided to put the surge protector on their washing machine instead of leaving it on the computer. They also fail to mention that it's not working before we start the drive down so that we can pack parts from the graveyard, so it ends up either costing us money to buy them parts or they complain about the cost of computer parts when we make them buy the replacements.

My attitude toward the whole thing would probably be helped if my mother didn't keep telling me how much she hates the computer I gave her for Christmas last year. All the hardware was failing on her old computer, so I gave her and her partner both refurbished computers for Christmas. All I hear is how much she hates the damned thing.

If I treated my plumber like that, he would never come to my house again, no matter how much I paid him.

OK, I can end my rant now. I would probably be calmer about it except that we just got back from a trip there - we were working on their computers until a half hour before we left to drive back.

Share Trading, Counselling, Writing and Consulting

[Michael Snoswell]

I trade shares for hobby and at the current rate that hobby will pay enough for me to quit by high paying day job (senior computer systems engineer in a defense company) in 3-5 years (I've been doing it for 2 years). This takes aabout an hour a week (value investing, not day trading).

I also went back to study phsychology and ended up as a qualified counsellor where a see a couple of clients a week to help keep me in touch with real humans. I also do some tutoring work for counselling students (which is all weekend and evenings). This takes a few hours a week plus 8-16 hours when I'm tutoring.

I write written scripts (have done two cartoon episodes for The Toons: Where are they now?) and am working on a self help book and a novel. Not to make money but because I like writing. This is usually only a 1-2 hrs a week (averaged over a year)

Because my day job in IT is so senior I don't get to do interesting technical/creative stuff I do little PC setup jobs for friends and write php/mysql apps for friends businesses (currently doing a 1.5TB image management and workflow system). This is about 10hrs a week at the moment.

I'm also developing some self help workshops which I hope to start running early next year. This takes 2-3 hrs a week (at the moment).

This is on top of my 50hr a week job, a wife and 4 children. I do as much extra stuff as I can after everyone else is in bed (eg 10pm onwards) and sleep about 5 hrs a night (with the occassional 10hr night to catch up).

The idea is to develop paying work that has a very high hourly rate so I can work less hours. The share trading is best, earning several hundred dollars an hour and in future for the same effort this will increase as profits are simpy reinvested and not consumed. Secondly the counselling is experience towards doing the workshops, where you can charge 30 ppl $200 for a weekend workshop (16hrs) to give a similar hourly rate (minus overheads and prep time).

Currently all this augments my income by about 30% (up from 10% last year) so I'm on track to retire within 5 years.

I also used to play in a band (did 3 albums) which was an aweful lot of fun but an aweful waste of time. Once kids came along that something had to give!

The best way to relax is playing with the kids, programming and writing (for me at least).

I still toss around ideas of high tech startups (I had one in the late 90s with angel funding but we never got to the big venture capital stage) but nothing is as assured as 1) value investing with shares, and 2) a 9-5 job.

If money and creating spare time weren't a concern I would probably just counsel people and write, but I wouldn't make a good living out of it (well, I might but it's unlikely - I'm not abuot to plan on an improbably income stream when I have a mortgage and kids!).

Re:Real Estate

[aceAzza]

I'm a Realtor as well.

well, I fight fires.

[CFD339]

With the small town I'm in, they need all the help they can get.

So, by day(and night) I'm a not so mild mannered computer geek; while by night (and day) I run into burning buildings.

Re:well, I fight fires.

[ic3p1ck]

At first I read that as 'I light fires'...

With the small town I'm in, they need all the help they can get.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[Xavic]

to be honest, i could probably live happily without touching a box at all outside of my 9-5. i do however do a great deal of side work, mainly web scripting for people that want dynamic sites to do whatever. i also do onsite computer/networking work for $50/hr using only word of mouth for advertising. my side work yearly income is somewhere around 15k so far this year, so im not doing too bad. and no, i was smart enough to NOT sign any non-competes...

