Instead, I sent this letter to randy_zane@ziffdavis.com who handles media relations at ziffdavis, according to their site. --- Dear Sirs,
According to a recent article on Slashdot.org, you are demanding licensing for sites to link to material on your site (specifically pocketpctools.com). They say they linked to the article proper, and gave proper credit for the material in their review.
If the article was briefly quoted and proper credit given, via Fair Use Doctrine, then I would consider this to be a misinterpretation of Copyright law on your part, and would see this as an agressive action against weblogs in general. As someone who subscribes to your magazines, I find this very disturbing that you would act to suppress free speech in this way.
I don't have enough information to draw a conclusion since they claim the original article was removed and can not be examined by myself, but I wanted to ask that you please explain further so that I can make an educated decision whether to cancel my subscriptions and discontinue use of your website.
Because I consider this to be an important issue, but do not want to assume your company is guilty of this type of activity, I would request a reply as soon as reasonably possible.
Thank you in advance.
[name, city, state]
----
We shall see if I get a response to what is a polite and reasonable request by a customer.
Smart people are also the ones who ask questions like "Why are we doing this", while the dumb one say "Because we have always done it this way". Just because a smart person suggests something, that doesn't guarantee its a smart thing to do.
Forcing changes in passwords that guarantee that users will write the new password on post it notes on their monitors is not smart either. I know, I see it all the time, and the users simply do NOT get why this is dangerous. They don't even care, if the system is screwed, they will just bitch until its back up again. There is no *PRICE* for their ignorance, so they don't learn.
This is why I try to put a price on it. When users do stupid things, it always causes the firewall to go down. (hint hint) You installed a screensaver? It made the firewall go down, you cant get on the net for a day. You launched an attachment? It messed up the firewall, your station cant get on the net for a day until I fix it. You installed a game on your system? Man, that may take a couple days to fix the firewall then... Don't even think about using your own mouse, keyboard, or software programs. That will probably crash the computer, and it will be down for a week. Shitty, yes, but as an admin, its easier to generate fe3r from idiots than it is to educate them, and it certainly requires less work on my part.
I am a self professed asshole admin. Its only a small part of my job description, so I can't spend all day fixing things. I should write a journal on this, I can make BOFH look like a freaking sweetheart, except mine isn't fiction. And yes, it works wonderfully.
The point is that a moving target is harder to hit.
Stastically, that is false for a one time event. If someone today is trying to break your 14 character password, it doesn't matter when you changed it.
And vacation? I check my servers every day on vacation. Only takes a few minutes to ssh in. Yes, its vacation, but I would rather check the logs for 5 minutes a day, than spend 7 days recovering from a fatal problem that might have been averted.
What I never got was this: If I have a password, and no one else ever knows it, AND I check my logs so I know if someone is trying to hack my account, what good does changing it anyway?
As soon as I see at attempt to hack it, I would change it. Until then, I have a great password that my wife doesn't even know about. If someone tries to hack it on Wednesday, it doesn't matter that I changed it on Monday, or last year: It will still take more time to crack than will pass before I check the logs.
It all comes down to what you, as a person, consider acceptable risk.
More importantly, it depends on how you define success. Money is but one tool to measure success. Happiness is just as important. I have always found that if you are good at what you do, and you love what you do, the likelyhood that you will find a way to make good money doing it is greater than if you hate it.
I am willing to take less risk for a venture if the only reward is money (ie: I can make a wad, but its not fun). Success is subjective and progressive, not universal and static.
Unlike life insurance companies that can average the age of death of an entire population, you can't write a table of risk for a business venture. For that, you have to rely on common sense, experience and yes, a little luck.
You are unusual. Congratulations. I'll give a tidbit to you. There are venture capitalists who are constantly looking for "IT" partners. IT partners are hard to find, because as a group, IT people aren't risk takers.
But venture capitalists are, and they are always looking for people with talent who are willing to share some risk with them. Partial risk may mean taking stock and lower pay. It may just mean lower starting pay if you believe you can grow the company. It might mean working alot more hours, and sometimes the risk is believing in the VC himself. Risk is just that, risk, but if you are an IT tech, you have some idea of how risky the risk is.
Yes, IT partners that are willing to accept risk are somewhat rare, which means the ones that are willing to take some risk, are in higher demand and have an advantage in the market place. That presents an opportunity that someone can exploit, and potentially create wealth in the process. Change=Opportunity if you look in the right places. Opportunity != Success but recognizing opportunity is the first step.
BTW, I agree with some of what you said, but not the "risk-takers always win!" gloss you put on it. Sometimes you have to go in with your eyes open, accept that you might get squashed, and go ahead and risk it anyway.
no no no, I did NOT say that risk takers always win, I promise. I said people that are not willing to take any risk always LOSE, (or break even if they get lucky). Risk taking is just that, risk, and not everyone CAN win. I would still rather risk it and lose, than not take any risk at all. You can't hit a home run if you don't swing for the cheap seats every now and then.
So we should all just give up, and not try then? Should we all worship the quitter, the one that was too afraid to take risks?
No thanks, I would rather fail while trying, than cry and die because I may fail. Guess what: life is full of risks, I would rather decide my own risks, rather than be a drone in a company where the risks are there but hidden from my eyes.
