5ive

I have been on my own freelancing and consulting IT for 9 years now. I am 29, I went into a 2 year AAS networking degree program right after HS. I finished when I was 20 and started looking for a 9-5 in IT. I never found anything and settled for doing data entry jobs for a temp agency. I started doing my own thing on the side - and it grew. After about a year of doing the data entry and IT jobs on the side I switched to doing the side work full time. At this point I got official about it, registered as an LLC and hired a CPA, paid taxes, signed up for health insurance and all that good stuff. It was painful at first but I stayed in my parents house for the first few years so the overhead was very low. When I was 24 I was doing enough work to move out on my own. The business grew every year and I had a lot of good breaks along the way. One website that really helped me get to the next level was onforce.com. There is a lot of crap that gets routed on the site but there are also some gems that come along in between - and what I discovered is that even the crap jobs can sometimes lead to really good ones down the road. If your just starting out I recommend signing up there. Getting a low voltage license (if required by your state) and learning all the ins and outs of running cable, in my experience, has been the greatest skill set to have for finding lots of regular work that will keep your bills paid. The second best skill set that has been good to me over the years is POS (point of sale, and often requires running cable as well) Cash register work is perhaps the most abundant out of anything - especially if you live in a big metro area. Pretty much every chain store out there contracts to large national outsourcing companies and the work finds its way to channels like onforce, field solutions, IIT, + many more, I could go on forever. I prob get notified of 5-10 new POS related jobs a day through all the various channels. Being creative and flexible is really the name of the game though - if you want to freelance, don't put yourself in a box. Learn as many skill sets as you can - I got into just about everything you can think of over the years. I even ventured into AV and started doing TV installs, digital signage installs and even TV repairs. I also do a lot of the more traditional freelance IT stuff. I have some small businesses, some on retainer some not, that I do everything IT related for, and a good size pool of residential customers that I take care of. Most freelance techs I know only do small business/residential general IT and don't expand down other avenues - if I would have done that, I would have had to give up a long time ago and get a 9-5. About 2 years ago I started a second business that specializes in high end AV and home automation and it has been absurdly profitable. I didn't know a whole lot about AV so I partnered with a guy who has been doing AV is whole life. I then went to some of the wealthy customers that I had been doing IT work for and pitched them on AV and Automation stuff. I got several decent jobs doing speaker installs, distributed audio, flat panel mounts, even an all out theater. Then I hit the big one, and sold a customer on a high end full home automation system using Life-Ware. This has been HUGE, we are about 400k into it right now turning his current house into a smart home, using extremely high end (and godly priced) AV and Automation equipment. Now the customer decided to buy the neighbors house, tear it down, and do a huge addition. So we will be doing a lot of work over there pretty soon. Also he has a vacation home in Maui that I am going to try and sell him on, and then he has a brother who is worth just as much as him who I am trying to sell. (they both inherited north of 100mil) When this house is all said in done I'll be making videos and pictures and entering it into all sorts of contests and what not for PR - and hopefully I will be able to milk that for even more high end AV/Automation work. Here is the kicker, I originally got this customer about 5 years ago, running a CompUSA wireless router install through Onforce. It was a $55 flat fee, 30min each way drive - something that just about every tech I know would look down on and not even consider taking because they see themselves above that kind of work. But when I was done setting up the router, he started asking me about all this other stuff going on with his computer. I told him the job was only for the router - then he pulled out a wad of hundred dollar bills and gave me 3 of them. I was blown away, and naturally I stayed and fixed up all of his computers and did whatever else he was asking about. He asked for my direct contact information and I have been doing stuff directly for him ever since. Granted this was against CompUSA's agreement, but I always figured if the customer was soliciting me its not the same as me soliciting them. This happened all the time, and even though CompUSA is no longer, there are still a bunch of similar calls on onforce that have the same potential. Radioshack for one, routes similar services nationwide to ATT Connecttech, who then uses Onforce to find the techs. So I guess the point is to be creative and open to new things, and always be looking for new ways to help out old customers. This was a very extreme example but I have a lot more examples of where a job looked like crap on the surface, I took it anyway because I had nothing else scheduled for the time slot, and it turned into something much better when it was all said in done - or led to something totally different. I am now thinking about getting all the Apple certs (even though I hate that company with a passion!!) just so I can get listed on their website and get some leads to residential apple customers, as I think it will be a good pool to cross sell AV and Automation installs too.