Re:SIDE JOB: Volunteering for Human Rights

[wondergibbon]

Dear Mr Bush,

We, the authors of the CIA World Fact Book, were under the mistaken belief that it was the People's Republic Of China (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos /ch.html) - "mainland China" - who asserted sovereignty over Tibet, not Taiwan, (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos /tw.html), which is an island off the south east coast of PRC. Thank you for the clarification. We must have overlooked the invasion of the mainland while we were looking for those pesky weapons of mass destruction.

We've got a small favor to ask - can you state that Palestine and Israel are in fact several thousand miles apart, and thereby ending one Middle East conflict? Oh, and the Department of Defence would like to know if you could move Iraq and Afganistan to a more temperate climate, and prefeably to somewhere where the transport costs are lower.

We have also liaised with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taiwan pn your behalf, and report that the translation the speaker was looking for in that awkward silence was "idiot."

Thanks.

Chef

[cyberzephyr]

When I'm not slinging software, I cook at a local restaurant. It balances me out and makes me very popular in the office when i bring goodies in for the office parties.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[Frogbert]

So what? I clean up my families and friends computers whenever they need it. The only condition? I do it on my time, it could take weeks, it could take days I don't really care I'll just get around to it when I feel like it.

If they want an imediate fix they can pay someone for it.

Re:SIDE JOB: Volunteering for Human Rights

[windlord]

Of course he is speechless. You should at least get your international facts right before going out and embrassing yourself.

It is China who is contesting over Tibet... NOT Taiwan.

Get away from the computer

[lotus87]

My side job is purposefully different from my work. I referee ice hockey and inline hockey. The pay is pretty decent, $10 to $50+ for a one hour game, depending on the level of play, league, and location. Plus, you get some exercise, meet new people outside of IT/CS, and get to teach new players how to play the game.

Up front costs do stink a little if you start from scratch, $200-$300 is typical for all new gear and 1st year registration. But that's deductible, and if you referee a few games per month, you're back in the black pretty quickly.

I have also performed freelance home computer services, but playing & refereeing hockey have generally been more fun and better for my % body fat.

Blinking yellow 'Read This'

[DragonHawk]

"PLEASE READ (-- in HUGE letters)"

Heh. No kidding. I once sysop'ed on a BBS. The old, dial-up kind, not the new, web kind. When "ANSI graphics" meant "colored text". Anyway, we had this one popular game, with a couple different variations, and some non-obvious rules. So we gave it a menu screen all its own, with a "Read Me" kind of option set apart at the top of the menu. It was labeled something like "Important information about this game". Next to that, in blinking-yellow-on-black text, was the phrase "Read This!!!".

At least once a month, I would answer a tech support request with the form letter:

You need to read the "Important information" file on that game's menu. It's the option with the blinking yellow "Read This" next to it.

It's amazing how people have brains which are so much more capable then these dumb computers, and yet still manage to be dumber then the computers.

*sigh*

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[Feanturi]

My family would have to pay me to show up for thanksgiving or christmas or what have you. Actually, scratch that, they don't have enough money to make it bearable.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[tekiegreg]

Well I consider it a trade of sorts....

For example, my Dad is a lawyer and a damn good one. I fix his computer for free no questions asked. When some big bad corporate bully comes picking on me for no apparent reason (aka a big overcharge on a bill or a denied insurance claim), I turn my dad on them, think of it as an M1A1 Abrams handling the big bad bully...in the end it all works out I think :-)

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[SCHecklerX]

And on the other hand you have people like myself that like to see how much use you can get out of aging hardware & enjoy the challenge. But then again, I don't maintain networks/computers for a living anymore.

I used to use a single box for everything at home. Pentium 133, with 128MB of ram. It was my jukebox, firewall, mailserver, database server, web server, etc. Worked fine, but I didn't like having a single point of failure.

These days, that box *was* my mail server (just now replaced it with a P2 550), and I have a separate firewall, and 'everything else' server (PIII ... forget the speed). The 'everything else' box is hooked to the tv, and has web browsing, Xine, Xmms, and such. (I'm too lazy to build a real mythtv box :) In addition it is doing dhcp, mysql, apache, etc.

