If you want clients who are happy with your work, who come back to you for more work, and who happily refer or recommend you to others, then don't get too greedy.
Don't try to get every last dollar out of them that you might be able to.
Try to make your pricing, estimates and the work you do work well for *both* you and the client.
And if you take too long on something they need, hopefully for unavoidable reasons, give them a discount on that part of the work.
Remember that customer satisfaction is the best thing you can prioritize to make sure you keep those customers and get any new ones. (it'll help you avoid some of the issue of unhappy clients not wanting to pay your bills too)
jw
P.S. I'd suggest this way of thinking for ANY business... and a lot of large ones could definitely use the lesson.
heh, I used to use a little virtual desktops utility that was free from the utilities column of PC Magazine... worked great... and probably 10+ years ago... probably still works. What's so hard about virtual desktops?
Collude with a friend to email back and forth encrypted copies of your photos. Arrange for them to be perpetually stored in transit on somebody-else's mail server awaiting delivery.
encrypt them and name them something suspicious before you send them and the dept of homeland security and/or echelon will keep backups for you, at least as long as it takes them to figure out whether you are sending secret messages around within your video...;-)
One important thing: As well as all of this, on each drive store a copy of the software (e.g. codecs), as well as any registration information to make them work. Backups of your files are no good if you can't play them later. Try to avoid storing video long term in any format that requires a codec with online activation. Will that company still be around in 20 years time?
Good advice
OTOH, while it's a good idea to keep copies of the software and/or codecs, who knows if any of it will run on whatever computer and operating system exists in 10 years or more...
How many files from 10+ years *ago* can you open and run now? How much of the software?
Things like JPEG photos are fairly safe, since that is a standard and common format, but you would probably have a lot more trouble down the road opening any proprietary format data files, RAW formats by X-company, word processor files, etc. It's one reason that efforts to standardize on open and standard formats like ODF is important.
BTW, one addition to DigitAl56K's good advice on checking data... check it when you make the backup... I've had cases where files got corrupted going over my USB to an external HD or thumb drive. (various bit errors, and the OS didn't tell me.) Anyway, probably a bad USB card in this case, but that kind of thing can happen. Check your data by full read-back verification if you can...
.... and consider checking disks on another computer too before you store those archives. (some optical disks can be out of alignment or 'off' just enough that they can write & read their own disks, but other drives can't... )
"Because anybody with a clue is using VoIP by this point..."
Kind of arrogant aren't you? (oh, yeah, this is/.;-)
Hate to tell you, but lots of people who have clues don't use VoIP and don't really want to, myself included. DSL for a regular phone line + net access works great, phones are cheap, and I have a working phone when the power goes out. (if you're close enough to the phone company office as I am anyway).
So why do you think VoIP is so freakin' mandatory for the clue-full?
... and it's plenty fast for us for most everything... including 2 pcs, mine and my kids surfing away... even upload isn't that bad, though it'd be nice if it matched the 768k download bw... oh well.
especially when it's the same price as the dial-up you are switching from...
I made the switch to verizon's $15 DSL a few years ago. Pretty nice change-up from my 56k that was costing the same. (had a 2nd phone line)
I wonder if Verizon will lower their price or boost bandwidth limits to match if you talk to them about switching to this? Anyone try asking yet? Credit card companies offer rate or fee cuts when you call to cancel them in favor of a competitor... wonder if Verizon will...
hmm, perhaps that's what he meant. If so, that's useless for most sites of course.
As I mentioned, many logfile analyzers unfortunately mislead uers into thinking their "user" counts have any validity or mean anything, so he might think he really is counting users.
The parent post said: "I only count "browsers per known user per day". So users that come in more than once per day are only counted once; anonymous users (and robots/crawlers without a credit card in hand) are excluded."
And *how* do you count users/day accurately? With proxy servers, you *can't* always know that kind of information from server logs, though many logfile analyzer s/w packages will try to make you think you can...
See the Analog logfile analyser docs: What the results mean, and particularly How the web works. "This section discusses what happens when somebody connects to your web site, and what you can and can't find out about them. If you think that you can get statistics on how many people have visited your web site (or want to know why you can't), then this section is for you."
well said. (both you and the parent poster (LWATCDR))
David Harris has certainly provided an excellent set of email tools for *many* years now (17?) *for free*, being supported financially by *optional* support contributions and sales of manual (any other means?)