IT Consulting has been good to me ;)

People are not interested in social networking websites - they are interested in the people on them. There is a huge difference, and if you have plans on trying to start one up I think you need to grasp that. It really doesn't matter how much better of a site you can create. If google can't get people to use orkut, wave, etc, I have no idea how a small player could get one going. Facebook and Myspace both had a lot of lucky right place at the right time type things happening for them to get as big as they did. I bet most users of both sites hate the site but use them anyway, because its not about the site, its about the people. I signed up for a facebook account after I noticed that about 400 out of the 500 some people I graduated HS with had one. That is a nutty percentage, and it makes people feel like they need to jump on the bandwagon since everyone else is. Personally I hate the site though - I hate the wall concept, and I hate just about everything about it. That said, if you give me a link to a much better site, it doesn't matter I won't sign up because the only reason I have to go to such a site is to check up on people from my past, and if their not already on the site, then there is no point to being on it. It's a catch 22.

okiwan's ss inspired me to do compiz cubeshot of my ubuntu VM. Grabbing the shot from the host machine was tricky since I had to be active inside the VM guest to get the cube up. I ended up using a timer to take the shot. I also have 3d support working on the osx VM - but it doesn't really do anything as cool as the compiz cube....

I did it on my eeepc 901 the other day - similar experience with everything working except the wifi. Kind of neat to play around with but not very practical. You can do so much more with a normal OS...

toms hardware anandtech Maximum PC

6 headed workstation running win7 6x 22" 1680x1050 top mid is a full screen ubuntu 10.4 VM top right is a full screen osx 10.6 VM win7 notes: running window blinds with corp theme running rainmeter with some of the enigma skins Other notes: Ubuntu VM is using a dedicated bridged NIC connected to a separate network with a Qwest DSL line, everything else is on the main NIC connected to a network with a Comcast cable connection. Reason being, I do a lot of torrenting and what not on the linux VM and don't like it interfering with my online gaming - that I do on another rig. wallpaper is some random d/l from deviant art Gaming rig desktop: exterior pic of both setups

I have a 6 headed workstation that I originally tried to use ubuntu for. The computer has 3 9500's, one thing I noticed with linux is it's near impossible to get screens from multiple video cards to work in a single x session. I had to do a completely seperate x session for each video card - so it was like have 3 pairs of 2 monitors instead of 6 working as one big one. I don't remember the specifics, but I ended up giving up and now its a 6 headed windows work station, as 7 got them all to work seamlessly together as one big monitor on the first boot before I even installed the nvidia drivers.

Yahoo is the 4th most visited site in the world and the 3rd most visited site in the US - why on earth would they give up? that's insanity, do you have any idea how much traffic that is?

There is a ton of old hardware out there that simply will not work with 64bit. I have a customer running a 10 year old canon copy machine that canon is no longer making drivers for. I can get it to work just fine in windows 7 32 bit however it is impossible to print to this thing in win7 64 bit outside of a virtual machine. Canon never made a 64bit driver for it, for any OS. This was such a big deal for my customer that he had me downgrade his computer to 7 32bit. Also if you want to run Boxee, imho the best HTPC software out there, it will only work on 32bit (linux/windows, it might work on the new 64bit osx not sure) For this reason all of my HTPC's are still running 32bit OSes. Another thing is ppl with older copies of quicken/quickbooks who don't want to fork over the money to upgrade - they are out of luck on 64bit. These examples could go on and on... On a side note, I realize it's too late and you already order the parts. But Micro center has been selling the i5 750 for 149 since it's release. They are always quite a bit cheaper then anyone else for CPU's. Only downside is that it's an in-store only deal so if there isn't one in your area it's a mute point. I have purchased 6 i5's thus far for customer builds. http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/6c764a63#/6c764a63/1

That degree might help, but it's not going to land you anything on it's own - and I hope your not paying out of pocket for this degree because it's going to be VERY hard to make the money back on your investment. This is not 1963, a 4 year degree is a much more expensive empty shell of what it once was - and this is amplified the most in the IT field... If your parents are paying the tuition then by all means go for it, but if you have to pay it yourself or take out huge loans, it would be very hard to justify. You could get similar millage out of the higher end certs for a fraction of the investment.

