It sounds like you've done the right things so far and lawsuits and name & shame are like firing off nukes, you don't want to have to resort to those as long as there are alternatives.

You know the client, your relationship with them and the future of your business better than any of us so you are ultimately always going to be in the best position to know what to do.

My nature is to be gentle but direct when confronted with excuses and would ask "Do you really intend to pay us? When?" Get it in writing or email, then when that date comes round, repeat. That has worked for me several times.

I've also paid a lawyer to just write a letter asking on my behalf about their intentions and what reasons they may have for not paying. Sometimes that's enough,.

They are behaving like weasels though. If you can avoid it, I hope you won't do any more work for them, or at least not without payment up front.

I wrote my first real program on a Sinclair. It was for TV troubleshooting and it took you down to the section. Storage was a cassette tape and the output was composite video for black & white TV.

Then I bought the memory expansion, took it to work and made a program for it to do cost estimate calculations. It was the 2nd computer anywhere in the company. I got promoted from cost estimating to Systems Administrator all in one go. I stayed with that company almost 30 years, then I left to start my own software company.

A few years ago I was telling that story to a client. He pulled a mint condition Sinclair -- still in the original box -- out of his desk and gave it to me. He said it bought it to learn computers and never used it. It was like giving me the keys to my first car.

If the sea level would just rise about 30 more meters or so my house would be on the beach, plus -- and this is a big plus -- no one would ever have to smell New Jersey again.

What has ever caused more human suffering than religion?

Look online at the software engineer and developer job descriptions posted by respected companies.

Then pick the title where most of the descriptions generally match up well with what you are good at doing.

+1 if you make an algorithm that does the match ranking for you automatically and can demonstrate it during the interview.

Atlanta, GA 1998 and I was walking around outside the hotel in the early afternoon.

Not a bad neighborhood mostly office buildings, hotels and a few restaurants.

A little car pulls up beside me and stops, then from the passenger side a guy opens the window few inches and asks for directions to some place, kind of mumbling. I said sorry I don't where anything is I'm not from around here. (yes, dumb answer, now I know better) and so I keep walking.

I hear the car door open and turn around. There's this young black kid pointing a gun at my chest. Probably a .22 but looking down the barrel it seemed really big, cannon big. His hand was shaking. I couldn't take my eyes off the gun barrel.

He said "give me 'yo flip phone" It was on my belt (yes, dumb, now I know better) and I handed it over... then he wanted my wallet, handed it over. He told me to "turn around" then "get down"

So there I was kneeling on the pavement and I thought he was going execute me so I said "can I say my prayers?" All I was thinking was who is going to take care of my daughters after I die.

He said 'go on an pray you honkey mutha f##ka" and fired.

I think he must have been heading back to the car as he pulled the trigger because it hit me in the foot. I thought "I'm supposed to be dead" and laid down on the pavement. I heard the car peel out and I could see it tear around corner.

The bullet only grazed me and after I just had to use a cane for a few weeks (yup, luckiest man on earth)

Best thinking I've seen on /. in ages -- had I mod points you'd be +5 right now

These eponymous connections almost never pan out.

Doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin was not beheaded with one of his own devices.

Dr. Richard J. Gatling was not shot by his own invention, nor was John Garand or John T. Thompson.

In fact if it wasn't for Mr Blunt Object the whole idea never would have got started in the first place.

I was working on-site in South Korea a few years ago.

They said that since I was only going to be there for the week they would not provide me with a chair.

So I just stood at a make-shift workstation and it wasn't really all that bad after the first day or so.

I still do stand up and work for a few hours at a time -- just not all day.