I would avoid signing anything without representation. If this was really sent to all of their customers, many who will be small, or like you unable/unwilling to go to court, organize. Contact a lawyer, explain the situation, and see if they are willing to contact others on behalf of some combination suit.
Most important, I would avoid taking any legal advice from here. Even if I was a lawyer (I am not), nothing says I am a good one or even know what I am talking about.
When I added my office to the house, I put Cat5 everywhere. In existing areas I ran it through the duct work. My house is high efficiency so the ductwork is all insulated dryer vent. (Okay, they give it a much better name, but that is what it is)
Then I run those through a linksys dsl/cable router that gives me 4+1 ports. (Since this time (six months ago), I believe they now offer an 8+1 with print server capabilities) I like that it acts as a basic firewall (still use a good firewall program), DHCP and DMZ server.
Then power. I gotta have the power. Two 20 amp runs into the office. Not two at the switch, two to the switches. I put in 4 gang boxes, but I am not certain I would do that again. Put 2s in and spread them out. The fours never let me plug in multiple transformers without cursing. [Hint... Mount one outlet prong up, the other down) [Hint 2: put in GFIs in the first outlets. They will take a lightening hit before your boxes]
Keep the lights on their own circuit and split the power to the boxes so that we never have more than one box on a switch to outlet line. (Hint#3...Put in a whole house surge suppressor, I do not trust it to protect everything, but expect it to blow out first and give the other stuff a fighting chance $50 at home depot)
If you are going to go wireless, buy with a return policy. It is funny (strange, not haha) that connections fail to connect in the living room, but will connect from the deck outside (25 feet further away). However, if it won't go where you need it, then it is useless.
Running through the ducts, I have not had a need to do wireless, but I did price it for fun. Way over the top for less throughput. Unless you cannot wire, do CAT5.
Finally, if you have not read one of the may "how to wire your own network" articles do so. Simple test: If you cannot tell when you would use a cross-over cable, you are not ready. [BTW - that was the easy question] This is not hard, but you get out of it what you put into it.
Everyone faces this dilemma. I have seen the split vary greatly depending on the skill set. If you provide a unique set of skills (say JAVA 2 years ago), your split might be as high as 80%. If however, you are new to the position and it is easier to find people (a new tester, little experience), your split may be as low as 40%
Eighty percent seems to be the magic high end if you work for someone else. Beyond bench time, healthcare, and business expenses, we need to pay half of the Social Security and Medicare taxes (~10%) and workers compensation. We then need to offer consistent retirement benefits if we want any ourselves. Finally, if the firm is of any size, they have a sales representative (or several), secretary, book keeper, etc. and a profit. All of this comes out of that other percentage.
I have seen "lost leaders", getting highly skilled (CICSO Certified Engineers) into the site paying 85%, so other consultants/contractors can be placed that actually bring in income.
So now that I have told you the percentage could be anything, how does that help? Consider:
Security - When we move into the next recession, will you still have a job even if work slow considerably? Is there a lot of work across multiple clients?
Extras - Do they treat you well? Pay for continuing education, hardware, books, etc?
Value - Can you articulate the value you bring? Can you do more than code? Do you? What would the current client say about your: Personality? Style? Knowledge? Willingness to get the job done at any cost? What would your coworkers say? Do you sell your company?
Be careful of the "I want it, because they are getting it," mentality. You are working for another company, where the owners find business, pay taxes, invoice clients, ensure your checks are paid, etc. They put themselves at risk creating the company. If you want it all, step out on your own.
If you do not want to step out on your own, then ask yourself, "what is fair compensation for me?" Keep an eye to what the market is doing, but do not drive yourself crazy wondering if you could get another 2.35% out of them.
Finally, I would offer one piece of advice. ASK. I am amazed sometimes at how a person will complain, bitch, and moan to coworkers, clients (a fatal error btw), the secretary, etc. but now ask the person who can give it. While it would be nice to think that employers are always watching the pay scale for the right reasons, sometimes the value statement just gets missed.
It appears your requirements are to simplify the login and security process. Regardless of the solution on the front end, you will need to develop a means of synchronizing passwords across the enterprise. This is a task in itself. I am certain someone here knows of a software package that does this.
Biometrics, while having some very cool technology, does have some drawbacks. Mainly, they depend on people to remain somewhat consistent across your workforce. While this would seem easy enough, consider that fingerprint scanners assume you have one. That eliminates most people missing hands, although they may be capable of doing the job.
Retinal scanners, and voice print have some issues with consistency (i.e. colds, hangovers, etc.) that can present an issue especially if you are not in a very high level security area. (You will become immediately unpopular the first time your boss cannot get her presentation, because of a head cold).
Now there are ways around all of these issues. However, if you have to handle the exceptions in the normal process of business, then what is the point?
You may want to try a key fob RSA SecurID.[I am sure there are other companies too] The fob changes its code every 30 seconds in synchronization with its host. A friend consults at a company that uses this to create a connection from anywhere. They have it set up to use a pin, key fob, IP combination to authenticate. If any one piece is changed, the access is rendered useless. After signing in, you are set to go. Now she did end up with two fobs but I believe that one is the "normal" environment, and the other authenticates the high security system when she needs access there.
Good luck, and I would be interested in hearing what you decide upon.
- There's so much I still don't understand...as it should be
I have one on my desk from IKEA ($59 USD). It works great, and adjusts to my constantly changing angles. Downside -- no mouse area, so I keep the mouse on the desk.
IKEA Keyboard Tray
If you feel the need to go all out, try this $249 unit from Levenger
Levenger Keyboard Tray
I would like to say I over clock because I need the cycles and it is less expensive than buying a new CPU... However, it is more a hobby than most anything else.
