- Most Recent | Since 2004
- List View
- Archive
- February 21, 2005
“So You Want to be a Consultant”
February 21, 2005Read moreI just read through Steve Friedl’s So you want to be a consultant article on unixwiz.net. He conveys a lot about the consultant business that, upon reflection, correlates strongly with my own experience. One of the keystones of his advice is that customer relation skills is their biggest asset:
The single biggest surprise to prospective consultants is when I suggest that their technical skills will not be their biggest asset. Those skills are required, of course, and often help get you in the door, but the long-term customer relationships on which a consultant depends are built on one thing only: Consulting maxim: You must give the customer The Warm Fuzzy Feeling™
It sounds lame, but it’s absolutely true; people like to feel good about who’s working for them. Flip it the other way around, when you’re hiring someone for yourself, and you’d feel the same way.
Friedl also relates some of his insights into taxes and billing along the way, but this is not the primary thrust of the article. If I were to sum it up, I might call it “Do the Right Thing” consulting. You can read the article here. Via Slashdot.
- February 20, 2005
Midnight Epiphany on the I-95
February 20, 2005Read moreThis is a long, introspective post on personal happiness…I think. If you find long, introspective posts to be boring, go have a cookie or something instead!
- February 19, 2005
The Diamond Age Revisited
February 19, 2005Read more
It’s been 10 years since Neal Stephenson wrote The Diamond Age – or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer. I happened across my copy while cleaning out my bedroom, and started flipping through it. I’d forgotten about a lot of the themes in it: nano-technology, interactive storytelling, and how such things affect the lives of young children.
- February 19, 2005
Upgrading to WordPress 1.5
February 19, 2005Read moreUpgrading to WordPress 1.5… Please be patient while I resolve the incompatibilities with the old site’s visual layout with the new system.
I followed the steps here:
- There are some weird things with image tags, and my layout isn’t showing up! It also looks like kubrick.
- As it turns out, the WordPress 1.5 upgrade process automatically created a template with the name of your blog. It is incorrectly generated based on the default template in WordPress 1.5. You have to pick the one YOU created manually. After I did that, the problems went away.
- I could use Dreamweaver’s editor fine, against what the upgrade notes suggest. But of course, I’m working in code view, not design view.
- Had to update
wp_list_catsin my category listing fromwp_list_cats('sort_column=name')towp_list_cats('sort_column=name&children=1&hide_empty=0')to get the same indent behavior I had before. - My page buttons for main sections (david-o-cracy, working-it, ideabox) were messed up…had to add some mod_rewrite rules to handle it. The special headers at the top of each section use mod_rewrite to set variables that the index.php code detects.
- February 19, 2005
Taiwanese Bread
February 19, 2005Read more
I went back to the Merlion Asian Market to pick up some Taiwanese Bread.
Taiwanese bakery bread tends to be light and airy, with a touch of sweetness. I have memories of visiting a bakery in a farmer’s market in Shih-lin near our house in Taipei. After enduring the pungent aroma of live chickens and ripening papaya, we’d stop in the bakery to pick up some treats.
Photos follow!