Right now, I am using a P75 with 16MB of ram as a smoothwall firewall (that will be the P133's new function), and of course the other two servers I mentioned.

So, yeah, I know what you mean about older hardware. It's great being able to use it. Heck the stuff I have is way overpowered for the amount of work it has to do (watching videos being the exception).

I also own a Toshiba Libretto...now that thing is 'low power'. I have it overclocked to 266MHz, and it can play Mpeg-1 videos pretty well. It runs firefox respectably too. The real bottlenecks seem to be the non-DMA drive in it, and the 64MByte memory limit. But it is a great little box to use as a car jukebox, wireless stumbler, photo repository, and browser when I need it. I put a 20Gig drive in it, and partitioned the LVM so that I can still hibernate it (the bios dumps hibernation right at the 4 Gig mark).

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[yourexhalekiss]

My girlfriend's dad is a highly skilled plumber - he was hired at the nuclear power plant for some special work there. He definitely knows what he's doing.

Nonetheless, when the pipes freeze or a toilet clogs, he, without fail, always calls someone else to do it.

chinese tv commercial actor

[jintian]

I'm a western man living in Beijing. Westerners are often used here as foreign experts in TV commercials to lend some additional semblance of credibility to the product pitch. I have played a doctor, an Australian scientist, and suit & tie businessmen. Products have included breast enlargement kits, hi-tech underwear, and chinese herbal medicine (the Strong Bones Particles of Six Flavors). Usually I just have to mouth some words because they'll do a voiceover in Chinese later, but occasionally I have to speak - and translate very bad English into something a real person might actually say. Its not very lucrative but it is diverting.

What I do...

[phreakmonkey]

... when a friend or relative wants me to do some "above and beyond" computer repair:

I require them to make a $25 donation to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They can use the receipt in email as proof.

That way they don't feel like I'm just trying to make a buck off them, and I feel more inspired to actually do a decent job of solving their problem. Plus it help out a good cause.

Mind you- I don't consider some basic stuff as "above and beyond".. Eg: configuring outlook for someones IMAP server &etc. Cleaning off adware / viruses definitely warrants a donation- and a short lesson in "what not do to on the Internet."

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[suckmysav]

Things the I.T. department hears all the time, the proctologist never does:

hehe, I always wonder where proctologists come from, because who in their right mind would choose a career where you would be constantly required to peer at and finger poke the arseholes of strangers?

Good lord, they must be even more demented than dentists!

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[mjweyland]

I have my father convinced PEBKAC is a legitmate computer virus.

Him: "Uh, you wanna come over and take a look at my PC."
Me: "Why? Whats Up?"
Him: "I think I have another PEBKAC on my PC again."
Me: "Were you looking at email from people you didnt know and opening attachments?"
Him: "I can't remember. Just come over and take a look"
Me: "Sounds like a PEBKAC issue."
Him: "That is what I'm thinking too."

This does not apply to me...

[kabrakan]

A side job? I dont understand.. But I work at EA.

attend law school (aka become a vampire)

[wattersa]

yes, it's true, I am a "scum sucking bottom feeder." lol. I'm currently attending as a student and also working half-time in the school's IT dept. developing the school website at a below-market but not unreasonable hourly rate. It's a nice, stable monthly check that basically takes care of my expenses other than tuition. On the side, I do more profitable misc. projects for people who need websites done or other design work. When I get in a check from those projects I just treat it like bonus money and end up spending it on hardware, clothes, car stuff, even dress shoes. A law professor at school saw my biz card on my office door and hired me to do her new edition book cover. Other professors who self-publish are interested as well. There's no substitute for word of mouth, but craigslist gigs section is a good place to start. Unfortunately almost all of those are "I was hoping to get it done for free" (i.e. clueless) people posting. Many of us in this thread are probably at the point where we can turn down projects that aren't "just right" since we're not depending on that money to subsist.

if you have a stable 9-5 and some knowledge of web dev, try hiring a couple of college students part time to do larger side projects that you find. After saving some moderate amount of money you can get into property management (borrow to buy an apartment building, then pay the loan with the rent money from tenants), or even open your own dive bar in a college town (my dream). All the skills you get in the side businesses help in your regular job too-- managing people or money, getting things done, handling problems, and so on. The great thing about running small businesses is that everything you make is yours, and you can make a lot of extra cash in the right business. The great thing about law school is it's fairly empowering. You know how to solve big problems.

