How do you deal without having a phone, though? Banks, utilities, and other services tend to kinda freak when you refuse to give them a number (as I've tried unsucessfully to do, to avoid telemarketers).
If you can run Xen running 32-bit Linux under a 64-bit version of Linux? I've got a case where a user wants to run Matlab (6 I think) on his shiny new 64-bit Linux machine, but it just isn't supported.
I had suggested VMware, but this might be better (performance and price).
So there you go. She knows she's getting screwed, and is okay with that. She - and probably a lot of others with similar views - feels that eliminating abortion, civil rights for homosexuals, and stem cell research is God's Work, and that if that calls for economic sacrifice because the Party representing that work is a bunch of crooks, so be it. She doesn't seem to question why she must sacrifice the food on her table to battle abortion, two seemingly-unrelated issues, but she's willing to. God tests us, God calls us to sacrifice, and she's answering the call.
If there is indeed a Supreme Being (and I personally don't think there is), I highly doubt he'd rely on man's laws to get shit done. These people that claim to be fulfilling god's will are seriously messed in the head.
Regardless of your political beliefs, it is pretty sick that you are so petty that you think we deserve to get attacked because Kerry didn't win.
Not because Kerry didn't win, but because Bush did. There's a big difference there.
Hell, I'd take another Rupublican. ANYBODY but Bush.
And there's nothing sick and petty acknowledging when you've messed up and deserve to reap what you sow. Putting Bush in for another 4 years seems like a pretty bad thing to do for the rest of the world, never mind us at home.
Whoever originally modded this as flamebait is a moron.
It's those very issues that won the election for Bush.
The vast majority of Americans are some Christian derivative. Nothing wrong with that.
These Christian folks have some strong-held beliefs. Nothing wrong with that.
But what tangible affect on the day-today lives of those Christians do those issues really have? None. None at all. They're not gonna get an abortion, nor will they marry a same-sex partner.
So... does having a president in office supporting those views really change much? Not a whit.
Never mind his obvious lying and the smear campaign during the election. Never mind the dubious war we're waging, the jobs fleeing over seas, or the the US's growing debt. Nevr mind that Molly Morman's kids can be sent to war next week, so long as we have a president strong on "morals" who might get R. v. W. overturned by the supreme court and amend our most important rights-protecting document to exclude a segment of the population.
So let's recap: War good. Fags bad. Huge deficit good. Personal choice in medical care (abortion) bad.
As much as I liked him as a President, I think Clinton is the reason we're in this mess (that whole scandal thing). People hold party faith like they hold religious faith -- without any thought or intelligence put into it. They go with the flow, 'cause it's the easiest thing to do.
For fuck's sake. Kerry was no shining star, but we had 4 years of Bush. I'd pick an unknown for the next 4 years. I can't praise Dems for thinking Kerry was the right choise, but I can fault 'Pubs for not knowing Bush was the wrong one. Why go with Bush again? Oh yeah, he hates fags.
We deserve to get attacked again. We really do. We're such sheep.
Do beat the machine all you have to do is fuck up the baseline. There are different ways of doing this. If you can cause physical pain to yourself that will stress your system.
There was a very short-lived TV series on FOX in 1996 called
Profit. There was one episode where the main character took a polygraph test. Before the test, he put a tack in his shoe and stomped it into his foot. They showed him bearing down on that foot for certain questions of the test. He lied his ass off, but he passed.:)
I always figured there was some truth to that. But it was, after all, only a TV show.:)
How 'bout gmail servers?
on
Google In A Box
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I really dig the gmail interface. I'd kick squirrelmail to the curb in my shop if I could have an in-house gmail server.
The kids I knew who were banned from watching hardly any TV were all relatively more intelligent then their peers, but also were lacking socially quite badly.
You're shittin' us, right? Or are you equating popular culture with socialization? Or perhaps that the kinds of folks in your neck of the woods that would forbid their kids to watch TV are more on the extreme side of things (such as hardcore Christian fundies or something). Don't assume causation with the correlation of your observations.
