timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Stoked about my business cards. I've wanted cards without a phone number on them for ages. Letterpressed and thick enough to cut a steak.
View attachment 701
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y
Something Random
- Thread starter ddrueding
- Start date
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y
Stereodude
Not really a
Okay, I'll bite...Stoked about my business cards. I've wanted cards without a phone number on them for ages. Letterpressed and thick enough to cut a steak.
View attachment 701
You give them to the technologically illiterate with deep pockets, but only include an e-mail? Are you sure that's really their preferred method of contact? Do you think when their cable goes out that they sent an e-mail, or perhaps pick up the phone and call?
They might have a smart phone with email capabilities for when the cable goes out. :dunno: If they can't figure out how to email, maybe that's his filter for working with less-technically capable people?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I refuse to hand out business cards. I spent a fortune on them up to about 10 years ago, then realized that the fewer people who have my contact info the happier I am. The worst part about the "helpless"-type people is that I know I would give them five or ten cards over a couple years and they'd just lose them, because the next time I saw them they'd tell me they couldn't find my number. So I just gave up on the idea.
That said, it's my experience that helpless rich people will call, 100% of the time. Rather than handing out business cards, I add my info to the contacts on their phone for them since they never know how to do it.
My personal favorite helpless person pays me $300 twice a year to plug his laptop and change his default printer between the one he uses here and the one he uses while he's in Florida. I've offered to show him how to do it himself and he just doesn't want to know. He says it's all too technical for him.
That said, it's my experience that helpless rich people will call, 100% of the time. Rather than handing out business cards, I add my info to the contacts on their phone for them since they never know how to do it.
My personal favorite helpless person pays me $300 twice a year to plug his laptop and change his default printer between the one he uses here and the one he uses while he's in Florida. I've offered to show him how to do it himself and he just doesn't want to know. He says it's all too technical for him.
Stereodude
Not really a
My example meant like cable TV, as in do they call the cable company or e-mail them?
As to filtering out the really clueless ones... If you're target market is the technically illiterate rich, wouldn't the most illiterate ones be the ones most willing to pay though?
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
Either that, or Dave hates phone calls as much as I do. I'm fine giving my email as contact info since I can respond more or less on my own schedule. The "I want attention now" aspect of phone contact is one reason I avoid giving out my phone number except to people I know won't call me often. I've found people who are comfortable with email contact are the same ones who have relaxed approaches to projects, more or less letting me take me time. The ones who need phone numbers want everything yesterday, and I prefer to not deal with people like that.
Stereodude
Not really a
I don't like it when people call me either. I prefer e-mail. I've been pretty successful at conditioning the people at the accounts I call on to e-mail me technical questions instead of calling. It helps that they're usually far to complicated to describe over the phone and require sending c or assembly code, schematics and the like.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Essentially a phone call is a demand for immediate attention. I'm very attentive, but at this point there are people who expect the phone to be answered instantly at all hours of the day or night. I won't answer while I'm driving for example and lately that's caused problems for me.
Using stupid Google Voice tricks along with VOIP service for my office phone number, I actually have the worst offenders for time wasting phone calls set up so that they cannot make my phone ring and can't leave a voice message. Anything they say to my voice mailbox is turned in to an MP3 that gets emailed to me and I rely on Text-to-Speech services to keep from having to listen to the five minute+ rambling-ass messages they leave.
Using stupid Google Voice tricks along with VOIP service for my office phone number, I actually have the worst offenders for time wasting phone calls set up so that they cannot make my phone ring and can't leave a voice message. Anything they say to my voice mailbox is turned in to an MP3 that gets emailed to me and I rely on Text-to-Speech services to keep from having to listen to the five minute+ rambling-ass messages they leave.
ddrueding
Fixture
JTR and Merc have it. Phone calls are more of an inconvenience for the person receiving the call than the person making it. E-mail is the opposite. For the truly clueless I'll either add my contact to their phone or write my phone number on the card (making them feel very special).
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Why does Taco Bell need to be open at 9AM? Don't drunken benders usually end around dawn?
ddrueding
Fixture
I don't always eat Taco Bell, but when I do, it's for breakfast.
Bozo
Storage? I am Storage!
