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Messages - thesaintv12

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16
Water Cooler / Re: Help! Ending a big contract with a single client. Yes/No?
« on: November 05, 2013, 09:40:41 PM »
Quote from: dogboy on November 04, 2013, 07:50:03 AM
Did you see 'Pirates of the Caribbean', when Depp walks off his sinking ship, on to the dock, just as his ship sinks?

You wanna do it like that:)

Fantastic!  I had to look it up as I had not seen the film for a while.  Here it is - http://youtu.be/R7m5Int1hAA

The problem is, I now start humming the music every time I start thinking about the situation.  ;D

17
Water Cooler / Re: Help! Ending a big contract with a single client. Yes/No?
« on: November 05, 2013, 09:38:49 PM »
Quote from: rcjordan on November 02, 2013, 06:11:26 PM
People NEVER follow my advice (at first) because I tend to tell them what they don't want to hear but I think you've already made the decision to leave.

I think you are right.  I am trying to plan as best I can at the moment.  I think I might just need to get over the fear of the leap.

18
Water Cooler / Help! Ending a big contract with a single client. Yes/No?
« on: November 02, 2013, 06:02:33 PM »
Over the last few years I have found myself getting more and more work from a single client.  They clearly appreciate what I can do for them and they have had a decent internal structure to act as professional go-betweens.

This client however, has been making technology promises to its own clients (massive global brands) which it can't honor (think 10K budgets to make 500K projects work)

During the past four months all of their internal IT team and half of their external providers have resigned because of the pressure to stand up in front of clients and lie about what they can deliver.

I am now in the situation where I have let most of my other clients go to concentrate on this one. It is paying the bills.  I almost have that employee mentality where I am afraid to leave.

Pressures are building for me to help them promise the delivery of undeliverable projects and every part of me says 'end the contract now!'.  However, I do have my bills to pay, and I have sub-contractors relying on me to keep them fed with work. As you might have guessed this is the first really big money gig I have dealt with.

I have enough to keep myself afloat for six months.  I 'think' that a kick up the arse like this will make me work 24/7 to get my old money makers (and the new ones on the list) earning.

I guess what I want to know is, has anyone else been in this situation, and how did you manage it?  Were you scared of the 'leap of faith'?  Did your plans work out and if not what came about to replace them?

19
Economics & Investing / Re: well, now we know bitcoins weren't a ponzi scheme
« on: November 02, 2013, 04:43:21 PM »
I have a bunch of USB ASICs running controlled by Raspberry Pi's.

I originally started with Graphics cards, but they are no longer up to mining bitcoin.  They are useful for other coins such as Litecoin though.  Well, they would be if the bloody fans would stop burning up!

The price of Bitcoin has doubled since the start of this thread.  I'm not saying that it is a trend that will continue.  I personally feel the current price is too high and will come down.  However, over the long term (I am in for at least 10 years) I feel it should rise (assuming it continues to become more widely accepted).

I'm happy to help out if anyone want to have a go at setting up their own mining experiment. I have learned more about Linux, power monitoring and networking doing this than any other single job/experiment.  I have just been asked to help out setting up with a new client.  I hope it might be the start of a new and interesting sideline.

I would probably say that you might be just as well off if you just invested in the coin at the moment (high risk money you could live with losing of course).

20
Water Cooler / Re: Barclay's...... you swine!
« on: November 02, 2013, 04:06:40 PM »
Ha!  Yes, I have exactly the same problem.  I feel your pain!

It is little money grabbing things like that which will make customers f*** right off to another bank if they ever get 'big'

Have you noticed the way they carefully order your transactions to ensure you have the highest chance of going overdrawn and have to pay fees?

21
Water Cooler / Re: Terminator Scenario
« on: October 07, 2013, 01:23:30 PM »
Too realistic!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22083337

And if you think it might be held up by those wires -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24427821

22
Water Cooler / Re: Terminator Scenario
« on: October 06, 2013, 09:06:27 AM »
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24397880

'Terminator' self-assembling cube robots revealed by MIT

23
Economics & Investing / Re: well, now we know bitcoins weren't a ponzi scheme
« on: October 03, 2013, 07:49:21 AM »
From what they seized, the FBI now have 0.22% of the total Bitcoin currency (probably more if you take into account lost wallets and other recent raids). Especially important as there is a finite amount of bitcoins.