My household hasn't watched broadcast TV of any kind for 2 years. My family, when it watches the tube, watches movies or TV shows we own or rent from Netflix.
My kids are pretty well adjusted, having friends and all.
I have noted a slight disconnect from pop culture and its memes and references, so I assume my kids do, too. I can't think of specific examples right now, but it would be akin to me not knowing what "master of my domain", "sponge worthy", or "going commando" meant had I not watched TV during the heydays of Sienfeld and Friends.
While I do think cultural references of this kind are slightly enriching for the human experience, I can't reasonably argue that their absense is something to be concerned about.
You should have gone the extra mile and paid the extra cash for the boxed retail versions of both Office and the OS. That way, you could use them and transfer them to new hardware. MS's Office reader apps usually run on older Windows versions for years, so reading external docs would be easy. Of course, you could always use an OpenOffice box for back-converting to the format you use.
Or... just use OpenOffice to being with.:)
Any CPA types out there who can tell me if you can depreciate software over time?
Blending in is something that's always on my mind. Why? No tinfoil hats in my house, but I like relative anonymity and not being noticed. My list of common practices:
1. Use cash for everything that's not already tracked in some form.
Since the diameter of your anus is already on file for getting that mortgage and your utility bills, it makes no sense to be stealthy about that. Just pay your bills on time and be done with it. I use Paytrust for all my bills. But for gas, groceries, dining out, and pretty much everything else, I use cash. And if you're gonna buy a firearm, never by new. Go to the online or dead-tree classified ads and watch until what you want is on file. Cash is king, and you'll have no waiting periods, background checks, or paper trails to you (serial numbers and ballistic databases).
2. Emulate the normal style in your area, especially the "working class".
I live in a rural area. When I first moved in, I drove an SUV, had a ponytail, and wore "nicer" daily clothes. I'd routinely get odd looks from the locals. Yes, part was because I was new in town, but also was because I clearly wasn't a local. Two years later, I drive a diesel pickup, have short hair, and wear a cap and work boots. Granted, this is due more to necessity than a concerted effort to blend in, but the response to me in town (and in other small town I drive through) has been quite appearant. Nobody gives me a second look, every other truck owner tips his hand as I trive by, and cops nod and wave.
That last point is important in the context of blending in. Cops tend to be friendly to to socioeconomic class of their juridiction. In my blue collar town, I fit the good ol' boy working man profile (even though I'm a liberal, telecommuting hippie sysadmin). I could cruise around most areas of town, casing buildings and such, and not be given a second thought by the locals and/or authorities. However, if I did the same thing around the state's capitol building, I'm sure I'd be closely watched. Likewise, if I drove a washed/waxed/shiny sedan, had nice tidy hair, and wore slacks, jacket, and tie, I'd appear like a respectable white-collar person, and I could pull off snooping around the financial district in town. The same appearance would get a lot of double-takes and suspicion if I were cruising dirt roads in a rural area.
3. Don't "personalize" you or your stuff.
No matter where you are, save for niche groups you may be hanging with, don't spike your hair and dye it purple, don't use vanity license plates, don't wear t-shirts that draw attention (profanity, anti-whatever messages, etc.), and don't try to act unique.
There was a Dark Angel episode that had a guy that nobody could remember. He was so "generic" that nobody could remember anything about him when questioned. That's the ultimate goal.
Because it's a major pain in the ass to install many multimedia apps on RHEL. We support the AS and WS versions in my office. Some dude wanted Xine installed, and I couldn't shoehorn those apps in (with RPMs anyway) no matter how hard I tried. Library dependency hell in it's worst form.:)
Too bad the FreshRPMS crew doesn't support at least RHEL WS, but I understand that they can only handle so much. Their Fedora Core2 support is awesome, though. A call to apt-get and I can can install xine and mplayer without breaking a sweat.
Maybe the likes of Whitebox (or the whatever) have fixed this?
