Enquiries for work come in several times a week. The source of which can range from large companies to individual start-ups and charities.

A large chunk of my time is spent sifting through them picking out ones that are serious from the ones that aren’t. Having done this for many years I now have learnt to trust my instincts. If it doesn’t feel right, walk away.

How can you tell good from bad?
The first part is approach and that initial introduction. Is it a polite, well laid out email with full contact details and a very top-line description of the project? If so, then it is something I would pursue since the person took the time to give me enough information to act upon. Enquiries which end up in my trash can are ones that took next to no time to write, didn’t bother passing on details other than a hotmail like address, no hello or introduction, just a few lines on what they want and how much they think it will cost… typically a www.enter_popular_domain_here.com clone.

Why am I telling you this?
There is the perception that developers and designers, or anyone involved in internet development generally are hard up for work. So much so that prospective clients think they can wave the “do it cheap, and be grateful” stick and we will come running. This simply has to stop. Case and point, a recent enquiry came in which prompted me to write this. Amongst its world domination by developing the next best Web 2.0 thingy was the following:

“I am looking for a reliable, hard working developer to submit a competitively priced quote immediately. The chosen one will need to produce high quality work and be polite, on-time and obedient!!! Details of the second part of the project will be sent when we feel you are good enough to complete the first phase!!!”

What is this person implying? That all developers are expensive, rubbish at what they do, stay in bed all day and are rude?

I went to a restaurant recently and the meat was tough, the main dish was cold and was just generally all-round not nice. Does that mean that I now have the right to enter restaurants and say:

“I am looking for hot, freshly cooked meat and for the main dish to also be hot and taste exactly the way I want it!!!!”

I don’t. To assume that all restaurants are the same would be unfair and outright rude.

Freelancers aren’t desperate for work to the point that you can sacrifice manners and etiquette. So don’t.

How do we decide on which developers/designers to use?
This is difficult to answer. 3 years ago we had our back garden completely landscaped. We went through a procedure which we thought would help us find a reliable, honest, hard working individual who knew his stuff. Cor blimey, we were wrong! But that’s a story for another day.

Start with portfolio, then make polite contact via email passing on your full contact details and a brief outline of the project. Follow that with a chat, either a face to face meeting or an on-line video conferencing call. Get a feel for whether the freelancer knows where you are coming from and understands where you are heading with the project. Not only do you need someone on board that can carry out the work, but can also contribute by being the resident “expert” throwing in additional ideas and alternative ways of looking at the problem.

I am happy to say that the vast majority of enquiries are polite and detailed, this is aimed at the few that aren’t. You know who you are. :D

I am drowning in a sea of paperwork. Quote requests, to do lists, project related paraphernalia, emails. The list is endless. Up until now I had a process. It involved coloured plastic folders from Asda. The shelf where these folders lie is now beginning to creak under the strain.

I need a new process. One that can handle live projects, projects awaiting sign off, postponed projects, archived projects as well as my to do list and invoicing.

A shiny new filing cabinet later and I am ready to get myself organised.

The structure:
I have broken down work into the following top level categories:

• Clients
• Individual projects per client
• Invoices
• Unpaid
• Paid
• Awaiting client feedback
• Archived projects
• To do

Clients - Within which will sit all projects for that client.
Invoices - a way to have printouts ready for my accountant (the missus).
Awaiting client feedback – Holding area for projects that are awaiting input from the client
Archived - Will contain projects that were one-offs and don’t warrant a client folder of their own. More than one project and they are allowed their own folder. Helps keep the number of folders down.
To do - Will hold all tasks that need immediate attention. The aim of which will be to empty the folder.

Surprisingly (or maybe not) nearly half of the paperwork has ended up getting recycled. Its amazing what you think you need therefore print, then never look at again.

In addition to my file structure, I also purchased a dry wipe board and placed it above my monitor. This will be where I will note down the next days list of tasks, again with the aim for it to be blank by the end of the day in preparation for the next days set of tasks.

Let’s see how this pans out. :)

I switched the TV on to catch a live concert being broadcast from Wembley stadium. It was the Live Earth concert. Knowing nothing about Live Earth I soon learnt it was an event helping promote a more greener way to live. Then it dawned on me, it was that thing Radio 1 have been banging on about for a while. We were all fortunate enough to see major rock, pop and whoever else they could find acts on stage, doing what they do best in an attempt to get us all to live a more energy efficient lives.

Keh?!?!

