SED Posts in the Wild

D from BC hath wroth:

1980 posts. Impressive. I have some issues with one-line responses but that seems to be the standard in sci.electronics.design. In the distant past, I would write a script to count the number of one or two line responses, and remove those from the total, but I no longer have shell access to the news server.

Ummm.... I think it's more properly called "self promotion" or perhaps "self-aggrandizement". Advertising implies offering services or products, which I've only in the spam.

There are probably other newsgroup to blog gateways. The system works quite well for smaller newsgroups. Blogs that are hurting for content can simply dump usenet postings to their web site. Members can post answers on either usenet or in the blog. It helps sell their advertising. For example, about 1/3 of the postings in alt.internet.wireless come from:

No. I've been answering questions and pretending to be knowledgeable on usenet since 1994.

Hmmm... about 20,000 postings. Maybe I need a new pastime. That summary only goes back to 1990. I've been posting since about 1988 when I was running a local B-news server to UUNET via a Telebit T2000.

Incidentally, I also get about 5 email messages every day from users wanting free personalized consulting on some topic they found with Google. I usually ignore most of them due to lack of time or interest. What I find amusing is that every time an RFQ appears on one of my specialties, I get buried in email asking for clues from prospective bidders. Like a complete idiot, I answer those, instead of trying to steal the job.

I have picked up some consulting jobs and fast fixes via my usenet postings. My guess is about $20,000 in gross billing since about

1995. On a per-hour basis, excluding the work time, at perhaps 15 minutes per message, that's: $10,000 / 20,000 messages / 0.25 hr/message = $2/hr. That's also: $20,000 / 17 years = $1,200 /year in paying work from usenet.

I've done much better with former work associates, friends of friends, and much to my amazement, cold calling for work.

It's conceivable that my abrasive manner, arrogant demeanor, and occasional total screwups, may have turned off prospective clients. Dunno. Perhaps others have had better results. It's worth a try, but I don't think you'll get rich this way.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

I think it is good advertising re-publishing public information which gets linked to by Google. I'm quite amazed how many websites publish newsgroup threads.

--
Reply to nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
Bedrijven en winkels vindt U op www.adresboekje.nl

If it was, you'd obviously know by now.

If it were, I'd be asking myself what the posters were attempting to advertise, except that they seemed to have a lot of unproductive time on their hands, and nobody else to talk to.

RL

Congratulations. You spent somewhat 500 hours for nothing.

I think people are quite conscious that they are here for leisure. The real artists can't live without gathering the admiration. Some folks are whoring here because whoring in the real life had become their second nature; not for any specific purpose.

No. Although it leads to the small deals occasionally, it is not any effective. Who reads the newsgroups? Mostly marginals, amateurs and stupidents; you shouldn't expect much usefulness from that sort of public.

VLV

...

..

See for yourself:

Google search on [ electronics engineer resume ] Google search on [ electronic engineer resume ] Google search on [ electrical engineer resume ] Google search on [ california engineer resume ] Google search on [ los angeles engineer resume ] Google search on [ orange county engineer resume ] Google search on [ california engineer resume ] Google search on [ engineer resume ] Google search on [ orange county engineer ]

I have made a lot of money doing work for folks who found me because of the above search results.

That being said, there are two ways that employers use Google. They may use it to find you, but they are also likely to use it to investigate you. This fact has consequences that it took me a while to learn.

The first thing to consider is whether to use a real name such as "Guy Macon: or a pseudonym such as "D from BC." If you use the pseudonym, you don't get good PR from the good things you do, but you also don't get bad PR when your behavior is less than ideal

-- or when some troll decides to trash your reputation.

Google search on [ guy macon ]

Because of this, it is important for the person trying to use the internet to build up a good reputation to stay out of flame wars, to avoid controversy, and to be genuinely helpful whenever possible. There is nothing wrong with wanting to promote yourself and make more money, but acting like an advertiser (or worse, like a spammer) is simply not acceptable. People might tolerate an occasional name in the subject line or 4-line sig, but the self promotion cannot be the main goal -- the posts have to be worth reading. Here are some examples where I tried to be genuinely helpful with a secondary goal of self promotion:

Google search on [ Guy Macon Real-Time Operating Systems ] Google search on [ Guy Macon Tile64 ] Google search on [ Guy Macon IEEE 754 ] Google search on [ Guy Macon Linux Patent ] Google search on [ Guy Macon Litzendraht ] Google search on [ GMCFESIL ] Google search on [ Guy Macon USCF FIDE ]

Like most engineers, I have posted things that some folks don't like, and in some cases they were right not to like the posts. In those cases where I realizes that I was in the wrong, I apologized and retracted, but there are still some who, months or years later, just can't let it go and send an occasional flame my way. All I can do in those cases is repeat the apology again and again, point out that I apologized and stopped doing what they didn't like me doing, and asking what more they require.