Perhaps it's an informal atmospheric study of some kind. I recall that due to the complete grounding of commercial/private airplanes in US air space in the immediate few days after 9/11/01, there was a unique chance to observe the weather patterns.
In fact, on this very site there was a headline about the results of the observations several months later.
Maybe this is an extension of those observations. Maybe they will correlate weather patterns across the country to the paths of airplanes.
I had heard that the reason for the currently high prices in dairy products was due to milk cows being converted to meat cows in response to the mad cow disease panic.
Of course, it may just be due to the cost of shipping rising as fuel prices soar. But I haven't noticed other things get proportionately more expensive as dairy products.
The argument that is more moving for me is the one of sutstainability. We often hear quoted figures on how many lbs of a given plant crop go into producing each lb of beef you buy at the store, or a comparison of how much energy goes into producing a lb of beef versus a lb of, say, soy. I don't have numbers in front of me, but suffice it to say that meat is an extremely inefficient food source- a fact that is very important in a hungry world with limited resources.
Just to make a point... The "energy pyramid" you mention is something I think most are introduced to in high school biology. The logic goes something like: every step in a food chain looses an order of magnitude of energy in each step. So, you get something like this: 1000 tons of algae feed 100 tons of krill, which feed 10 tons of whale, which provides 1 ton of meat for people to consume. Whereas 1000 tons of algae can feed 100 people. Ergo, we should all be eating algae, as it's more efficient and we don't to kill the poor whales.
The same basic argument goes for modern agriculture: 100 tons of corn, 10 cows, 1 person. Why not skip the middle step?
I have 2 arguments against this line of thought. First, there are some nutrients that can only be found in meat. For examples, of the 3 types of Omega-3 esseintal fatty acids, 2 (DHA and EPA) are only found in meat, and 1 (ALA) can be found in plants. We should get all 3. I'm no nutritionist, but I've read up a little on the topic. I'm pretty sure there are several nutrients that we cannot synthesize ourselves and that can only be found in animal foods.
Secondly, there are certain animals that can convert foods totally undigestable by humans and turn them into useable food. The ruminant animals are the primary example of this. Mountainous or uneven grassland that may be otherwise be unused for modern cultivation can be grazed by many kinds of animals. As one who has often stopped his car on "open range" in the West while cattle lazily crossed the highway, I can point to this as a good example.
This does't address the fact of limited resources, but then again, modern farming doesn't focus too well on efficiency of the entire cycle. While non-subsistence farming can likely never be a closed system, we can do a hell of a lot better than we do now. (Actually, neither can subsistence farming, but we kinda take air, water, and the sun as a given resource).
Its great if we can produce animal products in a humane way, but if it means using an insane amount of energy and resources in the process, maybe that creativity should be used to develop better ways to grow soy.
Animals can be raised in a humane way -- I do it myself (a cow for milk, rabbits for meat, and chickens for eggs). Scaling that up to the levels used by Tyson will likely be tough, but I think it can be done. If done right, the animals do a good portion of the work for you. What takes more external energy? Driving a truck or conveyor belt to feed penned cattle grains and silage (never mind producing those feeds) or letting the cows roam and feed themselves?
I'm no hippie idealist, and my ideas will not be used by companies where proffit is the #1 concern. But just because society won't do better doesn't mean it can't. And even if we simply can't reach the ideal, getting closer can only do more good than harm. For us and the animals.
The truth is, and it's harsh, the reason that the whole 9/11 thing worked was because of stupidity.
I sorta agree... but I think it worked because we, as American Citizens, nave been totally emasculated by the government.
In Jeff Cooper's great book To Ride, Shoot Straight, And Speak The Truth, he tells how a planejacking attempt in some middle-eastern nation ended in the perpetrator(s) being dismembered by the passengers of the plane.
While the brave folks on the 4th plane finally got the clue, the other 3 planes should have ended in the same (if not, better) result. (This is, of course, a rerefence to the 9/11/01 attack.)
