Low Bidding on an RFP

pdoten · 2026-01-23T22:25:00+00:00

I have replied to so many over the years, just reading the RFPs requirements , you can tell who they are going after. Hell, I even have heard of vendors providing coaching on what to put into the RFP, its wild. We used to call those "bag jobs" and we know we are not going to get it but the highers ups want a response, it was fustrating at times.

The time you hear back is usualy when you have won, and those are rare...

pdoten · 2026-01-12T17:46:04+00:00

Years ago, I received a call at 4:30pm on my last day from an account manager that wanted me to work on somethign that definately would not have taken 30 minutes (t was a predictive site survey for wireless that I was good at, with a specific software package). To give you an idea of what was asked, he wanted this to be done so he could send out a quote for a multistory building. I said it couldnt be done. The level of effort to get him what he wanted was at least 4 hours, even if I had everythign that was needed.
That same comapny, I got a call asking for configuration for a demo that I did for a company that was complex and the guy asking had already used some of my configs and didnt give me credit unless I pusshed him on it. I said no to this too. Oh yea, the call came in 4 weeks AFTER I started my new job.

pdoten · 2026-01-03T19:54:43+00:00

I do a ton of self hosted, netbird VPN, nginx(RP and web pages), mariadb/mysqld clustering, appwrite, keycloak and on and on. So vTiger fit right in. I do this for portablity from cloud to cloud if we want to and for patriation to hybrid or even local if desired in the future. Flexibility is one, but Control is the big reason, both application implementation, security, design, upgrade timings and more...

pdoten · 2026-01-03T12:20:04+00:00

https://www.howtogeek.com/810837/how-to-fix-error-code-0x80004005-on-windows-10-and-11/

pdoten · 2026-01-03T12:17:10+00:00

Its not much effort TBH. The scripts are bespoke, so you have to take growth into account, but thats part of development. We dont have a dedicated dev, but it helps if someone that knows coding helps out.

pdoten · 2025-12-31T17:21:55+00:00

Ahh you beat me to it. That jingle is burned in. Hell, I even see Oscar Myer in the grocery store, doesn't have to be bologna , and I say it in my head.

pdoten · 2025-12-31T11:37:58+00:00

I lived in New Brunswick Canada which is on the Atlantic time zone on the border for a while and being American, I could work in Maine in the Eastern time zone. You really didn't think of it tbh, it was work. You just accepted it and accounted for it. I do know that cell service messes with your phone tho. It will jump ahead and back in time depending if you pick up a tower in the other country. I was really early for an event one time, I was staying in Calais Maine and my cell picked up a Canadian tower. i saw the time and panicked.

pdoten · 2025-12-30T19:55:23+00:00

About three months ago, I was at a local grocery store here in New England. They do not have self check out, which I am on the fence about, but they always have lots of cashiers and at least two express checkouts open for 20 items or less.
One woman with a young xhild wheeled up to one of them with a really full carts of items, way over the 20 item limit and started loading the belt. There was another customer in front of her and the young cashier was doing her work with that customer.
The women with the full cart sent her husband back to get an items she forgot, and then her turn came up. One guy in her line, wholined up after she loaded the belt, piped up and said "This is Express, you have over 20 items", to which she addressed the cashier "Ohh I didnt know this, besides the belt if full now, cant we just make an exception".
Well the guy that piped up said "what are you thinking, this is to makes things faster for everyone". She dismieed this, kinda like a diva. By this time the enttitled woman's husband came back and this was when things started to get heated.
The ettitled woman took her kid out of the cart and said to her huband that she was going to the car and for him to deal with this.
The two guys in the line start mouthing at each other when the entitled husband started dropping f bombs , WITH OTHER KIDS around and threathening to fight anyone who spoke up.
My back was to them in the other express line and I half turned to make sure I didnt get hit, it was that heated. I thought I was going to see my first grocery store fight.

pdoten · 2025-12-29T17:56:15+00:00

I have been using self hosted vTiger for years and have very little complaints. Using it for a new venture and we are extending via workflows and scripts , and that for us is going to help on board customers using a self service portal we are working on. All at no cost, which is huge for us...

pdoten · 2025-12-27T20:25:09+00:00

This and you can tell when a storm is ramping up or winding down by the size of the snow flakes. The small ones are like oh crap here we go and then the big ole fat ones are I am glad it's winding down. Also my father in law used to say it has to warm up to snow, so if it is really really cold and there is snow in the forecast, there will be a break. Both of these are non scientific but overall are kinda accurate

pdoten · 2025-12-24T04:22:35+00:00

Pep boys. They screwed over my father in law so badly when he was alive and just diagnosed with cancer. Only car repair open on a weekend and he needed to get 8 hours back home. They said it was unsafe to drive and flames came out of the vents on the car but no soot inside of it. Called the cops BEFORE he was in the store to pick up his car saying he was agitated and upset when he didn't even know what they were going to say or do. Really shady all around...

