onlinehost

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Comment · 1 year ago

Yeah the hourly pay can be pretty good but I think what bothers most people is the unpredictable work availability. It can be great for weeks or longer, then suddenly it isn't, and not really any communication about when/if the projects will return. Overall I'm happy I found the gig but it isn't reliable full time income.

Comment · 1 year ago

I only started seriously looking for work again about a month ago. I'd like to stay in this area for a few reasons but I would relocate if necessary. I worked remotely from 2015 until a layoff in late 2023 and this was the first thing I came across after that. It was okay for awhile and actually pretty interesting at first but the hours aren't reliable and there doesn't seem to be much opportunity for getting promoted.

Comment · 1 year ago

I'm a contractor for one of these companies. It pays okay ($45+/hour) if you can pass qualifications for your area of expertise but the work isn't steady and communication is non-existent. The coding qualifications I did were difficult FAANG algorithm analysis questions. The work has definitely gotten harder over the last year and often says we need to come up with Masters/PhD level work or problems that someone with 5+ years of experience in a field would have difficulty solving. I wish I had a regular job but I live in rural North Carolina and remote work is hard to come by.

Comment · 1 year ago

I don't know why this reminded me of a really scumbag troll thing we would do on AIM/AOL. I guess because it involves sound and open/close.

If you remember using AOL or AIM(AOL Instant Messenger) there were sound effects for various "events" like "Welcome" or "You've got mail" when you got a new email.

AOL and AIM had "buddy lists" and there were sound effects when they came online or offline. Like a knocking sound and door closing sound.

In the early 2000s when cable and DSL was becoming more widespread, it became cool for people to leave their AOL/AIM accounts connected all the time. This generally meant a computer running usually in their house, bedroom, or living room. People would leave "Away Messages" sort of like a status on a social media timeline. I think Jack Dorsey said turning AIM away messages into a timeline was one of his original inspirations for making a social media app. Anyway

So someone opens Visual Basic and starts writing some code. It goes to the privacy preferences of their own account and checks "Don't allow anyone to see me online" and then clicks apply.

Now it checks "Allow everyone to see me online" and clicks apply.

What does this do for everyone on your buddy list?

They hear a constant rotation of WAV files like BuddyIn.wav BuddyOut.wav. Over and over.

you can hear in the first few seconds of this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQjfU4g6_SQ

Comment · 1 year ago

I bought his book after seeing this talk of his https://youtu.be/bmSAYlu0NcY