Stijn!!

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by flipper35

The VPN solution fixes more than the wi-fi hacks if you are concerned about any proprietary information going to clients or any other privacy issue really.

I am sure most of our clients want us to treat their data as confidential. Non of it is highly sensitive. We flew one Air Force Base golf course so the course could be overhauled. It was real close to the front gate. The base commander called us and he wanted us to blur the image of the front gate. We complied but laughed the entire time. Anyone at all can drive right up to the gate and take photos of the front gate and publish them on the internet or write a book detailing the exact location on it if they want.

We had one client that is in the waste water disposal business. He has large ponds lined with plastic and lets the water evaporate. He wanted to purchase a small competitor but they did not want to get purchased and would not let him on the property to evaluate the equipment and the operation. We flew that site once a week for a month. He looked at the large prints and could tell what type of front end loaders, and other heavy equipment they had. We could calculate the size of the ponds and the overall size of the operation. He then knew just what to offer to buy it.

[RKDinOKC]

Yeah, thought about setting up a VPN thru a hosting company. The only thing I would want hid from ISP is streaming and is non-issue right now. Hosting my own VPN doesn't let me go public from different servers at a whim. ie like London to access Skysports. Guess I could setup on a host in England.

[flipper35]

Yeah, there are downsides to rolling your own as well. As long as you trust the host you are good. Most seem reputable.

Glen, as long as you aren't transmitting those you should be good. If you roll them in a 7z file that is encrypted you are good to send them along too.

It is always nap time at work!

[RKDinOKC]

AArrrrrgh!!!

Just had to put it out there.

[flipper35]

I feel your pain. Trust me.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by RKDinOKC

AArrrrrgh!!!

Just had to put it out there.

But but but, it is NOT talk like a pirate day!

[RKDinOKC]

That's Arrrr, not Arrrgh!

We got our 3rd quarter bonus today. It was comparatively sizable. Almost makes up for inflation.

Feel better, but still frustrated.

[GH85Carrera]

The cheap bastage boss of mine don’t do bonuses. I get even with him. I live at his house and don’t pay rent. And I sleep with his wife and drive his 911!

[RKDinOKC]

So you are getting fridge benefits.

[flipper35]

Our last regular bonus was a gift card to Hy-Vee. Though my boss did push to get a decent bonus to me in July.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by RKDinOKC

So you are getting fridge benefits.

Yea, I drink his beer too!

Way back in the late 1980s I purchased Quicken and started keeping my check book with it. My records go back to 1989. It was Quicken for DOS back then. I remember upgrading to Version 2 for Windows and it was one of the first programs I bought that came on a CD ROM. Way back then one of the biggest things I wanted to do was print a check on my laser printer so I could mail that to the old man that held the mortgage on my house. He though it was a back check so he was happy.

Back then, I bought a box of check mailing envelopes. They fit the check and have the two windows. After almost 30 years my envelop supply is almost used up. I rarely mail a check from my personal account anymore. I have been the treasurer for our PCA region for longer than I want to think about. Now I also mail checks for the business. The old envelopes have signs of yellowing around the edges. I was down to just a few.

I broke down and looked for a new supply. Quickbooks wanted 35 bucks for 50 of em. I looked on Amazon and found a box of 500 for $26. Made in USA quality envelopes. I let the business pay for em. I will use them for the PCA region still. About a nickel each. We can afford that.

[Porsche-poor]

Originally Posted by RKDinOKC

That's Arrrr, not Arrrgh!

We got our 3rd quarter bonus today. It was comparatively sizable. Almost makes up for inflation.

Feel better, but still frustrated.

just be glad you get one. found out last month we will never see a bonus unless you make partner or director and that takes a 4 year degree in engineering. No cost of living increase either its merit or performance based.

[RKDinOKC]

They started with an Executives only bonus, then quickly changed it. They published a schedule of the percentage of bonus we get based on the amount of profit for the year and is paid quarterly. So if we got 2% the first quarter, 4% the second quarter and 6% the third our 3td quarter bonus is 6% of our year to date wages minus the bonus paid for the first and second quarters. Pretty exciting when our first quarter was one of the lowest profits in the history of the company and or 3rd quarter profits are higher than they have been in two years.

Our current sales are way higher than they expected making the YTD profits much higher than they expected as well. It is a higher bonus than they have ever paid historically.

I am assuming if the profits go way down in the 4th quarter so the anual bonus percentage goes down to less than what we have already been paid that they won't make us give any money back.

We've been doing pretty well. They have managed to reduce backorders and maintain a profit of 34%. Business from the oil slump came back surprisingly fast and we had trouble staffing to ramp up production. I personally am still concerned about the decision to discontinue all cast iron products. It seems like if that was a good idea the founder would have done that some time in our 65 years of him running the company. He was a very frugal man.

[RKDinOKC]

Got a great horned owl couple in top of the cottonwood tree in my back yard. It's an actual hootenanny. They be doin the horny owl hoot out. Understand it's mating season for great horned owls and their mating thing is to hoot back and forth for about an hour.

Have heard a great horned owl in the top of that cottonwood tree since we moved here.
Can't be the same one since we moved here.

Think it's kinda cool since I had a pet great horned owl from when I was 8 until just after i gradiated HS.

[RKDinOKC]

Good Morning. It is how they say...FRIDAY!

Just thought of something. Walking around in my back yard of a late evening am going to have to be careful or a least wear a hat. Why? Owl poop!

[Porsche-poor]

Morning all. having an owl in the hood would be fun. get some pictures.

[GH85Carrera]

Morning all. I was mean to my computer and made it works its little CPU cores and RAM hard last night. It loved it. The GIANT CPU cooler did the job and it stayed cool like me.

Back when I first got into aerial photography we were happy to get a customer wanting 1 foot (12 inches) pixel resolution. Imagine if we made a print the full size of the ground, each square foot was one square pixel. For wide areas that is great. Most satellite photography is 1 or 2 or even 10 foot photography. The USGS has 1 meter photography they pay for that is available for free.

We were thinking we were studs when we started doing 6 inch pixel photography. That is not just twice the resolution, is is a square so it is 4 times bigger files sizes and 4 times as much data. On occasion a client would have a fairly small area like a 1/4 section or smaller and we would do a 3 inch pixel. That was usually fun to look at. It made a 1 GB tiff file for just a 1/4 section.

My computer just spit out a 2 inch pixel job last night. 246 images combined to make a 1 GB file of a customers area that is a 1/4 of a 1/4 section. It is insane high resolution. Almost too high. It shows all the utility lines on poles. Those get distracting.

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by Porsche-poor

just be glad you get one. found out last month we will never see a bonus unless you make partner or director and that takes a 4 year degree in engineering. No cost of living increase either its merit or performance based.

Ours is merit based as well with no COL adjustment because the board says no COL adjustments. What sucks is any merit increase is capped at 10 years so once I reach my 10 year anniversary I no longer get a wage increase. I haven't decided on what to do at that point. It wasn't that way when I started.

[Porsche-poor]

as long as the customer is happy you can look at all the utility poles you want.

[Porsche-poor]

Originally Posted by flipper35

Ours is merit based as well with no COL adjustment because the board says no COL adjustments. What sucks is any merit increase is capped at 10 years so once I reach my 10 year anniversary I no longer get a wage increase. I haven't decided on what to do at that point. It wasn't that way when I started.

yeah we got bought out and I was forced to go salaried where I used to be salaried but got paid straight time for anything over 40. Now when they mention OT and weekends I look at them and say you get 40 hours per week the rest of them are negotiable and you don't stand a chance.