It's f-ed up out there right now. I read that there is an estimated 15 million unemployed ppl in the states and and an estimated 2.5 million job openings. The employers are having a hay day with the situation. Those who are still working are most likely getting pushed harder then ever before. The employers know that they have their employees by the balls right now. My roommate is working 10 hour days 5 days a week and can't even take days off because there is no one else to do his job when he's gone. He plays along and bends over for them because he knows that if he gets canned his company can put out an add and get hundreds of applications in just a couple days - and a lot of them would be from over qualified people. Meanwhile he would be sitting out there with everyone else competing for scraps. My decision to become self employed was by far the best I ever made. Whatever doubts I had in the past have been erased by this current job climate. I honestly havn't even noticed a slump in business, people are still using computers for everything and they still need help with them. Everything has been more or less the same for me, but for many of my 9-5 friends, their worlds are being turned upside down right now. All you IT guys looking for network admin jobs have the wrong idea. Go into business for yourself, the market is as big as ever. A lot of these companies that laid off their IT departments still have huge IT needs, they are just being outsourced - and most of the companies that are getting the big outsourced contracts are simply middle men who go out and hire independent contractors to do the actual work. I am seeing more of these projects then ever and they seem easier then ever to land.

Curious if anyone has tried Nod32 Enterprise?

I have been getting PM's from people who are using 3cx 7.x and can not get it to work. I can not help you get v7 working, I have only been successful to get it to work on 3cx v6 as I posted in the original post. When I made the post download.com was still hosting v6 but it appears they only have 7.1 now along with everyone else. I did a quick google search and I do not have a good source for v6. If anyone has the setup file or knows where to get it please let me know. I have it installed but did not keep the setup file.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/artic...,S,M,GT,MYL,HTZ AMD was mentioned in this article about big companies that are veering toward bankruptcy. If you are an AMD fan, now is the time to show your support.

When a phone is missing huge things such as removable/upgradeable batteries, real keyboards, multitasking, removable storage media, an open development platform etc. I have a real hard time buying the argument that it is as good as it's competitors. I know your from EU so it's a non-factor, but in the US when you factor in the marriage to an ATT plan that will end up costing more then $50/month over the same plan from sprint... there is really nothing to like imho.

I voted intel because that it what I have been using in most of my builds lately. It's hard to say hypothetically if performance wasn't an issue, because it is an issue, and if they really were the same then AMD would probably have the same prices to match. At which point my decision would move on to what motherboard would best fit the build...

Apple is way too locked down with everything. I run a Pre and there are 3 different google voice apps for it already. It is such a shame to see Apple and Blackberry on top of the smart phone market. I really wish consumers could see threw the hype and realize that the other options are all better for so many reasons.... (windows mobile, android, webos).

'shutdown -r' if you want to reboot. I have been using this command on XP for a long time. Works both in run or command prompt.

I was saying don't take a job - and definitely don't open up a storefront... idk we are not on the same page. When it comes to taxes you will know if you’re a contract or a real employee because if you were an employee you would have to sign a w2 before you start working. If you do work without signing a w2 then it is your responsibility to report your earnings to the IRS not whoever hired you - you can't pass that blame to anyone else. What do you mean he didn't tell you, he either gave you a w2 to sign or he didn’t lol. The advice I was trying to give was for you to work independently, out of your house. Sign up at sites such as onforce.com and start running calls. They will pay 40-70/hr on average and will lead to better work and direct work. When you find direct customers you can bill them out at 75+/hr depending on your market and what service you are providing.

Anyone know what people do when they don't really understand what it is they are saying in a debate? They start yelling... everytime... ROCK ON HALEN666!! XP has been out for what 8 years now? Do you honestly believe that a secret rootkit could go this long without being discovered? Take another bong rip bro...

Dahhh... how do you put it... it doesn't matter how nice your paint set is, if your not an artist your painting will suck, and if you really are a good artist, then you will paint a masterpiece no matter what you have in your paint set. What I am trying to say is that it's all about you, not about your degree or certs. You don't need a job to be successful. In today's environment I would actually recommend against having one - your just going to use the job as a crutch, your boss will own you, and if you were to ever loose the job you would get fucked. This is a service business and if your a skilled tech then you can sell your services on your own. Start with the nationals, sign up for onforce, installittoday, feildsolutions, whatever has work. Those guys won't pay well but they will get you started and if your good, the doors will open for you. Next put out the word that you do tech work, put up flyers, take out a phone book add, use craigslist, whatever. Just build your customer base, again, if your good, doors will open and good things will happen. You just have to get out there and start doing it. Its a great time to be a freelance tech, contract jobs and outsourcing are on the rise and full time tech positions are on the decline. I think to go out and try and get a job right now is a horrible move.

What kills me about this is that we are talking about public schools - which are provided by the government. If you don't want your kid exposed to such a thing then you need to provide your own schooling for them. I was one of the two who voted for why do you keep posting political threads - because honestly, that's not what I come to these forums for. But here I am reading and replying in one lol.

voodoo magic backdoors ftw

http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/9834/mo...tails-revealed/ http://www.webos-internals.org/wiki/Portal:Accessing_Linux