:cheers:
Stereodude
Not really a
So they should open earlier?
ddrueding
Fixture
The local one here is open 24-hours 
I've found that going to local Taco Bells during strange hours gets bigger burritos and taco's and when busy I get less. I know that is an anathema for a national FF chain because standardization is key but is seems to be true locally. 9:00 am is a good time and 11:30 much worse.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Some people on this world have no common sense : http://sploid.gizmodo.com/terrifyin...eed&utm_campaign=Feed:+gizmodo/full+(Gizmodo)
Who TF would design a road like that? And who's crazy enough to ride on it?
Who TF would design a road like that? And who's crazy enough to ride on it?
ddrueding
Fixture
The road from Katmandu to Pokara is actually pretty similar to that. When I saw all the locals riding on the roof instead of inside, I first thought it was because that was cheaper. During the drive I realized it was so that they could jump off if they had to. You could see the shells of other buses sitting at the bottom.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
The area is unstable. Frequent earthquakes and landslides (Indian landmass still head-butting the Asian landmass - the reason for the Himalayas). Torrential rain some parts of the year. It's a challenge to keep the "roads" the way they are in the video. I was there in 2006, and underwent similar experiences. The worst is the bits missing on the cliff side. You can take a bend even at slow speed, and suddenly a chunk of the "road" will be missing. There are similar roads (worse in fact) in South America.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
There's a reason most of humanity lives within 50 miles of a coastline.
Half-naked women on the beach? That and it's probably how the first settlements came via ships. It was daunting enough to get here. Screw traveling in hundreds of miles by land.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
I've travelled on similar roads in Ecudor and Peru. Some are one way during different times of the day.
ddrueding
Fixture
Indeed. In Two Years Before the Mast he describes traveling the California coastline in the mid-1800s. The hardest part seems to be getting the goods the ~200 yards to the coast.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
And on the banks of freshwater rivers. The seas don't give you potable water.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Speaking of random, I just got an out of the blue job offer to write techie how-to articles for a web site based on nothing but discussion thread participation.
ddrueding
Fixture
Sounds good, so long as it is stable enough.
ddrueding
Fixture
First rain is upon us, and my mother-in-law is complaining that the water going down the downspout is making too much noise (the back of the house isn't as soundproof as our bedroom). I'm tempted to try two remedies:
1. Dynamat the inside of the lower spout.
2. Insert a plastic scrubbing pad to decelerate the drops before they reach the bend in the pipe.
Both of these should survive for a winter at least if they are protected from UV, right?
1. Dynamat the inside of the lower spout.
2. Insert a plastic scrubbing pad to decelerate the drops before they reach the bend in the pipe.
Both of these should survive for a winter at least if they are protected from UV, right?
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Isaac's pet scorpion gave birth a few weeks ago... We haven't seen any of the young a day or two after the event. Today, mummy scorpion has 13+ babies on her back... (I'll take some pictures soon).
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Congratulations, is it for any site we may have heard of?
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Baby Scorpions
Mum and her babies
Mum and her babies
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Gosh, I guess you go to some pain to ensure they can't get out of the enclosure through small cracks and gaps.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
I am both disgusted and enthralled. It is hard to tell which end is up.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
It's just a side gig. I kind of don't want to link it. Maybe if I actually decide to publish something. I post there under my unique internet handle rather than the one I use here and one of the things that's keeping me away is the desire to preserve that identity since I argue a lot about the idea of internet privacy and internet identity as distinct from one's real life.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Have you named them yet?
Isaac started to name them, but when he got to 14 named, he lost track of which ones were named... (We've counted 21 babies)
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
When we got the scorpion for Isaac, we got a proper enclosure designed for spiders and scorpions. (Australian rainforest scorpions are excellent climbers)
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
You could remodel the downspout in zig-zag, so that no matter the amount of water doing down the drain, it would fall from a significant height and it wouldn't make a lot of noise.
...or you could just send back the mother-in-law to Russia et voilà! Problem solved. Beside, she teach your daughter to complain. If she grows up like this and adopt that behavior, people will think she's jewish. Protect your daughter : get rid of the bad influence.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
How about earplugs?
ddrueding
Fixture
I'm afraid that would require her to do something.
Damn, high maintenance isn't she? If you don't mind me sayin'...that's friggin ridiculous. Just tell her you'll see what you can do and then ignore it. How often does it rain when she's in there that you'll have to hear her complaints?
ddrueding
Fixture
She'll be here through the winter. I think she's leaving in mid-March. I think the problem is that I've set a pretty high bar as far as comfort and luxury go. If she only complains about one thing like this a week I can handle it.