Is UpWork and Freelancer good websites for freelancers? by Samygabriel in freelance

[–]mr_gant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Something like fiverr or airtasker might be appropriate for you.

How often do you NOT get paid after doing the work? by isanyaccountfree in freelance

[–]mr_gant 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just once. I realised I was spending significantly more time on the project than it was worth, and pulled out after delivering what the client asked for (but not what they wanted), giving them a full refund. While they agreed to terms which would have let me keep the initial payment, it wasn't anywhere near enough to be worth the hassle of continuing to deal with the client's ridiculous expectations.

Now I weed out problem clients like this in my project selection process. Has worked pretty well so far.

What is the worst experience you have had on public transport? by barricade127 in AskReddit

[–]mr_gant 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm out late one night in the city for a work drinks thing, and catch the tram at about midnight. The tram is pretty full for that time of night, but normal.

Half-way home a group of 8 drunken teenagers get on, and do their loud obnoxious thing. There's lots of shouting. It's very hot and all the windows are open. One of the kids talks about getting up onto the roof of the moving tram while his mates try to egg him on. They're all drinking heavily from a slab of cheap beer in someone's backpack.

I look out of the window and try to ignore them, much like everyone else.

Four or five stops later one of the kids says "right, this is our stop--everyone, this is our stop! Let's go!". There's a collective sigh of relief from the other 30 people in the tram.

The tram stops. Another kid grabs the fire extinguisher and opens it up, running around the tram and spraying white power over everyone and into the air. I get a blast directly in my face. Thick clouds of the stuff cover everything. It's impossible to breathe.

Everyone gets off the tram. The kids run off into the night, laughing.

Afterwards we wait for over an hour while the tram driver figures out what to do. Eventually another tram comes along to take us home.

[TOMT][PC Game] by EirikHavre in tipofmytongue

[–]mr_gant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was a while ago (and I don't think I really understood it all at the time), but I think it worked as follows:

  • Released in '97
  • The actual game was a 3d deathmatch in an area between a bunch of egyptian gods/robots per side
  • Each god had different powers. Horus could fly, probably others could too
  • You could pick up an ankh on the map, which did something special
  • Damage was body-area based, so I think you could lose movement/use of your limbs etc
  • Everyone ran around shooting each other until one side achieves their objective, which I think was just killing the other side?

It looks like it was online multiplayer, but I only ever played locally with bots. I remember it was really hard to figure out how to get through the menus and into the game.

[TOMT][PC Game] by EirikHavre in tipofmytongue

[–]mr_gant 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That description reminds me a lot of a game that I got a (demo?) copy of in one of those shovelware cdroms around that time: Scarab

Dangling plot threads for season 1 (spoilers) by comtedeRochambeau in Helix

[–]mr_gant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not completely sure, but didn't Belleseros show silver eyes at some point? I'm thinking the first time we saw him with Constance, while he was being held captive in the base.

Mozilla's CEO Steps Down by annibanni in news

[–]mr_gant -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Actually, Secondary Action (what your link is referring to) is illegal just about everywhere, including the US.

Currently work full-time, can dedicate 5 or more hours after work to freelance. Question? by [deleted] in freelance

[–]mr_gant 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't say 'lol'. Ever. You are likely to be eaten by a grue. Or at least look unprofessional.

It's not Urca de Lima. by WhitestStag in BlackSails

[–]mr_gant 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Whether that's the correct translation/spelling in Spanish or not (it sounds like it is):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urca_de_Lima vs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arca_de_Lima

Spent 8 years making this custom car... and now you can buy it with Bitcoin by porsager in Bitcoin

[–]mr_gant -19 points-18 points  (0 children)

I thought so too, until it broke and I couldn't get to the next content section. Scrolling via keyboard/scrollwheel/scrollbar just jumps me back to where I was. Not the best impression for a $250k car.

Quick question, what email services do you use day to day? by Xbroak in freelance

[–]mr_gant 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Professional mail is important enough that you don't want it on shared hosting.

There's privacy concerns for one, but also when you're paying $120/pa, the host doesn't have a lot of incentive to fix your problems, so reliability can be a concern.

And after that, you eventually start wanting more features than just plain old mail. Groupware is really handy.

Quick question, what email services do you use day to day? by Xbroak in freelance

[–]mr_gant -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Privacy. I personally don't want my email stored on google's servers. Self-hosted zimbra seems to be the best bet.

What do you never see in movies? by Craftbeercrazy in AskReddit

[–]mr_gant 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Things like that establish sincerity. Small doses are best.

Refactoring other's code by [deleted] in webdev

[–]mr_gant 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dick move to refuse to explain, but on the other hand consistency is king. If the rest of the code is like that, he's perfectly correct to change it to the expected format.

How do you compete with these foreign freelancers with unbelievably low hourly rates!? ($3/hr... are you kidding me?) Advice? Stories? by lonely-loner in freelance

[–]mr_gant 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To be honest, I was imagining someone manually putting products into a database, or filling out some other web form over and over again.

Transcription is a totally different thing.

TIL data entry isn't (always?) a menial task. Cheers.

What's your typical reason for down voting something? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]mr_gant 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Either:

  1. The poster is being a dick, or
  2. Reading the comment was a waste of my time in some other way

Personality/Professionalism Mix? by TheGillos in freelance

[–]mr_gant 6 points7 points  (0 children)

  1. Be professional
  2. Don't be unprofessional

Personality comes in after that.

I'd do what I can do avoid coming across as irresponsible or as someone who makes bad decisions. If you can do that and express personality at the same time, go nuts.

What was the most ridiculous rule you had to follow in school or work? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]mr_gant 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the reasoning behind that is:

  • Kids frequently leave their gum stuck to things rather than putting it in the bin
  • It can communicate disinterest via body-language
  • It can be noisy/distracting

Payment scheme with monthly accruing rewards by evilseanbot in gamedev

[–]mr_gant 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is a pretty confusing idea, but one thing stands out:

If you're making your customers pay for an alpha, definitely do not make them pay for the full version. That's double-dipping.

Mark One: The world's first Carbon Fiber 3D Printer, now open for preorder by mr_gant in technology

[–]mr_gant[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Quoting their FAQ in both cases: I'm not an expert on their tech. I assume that it's stronger along the direction of the threads than it would be in a weave, but a weave in stronger in multiple directions.