We've been disarmed physically and mentally by those people charged to ensure our safety. We expect everything to be handed to us on a silver platter -- even our own personal protection.
This is the problem. I won't discuss the feature-creep nature of this phenomenom, as my tinfoil hat is at the drycleaners today. I'm undecided as to wether shit like this is by design or stupidity, but it's bad news for us proles one way or the other.
Utah recently passed a law that forbids guns on public school grounds and in places of worship -- even for those that had the FBI look up their ass in order to get a conceal carry permit. If I ever "go postal" you can bet those will be the places I go for.
Soft targets, indeed! There has never been a softer target than the average American.
I was getting ready to Ask Slashdot this very question. Only I've had 10 years "in the field" as a W2 employee. I've done a few contract jobs, along with the odd personal referral for PC/Windows work, but those have mostly fallen into my lap.
I'd like to break away on my own (and cash out that yummy 403b my current employer's been generously contributing to for the last 5 years), but I'm unsure just how to become a sysadmin for hire.
I've been toying with the idea of trying a retainer-like system. My hourly rate would be X, if you pay me for a fixed number of hours per month -- on a monthly basis -- my hourly rate woud be Y, where Y is lower than X. They'd get so many hours of my services per month ("Hey, for $200/month I'll come in every other Thursday afternoon and work for 3 hours, and I'll do whatever the hell you need.") and if a big project comes up, then we negotiate a per-hour rate after that.
Seems to be a decent compromise between flying by the seat of my pants -- though I'd surely take up any 1-time gigs I could round up -- and W2 paycheck regularity. My only concern (note to self: visit an accountant!) is whether that can be set up to pass the IRS litmus test for contract self-employment.
Anyway, I hope there are some good ideas floated around in this thread. I'd love to make the leap someday soon!
Touche! You're the first person to provide a somewhat decent defense of Exchange: We need product X in order to use product Y.
It's somewhere between "I need Windows because I rely on Quickbooks" and "I need Photoshop because I rely on the transmogrification filter".
I'm torn, myself. However, I'd tend to hold an application that stands on its own 2 feet before one that requires another full-blown application as a foundation. But I concede that 3rd party apps are a decent justification.
But CRM?!? That's about as useful as the "groupware" that was all the rage in the mid-90s.:)
You pay an employe $50,000 a year. If you pay $100 for a license, your employee will be happy. If not, your employee will think you're cheap. Now... guess how people react when they think their boss is cheap.
I'd love a $1000 chair and a $100 stapler, but I don't think my boss is cheap because he won't get me those items. What a sad argument.
Also, the alternatives are not far "superior".
You're the 2nd person to twist that out of context.
No, I said they were superior price-wise and in terms of freedom. A lack of financial risk might be a good way to put it, too.
I said, in several ways, that the alternatives may not have all of the features, and that it may be a little inconvenient. I was arguing that "good enough" was a reasonable price to pay for "free" and "Free" software for a business. And I haven't read a reasonably objective refutation of that assertion yet in this thread.
It's like the people who go postal when some important document got lost/delayed in the email ether. I just shake my head and say, if it's that important, hand-deliver it, fax it, or mail/Fed-Ex it.
Some people just can't see the forest for the trees.
Slashdot Mirror
ST:TNG fan, eh?
"I drank what?"
Somebody cracked the DRM system for DVD-Audio? I'd love to know where that utility is.
Or does DVD-Audio's encryption system not count as true DRM?
Serious question. Last time I checked (and I search every couple of months), nobody had cracked it yet.
How do you deal without having a phone, though? Banks, utilities, and other services tend to kinda freak when you refuse to give them a number (as I've tried unsucessfully to do, to avoid telemarketers).
I had suggested VMware, but this might be better (performance and price).
If there is indeed a Supreme Being (and I personally don't think there is), I highly doubt he'd rely on man's laws to get shit done. These people that claim to be fulfilling god's will are seriously messed in the head.
