Hehe. I haven't had Boone's since college. At $2.99 a bottle you can get 3 bottles for the price of a case of so-so beer. Not that bad on a college student's meager budget. Frankly though I don't much care for wine. I can't stand champagne. I'd rather just have a nice cold beer.
Someone else's personal information... I guess I'm not really following you there. I'm not asking for their personal info. I'm just asking them to signup to help me get a free Mac for my mother (cause I can't afford to replace he ancient 7300/200 at the moment). I don't actually get to see their personal info. Which, by the way reminds me, have you signed up yet?:-)
I'm glad to hear you had good service in the past. I didn't have much to do with the helpdesk after late '97 or so. Gene and Jack brought me in a number of times to fix something, set up a new server, etc. Heck Gene bombarded me with questions on a daily basis. If only I had a nickle for every time Gene and Jack needed a hand.:-) Good guys though. Great guys. Jack is still there but Gene's area was pretty much wiped clean. Gene now works in IT at a bank in Ark City. They had me take on a number of projects last year to improve things. I certainly agreed that they needed improving. The whole works was becoming rather neglected.
The marketing director brought me in back in December 2003 to set up a new webmail system for them. The one I set up nearly 3 years prior was getting rather dated. It wasn't scaling well (was never designed to be used in production that long). Shortly after that a project came down the pipes to have redundancy at every level. Computer systems can't be treated like telco systems. It doesn't work that way. The management there really thinks in terms of telco everything. Nevertheless we put in 7 new servers, an excellent spam filtering solution (I still use it), revamped everything, added feature after feature after feature. The system was better than the last time they had me rebuild it. It was a massive undertaking for one person. It was built to last and be scalable. The network also underwent massive changes. They fell short of being redundant but they certainly made things better. Unfortunately they didn't have the staff to properly maintain the systems. That wasn't really Gene's job. That wasn't anyone's job, although they assumed it was Gene's. They had 10 servers in 2 POPs with more on the way and no one to maintain them. The servers would have run fine for years I'm sure with them calling on me for assistance every so often. Unfortunately they were outsourced before that became an issue.
My understanding of the situation is that marketing presented to the powers that be the cost per user based soley on the costs associated with the ISP in 2004. This included the hardware and man hour expenses for installing and configuring the new systems. The results were skewed because the life of the equipment and the job in general weren't part of the equation. The equipment and installation costs should have been amortized over the expected life of the equipment which was 4-5 years. So for example if we spent $36k on equipment and installation in 2004 for 3000 users the actual cost per user for that equipment amortized over 3 years would have $4/user. However if you don't amotorize the costs over the equipment's lifetime then your short-term cost per user would have been $12/user and thus skewed. Marketing then presented to management a company that could do the job for $4/user. Management listened to marketing instead of their ISP IT staff. It happens.
The ISP side of the business could certainly have offered more services. There was much more they could do. However without adding experienced staff to accomplish those goals, those goals could never have been met. They didn't have the staff to manage the systems properly as it was. I doubt they realize how fortunate they were to get as many free man hours as they did. It really is a shame too because we put a lot of effort into the job. I remember when I knew almost every customer by name. I remember when broke the 100 customer mark. Now when you call tech support you'll get someone you've never spoken with before, has no idea where you are actually located at, has absolutely no contact with the actual administrators of the out-sourcing company's server (so they hear about problems or can relay unusual problems to those with experience who can address the unusual problems), who has no idea who you are or what your personal skills are, and in most cases could simply care less about providing you with accurate and timely information. I've been told by a person who experien
I bought an HP 8550N from an online Enron auction. It's worked great. Granted the lights dim a bit when the fuser warms up but still, it was an excellent price even after shipping the behemouth. I've been thinking about selling it for closer to what it's worth and picking up something that better fits my needs. I mean, it's a freaking color laser printer the size of a copier.;-)
Unless they are paying a business for a good or service, in which case they aren't filing a 1099 for you. I've gotten a 1099 for years for the work I've done for a certain company because they were paying me and not my business. I'm no longer doing consulting for that company. All new consulting work is paid to my company. Likewise my grandmother had to get 1099s from the leasees of her pastures. She was an individual making more than $600 from an entity (individual in this case). She made them file 1099s for what they paid her for her goods. Or was it the other way around. Let me think, her goods, their money. She was getting the income. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's right. They had to file them for her. Just a side point. Most people don't even think to pay taxes on their side income.
Would you be insulted if someone gave you a bottle of Strawberry Boone's Farm?:-) It's like alcoholic Cool-Aid(tm) but not bad drinking at $2.99 a bottle.