Consider people who buy a car for $1000 and put $8000 into it, so it is "factory" (circa 1972). Insane? Perhaps, however I look at it like any other interest. If you are willing to spend the time to learn (and there are plenty of places to learn), and you are willing to accept the risk, go for it...
If you are looking for logic, it can only be found in a few places. My C300A running at 450 saved me a couple hundred when I bought it, and an upgrade. However, I also knew that the chip was solid, the update easy and effective cooling possible (and cheap).
Tiger Woods may have won the U.S. Open, but the golf phenom might lose in U.S. District Court if he infringes on Dale D. Miller's patented putting technique. Since April Fools' Day 1997, Miller has had rights to a "putting method in which the golfer controls the speed of the putt and the direction of the putt primarily with the golfer's dominant throwing hand, yet uses the golfer's nondominant hand to maintain the blade of the putter stable." Patent No. 5,616,089.
Using this logic, I should submit a patent to prevent others from using the foremost fingertip for the purpose of striking where the result is a character or set of characters appearing on a vertical or horizontal surface in a prescribed order. I believe this would cover both paper and electronic forms.
As for the issue of "prior art", I believe the requirement is that I report any known version. I am not going to go out of my way to find examples. I mean alternative entry devices which may conflict with my patent.
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A 10 foot rope in a 20 foot hole is not a partial solution
In many areas the local monopolies have driven competition right back out the door. I get my DSL through Verizon the ONLY game in town. While they do have increased costs for the benefit of always on, or nearly always on connections, you will have to forgive me if I do not feel they are losing money on this deal. Aside from most people shutting down their connections, ISP can/do enable software shutdown/wakeup so a dead connection is truly a zero resource user.
The price "scare" is very similar to what the cable companies did a while back. First mention you have to have a large increase [Sorry the price is going up $20/month]. Let everyone get outraged at the ridiculous increases and get the utilities commission involved. Then "relent" to a meager increase of $8. Everyone thinks they win.
--The problem is not that most people are sheep, it is that most people think they are wolves.
I would have expected this in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. It is also very likely that 2600 will lose. MPAA chose an excellent target, a magazine which provides information to "hackers". Hackers who are typified to mom and dad as heroin addict looking individuals who are destroying their email, stealing from their bank accounts, and compromising national security for "fun".
Now, if we consider the simplest case where OS company "M" asks video card vendor "V" to stop anyone attempting to write a driver for another OS. Ingenious in a way that it would prevent anyone from expanding say OS "L" to include the newest technology.
We can add that anyone caught linking to the new "illegal" driver as guilty of a crime (based on the ruling above) and the rest is history... If you find this unlikely, consider your favorite video card and on which OS they sell the most. In the name of "quality" they want to ensure that only the best drivers, code, programs, data, links, etc. are available to their customers.
Now consider the experience level of the average PC user who has gotten 50 ILOVEYOU messages (and probably opened five), who do you think they will believe?
In all seriousness, you have a tough road ahead of you. While in many cases I see great advantages to us old guys, here is what I found. In the development world, technology gets you in the door, experiences keep you there. You need to get in the door first. In addition, you need pay that is going to keep you in your current lifestyle (what ever that may be).
Since you do not mention what your recent past experience is, my general suggestions are this:
Look for a company in your business area of expertise
Go in as a Business Analyst or Project Leader. You can then move within the organization to reclaim your skills and experiences in the current technology.
Expect to break even, salary wise, at best. You may do better than that but the market is fickle these days. Everyone wants to buy experience in the technology. (While claiming they want business experience)
I find small companies are a better option that larger or contract type work in your situation. Small companies are often happy to let you do more, regardless of what you were "hired" to do. I have found larger companies try to keep everyone in their "job codes", while contract work tends to hire technology.
If you want to lead the pack, I believe you may be better in XML technologies. The market is thinner and just getting off the ground. Someone who has the experience to recognize sale over substance is a godsend to many companies.
Be optimistic, you will be able to learn the technology faster than the person who needs to learn business. In addition, you have a track record (good or bad) that will make people hiring you feel more secure in predicting.
If you did not sound so serious, this almost seems like a test you would be given by your security people. Who will you give access to...?
I hope you said "Sorry. No can do..." Giving the security office access to everything implies that "security" will not be a risk. This goes with the same logic that police don't commit crimes. While generally true, there are exceptions and they are caught by the process. The process says one person cannot do everything or there is no security.
Perhaps she does not understand enough to know what permissions she may need. Find out what she thinks sysadmin will give her that cannot be done in some other fashion.
First a disclaimer, not knowing the ins and outs, I can only make a couple of assumptions:
1 - you do not know the intimate details and may not understand what the client has asked for. If they asked for wizbang1 because they read about it AND it is the only solution they will accept, than wizbang1 is what they get.
I have seen this on several occasions with J2EE. Clients want J2EE products even though they cannot describe what it is or why they want it. EJBs same thing. Gotta be EJBs...only way to go. You can talk until you are blue, but someone has put the seed in them and this dog won't hunt.
This is no more unethical than denying people Porsches because they can use a Chevy to get from work and home. Once you told them, and told them, in the end it is their money. Now if you fail to tell them, then we get into #2.
2 - you do know the intimate details and can speak to the specific issue at hand. At that point, if the money has not been spent, speak up. [If it has been spent remain silent for life] You would be surprised at who people will listen to when they are about to spend big money. Remember to be specific and LISTEN. Most poor consultants cover themselves with generalizations and ambiguous explanations about "the future". You will need to make your points better than they have with alternative solutions. If you tell them Jim's ideas suck, without an alternative you have not done them or yourself any favors.
