Category Archives: General

Eshu

“Jim, you’re an eshu.” Thus spoke my old friend Kent, who’s long had a knack for uttering Truth, after I’d driven us through three yellow lights in a row to arrive for an appointment at just the right time. We … Continue reading

Posted in General | Comments Off

Repaired Headphones

I have a pair of Sony MDR-G72 headphones – they fit my big-headed small-eared noggin well, have good sound, a "just right" cable length, and fold very neatly. They’re about 5 years old, the earpads were worn to disintegration, and … Continue reading

Posted in General | Comments Off

And what is good, Phaedrus?

Two apparently unrelated articles follow – but consider the following when you read them: Apple and Nintendo are both companies that have eschewed choices that would lead directly to market dominance. Even Apple’s now-market-dominating iPod wasn’t created to attack an … Continue reading

Posted in General | Comments Off

Enough

Last night was date night – the sitter watches our son one night every other week while my wife and I go out and spend some time with each other free of the distractions of parenting. After dinner (great Indian … Continue reading

Posted in General | Comments Off

Blame the Stick

I find myself telling this story a lot more recently: Spring of my freshman year at university, I took a 100-level art course. Black and white, charcoal and ink and collage, very basic stuff. The instructor tried – with varying … Continue reading

Posted in General | Comments Off

Score with iPhoto

I use iPhoto on the Mac to organize my digital photos. I try to assign keywords and such as soon as I download photos – nothing fancy, but enough that I can find pictures from one thing or the other … Continue reading

Posted in General, Macintosh | Comments Off

Productivity Tip: Throw everything on your desk in a box

From the good guys at 37signals: >Toss everything, and I mean *everything* on your desk in a box. If it doesn’t fit in a box, put it on the floor. Your desk should be completely cleared of everything — no … Continue reading

Posted in General, Work | Comments Off

An old theme

I’m an IT professional – I’ve spent well over half my life making computers work for people. While my platform of choice is Mac OS X, I still know much more than the average bear about making Windows XP go … Continue reading

Posted in General, Work | Comments Off

Get out of my way

Several years ago, I came across an open-response question: >”If you could have only one superpower, what would it be?” A lot of respondents wanted to fly, or be immortal, or see the future – but one person came up … Continue reading

Posted in General, Macintosh, Work | Comments Off

What am I worth?

What do I charge for my time?
It’s a fairly normal question for people who have been sararimen all their professional careers and are looking to do some freelance work. Searching for comparable rates rarely helps – web and IT geeks (my line) rarely advertise their hourly rates, same with editors (my wife’s line of work). So how do you figure out what to charge a client?
This is my take on it. It assumes you want to earn the financial equivalent of someone who has a full-time job; someone who works 40 hours a week (not 50, 60, or 70), gets benefits, sick time, training, vacation, and paid holidays. Sound good? Climb on board.
Continue reading

Posted in General, Work | Comments Off