Not because Kerry didn't win, but because Bush did. There's a big difference there.
Hell, I'd take another Rupublican. ANYBODY but Bush.
And there's nothing sick and petty acknowledging when you've messed up and deserve to reap what you sow. Putting Bush in for another 4 years seems like a pretty bad thing to do for the rest of the world, never mind us at home.
It's those very issues that won the election for Bush.
The vast majority of Americans are some Christian derivative. Nothing wrong with that.
These Christian folks have some strong-held beliefs. Nothing wrong with that.
But what tangible affect on the day-today lives of those Christians do those issues really have? None. None at all. They're not gonna get an abortion, nor will they marry a same-sex partner.
So... does having a president in office supporting those views really change much? Not a whit.
Never mind his obvious lying and the smear campaign during the election. Never mind the dubious war we're waging, the jobs fleeing over seas, or the the US's growing debt. Nevr mind that Molly Morman's kids can be sent to war next week, so long as we have a president strong on "morals" who might get R. v. W. overturned by the supreme court and amend our most important rights-protecting document to exclude a segment of the population.
So let's recap: War good. Fags bad. Huge deficit good. Personal choice in medical care (abortion) bad.
As much as I liked him as a President, I think Clinton is the reason we're in this mess (that whole scandal thing). People hold party faith like they hold religious faith -- without any thought or intelligence put into it. They go with the flow, 'cause it's the easiest thing to do.
For fuck's sake. Kerry was no shining star, but we had 4 years of Bush. I'd pick an unknown for the next 4 years. I can't praise Dems for thinking Kerry was the right choise, but I can fault 'Pubs for not knowing Bush was the wrong one. Why go with Bush again? Oh yeah, he hates fags.
We deserve to get attacked again. We really do. We're such sheep.
Then you may think twice about those powers you so casually dismiss.
There was a very short-lived TV series on FOX in 1996 called Profit. There was one episode where the main character took a polygraph test. Before the test, he put a tack in his shoe and stomped it into his foot. They showed him bearing down on that foot for certain questions of the test. He lied his ass off, but he passed. :)
I always figured there was some truth to that. But it was, after all, only a TV show. :)
Any news on gmail-in-a-box offerings?
You're shittin' us, right? Or are you equating popular culture with socialization? Or perhaps that the kinds of folks in your neck of the woods that would forbid their kids to watch TV are more on the extreme side of things (such as hardcore Christian fundies or something). Don't assume causation with the correlation of your observations.
My household hasn't watched broadcast TV of any kind for 2 years. My family, when it watches the tube, watches movies or TV shows we own or rent from Netflix.
My kids are pretty well adjusted, having friends and all.
I have noted a slight disconnect from pop culture and its memes and references, so I assume my kids do, too. I can't think of specific examples right now, but it would be akin to me not knowing what "master of my domain", "sponge worthy", or "going commando" meant had I not watched TV during the heydays of Sienfeld and Friends.
While I do think cultural references of this kind are slightly enriching for the human experience, I can't reasonably argue that their absense is something to be concerned about.
Or... just use OpenOffice to being with. :)
Any CPA types out there who can tell me if you can depreciate software over time?
Don't forget the Crawford Kangaroo escapade in "Family Ties". Pretty funny -- even had Jeff Cohen (of Goonies fame) in it.
1. Use cash for everything that's not already tracked in some form.
Since the diameter of your anus is already on file for getting that mortgage and your utility bills, it makes no sense to be stealthy about that. Just pay your bills on time and be done with it. I use Paytrust for all my bills. But for gas, groceries, dining out, and pretty much everything else, I use cash. And if you're gonna buy a firearm, never by new. Go to the online or dead-tree classified ads and watch until what you want is on file. Cash is king, and you'll have no waiting periods, background checks, or paper trails to you (serial numbers and ballistic databases).