In the end, if they decide to go with the other options anyway, remember to be a good sport, try to make the chosen solution work, and never go for the "I told you so"
We do not need an ethical standard for consultants and computer development. We just need to have the ethics of a human that does the best job they can, under the circumstances presented, without hurting their fellow human beings. It is really the basic "do unto others..." doctrine. Consultant or convenience store clerk, it is the same.
To answer you questions:
An agency worth working for should absorb the cycle. If not, find another one.
About the best you can hope for when using an agency in the US is an 80/20 split. The agency has to pay 10% tax, just to have you work. If the owner takes benefits they must be made available to the employees. This often forces the 30% split just so they can have their own retirement fund.
If you are in enough demand you do not have down time, forget the agency in the US. The taxes always work for a business owner. For example, as an employee your equipment is not deductable. As an ower, most expenses are.
The exception to this is H1-B holders who need the agency. It would be interesting to see what would happen if I hired you to work at my company from your location. H1-B does not matter, but I wonder how the taxes, etc. work.
I have no desire to see child porn exist. It is vile, and the people who produce or use it are disturbed individuals to whom help should be provided. Help offered outside the free rein of society.
But where do we draw the line? Several people have draw similarities between "virtual porn" and "virtual murder." Should your last quake match mark you a murder? What about Ultima Online, is that a real relationship? Should you be accountable for it? People who have had their ids stolen think so. Ebay, even puts a price on that relationship.
While it is easy to wax philosophical and say "it's not real" and "better virtual than real", I believe we need to look at the intent. I am not a prude or naïve, but we need to start drawing the line on responsibility not medium. We do not want child pornography because it represents the most abhorrent behavior in our society. Whether it be real, cartoon, or virtual, it is still abhorrent.
While we would like to believe "this is different" because those people do not exist, is it really? Virtual drugs, do not exist. Virtual death, does not really happen. Virtual porn however does exist. Much like ordering illegal drugs over the internet, upon their arrival you have committed a crime. It does not matter how you ordered them, you now own them.
Sometimes we try to make these free speech issues, "Virtual porn now, ebooks later." However as a society we can and need to begin seeing the difference. A friendly game of quake may get your blood flowing but it is not illegal. Child-porn is illegal, and whether the medium is virtual or actual, does it matter? If not, then would only the child porn, observed first person be illegal? Those are just "pictures" and that's not the same as being there.
Consider when we put your virtual likeness into the picture of such an "encounter". Since it is not really you was any harm done? Would your family, friends, or boss agree? If harm can be done to you from the virtual environment, we can conclude the environment can be harmful to anyone.
I have been contracting for about 5 years. Before that I was 12 years with a fortune 5 company doing development work.
Here are some of my experiences:
If you cannot sell yourself you are in trouble. An agency will get you an interview, you will get yourself hired
If you depend on an agency to look for positions before you are on the street, you are kidding yourself. You need to know when your contract date is coming up and force the issue with the current contract or start looking for the next.
Most companies expect to pay more for you and will pay any hours you work. Bigger companies resist paying for overtime, even though they expect you to work it. If that is their deal, be prepared with an alternate rate.
Prepare for a 30, 60, or 90 day billing cycle. This means the work you did in January will result in a check sometime in March. Part of what an agency can give you is the regular pay. They absorb the cycle.
You are responsible for your own training and upkeep.
You are a guest. You have given up the right to complain, remark or criticize unless asked.
You are not an employee. Never forget it because employees do not. Many are great to work with. Many are repulsed by your presence. Why are you paid X more than they are for doing the same job? Forget the reasoning, stay out of it. And yes, someone will tell them how much your billable rate (regardless of the portion you get)
Take a task or do not. Do not complain, whine or describe to the world the pain and suffering you went through to complete the task.
Yes, they did hire someone who could not find their desk with a map and GPS, and they are paying them more. Get over it. You said you would work for X/hour, everyone else is not your problem
If you are paid by the hour, for all hours, I HIGHLY recommend taking on anything past to you at any time. Someone calls me at 8:00pm after I have been working all day...bring it on. You do not want to work yourself to death, but you want to be the person people know they can call anytime. You will be the last of the contractors to go.
Never talk money in the office. It like telling your wife how good your last girlfriend was.
You will need insurance. Join the Chamber of Commerce, etc. They offer a discount rate compared to what you can get on your own.
Build a nest egg first. If the economy tanks, contractors are the first to get booted. Know you will need to live for three months without income.
You will get booted. That is why you were hired, so they could let you go at some point. If you take that personally you will not last long
Finance your own retirement. It's a great deduction and you will not have many.
If you use an agency (W-2), expect them to keep 30% or more.
As your own agency, you lose an additional 10% minimum to taxes beyond what you pay as an employee
Finally, if you do not know the difference between a contractor and a consultant you are the former. Heads down coders are paid the least. Pick up your head and see the forest through the trees. Bring solutions to problems and pay attention to your bosses problems.
I agree we are on the beta version of life with p2p. However, how fast it grows is a dependent on three things.
The first, as with everything network related is bandwidth, bandwidth, and more bandwidth. Most of the materials being sent around today are large. Correct that VERY large. Most of the connections are small, very small (56k is the upper end, only/. type people are running broadband or Tx, Dx type lines)
The second, is ease of use. The assessment of freenet is accurate. It does have a way to go, but look for it to get there. Dedicated people are working on it and like Gnutella it is growing. Gnutella is much closer, and it is not a stretch for anyone to go to gnutellahosts.com to start the link. Windows update, on-line registration, etc. has gotten people use to this. A little tweak to integration and people would not know it was even happening.
Third and probably the most concerning is the legal issues. ISPs may be protected, but it is only very light gray whether individuals are. It could and will be argued at some point that you allowed your computer to be used for illegal activity.