Remembering from the 'old' days when I used to help run our dept novel server for 120+ users, his programs were better and safer than many out there for years, and has always had powerful features. (both the email clients and email server) They were certainly better than the expensive and crappy email options offered by Novell at the time. I'm sure they have heavily influenced all of the other email clients & servers by the powerful features they introduced as well as their strong emphasis on security. I'm very sorry to hear that financial support for it has dwindled to this point, and I'm very sorry to see pmail go.
David Harris certainly deserves our thanks and respect for his many years of work and of providing his software for free, not the carping and accusations of motive seen here. (which seems to be mostly by those who have never even used his software, or heard of it?)
Open source has some great advantages, (especially for the user who doesn't have to do any work) but, like David's current model of development, it doesn't offer any guarantee of an income. Not everyone can work for free, especially full-time. Before carping at him, feel free to assign your trust fund over to him first.;-)... or try walking a great many miles in his shoes...
I'm sure that setting up his software tools as open source projects would entail some significant amount of up-front work, and possibly continuing efforts. His code is his, and it's certainly *more* than fair to ask for financial support or compensation in order to donate it to the public domain, and to put even more time, expertise and effort into the transition.
Anyway, thanks David, for your many years of effort, excellent software, and your generousity in sharing it with us for free.
I'm sorry it had to end for you on the down note that the past few years have evidently been.
Disclaimer: Yes, I've used Pegasus Mail for many years, though I've been using thunderbird lately. We're still using Pmail at home. And yes, I've put my money where my mouth is, sending financial contributions to DH several times. (though smaller than I would have liked to be able to)
Before you assumed he was stealing the clips, did you all even ask if his church has the CCLI licenses?
Many churches (like mine for instance) purchase licenses from CCLI or others to give rights to do things like copying sheet music for choir, worship bands, etc, playing other's music, either led by choir/band, or from CD/DVD..
And, if you have the right licenses, you are legally allowed to use of video in various ways, whether clips, playing a movie for a crowd, etc.
Without those licenses, you are in violation of law or license just playing most movie DVDs to a group of people larger than some set (small) number.
Yes, I'm sure that CCLI and other licensers don't cover every possible piece of music or video, and that you might have to get rights to use some things elsewhere... but it is possible to legally use such things if you are willing to do the work and pay what is needed.
... but did you all give him any benefit of doubt on having the right licenses before you all started saying he was going to be stealing?
Or was everyone so eager to jump into the typical slashdot arguments about whether stealing/using this digital material was right/wrong/evil/etc, whether the laws were bad and all that?
ah, thanks. Just wondered. I usually want the bots too for my webmaster's point of view, so Analog and regular logs are better or me. Good to know what else is out there though.
analog has my vote too. I've used it for years.
It's got to be the most controllable package around.
There are options to tweak most everything, and to do pretty complex filtering, aliasing, etc.
Admittedly, most people never need to know all that, but it's good that it's there for the times we do.
Many of the web stats packages other than analog really try to make you think they can get more data out than they really can.
That page and the one above it (What the results mean) should be required reading for anyone about to read a web stats report. I certainly send it to all my customers whenever I set them up with a report.
I had a similar experience. Just plugging a new thumb drive with U3 s/w on it into my home PC would cause it to completely lock up. (winxp-pro, updated).
It would work on some other PCs, but I basically wanted it for storage, so ended up removing the U3 stuff rather than going through an extended debug process to get it working on my PC. Works fine now as a straight storage drive without the U3.
They say: PhotoPermit.org "... is about keeping photographers out of trouble, and supporting them when trouble looms. Have you been hassled while trying to make what you thought was an innocuous photograph or video? Have you been threatened? Have security guards demanded that you hand over your film, memory cards, and/or camera? Perhaps snatched them from you?... Have you been one of millions of honest, non-threatening photographers who are anxious about visiting the streets of their own cities, national parks, or public landmarks for fear they will be targeted by overzealous authorities? Then PhotoPermit is here to help you be sure and comfortable in your rights and responsibilities."
Slashdot Mirror
yeah, sorry, maybe it's a troll, but the quote and obvious response was just too hard to ignore ;-)
"... was made of wood and had one button..."
isn't that what apple's still use? ;-)
Or have they finally decided to move to the 'new' bronze-age mice ... made of bronze?