I think the absolute worst tech support aside from AOL or Dell has got to be college/graduate school computer help. Often the law students are from fairly privileged families where the standard op. procedure was to call a contractor to fix every little problem at home rather than trying to get things done themselves. So you have a lot of people coming in FRANTIC and DEMANDING that you fix their computer problems right that second. I would say "sorry, drop-in tech support hours are wednesdays 3:30-5" and the typical response is "but it's an EMERGENCY!!!!" yeah. I've never heard that one before. asshole. I have nothing but contempt for the vast majority of my classmates. Yes, these people will soon be the ones you despise oh-so-justifiably. It's nice to have that quiet confidence of being able to fix things yourself, which is one attribute of a successful lawyer. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

Some people at school made the jump from IT to law school thinking they'd be "marketable" to the intellectual property law firms that run rackets in IP litigation. They're probably right, but I'm not sure if they'll be able to look in the mirror at the end of the day. Those places often require a CS/E degree. Many private law schools have a night program, so maybe you can do your IT day job and attend law school at night, though it does take 4 years....

Something Completely Different

[mgooderum]

I work part time as a paramedic. I agree with most posters, after 50-60 hours a week of startup grind the last thing I want to do is IT or programming for someone else. What little spare energy I have goes into my personal bits for myself.

Being a paramedic is everything IT is not - lot's of people interaction, some physical labor, outside time. It's also personally rewarding in a way that programming isn't. I've never been applauded for my work as a programmer, something I have had happen a few times as a medic. I've also never been offered a blow job as a programmer, but I have been a few times as a medic. As a married and ethical man I do not require applause nor accept the blow jobs but as a human being and a terminal male I appreciate the consideration present in both.

I originally became a medic because a bit of volunteering as an EMT showed me I loved the work and I thought that (as my plans were at the time) that the medic job would provide a salary baseline and benefits when consulting wore thin. Well - the bubble burst and I'm an employee again but I keep up the medic because it's a perfect escape from the office and if things really go south it's one job I know they _can't_ ship to India.

The wages are not great but when you can work a 24 hour shift and get paid 24 hours for one calendar day it does add up even for a few days a month enough for even an overpaid technoweenie like me to notice.

After 15 years in the development trenches I would love to work full time as a medic and have the energy to expend my skills part time on programming but then I couldn't afford a new GeForce 6600 or flying as often. I also like not sweating that I'm getting the $4 latte instead of the $1.25 cup of joe, something most full time medics have to worry about.

At some point I may make the trade of money versus time for lifestyle as we achieve certain financial goals, but for now it works as is.

Re:in other words: why open source software's ille

[finkployd]

Wow, it sucks to work there. All I had to sign was a paper saying that what I created on the clock and with their resources was theirs (which is perfectly reasonable IMHO).

And even with that, I have been able to get some things open sourced.

I would never take a job that claimed ownership on everything I do unless they are paying me for everything I do (hourly that works out to about 16 hour days, I'll take that overtime)

Finkployd

Totally different

[Sanat]

I do two types of side jobs. One the exorcism of individuals and of properties which includes items, pets, house, buildings, grounds (above and below).

This includes negative thoughtforms, negative energies, negative entities, and about 200 other things.

I charge $20 per person or property. I get emails from people all over the world for this type of work.

As an example, one individual was in a state mental institute for three months and on heavy medication for schizophrenia... I did a clearing on him as he was possessed by hundreds of entities and now his life is normal, living a typical life without meds.

