• Paul Coddington (unregistered) in reply to kraftymiles
    kraftymiles:
    Worf:
    Better yet... when getting quotes, do a sniff test on them! Most quotes for well-specified work shouldn't different significantly from each other (at least, there shouldn't be one that's half the cost of the next lowest, nor should there be a wide spread in the costs).

    This is all well and good unless you work in Govt (here at least) in which case the cheapest quote always wins. It's taxpayer's money after all. EDS know this and Always underprice and end up with the job. (Or so I'm told) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Systems#Controversy

    Government works on the principle that "there is never enough money to do the job right, but unlimited funds available to attempt to fix it."

  • (cs) in reply to Chad
    Chad:
    4) Profit? Well, annual bonus is coming soon enough...

    You getting a bonus this year? Lucky bastard. Seems being a startup and the current troubling financial times disqualifies us from incentives and bonuses. Sucks to be me. Anyone hiring?

  • (cs) in reply to Asiago Chow
    Asiago Chow:
    However, a safe bet is that products purchased at Walmart will be inferior if that is possible. [...] Food? Maybe possible.
    Possible, but a really bad idea for them to do, since it would be the total kiss of death and there's lots of DAs who would love to squelch them. Food safety laws tend to have lots of teeth (and with good historical reason).
  • (cs) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    Asiago Chow:
    However, a safe bet is that products purchased at Walmart will be inferior if that is possible. [...] Food? Maybe possible.
    Possible, but a really bad idea for them to do, since it would be the total kiss of death and there's lots of DAs who would love to squelch them. Food safety laws tend to have lots of teeth (and with good historical reason).

    Food - VERY possible. Sure, so it still has to meet safety laws - but try comparing some cheap and expensive versions of the same food. Usually you WILL notice the difference (sometimes the cheap stuff is good though). And it'll probably show in the nutrition info too.

    Bullets also probably possible. They should still be safe, but one might expect cheap bullets to have looser tolerances, and thus be less accurate.

    Code Dependent:
    I understand the points you make, and I realize that the system is far less than ideal. However, I am not able to fix it by boycotting Walmart.
    I avoid shopping at Asda (Walmart's UK operation) if possible. Not that the other supermarkets are really much better.
    In Dallas there used to be a "magazine" (cheap rag with two pages, folded and double-sided for a total of 8 pages) which was specifically for jobless and homeless people. The magazines were supplied to them for 25 cents each, and they then went out on the sidewalks and offered them to passersby for a dollar.
    We have a similar thing in the UK, though rather more sophisticated, it's a proper glossy magazine, though not my sort of content: "The Big Issue" http://www.bigissue.com/
    Mateo_LeFou:
    I'm kinda bummed 'cause a friend of mine wants me to -- ahem -- "give his website a quick facelift".

    He says he can only spend $100.

    ...I'm basically trying to figure out a not-rude way to recommend a couple HTML books to him.

    Do the job. If it's a personal site it likely has no or shit css. Just spend a couple hours writing some. Tell him that's a hundred dollars work.

  • (cs) in reply to m0ffx
    m0ffx:
    Mateo_LeFou:
    a friend of mine wants me to -- ahem -- "give his website a quick facelift".

    He says he can only spend $100.

    Do the job. If it's a personal site it likely has no or shit css. Just spend a couple hours writing some. Tell him that's a hundred dollars work.

    One thought on that: if you value the friendship, make it crystal clear as to what $100 will buy him BEFORE you agree to do anything!

  • a_s_d_f (unregistered) in reply to GCU Arbitrary

    Very well put gabba.

  • (cs) in reply to Mr.'; Drop Database --
    Mr.'; Drop Database --:
    wee:
    That's a pet peeve of mine as well. At very least, put a space around a single hyphen if you're going to treat it like an em dash. Or, better yet, just use two hyphens together if you don't want to bother with —.
    I prefer alt+0151.
    Since you brought it up, I prefer option+shift - as opposed to a Magic Number.
  • (cs) in reply to m0ffx
    m0ffx:
    dkf:
    Asiago Chow:
    However, a safe bet is that products purchased at Walmart will be inferior if that is possible. [...] Food? Maybe possible.
    Possible, but a really bad idea for them to do, since it would be the total kiss of death and there's lots of DAs who would love to squelch them. Food safety laws tend to have lots of teeth (and with good historical reason).

    Food - VERY possible. Sure, so it still has to meet safety laws - but try comparing some cheap and expensive versions of the same food. Usually you WILL notice the difference (sometimes the cheap stuff is good though). And it'll probably show in the nutrition info too.

    Bullets also probably possible. They should still be safe, but one might expect cheap bullets to have looser tolerances, and thus be less accurate.

    True, the bullets may be less accurate, but a: they're discounted 5-10% off the cheap stuff I can get elsewhere and b: they're more accurate than I am at the moment.

  • Asiago Chow (unregistered) in reply to katastrofa
    katastrofa:
    Asiago Chow:
    There is a second argument centered on Walmart employees constantly using social services (emergency rooms, ambulances, police, etc) and being a drag on a community. I'm not convinced that any amount of additional insurance or other benefits would help the people Walmart hires to avoid ERs

    If they could afford normal healthcare (GPs, vaccines, etc), they would not have to go to ERs. But subsidizing their healthcare for the benefit of the public (spend 100 on prevention instead of 1000 on ER treatment) would be, gasp, socialism.

