It's generally difficult to compete as a private contractor against an army of consultants for a large project. The consultancy deserves a portion of the billing rate for their management of the project. I'm not sure that they deserve all they take, but c'est la vie.
I'm a private contractor in this case, and I keep 100% of my billing rate. The consultants on this project will see (if they're lucky) 50% of the billed rate. More often than not, the consultant will see much less than that.
An associate of mine bills $350/hr for SAP consulting but gets paid much less than 50% of that.
$150/hour is about right for short-term private contractors.
If Superman had any IT skills, he'd perform a traceroute to determine the devices gateway. Once the gateway was determined, block the mac address from accessing the network. If the admin of that device is worth his salt, he'll change the mac address and continue. They could then specifically enable allowed devices and forbid all others.
Forget finding it, make the network inaccessible.
City of SF Admins, if this proves to be your resolution, you owe me $150 for 1 hour of my time. Sorry, I do not bill in lower increments.
Not that I look forward to it happening again, but perhaps the future will prove one of us right.
I gave you some good advice
Uh...where did you give any advice? You were so busy telling me I should be fired and how I'll live my days in prison or a grave, perhaps you forgot to make your point.
I'll be betting on myself, as your suggestion is that I back down and allow myself to be restrained. I'll do what is necessary to exit a hostile situation and nothing more.
Thank Buddha! Someone who understands the words I type. I was beginning to think that I typed the message in some strange foreign language that nobody understood.
At least there is one person with a backbone replying to my post. Most of the replies I'm reading think I'm some form of nutjob (I only let people who know me call me that)
Kudos to you for realizing that this is an aggressive and ugly world and sometimes aggressive ugliness is the appropriate response.
My service truck only holds so many parts. I don't typically carry a supply of Cisco routers or even every size of antenna, every type of radio, and every type of main-board we use in our network. I cannot control the telco DSLAM nor can I check the DS3 or T1 cross connects in the meet-me room of my provider.
There are a number of reasons I might not be able to just "fix-it". 95% of the time, it's a problem with a customer PC and 99% of that time I can fix it (I don't repair hardware that I'm not responsible for).
Believe me, I would rather not go to a customers house once, much less twice.
When I arrive to find the internet connection working properly and the problem is with a Frontpage site they're building (although the customer reported that the internet is down) I get a little pissed. I'm pissed at level 1, level 2 and the customer.
I'm salaried. I'm also level 3 support in my organization. If it doesn't get fixed today, I'm still responsible for it tomorrow. The major problem with some of these people is that they expect instant gratification. When it doesn't go their way they get belligerent and I nip that in the bud. Fortunately, I'm good friends with the owner and I can get away with just about anything.
If I can't fix it right now, there is a good reason.
The nice thing about being a services organization is that we can refuse service to anyone, at any time, for any reason (it's in the contract). The person who lost their account received a full refund and no possibility for future services because she couldn't keep her mouth shut. While I CAN take being called a bastard and piece of shit, I DON'T HAVE TO take it.
And to your next point, when an individual attempts to hold me against my will, the law is on my side and any action I take in self defense is justified. I will not attempt to take rights away from anyone else (Internet service isn't a right, it is a privilege for those who can afford it) and I expect the same in return.
I don't particularly look forward to using my scissors (or pen, or hammer, or keyhole saw, or a chunk of LMR-400 cable) on a person, but I am in touch with my inner animal and if you back me into a corner you should prepare to get bit.
Jail time for me? Surely you jest! I'm a fine upstanding member of society. What are you? Of course, I already know what you are. You're an anonymous coward.
You may not have noticed, but Amy Goodman of Democracy Now was arrested and charged with conspiracy to riot in St. Paul while asking why her fellow reporters were also arrested. The videos of the RNC protests are crazy. People being pepper sprayed at random and for no good reason.
Other reports from the area have houses full of journalists raided and lawyers from the national lawyers guild also being detained. I don't have much time, or I'd link to all the different videos..... They're out there if you're willing to spend the time to find them. Unfortunately, the major news media outlets are barely touching the story, and one thinks it doesn't go far enough. A Fox and Friends featured a short conversation which included a suggestion that the protesters should be arrested.
I would've linked to the original stories, but it seems that the Democracy Now website is currently down.
Wow, you're right...I don't use my electricians scissors to cut cat-5 cable, zip ties, butyl, my hand once, and anything else that gets in my way.
You're the type that would respond to #3. You would feel the burning need to immediately log on to call me "Mr. Internet Tough Guy" on/.
Go on, tell me how much cooler/smarter/right you are because of your lower-than-mine UID.
Now, if I had to poke a hole in someone because they attempted to restrain my exit, I'd be making the call to the cops myself. Kill someone in their own home? Surely you jest. I'm talking about opening the eyes of someone who thinks they're going to prevent me from leaving and you're talking about home-invasion and murder.