Will they sue/arrest 9 million Gnutella users? No. Just 10 or 20 really public cases where winning is certain. The worst of the worst which will be used to paint the entire user base as criminal "@ackers", out to steal your files, send you viruses, etc...
Given a select team, with access to the necessary materials, specifications and resources, while being allowed to control scope and the Hawthorne Effect, projects are done twice as fast.
Forgive me the soap box, but does this sound like projects you work on? In general specifications are ambiguous, the requirements unclear and access to the materials and people are often on a "when available" basis.
Unless they are offering you contacts, you are really not getting much.
Assuming a one person shop, you file a schedule C and are done. You are no longer able to protect your assets in by incorporating and it just costs you additional taxes.
Then join the Chamber of Commerce and figure expenses this way:
Health ~250 / month
Liability - contact an agent this is state specific
Life - you specific
~7.5% - additional tax (you pay both sides of Social Security/Medicare)
Now you get to write off everything, including the powerbook, training, home office, etc. plus you can max out your own retirement plan.
Once again, unless they are offering to locate contracts for you, or you are "risk adverse", stay solo.
Good luck...
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IANAL, but I sometimes sound like one on the web...;-)
Risk Adverse - anyone who for personal reasons cannot accept the potential of being unemployed, even if economics are factored in.
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I have an in-depth understanding of hardware, networks, drives, operating systems, as well as application and system programming. Yet, I could not fix the monitor to save my life. Hardly a need for concern as monitor technology is not really a component of my profession, beyond "does it work?".
This is an end user with a television. I would feel different about a college student seeking a comp sci degree or a Sysadmin. If we assume that not everyone in the world will enter the base profession of most/. readers, I do not see an issue.
However it does point out the ever present concern of complexity in computing. Why should he have to understand what a driver is or what a hard drive does unless it is germane to the task at hand? Why do these things continue to be germane to "simple" tasks? While I like to understand how these things I look forward to when it will no longer be "necessary" to getting my job done.
Come on folks, there are literally hundreds of ISPs to choose from. AOL, of which I am not a member, has always attempted to control the front end. In doing so, the do control content, however it also makes it easier for them to provide customer service.
Could they do it like most others? Certainly, however they are a brand, and like most brands they want to differentiate themselves. AOL's business model is such that they want people to shop/read/sleep/etc. within the confines of their environment.
I liken this to a hotel. If I do not like the way the beds are or the choice of activities, I do not stay their. If enough people stop staying, the hotel changes or dies. Such is life in business.
This is out of hand. I know removing TLDs sounds radical, but what about limiting them from the current set, to the current set including government extensions.
As we have seen, with the exception of generic, i.e. "business.com", "travel.com", etc. Trademarks & Copyrights are protecting the business name anyway. Why should I need to be concerned with someone using mybusinessname.web or.zine or.fund or one of the soon to be 45+ variations.
I own mybusinessname and international courts seem to agree. They even appear to be leaning towards me owning the derivations (mybusinessnamesucks) too. It seems this process only ensures we will continue to litigate the ownership rights to the "mybusinessname" part in 45 new ways (plus every country).
TLDs served a purpose 15 years ago, when I wanted to know what type or who owned the site I was visiting. Back then it was an actual question, now it serves little purpose, as most browsers auto complete names anyway. TLDs should not be expanded at all and the process would be cleaned up considerably.
Since you have your spec down, try host search. It lists a large number (but not all) web hosts, features and prices.
Host Search or
Top Hosts which includes addtional information on many of the same sites.
I have about a dozen I am comparing, which beats the alternative. One strange thing however has been the bizarre variance in pricing. 150 meg with 5 gig might cost $16 a month, but 300 meg from the same place will cost you $49. Talk about an inverse price per megabyte relationship.
I have supported numerous systems and clients over the past 15 years. Of those only one has offered additional compensation for the support.
The one that did compensate, did so at a rate of 16% of salary for the week. The others considered it part of your job description and thus it was suppose to be included in your salary.
If you are going to be looking for a job, including development and lead positions, it is an important question to ask. If on-call is expected, you may want to know what that means. Some companies do not support external connections, this mean every page is a trip to the office. Others believe on-call people should work the shift. While it can be a benefit (no calls, you can get plenty of work done), it can be a lifestyle issue.
As a leader I pay people with true production support experience better than others to start.
Call it "trial by fire" because it does differentiate those who think they can from those who really can.
Flamers are levelers and equalizers, obnoxious maybe, but also democratic. They are BS and hype hunters. When it comes to getting flamed, everybody online is equal. A tool of the adolescent and the young, flaming is a counterstrike against real or perceived authority figures, the very types you can't go after on the non-virtual realm. Flamers are indefatigable and enthusiastic
While in many cases this is true, I am seeing a disturbing trend in opinion being "flamed" as fact. They rarely hunt hype and BS, instead they create it. This leads to uninformed or incorrect conclusions based merely on an antagonists willingness to suppress discussion. While it may be a tool of the young or the oppressed, it does not equate to intelligent discourse, it merely supplies "take that."
What has happened is people are given a sense of anonymity. The feeling they can poison the neighbors' dog, whether it barks or not, without fear of being held accountable.
The positive side is many discussion boards (like this one) are making the effort to remove the pure flamers. "Dumbing down" their response to -1 to provide the rest of us with a true forum for discussion. If they are of true value would we really have the -1 responses outnumber the other by 2, 4, or more to 1?
While I appreciate the desire to avoid changing do we really want a release to be forced to maintain such functionality.
It does raise the question how much do we want to support? Do we force everyone into an upgrade at each release? Should we take the approach much like windows that everything that functioned in you last upgrade still does?
