Today I purchased the third season of a show I have become a fan of recently. I went ahead and paid a premium to get it delivered in full HD. It looks great on my Apple TV, but you know what happens when I try and view the videos on my older Apple 30″ Cinema displays?

Because my 2560×1600 Apple displays use DVI instead of the DRM-riddled HDMI interface, my media refuses to play on them. Is it any wonder why people like torrents? I understand why you don’t want to play the video that I bought on an unknown device – there’s no guarantee I won’t record it to some other source and distribute it to a mass audience somewhere else. But do you think this kind of restriction is going to make me want to purchase from you in the future?

Nerd note: I took all of these photos with my (new to me) 5th-generation iPod touch.

Homes of Love works in Southeast Asia and Africa to establish and maintain loving, small, family-structured homes for orphaned and at-risk children. HOL seeks to reach children before they are trafficked, sexually exploited or put on the streets. We take a preventative approach to these problems common to vulnerable children. We are committed to the holistic, long-term care of these children until they become independent adults in their society.

Fa-la-la-la-la. La-la. La-la.

“Met a lot of people but never knew them. Bought a lot of things and never used them.”

– Stephen Gordon

Listen to/purchase the song here.

Almost walked into this guy tonight. Sheesh! I’m not a big fan of spiders. At all. From what I can tell, though, he looks a lot like a Garden Orb Web Spider (Eriophora transmarina). Scratch that, I have no clue what this guy/gal is. I have seen far too many photos of spiders on google now, though. Sheesh!

In thinking about the various experiences I’ve had with this process, I wanted to take down some notes for myself:

• Prompt payment signifies respect – I’ve been impressed a few times with how quickly I’ve been paid. It makes me feel good about my work, and it really makes me want to do everything in my power to continue pleasing my client.
• Early payment signifies trust – I usually try to negotiate a 50% payment up front, and a 50% payment upon the completion of a project. I recently had a client write me a check for the full amount in advance. This not only makes me feel respected, but trusted too. It was an amazing motivator for me to surpass expectations.
• Late payments are demotivating – The sad fact is that our fiat currency is losing it’s value pretty fast. It is worth less when it arrives late. Withholding payment is akin to borrowing money from someone, sans their permission. If there is any deficiency in my work, I will probably try to justify it by knowing that I’m not being treated very well. If there are any improvements that I could make to my work, why bother? (This is a pretty poor attitude, but I’ll admit, I’ve definitely thought these things before.) I realize many businesses deal with cash-flow issues, and sometimes you just can’t pay on time. In these cases, open communication about when to expect payment should be prioritized. Slow paying clients are the last on my list of those that I would like to do future business with.

I don’t hire out much help at the moment, and certainly don’t have any employees. But I hope I am able to remember these things when and if I do at some point.