Yes, most start up businesses fail in the first few years. What you didn't mention was that most businesses fail from mismanagement, not circumstances. So the answer is that no one should start a business? No one should take risks? We should all abandon all hope and just go "get a job"?
No thanks. I choose to not live with such a doom and gloom outlook on life, making myself a "victim". Life has thrown me many curve balls (which I won't cover, because they are irrelevent, we all have challenges and mine are no more important than yours), but I have come out swinging and done fine. I am not better, smarter, better educated or luckier than anyone else. I just refuse to roll over and die, and willing to make the sacrifices for something that is important to me. Its more about attitude than anything else. I choose to not give up.
History is full of people who faced more adversity than you or I know, and the ones that gave up, we don't know about as they are forgettable and forgotten. The ones that sucked it up, worked harder, took risks, and succeeded in spite of the odds, should provide enough inspiration for the rest of us.
Abe Lincoln is the best example. Go read about all his failures, lost elections, failing law practice, limited education, for decades before becoming president. Just about everything he tried before becoming President was filled with failure, yet it was his unwillingness to quit that best defined him, and presented him with the opportunity to become argueably our most important President ever.
I would also add that while it very easy and convenient to "blame the rich", very few poor people have ever created jobs. Most wealthy people do not spend an extra $100k because they made an extra $100k, quite the contrary: You don't get rich by spending money. Most that are business owners put that money back into the business, by hiring more people, to sell more stuff, to make more money, to hire more people...
Wealthy small business owners are generally motivated by a desire to own a huge, thriving business and a desire to succeed for success's own sake. Money is only part of the equation, or you would see more of them retire after making a few million. Yes, they want to make more money, of course, but not to go spend it, but to use it to make more. I have known many employers who simply enjoy hiring and creating jobs, and THAT is how they define success: growth. Fortunately, my boss is that way. He could sell the business and retire tomorrow, but likes his employees (even tho he still manages to piss us off sometimes) and wants to create opportunity for everyone, while he gets paid for it.
This idea that anyone with money is obvously greedy and a terrible person seems to be propaganda, delivered by people who are either not successful, or not willing to work hard to get successful. Why would I look up or respect someone who is in self induced poverty? What possible leasons could I learn from these bitter individuals?
We were on a voluntary program that began here in Greensboro, NC (about 300k population, metro area of about 1 million within 45 miles). We were "authorized" to purchase stolen goods, up to $100. They paid us back for those stolen goods, up to $100. By working with us, they got their goods, they got the criminals along with our getting their DL # and a signature proving the guy had possession. So no, they didn't hassle us, we worked together. Its not always that way, but it was for us.
Did you have to report every item?
Yes, all computerized, including the buyer, DL number, singature, description, serial and model number. They picked up a disk every week to put in their database. If they called and said "Item #434394 may be hot", we put it back.
Did they steal stuff as I have hear that cops will do "We need this for a case and we are taking it" type stuff?
No, we were reimbursed up to $100 for every item they took. This was paid for by drug seizure money they got.
In a nutshell, if "Bob" stole a TV, brought it to us, we bought it for $50, then it was discovered to be stolen, the police solved their case for $50 (which is dirt cheap for detective work) and we were respected. I expect this type of setup to become more popular in other cities soon. It is already being used as a model in some other cities in North Carolina.
This allowed us to buy and sell freely without hassles, to remain in good graces with the police, and offer our customers the reassurance that all items were already checked against a database of stolen goods, so if they bought from us, it was very likely NOT stolen. Win-win-win situation. Our only risk was items over $100, although they have paid more than $100 before, but rarely. Most items we buy were under $100. We really liked this policy.
I'm a software guy. I lost my job (along with a lot of other people) a couple days ago. My only talents involve tech and software. I'm not going to become a mechanic or a soap salesman and nobody is going to hire me for such things.
Not exactly true. If you are software guy, then you can probably manage a network for a small company, helping them become more productive, while developing new markets. Let me give you an example:
XYZ, Inc. sells hot tubs on the web, they have 12 employees. You are brought in to manage their computers. You setup a system to better manage leads and sales. You write a CGI interface to allow their potential customers to fill out a credit application while online. It auto mails them, formats the application for credit, auto faxes it to the finance company, and creates a database entry for the customer. Now, XYZ can have their one credit dept. person handle 3x the applications for credit, so they advertise more to create more interest. They get more sales. They upgrade systems. They want a nicer web site, with manuals online for potential customers, to make the site "sticky". This keeps going on, building for years.
This is EXACTLY what happened to me (not hot tubs) over the last 10 years. I showed them ways to increase sales and increase productivity. I was not trained to do what I was doing, I learned it on the fly, but I was willing to go outside my field, while applying skills from my trade as a secondary source.
There is opportunity out there, but you often have to go parallel to your skill sets. You usually have to wear many hats, with only one being your "skill". This is not so bad, to me, as I love to learn new skills anyway, since this makes me more valuable. You don't have to work for a "software company" just because you are a software guy. Other companies need software guys, and the vast majority of new jobs are in small businesses. There are many companies that can not afford an IT dept, a software dept. etc., but they WILL pay you good money if you can be the entire software and IT depts for their more modest needs. Its cheaper to hire you to wear 4 hats, than to farm out the 4 tasks to other companies.