Both options are limiting in one respect or another. However in the OOS environment, if my only fixes come in a new release, then how do I manage both without coding my own version? This is certainly not an option for the mainstream applications users.
Slashdot Mirror
I would avoid signing anything without representation. If this was really sent to all of their customers, many who will be small, or like you unable/unwilling to go to court, organize. Contact a lawyer, explain the situation, and see if they are willing to contact others on behalf of some combination suit.
Most important, I would avoid taking any legal advice from here. Even if I was a lawyer (I am not), nothing says I am a good one or even know what I am talking about.
When I added my office to the house, I put Cat5 everywhere. In existing areas I ran it through the duct work. My house is high efficiency so the ductwork is all insulated dryer vent. (Okay, they give it a much better name, but that is what it is)
Then I run those through a linksys dsl/cable router that gives me 4+1 ports. (Since this time (six months ago), I believe they now offer an 8+1 with print server capabilities) I like that it acts as a basic firewall (still use a good firewall program), DHCP and DMZ server.
Then power. I gotta have the power. Two 20 amp runs into the office. Not two at the switch, two to the switches. I put in 4 gang boxes, but I am not certain I would do that again. Put 2s in and spread them out. The fours never let me plug in multiple transformers without cursing. [Hint... Mount one outlet prong up, the other down) [Hint 2: put in GFIs in the first outlets. They will take a lightening hit before your boxes]
Keep the lights on their own circuit and split the power to the boxes so that we never have more than one box on a switch to outlet line. (Hint#3...Put in a whole house surge suppressor, I do not trust it to protect everything, but expect it to blow out first and give the other stuff a fighting chance $50 at home depot)
If you are going to go wireless, buy with a return policy. It is funny (strange, not haha) that connections fail to connect in the living room, but will connect from the deck outside (25 feet further away). However, if it won't go where you need it, then it is useless.
Running through the ducts, I have not had a need to do wireless, but I did price it for fun. Way over the top for less throughput. Unless you cannot wire, do CAT5.
Finally, if you have not read one of the may "how to wire your own network" articles do so. Simple test: If you cannot tell when you would use a cross-over cable, you are not ready. [BTW - that was the easy question] This is not hard, but you get out of it what you put into it.
Good luck...
Everyone faces this dilemma. I have seen the split vary greatly depending on the skill set. If you provide a unique set of skills (say JAVA 2 years ago), your split might be as high as 80%. If however, you are new to the position and it is easier to find people (a new tester, little experience), your split may be as low as 40%
Eighty percent seems to be the magic high end if you work for someone else. Beyond bench time, healthcare, and business expenses, we need to pay half of the Social Security and Medicare taxes (~10%) and workers compensation. We then need to offer consistent retirement benefits if we want any ourselves. Finally, if the firm is of any size, they have a sales representative (or several), secretary, book keeper, etc. and a profit. All of this comes out of that other percentage.
I have seen "lost leaders", getting highly skilled (CICSO Certified Engineers) into the site paying 85%, so other consultants/contractors can be placed that actually bring in income.
So now that I have told you the percentage could be anything, how does that help? Consider:
Security - When we move into the next recession, will you still have a job even if work slow considerably? Is there a lot of work across multiple clients?
Extras - Do they treat you well? Pay for continuing education, hardware, books, etc?
Value - Can you articulate the value you bring? Can you do more than code? Do you? What would the current client say about your: Personality? Style? Knowledge? Willingness to get the job done at any cost? What would your coworkers say? Do you sell your company?
Be careful of the "I want it, because they are getting it," mentality. You are working for another company, where the owners find business, pay taxes, invoice clients, ensure your checks are paid, etc. They put themselves at risk creating the company. If you want it all, step out on your own.
If you do not want to step out on your own, then ask yourself, "what is fair compensation for me?" Keep an eye to what the market is doing, but do not drive yourself crazy wondering if you could get another 2.35% out of them.
Finally, I would offer one piece of advice. ASK. I am amazed sometimes at how a person will complain, bitch, and moan to coworkers, clients (a fatal error btw), the secretary, etc. but now ask the person who can give it. While it would be nice to think that employers are always watching the pay scale for the right reasons, sometimes the value statement just gets missed.
It appears your requirements are to simplify the login and security process. Regardless of the solution on the front end, you will need to develop a means of synchronizing passwords across the enterprise. This is a task in itself. I am certain someone here knows of a software package that does this.
Biometrics, while having some very cool technology, does have some drawbacks. Mainly, they depend on people to remain somewhat consistent across your workforce. While this would seem easy enough, consider that fingerprint scanners assume you have one. That eliminates most people missing hands, although they may be capable of doing the job.
Retinal scanners, and voice print have some issues with consistency (i.e. colds, hangovers, etc.) that can present an issue especially if you are not in a very high level security area. (You will become immediately unpopular the first time your boss cannot get her presentation, because of a head cold).
Now there are ways around all of these issues. However, if you have to handle the exceptions in the normal process of business, then what is the point?
You may want to try a key fob RSA SecurID.[I am sure there are other companies too] The fob changes its code every 30 seconds in synchronization with its host. A friend consults at a company that uses this to create a connection from anywhere. They have it set up to use a pin, key fob, IP combination to authenticate. If any one piece is changed, the access is rendered useless. After signing in, you are set to go. Now she did end up with two fobs but I believe that one is the "normal" environment, and the other authenticates the high security system when she needs access there.
Good luck, and I would be interested in hearing what you decide upon.
- There's so much I still don't understand...as it should be
I have one on my desk from IKEA ($59 USD). It works great, and adjusts to my constantly changing angles. Downside -- no mouse area, so I keep the mouse on the desk.
IKEA Keyboard Tray
If you feel the need to go all out, try this $249 unit from Levenger
Levenger Keyboard Tray
I would like to say I over clock because I need the cycles and it is less expensive than buying a new CPU... However, it is more a hobby than most anything else.
