I wanted to work from home, none of my previous customers were happy with me doing it since they paid me per hour. Paying people per hour gave them this strange compulsion to actually have me on site so that I could see that I was actually working.
I changed my relationships with my customers such that I now quote for "lumps of work" or "deliverables". They say "We want XYZ", I say "Thats £2.50". How I do it is none of their concern - how long it takes me, what I do in the intervening time is my business - not theirs.
How do you sell that view?
Advantages to Customer: 1) Liability. When things go wrong, if the consultant is on a time-based contract then the bill to the customer is as long as it takes to fix the problem. Ie, open-ended liability. If things go wrong YOU get the bill. Goodbye IR35. 2) Accountability. Once you have given the customer the comfort level they need that you can provide the services to them competantly, they are more than happy to outsource their non-core business functions out. 3) Cost. If the customer insists on working you on T+M, provide an incentive. I have two rates, Rate A is for formal training and knowledge transfer or anything which is ON-SITE. Rate B is for anything else which is OFF-SITE.
I'm not going to publish my rates here, but to give you an idea - my discounted rate (offsite) is 40% of my normal rate (on-site).
This means that the customer saves 40% on his costs if he doesn't mandate my consultants being on-site.
What does this mean for me now?
Well, I've been working mainly from the home office for the best part of two years, my customer visits are on average two or three times a month.
I have my green-card, I'm emigrating to the US on July 1st. What difference does this make to my customer? None at all. Does my customer mind? Not in the slightest. If they need me on site a few days consultancy easily covers travel expenses.
My customer continues paying my UK company. My company continues paying UK taxes. I continue paying (some) UK taxes, and according to two Tax Attournies in the US I am exempt from US taxes.
I don't believe them.
Hope that gives you some ideas and food for thought.
Load average is defined as the number of processes sitting on the run queue. This need not indicate a disk IO bottleneck.
I would be surprised if any exim system was having more of a bottleneck to disk than it was to network. Your disks are faster than your network and exim is pretty light on un-required disk access.
The more bottleneck to network (by network I mean end-to-end with your customer not just your links) is large, the more processes are going to hang around longer.
More processes, more paging, less cacheing. Less cacheing, more IO. More paging, more IO.
Probably teching granny to suck eggs - but you do have your swap space on a seperate device don't you;)
The more exim processes that hang around longer, the more processes for the CPU to switch around. The more switching, the more likely you are to see paging.
If the processes hang around longer, they take up more memory which reduces the cache-size available.
Exim has several files which it accesses frequently, mainly the retry databases and its configuration. These should perminantly be in memory.
Bottom Line:
I do however suggest that you don't consider moving a single server to RAID. If you have a server that you want to move to RAID for efficency purposes... your design is wrong and you should be building a scalable system .
1) MAC address' can be changed 2) MAC addresses (in current ip) don't go any further than your local lan 3) They don't record your MAC address when you buy your NIC.
It would take all three of those above to change for it to be a problem.
Someone asked about UK laws on such issues... I have just finished a course of the "UK Data protection Act"... There are 8 principles. I'll list a few which are relivant.
1) The data protection act covers Personal data. Personal Data is defined as data that is about a person (or sole trader or partnership) which is about and is identified to a person.
Harvesting playlists is dodgy. Doing it with an identifiable ID is *illegal* without their consent.
2) The data must be used in a fair manner and kept up to date. This wonderfull ruling makes dealing with credit ratings easy;)
3) Data must only be used for the specified use. Saying you are using it for one thing and then using it for something else is illegal.
4) Data must not be passed on to a country which does not have these safeguards in place.
NOTE: The US is specified directly in the course that I took - You are NOT allowed to propergate data to the US.
Breaking the above gets you an enforcement order, ignoring it gets you unlimited fine and jailtime.
Sorry I seem to disagree with most of the posters on this thread but I'm afraid that this time you are all wrong;)
If we recognise any form of Intellectual property you have to respect this.