I watched about an hours worth, I saw the Foo Fighters (who incidentally were really good) play their most well known and popular tracks. Then the coverage switched to America. Ah, it’s a global thing. This is where it started to dawn on me what an utter pile of hot steaming poo this entire event really was. I happened to catch an R&B (or may have possibly been hip-hop) act called Akon. He strutted about the stage wearing a large medallion of some sort singing about doing a whole host of things to ladies. He was with his sidekick, a man with a mohican wearing a tartan skirt who’s role, as far as I could see, was to hoot and holla and certain times during the songs. Can someone explain how a topless, muscular man singing about doing things to ladies will force us all to switch off the lights, recycle more and use less water? To top it all, he made no mention of environmental issues, he instead thanked the audience for his number one single?!? (I can’t confirm this, as it was drowned out by a 6 week old baby passing wind in my ear as I was patting her on the back).

Other highlights : MNS Live Earth web site sponsored by Chevy. Pussycat Dolls strangely obsessed in getting the message across in a post gig interview that Philips energy saving bulbs would save the world. It seemed that everyone interviewed was about to or recently purchased a hybrid car.

Behind the entire event was Al Gore. A man with political aspirations staging an event to help, in his own words, “heal the world”. No personal agenda their then.

Then the events themselves, the power consumed, travelling, expenses, littering and so on. I know on the grand scheme of things that this doesn’t amount to much. But if the point of this was to send a message, it seems that the message had somehow gotten lost.

The acts themselves, never has there ever been a large group of artists all trying their hardest to “SELL MORE RECORDS”. They couldn’t give a monkeys about the environment, having so called stars tell us how to live when we all know they consume more resources and contribute to global pollution just as much as we do just smacks of hypocrisy at the highest level.

Couldn’t they have made better use of the time and money that went into the concerts? Al Gore must be in a position to get people to listen to him. Wouldn’t the effort that clearly went into staging the event have been better spent if directed towards actually doing something constructive? Apparently, according to a radio article I heard, most people came away having forgotten what the concert was about. Some have said that this concert did its job, it got us talking about the environment. True, but for all the wrong reasons. Rather than coming home thinking about ways to help, you instead come away commenting on how great the “Foos rocked” and whether Madonna really needed to swear.

Apparently, 2 billion people watched the event globally. That’s two billion electricity sucking TVs. Job done Al!

Personally, I could do a great deal more when it comes to living a more energy efficient life. I have started in a very small way, switching “things” off when not in use. Using less water, using the car less. It’s a start. To be honest, I am not sure what else I can do. Ah, a way of using the money spent on the concert. Instead, take the money spent on staging the concerts and combine it with a months worth earned by the stars that attended and give us normal folk the money and/or equipment to recycle waste, recycle rain water, install solar panels and insulate our homes better. Or maybe create more cycle paths, get manufacturers to drop standby modes, etc,etc…….

Just over 3 years ago, we purchased our first digital camera. It was a Canon Ixus 400, at a cost of £450. It wasn’t cheap. 2 Weeks ago, it stopped working altogether. When powering up, there was a crunching sound, followed by a series of beeps and the LCD displaying the dreaded “E18” error.

A short Google later and I now know that I am yet another victim of a well known problem with Canon Ixus cameras. In short, the lens mechanism no longer works, possible due to dust or grease. It wasn’t used excessively. Just your average typical family usage.

3 years?!?! That’s all It lasted. £450 and 3 years. There is a repair guide for it here. Way beyond me.

I have my digital SLR (Nikon D70s), but it isn’t what you would call convenient when taking snap happy family photos. To grab my camera bag, connect the lens, power it on, configure the various settings, realise you messed it up so lump for the comfort of auto, switch to auto, take the pic, realise everyone got bored and left the room.

Then there is my video camera, bought at the same time as part of a deal. A Canon MV630i, that also encountered a common problem . I was able to get it repaired for free since Canon admitted the fault, a faulty CCD. It has never been the same, its responsiveness to light and shade is slower than what it was.

Oh, the video camera cost £700. It is still in use today, purely because I am waiting for hard disk cameras to come down in price. If at all they ever will.

Then there is my printer (you thought I would have learnt by now), a Canon Pixma ip4000. It no longer takes paper from the bottom tray and the top tray cannot insert paper perfectly resulting in printouts at a funny angle. Not to mention the neighbourhood printer party that I am convinced happens every night where all local printers get together and consume all my ink.

Is it just me? Am I having a run of bad luck? Or are Canon no longer the “reliable” company they once were?

No longer a Canon fan, I have decided to look elsewhere and recently purchased a Fuji f31fd. (So recent in fact that it hasn’t been delivered yet). My reasons for this one? The camera has become known for being able to take pictures at low light due to its support for high ISO speeds. It has an ISO rating of 100 – 3200. A big problem was when taking indoor pictures without the flash. Most would end up a touch blurry which, hopefully and to some extent, the Fuji will overcome. You can read a full review here.

A 4 minute long, unedited, single take fight scene. He must have been bloomin’ knackered after that.