Then there are cases where I really didn't do anything wrong. In one particular case a well-known pest from the slackware newsgroups decided that the mere existence of non-degreed engineers is intolerable and started posting copies of my resume modified to make me look bad, fake posts from nonexistent employers claiming to have fired me, accusations of various crimes, etc. The good news is that the vast majority of sites that grab info from Usenet are happy to take down pages that are abusive. It just takes time and effort contacting them. Or you can hire someone to do it for you: [

]. (I have not used their services because I wanted to see how well I could do on my own first)

Another aspect to consider is how common your name is. I am the only Guy Macon on the internet[1], but there are some very famous people named Jim Thompson, John Fields[2], John Larkin, Don McKenzie, etc. Names such as Spehro Pefhany, Rene Tschaggelar, and Guy Macon don't turn up as many unrelated Google hits. Winfield Hill is an interesting case; his accomplishments put him at the top of the search results and his Usenet posts are buried many pages down. So all you j=have to do is write a book that is better thar OaE... :)

[1] There is one annoying fellow who goes by "Internet Wise Guy, Macon Georgia" who's posts (and the posts of those flaming him) turns up in a search of my name, but any employer will have figured out that I am in Los Angeles long before seeing those posts. [2] For example: [ ]: "The Homepage of John Fields, Future World Kaiser. Hello, my name is John Fields, AND I KICK @SS One of my many goals in life is to become supreme overlord of earth, But fear not, for I will be a fair and benevolant leader, and will bring our fair human race into a new age of prosperity" :)

--
Guy Macon  Guy Macon 
Guy Macon  Guy Macon 
Guy Macon  Guy Macon 
Guy Macon  Guy Macon

I think of it as a bit like the water cooler in a company. If you want to get real business in a short period of time, the telephone and your car keys are your friends.

Well, not everyone is an electronics designer, and some people who dabble know enough to git down to the old saloon and lassoo thermselves a hired gun when real money is involved. Maybe enough to keep an old gunslinger in Chardonnay.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it\'s the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

(snip)

Geez...... You are an arrogant POS.

I took the liberty of removing your name from the Subject, where you put it. I believe that restores the Subject to it's original condition.

I finally agree with all the people who have explained what they believe to be your true nature. I'd have said "your true character," but I thought that might have been misleading.

[snip]

Certainly keeps me in Chardonnay ;-)

My leads break down like...

40% are previous customers or referrals by previous customers

30% are from agencies

20% are from my website

10% mention seeing a "discussion", but usually from Google finding it

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
         America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

Right-and the local supermarkets are always looking for stock boys. Not only do you generate steady income but the company is more intelligent.

Right, we lump all that and more into the category, riffraff, which also includes those who may be somewhat successful businessmen but nonetheless are ignorant sociopaths of no value to society whatsoever, people for whom the concept of rational comprehension is a complete unknown. Oh yeah, and let's not forget the narcissists...you know who you are... LOL.

Most of our new-customer business comes from google searches. A lot of the rest comes from word-of-mouth within customer divisions. We do print ads and direct mail and Globalspec, all of which are likely a waste of money.

As Lord Leverhulme said, half of our advertising dollars are wasted, but we don't know which half.

I expect zero business from newsgroups. Some sorts of business things are possible of course, like finding potential employees, or consultants, or learning about good parts or suppliers.

John

If I was a designer for hire..I"d put something like this at the bottom of each post:

"D from BC, your one stop shop for electronics research and development. Tell me your specs and just wait for the courier to deliver a 'ready to go' PCB! Call D from BC today for your total solution in electronics.

***-***-*****"

Sound good?

D from BC

On a sunny day (Sat, 24 Nov 2007 15:39:50 -0800) it happened D from BC wrote in :

No, I want it like this: 'I do not want your peculiar ideas, just tell me the whole project, and perhapds I will get back to you with suggestions, after you pay via the paypal link.' Does that not apply to 80 % of the questions here?

Every time somebody posts their business contact info (called a signature in the Agent news app ) at the bottom, I consider that advertising a business.

Besides advertising ones own electronics design business on SED, here's another business reason to post on here..

Portfolio enhancement! :P

For example: "Volunteer work: Solved 10000 circuit problems posted on usenet."

Now that's sweet to a customer :)

D from BC

I knew I was setting myself up for some ridicule on that. :)

IMO...SED is better than tv. :)

Ahhh...it sounds like when I go to the bar to meet women. One has to wonder " Why would a classy intelligent woman hang in a dank dark bar with a bunch of drunken yahooo guys? "

D from BC

[..snipped other interesting stuff]

How did you get your resume indexed by Google.? Did you submit your url to Google? Or did you put you resume link on many web sites for Googles spider to pick up? Other?

D from BC

Yup...I know a guy that wants me to build him a gizmo.. My first questions were: "Can you afford it? When do you want it? "

D from BC

Jan Panteltje hath wroth:

My business card says "If this stuff worked, you wouldn't need me". None of my customers have ever disagreed. Until recently, it also included a photo of my dead Land Rover Series IIa, which hadn't moved since 1983. I sold the wreckage last year, and am now looking for a photo of a pile of eWaste as a suitable substute.

Methinks the electronics design equivalent would be something like "If you could do it all yourself, you wouldn't need me".

When I was working for a medium size corporation, the personnel office issued business cards for all the engineers with "Junior Engineer" as the title. They looked up our salary on the WEMA scale and supplied the corresponding title. I printed some substitute cards with "Keeper of the Faith" as my title (from the Planet of the Apes movie).

One of my programmer friends has a business card with "Code for Cash" as the motto. I think the latest version has it in Latin.

Maybe. I've posted about 27,000 answers to techy questions on usenet since about 1988. Amazingly, many of them are on-topic. Initially, there were a considerable number of intelligent questions, which implied that they were being asked by intelligent users. These days, the bulk of the questions I attempt to answer are badly formulated, missing basic information, and fail to show the presence of much thought. I would be very worried about working on a project that is as badly specified as some of the questions I see all over usenet.

Incidentally, the minimum for getting a question answered are:

1. What problem are you trying to solve?
2. What do you have to work with? (Hardware, software, budget, time limit, numbers).
3. What have you done so far and what happened? (for troubleshooting only).

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Wow! 27 000 answers...

Have you giving up answering the LED blinking questions? :)

D from BC