;-)
Consider people who buy a car for $1000 and put $8000 into it, so it is "factory" (circa 1972). Insane? Perhaps, however I look at it like any other interest. If you are willing to spend the time to learn (and there are plenty of places to learn), and you are willing to accept the risk, go for it...
If you are looking for logic, it can only be found in a few places. My C300A running at 450 saved me a couple hundred when I bought it, and an upgrade. However, I also knew that the chip was solid, the update easy and effective cooling possible (and cheap).
Other people sky dive and they call me crazy..
Tiger Woods may have won the U.S. Open, but the golf phenom might lose in U.S. District Court if he infringes on Dale D. Miller's patented putting technique. Since April Fools' Day 1997, Miller has had rights to a "putting method in which the golfer controls the speed of the putt and the direction of the putt primarily with the golfer's dominant throwing hand, yet uses the golfer's nondominant hand to maintain the blade of the putter stable." Patent No. 5,616,089.
Using this logic, I should submit a patent to prevent others from using the foremost fingertip for the purpose of striking where the result is a character or set of characters appearing on a vertical or horizontal surface in a prescribed order. I believe this would cover both paper and electronic forms.
As for the issue of "prior art", I believe the requirement is that I report any known version. I am not going to go out of my way to find examples. I mean alternative entry devices which may conflict with my patent.
-
A 10 foot rope in a 20 foot hole is not a partial solution
In many areas the local monopolies have driven competition right back out the door. I get my DSL through Verizon the ONLY game in town. While they do have increased costs for the benefit of always on, or nearly always on connections, you will have to forgive me if I do not feel they are losing money on this deal. Aside from most people shutting down their connections, ISP can/do enable software shutdown/wakeup so a dead connection is truly a zero resource user.
The price "scare" is very similar to what the cable companies did a while back. First mention you have to have a large increase [Sorry the price is going up $20/month]. Let everyone get outraged at the ridiculous increases and get the utilities commission involved. Then "relent" to a meager increase of $8. Everyone thinks they win.
--The problem is not that most people are sheep, it is that most people think they are wolves.
I would have expected this in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. It is also very likely that 2600 will lose. MPAA chose an excellent target, a magazine which provides information to "hackers". Hackers who are typified to mom and dad as heroin addict looking individuals who are destroying their email, stealing from their bank accounts, and compromising national security for "fun".
Now, if we consider the simplest case where OS company "M" asks video card vendor "V" to stop anyone attempting to write a driver for another OS. Ingenious in a way that it would prevent anyone from expanding say OS "L" to include the newest technology.
We can add that anyone caught linking to the new "illegal" driver as guilty of a crime (based on the ruling above) and the rest is history... If you find this unlikely, consider your favorite video card and on which OS they sell the most. In the name of "quality" they want to ensure that only the best drivers, code, programs, data, links, etc. are available to their customers.
Now consider the experience level of the average PC user who has gotten 50 ILOVEYOU messages (and probably opened five), who do you think they will believe?
Since you do not mention what your recent past experience is, my general suggestions are this:
Look for a company in your business area of expertise
Go in as a Business Analyst or Project Leader. You can then move within the organization to reclaim your skills and experiences in the current technology.
Expect to break even, salary wise, at best. You may do better than that but the market is fickle these days. Everyone wants to buy experience in the technology. (While claiming they want business experience)
I find small companies are a better option that larger or contract type work in your situation. Small companies are often happy to let you do more, regardless of what you were "hired" to do. I have found larger companies try to keep everyone in their "job codes", while contract work tends to hire technology.
If you want to lead the pack, I believe you may be better in XML technologies. The market is thinner and just getting off the ground. Someone who has the experience to recognize sale over substance is a godsend to many companies.
Be optimistic, you will be able to learn the technology faster than the person who needs to learn business. In addition, you have a track record (good or bad) that will make people hiring you feel more secure in predicting.
If you did not sound so serious, this almost seems like a test you would be given by your security people. Who will you give access to...?
I hope you said "Sorry. No can do..." Giving the security office access to everything implies that "security" will not be a risk. This goes with the same logic that police don't commit crimes. While generally true, there are exceptions and they are caught by the process. The process says one person cannot do everything or there is no security.
Perhaps she does not understand enough to know what permissions she may need. Find out what she thinks sysadmin will give her that cannot be done in some other fashion.
First a disclaimer, not knowing the ins and outs, I can only make a couple of assumptions:
1 - you do not know the intimate details and may not understand what the client has asked for. If they asked for wizbang1 because they read about it AND it is the only solution they will accept, than wizbang1 is what they get.
I have seen this on several occasions with J2EE. Clients want J2EE products even though they cannot describe what it is or why they want it. EJBs same thing. Gotta be EJBs...only way to go. You can talk until you are blue, but someone has put the seed in them and this dog won't hunt.
This is no more unethical than denying people Porsches because they can use a Chevy to get from work and home. Once you told them, and told them, in the end it is their money. Now if you fail to tell them, then we get into #2.
2 - you do know the intimate details and can speak to the specific issue at hand. At that point, if the money has not been spent, speak up. [If it has been spent remain silent for life] You would be surprised at who people will listen to when they are about to spend big money. Remember to be specific and LISTEN. Most poor consultants cover themselves with generalizations and ambiguous explanations about "the future". You will need to make your points better than they have with alternative solutions. If you tell them Jim's ideas suck, without an alternative you have not done them or yourself any favors.