This is why I subscribe to the announcement list of all major software packages I use. Or, alternately, I subscribe to the security bulletin list if they offer one. I also chastise the authors when they abuse the announcement list for something that's not an announcement. Yes, it's their list and their software, but they are greatly damaging their program's viability in a security conscious market by making it harder to get timely security bulletins. I don't sort announcement list mail either, or if I do post process it, I'll archive a copy in it's own directory and keep a copy in my regular inbox so I have to see it. It works for me. I've managed to keep up with all the systems I've managed and I haven't been hacked yet (knock on wood VERY loudly). I won't say that it's been easy though. It's just part of the job. The important thing here is to make sure this everyday piece of your job isn't overlooked by management. "Oh, he spends half his day surfing the web and reading email. He's not doing anything important." Right... Nothing important.:-)
That's probably so. Perhaps they also have a better grasp of the money issues involved if they lose their data. Or perhaps they simply don't blindly trust the technology (and rightfully so), unlike so many others we encounter.
That's really good to know. The Ma and Pa shops that I've dealt with build their own systems in the old-style Compaq way (whatever is on sale the week before goes into this week's machines). I've had to work on many of those machines after the fact and was amazed at the namebrandless hardware they managed to come up with. You know it's bad when a company doesn't even put a logo, namebrand, or model number on their motherboard. I'm sure there are Ma and Pa shops out there that do it better. There has to be. Your's sounds like one of them. Actually, the woman's mother's wasn't a bad machine at all. It used a basic OEM Intel board and a 1.8Ghz P4. The worst problem with that machine was the fact that it requires Rambus RAM. That's getting hard to come by. The machine was 2-3 years old. I suppose that was a viable option at the time. I don't know if that Ma and Pa shop built that machine or bought it from a wholesaler but it wasn't a half bad machine, especially when compared with some of the oddball stuff I've come across.
I agree that supporting the local economy is a good thing, as long as the local business is a viable alternative to big business. No sense in supporting them if they sell junk. Let them go under so someone else can come in and try to do it better. It certainly sounds like your business is the exception to the rule. My uncle also owns a chain of stores that make pretty good machines as well. They build their own but they also give the customer a good warranty on everything (even if the individual pieces aren't warrantied that long). I'd plug your store if I were you.:-)
Exactly. Couldn't put it better myself. I know a lot of farmers who don't have computers. Of course I know a lot that do have them. They tend to be a bit younger than the other group of course. They also tend to be the type with Ag Management or Ag Engineering degrees. Perhaps that helps.:-)
That's true, although I don't think that's nearly as common today as it used to be. It used to be that adding hardware to a Compaq was a nightmare due to all the specialized hacks they did to their boxes to force you to buy things from them. The markets nowadays seem to have put an end to most of that price gouging. Even mass producers can't afford to go with non-standard components because someone else can build a system so much cheaper than they can with proprietary gear. They can also readily reach al corners of the market via the Internet. The last handful of Dells I've worked on were basically just a well-built PC using OEM versions of the low-end hardware I'd consider buying myself. The RAM was basic DDR. The processors were either run of the mill P4s or Celerons. Everything about the boxes were fairly standard for the most part. If a HD died I could replace it, no problem. I could see that being a problem in years gone by but I don't think that's a big now.
Also, I thought I'd mention that non-open warranties are unenforceable and have been so for some time. Ie, they can't void your warranty for opening the device, even though they'd really like you to think that. It's probably good that most people believe that, though, or they'd be messing with their computer's guts from day one, causing all sorts of issues.
I thought so. It's a fairly unique nickname. You're in Clearwater if memory serves me correctly.
I used to work with Gene and Jack at the company, before it was all outsourced. I kept the servers running. What's your opinion of the service now that it's outsourced? A number of customer I've known for years are switching due mainly to the dismal customer service. It's sad to see what we built go out that way. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than most IMHO.
Hey, could I trouble you for a link to Spybot and Hijack? I can't find them in my bookmarks, I can't recall either URL off the top of my head, and Googling for both gives me dozens of seemingly legit-looking choices. However I suspect most of them are bogus, probably hacked up spyware people. Thanks.
That's true. I don't want to gouge though. I think $20/hr would be alright as long as it's not too frequent. If I find I'm getting too much work for what short time I'm actually down visiting family then I'll raise my rates. That will help I imagine.