This is one tiny example, but the possibilities are endless. I can easily promise you that once you open up your mind to other possibilities, you will find opporunity. Small companies are opening all the time, and while the risk is higher, so are the potential rewards.
An oil change service that comes to you and changes the oil in the parking lot while you work
Your idea is interesting enough, and could actually work if the right person tried it. I know a couple people that making a good living washing cars by coming to your work and doing it while you work, similar concept. Another friend started a pressure washing business, cleaning roofs and siding on homes. Another opened a small recording studio for gospel groups. Its been a few years, but they just moved to a better building. It takes time, sweat, risk, effort and hard work, and a little luck.
I had a small web farm (didn't work out, 9-11 killed it) and a sound shop that did ok, but was more work than the profits were worth, so I closed it. The real success was a pawn shop. Ironically, there were already too many pawnshops in the area, and a dozen have gone out of business in the last few years. We succeeded by selling the more obscure items on ebay, for more than we could have in town. We also took in items others would not, building our customer base. Where others found obsticles, we found opportunity.
5 years before we opened the pawn shop, we had no cash and decided to work double jobs to open the shop eventually. Everyone laughed and told us it would never happen. No one would even think about loaning us money. Not a single person, not even family, thought we could do it, and everyone openly said we were idiots (literally) to even think about it. We made tremendous sacrifices, ate lots of beans and rice, never went out on the town, drove very old cars that I did the maintenance on, and opened the shop with our own money, on schedule. No debts to anyone.
Just sold it a few months ago, at a very nice profit, after building it up for 6 years, 11 years after deciding to work toward it. I still keep my job, we still live in same house with same expenses, looking at other businesses daily including becoming partners with a friend having problems in constructions, real estate and a restaurant, for starters. It means we always work 60 hours a week, and success is never guaranteed. I would rather spend the money taking risks, than buying a new home and "stuff".
Plenty of people here talk about how unfair life is, and claim only people with money can make money, but I come from a humble background and I am willing to continue a modest lifestyle below my income now to continue to build success. I am not a genious, and do not have any college to speak of. The only difference is how hard you are willing to work for something. Most people are not willing to make these kinds of sacrifices, and instead lash out at those that do, and succeed.
Ask Dave Thomas, founder of Wendys what sacrifice and hard work are about. Sam Walton. Abraham Lincoln. And many others. THESE are MY role models, they drove on where others would have simply quit. Sorry to sound so preachy, I just get so very tired of people whining about how unfair life is, when they *COULD* be working harder and smarter to actually do something.
what kind of home buisness can I start, Im 22 have very little college, and no capital or connections to capitol, I cant just start a buisness for free now can I?
Yes, a troll, but I will bite. I have no college, moved here 12 years ago with less than $500 in cash, and was screwed over by an employeer that had just transfered me 1500 miles. I was 28 and had no help from anyone since I didn't know anyone and didn't want to move back. I didn't have a choice, it was either succeed or drown in my own tears.
Its about the choices you make, not what you start with. You will find that people that ARE born with silver spoons in their mouth are much less likely to find their own success. People who have to struggle to make their own way are more resourceful and more appreciative of the success they find, and tend to hold on to it longer.
Either you have it within yourself to find success, or you don't. Success isn't just about money, its about getting paid at least enough, to do what you love. The difference is, most successful people don't sit and wait for other to help them, they make it happen, one way or another.
What kind of business can you start? Back then, I setup at a flea market buying and selling junk, literally. I started a job as a low level tech, and worked on the side building computers for people. I moved up to selling more expensive things rather than junk, including the occasional car and camper. I worked two jobs for many years, one for someone else, one self employeed. Many people would not choose this lifestyle, but people motivated to succeed often do.
This is a common topic for me here (thus, why I bite on this troll). But people have to realize that NO company will ever give you the success you want. You have to first want it, find a company where you can realize it, and work your ass off for it. Or start your own business on the side, and do a better job than others. It doesn't guarantee success, but sitting and whining does guarantee failure.
Nobody is having a problem with insane business fees, laws, insurance and taxes and nobody minds risking their life savings to start a business in this disasterous economy...
Again, I hear so many people say stuff like this, but they are sooo missing the point. Economies go up and down, but opportunity is where you find it. The last few years have been the most lucrative for me, perhaps because so many have been sitting on the sidelines crying about how bad the economy is. I haven't been whining about how unfair it is, I got off my ass and made my own opportunity.
It is amazing how many people with significantly more education than I have, are so confounded by something so simple. Every change in the economy brings opportunity. If you went to college to do "x" and insist only on doing "x" and will not take a job unless you are doing "x", then yes, you are screwed, but you are screwed by yourself, NOT the economy.
I could go on about finding opportunity, but some people don't really want success, they just want to bitch about how unfair life is, and how they are intitled to a better job they won't spend the effort to either create or find.
But while you wait for those wonderful free trade jobs to be created, you can get pretty skinny during 50 years of flipping burgers or being unemployed.
You see, that is exactly the problem. You want to wait for a great job to find YOU. It doesn't work that way for most people. This is pacivity, and avoids taking responsibility for your own employment.