In the end, if they decide to go with the other options anyway, remember to be a good sport, try to make the chosen solution work, and never go for the "I told you so"
We do not need an ethical standard for consultants and computer development. We just need to have the ethics of a human that does the best job they can, under the circumstances presented, without hurting their fellow human beings. It is really the basic "do unto others..." doctrine. Consultant or convenience store clerk, it is the same.
To answer you questions:
An agency worth working for should absorb the cycle. If not, find another one.
About the best you can hope for when using an agency in the US is an 80/20 split. The agency has to pay 10% tax, just to have you work. If the owner takes benefits they must be made available to the employees. This often forces the 30% split just so they can have their own retirement fund.
If you are in enough demand you do not have down time, forget the agency in the US. The taxes always work for a business owner. For example, as an employee your equipment is not deductable. As an ower, most expenses are.
The exception to this is H1-B holders who need the agency. It would be interesting to see what would happen if I hired you to work at my company from your location. H1-B does not matter, but I wonder how the taxes, etc. work.
I have no desire to see child porn exist. It is vile, and the people who produce or use it are disturbed individuals to whom help should be provided. Help offered outside the free rein of society.
But where do we draw the line? Several people have draw similarities between "virtual porn" and "virtual murder." Should your last quake match mark you a murder? What about Ultima Online, is that a real relationship? Should you be accountable for it? People who have had their ids stolen think so. Ebay, even puts a price on that relationship.
While it is easy to wax philosophical and say "it's not real" and "better virtual than real", I believe we need to look at the intent. I am not a prude or naïve, but we need to start drawing the line on responsibility not medium. We do not want child pornography because it represents the most abhorrent behavior in our society. Whether it be real, cartoon, or virtual, it is still abhorrent.
While we would like to believe "this is different" because those people do not exist, is it really? Virtual drugs, do not exist. Virtual death, does not really happen. Virtual porn however does exist. Much like ordering illegal drugs over the internet, upon their arrival you have committed a crime. It does not matter how you ordered them, you now own them.
Sometimes we try to make these free speech issues, "Virtual porn now, ebooks later." However as a society we can and need to begin seeing the difference. A friendly game of quake may get your blood flowing but it is not illegal. Child-porn is illegal, and whether the medium is virtual or actual, does it matter? If not, then would only the child porn, observed first person be illegal? Those are just "pictures" and that's not the same as being there.
Consider when we put your virtual likeness into the picture of such an "encounter". Since it is not really you was any harm done? Would your family, friends, or boss agree? If harm can be done to you from the virtual environment, we can conclude the environment can be harmful to anyone.
Here are some of my experiences:
If you cannot sell yourself you are in trouble. An agency will get you an interview, you will get yourself hired
If you depend on an agency to look for positions before you are on the street, you are kidding yourself. You need to know when your contract date is coming up and force the issue with the current contract or start looking for the next.
Most companies expect to pay more for you and will pay any hours you work. Bigger companies resist paying for overtime, even though they expect you to work it. If that is their deal, be prepared with an alternate rate.
Prepare for a 30, 60, or 90 day billing cycle. This means the work you did in January will result in a check sometime in March. Part of what an agency can give you is the regular pay. They absorb the cycle.
You are responsible for your own training and upkeep.
You are a guest. You have given up the right to complain, remark or criticize unless asked.
You are not an employee. Never forget it because employees do not. Many are great to work with. Many are repulsed by your presence. Why are you paid X more than they are for doing the same job? Forget the reasoning, stay out of it. And yes, someone will tell them how much your billable rate (regardless of the portion you get)
Take a task or do not. Do not complain, whine or describe to the world the pain and suffering you went through to complete the task.
Yes, they did hire someone who could not find their desk with a map and GPS, and they are paying them more. Get over it. You said you would work for X/hour, everyone else is not your problem
If you are paid by the hour, for all hours, I HIGHLY recommend taking on anything past to you at any time. Someone calls me at 8:00pm after I have been working all day...bring it on. You do not want to work yourself to death, but you want to be the person people know they can call anytime. You will be the last of the contractors to go.
Never talk money in the office. It like telling your wife how good your last girlfriend was.
You will need insurance. Join the Chamber of Commerce, etc. They offer a discount rate compared to what you can get on your own.
Build a nest egg first. If the economy tanks, contractors are the first to get booted. Know you will need to live for three months without income.
You will get booted. That is why you were hired, so they could let you go at some point. If you take that personally you will not last long
Finance your own retirement. It's a great deduction and you will not have many.
If you use an agency (W-2), expect them to keep 30% or more.
As your own agency, you lose an additional 10% minimum to taxes beyond what you pay as an employee
Finally, if you do not know the difference between a contractor and a consultant you are the former. Heads down coders are paid the least. Pick up your head and see the forest through the trees. Bring solutions to problems and pay attention to your bosses problems.
I agree we are on the beta version of life with p2p. However, how fast it grows is a dependent on three things.
/. type people are running broadband or Tx, Dx type lines)
The first, as with everything network related is bandwidth, bandwidth, and more bandwidth. Most of the materials being sent around today are large. Correct that VERY large. Most of the connections are small, very small (56k is the upper end, only
The second, is ease of use. The assessment of freenet is accurate. It does have a way to go, but look for it to get there. Dedicated people are working on it and like Gnutella it is growing. Gnutella is much closer, and it is not a stretch for anyone to go to gnutellahosts.com to start the link. Windows update, on-line registration, etc. has gotten people use to this. A little tweak to integration and people would not know it was even happening.
Third and probably the most concerning is the legal issues. ISPs may be protected, but it is only very light gray whether individuals are. It could and will be argued at some point that you allowed your computer to be used for illegal activity.
Will they sue/arrest 9 million Gnutella users? No. Just 10 or 20 really public cases where winning is certain. The worst of the worst which will be used to paint the entire user base as criminal "@ackers", out to steal your files, send you viruses, etc...