Right on, I didn't want to be the first person to say this video sucked. I kept turning the volume up thinking that bad sound levels were preventing me from hearing dialog. The only way it could've been more lame is if it was posted on MySpace.
If someone is willing to take it that far for an internet connection; I'm in a bad position from the moment I step in the door. There are some scary people out there, no doubt, but I don't let anyone get away with trying to intimidate me.
The day a gun gets pulled on me, I'll be taking a piece of that person with me.
The difference between you threatening to blow up the world and this ISP customer threatening to take the tech hostage is that the customer might have the capability to attempt the act.
Personally, I would've worked it out on my own....but that is because I detest lawyers. Besides, most people respond to reciprocal threats.
For example: Customer: "I'm gonna kick your ass if this isn't working..." --><-- Me: "Bring it on" (electricians scissors in hand)
Having been an on-site tech for a cable company, a DSL company, and a multi-service ISP; I can assure you that customers do think that they can prevent a technician from leaving if the service isn't working to their satisfaction. I've responded in a number of different ways to customers. Here are some of the ways I've managed to vacate the premise:
1. Explain that the issue is elsewhere and that preventing me from leaving will only prolong their outage. 2. Show that the problem is with their own equipment, and that I'm not responsible for it. 3. Offer to permanently close their account, remove the equipment, and blacklist their address/company/name (this only works if you are friends with the owner of the ISP, which I am) 4. Last resort - offer to remove some of their blood through an entirely new orifice that I will create.
#1 and #2 are usually effective and will get you out the door #3 I've used twice (one resulted in the closure of the account) #4 I've used once (electricians scissors are truly multi-purpose)
The key is to remain cold and unemotional when delivering your chosen line. #4 requires having the scissors in your hand.
When did it become illegal to own guns, knives, bows and arrows, flammable liquids, paint, slingshots or rocks. Also, your article contains a typo, it was 'bucket' of urine (from an apartment without a working toilet), and the other buckets were identified as unknown liquids and described as gray water for greener flushing by tenants.
I own many of these items. I've also used a bucket of water to flush my toilet. Likewise, I've known myself to urinate in various containers when a bathroom or appropriately concealed tree was unavailable.
So now we're arresting people on the assumption that they may commit a crime in the future. We don't know what they may have done, so we charge them with a "fire code violation".
This sounds a lot like "Precrime" as seen in Minority Report
Not at all, the BSOD is the method used to lose your work WITHOUT pressing any keys.
The difference here is the BSOD is an automated process for losing your work, where the three-fingered-salute is a manual process for losing your work. Both must exist, because the automated process is sometimes unreliable. When work must be lost NOW and the automated process fails, users have an alternative.
This deserves an extra informative, but I wanted to add a small suggestion related to your water-tight suggestion.
Invest in some form of desiccant. Take the previous suggestion of a laptop, exclude the battery but ensure that a power supply and relevant manuals. Be sure to burn-in the system for a few days. Pack it in layers with the desiccant and bags and I'm sure it would survive fairly well, especially in a welded shut container (encased with something else...like rust inhibiting primer and a rhinolining!)
but we should make the best of this question, because it is a good one.
Only recently have manufacturers jumped on a bandwagon. Many cell manufacturers are providing mini-usb connectors for charging and sync. With the recent addition of the new USB (3?) offering higher output voltages, we may see more manufacturers moving to a common charging system.
There are, of course, several manufacturers that require proprietary connectors or needle barrel plugs who should be encouraged to change to a standardized connector.
With the possibility of a common connector on the horizon, we may see the exact opposite of this post in the future. "I can't plug all of my devices in because I don't have enough USB ports" or "I can't find additional USB cables because they're so popular that the stores are sold out"
OK, so the latter will probably never happen, but I frequently run out of USB ports and have to make a decision about what gets unplugged.
The LiveCD option provides an avenue for forensic verification. If the system boots from a LiveCD, that disk can be compared via MD5SUM and SHA1SUM to a control copy to rule out tampering. With vote data stored separately of the OS, forensic investigation of misconduct can be focused on pure data instead of data + OS.
Let the poll workers take the voting machines home, they'll just get a fresh LiveCD on voting day.
Slashdot Mirror
Thank you for mentioning a tracert
You must be a Windows user.
It's generally difficult to compete as a private contractor against an army of consultants for a large project. The consultancy deserves a portion of the billing rate for their management of the project. I'm not sure that they deserve all they take, but c'est la vie.
I'm a private contractor in this case, and I keep 100% of my billing rate. The consultants on this project will see (if they're lucky) 50% of the billed rate. More often than not, the consultant will see much less than that.
An associate of mine bills $350/hr for SAP consulting but gets paid much less than 50% of that.