2. Emulate the normal style in your area, especially the "working class".
I live in a rural area. When I first moved in, I drove an SUV, had a ponytail, and wore "nicer" daily clothes. I'd routinely get odd looks from the locals. Yes, part was because I was new in town, but also was because I clearly wasn't a local. Two years later, I drive a diesel pickup, have short hair, and wear a cap and work boots. Granted, this is due more to necessity than a concerted effort to blend in, but the response to me in town (and in other small town I drive through) has been quite appearant. Nobody gives me a second look, every other truck owner tips his hand as I trive by, and cops nod and wave.
That last point is important in the context of blending in. Cops tend to be friendly to to socioeconomic class of their juridiction. In my blue collar town, I fit the good ol' boy working man profile (even though I'm a liberal, telecommuting hippie sysadmin). I could cruise around most areas of town, casing buildings and such, and not be given a second thought by the locals and/or authorities. However, if I did the same thing around the state's capitol building, I'm sure I'd be closely watched. Likewise, if I drove a washed/waxed/shiny sedan, had nice tidy hair, and wore slacks, jacket, and tie, I'd appear like a respectable white-collar person, and I could pull off snooping around the financial district in town. The same appearance would get a lot of double-takes and suspicion if I were cruising dirt roads in a rural area.
3. Don't "personalize" you or your stuff.
No matter where you are, save for niche groups you may be hanging with, don't spike your hair and dye it purple, don't use vanity license plates, don't wear t-shirts that draw attention (profanity, anti-whatever messages, etc.), and don't try to act unique.
There was a Dark Angel episode that had a guy that nobody could remember. He was so "generic" that nobody could remember anything about him when questioned. That's the ultimate goal.
Why? Because you can! :)
For Core 2 I install the "apt" package from freshrpms, then I'm up and running. How does one do this for RHEL?
Too bad the FreshRPMS crew doesn't support at least RHEL WS, but I understand that they can only handle so much. Their Fedora Core2 support is awesome, though. A call to apt-get and I can can install xine and mplayer without breaking a sweat.
Maybe the likes of Whitebox (or the whatever) have fixed this?
In fact, on this very site there was a headline about the results of the observations several months later.
Maybe this is an extension of those observations. Maybe they will correlate weather patterns across the country to the paths of airplanes.
That's just a guess, though.
Of course, it may just be due to the cost of shipping rising as fuel prices soar. But I haven't noticed other things get proportionately more expensive as dairy products.
Just to make a point... The "energy pyramid" you mention is something I think most are introduced to in high school biology. The logic goes something like: every step in a food chain looses an order of magnitude of energy in each step. So, you get something like this: 1000 tons of algae feed 100 tons of krill, which feed 10 tons of whale, which provides 1 ton of meat for people to consume. Whereas 1000 tons of algae can feed 100 people. Ergo, we should all be eating algae, as it's more efficient and we don't to kill the poor whales.
The same basic argument goes for modern agriculture: 100 tons of corn, 10 cows, 1 person. Why not skip the middle step?
I have 2 arguments against this line of thought. First, there are some nutrients that can only be found in meat. For examples, of the 3 types of Omega-3 esseintal fatty acids, 2 (DHA and EPA) are only found in meat, and 1 (ALA) can be found in plants. We should get all 3. I'm no nutritionist, but I've read up a little on the topic. I'm pretty sure there are several nutrients that we cannot synthesize ourselves and that can only be found in animal foods.
Secondly, there are certain animals that can convert foods totally undigestable by humans and turn them into useable food. The ruminant animals are the primary example of this. Mountainous or uneven grassland that may be otherwise be unused for modern cultivation can be grazed by many kinds of animals. As one who has often stopped his car on "open range" in the West while cattle lazily crossed the highway, I can point to this as a good example.
This does't address the fact of limited resources, but then again, modern farming doesn't focus too well on efficiency of the entire cycle. While non-subsistence farming can likely never be a closed system, we can do a hell of a lot better than we do now. (Actually, neither can subsistence farming, but we kinda take air, water, and the sun as a given resource).
