As time churns along, I’m becoming every more convinced there are no legitimate jobs on the Internet. In the course of ordinary research, it is hard not to follow up some of the offers if only to see where they lead. So far, they go nowhere. I’m aware traditional jobs aren’t big on-line but what smacks funny is the lack of permanence to any of the positions offered. How do you make a career out of filling out forms? I don’t want to know. Ask an Arts major.Anyway, so there I am looking again at on-line databases. They seem to have become like computer games. That is, for all the touted differences, it is clear the whole pack of them took the same channelized courses. Fifteen years later, all the databases look like eBay listings and the games make grunting noises. They’ve rewired the phone books and pinballs, but the programmer’s brain cells remain in the Stone Ages. Where they get about as creative as an Arts maj… okay, okay, I’ll knock it off.
The gal from the casino came over for a look. I’m having second thoughts. She mentioned she lived at home with her mother but that she was engaged to be married in a year. Question—why is an engaged woman looking for a room of her own? Remember, this is not a rental, it is shared accommodations. That means no overnight visitors, no unattended guests and no hanging out. It is a no-go until I find out about that situation.
I biked all day in the perfect if windy weather, only to notice the dearth of Xmas crowds. Not only are they gone, I always wanted to use “dearth” in a real sentence. This year the low volume will be fatal to a lot of businesses. The guy at Palm Hardware reports days as little as $70, so people aren’t even fixing up what they already have. It is far too quiet out there. The media report, in a doomsday tenor, that more people are opting to pay cash. I’m surprised that they still have any. And may I point out that trying to wean yourself off credit cards later in life (after 30) isn’t going to work out for most people. If you have a credit card, you are most people. In case you were wondering.
Credit cards are like cable TV. People can’t live without until they try it for a few months. Then you can’t pay them to take it back. But I wonder how many would make it that long? The credit card companies are the only ones not complaining about the economy. They’ve had it all their own way for a too long, so I’ll wager they are due for a shakedown. I have a dream, a headline that says “Visa Declares Bankruptcy”.
To recap my work today, I remind you that databases over the Internet involve quite a number of incompatible “languages”. It is quit difficult to have a real, customizable, interactive database on the existing system. Back in ’95 I speculated somebody would come out with a totally new language and browser to replace HTML, and that new language would be compatible with all existing major applications. That means word processors, spreadsheets and databases.
Boy, was I wrong. I lamented at the poor quality of programmer graduates after 1986 and it took a crop like them to allow something as dreadful as HTML to become a standard. Like object-oriented programming, HTML encourages bad logic. Try building a locomotive out of sewing machine parts. Even if you succeed, it will never be the real thing. I did discover an interesting on-line database template called bizDB. I toyed with it for an hour and was able to get most features to work.
Don’t even think about using bizDB for business. There is so much price competition on the Internet you are sure to lose. Good information costs so much that most users are content with the stuff that is cheap and inaccurate. The problem with all startups today is how to drive business to your site. That costs the big bucks. I just found it amusingly easy to use. My business card idea always comes back when business is slow.
And is it ever slow. The word is not official, but bad news tends to be true and I found some mysticious mic stands propped up on the Jimbo’s wall. You don’t have to brand it on my backside, time to start looking for work. This time I have all the equipment and a polished presentation, so who knows what I’ll stumble into. I remain convinced a semi-comedy country act would pull in the business. Nirvana is modern rock, but what kind of tips are you going to get from that crowd?