When someone hears the phrase "... for dummies" people think of that brand. They have invested time and money in getting this recognition.
Here I believe is the key. The subject "SMARTHOST for dummies" is obviously technical - thus there could easily be confusion - and as such I would expect the author to cease and desist.
If we take the different example "Roadkill's R Us" then I would side against the "R Us" people as "Roadkill" is obviously a parody and fair use, as its subject matter is so different to that of their brand.
On the subject of this affecting first ammendment rights... it could be considered theft of resource (that resource being the branding of their products).
Anyone who disagrees with that will of course also say that spam is not theft of resource.
a) About to be broken up by US DOJ b) Just had a nice meeting with UK PM. c) Threatened to move Microsoft lock stock and barrel to China if DOJ interviened, UK would be easier for him to do so. d) Probably got assurances from "our friend Tony" that he won't be cut up (see b)
Tony gets the extra tax revenue and gets the political kudos of attracting to worlds largest company.
Tony gets kudos for his e-commerce strategy (I bet Bill would even give him all the training and seminars for as many people as he wanted for free...)
I am afraid that I don't agree with the previous author that the method that the/. admins have configured their servers is the best method to provide fast reliable service.
The simple fundimental mistake that always seems to be made is that there has to be a central resource. The problem with a central resource is that it becomes a single point of failure.
Sure/. could lose one of its web servers and not be affected... but what if it lost;
a) Its database b) Its switch c) Its router d) Its link to the Internet e) Its uplinked ISP has a BGP problem
etc etc etc...
The only way for a system as popular as slashdot can maintain the availability it deserves and requires is with a fully distributed system. There are better ways.
The purpose of the H1B visa program is to get people into the US with rare and/or specialist skills. NOT cheap labour.
In order to get a H1B visa, your employer needs to be able to prove they are unable to locate a US peep who can do the same job.
It is far cheaper for a company to open up coding departments in countries like india where they can find several hundred good programmers at a time than going to the time and trouble of shipping them over to the US.
Getting a H1B visa is not easy - if I remeber rightly (and I may be completely wrong and if I am someone corect me) rasterman had problems getting in on a H1B visa.
Its all about economics. If you, as I did go to an emplyer and say something along the lines of "I have the skills, I just can't prove it. I will work at half the rate for the first six months to prove it. If you don't like me, sack me after one month - you've lost 2 weeks pay. If you like me, you've saved your company 3 months wages."
It worked for me.
I wouldn't say it was the status quo. I am saying its happened and I've seen it happen lots of times.
1) The work would be permie 2) The work was in the US 3) The work would be with SGI boxen 4) The person would be 18.
Re the above points...
1) Contract work is more profitable - typically double to triple the permie rate. 2) Talk about work in countries where there is more demand - for example, UK, France, Switzerland etc... 3) Talk about the Bank boxes - Solaris and AIX, people get paid more for that. 4) 18.
At the age at which you start a degree here (18) - you start on the bottom rung. Say, 8quid an hour. Move up in steps, changing contracts every six months and I would expect someone to be on that sort of income by the time they were meant to graduate. I've seen it happen multiple times.
fwiw; your average sysadmin rate in the UK for contract work is 35UKP per hour, approx 120,000$.
In Switzerland, expect an extra 10-20% - but the expenses of living there hit much harder.
If you want evidence, take a look at a contract links such as http://www.jobserve.com
A good SAP contractor will make over US$400,000 (~120 per hour)
The point of college is to give you a decient starting point on the ladder. Everyone can get to the top - how long it takes you depends on your skill and starting point.
I found that three years in the real world got me a lot further than a degree in the real world ever would have.
For other people, that may not be the case. But it is important that people realise that not having a degre is no impediment if you are good at what you do and are prepared to move around.
Slashdot Mirror
It was a typo. The man is a senator for Utah.
What he really meant to say was:
You Sir, are a mormon.
Interesting thread.
I wanted to work from home, none of my previous customers were happy with me doing it since they paid me per hour. Paying people per hour gave them this strange compulsion to actually have me on site so that I could see that I was actually working.
