Outsourced
Posted: Fri 5 May, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Own Business, Weirdness, Work-related | Leave a comment »In yet another awesome business decision, Arsehole Boss has sent the work I’ve been doing over the last year to a bunch of Outsourcers in India/Bangladesh/Pakistan, while I continue working on other “more important” sectors of the companys multiple websites.
Supposedly this is a cheaper alternative, and will allow the stuff to make progress even while I’m involved elsewhere. Unfortunately, this concept is utter bollocks.
The thing is, it’s not even the first time AB has done this, it’s the third. And the previous two have been unmitigated disasters. So far, it looks like Attempt #3 is going to be no different. So far they’ve come back to us asking me to explain the use of a function that is standard in PHP, and has been for years, and also how to sort out some of the database structures. Again, nothing difficult – we supplied them with a script for setting up the database, only they didn’t know how to run that script to install everything.
So far, from the skillset displayed, it looks like the outsourcing process can yet again be defined as “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”.
Radar Failure
Posted: Wed 3 May, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: General, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | 3 Comments »One of the things that surprised me last night – and I have to say now, this is not in any way a negative post – is that one of my colleagues is gay.
I’m not surprised that there’s a gay man in the office, and nor do I care. Personally, I don’t give a stuff about people’s orientations, or whatever – it’s just not relevant. I either like people or I don’t, and it’s not based on bigoted crap like that.
No, what surprised me was that I hadn’t figured it out ’til now. Normally my radar on these things is pretty well tuned, and usually accurate, but in this one case, it failed me utterly. Which is a surprise.
Business Stuff
Posted: Wed 3 May, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related | Leave a comment »Well, last night’s meeting went pretty well. Looks like I’ve got the work, so there’s going to be plenty of stuff for me to be going on with over the next couple of months.
In addition to that work, I’m also sending out some more spec letters to see if I can drum up some extra business that way, so it’s all kind of shaping up to be a busy busy year…
Coincidence
Posted: Tue 2 May, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Own Business, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »Strangely, after years of not going to Islington, I’m there again tonight.
This time it’s a business thing, though, with the potential to bring me in a fair amount of work, and hopefully a semi-decent bit of income. Of course, the major part of that will be dependent on the first phase, and whether that’s successful. Should be interesting, anyway.
Interviewage
Posted: Wed 26 April, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Own Business, Thoughts, Work-related | 2 Comments »Well, the interview went OK. I don’t know yet whether I got the job – probably won’t know ’til the end of the week at least – but it all seemed to go smoothly.
Would I take it? Yes, probably. Some of the situation with the current company is rapidly becoming untenable, and it’s becoming known as the land of the migrating goalposts.
If I were the type of person who could just turn off the brain, tug my forelock and say “Yes, OK, I shall write this in the way you want” then I could probably stay. But, as some people may have noticed, that’s not really the way I am. I prefer to have an active brain, and to work on creating new stuff that works.
Yeah, sure, I could knuckle under, let the company go whatever way it will, and not worry about it. I could get the challenge from the new stuff I’m doing for myself, Where’s Good and so on, and that could keep my brain working well. But it’s not me – if I’m going to work somewhere I want to enjoy it.
Strange, but true.
So we’ll just have to see what comes of this interview, and find out that way what the future holds…
Still Working
Posted: Tue 25 April, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Organised, Own Business, Thinking About..., Web Development, Work-related | 1 Comment »OK, even though the site has now gone live, Where’s Good? is still having bits done to it.
Yes, as one person suggested, perhaps I should’ve waited another couple of days to fix everything. However, in some cases the bugs were ones I didn’t know existed – and never would until it got released into the wild. And on a couple of bits, well, I just forgot something still needed doing. Mea culpa on that one.
Also, I’d said I’d release it yesterday, and I don’t like going back on what I’ve said/promised I’ll do. It’s a flaw.
So over the next few days I’ll probably still be adding stuff, fixing bits, and generally keeping on working on it. Yes, in hindsight perhaps I should’ve waited, and launched the thing properly on May 1st. But I wanted a soft(ish) launch where people would log on, try things out, hopefully tell me if something wasn’t working, and carry on like that this week.
At the end of the day, everything’s got to launch sometime. Yesterday was the day for Where’s Good. And May 1st is likely to be the “full” launch – not that that’ll mean much, there’s not going to be champagne, fireworks, and celebrations or owt, but it’ll be up, running, and hopefully not too buggy…
That Site AKA “Going Live”
Posted: Mon 24 April, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Own Business, Thinking About..., Web Development, Work-related | 12 Comments »OK, well, it’s time to do the deed. I’ve been working on this idea properly for a month now, although the URL has been in my grubby little mitts for a while longer than that.
So. The site is called Wheres Good, and (logically enough) it’s at http://www.wheres-good.com . Nice URL, eh? The basic idea is to build up networks of people reviewing pubs, restaurants, shops, hotels, blah blah, and to then be able to rate other reviews (and users), building up a decent reference model of what’s good, where’s good to go, etc. etc. Along the way, you can set up a “hotlist” of places you want to remember/bookmark, and also set up events and stuff, so in theory blogmeets and so on could be arranged, including where to go, all on one site.
It’s still in beta (hey, like there’s a shock) but should all be working, which is a good start so far as I’m concerned. Anyway, let me know what you think of it…