I have been too busy finding ways to create my own opportunities, both within my job and by starting other businesses. Just sold one of the three businesses I had started over the last 7 years (other two about broke even) and employs a few people. No one "gave" me that opportunity, I created it with the help of the wife, WHILE I held a real job. Oh, the job I have, I have been at for over 10 years, and I started out as a low level tech. Suffice it to say there are a lot more zeros in my check now, as I am in a position now that did not exist, but I created.
Success is not a RIGHT. It is earned through taking risks and working your ass off. Not every plan pans out, but I would rather fail trying than sit around and wait for somebody to "give" me a good job.
What reason do thy have to upgrade? What new features are on offer?
Some of the new viruses require at least a 1.5ghz processor;)
But yea, my mom doesn't need anything faster for email and web surfing. She has a 2.0 Celeron box from Dell that I bought her (live 1300 miles away, wanted the support for her) so she is not likely to need anything faster until it dies. The only reason "regular" people upgrade is for games. Hell, I went and upgraded my video card yesterday just to play Doom3.
The problem with computers isn't speed, its software. I setup a webserver to talk to my X10 modules here at the house, so I can turn lights on and off from anywhere in the world. I had to patch together all kinds of software to make this happen, as I haven't seen any packages that could do everything my kludge of packages can do. Home automation doesn't need powerful computers, it needs software. We are underutilizing the hardware we already have.
Part of this problem, of course, is the fact that manufacturers will not agree on standards for appliances to talk to each other. Each demanding a proprietary system, thinking it will protect them, when it only makes the irrelevent. This is one of the reasons I am pro-OSS, as open standards are what will bring us the really cool software that we could have run on P3/500s had it existed at the time.
The number of jobs in any market is not finite. There is one "one pie" that once job is taken, is empty. People create their own jobs. People start new businesses and create new jobs all the time. You statement reflects "zero sum" economics, and sorry, but it doesn't fly in a capitalistic economy.
In many states, including Texas, you can't legally call yourself an "engineer" unless you have a degree in engineering. We had some articles here on/. regarding that. I would imagine Texas is not alone in that regard. The purpose is to protect the public from dubious claims of someone being and engineer without a degree, and is not geared toward programmers specifically. (its an old law)
Could it be that IT professionals have moved up in organizations, and are now VPs, and such, thus they may not consider themselves IT when in fact they are, just with better titles? This is the case for me, where I started out being the only IT guy 10 years ago, and now considered more, but still doing IT work as well.
I don't really call myself an "IT Professional", even though I run the network, and in the middle of producing new applications for the business. I am sure this is not all of it, but I can't help but think its not all doom and gloom.
I agree. It seems he should be able to hold the flashlight with his left hand such that it can be a secondary weapon, which is what I would expect in real life: Pistol in right (assuming right handed) and flashlight held underhanded in left so it can be used as a club. Shotgun, well no, you kinda need both hands for long guns so you would have to tape it to the gun.
I am also surprised he doesn't have a knife, which is obviously handy and standard equipment for a commando. (so far, just started the game). A knife in the right hand and flashlight in left would be handy for weapons as well.
But I digress, so far the game is pretty awesome. Its the first game since Half Life that gave me goose bumps. I play it on a mediocre system (2.5ghz/g4-4200) but svideo out to my TV, which is 51" projection, run through the home theatre system. Very freaky. The real test will be multiplayer, which is 95% of what I care about.
I agree with your point that people that retire and do nothing, die fast, which is one reason I would avoid it. I like my work, and the wife and I save well over 50% of what we bring home, so we can retire before 50, to do what we love more, traveling and haggling (really). The goal is to get to a point financially where we just need to cover our current expenses, at which time we expect to buy a nicer RV, travel to auctions and antique shows to buy and sell stuff. All we need to do then is make more than our expenses, so our taxable income is small and most of our living expenses are business expenses. Make $80k gross profit, spent $65k in travel expenses, pay taxes on $5k profit, that kind of thing.
This obviously has financial risk, which is why we are working to get financially independent first. Plus, we have owned businesses that buy and sell items, ebay, auctions, so we are not new to this. But this is how I see retirement, still working, but maybe 10-20 hours out of a 50 hour work week is stuff you *HAVE* to do, paperwork, etc.
This type of accellerated savings and modest lifestyle also comes in handy for the unscheduled recession. We lost tens of thousands in one business after 9-11, but didn't have to change our lifestyle. We didn't lose the business or get into financial trouble, so a year later, we were in decent shape.
Oh, as a final note: Our retirement plans assume $0 from Social Security, so anything we *DO* get will just be a bonus.
Neither should be crimes. Lying should only be illegal when it is done on the witness stand.
Actually, lying to a police office (or other govt. official) who is conducting an investigation is a crime in the US. It is called "Obstructing Justice". You have the right to say nothing, but you don't have the right to say something false. Of course, neither apply here, the lawyer is just a pussy. Yahoo users keep posting new comments, and Yahoo keeps deleting them.
Oh wait, I just looked again, now over 100. Holy shit, Yahoo is getting slashdotted, lol
Slashdot Mirror
Instead, I sent this letter to randy_zane@ziffdavis.com who handles media relations at ziffdavis, according to their site.
---
Dear Sirs,
According to a recent article on Slashdot.org, you are demanding licensing for sites to link to material on your site (specifically pocketpctools.com). They say they linked to the article proper, and gave proper credit for the material in their review.