It is an interesting foothold into something which they must be either trying to kill or use to their advantage.

On the upside the price has come back up very quickly which hopefully points to a healthy market without the need for crime (well, no more than cash anyway).

24
Marketing / Re: Love this landing page
« on: October 02, 2013, 11:13:07 AM »
Wow!  He reminds me of Douglas Reynholm - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltn04zRd3yQ

25
Water Cooler / Re: Help! No internet for a week
« on: June 04, 2013, 10:10:44 PM »
Thanks for all the ideas! First a few questions about the mifi -

Aside from the mining, I tend to spend most of the day connected to client sites (one at a time) via a VPN link.  I have no idea how much data this uses though as I can't really factor it out from the general household use.  If I was to get a mifi set up with pre-loaded Sim cards, how much should I buy to start with and is it going to be realistic to work over a VPN?  How long does the battery last?

I must say, I quite like the idea of packing my laptop and mifi and spending an afternoon in the park  :)

@Drastic - I am well into the meditation now funny enough!  I had to look up what an indo board was though.  Interesting idea, how is it working for you?

@Littleman - Already on the case with the providers  ;)  The bitcoin mining is good fun.  I'm not going to say that I am making money because I am in for the long term.  I am not saying being in for the long term is a good idea either!  However, I have learned loads about hardware, Linux, cabling, heat and sound management.  I have also taught my 11 & 12 yr olds how to build a computer and my 6 yr old how to use Putty to log on to my miners and check the GPU temperatures.  The only real downside is that I have suspicious neighbors now that I get daily deliveries and have strange lights and fans running in my garage.  I am expecting a police drugs raid any day.

26
Water Cooler / Help! No internet for a week
« on: June 04, 2013, 06:23:40 PM »
After months of problems with my broadband (talktalk) and little help from their support team (I run the business from home, so it is a big deal), I decided to take the plunge and switch, well not only switch but get a back up cable line too.  So, I had it all nicely scheduled to happen tomorrow during my (rare) week off.

So, BT call me today and tell me they have a problem and didn't schedule the engineer, so have to re-schedule with a two week window.  Then, to top it off Virgin tell me that they can't get here until next Friday.

I have a garage full of bitcoin miners which are going to sit idle, but thankfully my mother-in-law has lent me her connection for the other work, if I want it.

I'm tempted to take it as a sign that I should be doing something else for the week.  The pub garden is calling, but that is not very productive.  - What productive non techie thing would you do if you were at home/work without a connection for the week?

27
Water Cooler / Re: You UK'ers ready for the snow!?
« on: January 18, 2013, 10:19:43 AM »
Getting heavier here in Berkshire.  The bin men have been though, they are much tougher than last year.

Stocked up on food, but might have to venture out for something alcoholic later.

28
Hardware & Technology / Re: Help Needed: Routers and ISPs
« on: January 16, 2013, 03:05:48 PM »
Try a different router before you switch ISP.  Not saying it is that, but it certainly has been for me.

29
Hardware & Technology / Re: Help Needed: Routers and ISPs
« on: January 16, 2013, 02:32:43 PM »
Join the club!

I have had three fail in the last 12 months.  1 old one, one sent back for exchange only to die again.

To get over the problem I ended up buying two so that I had a stand-by (one is a Billion BiPAc 7800N) the other is a Cisco.  The BiPac loses connection for no reason (just about to send that one back), but has an amazing range.  The Cisco seems solid but with a smaller range. Both around £120.

I'm on TalkTalk here.  Connection is OK, but the customer service is bad. 

I would say try another router first and see if that works.  Is the current one still in warranty?

30
Water Cooler / Re: The Core - 2 Years and 2500 Threads Later
« on: November 20, 2012, 08:11:52 PM »
Long live Th3core!

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