Secondly I work directly with individuals to assist them in working through emotional issues. It is not hynotherapy, rather the individual goes into an altered state of consciousness and they are shown via a movie in their mind.. just as if it is a daydream only the client has total consciousness as it is occurring. The movie lets them see and sense the truth and the issue falls away.

As an example, a person may have a fear of dogs and be shown in the movie that a memory is present of being killed by a pack of wolves in the distant past. Whether this is a past life, a shared embedded memory, or a pseudo lifetime in not known nor is it important to know exactly for the healing takes place regardless.

Typically a session lasts 3 hours and I charge $200 per session.

Many individuals believe that all physical illness with the body are emotionally or mentally created. I have seen some very remarkable physical healing take place once the emotional issue is resolved.

I find that I am doing less and less computer related things and assisting humanity more in these ways.

A lot of stuff...

[logicassasin]

I do the following as "side jobs":

Build PC's (duh)
Rave DJ
Install Custom Car Audio (my profession for 6 years while in college and beyond)
Produce tracks for local rappers

Soon I'll add voiceover/vocal acting and recording artist whenever I actually get up offa my duff to get into them.

Actually, IT IS my side job nowadays. I left IT a few months ago to work as an account executive for a mortgage lender. The competition for jobs is entirely too tough and there aren't enough jobs left unless I want to move the family to India...

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[Horse Rotorvator JAD]

I refuse to do 'tech support' type work, however; even for family members.

I couldn't agree with you more. I spend all day having to fix broken computers, troubleshoot the network, listen to arrogant bitchy lusers, etc. When I am not at work and someone asks me to take a look at their computer I reach for my gun.

I liken it to this. Say you are a cook who loves to cook but you are stuck with a shitty cooks job at Dennys. You get off work and go to a friends house only to hear your friend say "bake me a pie!" That is no different than when I get off work and go to a friends house and they say "fix my computer!"

Consulting

[ca1v1n]

I used to work tech support at one of the rare well-managed, worker-respecting tech support places, and fairly frequently we'd get calls about things we don't support. Standard procedure was to refer them to the consulting companies we had deals with. Because of these contracts, our users got good deals from them, but only for major projects, since they'd typically have minimum fees that would be rather exorbitant for the small odd jobs they often needed. We'd often get calls back asking if anyone wanted to drop by for a half hour after work and do whatever the odd job in question was for $30 or so. Our manager actually encouraged this practice, since we were still supporting everything we were supposed to and honoring our contracts, and our users were getting the unsupported odd jobs done that were too small for formal consulting. This required our manager paying attention to make sure we were really doing our jobs properly and not trying to screw our customers, but I believe I already mentioned we had good management.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[Dun Malg]

Maybe you shouldn't be in the IT industry then. When you have a passion for something you tend to enjoy doing it when ever the opportunity is available. I cannot imagine an artist saying I cannot wait to quit painting or drawing...

Liking working in IT doesn't mean you necessarily like scraping the crudware out of relatives' computers. That's equivalent to saying Bruegel or da Vinci should be overjoyed to paint their brother's house because they're painters.

Tutor!

[bhima]

Although I don't really do it for the cash, I have a lot of fun teaching. Lately I've had a bunch of kids working on what would be a masters thesis in the US. While I don't always have the expertise they do in the subject mater at hand I have enough technical knowledge to help and I speak English as a first language. (Most of these must presented in English) Also the local technical college has hooked me up with a bunch of folks going for the same degree I have or in the field I work in.

The upside is I have 20 something girls shopping for clothes for me (I'm colour blind) and women in their 30s teaching me how to cook.

Wireless makes me money

[ben_]

Installing wireless LANs is my side job. For families sometimes, but mostly small businesses - large enough to want them but small enough not to have the in house skills. Wireless is stupidly complex from the point of view of most non-technical users (especially after they've read almost anything about security), so they're happy to pay me to take care of it for them.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[RWerp]

That's why during the day I code and at night I play on my website and hack the living hell out of a known hardware platform

Dare I to ask, when do you sleep?