Its great if we can produce animal products in a humane way, but if it means using an insane amount of energy and resources in the process, maybe that creativity should be used to develop better ways to grow soy.
Animals can be raised in a humane way -- I do it myself (a cow for milk, rabbits for meat, and chickens for eggs). Scaling that up to the levels used by Tyson will likely be tough, but I think it can be done. If done right, the animals do a good portion of the work for you. What takes more external energy? Driving a truck or conveyor belt to feed penned cattle grains and silage (never mind producing those feeds) or letting the cows roam and feed themselves?
I'm no hippie idealist, and my ideas will not be used by companies where proffit is the #1 concern. But just because society won't do better doesn't mean it can't. And even if we simply can't reach the ideal, getting closer can only do more good than harm. For us and the animals.
I sorta agree... but I think it worked because we, as American Citizens, nave been totally emasculated by the government.
In Jeff Cooper's great book To Ride, Shoot Straight, And Speak The Truth, he tells how a planejacking attempt in some middle-eastern nation ended in the perpetrator(s) being dismembered by the passengers of the plane.
While the brave folks on the 4th plane finally got the clue, the other 3 planes should have ended in the same (if not, better) result. (This is, of course, a rerefence to the 9/11/01 attack.)
We've been disarmed physically and mentally by those people charged to ensure our safety. We expect everything to be handed to us on a silver platter -- even our own personal protection.
This is the problem. I won't discuss the feature-creep nature of this phenomenom, as my tinfoil hat is at the drycleaners today. I'm undecided as to wether shit like this is by design or stupidity, but it's bad news for us proles one way or the other.
Utah recently passed a law that forbids guns on public school grounds and in places of worship -- even for those that had the FBI look up their ass in order to get a conceal carry permit. If I ever "go postal" you can bet those will be the places I go for.
Soft targets, indeed! There has never been a softer target than the average American.
I'd like to break away on my own (and cash out that yummy 403b my current employer's been generously contributing to for the last 5 years), but I'm unsure just how to become a sysadmin for hire.
I've been toying with the idea of trying a retainer-like system. My hourly rate would be X, if you pay me for a fixed number of hours per month -- on a monthly basis -- my hourly rate woud be Y, where Y is lower than X. They'd get so many hours of my services per month ("Hey, for $200/month I'll come in every other Thursday afternoon and work for 3 hours, and I'll do whatever the hell you need.") and if a big project comes up, then we negotiate a per-hour rate after that.
Seems to be a decent compromise between flying by the seat of my pants -- though I'd surely take up any 1-time gigs I could round up -- and W2 paycheck regularity. My only concern (note to self: visit an accountant!) is whether that can be set up to pass the IRS litmus test for contract self-employment.
Anyway, I hope there are some good ideas floated around in this thread. I'd love to make the leap someday soon!
It's somewhere between "I need Windows because I rely on Quickbooks" and "I need Photoshop because I rely on the transmogrification filter".
I'm torn, myself. However, I'd tend to hold an application that stands on its own 2 feet before one that requires another full-blown application as a foundation. But I concede that 3rd party apps are a decent justification.
But CRM?!? That's about as useful as the "groupware" that was all the rage in the mid-90s. :)
I'd love a $1000 chair and a $100 stapler, but I don't think my boss is cheap because he won't get me those items. What a sad argument.
Also, the alternatives are not far "superior".
You're the 2nd person to twist that out of context.
No, I said they were superior price-wise and in terms of freedom. A lack of financial risk might be a good way to put it, too.
I said, in several ways, that the alternatives may not have all of the features, and that it may be a little inconvenient. I was arguing that "good enough" was a reasonable price to pay for "free" and "Free" software for a business. And I haven't read a reasonably objective refutation of that assertion yet in this thread.
It's like the people who go postal when some important document got lost/delayed in the email ether. I just shake my head and say, if it's that important, hand-deliver it, fax it, or mail/Fed-Ex it.
Some people just can't see the forest for the trees.