If the article was briefly quoted and proper credit given, via Fair Use Doctrine, then I would consider this to be a misinterpretation of Copyright law on your part, and would see this as an agressive action against weblogs in general. As someone who subscribes to your magazines, I find this very disturbing that you would act to suppress free speech in this way.
I don't have enough information to draw a conclusion since they claim the original article was removed and can not be examined by myself, but I wanted to ask that you please explain further so that I can make an educated decision whether to cancel my subscriptions and discontinue use of your website.
Because I consider this to be an important issue, but do not want to assume your company is guilty of this type of activity, I would request a reply as soon as reasonably possible.
Thank you in advance.
[name, city, state]
----
We shall see if I get a response to what is a polite and reasonable request by a customer.
And who said I am *NOT* that smart person? ;)
Smart people are also the ones who ask questions like "Why are we doing this", while the dumb one say "Because we have always done it this way". Just because a smart person suggests something, that doesn't guarantee its a smart thing to do.
Forcing changes in passwords that guarantee that users will write the new password on post it notes on their monitors is not smart either. I know, I see it all the time, and the users simply do NOT get why this is dangerous. They don't even care, if the system is screwed, they will just bitch until its back up again. There is no *PRICE* for their ignorance, so they don't learn.
This is why I try to put a price on it. When users do stupid things, it always causes the firewall to go down. (hint hint) You installed a screensaver? It made the firewall go down, you cant get on the net for a day. You launched an attachment? It messed up the firewall, your station cant get on the net for a day until I fix it. You installed a game on your system? Man, that may take a couple days to fix the firewall then... Don't even think about using your own mouse, keyboard, or software programs. That will probably crash the computer, and it will be down for a week. Shitty, yes, but as an admin, its easier to generate fe3r from idiots than it is to educate them, and it certainly requires less work on my part.
I am a self professed asshole admin. Its only a small part of my job description, so I can't spend all day fixing things. I should write a journal on this, I can make BOFH look like a freaking sweetheart, except mine isn't fiction. And yes, it works wonderfully.
The point is that a moving target is harder to hit.
Stastically, that is false for a one time event. If someone today is trying to break your 14 character password, it doesn't matter when you changed it.
And vacation? I check my servers every day on vacation. Only takes a few minutes to ssh in. Yes, its vacation, but I would rather check the logs for 5 minutes a day, than spend 7 days recovering from a fatal problem that might have been averted.
Hey Pharmboy! Where were you when this was being bantered about?
:) That is where I was.
If you look at the original article, I was the guy that submitted it
What if someone 0wns the one computer you have at home, and GETS that formula?
What I never got was this: If I have a password, and no one else ever knows it, AND I check my logs so I know if someone is trying to hack my account, what good does changing it anyway?
As soon as I see at attempt to hack it, I would change it. Until then, I have a great password that my wife doesn't even know about. If someone tries to hack it on Wednesday, it doesn't matter that I changed it on Monday, or last year: It will still take more time to crack than will pass before I check the logs.
It all comes down to what you, as a person, consider acceptable risk.
More importantly, it depends on how you define success. Money is but one tool to measure success. Happiness is just as important. I have always found that if you are good at what you do, and you love what you do, the likelyhood that you will find a way to make good money doing it is greater than if you hate it.
I am willing to take less risk for a venture if the only reward is money (ie: I can make a wad, but its not fun). Success is subjective and progressive, not universal and static.
Unlike life insurance companies that can average the age of death of an entire population, you can't write a table of risk for a business venture. For that, you have to rely on common sense, experience and yes, a little luck.
You are unusual. Congratulations. I'll give a tidbit to you. There are venture capitalists who are constantly looking for "IT" partners. IT partners are hard to find, because as a group, IT people aren't risk takers.
But venture capitalists are, and they are always looking for people with talent who are willing to share some risk with them. Partial risk may mean taking stock and lower pay. It may just mean lower starting pay if you believe you can grow the company. It might mean working alot more hours, and sometimes the risk is believing in the VC himself. Risk is just that, risk, but if you are an IT tech, you have some idea of how risky the risk is.
Yes, IT partners that are willing to accept risk are somewhat rare, which means the ones that are willing to take some risk, are in higher demand and have an advantage in the market place. That presents an opportunity that someone can exploit, and potentially create wealth in the process. Change=Opportunity if you look in the right places. Opportunity != Success but recognizing opportunity is the first step.
BTW, I agree with some of what you said, but not the "risk-takers always win!" gloss you put on it. Sometimes you have to go in with your eyes open, accept that you might get squashed, and go ahead and risk it anyway.
no no no, I did NOT say that risk takers always win, I promise. I said people that are not willing to take any risk always LOSE, (or break even if they get lucky). Risk taking is just that, risk, and not everyone CAN win. I would still rather risk it and lose, than not take any risk at all. You can't hit a home run if you don't swing for the cheap seats every now and then.
So we should all just give up, and not try then? Should we all worship the quitter, the one that was too afraid to take risks?
No thanks, I would rather fail while trying, than cry and die because I may fail. Guess what: life is full of risks, I would rather decide my own risks, rather than be a drone in a company where the risks are there but hidden from my eyes.