I changed my relationships with my customers such that I now quote for "lumps of work" or "deliverables". They say "We want XYZ", I say "Thats £2.50". How I do it is none of their concern - how long it takes me, what I do in the intervening time is my business - not theirs.
How do you sell that view?
Advantages to Customer:
1) Liability. When things go wrong, if the consultant is on a time-based contract then the bill to the customer is as long as it takes to fix the problem. Ie, open-ended liability. If things go wrong YOU get the bill. Goodbye IR35.
2) Accountability. Once you have given the customer the comfort level they need that you can provide the services to them competantly, they are more than happy to outsource their non-core business functions out.
3) Cost. If the customer insists on working you on T+M, provide an incentive. I have two rates, Rate A is for formal training and knowledge transfer or anything which is ON-SITE. Rate B is for anything else which is OFF-SITE.
I'm not going to publish my rates here, but to give you an idea - my discounted rate (offsite) is 40% of my normal rate (on-site).
This means that the customer saves 40% on his costs if he doesn't mandate my consultants being on-site.
What does this mean for me now?
Well, I've been working mainly from the home office for the best part of two years, my customer visits are on average two or three times a month.
I have my green-card, I'm emigrating to the US on July 1st. What difference does this make to my customer? None at all. Does my customer mind? Not in the slightest. If they need me on site a few days consultancy easily covers travel expenses.
My customer continues paying my UK company. My company continues paying UK taxes. I continue paying (some) UK taxes, and according to two Tax Attournies in the US I am exempt from US taxes.
I don't believe them.
Hope that gives you some ideas and food for thought.
Load average is defined as the number of processes sitting on the run queue. This need not indicate a disk IO bottleneck.
;)
I would be surprised if any exim system was having more of a bottleneck to disk than it was to network. Your disks are faster than your network and exim is pretty light on un-required disk access.
The more bottleneck to network (by network I mean end-to-end with your customer not just your links) is large, the more processes are going to hang around longer.
More processes, more paging, less cacheing. Less cacheing, more IO. More paging, more IO.
Probably teching granny to suck eggs - but you do have your swap space on a seperate device don't you
The more exim processes that hang around longer, the more processes for the CPU to switch around. The more switching, the more likely you are to see paging.
If the processes hang around longer, they take up more memory which reduces the cache-size available.
Exim has several files which it accesses frequently, mainly the retry databases and its configuration. These should perminantly be in memory.
Bottom Line:
I do however suggest that you don't consider moving a single server to RAID. If you have a server that you want to move to RAID for efficency purposes... your design is wrong and you should be building a scalable system .
Red
1) MAC address' can be changed
2) MAC addresses (in current ip) don't go any further than your local lan
3) They don't record your MAC address when you buy your NIC.
It would take all three of those above to change for it to be a problem.
Someone asked about UK laws on such issues... I have just finished a course of the "UK Data protection Act"... There are 8 principles. I'll list a few which are relivant.
;)
1) The data protection act covers Personal data. Personal Data is defined as data that is about a person (or sole trader or partnership) which is about and is identified to a person.
Harvesting playlists is dodgy. Doing it with an identifiable ID is *illegal* without their consent.
2) The data must be used in a fair manner and kept up to date. This wonderfull ruling makes dealing with credit ratings easy
3) Data must only be used for the specified use. Saying you are using it for one thing and then using it for something else is illegal.
4) Data must not be passed on to a country which does not have these safeguards in place.
NOTE: The US is specified directly in the course that I took - You are NOT allowed to propergate data to the US.
Breaking the above gets you an enforcement order, ignoring it gets you unlimited fine and jailtime.
Red
Sorry I seem to disagree with most of the posters on this thread but I'm afraid that this time you are all wrong ;)
If we recognise any form of Intellectual property you have to respect this.
When someone hears the phrase "... for dummies" people think of that brand. They have invested time and money in getting this recognition.
