Jason's Notes About Stuff

It may sound strange, but whenever I receive a business lead from my website, one of the first "qualifiers" I look at is the email address . Over 7 years and hundreds of leads (most of them useless), I've discovered that an email address can say a lot about someone. Even before reading the project description or budget , I look very carefully at the email address.  From there, my qualifying process is a bit like this: 1. Is it a company address or free email service? If it is a company address , that's positive.  I use the domain name to go to their website and try to determine: a) How long they've been in business b) Their relative size c) Any affiliations with larger companies/organizations 2. If it is a free email address , it is usually one of the following: Great: Gmail: This is what most technical people use, and it is by far the best. Ok: Yahoo Mail: This was a great service back in the 90s, but has since declined.  This might indica...

Click above for more pictures We've arrived on the small, tropical island of Koh Phangan, Thailand. After a few days, my initial impression is very positive. The Thai people are very polite and clean. Shoes need to be taken off before entering any building. Prices are cheap, but not massively cheap. Our small furnished house, with air conditioning in the bedroom, a living room, a kitchen with gas range, and hot water shower, cost 15,000 baht (about $500) for a month, plus about another 3,000 baht ($100) for water, electricity, and ADSL internet that is probably better than an average Bell connection. A load of laundry can be sent for washing, drying, and folding for 120 baht ($4). That's cheaper than when we did it ourselves at the hostel in Australia. Western (imported) products cost nearly as much as back home. Food-wise, you can get cheaper stuff when it only has Thai writing -- if you can figure out what it is. A 1.5L bottle of drinking water costs 15 baht (...