Yes, most start up businesses fail in the first few years. What you didn't mention was that most businesses fail from mismanagement, not circumstances. So the answer is that no one should start a business? No one should take risks? We should all abandon all hope and just go "get a job"?
No thanks. I choose to not live with such a doom and gloom outlook on life, making myself a "victim". Life has thrown me many curve balls (which I won't cover, because they are irrelevent, we all have challenges and mine are no more important than yours), but I have come out swinging and done fine. I am not better, smarter, better educated or luckier than anyone else. I just refuse to roll over and die, and willing to make the sacrifices for something that is important to me. Its more about attitude than anything else. I choose to not give up.
History is full of people who faced more adversity than you or I know, and the ones that gave up, we don't know about as they are forgettable and forgotten. The ones that sucked it up, worked harder, took risks, and succeeded in spite of the odds, should provide enough inspiration for the rest of us.
Abe Lincoln is the best example. Go read about all his failures, lost elections, failing law practice, limited education, for decades before becoming president. Just about everything he tried before becoming President was filled with failure, yet it was his unwillingness to quit that best defined him, and presented him with the opportunity to become argueably our most important President ever.
I would also add that while it very easy and convenient to "blame the rich", very few poor people have ever created jobs. Most wealthy people do not spend an extra $100k because they made an extra $100k, quite the contrary: You don't get rich by spending money. Most that are business owners put that money back into the business, by hiring more people, to sell more stuff, to make more money, to hire more people...
Wealthy small business owners are generally motivated by a desire to own a huge, thriving business and a desire to succeed for success's own sake. Money is only part of the equation, or you would see more of them retire after making a few million. Yes, they want to make more money, of course, but not to go spend it, but to use it to make more. I have known many employers who simply enjoy hiring and creating jobs, and THAT is how they define success: growth. Fortunately, my boss is that way. He could sell the business and retire tomorrow, but likes his employees (even tho he still manages to piss us off sometimes) and wants to create opportunity for everyone, while he gets paid for it.
This idea that anyone with money is obvously greedy and a terrible person seems to be propaganda, delivered by people who are either not successful, or not willing to work hard to get successful. Why would I look up or respect someone who is in self induced poverty? What possible leasons could I learn from these bitter individuals?
did the cops hassle you a lot at the pawn shop?
We were on a voluntary program that began here in Greensboro, NC (about 300k population, metro area of about 1 million within 45 miles). We were "authorized" to purchase stolen goods, up to $100. They paid us back for those stolen goods, up to $100. By working with us, they got their goods, they got the criminals along with our getting their DL # and a signature proving the guy had possession. So no, they didn't hassle us, we worked together. Its not always that way, but it was for us.
Did you have to report every item?
Yes, all computerized, including the buyer, DL number, singature, description, serial and model number. They picked up a disk every week to put in their database. If they called and said "Item #434394 may be hot", we put it back.
Did they steal stuff as I have hear that cops will do "We need this for a case and we are taking it" type stuff?
No, we were reimbursed up to $100 for every item they took. This was paid for by drug seizure money they got.
In a nutshell, if "Bob" stole a TV, brought it to us, we bought it for $50, then it was discovered to be stolen, the police solved their case for $50 (which is dirt cheap for detective work) and we were respected. I expect this type of setup to become more popular in other cities soon. It is already being used as a model in some other cities in North Carolina.
This allowed us to buy and sell freely without hassles, to remain in good graces with the police, and offer our customers the reassurance that all items were already checked against a database of stolen goods, so if they bought from us, it was very likely NOT stolen. Win-win-win situation. Our only risk was items over $100, although they have paid more than $100 before, but rarely. Most items we buy were under $100. We really liked this policy.
I'm a software guy. I lost my job (along with a lot of other people) a couple days ago. My only talents involve tech and software. I'm not going to become a mechanic or a soap salesman and nobody is going to hire me for such things.
Not exactly true. If you are software guy, then you can probably manage a network for a small company, helping them become more productive, while developing new markets. Let me give you an example:
XYZ, Inc. sells hot tubs on the web, they have 12 employees. You are brought in to manage their computers. You setup a system to better manage leads and sales. You write a CGI interface to allow their potential customers to fill out a credit application while online. It auto mails them, formats the application for credit, auto faxes it to the finance company, and creates a database entry for the customer. Now, XYZ can have their one credit dept. person handle 3x the applications for credit, so they advertise more to create more interest. They get more sales. They upgrade systems. They want a nicer web site, with manuals online for potential customers, to make the site "sticky". This keeps going on, building for years.
This is EXACTLY what happened to me (not hot tubs) over the last 10 years. I showed them ways to increase sales and increase productivity. I was not trained to do what I was doing, I learned it on the fly, but I was willing to go outside my field, while applying skills from my trade as a secondary source.
There is opportunity out there, but you often have to go parallel to your skill sets. You usually have to wear many hats, with only one being your "skill". This is not so bad, to me, as I love to learn new skills anyway, since this makes me more valuable. You don't have to work for a "software company" just because you are a software guy. Other companies need software guys, and the vast majority of new jobs are in small businesses. There are many companies that can not afford an IT dept, a software dept. etc., but they WILL pay you good money if you can be the entire software and IT depts for their more modest needs. Its cheaper to hire you to wear 4 hats, than to farm out the 4 tasks to other companies.
