Amiga.org
Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / General => Topic started by: Cyberus on February 23, 2004, 02:28:40 PM
-
The sun was shining when I got up, a CD32 game had arrived in the post, I had an interview for an English teaching job, and got the job, and my shares in o2 (British mobile operator) have rocketed because of takeover speculation.
So please, let me buy this one, cheers!
:pint:
-
SELL! QUICK! SELL!
-
's okay, I placed a stop order with the broker, so if the price falls rapidly they'll all be sold automatically.
Too many times in the past have I missed the chance to take profits and the price has ended up back where it was :-(
-
Cyberus,
Do you know what would make your day? If you brought a GP32! :-) By the way, what are CD32 like and how much did they cost? I remember i saw one at a car boot sale about 6 years ago for £5, why didn't i get it?
-
The CD32 is cool, I recommend you get one if the price is right - it will depend on how much you like the Amiga games of the time (personally Chaos Engine, Superfrog, Cannon Fodder etc are all time faves of mine). There is a surprising amount of games available considering it essentially flopped, I suppose companies had the the whole A1200 back catalogue to draw on.
As for buying a GP32, they do look cool, but I'm trying to pay off all my debt at the moment (first rule of investing is don't invest if you're in debt, doh!). How much do they sell for out of interest?
edit: I forgot to add - one of the things that I do find with the CD32 is that if you take it round to a mate's house or whatever, non-Amigans (you know the ones who might take the pish normally) are quite surprised that such a good system even existed, even more suprised when you say that it was made ten years ago. Just reminds you of what could have been in Commodore weren't so inept :(
-
One day, all Mondays will happen like yours!
As for my work, a horrifying change has happenned
No longer can I fold paper for £6/hr, I now have to type and photocopy and other seemingly inmeasurably skilled tasks, for the SAME WAGE and SAME HOURS! OH THIS IS HORRIBLE!
-
@Jono
Oh, dear!
That must be so hard for you! :-(
:lol:
-
@Cyberus
Yeah, that is exactly the reason why i wanted a CD32, even though most of them are A1200 ports, and my A1200 plays CD32 games, i have wanted one for my gaming convenience. You can get two types of GP32, the non FLU (£80) and the FLU edition (£100). FLU meaning front lit unit, i recommend the FLU version, as it looks wondeful in the dark. All the GP32 batch now are also clocked to 166mhz. I am not sure how much you know, but GP32 can play mp3s and small movies, and can also run emulators, you can even download an operating system for it! :-) Anyway head to:
GP32 Xtreme (http://www.gp32x.com)
Gbax (http://www.gbax.com)
Cheers,
@JonoPike
You don't do bugger all. You do some crappy course on computer that you learnt about in first school. You are just wasting time you loser. And i hope you are not referring to me as "the veteran" you troll
-
@ CU_AMiGA
Actually, I WILL be working from tomorrow, so get your facts straight! Its more work than you've ever done, boy. At least I don't have to spend 3 years at college to get a grade!
-
@JonoPike
I am not going to get into a public spat with you. But look whos talking, 2 years at college just to fold paper! lol You spend most of your time playing computer games (12+ on Smackydown 5) and i think it is worth spending 3 years at college to get an A grade in ICT. Now please be banished from this respectable website, i have been quiet long enough.
-
/me ignores Jono's ramblings and brings this back on topic
Good news cyberus :-D
Just goes to prove that all Monday's aren't as bad as Garfield claims they are :-P
Cheers for the :pint: ;-)
-
Well done on getting that job, Cyberus :pint:
-
Cheers lads.
Oh, by the way, are you still thinking of moving into (auld) enemy territory to get a job Kenny ;-) I remember you mentioning last year that you were considering it....
-
I'm still considering it, but it seems unlikely. I wouldn't know how to survive for very long on my own like that, and I'd need to find somewhere to live until my first wage packets come in - not easy on jobseeker's. I've no experience of travelling either.
So, if I get offered a job earning more than 16k in England, I'd think about it some more. Last job I applied for here yesterday was for 12k. It was the first one I've seen in months.
-
Today went quite well for me too :-) I had a computer maintenance job today (self-employed), the guy had (no exaggeration here) 644 different viruses on his machine, and 30 odd bits of spyware. Plus a soundcard problem.
I think his machine was being used as a waystation for viruses/trojans, which was odd considering he's on dialup.
