Goodbye, Lingnu
Tom Balazs
tom123online at gmail.com
Tue Nov 15 15:04:04 IST 2011
Two points
1. There is not a strong connection between "I have excellent
technical skills" and "I am am able to run a business well and make a
profit".
2. The customer is often not able to understand the product or service
he is buying. That means they can't really understand whether or not a
job was done well. This is true in many fields.
Tom
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 06:20, <linux-il-request at cs.huji.ac.il> wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
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> 1. Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re:
> Goodbye, Lingnu) (geoffrey mendelson)
> 2. Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re:
> Goodbye, Lingnu) (Etzion Bar-Noy)
> 3. Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re:
> Goodbye, Lingnu) (Etzion Bar-Noy)
> 4. Re: Goodbye, Lingnu (Amos Shapira)
> 5. Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re:
> Goodbye, Lingnu) (Amos Shapira)
> 6. Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (Shachar Shemesh)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:12:25 +0200
> From: geoffrey mendelson <geoffreymendelson at gmail.com>
> To: Dotan Cohen <dotancohen at gmail.com>
> Cc: linux-il <linux-il at cs.huji.ac.il>
> Subject: Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re:
> Goodbye, Lingnu)
> Message-ID: <36256D27-BE42-4FA6-99C8-27FEACC8BC2B at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
>
>
> On Nov 14, 2011, at 6:48 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:
>>
>> Simply because "price per hour" is a quantitative metric. The fact
>> that it is meaningless is meaningless.
>
>
> It's the bogo-mips of consulting. :-)
>
> Geoff.
>
>
> --
> Geoffrey S. Mendelson, N3OWJ/4X1GM
> My high blood pressure medicine reduces my midichlorian count. :-(
>
>
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:23:57 +0200
> From: Etzion Bar-Noy <ezaton at tournament.org.il>
> To: Hetz Ben Hamo <hetzbh at gmail.com>
> Cc: linux-il <linux-il at cs.huji.ac.il>
> Subject: Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re:
> Goodbye, Lingnu)
> Message-ID:
> <CA+vBjEeOQtaysncB7Ad0yL9=JGncG9fLhfr=iLa3bLuBkxWn+w at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> True. However, the best support can be given by a pro who has a cooperation
> of the hosting company. Most of them will never cooperate, as they earn
> better (despite their awful quality of work) with an external
> person/company. So, your main channel - the hosting supplier, will probably
> not like you using it as a marketing channel, and you can hardly ever know
> (without some extensive search or cracking skills) which hosting service
> holds which customers.
>
> Ez
>
> 2011/11/14 Hetz Ben Hamo <hetzbh at gmail.com>
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'll give you one: Supporting hosting customers.
>>
>> Explanation: there are over 40 businesses here in Israel which provides
>> VPS and dedicated server renting solutions.
>> Most of those businesses (including mine) provide the machine to the
>> customers as "unmanaged",
>> which means: the support you'll get relates *only* to network (if your
>> VPS/Server) can communicate to and from the server
>> The other part of support: shutting down/restart/pause/reset the server.
>>
>> Anything else - you're on your own. You can purchase a bank of hours for
>> support or you can get emergency support for a higher price.
>>
>> There are, of course, some hosting businesses which will give you managed
>> service, but in most case I would strongly recommend to get a freelance who
>> will do the job for the client.
>>
>> Why? because they *SUCK AT IT* ! spreading root privileges all over the
>> place, changing permissions of directories and files to 777, opening the
>> internal firewall (if it exists, most of the time it's not) to everyone+his
>> dog, and other nonsense stuff, and I'm also talking about the *BIG*
>> providers which are also ISP - they suck, period!
>>
>> I think that this niche is mostly empty and people can get some
>> jobs/contracts with such customers.
>>
>> If anyone want to register himself, I have a neutral forum for that. see
>> here: http://hosts-forum.com/index.php
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>> Hetz
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 3:02 PM, Omer Zak <w1 at zak.co.il> wrote:
>>
>>> We need some process for identifying the next niche to pursue, taking
>>> into account current skill set, customers/contacts, and effort&expense
>>> incurred in acquiring the competencies relevant for the next niche.
>>>
>>> Did anyone blog about such a process?
>>> --
>>
>> *?? ?? ???
>> ??-???
>> *????? ?????? ?? ????? ??????
>> ??????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ????? ???????? Hulu? NetFlix? Pandora?
>> Google Voice? ?? ??, ????? ???? <http://vps.net.bz/?p=406>.
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
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> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:27:38 +0200
> From: Etzion Bar-Noy <ezaton at tournament.org.il>
> To: "Nadav Har'El" <nyh at math.technion.ac.il>
> Cc: linux-il <linux-il at cs.huji.ac.il>, geoffrey mendelson
> <geoffreymendelson at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re:
> Goodbye, Lingnu)
> Message-ID:
> <CA+vBjEeJ0kiZ0eHvfVFxE=b9Ot4rRdyqsyftJoxba7y3_uA9_A at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> It doesn't matter. Because a customer needs a method of estimating a work,
> does not make you his bitch(tm). You can estimate your work, but you seldom
> work in a vacuum. You are working on his servers, on his setups, his
> storage devices, around his network equipment. Under most cases, when I get
> delayed, it's because of the customer, and not me.
