A slightly sporting theme
Seattle Clouders
Posts by Lush At The Bar
21 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Sep 2010
What do you call megabucks Microsoft? No really, it's not a joke. El Reg needs you
HMRC's IR35 tweaks have 90% of UK's IT contractors up in arms
Wednesday 3rd August 2016 19:02 GMT
Re: Interesting...
I couldn't agree more with the point on small salary, Franco. Someone else mentioned in a post further down about contractors buying 911's etc. and those individuals doing so being idiots. I've known the odd one or two who splurged all their company revenue as income and then shat it when the tax bill arrived.
I've been honouring a private contract / project that, due to *my* own terrible initial time estimate, has meant I have not billed my client for the past 4 months. There is probably another month left before all parties can say “mission accomplished”.
Yes, my friends say I am insane. Yes, I was extremely naive in my re-negotiation when it became glaringly obvious that the initial time estimate was way off the mark. Yes, in terms of cold hard revenue to my company, it has taken one hell of a hit as a result.
However, as you and so many others have pointed out here, there's reserves in the Ltd. company for such times (mainly between contracts rather than non-billable work, granted). Call me old fashioned, but I felt guilty when I realised the magnitude of what was needed to deliver the project, and I felt acutely aware that people would only see the headline figure of the daily and think I was trying to take the piss out of the client.
So, to try and act with a little integrity (or just plain stupidity), rather than just shrug my shoulders and say “them's the breaks Guv', I'll still need you to cough up £X per day until I'm done, and that could be three, four, five months down the line. Who knows!?”, I chose to honour the initial delivery, no extra cost to the client beyond my initial time estimate.
The flip side is, the client is so appreciative (of course they are very happy to date) of me being honest and not being seen to just fleece them, is they wish to get this phase wrapped up pronto also, so we can move forward and into future phases, whereby things will be planned much, *much* more meticulously so (I) don't end up in the same situation of working pro bono for so long, ever again. I've just viewed it as a learning experience, and a bit of volunteer work on my part.
Being a prudent contractor over the years has enabled me to survive.
TLDR: I bodged a time estimate, felt guilty, so am honouring the initial project spec at no extra cost to the client.
Wednesday 3rd August 2016 12:32 GMT
Re: Interesting...
That's fair enough. Similar to if you don't vote, you can't complain about what the Govt. / Local Council etc. do.
As a contractor myself, who does end up with periods between work, and pays myself a salary (my Ltd. takes the daily, I as an employee see a fraction of that), I have no qualms about paying NI and Income Tax and also any tax due on Dividends, as well as my Ltd. paying its Corp. Tax.
However, if HMRC wish to change the rules, and further increase taxation upon contractors and their Ltd. companies, then they best be damned sure they chase the Hyper-Global-Mega-Corps to pay their share also, and not let them get away with paltry amounts due to such companies being able to "Lawyer Up".
It just comes across as HMRC going after the easy pickings of going after the little guy because the paymasters do not wish to upset "Big Business".
I believe the term is flat-track bully.
Microsoft now awfully pushy with Windows 10 on Win 7, 8 PCs – Reg readers hit back
Tuesday 20th October 2015 22:12 GMT
@Veti
Having removed the offending updates I was aware of (Upgrade app, 8.1 telemetry etc.) the "Upgrade to Windows 10 Home" optional update would not piss off and stay hidden, no matter how many times I hid it. Every reboot, back it came, like herpes.
Granted it's late and it's been a long day, so I may well have missed an update when trawling through the installed ones, however...
I can verify that Veti's reg hack does indeed work a charm. While the reg script moaned at me for some reason when I tried to run it with elevated privileges, I merely navigated to the relevant hive in the registry, added a new key and DWORD and set the hex value as per the script would have done anyway.
I wish I could give more than one upvote :)
Woman makes app that lets people rate and review you, Yelp-style. Now SHE'S upset people are 'reviewing' her
Friday 2nd October 2015 08:03 GMT
Re: Sad...
From their FAQs
"What do I need to sign up for Peeple?"
"You will need to have a Facebook profile that is at least active for more than 6 months and a cell phone number."
What if you are not on Facebook? Would you have to create an account and wait six months before you could then create a Peeple account and begin to contest posts/ratings?
"Can I delete comments made about me?"
"No. You can get them removed by Peeple if it violates our terms and conditions once you report it."
"Can I take myself off of Peeple?"
"No. Not at this time. We may consider this feature in the future."
Scrapheap challenge: How Amazon and Google are dumbing down the gogglebox
In some ways, dating apps are the anti-internet
Taylor Swift snaps up EVEN MORE pr0n domain names
Redmond's Patch Tuesday to kill off the Windows FREAK show
Hello Barbie: Hang on, this Wi-Fi doll records your child's voice?
Blackpool hotel 'fines' couple £100 for crap TripAdvisor review
Wednesday 19th November 2014 08:27 GMT
Sounds like a business plan
1. Set up a hotel / B'n'B
2. Charge low prices
3. Have tucked away clause stating negative feedback is chargeable at x2.5 the room rate
4. Never re-invest in the property or facilities
5. Get negative feedback (the cheap room is now suddenly £136)
6. Profit
The chap on the news said he tried the tactic of saying to the owners that he wanted his money back or he would leave another negative review. The owners replied by stating they would charge another £100 to the credit card if he did. He should have transferred and cancelled that card and then really gone for it!
There is the flip side of customers using the threat of leaving negative feedback unless they get a discount, so I must admit, this practice from both sides is a new one to me.
Ex-NSA lawyer warns Google, Apple: IMPENETRABLE RIM ruined BlackBerry
Revealed: Malware that forces weak ATMs to spit out 'ALL THE CASH'
Wednesday 8th October 2014 17:38 GMT
Re: @ John G Imrie
Nail on the head there mate. Why spend £X (and a heck of a lot of time) on securing and upgrading, when the losses are much less and you can just write them off?
It's the same with council's in the UK and their roads. Why blow the budget on fixing potholes when it's cheaper just to reimburse the few people who actually can be bothered to jump through the myriad of hoops needed to get some compensation for wheel balancing, punctures etc.
Once again, the bottom line wins out. </sigh>
Biting the hand that feeds IT