LOL. Funny side point, I went to K-State. I was there a week early for marching band camp (don't laugh! We had great seats at the games). I hadn't even made it to my own dorm room before I had to help some really cute clarinet player with her computer in the all girls dorm, Ford Hall. Not that I was complaining.:-)
Yeah, it's something about being technically compotent that seems to turn off most women. I don't quite understand it myself. Perhaps the next time it comes up we should carry a little grease in a shoe polish container to grease up before the job is done. Maybe then we'd appear more manly. The best thing I've found to do when working on a woman's computer is to not explain what's wrong at all. Just fix the thing silently and move on. Talk about anything but computers while you're doing it. Did you catch the last game? Have you been to such and such bar? Do you work out? Is your boyfriend bigger than I am? etc. Just don't talk computers to her. If you do and her eyes glaze over, it doesn't mean she's attracted to you. It means she's either a) about to fall asleep, or b) about to burst into tears of boredoom. Change the subject quick!
That's a good point. That reminded me of what the woman said about charging her mother, that she neededa ticket so she could put it on the books. I imagine that's what she was planning on doing. If they are using it for business then they need smoething reliable and should probably be willing to pay for it. I think most people, even rural folks, are aware by now that computers are not infallible. In fact I've found that rural folks using their computers for business purposes are more likely to keep backups of some form than even small business in the city. Figure that one out.
Thanks for the input. I'll probably charge $20/hr or so. That will cover my mileage. Now if only I can find the Rambus RAM for that machine. Grrr, Rambus...
Fortunately I don't live near these people. They understand that me coming down just to fix their computer isn't feasible (over 90 miles away). They usually just ask me to stop by the next time I'm down to visit my family. Part of the difference I see is small town mentality vs city mentality. Everyone always wants to be compensated with money in the city. You can't find anyone willing to trade favors in a big city, or so it seems. I helped my neighbor during an ice storm by rewiring his furnace to run off my generator. He wanted to pay me cash for that and the gas for my generator rather than just doing me a favor at some point down the road. In a small town people regularly trade favors. Someone plows their neighbor's garden in the spring and that neighbor brings them a mess of corn in the summer. Someone fixes somebody's wheat truck late at night during a harvest and the owner of that truck does them a favor at some point in the future. When I say small town I don't mean 100,000 or even 10,000 people. I mean 231 people. Small town folks aren't out to gouge people every chance they get like those from the city. My father ran a garage and gas station in that town for 14 years. He charged the going rate for gas which was a 2-3 cents profit per gallon. The next nearest station was 8 miles to the east or 20 miles to the west. He could have charged much more than he did but he wasn't out to price gouge people. The country mentality and the city mentality do not mix.
Personally I think my price should be a fair price based on my time and after-the-fact service. I don't have the time to field calls and emails every day from people needing assistance right away. If people need that then they can look elsewhere for that service. If they need my assistance when I have a chance while visiting family, then I certainly don't mind helping out. That wouldn't justify charging the going rating which I think is $50/hr at the nearest computer shops. $20/hr wouldn't be unacceptable though.
Well, not exactly. There's a common misconception that farmers are rich. They certainly aren't. Yes, if you have enough good farm land, don't mind doing all the work yourself or within your family, and have already paid off your equipment costs and have it in good working order then yes farming can be profitable. After expenses they won't be walking away with a 6-figure salary but they will be making a decent living. The term redneck was originally a compliment. Many a hour spent cultivating on a tractor will of course give you a very red neck. Consider it a badge of honor.
Not all farmers/ranchers can claim that honor though. When most city folks think of farmers they think of 2 things, 1) some old man on an old tractor in the middle of a field, and 2) lots of government subsidies for farmers. However what these city folks fail to understand is that Ma and Pa farmer aren't making a killing off of government subsidies. In fact the increase in taxes they bring with them usually hurts the average Ma and Pa farmer. The only entities that benefit from the government subsidies is the enormous farm conglomerates. I can't think of any names off the top of my head but they're out there. They're the ones that can afford lobbyists to ensure they get what they want out of Washington. Ma and Pa farmer don't benefit from companies like that. Those kinds of companies, like Tyson in the chicken industry, strongarm the little guys out of the business. Guess who's standing by to buy the land when Ma and Pa have to sell the farm? Big business.
The standard assumptions about the average farmer aren't exactly accurate. Since you didn't go into too much detail, I'm not sure what your personal take is on the matter. I gave you lots of info though, just in case.
Oh, and fixing or buying a tractor isn't really comparable to fixing/buying a new computer to a farmer. One is their bread and butter. The other could quite possibly just be a toy.
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Hehe. I haven't had Boone's since college. At $2.99 a bottle you can get 3 bottles for the price of a case of so-so beer. Not that bad on a college student's meager budget. Frankly though I don't much care for wine. I can't stand champagne. I'd rather just have a nice cold beer.