Solving the "Oh, by the way..." -issue

[Max Romantschuk]

I solved this problem using a very simple principle:

I don't fix computers unless someone specifically asks me to come over to fix the computers. If I'm asked to look at a problem I do, but if it takes more than five minutes to fix I simply say that I'll have to fix it on a separate occation.

Most people are to embarrased to ask me over just for the computer, and when someone actually does I can be prepared (mentally at least).

I took this to the point of telling my parents I won't come over at all if they try to pile their computer issues on me every time I show up. Things have been fine since.

Re:SIDE JOB: Volunteering for Human Rights

[Anonymous Coward]

Ummm... I think he was pointing out that as many in taiwan want independence it is a bit of a double standard to say tibet can't have it too.

But I mean, don't just ask him what he meant... start dissing him out. Stupid myopic american "put-down" culture.

dj

[c64k]

I dj at several clubs, hip hop and downtempo mainly.

the pay sucks, but I'm used to that, and it comes with all the free drinks you can handle. A couple gigs a month pays for buying more records (yeah I got cds and mp3s, but nothing beats vinyl for hands on manipulation)

On extra good nights I get picked up on by drunken girls (and occasionally boys).

I also fix the computers at my girlfriend's work for cash under the table, which also goes to records...

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[Archimonde]

In my Sociology 101 book I found some interesting facts.

When they are at home, blue collar workers don't do anything. They usually watch TV and do small tasks. Thats because their work is so physically hard that they are exhausted when they arrive at home.

White collar workers when at home usually do some hobby unrelated to their actual work. They do some sport or any other hobby.

Managers (or the upper class) usually do the same job when they come home. In a way they do the same job the whole day. That is because their work is not physically demanding so they can work the whole day.

What does 'a life' mean?

[Anonymous Coward]

>Most people, passionate or not, do want a life.

What do you all mean when you use the term 'life' in these contexts?

Something like interfacing with other people with pointless chat, eating in a restaurant with other people, listening to music, dancing, doing sports, having sex, drinking alcohol, using drugs?

BackHoe_Carpentry_Massage_Teach-Dance_Auto Mech

[jets42]

Some of these I do for money, others for self amusement.

I'll let you decide which is which !

Just because I'm a computer tech / Oracle DBA / Unix Geek / Net Admin
for most of the week, doesn't mean that I can't have fun
doing something that doesn't involve a keyboard...

If a friends water line breaks -
Good excuse to rent a Back Hoe, and spend the
weekend playing "Tonka Toys" while tearing
up his front yard, to trace & replace his pipes.

If I've spent too much time smothered in computer code
lately, and feel the need for grease under my fingernails-
there's always something mechanical to be done
like replace those C.V. joints that have worn
out on the car, or change the timing belt,
or replace squeaking brake pads for a quick fix.
If the computers have REALLY gotten on my nerves
then it could result in a complete tear-down
and overhaul of both motorcycles, then new paint!

On the other hand, Carpentry can be a good relaxer
I'm in the middle of building custom kitchen
cabinets for my girlfriend's Mom's house, due
to aggrivation over Cisco "nOtwork" issues.
Just start with the dimensions, and make your
own plans, then uupp out the a table saw, and
combine with creativity & lumber- voila !

With hardly any notice, some of the best stress relief
and "group therapy" I've found, is Dance.
In particular, Contra Dance. See the web site
at www.contradance.org for a good example,
or photos at www.pbase.com/bobbennett/dance
Live bands, 200+ people, all ages from 17 to 70
and a new girl twirling into you arms every
60 seconds or more !
Of course, Swing, waltz, etc. are fun too -

Massage can be fun / theraputic for the masseuse
as well as the one being massaged.
a few years ago, I had been a licensed EMT
ambulance attendant - and later found that
the sam eknowlege of human anatomy was quite
usefull in giving theraputic massage. If you
visualize well, you can just about see all
of the muscles, joints, tendons, and nerves
that you are workign with & around. Go another
step, and you can relax the same muscles in
you own body that you are working through on
someone else's physique.