Given a select team, with access to the necessary materials, specifications and resources, while being allowed to control scope and the Hawthorne Effect, projects are done twice as fast.
Forgive me the soap box, but does this sound like projects you work on? In general specifications are ambiguous, the requirements unclear and access to the materials and people are often on a "when available" basis.
I hope my tax dollars did not pay for this.
Unless they are offering you contacts, you are really not getting much.
;-)
Assuming a one person shop, you file a schedule C and are done. You are no longer able to protect your assets in by incorporating and it just costs you additional taxes.
Then join the Chamber of Commerce and figure expenses this way:
Health ~250 / month
Liability - contact an agent this is state specific
Life - you specific
~7.5% - additional tax (you pay both sides of Social Security/Medicare)
Now you get to write off everything, including the powerbook, training, home office, etc. plus you can max out your own retirement plan.
Once again, unless they are offering to locate contracts for you, or you are "risk adverse", stay solo.
Good luck...
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IANAL, but I sometimes sound like one on the web...
Risk Adverse - anyone who for personal reasons cannot accept the potential of being unemployed, even if economics are factored in.
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I have an in-depth understanding of hardware, networks, drives, operating systems, as well as application and system programming. Yet, I could not fix the monitor to save my life. Hardly a need for concern as monitor technology is not really a component of my profession, beyond "does it work?".
/. readers, I do not see an issue.
This is an end user with a television. I would feel different about a college student seeking a comp sci degree or a Sysadmin. If we assume that not everyone in the world will enter the base profession of most
However it does point out the ever present concern of complexity in computing. Why should he have to understand what a driver is or what a hard drive does unless it is germane to the task at hand? Why do these things continue to be germane to "simple" tasks? While I like to understand how these things I look forward to when it will no longer be "necessary" to getting my job done.
Come on folks, there are literally hundreds of ISPs to choose from. AOL, of which I am not a member, has always attempted to control the front end. In doing so, the do control content, however it also makes it easier for them to provide customer service.
Could they do it like most others? Certainly, however they are a brand, and like most brands they want to differentiate themselves. AOL's business model is such that they want people to shop/read/sleep/etc. within the confines of their environment.
I liken this to a hotel. If I do not like the way the beds are or the choice of activities, I do not stay their. If enough people stop staying, the hotel changes or dies. Such is life in business.
This is out of hand. I know removing TLDs sounds radical, but what about limiting them from the current set, to the current set including government extensions.
.zine or .fund or one of the soon to be 45+ variations.
As we have seen, with the exception of generic, i.e. "business.com", "travel.com", etc. Trademarks & Copyrights are protecting the business name anyway. Why should I need to be concerned with someone using mybusinessname.web or
I own mybusinessname and international courts seem to agree. They even appear to be leaning towards me owning the derivations (mybusinessnamesucks) too. It seems this process only ensures we will continue to litigate the ownership rights to the "mybusinessname" part in 45 new ways (plus every country).
TLDs served a purpose 15 years ago, when I wanted to know what type or who owned the site I was visiting. Back then it was an actual question, now it serves little purpose, as most browsers auto complete names anyway. TLDs should not be expanded at all and the process would be cleaned up considerably.
Since you have your spec down, try host search. It lists a large number (but not all) web hosts, features and prices.
Host Search
or
Top Hosts which includes addtional information on many of the same sites.
I have about a dozen I am comparing, which beats the alternative. One strange thing however has been the bizarre variance in pricing. 150 meg with 5 gig might cost $16 a month, but 300 meg from the same place will cost you $49. Talk about an inverse price per megabyte relationship.
Regards.
I have supported numerous systems and clients over the past 15 years. Of those only one has offered additional compensation for the support.
;-)
The one that did compensate, did so at a rate of 16% of salary for the week. The others considered it part of your job description and thus it was suppose to be included in your salary.
If you are going to be looking for a job, including development and lead positions, it is an important question to ask. If on-call is expected, you may want to know what that means. Some companies do not support external connections, this mean every page is a trip to the office. Others believe on-call people should work the shift. While it can be a benefit (no calls, you can get plenty of work done), it can be a lifestyle issue.
As a leader I pay people with true production support experience better than others to start.
Call it "trial by fire" because it does differentiate those who think they can from those who really can.
Core dump complete
Flamers are levelers and equalizers, obnoxious maybe, but also democratic. They are BS and hype hunters. When it comes to getting flamed, everybody online is equal. A tool of the adolescent and the young, flaming is a counterstrike against real or perceived authority figures, the very types you can't go after on the non-virtual realm. Flamers are indefatigable and enthusiastic
While in many cases this is true, I am seeing a disturbing trend in opinion being "flamed" as fact. They rarely hunt hype and BS, instead they create it. This leads to uninformed or incorrect conclusions based merely on an antagonists willingness to suppress discussion. While it may be a tool of the young or the oppressed, it does not equate to intelligent discourse, it merely supplies "take that."
What has happened is people are given a sense of anonymity. The feeling they can poison the neighbors' dog, whether it barks or not, without fear of being held accountable.
The positive side is many discussion boards (like this one) are making the effort to remove the pure flamers. "Dumbing down" their response to -1 to provide the rest of us with a true forum for discussion. If they are of true value would we really have the -1 responses outnumber the other by 2, 4, or more to 1?
While I appreciate the desire to avoid changing do we really want a release to be forced to maintain such functionality.
It does raise the question how much do we want to support? Do we force everyone into an upgrade at each release? Should we take the approach much like windows that everything that functioned in you last upgrade still does?
Both options are limiting in one respect or another. However in the OOS environment, if my only fixes come in a new release, then how do I manage both without coding my own version? This is certainly not an option for the mainstream applications users.