The Vent and Rant Thread

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by wodin

POLTERGEIST!!

I was more thinking along the lines of my grandfather making his discontent known about the Family Thing

[Freeshadow]

Try a line of salt

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

I was more thinking along the lines of my grandfather making his discontent known about the Family Thing

I'm afraid to ask.

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

Try a line of salt

+1! Get a little salt in an unbroken line, some holy water that you sprinkle around--you should be good to go. You'll be fine.

Spoiler:

Hitch

[Hitch]

I debated about whether to vent and rant here, about this, or to ask for feedback elsewhere in the Lounge, but, meh. Venting seems more appropriate.

4.5 YEARS ago, a woman hired us to convert her book. We set up her project, and she paid the invoice. Things happened, and she never got us the final book to convert.

....time passes....

In the fall of last year, she pops up again, with the SAME book, and now wants a quote to do a POD+eBook package. (The original contract was eBook only.) We quote her.

....time passes....

And now, she's BACK. Apparently, she wants us to honor the payment she made 4.5 years ago, against the work she wants done now.

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how I really feel about this. I offered, repeatedly, way back, to refund her paid monies. The delays were sort of never-ending. We had the project open for AGES (two years?). Emails to her periodically, yadda.

I'm probably going to end up honoring the 2011 payment against this new work, just to avoid hassles and bad publicity...but am I daft in thinking, "geeze, lady, I've probably used up that money in chasing you around, asking if the book was ready, requoting you, blabbety-blab?"

FYI, in our newer (than 2011) Terms & Conditions, we flatly state that paid or not, if a client disappears for X months, their job is considered complete and the project is closed and archived. But, to be fair, I did NOT have that in place in 2011. I do NOT remember how far we got on this in 2011. (And I can't find the bits and orts to reconstruct the history of whether or not we did the first leg of conversion, and THEN she disappeared, or if she disappeared from the get-go, damn.)

If you were the CLIENT, would you think that 4.5, nearly 5 years down the road, that the work is still owed, without any type of offset? Or...? I want to be fair about this, and more importantly, I want to stop feeling resentful about it. I mean, sheesh, this client is getting a damn lotta mileage out of a few hundred bucks.



Hitch

[Cinisajoy]

Well now if I was the client we would have worked something out earlier if possible.

Now here we are 5 years later and I reappear. If the down payment had been substantial say $1000, I would ask if we could apply 90% to the project now.
If it was $200 then 50%.
Any less than that and I would figure that you had already earned that money the first time.
I would be willing to go lower on those percentages depending on how much original work you had done.

Well now, I would also assume your prices had gone up so whatever you quoted me years ago would be out the window.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Here a cord, there a cord, everywhere a cord cord.
Devices too and batteries.
You wanted to connect a wattzit to a whoseit to a thatsit. Yep got the cords for that.

I have a drawer full of miscellaneous cords for connecting This to That. In some cases I may no longer have This or That, but I'm a pack rat about cords.

The real annoyances are power adapters. I reserved a fair bit of ire for Palm, back when, as every new PDA model seemed to use a different power adapter. Power requirements didn't change, and you'd think picking a power design and sticking with it would have been in their interests too, but they didn't seem to realize it. I have power adapters I'm no longer sure what they are supposed to power, and have begun labeling them to avoid confusion.

And I have batteries out the wazoo, as many things don't yet use rechargeable batteries, so I have lots of AAA and some AA on the shelf. I'm actually in favor, as swapping batteries is a lot faster than plugging something into an adapter to recharge, and carrying a few spare batteries is easy. Carrying power adapters isn't.

I realized we were living the connected lifestyle a while back when there was a separate travel bag for power strips, power adapters, connecting cords and other miscellany. We had luggage, and our devices had luggage. The next step would be our devices traveling without us. Then they could deal with lost luggage...
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I do NOT remember how far we got on this in 2011. (And I can't find the bits and orts to reconstruct the history of whether or not we did the first leg of conversion, and THEN she disappeared, or if she disappeared from the get-go, damn.)

I don't know details of your workflow, but I'd seriously look into version control software.