Hit & Run Home Building (Habitat for Humanity)
If you want to do something good with your spare
time, and work out any frustrations you may have
by pounding on something with a hammer, while
learning something new at the same time-
Then "Habitat" may be for YOU--
Join lots of other people, who take Saturday
and just go build houses for fun. The finished
homes are sold to low income families, who
can get a modest but new home, that included
some of the sweat equity and design of their own!
see: www.habitat.org with more details.

Inventing would have to be one of my favorite creative
hobbies. The ultimate "think outside the box"
brain buzz - where even the box may not yet exist!
Teach yourself to look at the puzzles, challanges,
and shortcomings of the every day world- and
see room for improvement. Decide how that can
be engineered, what is really practical instead
of just dreaming. What are the best design
options for structure, utility, cost, materials
ergonomics, flexibility, manufacturing, etc.
This can be a GROUP activity as well- finding
friends with MANY different backgrounds and talents,
to contribute more perspectives. Decide what
is needed, and how to make it happen !

And YES- my spare time STILL includes learning more
about computers. Extra features to use, new
languages, utilities, hardware, protocol

Rich irony

[GCP]

How ironic that in going for the tired "Bush is ignorant about the world" sophomoric humor, you demonstrate your own ignorance about the world.

The poster you were responding to is correct in what he said about *Taiwan*. While fighting back the attempts of the mainland to extend their tyranny over them, they yet wholeheartedly approve of Chinese tyranny over Tibet.

The Taiwanese and the Mainland Chinese, you and Bush, your use of "idiot", ah, the ironies are rich....

Dot-bomb non-geeks

[16K Ram Pack]

I think the shedding is nearly over. I've seen a lot of people quitting to do other things, and a lot of genuine folks enduring the bad wages because IT is what they want to do.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmmm... I couldnt disagree with you more. When my family needs computer help, I am more than happy to help them. Everyone has a skill that they can help others with, and mine is computers. I dont love doing the work, but I love the smile they get when they see that their computer is fixed.

I maintain the basic belief that everyone you know (for the most part) is good with something enough to help someone else out. That someone else does not need to be myself, but there are people that can help me as well. For instance, my Dad is really good with cars. When I have car trouble, he is quick to help me. My Mom, well, she carried me around for 3 years or so.

So, when it comes down to it, I like helping. I like being someone that my family can count on to help them, whether it be with computers, or to come get them when they get a flat tire, or to visit them in the hospital.

I understand not wanting to help just anyone with their computer, but your family? Get off your high horse. The chefs in my family cook holiday meals, and love to discuss food with me, a bumbling hobiest cook. When it comes to your family, you can be generous, or you can be stand-offish. I know where I want to be.

Re:SIDE JOB: Volunteering for Human Rights

[GCP]

get over your myths

Get over your own.

If Tibet was so miserable before the Chinese "liberated" them, why did the flood of refugees leaving Tibet occur AFTER "liberation"? Your myths are just Chinese propaganda used to excuse China's imperialism. Though the Tibetans had a theocracy, not a democracy, it was still based on things they believed in.

The Chinese invaders simply want to take their land, and are imprisoning, torturing, and killing anyone who tries to stop them. You must be so proud of them.

I speak Chinese, and I picked up a couple of People's Liberation Army soldiers on the road near Mt. Everest in Tibet recently. They were bragging about how they had just managed to capture some poor families trying to escape over the mountains. These soldiers were so proud at how they had hunted down these poor, half-frozen women and children. Real People's Heros.

I asked them if they didn't consider it ironic that they called themselves Jiefang Jun, the "People's Liberation" Army, yet their job was to prevent any hope of liberation. Their answer, not surprisingly, was the same Chinese propaganda coming out of you.

don't try to pretend like it's not one country now

Don't try to pretend it IS one country. It's two: China and Tibet, but Tibet is full of Chinese soldiers ready to imprison and torture anybody who dares say so, so I'll say it for them. If the Tibetans could vote, they would overwhelmingly vote to throw out the Chinese occupiers, but the "Chinese People's Government" doesn't even allow its own people to vote, much less people in neighboring countries that they have invaded.

