I wouldn't know, it's a picture I found on the internet.

I got affected by that outage and it was somewhat annoying. It seems like Cogent was affected and also some, but not all, of my colocation services.

http://www.sigbjorn.org/funstuff/images/ios_sucks.jpg pretty much sums up how I feel.

It's always reassuring that when hardware manufacturers merge they manage to keep the worst of both companies.

My next batch of drives will be Samsung, the previous 2 I bought (20gb each) are still working.

There was a bug in ktorrent that cause an infinite loop when udp trackers were present in a torrent file, maybe you check if you have the latest version.

Yeah exactly ;-)
I was actually being very tongue in cheek.

As for the dtmf, I meant something a bit more user friendly, like having a digitized voice that would say it blind people.

It's not like cellphones require dtmf to dial out...

How a bout having a set of predefined buttons with a small bump so that the number 5 can easily be identified. The buttons could be placed in some sort of logical order, let's say in ascending numbers, 3 each row. We could also add * # Send and End as buttons.

It might look something like that:
S E
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
* 0 #

What would really be cool and useful too is to make sure that when someone presses a button it also feels like its been pressed.

As an aside, a cool feature would be the cellphone speaker phone saying the number that was pressed as someone dialed. _That_ would be useful.

I just wonder how many Rs are needed to make it a non problem...

Actually this is much worse as your risk having the pipes connecting the house to the aqueduc burst.

The best way is to have a small thread of water running from a faucet, for both the hot and cold water taps. Depending on the layout of the plumbing there might be a need for 2 or 3 faucets to be running.

Well, that means that the sham treatment isn't so much of a sham.

The problem is in factoring all of the variables:
- Depth of needle penetration (if at all)
- Coating of the needle
- Placement of the needle

There is a difference between putting a bunch of needles randomly on someone's body, vs just applying non-penetrating pressure at a few points using a needle.

Sham acupuncture, by definition, is sticking needles in randomly, but the body will tend to react to it, no matter where it is.

The problem is that one egg is much more easier to stop then some 20 million sperms.

Right now, all the current contraceptive for men, except condoms, affect sexual desire because they also cut down the testosterone production, which is why an alternative source of it is also needed.

As for the pill, there is also Depo Provera which is an injection every 12 week. Unfortunately they require regular bone densitometry tests as some women are vulnerable to bone loss while using it.

I've started about 7 years ago under similar circumstances.

Here is the advice I have to give you:

1. If it doesn't feel right, don't do it. There are going to be a lot of fish out there, and quite a few of them are bad. Avoid them at all costs.

2. If it is too good to be true... get a signed contract.

3. Don't hesitate to fire a toxic customer which kills your motivation. They just drag you down and you'll be better of without them.

4. If a longtime customer has difficulty paying, work out a payment plan. If a new customer has difficulty paying, stop working for them until they pay all that is due (including unbilled time).

5. Use a CRM (hint http://www.maximumcrm.com/ ) to keep track of your customers.

6. Keep track of all the time you spend with your customers, including just having IM conversations. While it may not be billable, it could point to you problem customers, eg those that talk a lot buy don't pay much.

7. Make your hourly time what you think you are worth. If you try to compete on cost you'll just wish you got a job again.

8. Make agreements that allow you to show case the work you did and use it as example whenever possible. This is going to be a major problem as you get experiences as a freelancer as a lot of companies don't want to let you use the work you did for them as part of your marketing.

9. Make backups.

10. Test your backups.

11. Use SSH keys instead of trying to remember a gajillion passwords.

12. Your long time customers are worth gold and will bring you much much more work then elance or other expert marketplaces.

13. Diversify, don't keep working for just 1 customer. At least have 4 "permanent" customers.

14. Some customers might ask for a discount if they commit to a certain number of hours per month, or they might want to enter into such an agreement. It does help to limit the fluctuations in monthly income, but you do have to be able to provide for all of your commitments.

15. Be careful who you sub contract to. Their work will have a direct reflection on yours. If I have a new subcontractor I want to try out, I usually use him/her on a new customer. Always, in any case, handle ALL communications and billing between you and the subcontractors. This is even more true for your longtime customers as they will expect a certain quality to the work you do.

16. Make backups, again.

17. Make sure that the flat rate you pull out of your ass reflects the work that is requested. This is unfortunately not always possible, especially if you use Elance for leads. Make sure your hourly rate is in the profile and point it out to the customer if he ever wonders what it is.

18. Be careful in giving freebies. If you establish a pattern (like billing by the quarter hour), then customers will expect you to keep it.

19. Keep a separate facebook / myspace account for your customers. Don't post your recent party photos to it!

20. Keep accurate bookkeeping and pay your taxes. If the tax agency finds you making undeclared money they are going to wait a few years so that you dig yourself a rather large hole and charge you many years of penalties and interest on these penalties.

enough said