$150/hour is about right for short-term private contractors.
If Superman had any IT skills, he'd perform a traceroute to determine the devices gateway. Once the gateway was determined, block the mac address from accessing the network. If the admin of that device is worth his salt, he'll change the mac address and continue. They could then specifically enable allowed devices and forbid all others.
Forget finding it, make the network inaccessible.
City of SF Admins, if this proves to be your resolution, you owe me $150 for 1 hour of my time. Sorry, I do not bill in lower increments.
Not that I look forward to it happening again, but perhaps the future will prove one of us right.
I gave you some good advice
Uh...where did you give any advice? You were so busy telling me I should be fired and how I'll live my days in prison or a grave, perhaps you forgot to make your point.
I'll be betting on myself, as your suggestion is that I back down and allow myself to be restrained. I'll do what is necessary to exit a hostile situation and nothing more.
Either you're sheep or wolf. I'm not sheep.
You should re-read #4 of my original post. If you still feel the same, read it again. Repeat until the light bulb comes on.
Invite someone into your house then try to keep them captive and you call it false arrest? Try kidnapping!
Thank Buddha! Someone who understands the words I type. I was beginning to think that I typed the message in some strange foreign language that nobody understood.
At least there is one person with a backbone replying to my post. Most of the replies I'm reading think I'm some form of nutjob (I only let people who know me call me that)
Kudos to you for realizing that this is an aggressive and ugly world and sometimes aggressive ugliness is the appropriate response.
My service truck only holds so many parts. I don't typically carry a supply of Cisco routers or even every size of antenna, every type of radio, and every type of main-board we use in our network. I cannot control the telco DSLAM nor can I check the DS3 or T1 cross connects in the meet-me room of my provider.
There are a number of reasons I might not be able to just "fix-it". 95% of the time, it's a problem with a customer PC and 99% of that time I can fix it (I don't repair hardware that I'm not responsible for).
Believe me, I would rather not go to a customers house once, much less twice.
When I arrive to find the internet connection working properly and the problem is with a Frontpage site they're building (although the customer reported that the internet is down) I get a little pissed. I'm pissed at level 1, level 2 and the customer.
I'm salaried. I'm also level 3 support in my organization. If it doesn't get fixed today, I'm still responsible for it tomorrow. The major problem with some of these people is that they expect instant gratification. When it doesn't go their way they get belligerent and I nip that in the bud. Fortunately, I'm good friends with the owner and I can get away with just about anything.
If I can't fix it right now, there is a good reason.
The nice thing about being a services organization is that we can refuse service to anyone, at any time, for any reason (it's in the contract). The person who lost their account received a full refund and no possibility for future services because she couldn't keep her mouth shut. While I CAN take being called a bastard and piece of shit, I DON'T HAVE TO take it.
And to your next point, when an individual attempts to hold me against my will, the law is on my side and any action I take in self defense is justified. I will not attempt to take rights away from anyone else (Internet service isn't a right, it is a privilege for those who can afford it) and I expect the same in return.
I don't particularly look forward to using my scissors (or pen, or hammer, or keyhole saw, or a chunk of LMR-400 cable) on a person, but I am in touch with my inner animal and if you back me into a corner you should prepare to get bit.
Jail time for me? Surely you jest! I'm a fine upstanding member of society. What are you? Of course, I already know what you are. You're an anonymous coward.
You may not have noticed, but Amy Goodman of Democracy Now was arrested and charged with conspiracy to riot in St. Paul while asking why her fellow reporters were also arrested. The videos of the RNC protests are crazy. People being pepper sprayed at random and for no good reason.
Other reports from the area have houses full of journalists raided and lawyers from the national lawyers guild also being detained. I don't have much time, or I'd link to all the different videos..... They're out there if you're willing to spend the time to find them. Unfortunately, the major news media outlets are barely touching the story, and one thinks it doesn't go far enough. A Fox and Friends featured a short conversation which included a suggestion that the protesters should be arrested.
I would've linked to the original stories, but it seems that the Democracy Now website is currently down.
Wow, you're right...I don't use my electricians scissors to cut cat-5 cable, zip ties, butyl, my hand once, and anything else that gets in my way.
You're the type that would respond to #3. You would feel the burning need to immediately log on to call me "Mr. Internet Tough Guy" on /.
Go on, tell me how much cooler/smarter/right you are because of your lower-than-mine UID.
Now, if I had to poke a hole in someone because they attempted to restrain my exit, I'd be making the call to the cops myself. Kill someone in their own home? Surely you jest. I'm talking about opening the eyes of someone who thinks they're going to prevent me from leaving and you're talking about home-invasion and murder.
Right on, I didn't want to be the first person to say this video sucked. I kept turning the volume up thinking that bad sound levels were preventing me from hearing dialog. The only way it could've been more lame is if it was posted on MySpace.