This is one tiny example, but the possibilities are endless. I can easily promise you that once you open up your mind to other possibilities, you will find opporunity. Small companies are opening all the time, and while the risk is higher, so are the potential rewards.
An oil change service that comes to you and changes the oil in the parking lot while you work
Your idea is interesting enough, and could actually work if the right person tried it. I know a couple people that making a good living washing cars by coming to your work and doing it while you work, similar concept. Another friend started a pressure washing business, cleaning roofs and siding on homes. Another opened a small recording studio for gospel groups. Its been a few years, but they just moved to a better building. It takes time, sweat, risk, effort and hard work, and a little luck.
I had a small web farm (didn't work out, 9-11 killed it) and a sound shop that did ok, but was more work than the profits were worth, so I closed it. The real success was a pawn shop. Ironically, there were already too many pawnshops in the area, and a dozen have gone out of business in the last few years. We succeeded by selling the more obscure items on ebay, for more than we could have in town. We also took in items others would not, building our customer base. Where others found obsticles, we found opportunity.
5 years before we opened the pawn shop, we had no cash and decided to work double jobs to open the shop eventually. Everyone laughed and told us it would never happen. No one would even think about loaning us money. Not a single person, not even family, thought we could do it, and everyone openly said we were idiots (literally) to even think about it. We made tremendous sacrifices, ate lots of beans and rice, never went out on the town, drove very old cars that I did the maintenance on, and opened the shop with our own money, on schedule. No debts to anyone.
Just sold it a few months ago, at a very nice profit, after building it up for 6 years, 11 years after deciding to work toward it. I still keep my job, we still live in same house with same expenses, looking at other businesses daily including becoming partners with a friend having problems in constructions, real estate and a restaurant, for starters. It means we always work 60 hours a week, and success is never guaranteed. I would rather spend the money taking risks, than buying a new home and "stuff".
Plenty of people here talk about how unfair life is, and claim only people with money can make money, but I come from a humble background and I am willing to continue a modest lifestyle below my income now to continue to build success. I am not a genious, and do not have any college to speak of. The only difference is how hard you are willing to work for something. Most people are not willing to make these kinds of sacrifices, and instead lash out at those that do, and succeed.
Ask Dave Thomas, founder of Wendys what sacrifice and hard work are about. Sam Walton. Abraham Lincoln. And many others. THESE are MY role models, they drove on where others would have simply quit. Sorry to sound so preachy, I just get so very tired of people whining about how unfair life is, when they *COULD* be working harder and smarter to actually do something.
what kind of home buisness can I start, Im 22 have very little college, and no capital or connections to capitol, I cant just start a buisness for free now can I?
Yes, a troll, but I will bite. I have no college, moved here 12 years ago with less than $500 in cash, and was screwed over by an employeer that had just transfered me 1500 miles. I was 28 and had no help from anyone since I didn't know anyone and didn't want to move back. I didn't have a choice, it was either succeed or drown in my own tears.
Its about the choices you make, not what you start with. You will find that people that ARE born with silver spoons in their mouth are much less likely to find their own success. People who have to struggle to make their own way are more resourceful and more appreciative of the success they find, and tend to hold on to it longer.
Either you have it within yourself to find success, or you don't. Success isn't just about money, its about getting paid at least enough, to do what you love. The difference is, most successful people don't sit and wait for other to help them, they make it happen, one way or another.
What kind of business can you start? Back then, I setup at a flea market buying and selling junk, literally. I started a job as a low level tech, and worked on the side building computers for people. I moved up to selling more expensive things rather than junk, including the occasional car and camper. I worked two jobs for many years, one for someone else, one self employeed. Many people would not choose this lifestyle, but people motivated to succeed often do.
This is a common topic for me here (thus, why I bite on this troll). But people have to realize that NO company will ever give you the success you want. You have to first want it, find a company where you can realize it, and work your ass off for it. Or start your own business on the side, and do a better job than others. It doesn't guarantee success, but sitting and whining does guarantee failure.
Nobody is having a problem with insane business fees, laws, insurance and taxes and nobody minds risking their life savings to start a business in this disasterous economy...
Again, I hear so many people say stuff like this, but they are sooo missing the point. Economies go up and down, but opportunity is where you find it. The last few years have been the most lucrative for me, perhaps because so many have been sitting on the sidelines crying about how bad the economy is. I haven't been whining about how unfair it is, I got off my ass and made my own opportunity.
It is amazing how many people with significantly more education than I have, are so confounded by something so simple. Every change in the economy brings opportunity. If you went to college to do "x" and insist only on doing "x" and will not take a job unless you are doing "x", then yes, you are screwed, but you are screwed by yourself, NOT the economy.
I could go on about finding opportunity, but some people don't really want success, they just want to bitch about how unfair life is, and how they are intitled to a better job they won't spend the effort to either create or find.
But while you wait for those wonderful free trade jobs to be created, you can get pretty skinny during 50 years of flipping burgers or being unemployed.
You see, that is exactly the problem. You want to wait for a great job to find YOU. It doesn't work that way for most people. This is pacivity, and avoids taking responsibility for your own employment.
