Technology Blog

Recently on a trip to Europe, I had to stay at the airport in Rome for over 12 hours while connecting to another flight bound for Malta. Unfortunately, I was completely unprepared for this situation communication wise! The mistake? I used a 800 calling number advertised on the phones available at the airport to make the calls necessary to my wife and my friend that I was visiting. I should have known better as I’ve been researching calling cards and IP telephony for years.

Pingo.com is one such company that I should have considered for my trip. Currently they are offering a father’s day phone card coupon code that you might be interested in.

I can’t emphasize how important it is to consider cheap alternatives that can serve well while traveling. Had I used Pingo for my phone calls that totaled no more than 60 minutes, I might have saved well over the $160.00 I spent. (yes, over $160.00 was charged on my credit card - never again!)

Right now, Pingo.com is offering International calling cards abroad along with a $5 sign up bonus. Here’s an example of International prepaid filipino calling cards.

Finally for those looking to promote Pingo, they also offer an affiliate and referral program. One thing is for sure, as I get ready to travel this year, I’m not going to forget options like this again.

I should pay attention more to tech news (funny considering I’m starting this blog).

I’ve been a happy Vonage customer for over a year. I’ve been an internet ‘phone’ enthusiast for 12 years. Watching the technology of voIP mature to the arena of regular use has been a dream come true. My wife and I are able to stay in touch since we live in separate countries. Vonage has saved us literally thousands of dollars in communication costs.

While I’m sure other companies will continue to spring up, I do hope that Vonage will continue. I don’t want the dream to end.

Vonage Chief Resigns; Company to Cut Marketing Costs (Update2)

Recently, I read an article about getting paid survey work from online sources. A click here and a click there and within a matter of minutes I landed on a “free” survey site. Surveys and claims that you can be compensated by participating in surveys have been around the internet for as long as I’ve been online. In fact, I’m sure that beside this blog entry, the adsense ads on this likely have advertisements to various survey websites.

The free survey website I went to yesterday guaranteed that if I completed their 10 buck challenge, they would promptly send 10 dollars plus a 3 dollar bonus for signing up straight into my paypal account. So, what did I have to lose?

What I lost was time and interest. I was amused by performing this stunt. I landed on sites for “free” ipods, “free” digital cameras, sign up incentives for casinos, sign up incentives for *other* survey sites. I was spinning around and around so fast, to various sites all pointing to similar survey sites, that it reminded me of landing on (or I confess) searching for adult related websites. It was the ultimate circle jerk. This is a rather vulgar metaphor, so rather than have you thinking I’m a dirty pervert, I’ll quote from my favorite website for information: Wikipedia.

They can refer to a situation, often in the workplace, politics or academia, where people are stroking each other’s ego without producing anything of value.

Quite honestly, survey filling can be rewarding if you know where to find these. I don’t have that talent, or more to the point, I don’t have the interest. It wasn’t long before I realized that pointing me to other survey sites was making this guy about $1.00-1.75 per referral. In other words, he kept his website free because he found ways to be compensated. I would have to sign up for about 15-20 websites to receive 10 bucks from him. You do the math. He was going to essentially keep half his money.

Are free websites therefore as scammy as paid ones? I’m not sure I have an honest answer to this question. I’ve decided to keep TechJobs free for now, because I firmly believe there are jobs out there available for telecommuters that do *not* involve paying a cent for this information.

If *anyone* has ever stayed on a survey site long enough to actually get direct payment for your opinion, I’d love to hear your experiences. Incidently, if you spam me with your affiliate link, I’ll simply ignore and delete your comment.

My little venture yesterday only did one thing for me: it brought me close to poking my own eyes out with the sharpest tool I could find on my desk. I concluded that as hard as it is to build a website up or a blog, I find this kind of work 1000 times more rewarding than filling out my personal information over and over again for…… essentially nothing.

This morning I landed on another blogger’s site, where he had a photo of himself in his cubicle.

I physically twitched at the site, and not because of the guy. He was average looking. No, I was reminded of similar pictures of myself in what is now an almost very distant past by career standards. January 2007 marks 6 full years since I’ve left the world of cubicles behind. It boggles my mind sometimes that it’s been that long. But when I look at the standard grey coloured separating walls, or the office chair that’s supposed to be ergonomically sound but your butt still hurts because you’re still sitting on it for 8-9 hours straight, I can’t help but be thankful I’ve been out of that cubicle jungle.

That’s not to say that a cubicle career isn’t rewarding or doesn’t have its merits. I know myself well enough to know that had I not had any other option for work, I have continued in that cubicle infested call center environment that I worked in in 2000-2001. Since then my income has been mediocre, although averaged out over a 6 year period, my home based income scores higher by at least 10,000-15,000 per year higher. And that’s with taking a lot of liberties in my life, oftentimes working part time or not at all. In the last 6 years I’ve been able to travel extensively with my laptop to California (where my wife lives), to other parts of the states, and to Europe last fall, while still being connected to my work.

The total brutal truth about my life at this point is that my income is on par today to what I could earn at a call center as a technical analyst (assuming no advancement to management positions for at least 2-3 years). I would be working or suggested/forced to work longer than 45 hours per week or be at the whim of an inflexible part time schedule.

