August 2008

I was in D.C. visiting some relatives the past weekend - trying to work on my terror level and maybe get a few good jokes on the way. Unfortunately, Bush wasn’t in, so I had no one to do blow with while I was in town (Zing!) so I had to settle for martinis and some excellent conversation.

Now, my friends, the relatives have two SUVs. One Land Rover, one Lexus SUV (and for a point of understanding, this guy had a FREAKING ASTON MARTIN until the wife convinced him to go to a Land Rover Family Car). On one drive, he pointed out the Land Rover has more horsepower than the Lexus, and it leads to the conversation of how back in the day, people sacrificed economy for horsepower.

I’ve got a brother-in-law with a 1969 Firebird - you think that gets great fuel mileage?

Will we replace Horsepower with Fuel Economy?

I’m really curious about this. We used to be about Trans Ams, Camaros, Hemis… and to a degree we, as Americans, have given up the SUVs from “compact” SUVs and cross-overs with huge engines (and mildly better fuel economy).

Will we start shelling out for hybrids instead of a mini-tank? Or will mini-cars show up as the dominant driving force? Point in case - the Smart Fortwo. A cool little two-seater that can go up to 90mph and gets 33/41 mpg. From SmartUSA:

According to information obtained on fueleconomy.gov, the smart fortwo is the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid
gasoline-powered vehicle in the USA today. The gas tank of the smart fortwo is 8.7 gallons.

For reals? For reals!

This is kind of cool - I know SOMEONE downtown has one of these, because whenever I walk over to the Northmarket for lunch, and sometimes on my way home from work, I see a woman driving one. I believe you can get one over by Easton - I think it’s an Acura dealership as well.

Basically, this keeps piqueing my interest - I want a small, fast compact car. Fuel Economy? MosDef.

As my current car - a 1997 Honda Civic starts to approach the end of its life, my journey in the realm of “new age vehicles” will begin.

So Genuine Chris has declared war on Odesk.

Say what?

That’s right - a war against the friend to freelancers. Right?

From oDesk:

oDesk enables buyers of services to hire, manage, and pay technology service providers from around the world. Buyers choose oDesk for top global talent, comprehensive management tools, and a flexible hourly payment model. Service Providers choose oDesk for challenging jobs and guaranteed payment. Every day, thousands of buyers and providers work together through oDesk — a unique company at the forefront of reinventing work.

So, it’s all gravy, right? I thought about signing up their and doing some freelancing myself - I saw a few mootools projects pop-up, and I fancy me some mootools development.

But Chris points out what another developer, Issac Kelly, had to say:

“God, it’s like dealing with people you got away from work to begin with.”

Dude. I didn’t leave Corporate Internet to be your bitch.

I know, I know. That’s not what oDesk is - right? I’ve never used it, but from the “quality” of what I’ve seen, I have mixed feelings about becoming involved. It’s really five-and-diming development - and as a developer that has had to take over tasks from the lowest-common-denominator (*cough*webconsultants*cough*) it’s easy to see that YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

So I should pay top-dollar for premium development?

No - you should pay what you can afford.
If you can afford someone at $60/hour you should hire someone at that rate - not the guy that comes around and tries to undersell your guy with “I’ll do it for $25″ - because very often if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

I’m not saying that maybe you’re luck - but very often those lowest bidders underbid and end up under delivering because they just meant to get you in, and then get you at the point of either:

• A) You’re stuck with them because you’ve wasted too much of your budget to start over.
• B) They’ve been paid and you end up going with the higher priced guy/company anyways, maybe with some savable work.

So what are you going to do about it, hotshot?

I’m not. I’m looking for side jobs, because, well, kid(s) are damned expensive.

But Chris says he’s got something coming:

I’ll find the work for all of you, I’ll get you paid what you’re worth, and I’ll make all of us rich in the process. I’ll be blogging about this as it takes shape, but it’s surprisingly concrete and specific in my head what I need to do, and how I’m going to do it. I am glad someone showed me what Odesk is because it’s everything that I’m not.

And he’s shown me before he’s not one to talk smack - so I’m going to be keeping an eye on this.

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