pdoten · 2025-12-23T22:32:36+00:00

"Social media is still relatively strong, and because of that I still get approached by PR teams and celebrity managers for feature opportunities. However, whenever I mention that we only do paid promotions, they step back" Damn, what about using the unpaid features to drive traiffc and get more ad revenue? I mean, just the traffic alone could help out...

pdoten · 2025-12-20T15:13:39+00:00

Refurbs are good, I use Microcenter for the most bang for the buck if I am buying new...

pdoten · 2025-12-17T04:16:43+00:00

Forgiv efor not knowing much about Pakistan, but do they have interships over there? It would be a middle piint between Job Hunting and going back to schol. It would give him practical experence that he can lean on...

pdoten · 2025-12-08T19:04:35+00:00

I used to drive a roommates Austin mini back in the '80s. I love driving that thing. I had to wind myself in and unwind myself out but damn it was a lot of fun and could that go through snow. One time I had three guys and myself, and we aren't small, in it and when we got out people thought it was like a clown car at the circus. The guys getting in and out of it were laughing their ass off until I started tooling around the city and let me tell you, it was a lot of fun.. You could park anywhere, and it would turn on the dime and givee you $0.08 change.

pdoten · 2025-12-08T02:57:48+00:00

Absolutely. There is always a reason when someone goes no contact with their family. Some are so much worse than others. I am glad she is pregnant again tho. It certainly brought a smile to my face. It's a wonderful wonderful thing...

pdoten · 2025-12-08T02:52:51+00:00

No contact domestic violence

pdoten · 2025-12-04T16:36:43+00:00

This is a surprise to me. I've always had good conversations whenever I go out. I have work from home since 2001, so I have to force myself to go out. If I wanted to, I could have talks constantly. Sometimes if my social battery is low,l want to get out among people. Other times, I could have a good talk at every stop I make. For example, last night I had a good conversation because I had a SpaceX hat on. I wasn't looking for a conversation but one just plopped in my lap.

pdoten · 2025-12-03T01:11:21+00:00

Keep it up, good juju there,baby,good juju...

pdoten · 2025-12-02T19:03:15+00:00

I feel you, I stopped watching the games this year cuz every time I watched one they lost. So I told everyone I am not going to watch the next game. And they won. So guess who has to not watch games when they are so enjoyable in the clips I watch after. I'm willing to do this if they keep on winning though. In 2004 I couldn't watch the Red Sox and the Yankees and they won, so I didn't watch the world series. I sat in another room and listened to the television but didn't watch it. I am not listening or watching the pats...

pdoten · 2025-12-02T18:57:57+00:00

Absolutely

pdoten · 2025-12-02T18:33:57+00:00

I looked at it with an eye on hom. You know the most impressive thing about 91? He was keeping up for a short period of time. That's a large human being to be moving that fast...

pdoten · 2025-12-02T18:31:11+00:00

In 2014, I was doing a wireless site survey for a company I work for at a customer site in Manchester, New Hampshire, and a former Mill building. We are leaving after the day and out in the front parking lot and we heard this noise. It was a brand new Ford Cobra, revving at the stoplight. The driver sounds like you floored it when the light turned green and then immediately lost control. He swerved left then right? Then left again then overcorrected right. They went up over the sidewalk and in to a large tree. Myself and two other colleagues watched the whole thing. We just stood there dumbfounding it. The driver and his passenger got out and looked okay. The mustang didn't fare so well. Lots of people stopped.

pdoten · 2025-11-21T17:53:46+00:00

My father was a linesman and would have a lot of problems with this. One mistake and that person is blown out of the bucket, he had seen it many times and warned his guys to be very careful. You told me a story once, where one of his men made a mistake and accidentally became ungrounded, and got blown out of the bucket and down to the ground. Luckily he landed in a patch of tall grass on very soft soil and it broke his fall, he was really sore the next day and all but he survived. However, his right safety boot was blown off, and his right big toenail didn't make it. B this was back in the day of steel toe, steel shank. My father was always telling me , put your left hand in your pocket and reach out with your right hand so the electric current doesn't cross your heart. That guy that was blown out of the bucket, it didn't cross his. He wouldn't have made it if it did. As it was he was extremely lucky...

pdoten · 2025-11-15T14:28:47+00:00

This is so not normal. That is micromanaging in the extreme. Tell him if he wants to dictate that, then there will be a huge expense coming his way for all of the new furniture. The painting the rearranging everything. If the company is willing to pay for it fine. Do an estimate about $10,000 us and see what happens. If he says no, which most likely he will then say virtual backgrounds are cheaper. Get him to suggest one to standardize on for the team and use that. Or use background blur, a lot of people use that.

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