This spring, my dependent mother-in-law will be coming to visit for a few months giving a much needed break to my wife who happens to have a solid, union backed, well paying but busy job in the states. A call center let alone any other position I’d qualify for in the work force would give me any kind of flexibility that I’m looking for these days. I think most of us with dependents at home can understand this at a deep deep level.

I dabbled in entrepreneurial ventures on and off since 1993. In later years, I lived with my ex girlfriend and her son, and at the time, after much discussion, we concluded that regular school wasn’t an option for him at that point, and home schooled him for 2 years. If it wasn’t for our business venture, he wouldn’t have had the opportunities to go to a private school shortly afterwards. Around that same time, we cared for, or made sure my girlfriend’s mother was cared for after hip replacement surgery. And finally, as recently as last year, I was able to visit my ailing mother and spend in total, about 2-3 weeks before she past away from a year long battle with a rare blood disease.

Hmm. It’s funny as I think about this. I didn’t think I’d be getting this personal in a technology blog, but the reality is I’ve come to really value self employment with all of its ups and downs, with all of my personal mistakes and oftentimes, lack of followthru or lack of confidence to venture in areas I’m perfectly capable of doing. These days I think a lot of it has to do with continuing to find your passion.

My passion died at the call center in 2001. The gray walls did nothing for me.

So, my apologies to cubicle inhabitants. I know your pain well, I really do. But I got off that spinning wheel a long long time ago, and don’t have any intention of ever getting back on. Not without some serious serious compensation.

I got spammed today, about 12 months after I initially applied to a transcription based website. Kudos to them for not spamming me constantly, but over a year of waiting for an opportunity to type at home?

A friend of mine worked for them in the past, and while they may have a new website, new name, etc, the service is probably the same. I’d also caution anyone from considering this work at home opportunity unless you’re in 1) in serious need of money and 2) can type faster than the requisite of 65 WPM.

The biggest beef I have with this organization are their requirements.

Have at least 24 months of intensive word processing or transcription experience, not more than five years previous to the date of application. (General office experience, data entry experience, accounting experience, etc. are not sufficient.)

Why isn’t any kind of data entry acceptable for them? Are they kidding me? The truth behind my typing speed hasn’t been the result of intensive data entry. I’ve been chatting and writing on the internet as well as other online services since 1989. To be sure, if you want to get up to 65-70 wpm with 100% accuracy (which is roughly where I am not at my typing ability), all you have to really do is own a computer and learn to type on your own.

I have no qualms about their legal typing requirements, but I do believe they need to be a little slack in their general requirements, particularly if you can show proficiency in spelling, grammar, and score well on thier typing test. I also feel that $10-12 per hour is somewhat optimistic.

YMMV. If you’re looking to pick up a bit of work on the side, it’s possible this opportunity could be of interest to some people out there. But you’re going to have to work probably harder with them than you likely would in an office environment. I believe this statement is applicable for most people living in North America. Review the cost of living and minimum wage in your area.

I shouldn’t be a naysayer but I am. I have a lot of skeptism when it comes to a lot of work-from-home opportunities on the net. Odd, from someone who’s been working online since 1999, and working fulltime without outside employment since 2001. Still though, consider this a healthy warning.

If you’re still interested, let me know in a comment. I don’t get any kind of compensation directly from the company. (If I did, I’d name them on the spot. LOL!) But I know there’s people out there looking for opportunities.

I’m just suggesting that this may not be the best one for most.

Welcome to Tech Jobs. I’m adding this blog to the site mostly for fun, to write about anything technology related. The main website is mostly a listing of the latest job opportunities found on the internet.

A Brief History in Time: I’ve been telecommuting on and off since 1997. My first real venture into this foray started after the first dot com company I worked for, was sold to another dot com company in Toronto in 1997. Back then, the concept of telecommuting was hardly something that companies really embraced. In fact, the company I worked for made a friggin JOKE out of the concept of “outsourcing”. Their version and vision of outsourcing was not about branching out into the global economy. In fact, outsourcing for this company meant hiring a more expensive marketing firm from the United States. The result of this move, practically bankrupt the company (resulting in a buy out). Although I didn’t lose my job as a technical support analyst, I was “encouraged” to move to the new company, a full 4 hour daily commute, with absolutely no new compensation in terms of salary.

I put my foot down and requested that I telecommute from home. After all, with the internet, and my abilities to answer technical questions via email with positive results from our clients, it made sense. The new company agreed however within a few weeks, I was encouraged to come into work more often than what was agreed.

I quit with no regrets.

Since 1999, 2 years after I first quit my job I’ve been telecommuting with mixed results, not to mention mixed opinions! At university, one of the first snarky comments I received from a fellow student after I told them I was going to get into internet marketing was: well if it is that easy why doesn’t everyone do it? I wasn’t impressed with her to say the least.

8 years later, I do have an answer: telecommuting is not an option for everyone. I hardly thought it was an option for me on a fulltime basis but if I’ve been at this thing this long, I must be doing something right. But can anyone do it? The old adage “your mileage will vary” is certainly applicable here.

More on this another time. Enjoy the site.