    It is incorrect to believe that people go to ERs more often because they dislike other inexpensive healthcare options (clinics, independent doctor's offices, county and other social services-provided events, etc). They go to them because THEY HAVE MORE EMERGENCIES!

    You can't simply give everyone "normal" heath care and expect the number of emergencies they face to go down. It's like giving everyone bank accounts and expecting their savings to increase. Yeah, you have a savings account and you have more savings, you have normal healthcare and you have fewer emergencies, but those -- savings account or normal healthcare -- are not causal of savings or fewer emergencies. You have the normal healthcare because you think ahead. You have fewer emergencies because you think ahead. You have the savings account because you think ahead. You have more savings because you think ahead. They are having emergencies for many lifestyle, training, and core reasons. Those reasons don't go away just because they can get their shots for free. Heck, they may not even get their shots just because they can get them for free. Talk to them. Interact with them. You will quickly realize that they are having more emergencies for reasons that your policies simply will not change.

    Your idea that you can give them some "normal" healthcare and they'll suddenly stop having emergencies is absurd. It isn't even complete since their emergencies go beyond the medical -- they face higher incidence of crime, fire, and a host of other issues requiring non-medical emergency services and you'd be hard pressed to explain how vaccinations would keep someone from being robbed or have their kids require protection by the state because they are being neglected or abused.

    You can call it soccialism if you want but I'd just call it misguided. The problems they face are not caused by a lack of vaccinations. They aren't anything you can wave feel-good wands at. They are real problems and the frequent need for emergency services -- and their employement at walmart -- is symptomatic of those problems. Unless you have a proposal for solving those problems that doesn't involve killing them all or genetic engineering you should probably stick to making sure your own house is in order.

  • Ramiroquai (unregistered)

    I used to work in a web design company in a medium city, we were a server guy, a database guy, a PHP guy, 2 HTML/JS monkeys and 2 designers. We were partners with a hosting/collo company, and hired freelance Flash people when needed.

    Our business strategy consisted of:

    1. Be approached by a potential client.
    2. Put the client's contact info in our DB.
    3. Give a realistic estimate in terms of money and time.
    4. Be rejected in favor of a "$1,000 in 2 weeks website" company.
    5. When running out of work, run a script to find the clients who rejected us 90 to 180 days ago.
    6. Verify that their website is not live, or live but completely useless.
    7. Call the clients and ask them if they were ready to work with us at the original estimate plus inflation.

    This worked most of the time, and we got a good reputation pretty fast. We love the cheap website people, they educate our clients in the value of hiring professionals.

  • (cs) in reply to GCU Arbitrary
    GCU Arbitrary:
    gabba:
    Sadly, there's just no substitute for actually knowing what you're doing. Poor Jim is finding that out.
    I think it's more a case that Jim, like most of the senior managers and CEOs I've encountered, needs to understand that when you approach a technical person for their recommendation in their field of expertise, they usually know wtf they're talking about. Not liking their answer doesn't make you right, or more knowledgeable...

    My God, have I gotten so tired of encountering that kind of crap. The number of people with no knowledge of computers who don't want to listen to, or aren't happy with the cost of, something I recommend (we're talking 30+ years of experience) is just amazing. It really doesn't even seem to matter if you're fairly good communicating your knowledge and reasoning to them. That makes it worse, apparently making them think that they know more than they actually do as to what can be effectively ignored or written off without major problems.

  • bbj (unregistered)

    I know everyone's got their own failed development stories, but:

    About 10 years ago my employer decided to develop a new major system completely in-house. Once we had requirements and a testing plan, I said it could be done in 14 months for $2.5 million, all inclusive. This was rejected as unworkable, and I was told I had 9 months and $1.5 million. I argued it as well as I could, and when that failed, I asked to be transferred off the project, which they quickly did. I was replaced by a Young Gun who was anxious to prove he knew a lot of things I didn't and that he should have my job, because what did I know, anyway? He promised he could do it in less than 9 months, for less than $1.5 million. His major qualification was knowing a little VB.

    30 months and $27 million later, Young Gun was unable to provide an estimate of when it would be done, but he did know that they were not yet to the halfway point. The plug was pulled.

    I'm sorry to say there's not happy ending or satisfying moral here. I went to another company, and Young Gun got my job because he had managed such a big project and been responsible for so much money being spent.

  • (cs) in reply to Asiago Chow
    Asiago Chow:
    You can't simply give everyone "normal" heath care and expect the number of emergencies they face to go down
    ...
    Asiago Chow:
    They are having emergencies for many lifestyle, training, and core reasons.

    It is true that they are having emergencies from many lifestyle and related reasons. It is also true that getting "normal" healthcare will reduce the number of emergencies by enough to produce a net savings. (Not, however, the astounding savings that some would claim, just from comparing the ER visit counts.)

    Would they still have more emergencies? Yes. Would they be for stupid reasons? Yes. But at least they wouldn't be because we were being stupid.

    Also, some of them aren't making stupid lifestyle choices - at least, not worse than choosing Cheerios over Raisin Bran or Fiber One for a high fiber diet. I admit, the vast majority that I've met are, but there's a few who are not. Even if we did make a national choice to withhold national health coverage from drug abusers, for example, we shouldn't be withholding health care from people just because they're in a class of people most of whom are addicted to some form of alcohol, tobacco, or one or more illegal drugs.

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