>
> Example. One of the newer cellular suppliers has demanded that I install a
> large system in their new server farm (16 blades and a storage). I have
> prepared the system, and on the delivery day (which was very time-pressed
> due to the customer), I have discovered that they had not installed 220v AC
> there yet. Can't do anything with the servers. The funny thing is that
> during that time, two or three weeks since, the system is just sitting
> there, when the server room is being "built" around it.
>
> Ez
>
> On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 4:33 PM, Nadav Har'El <nyh at math.technion.ac.il>wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Nov 14, 2011, geoffrey mendelson wrote about "Re: [OFFTOPIC]
>> Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu)":
>> > Long ago I got out of the PC repair/support business when the 50 NIS
>> > an hour people took over.
>>
>> Am I the only one bothered by all this "per hour" talk?
>>
>> What prevents a 50-NIS-per-hour consultant from telling you he worked
>> for 4 hours on your problem, which it actually took him just one hour in
>> his lab?
>> Or a 200-NIS-per-hour consultant from finding your problem in 10
>> minutes, because he solved exactly this problem a week ago or wrote the
>> necessary code already?
>>
>> So how is the "price per hour" a meaningful variable when comparing two
>> consultants?
>>
>> --
>> Nadav Har'El | Monday, Nov 14
>> 2011,
>> nyh at math.technion.ac.il
>> |-----------------------------------------
>> Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |Cats aren't clean, they're just
>> covered
>> http://nadav.harel.org.il |with cat spit.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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> Message: 4
> Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:41:55 +1100
> From: Amos Shapira <amos.shapira at gmail.com>
> To: "Nadav Har'El" <nyh at math.technion.ac.il>
> Cc: Shachar Shemesh <shachar at shemesh.biz>, linux-il
> <linux-il at cs.huji.ac.il>
> Subject: Re: Goodbye, Lingnu
> Message-ID:
> <CAF9n_WWHLYiTa-jY6OvGNzVXYk2zEkGaFc3wMHV1GKAHWoYyUw at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> On 14 November 2011 22:14, Nadav Har'El <nyh at math.technion.ac.il> wrote:
>
>> So maybe the key to winning over your competitors isn't to charge less
>> per hour, but rather to complete the job in less time. (you can of
>> course hide this will all sorts of creative marketing)
>>
>
> There used to be a slogan on a shop on my commute route which I really
> liked (they sell and install Fujitsu air conditioners):
> "Nobody remembers how quickly you did a job but everyone remembers how well
> you did it".
>
> Anyway, only tip I can give is to try to look for contracts outside Israel
> - e.g. Freelancer, LinkedIn and so on. Your skills are such that you should
> be able to sell your time on-line everywhere on the planet as long as you
> manage to market yourself correctly.
>
> Good luck.
>
> --Amos
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:47:03 +1100
> From: Amos Shapira <amos.shapira at gmail.com>
> To: geoffrey mendelson <geoffreymendelson at gmail.com>
> Cc: linux-il <linux-il at cs.huji.ac.il>
> Subject: Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche (was: Re:
> Goodbye, Lingnu)
> Message-ID:
> <CAF9n_WUzGoNc4scO+7ca_aWkSeP0VnCpkkOW6nN66_5Mtg6+wQ at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> On 15 November 2011 04:12, geoffrey mendelson
> <geoffreymendelson at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> On Nov 14, 2011, at 6:48 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Simply because "price per hour" is a quantitative metric. The fact
>>> that it is meaningless is meaningless.
>>>
>>
>>
>> It's the bogo-mips of consulting. :-)
>
>
> +1 :)
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:19:54 +0200
> From: Shachar Shemesh <shachar at shemesh.biz>
> To: Etzion Bar-Noy <ezaton at tournament.org.il>
> Cc: linux-il <linux-il at cs.huji.ac.il>, geoffrey mendelson
> <geoffreymendelson at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [OFFTOPIC] Finding the next lucrative niche
> Message-ID: <4EC1E86A.1020805 at shemesh.biz>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> On 11/14/2011 11:27 PM, Etzion Bar-Noy wrote:
>> Can't do anything with the servers. The funny thing is that during
>> that time, two or three weeks since, the system is just sitting there,
>> when the server room is being "built" around it.
> My worst "time wasted" story is from way back (you can calculate just
> how way back in a second). I was contacted by Channel 2 News to do some
> trivial server maintenance. It was trivial that I said I'm going to have
> to charge them half time for my time getting there. Obviously, we
> scheduled it during the day, as they are only truly active during the
> evenings unless something special comes up.
>
> Except this turned out to be the day the Akaba agreement was signed. I
> have no idea why they didn't reschedule. The place was crawling with TV
> celebs, and we were constantly interrupted because the guy I was
> supposed to do the maintenance for kept being called away to handle one
> thing or the other. In the end, an half hour net job took over four hours.
>
> What's even more interesting is that these occasions have a dress code.
> Technical people dress casually. News anchors dress semi-officially,
> which is to say they have an official shirt on, tie and all, but casual
> pants (down to the level of shorts, on some occasions). Guests dress
> officially. So my client's contact was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt,
> Ehud Yaari had a buttoned shirt flapping out of his Jeans, and Ahmed
> Tibi had a complete suite on. Oblivious to this dress code, I dressed up
> to go to a client, which meant that I got lots of looks from people who
> figured that I must be a guest, but did not recognize me.
>
> Shachar
>
> --
> Shachar Shemesh
> Lingnu Open Source Consulting Ltd.
> http://www.lingnu.com
>
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