I have been too busy finding ways to create my own opportunities, both within my job and by starting other businesses. Just sold one of the three businesses I had started over the last 7 years (other two about broke even) and employs a few people. No one "gave" me that opportunity, I created it with the help of the wife, WHILE I held a real job. Oh, the job I have, I have been at for over 10 years, and I started out as a low level tech. Suffice it to say there are a lot more zeros in my check now, as I am in a position now that did not exist, but I created.
Success is not a RIGHT. It is earned through taking risks and working your ass off. Not every plan pans out, but I would rather fail trying than sit around and wait for somebody to "give" me a good job.
What reason do thy have to upgrade? What new features are on offer?
;)
Some of the new viruses require at least a 1.5ghz processor
But yea, my mom doesn't need anything faster for email and web surfing. She has a 2.0 Celeron box from Dell that I bought her (live 1300 miles away, wanted the support for her) so she is not likely to need anything faster until it dies. The only reason "regular" people upgrade is for games. Hell, I went and upgraded my video card yesterday just to play Doom3.
The problem with computers isn't speed, its software. I setup a webserver to talk to my X10 modules here at the house, so I can turn lights on and off from anywhere in the world. I had to patch together all kinds of software to make this happen, as I haven't seen any packages that could do everything my kludge of packages can do. Home automation doesn't need powerful computers, it needs software. We are underutilizing the hardware we already have.
Part of this problem, of course, is the fact that manufacturers will not agree on standards for appliances to talk to each other. Each demanding a proprietary system, thinking it will protect them, when it only makes the irrelevent. This is one of the reasons I am pro-OSS, as open standards are what will bring us the really cool software that we could have run on P3/500s had it existed at the time.
The number of jobs in any market is not finite. There is one "one pie" that once job is taken, is empty. People create their own jobs. People start new businesses and create new jobs all the time. You statement reflects "zero sum" economics, and sorry, but it doesn't fly in a capitalistic economy.
Not "IT Professionals". That was the old term.
/. regarding that. I would imagine Texas is not alone in that regard. The purpose is to protect the public from dubious claims of someone being and engineer without a degree, and is not geared toward programmers specifically. (its an old law)
In many states, including Texas, you can't legally call yourself an "engineer" unless you have a degree in engineering. We had some articles here on
Could it be that IT professionals have moved up in organizations, and are now VPs, and such, thus they may not consider themselves IT when in fact they are, just with better titles? This is the case for me, where I started out being the only IT guy 10 years ago, and now considered more, but still doing IT work as well.
I don't really call myself an "IT Professional", even though I run the network, and in the middle of producing new applications for the business. I am sure this is not all of it, but I can't help but think its not all doom and gloom.
I agree. It seems he should be able to hold the flashlight with his left hand such that it can be a secondary weapon, which is what I would expect in real life: Pistol in right (assuming right handed) and flashlight held underhanded in left so it can be used as a club. Shotgun, well no, you kinda need both hands for long guns so you would have to tape it to the gun.
I am also surprised he doesn't have a knife, which is obviously handy and standard equipment for a commando. (so far, just started the game). A knife in the right hand and flashlight in left would be handy for weapons as well.
But I digress, so far the game is pretty awesome. Its the first game since Half Life that gave me goose bumps. I play it on a mediocre system (2.5ghz/g4-4200) but svideo out to my TV, which is 51" projection, run through the home theatre system. Very freaky. The real test will be multiplayer, which is 95% of what I care about.
At last: a pool opponent who doesn't spend the entire match distracting you by chalking their cue!
But what if he constantly distracts you with small talk, and he sounds just like Stephen Hawking?
I agree with your point that people that retire and do nothing, die fast, which is one reason I would avoid it. I like my work, and the wife and I save well over 50% of what we bring home, so we can retire before 50, to do what we love more, traveling and haggling (really). The goal is to get to a point financially where we just need to cover our current expenses, at which time we expect to buy a nicer RV, travel to auctions and antique shows to buy and sell stuff. All we need to do then is make more than our expenses, so our taxable income is small and most of our living expenses are business expenses. Make $80k gross profit, spent $65k in travel expenses, pay taxes on $5k profit, that kind of thing.
This obviously has financial risk, which is why we are working to get financially independent first. Plus, we have owned businesses that buy and sell items, ebay, auctions, so we are not new to this. But this is how I see retirement, still working, but maybe 10-20 hours out of a 50 hour work week is stuff you *HAVE* to do, paperwork, etc.
This type of accellerated savings and modest lifestyle also comes in handy for the unscheduled recession. We lost tens of thousands in one business after 9-11, but didn't have to change our lifestyle. We didn't lose the business or get into financial trouble, so a year later, we were in decent shape.
Oh, as a final note: Our retirement plans assume $0 from Social Security, so anything we *DO* get will just be a bonus.
Neither should be crimes. Lying should only be illegal when it is done on the witness stand.
Actually, lying to a police office (or other govt. official) who is conducting an investigation is a crime in the US. It is called "Obstructing Justice". You have the right to say nothing, but you don't have the right to say something false. Of course, neither apply here, the lawyer is just a pussy. Yahoo users keep posting new comments, and Yahoo keeps deleting them.
Oh wait, I just looked again, now over 100. Holy shit, Yahoo is getting slashdotted, lol