Here I believe is the key. The subject "SMARTHOST for dummies" is obviously technical - thus there could easily be confusion - and as such I would expect the author to cease and desist.
If we take the different example "Roadkill's R Us" then I would side against the "R Us" people as "Roadkill" is obviously a parody and fair use, as its subject matter is so different to that of their brand.
On the subject of this affecting first ammendment rights... it could be considered theft of resource (that resource being the branding of their products).
Anyone who disagrees with that will of course also say that spam is not theft of resource.
Red
or at least that is my prediction...
Lets look at the evidence:
a) About to be broken up by US DOJ
b) Just had a nice meeting with UK PM.
c) Threatened to move Microsoft lock stock and barrel to China if DOJ interviened, UK would be easier for him to do so.
d) Probably got assurances from "our friend Tony" that he won't be cut up (see b)
Tony gets the extra tax revenue and gets the political kudos of attracting to worlds largest company.
Tony gets kudos for his e-commerce strategy (I bet Bill would even give him all the training and seminars for as many people as he wanted for free...)
Opinions?
I am afraid that I don't agree with the previous author that the method that the /. admins have configured their servers is the best method to provide fast reliable service.
/. could lose one of its web servers and not be affected... but what if it lost;
The simple fundimental mistake that always seems to be made is that there has to be a central resource. The problem with a central resource is that it becomes a single point of failure.
Sure
a) Its database
b) Its switch
c) Its router
d) Its link to the Internet
e) Its uplinked ISP has a BGP problem
etc etc etc...
The only way for a system as popular as slashdot can maintain the availability it deserves and requires is with a fully distributed system.
There are better ways.
noidd
The purpose of the H1B visa program is to get people into the US with rare and/or specialist skills. NOT cheap labour.
In order to get a H1B visa, your employer needs to be able to prove they are unable to locate a US peep who can do the same job.
It is far cheaper for a company to open up coding departments in countries like india where they can find several hundred good programmers at a time than going to the time and trouble of shipping them over to the US.
Getting a H1B visa is not easy - if I remeber rightly (and I may be completely wrong and if I am someone corect me) rasterman had problems getting in on a H1B visa.
noidd
Not at all.
Its all about economics. If you, as I did go to an emplyer and say something along the lines of "I have the skills, I just can't prove it. I will work at half the rate for the first six months to prove it. If you don't like me, sack me after one month - you've lost 2 weeks pay. If you like me, you've saved your company 3 months wages."
It worked for me.
I wouldn't say it was the status quo. I am saying its happened and I've seen it happen lots of times.
Red
Greetings,
You made four incorrect assumptions.
1) The work would be permie
2) The work was in the US
3) The work would be with SGI boxen
4) The person would be 18.
Re the above points...
1) Contract work is more profitable - typically double to triple the permie rate.
2) Talk about work in countries where there is more demand - for example, UK, France, Switzerland etc...
3) Talk about the Bank boxes - Solaris and AIX, people get paid more for that.
4) 18.
At the age at which you start a degree here (18) - you start on the bottom rung. Say, 8quid an hour. Move up in steps, changing contracts every six months and I would expect someone to be on that sort of income by the time they were meant to graduate. I've seen it happen multiple times.
fwiw; your average sysadmin rate in the UK for contract work is 35UKP per hour, approx 120,000$.
In Switzerland, expect an extra 10-20% - but the expenses of living there hit much harder.
If you want evidence, take a look at a contract links such as http://www.jobserve.com
A good SAP contractor will make over US$400,000 (~120 per hour)
Regards,
noidd
For a good system administrator:
4 years of your life @ 150,000US$ a year:
4 Years = 600,000$.
The point of college is to give you a decient starting point on the ladder. Everyone can get to the top - how long it takes you depends on your skill and starting point.
I found that three years in the real world got me a lot further than a degree in the real world ever would have.
For other people, that may not be the case. But it is important that people realise that not having a degre is no impediment if you are good at what you do and are prepared to move around.
Red