Someone else's personal information... I guess I'm not really following you there. I'm not asking for their personal info. I'm just asking them to signup to help me get a free Mac for my mother (cause I can't afford to replace he ancient 7300/200 at the moment). I don't actually get to see their personal info. Which, by the way reminds me, have you signed up yet? :-)
I don't much care for them myself, probably because I'm usually the one trying to get the pictures. ;-)
The marketing director brought me in back in December 2003 to set up a new webmail system for them. The one I set up nearly 3 years prior was getting rather dated. It wasn't scaling well (was never designed to be used in production that long). Shortly after that a project came down the pipes to have redundancy at every level. Computer systems can't be treated like telco systems. It doesn't work that way. The management there really thinks in terms of telco everything. Nevertheless we put in 7 new servers, an excellent spam filtering solution (I still use it), revamped everything, added feature after feature after feature. The system was better than the last time they had me rebuild it. It was a massive undertaking for one person. It was built to last and be scalable. The network also underwent massive changes. They fell short of being redundant but they certainly made things better. Unfortunately they didn't have the staff to properly maintain the systems. That wasn't really Gene's job. That wasn't anyone's job, although they assumed it was Gene's. They had 10 servers in 2 POPs with more on the way and no one to maintain them. The servers would have run fine for years I'm sure with them calling on me for assistance every so often. Unfortunately they were outsourced before that became an issue.
My understanding of the situation is that marketing presented to the powers that be the cost per user based soley on the costs associated with the ISP in 2004. This included the hardware and man hour expenses for installing and configuring the new systems. The results were skewed because the life of the equipment and the job in general weren't part of the equation. The equipment and installation costs should have been amortized over the expected life of the equipment which was 4-5 years. So for example if we spent $36k on equipment and installation in 2004 for 3000 users the actual cost per user for that equipment amortized over 3 years would have $4/user. However if you don't amotorize the costs over the equipment's lifetime then your short-term cost per user would have been $12/user and thus skewed. Marketing then presented to management a company that could do the job for $4/user. Management listened to marketing instead of their ISP IT staff. It happens.
The ISP side of the business could certainly have offered more services. There was much more they could do. However without adding experienced staff to accomplish those goals, those goals could never have been met. They didn't have the staff to manage the systems properly as it was. I doubt they realize how fortunate they were to get as many free man hours as they did. It really is a shame too because we put a lot of effort into the job. I remember when I knew almost every customer by name. I remember when broke the 100 customer mark. Now when you call tech support you'll get someone you've never spoken with before, has no idea where you are actually located at, has absolutely no contact with the actual administrators of the out-sourcing company's server (so they hear about problems or can relay unusual problems to those with experience who can address the unusual problems), who has no idea who you are or what your personal skills are, and in most cases could simply care less about providing you with accurate and timely information. I've been told by a person who experien
I bought an HP 8550N from an online Enron auction. It's worked great. Granted the lights dim a bit when the fuser warms up but still, it was an excellent price even after shipping the behemouth. I've been thinking about selling it for closer to what it's worth and picking up something that better fits my needs. I mean, it's a freaking color laser printer the size of a copier. ;-)
Unless they are paying a business for a good or service, in which case they aren't filing a 1099 for you. I've gotten a 1099 for years for the work I've done for a certain company because they were paying me and not my business. I'm no longer doing consulting for that company. All new consulting work is paid to my company. Likewise my grandmother had to get 1099s from the leasees of her pastures. She was an individual making more than $600 from an entity (individual in this case). She made them file 1099s for what they paid her for her goods. Or was it the other way around. Let me think, her goods, their money. She was getting the income. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's right. They had to file them for her. Just a side point. Most people don't even think to pay taxes on their side income.
Would you be insulted if someone gave you a bottle of Strawberry Boone's Farm? :-) It's like alcoholic Cool-Aid(tm) but not bad drinking at $2.99 a bottle.
I like the tutorial. I'll have to point that out to some folks I just switched over.
This is why I subscribe to the announcement list of all major software packages I use. Or, alternately, I subscribe to the security bulletin list if they offer one. I also chastise the authors when they abuse the announcement list for something that's not an announcement. Yes, it's their list and their software, but they are greatly damaging their program's viability in a security conscious market by making it harder to get timely security bulletins. I don't sort announcement list mail either, or if I do post process it, I'll archive a copy in it's own directory and keep a copy in my regular inbox so I have to see it. It works for me. I've managed to keep up with all the systems I've managed and I haven't been hacked yet (knock on wood VERY loudly). I won't say that it's been easy though. It's just part of the job. The important thing here is to make sure this everyday piece of your job isn't overlooked by management. "Oh, he spends half his day surfing the web and reading email. He's not doing anything important." Right... Nothing important. :-)
That's probably so. Perhaps they also have a better grasp of the money issues involved if they lose their data. Or perhaps they simply don't blindly trust the technology (and rightfully so), unlike so many others we encounter.