Oh, wait...
What I generally hear is something like "You're not leaving until this is fixed." Those cases get response 1, 2 or 3.
Only once has someone stood in front of the door and told me that I wasn't leaving. Scissors in hand, I informed them "You can't stop me."
Scissors = tool of the trade in my hand
If someone is willing to take it that far for an internet connection; I'm in a bad position from the moment I step in the door. There are some scary people out there, no doubt, but I don't let anyone get away with trying to intimidate me.
The day a gun gets pulled on me, I'll be taking a piece of that person with me.
The difference between you threatening to blow up the world and this ISP customer threatening to take the tech hostage is that the customer might have the capability to attempt the act.
Personally, I would've worked it out on my own....but that is because I detest lawyers. Besides, most people respond to reciprocal threats.
For example:
Customer: "I'm gonna kick your ass if this isn't working..." --><-- Me: "Bring it on" (electricians scissors in hand)
Having been an on-site tech for a cable company, a DSL company, and a multi-service ISP; I can assure you that customers do think that they can prevent a technician from leaving if the service isn't working to their satisfaction. I've responded in a number of different ways to customers. Here are some of the ways I've managed to vacate the premise:
1. Explain that the issue is elsewhere and that preventing me from leaving will only prolong their outage.
2. Show that the problem is with their own equipment, and that I'm not responsible for it.
3. Offer to permanently close their account, remove the equipment, and blacklist their address/company/name (this only works if you are friends with the owner of the ISP, which I am)
4. Last resort - offer to remove some of their blood through an entirely new orifice that I will create.
#1 and #2 are usually effective and will get you out the door
#3 I've used twice (one resulted in the closure of the account)
#4 I've used once (electricians scissors are truly multi-purpose)
The key is to remain cold and unemotional when delivering your chosen line. #4 requires having the scissors in your hand.
When did it become illegal to own guns, knives, bows and arrows, flammable liquids, paint, slingshots or rocks. Also, your article contains a typo, it was 'bucket' of urine (from an apartment without a working toilet), and the other buckets were identified as unknown liquids and described as gray water for greener flushing by tenants.
I own many of these items. I've also used a bucket of water to flush my toilet. Likewise, I've known myself to urinate in various containers when a bathroom or appropriately concealed tree was unavailable.
Conspiracy to Commit *insert felony here*
So now we're arresting people on the assumption that they may commit a crime in the future. We don't know what they may have done, so we charge them with a "fire code violation".
This sounds a lot like "Precrime" as seen in Minority Report
Someone will surely point out that I'm wearing a tinfoil hat for having predicted this to my wife, but here goes anyway.
Posted Aug 27, 2008 - Police Seize Journalists Notes About RNC Protest Plans
They obtained the list of contacts and locations by seizing them from an independent journalist, then they put that information to use.
Not at all, the BSOD is the method used to lose your work WITHOUT pressing any keys.
The difference here is the BSOD is an automated process for losing your work, where the three-fingered-salute is a manual process for losing your work. Both must exist, because the automated process is sometimes unreliable. When work must be lost NOW and the automated process fails, users have an alternative.
Same result, different method.
This deserves an extra informative, but I wanted to add a small suggestion related to your water-tight suggestion.
Invest in some form of desiccant. Take the previous suggestion of a laptop, exclude the battery but ensure that a power supply and relevant manuals. Be sure to burn-in the system for a few days. Pack it in layers with the desiccant and bags and I'm sure it would survive fairly well, especially in a welded shut container (encased with something else...like rust inhibiting primer and a rhinolining!)
but we should make the best of this question, because it is a good one.
Only recently have manufacturers jumped on a bandwagon. Many cell manufacturers are providing mini-usb connectors for charging and sync. With the recent addition of the new USB (3?) offering higher output voltages, we may see more manufacturers moving to a common charging system.
There are, of course, several manufacturers that require proprietary connectors or needle barrel plugs who should be encouraged to change to a standardized connector.
With the possibility of a common connector on the horizon, we may see the exact opposite of this post in the future. "I can't plug all of my devices in because I don't have enough USB ports" or "I can't find additional USB cables because they're so popular that the stores are sold out"
OK, so the latter will probably never happen, but I frequently run out of USB ports and have to make a decision about what gets unplugged.
I don't even think it needs to be a LiveCD
The LiveCD option provides an avenue for forensic verification. If the system boots from a LiveCD, that disk can be compared via MD5SUM and SHA1SUM to a control copy to rule out tampering. With vote data stored separately of the OS, forensic investigation of misconduct can be focused on pure data instead of data + OS.
Let the poll workers take the voting machines home, they'll just get a fresh LiveCD on voting day.
Just my 14 cents (pfft...inflation...)