Heaven forbid they admit anything-PC is right and move to a plastic mouse, or more buttons, wheels, etc...
ok, apple fan-boys, whack away now. I'll be here busily ignoring you...
http://www.ncubed.com/Products/SuperInvoice/?a=18
put it on your server or elsewhere.
jw
Don't try to get every last dollar out of them that you might be able to.
Try to make your pricing, estimates and the work you do work well for *both* you and the client.
And if you take too long on something they need, hopefully for unavoidable reasons, give them a discount on that part of the work.
Remember that customer satisfaction is the best thing you can prioritize to make sure you keep those customers and get any new ones. (it'll help you avoid some of the issue of unhappy clients not wanting to pay your bills too)
jw
P.S. I'd suggest this way of thinking for ANY business... and a lot of large ones could definitely use the lesson.
heh, I used to use a little virtual desktops utility that was free from the utilities column of PC Magazine... worked great... and probably 10+ years ago... probably still works. What's so hard about virtual desktops?
encrypt them and name them something suspicious before you send them and the dept of homeland security and/or echelon will keep backups for you, at least as long as it takes them to figure out whether you are sending secret messages around within your video... ;-)
Duct, Electrical, Masking or Transparent?
post-it notes... storage density is poor though ;-)
Good advice
OTOH, while it's a good idea to keep copies of the software and/or codecs, who knows if any of it will run on whatever computer and operating system exists in 10 years or more...
How many files from 10+ years *ago* can you open and run now? How much of the software?
Things like JPEG photos are fairly safe, since that is a standard and common format, but you would probably have a lot more trouble down the road opening any proprietary format data files, RAW formats by X-company, word processor files, etc. It's one reason that efforts to standardize on open and standard formats like ODF is important.
BTW, one addition to DigitAl56K's good advice on checking data... check it when you make the backup... I've had cases where files got corrupted going over my USB to an external HD or thumb drive. (various bit errors, and the OS didn't tell me.) Anyway, probably a bad USB card in this case, but that kind of thing can happen. Check your data by full read-back verification if you can...
.... and consider checking disks on another computer too before you store those archives. (some optical disks can be out of alignment or 'off' just enough that they can write & read their own disks, but other drives can't... )
cool... as I was looking at this I was thinking it ought to have sound...
same principles as the visual could work perhaps, small requests get higher pitch discrete sounds, larger get lower (kettle drum for largest ;-)
... the fast the requests come in the faster the 'dits' sound...
"Because anybody with a clue is using VoIP by this point..."
Kind of arrogant aren't you? (oh, yeah, this is /. ;-)
Hate to tell you, but lots of people who have clues don't use VoIP and don't really want to, myself included. DSL for a regular phone line + net access works great, phones are cheap, and I have a working phone when the power goes out. (if you're close enough to the phone company office as I am anyway).
So why do you think VoIP is so freakin' mandatory for the clue-full?
... and it's plenty fast for us for most everything... including 2 pcs, mine and my kids surfing away... even upload isn't that bad, though it'd be nice if it matched the 768k download bw... oh well.
especially when it's the same price as the dial-up you are switching from... I made the switch to verizon's $15 DSL a few years ago. Pretty nice change-up from my 56k that was costing the same. (had a 2nd phone line) I wonder if Verizon will lower their price or boost bandwidth limits to match if you talk to them about switching to this? Anyone try asking yet? Credit card companies offer rate or fee cuts when you call to cancel them in favor of a competitor... wonder if Verizon will...
So how do you protect your system from a virus when your system *is* a virus?
Do we worry that our anti-virus software now kills the system?
"Oops, did I just spread all your data on my sandwich?"
(yes, I know the diff between bacterian & virus, but have used the same name for the sake of the jokes... ;-)
hmm, perhaps that's what he meant. If so, that's useless for most sites of course.
As I mentioned, many logfile analyzers unfortunately mislead uers into thinking their "user" counts have any validity or mean anything, so he might think he really is counting users.
The parent post said: "I only count "browsers per known user per day". So users that come in more than once per day are only counted once; anonymous users (and robots/crawlers without a credit card in hand) are excluded."
And *how* do you count users/day accurately? With proxy servers, you *can't* always know that kind of information from server logs, though many logfile analyzer s/w packages will try to make you think you can...
See the Analog logfile analyser docs: What the results mean, and particularly How the web works.