A VCS is a form of database. When you create a project, you check it into the VCS. When you do more work on the project you check it out, and check it back in when done, with a comment indicating what was changed. The VCS stores what is different between the versions. It's possible to recreate the project at any point by starting with the original commit and applying changes up to the desired point.

VCS's were developed by programmers to provide better control over software development, but have broader applicability. I had one a while back that could do version control on Word documents and Excel spreadsheets back when they were still in a proprietary binary format instead of the current XML variant.

Use of a VCS would make the problem you described above easier, in that you would have a record of the steps taken and when they were done.
______
Dennis

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I have a drawer full of miscellaneous cords for connecting This to That. In some cases I may no longer have This or That, but I'm a pack rat about cords.

The real annoyances are power adapters. I reserved a fair bit of ire for Palm, back when, as every new PDA model seemed to use a different power adapter. Power requirements didn't change, and you'd think picking a power design and sticking with it would have been in their interests too, but they didn't seem to realize it. I have power adapters I'm no longer sure what they are supposed to power, and have begun labeling them to avoid confuction.

And I have batteries out the wazoo, as many things don't yet use rechargeable batteries, so I have lots of AAA and some AA on the shelf. I'm actually in favor, as swapping batteries is a lot faster than plugging something into an adapter to recharge, and carrying a few spare batteries is easy. Carrying power adapters isn't.

I realized we were living the connected lifestyle a while back when there was a separate travel bag for power strips, power adapters, connecting cords and other miscellany. We had luggage, and our devices had luggage. They next step would be our devices traveling without us. Then they could deal with lost luggage...
______
Dennis

I understand the power adapters too. I have a travel bag too. Don't forget the car chargers.

Now funny thing on cords is I once bought a used Garmin. It came with the correct car charger and a Motorola phone charger. It actually needed a different cord to connect to the computer for updates. It takes the micro to charge and the mini to transfer data. (Garmin sent me the correct cord free.)

At one place my husband worked, an employee had a bad habit of throwing away cords. Luckily my husband always took out the trash. Then when they went to sell the device or show someone the device no cord could be found.
She was broke of that habit when my husband told her, he would get her the cord but it was going to cost her Best Buy price to replace it.
She never threw another cord away.

And yes, I have way more cords and power adapters than actual devices.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I understand the power adapters too. I have a travel bag too. Don't forget the car chargers.

I don't own a car, so I can forget them. (I live in Manhattan, and I tell folks the only people who own and drive cars there are either getting paid for it or are nuts. Anything I need on a day to day basis is literally within a couple of blocks walk. For longer trips, there are buses, subways and taxis. For out of city travel there are buses, trains, and planes. I neither need nor want a car.)

Now funny thing on cords is I once bought a used Garmin. It came with the correct car charger and a Motorola phone charger. It actually needed a different cord to connect to the computer for updates. It takes the micro to charge and the mini to transfer data. (Garmin sent me the correct cord free.)

A friend has a Garmin GPS for her car, and I lent a little tech support in getting the Gamin software successfully updated on her new laptop. A cord for power and a different one for data is fairly standard, and what you describe is a common arrangement.

At one place my husband worked, an employee had a bad habit of throwing away cords. Luckily my husband always took out the trash. Then when they went to sell the device or show someone the device no cord could be found.
She was broke of that habit when my husband told her, he would get her the cord but it was going to cost her Best Buy price to replace it.
She never threw another cord away.

Just don't tell her that if you leave them alone in a dark place they breed...

And yes, I have way more cords and power adapters than actual devices.

So do we. It comes with the territory.
______
Dennis

[Cinisajoy]

I live in Odessa where we just got somewhat decent public transportation if you want to go to the library, the mall, the university or Walmart. But expect long wait times because there are very few buses.

So one pretty much needs a car.
Hey question: everyone I have talked to that lives in NYC doesn't own a car so why is there so much traffic?

I guess I should take the cords out of the file cabinet.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I don't know details of your workflow, but I'd seriously look into version control software.
<snippage>

Use of a VCS would make the problem you described above easier, in that you would have a record of the steps taken and when they were done.
______
Dennis

Actually, we have this, in two different ways.

All work that's done is saved to a specific Dropbox for that project, inside a larger Dropbox folder (for the bookmaker, while s/he is working on that project). The file that's completed is then uploaded to the specific project in Teamwork Projects (a PM system), which has automatic versioning.