All in all took three hours to fix. It all adds to the ever-increasing amount of earnings this month over previous months, so I'm happy :-)
-
12k! And you have a degree? WTF?
Surely there are jobs that will pay better than that?
Have you considered doing a masters/phd? When I did my Masters in London, I was paid 11.5k by the EPSRC for a year, beats working (its surprisingly easy to spend money hand over fist in London, but I lived comfortably on that, and invested the excess before I could spend it on beer). Plus I got my own computer with superfast internet, my own desk and shared an office with some really cool people...
-
Cool mikeymike, glad to hear it. Do you get these jobs through word of mouth, or advertising in the local paper or whatever?
Also, from what I gather, you seem pretty good with Windows. Considering I am no expert, but nevertheless know more than 95% of computer users, do you reckon I could do that? I know plenty of people who ask me for help, but I wouldn't ever consider charging them....until now :-D
-
Cyberus wrote:
Have you considered doing a masters/phd? When I did my Masters in London, I was paid 11.5k by the EPSRC for a year, beats working (its surprisingly easy to spend money hand over fist in London, but I lived comfortably on that, and invested the excess before I could spend it on beer)
I've considered it, but I'm getting too old and in debt now to live on loans. And getting the phd would only make things harder, I think. I'd be 30 by the time it was finished. Who'd employ a 30 year old who's never had a job? And I'd have to look even further afield for a job that I wasn't overqualified for.
12k will do me for now. Once I have some experience, I can get better and better wages. Maybe then I can try to get that PhD.
But I don't think I'll get that 12k job anyway. I just noticed after I sent my CV that the "professionals" who wrote it up missed out the degree - the most important part of the whole thing! :pissed: Oh well, just another three months to wait until the next time a vacancy opens in Scotland. ;)
-
12k! And you have a degree? WTF?
Surely there are jobs that will pay better than that?
KennyR lives in Scotland. 'nuff said :-)
But there are too many people with/going for degrees in order to keep the salary balance going. But of course it would be political suicide to suggest that not everyone is intelligent enough to get a degree.
-
Cyberus wrote:
Cool mikeymike, glad to hear it. Do you get these jobs through word of mouth, or advertising in the local paper or whatever?
I pay for leaflets to be printed, then deliver them myself. A couple of jobs have come via word of mouth.
Also, from what I gather, you seem pretty good with Windows. Considering I am no expert, but nevertheless know more than 95% of computer users, do you reckon I could do that? I know plenty of people who ask me for help, but I wouldn't ever consider charging them....until now :-D
Hard to say really. It is all down to experience, and whether you think you could stand say a 90% chance of fixing any problem a customer puts in front of you. All of my customers have been happy to pay for the work because I fix the problems completely and they can see that and are happy with it. That's the important part. Good knowledge of PC hardware is quite important. Out of the way knowledge of fixing obscure Windows problems is needed, like what would cause you to suspect a virus or bit of spyware was at work, and what would you check first.
One quick test (a scenario I encountered today) would help you work out whether you are capable of at least some of the work is this - a piece of spyware is being loaded in at startup, but you've checked all the usual places, registry etc where it could be called, but nothing. How would you delete the file? OS is Windows XP. AV nor Ad-aware picks it up (or can't deal with it).
Knowing how to work out what technology hardware is in the machine, as quickly/painlessly/passively as possible is very useful. If a customer asks you if that machine can be upgraded, say the CPU in a Slot 1 Intel box, you have to know the answers. And the answer to the last question isn't "no" :-)
Although a customer recently got hold of a 486/50/8MB RAM box and asked me whether it was upgradable, and I ended up saying pretty much no :-)
Customers like to watch what you're doing as well. A fast typing speed impresses :-)
And reinstalling the OS is a no-no due to time/cost restraints, as well as pissing off the customer with loss of settings/stuff. I sell it as a seperate service to those who need it most.
-
Although a customer recently got hold of a 486/50/8MB RAM box and asked me whether it was upgradable, and I ended up saying pretty much no
:lol:
-
Another really handy skill for NTx users is service tweaking. It gets rid of half the security issues and saves bucketloads of RAM.
The messenger service switch-off stops them getting Messenger spam (not MSNM), so that's an obvious visible benefit, and not many customers have bucketloads of RAM strangely enough.
-
I was struggling with a cold yesterday, so I wish all my mondays weren't like that... :-(