LOL. Yes, it's not a wise thing to do when picking up non-geek chicks. Maybe that's the problem. There aren't enough geek chicks for the geek guys.
I agree that supporting the local economy is a good thing, as long as the local business is a viable alternative to big business. No sense in supporting them if they sell junk. Let them go under so someone else can come in and try to do it better. It certainly sounds like your business is the exception to the rule. My uncle also owns a chain of stores that make pretty good machines as well. They build their own but they also give the customer a good warranty on everything (even if the individual pieces aren't warrantied that long). I'd plug your store if I were you. :-)
Exactly. Couldn't put it better myself. I know a lot of farmers who don't have computers. Of course I know a lot that do have them. They tend to be a bit younger than the other group of course. They also tend to be the type with Ag Management or Ag Engineering degrees. Perhaps that helps. :-)
Also, I thought I'd mention that non-open warranties are unenforceable and have been so for some time. Ie, they can't void your warranty for opening the device, even though they'd really like you to think that. It's probably good that most people believe that, though, or they'd be messing with their computer's guts from day one, causing all sorts of issues.
I used to work with Gene and Jack at the company, before it was all outsourced. I kept the servers running. What's your opinion of the service now that it's outsourced? A number of customer I've known for years are switching due mainly to the dismal customer service. It's sad to see what we built go out that way. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than most IMHO.
His comment was pretty good. Too bad he did it as an AC or I'd have added him to my friend list.
Hey, could I trouble you for a link to Spybot and Hijack? I can't find them in my bookmarks, I can't recall either URL off the top of my head, and Googling for both gives me dozens of seemingly legit-looking choices. However I suspect most of them are bogus, probably hacked up spyware people. Thanks.
That's true. I don't want to gouge though. I think $20/hr would be alright as long as it's not too frequent. If I find I'm getting too much work for what short time I'm actually down visiting family then I'll raise my rates. That will help I imagine.
Yeah, it's something about being technically compotent that seems to turn off most women. I don't quite understand it myself. Perhaps the next time it comes up we should carry a little grease in a shoe polish container to grease up before the job is done. Maybe then we'd appear more manly. The best thing I've found to do when working on a woman's computer is to not explain what's wrong at all. Just fix the thing silently and move on. Talk about anything but computers while you're doing it. Did you catch the last game? Have you been to such and such bar? Do you work out? Is your boyfriend bigger than I am? etc. Just don't talk computers to her. If you do and her eyes glaze over, it doesn't mean she's attracted to you. It means she's either a) about to fall asleep, or b) about to burst into tears of boredoom. Change the subject quick!
Thanks for the input. I'll probably charge $20/hr or so. That will cover my mileage. Now if only I can find the Rambus RAM for that machine. Grrr, Rambus...
Personally I think my price should be a fair price based on my time and after-the-fact service. I don't have the time to field calls and emails every day from people needing assistance right away. If people need that then they can look elsewhere for that service. If they need my assistance when I have a chance while visiting family, then I certainly don't mind helping out. That wouldn't justify charging the going rating which I think is $50/hr at the nearest computer shops. $20/hr wouldn't be unacceptable though.
Not all farmers/ranchers can claim that honor though. When most city folks think of farmers they think of 2 things, 1) some old man on an old tractor in the middle of a field, and 2) lots of government subsidies for farmers. However what these city folks fail to understand is that Ma and Pa farmer aren't making a killing off of government subsidies. In fact the increase in taxes they bring with them usually hurts the average Ma and Pa farmer. The only entities that benefit from the government subsidies is the enormous farm conglomerates. I can't think of any names off the top of my head but they're out there. They're the ones that can afford lobbyists to ensure they get what they want out of Washington. Ma and Pa farmer don't benefit from companies like that. Those kinds of companies, like Tyson in the chicken industry, strongarm the little guys out of the business. Guess who's standing by to buy the land when Ma and Pa have to sell the farm? Big business.
The standard assumptions about the average farmer aren't exactly accurate. Since you didn't go into too much detail, I'm not sure what your personal take is on the matter. I gave you lots of info though, just in case.
Oh, and fixing or buying a tractor isn't really comparable to fixing/buying a new computer to a farmer. One is their bread and butter. The other could quite possibly just be a toy.
You nickname sounds awfully familiar to me. Are you on SKTC by chance?
Damn. I'm sure getting a lot of new friends out of this deep-linking thread.