Things Contractors should know, research for articles

[doodab]

It started before that. I did the very first GCSE Maths exam after O level had been abolished and will never forget the first question on the paper;

1. Write (i) three million and (ii) six hundred thousand in figures

And that is certainly something contractors should know.

[DaveB]

I'm slightly disappointed by the quality of abuse I've received from SueEllen, perhaps I could give some examples of abuse I have received and treasured ?

Professor Baroness Susan Greenfield, then Director of the Royal Institution, world authority on neurophysiology referred to me publicly as an "autistic Daily Mail reader"

Professor John Cleese called me a "Dick Head" in the filming of The 3rd Secret Policeman's Ball

Professor William Perraudin now of Imperial College asked me "wouldn't you be happier doing something you are good at ?" when confronted with a paper I wrote on economics.

Professor Nicholas Nassim Taleb, author of "The Black Swan" and various other tomes on the philosophy of probability called my view on the application of Goedel's Incompleteness theorem, "even by your standards, pathetically naive"

One illustration I did for an article on graphics benchmarks was called by Charles Maclellan, Art Director of PC Magazine "the worst image ever to appear on a computer screen" and was stuck up in the art department as an example of something that must never be done again. The BBC once ran a news time on sick images on the Internet that included one that was my face.

The Lord Commissioner for the Reduction of the National debt (yes that's a real job title), called one of my VBA macros "just tulip"

I've got plenty more.

I appreciate you do not yet enjoy the status of the fine people who have taken the trouble to explain their views of my competency and allure, but if I could ask you to put a little more effort into your abuse ?

DWLLWGAS?

[EternalOptimist]

Hi Dom
can I call you dom, dom ?

If you make it into a film , will you get Brad Pitt to play me ? If he's not available, get Kate Bush.
I can just picture myself in the shower hitting the high notes as Kates dufoor sponges my wuthering heights

[Alias]

Writing about tech even for money is not a good route to getting rich.

It can be good marketing though. If you and some mates put together a competent book on a subject then it can give you credibility, especially if you want to move from one man band contracting to putting a team together to get a larger lump of work and a bit more money.

If you're resting between contracts or the work is slowing down then its a valid choice of doing something about it.

Also as someone who has written as well as done IT I will share that it helps you work through gaps and depths in topics even if it is one you have a lot of experience with.

You don't need an agent for that, though some sort of referee/editor is necessary. I know a decent commssioning editor at Wiley (big firm in this space do ...for Dummies, and lots of other stuff) if you want to do something about this ,or just self publish, cutting out the middleman is not alien to contractors is it ?

Round numbers a good book could make you 20-30K shared between the writers, (that's an average whose distribution includes zero) which is a piss poor rate, but it can buy you a bit of stability and a rate increase.

SAS, is that you??

[cailin maith]

Hi Dom
can I call you dom, dom ?

If you make it into a film , will you get Brad Pitt to play me ? If he's not available, get Kate Bush.
I can just picture myself in the shower hitting the high notes as Kates dufoor sponges my wuthering heights

You are soooooo Brad Pitt

[EternalOptimist]

You are soooooo Brad Pitt

stoolie

[cailin maith]

stoolie

I was being serious!!!

[EternalOptimist]

I was being serious!!!

<cough>

preen
preen

[AtW]

I was going to be polite but I don't see why all our experiences which are freely shared here should be utilised by someone else for articles on another website that he gets paid for.

It's called Entrepreneurship

[sasguru]

SAS, is that you??