"This section discusses what happens when somebody connects to your web site, and what you can and can't find out about them. If you think that you can get statistics on how many people have visited your web site (or want to know why you can't), then this section is for you."
you could have better titled your post by reversing it to: ;-)
"Why users are critics."
David Harris has certainly provided an excellent set of email tools for *many* years now (17?) *for free*, being supported financially by *optional* support contributions and sales of manual (any other means?)
Remembering from the 'old' days when I used to help run our dept novel server for 120+ users, his programs were better and safer than many out there for years, and has always had powerful features. (both the email clients and email server) They were certainly better than the expensive and crappy email options offered by Novell at the time. I'm sure they have heavily influenced all of the other email clients & servers by the powerful features they introduced as well as their strong emphasis on security. I'm very sorry to hear that financial support for it has dwindled to this point, and I'm very sorry to see pmail go.
David Harris certainly deserves our thanks and respect for his many years of work and of providing his software for free, not the carping and accusations of motive seen here. (which seems to be mostly by those who have never even used his software, or heard of it?)
Open source has some great advantages, (especially for the user who doesn't have to do any work) but, like David's current model of development, it doesn't offer any guarantee of an income. Not everyone can work for free, especially full-time. Before carping at him, feel free to assign your trust fund over to him first. ;-) ... or try walking a great many miles in his shoes...
I'm sure that setting up his software tools as open source projects would entail some significant amount of up-front work, and possibly continuing efforts. His code is his, and it's certainly *more* than fair to ask for financial support or compensation in order to donate it to the public domain, and to put even more time, expertise and effort into the transition.
Anyway, thanks David, for your many years of effort, excellent software, and your generousity in sharing it with us for free.
I'm sorry it had to end for you on the down note that the past few years have evidently been.
Disclaimer: Yes, I've used Pegasus Mail for many years, though I've been using thunderbird lately. We're still using Pmail at home. And yes, I've put my money where my mouth is, sending financial contributions to DH several times. (though smaller than I would have liked to be able to)
Before you assumed he was stealing the clips, did you all even ask if his church has the CCLI licenses?
Many churches (like mine for instance) purchase licenses from CCLI or others to give rights to do things like copying sheet music for choir, worship bands, etc, playing other's music, either led by choir/band, or from CD/DVD..
And, if you have the right licenses, you are legally allowed to use of video in various ways, whether clips, playing a movie for a crowd, etc.
Without those licenses, you are in violation of law or license just playing most movie DVDs to a group of people larger than some set (small) number.
Yes, I'm sure that CCLI and other licensers don't cover every possible piece of music or video, and that you might have to get rights to use some things elsewhere... but it is possible to legally use such things if you are willing to do the work and pay what is needed.
Or was everyone so eager to jump into the typical slashdot arguments about whether stealing/using this digital material was right/wrong/evil/etc, whether the laws were bad and all that?
ah, thanks. Just wondered. I usually want the bots too for my webmaster's point of view, so Analog and regular logs are better or me. Good to know what else is out there though.
then how does it record traffic by web spiders and those browsing with javascript disabled?
analog has my vote too. I've used it for years. It's got to be the most controllable package around. There are options to tweak most everything, and to do pretty complex filtering, aliasing, etc. Admittedly, most people never need to know all that, but it's good that it's there for the times we do.
That whole page is well worth reading.
Many of the web stats packages other than analog really try to make you think they can get more data out than they really can.
That page and the one above it (What the results mean) should be required reading for anyone about to read a web stats report. I certainly send it to all my customers whenever I set them up with a report.
we obviously need an automatic phone-home app of some kind to add to the list for cases like that... suggestions?
It would work on some other PCs, but I basically wanted it for storage, so ended up removing the U3 stuff rather than going through an extended debug process to get it working on my PC. Works fine now as a straight storage drive without the U3.
They say: PhotoPermit.org "... is about keeping photographers out of trouble, and supporting them when trouble looms. Have you been hassled while trying to make what you thought was an innocuous photograph or video? Have you been threatened? Have security guards demanded that you hand over your film, memory cards, and/or camera? Perhaps snatched them from you? ... Have you been one of millions of honest, non-threatening photographers who are anxious about visiting the streets of their own cities, national parks, or public landmarks for fear they will be targeted by overzealous authorities? Then PhotoPermit is here to help you be sure and comfortable in your rights and responsibilities."
Here are a few additional links and references on photography rights.