Your argument that fifty years of occupation makes it one country didn't persuade the Chinese that Hong Kong was British, or that Taiwan after more than 50 years is now an independent country, so why should it make Tibet the property of the Chinese?

It doesn't, and it's not.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[hsteck_ylf]

I agree... sure, many musicians and artists aren't thinking about thier 'work' 24/7... but the ones that do are the ones that are famous, well-known for their works...

There is a difference between doing something and doing it whole-heartedly...

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[slashdotnick]

Well said. Surely your parents deserve your time and skills when they are needed.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[slashdotnick]

How often have your parents helped you out in the past? Surely they got 'the raw deal' for 15 or 16 years. Seems kind of selfish to refuse to help if you ask me.

other jobs....

[EtherNetFreak]

When I'm not doing my FT I.T. job.... I'm a Paramedic for the city EMS/911 service. Otherwise, I do private IT consulting when needed.

Whoever modded this funny is an idiot

[Weaselmancer]

He's being serious.

First off, I have a friend who makes chainmail. If you make it as armour, you can sell it for X amount of dollars. If you sell it as BDSM gear, it's about X*1.5. He started off selling at renfairs, and now sells at BDSM gatherings. So you might find it funny, but that's just how the business goes. For whatever reason, BDSM people seem have a lot of cash.

Another point - I'm a BSEE and write Linux drivers and software for my employer. And the first thing I do when I get home to unwind is make armour. I'm in the SCA, and there is something absolutely theraputic about smith work.

In some ways it's the exact opposite of IT work. In other ways, identical. It always leaves you wishing you could just simply use a raising hammer and beat a misbehaving computer into shape.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[gstoddart]

Maybe you shouldn't be in the IT industry then. When you have a passion for something you tend to enjoy doing it when ever the opportunity is available. I cannot imagine an artist saying I cannot wait to quit painting or drawing...

I seriously doubt that lawyers go home and work on their own private lawyering in the evening just for fun.

Plumbers probably don't re-do their piping every few weeks for the novelty factor.

Trust me, a lot of people in the industry who are passionate and skilled at programming, go home and make a point of disconnecting to a certain extent. (Yes, I still use my home computers, but I don't want my recreation and my job to blend.)

You can be passionate about something and still make a point of moderating the amount you do it. Really, for many of us, it's a profession, and not necessarily an all encompassing obsession. And, believe it or not, many artists also force themselves to take a mental break away. Otherwise you'll either burn out or start making crap.

Cheers

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[captaincucumber]

>I never understood why peons sitting at a desk all day feel superior to people doing physical or skilled work.

I can explain this for you. Everyone feels that whatever sort of work they do is superior to the type of work everyone else does. White collar people feel superior to blue collar people because they are rough and uneducated, blue collar people feel superior to white collar people because they are soft and lazy and don't know how to change their own oil or catch fish. And sociologists feel superior to of all of them, because they think they are the only ones who understand the whole thing. And me, I chuckle at the inferiority of all of you with your week minds and simple thoughts.

Re:Drink. Heavily.-Work for love at EA.

[ediron2]

heh, an insightful swerve into ea's sweatshop reputation.

As for not in usa, I don't doubt that there'll be some decrease in how many IT jobs are here. But I think that there remain so *many* difficult problems and so *few* (percentage-wise) members of the population willing to study/solve them, that I'll still have people with fun computer-ish puzzles for me to solve the day I die.

Re:The last thing I want to do when I go home is..

[bjb]

Managers (or the upper class) usually do the same job when they come home. In a way they do the same job the whole day. That is because their work is not physically demanding so they can work the whole day.

While I'll agree with you that management isn't physically demanding, I need to point out that sometimes the work is mentally demanding, and that can wipe out someone just as much as a physical job would.

I've done both. I worked as an auto mechanic for years, and also did a brief stint in landscaping. Completely different energy drains and types of exhaustion, but don't discount mental exhaustion; this is why Sponge Bob was invented.