atw: Re: meltdowns, inspiration and motivation

Damian Forlani-Brennan: On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:45:26 +0800,  you wrote:
> Personally I am afraid I had difficulty sympathising with Steve's recent
> meltdown.
>
> I fail to understand how anyone could not have acquired a decent operational
> PC and lasted for 15 years as a technical writer.
>
> Yes hardware can fail, but if you don't buy bleeding edge hardware you can
> go for redundancy and buld yourself two close to current technology PCs for
> the price of one.   At today's prices you can get a pair of very good pre-
> dual processor desktops or one very decent dual processor laptop for around
> $1400.  With two sets of identical hardware you can just swap over the hard
> drive if anything goes wrong on your main desktop and you are straight back
> to work.
>

Have you really been doing all this for 15 years ?   Love to know what
machines made all this possible over all that time.

Revisiting some of this detail:

Rule 1: Hardware always needs upgrading, even if it's only in the storage
capacity and RAM requirements (software is more bloated, jobs are more complex
and legacy documents grow and grow).     I don't think you'd be recommending
we all should have been working with memory and disk capacities of 15 years
ago or even ten years ago...   check and see how much things have changed in
that time.

Your cheap dual processor machine today is tomorrow's boat anchor.  (well,
hardly even that, these days -- not heavy enough.)

Rule 2:   Software and operating systems count for more than hardware unless
you're into some really groovy graphics or high drama maths.  And they cost
more. So what you might think you're saving today on hardware is being spent
on software to run on it.      At today's prices, you can need to pay as much
as a laptop costs for an upgrade of software to allow you to meet customer
requirements for varied output formats, data handling etc.

[BTW I wouldn't opt for redundant hardware -- just loads of storage and
"redundant" virtual machines is a much cheaper option, anyway, as long as you
have the free time and patience to set them up. ]


All of this while working on contract rates, paying your own super, your own
workers' comp, holding off the bank because the lousy buggers haven't paid you
on time even though they're contracted for periodic payments on the knocker,
and stuffing around with the stupid BAS forms every month, and having to pay
heavier tax  And THEN the bloody hardware fails and the service people want to
argue about what might have caused it and whether it's a hardware fault anyway
(could be the software or the operating system or the way you handle the
machine).  And on top of that, the backup hard disk you bought at the same
time is starting to show the same faults as your main one.    (Well it would,
wouldn't it, if it has about the same MTBF rate and you bought it at about the
same time? ).  Top of that, the buggers you're doing the job for, who somehow
think it's reasonable to put a code freeze on the project one day and demand
full documentation ready for packaging the next, have forgotten the little
matters such as providing you with proper specs for the docs they want, proper
access to SMEs, proper briefing notes on use cases for the software so you
have real examples to give to users and a few other miscellaneous odds and
ends, and they just want you to whip up all the docco now and have it ready
for delivery by the end of the week because their budget's run out.   Looks
likely now they're going to terminate any contract you had ASAP and it's two
weeks before Xmas and you know damn well there's no-one at work in January,
that managers only start thinking about contracting techwriters for the new
year after they've lined up all the other contracts in February, so you're
looking at a prospect of a March-April start to a working year, aka 3 months
of potential unemployment with bugger all chance of getting the dole from a
government that amongst other things, considers one day a week work
constitutes grounds for classifying people as  "employed" and thinks people
who work on contract must be getting paid really well and shouldn't need
protection from unfair dismissal or any of that nonsense like holidays, sick
pay etc...   And all this for at best, possibly $60 an hour  but often a good 
deal
less, when you find the only work on offer is for a lower rate than the rate
you started working at 15 years ago. Of course, if they breach the contract,
you can take them to court, spend about $8000 - $10000 of the money you didn't
get on legal costs, wait nervously for 4 years through insulting negotiations
and you might even come out on top at the end of that, get at least some of
your money for the time unemployed, and then promptly have to pay out a huge
wack of tax on it at the very top marginal rate, and start all over again.

Welcome to the real world of tech writing, Damian.   Hope you last as long as
Steve did..

> Or you get yourself a name brand laptop with a gold service warranty and
> they come out and fix any problem at your desk within hours.
>

Ah yes.    The simple life.     Saw something like that once.    Bloke who ran
the company was called Jody something...     Whatever happened to Jody ?

--Peter M





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