So, a) we name the files sequentially--something really creative like, V1, V2, and so on in the Dropbox;and if we screw up and forget, b) Teamwork versions them.

HOWEVER, this was a lot less "set in cement" in 2011. Moreover, my archives were not very procedurally organized back then. Hell, for that matter, I wasn't certain, at that time, that I needed to keep archives of the work, once done. I ultimately decided that we did; but that wasn't until the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012. We'd kept them (in fact, I used to keep them in a Calibre Catalogue, for ease of finding), but not in any "religious" way.

And an unfinished book? Crap. That could be almost anywhere.

(Related: I'm looking at X1 desktop search, to try to eliminate bloody duplicate copies of files on my "system." We can end up with copies of large folders of, say, InDesign files, in the quoting DB (Dropbox), the been quoted (DB); the in-production DB. When some of the idiots with whom you are doing work can have 1GIG (yes, 1 gigabyte) INDD Folders for something like a 34-page kids' book, you can eat up space quickly if you don't have rigorous file-deletion hygiene. I'm upgrading my personal computer to 3TB RAIDS of immediate storage this weekend, not to mention the externals, and it's like...sheesh! Oh, and if I forget to be rigorous with my Hightail Downloads folder...a boatload of space can get gobbled like prime rib near a pack of Wolfhounds.)

@re: cables. Mother of God, don't get me started. I don't know which is worse--my living room or the office. Cables cables everywhere, and each one of these bloody things, so it seems, has its own connector. (Apple, Nook, Kindles, my Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga, some other Droid devices, other readers...). Someday, some genius will design a magical "charge everything" doodah, and will make billions.

Hitch

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Actually, we have this, in two different ways.

All work that's done is saved to a specific Dropbox for that project, inside a larger Dropbox folder (for the bookmaker, while s/he is working on that project). The file that's completed is then uploaded to the specific project in Teamwork Projects (a PM system), which has automatic versioning.

So, a) we name the files sequentially--something really creative like, V1, V2, and so on in the Dropbox;and if we screw up and forget, b) Teamwork versions them.

HOWEVER, this was a lot less "set in cement" in 2011. Moreover, my archives were not very procedurally organized back then. Hell, for that matter, I wasn't certain, at that time, that I needed to keep archives of the work, once done. I ultimately decided that we did; but that wasn't until the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012. We'd kept them (in fact, I used to keep them in a Calibre Catalogue, for ease of finding), but not in any "religious" way.

And an unfinished book? Crap. That could be almost anywhere.

(Related: I'm looking at X1 desktop search, to try to eliminate bloody duplicate copies of files on my "system." We can end up with copies of large folders of, say, InDesign files, in the quoting DB (Dropbox), the been quoted (DB); the in-production DB. When some of the idiots with whom you are doing work can have 1GIG (yes, 1 gigabyte) INDD Folders for something like a 34-page kids' book, you can eat up space quickly if you don't have rigorous file-deletion hygiene. I'm upgrading my personal computer to 3TB RAIDS of immediate storage this weekend, not to mention the externals, and it's like...sheesh! Oh, and if I forget to be rigorous with my Hightail Downloads folder...a boatload of space can get gobbled like prime rib near a pack of Wolfhounds.)

@re: cables. Mother of God, don't get me started. I don't know which is worse--my living room or the office. Cables cables everywhere, and each one of these bloody things, so it seems, has its own connector. (Apple, Nook, Kindles, my Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga, some other Droid devices, other readers...). Someday, some genius will design a magical "charge everything" doodah, and will make billions.

Hitch

They make that.
http://www.thingcharger.com
$40 and ships May or later.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

They make that.
http://www.thingcharger.com
$40 and ships May or later.

OMG. I'm in love. Thanks, Cins!

(I know what everyone on my Xmas list will be getting this year...)

Hitch

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Hitch

OMG. I'm in love. Thanks, Cins!

(I know what everyone on my Xmas list will be getting this year...)

Hitch

Am I on your XMAS list?
.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Am I on your XMAS list?
.

Virtually, Cins, virtually. :-)

Hitch