Wayne.B wrote:
On Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:13:42 -0500, Jim wrote:

My wife just got cold called to go sell road signs for $70,000 a year
plus expenses and benefits so some people can still find work.
Sure she did. And I just got a cold call offering me a great
opportunity to sell phone booth services to local merchants.

There are definitely jobs out there for people with the right skils
and are willing to work. I was talking on the phone today with a
Marine Refrigeration and Air Conditioning company in Naples, FL about
a repair and parts issue with our trawler. Apparently they thought I
knew what I was talking about since they offered me a job sight
unseen. I politely declined and money was never discussed. Around
here A/C and refrigeration guys charge about $85/hour, same as diesel
mechanics which are also in short supply.


There's always unfilled jobs, even in a deep recession.
And retired guys are always being offered jobs, even in a deep recession.
Those already working are offered jobs, even in a deep recession.
Jobs are like musical chairs.
When the real unemployment rate is probably close to 20%, there
just ain't enough chairs.
No matter how you spin it.

Jim - I'll sit down now.

wrote:

I am a real softie in that crowd. Most of them are hard core "if it
ain't NRTL listed, don't even bother unpacking the box".
The law will back them up every time.

BTW I have a question in to the Lee County building department asking
if a FSEC certified system can be installed if it is not NRTL listed.
I will post the answer.

That's a beginning.
Then if they say no the next step is to call FSEC and and a couple of
manufacturers of FSEC certified solar systems and tell them your local
inspector won't allow the systems.
Even though thousands of of FSEC certified systems are being installed
though the state with inspector approval.
Then you'll eventually find the ending when they get their acts together.
Solar systems are relatively new and a very small part of inspector duties.
I've always found that rigid ideologues who buck the tide of common
sense get tossed.
And an inspector nail sticking up against common sense will get hammered
down.
An inspector is in essence just another CYA bureaucrat.
If I cared I would start he
http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/people/directory.php?d=do
My question would be what to do about a local inspector who is negating
FSEC's hard work and not allowing the progress of solar systems.
I would say the FSEC's work is meaningless to me and everybody else in
my locality because your certification is ignored by the inspector.
Maybe he'll just answer by saying
"Hey, you live in a locality of twit inspectors and there's nothing I
can do. Move, or live with it."
And maybe he'll say, "Give the FSEC Marshall this joker's name and he'll
set him straight."
If I cared about solar I would raise all kinds of hell if an inspector
told me he wouldn't approve a FSEC certified Skyline system.
BTW, we're still not clear on Bryan's problem. He never mentioned an
actual system, just that a company was installing a system.
And it appeared to me the company was using using components that had
never been tested as a system by FSEC.
Our solar companies and inspector troops need some FSEC leadership on solar.

Jim - Looking for solutions, not looking to make more problems.

On 8/17/10 4:13 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:18:41 -0500, wrote:

Wayne.B wrote:
On Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:13:42 -0500, wrote:

My wife just got cold called to go sell road signs for $70,000 a year
plus expenses and benefits so some people can still find work.
Sure she did. And I just got a cold call offering me a great
opportunity to sell phone booth services to local merchants.

There are definitely jobs out there for people with the right skils
and are willing to work. I was talking on the phone today with a
Marine Refrigeration and Air Conditioning company in Naples, FL about
a repair and parts issue with our trawler. Apparently they thought I
knew what I was talking about since they offered me a job sight
unseen. I politely declined and money was never discussed. Around
here A/C and refrigeration guys charge about $85/hour, same as diesel
mechanics which are also in short supply.


There's always unfilled jobs, even in a deep recession.
And retired guys are always being offered jobs, even in a deep recession.
Those already working are offered jobs, even in a deep recession.
Jobs are like musical chairs.
When the real unemployment rate is probably close to 20%, there
just ain't enough chairs.
No matter how you spin it.

Jim - I'll sit down now.
One thing that nobody talks about is the number of marginal employees
an employer has the luxury of letting go of in times like this.


Or the good ones close to vesting in a company pension.

--
I'm the real Harry, and I post from a Mac, as virtually everyone knows.
If a post is attributed to me, and it isn't from a Mac, it's from an ID
spoofer who hasn't the balls to post with his own ID.

wrote:
On Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:25:10 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:53:32 -0400, wrote:

I have people trying to get me back into the computer business from
time to time but I would rather do just about anything else.
There is certainly a lot of opportunity but it is not hardware, it is
just integrating PC software. Plenty of windshield and telephone time,
frustrating support structures and buggy applications. I would rather
work on a shrimp boat. ;-)
Maybe. :-)

My diesel mechanic used to own a small fleet of shrimp boats at FMB
but gave it up mostly as a result of low priced imported shrimp taking
the profit out of it.

I think the best computer opportunities are with networking and
security but I'm kind of enjoying retirement.

Here in SW Florida there is a crying need for small system
integrators. Small businesses have a kludge of PCs running systems
that do not talk to each other. If you could assemble a suite of small
business software that also included POS, security, inventory, payroll
maintenance logs and scheduling, there are about 200 gated communities
who would beat a path to your door.

Maybe. But it's doubtful they would pay the price.
A "professionally" integrated system and supporting it is very costly,
if you mean writing and supporting software.
There's alway resident PC "experts" to knock down any such idea down and
say they can cobble together various cheap software packages to do the job.
And they do.
Might not be elegant, and might be troublesome.
Guess what. So are "professionally" designed integrated systems.
They just cost a lot more, and the price usually just increases as the
customers demand "customization."

Intuit's Quickbooks does a lot of what you mentioned.
You could fairly easily work out an integrated system with stock
Quickbooks within its customization scope, writing work procedures for
integration of module data where necessary, backups, security, etc, etc.
Then try to demonstrate and sell the installation, work procedures,
support and training to the small business.

There's licensing issues to consider, but that looks to be the business
owners responsibility.
You can probably get by with a relatively simple contract.
For one thing it would have to spell out you won't be responsible for
expenses caused by Quickbooks bugs. I can guarantee they'll crawl out.
Maybe DePlume could be your lawyer.

I have the feeling that if that was a profitable use of time, plenty
of out of work IT people would be attempting it.
But you should knock it around at your wife's company.
Might be doable.

The biggest impediment to selling personal software services to small
business has always been the resident PC "experts."
Always has been. Seen it in my own family with business owners.
You do your best to keep overhead low and pro software people are
expensive. Even the bad ones.

Hey, there's plenty of resident PC "experts" right here.
Just ask Harry.
Everybody's an expert now. It's the Age of Experts.

Jim - Don't ask me. I don't know. Ask an expert.

On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:27:57 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:15:36 -0400, Harry ?
wrote:

One thing that nobody talks about is the number of marginal employees
an employer has the luxury of letting go of in times like this.


Or the good ones close to vesting in a company pension.

Companies have pensions? That surprises me. IBM pretty much did away
with pensions in 1996.

i just joined my current company 2 years ago. they have a
pension...which i'll get 500 in 10 years

On 8/17/10 5:27 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:15:36 -0400, Harry
wrote:

One thing that nobody talks about is the number of marginal employees
an employer has the luxury of letting go of in times like this.


Or the good ones close to vesting in a company pension.

Companies have pensions? That surprises me. IBM pretty much did away
with pensions in 1996.


Some do.

--
I'm the real Harry, and I post from a Mac, as virtually everyone knows.
If a post is attributed to me, and it isn't from a Mac, it's from an ID
spoofer who hasn't the balls to post with his own ID.

wrote:
On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:00:43 -0500, Jim wrote:

What they are doing now isn't cheap. They don't really have any
experts but the board does fall for whatever "magic bean" salesman who
comes by. That is how they got so many different, incompatible
systems.

Makes it even worse.
First you have to prove the malfeasance of the board members who are
getting kickbacks from those salesmen, or prove a conflict of interest.
It's usually there.
Might be just the free lunches at nice eateries the winning salesmen
lavish on the right board members.
Might be the salesman is a friend of a very good friend.
But it's probably there.
That's how bad systems come about.
Could be they are all just incompetent to make such decisions.
That would be a lucky coincidence, because then you have a chance to
sell them a decent system on an honest basis.
That probably means tossing all the other systems out.
You'll make a lot of friends.
Good luck.
Try to stay a decent man when you get into marketing.

Jim - I gave up sales when honesty didn't work. Bass-o-matic.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/19046/satu...ive-bassomatic

bpuharic wrote:
On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:27:57 -0400, wrote:


On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:15:36 -0400, Harry
wrote:


One thing that nobody talks about is the number of marginal employees
an employer has the luxury of letting go of in times like this.


Or the good ones close to vesting in a company pension.

Companies have pensions? That surprises me. IBM pretty much did away
with pensions in 1996.

i just joined my current company 2 years ago. they have a
pension...which i'll get 500 in 10 years

Nice!