Best Results From Bartering Computer Services? 1022
silicon not in the v writes "Last night I was over at some friends' house. They had cable modem with no firewall and tons of spyware, etc. on their system. They complained about all the popups and how bad it was that they were afraid to let their kids on the computer, so I set them up with ZoneAlarm, Ad Aware, and Firefox to get it cleaned up. In return, the husband, who is a chiropractor, gave my wife and I a free adjustment. What other interesting services or benefits have people been able to get by bartering IT/programming services?"
Re:Slave and Master (Score:2, Informative)
Barter WebSite (Score:1, Informative)
I don't mind bartering services... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Chiropracters == Quacks (Score:5, Informative)
adjustment, eh? (Score:2, Informative)
http://chirolinks.quackfiles.com/
Just like you.... (Score:3, Informative)
Just like you, I have gotten free Chiropractic care in exchange for computer help. The running deal is that my Chiropractor and I are effectivley on retainer for each other. I get all the chiropractic care I want at no charge, he gets all the computer help he needs at the same rate. He pays for all materials.
Thus far, it has involved speccing out a couple of computers for him, installing a LAN in his office (from scratch, cabling and all) and straightening the Green pin on one of his monitors so that the video was no longer purple. It has been a very good deal.
For another customer, I have done a hard drive upgrade in exchange for the old hard drive and a monitor. The monitor was promptly redeployed to my wife's computer (hers was staring to go fuzzy) and the hard drive was then sold to another customer of mine (nothing unethical, sold as used and wiped clean first).
Here's how I do it: (Score:3, Informative)
Often, what will give me the idea is I see something that I can improve on.
Granted, most of the time, they are taken care of in that dept, but often enough I have gotten free stuff for a couple hours worth of work.
Re:IRS (Score:5, Informative)
Here [irs.gov] is some information on just that.
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Chiropracters == Quacks (Score:3, Informative)
Some headaches, neck pains, pinched nerves, and such can be fixed by one visit.
Re:Benefits. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Benefits. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Chiropracters == Quacks (Score:3, Informative)
Homeopathy and Quackery and Symptoms (Score:5, Informative)
Allergies are one area where homeopathy is useful, because you're not concerned with curing the causes, you're concerned with getting rid of the symptoms. ("Yes, I know there are trees blooming outside, I just want to stop sneezing.") Modern medicine has antihistamines that can help block the symptoms, and cause some side effects, and homeopathy has bogus quack formulations that can also help block the symptoms, and have different side effects, and depending on which one does a better job for _you_ with the allergens that are blowing around right now, and which one has more annoying side effects (e.g. drowsiness vs. stomach upset), sometimes homeopathy is the right choice. Or you can get allergy shots, which aren't really much different from well-controlled homeopathy. It's only been the last couple of years that I've found that modern medicine has products that are significantly better.
Flu is a special case. It's a virus, so if the vaccine didn't protect you this year, modern medicine mostly tells you to stay home in bed, drink hot fluids, and cover your mouth when you sneeze, and otherwise can't do much. Homeopathy is good for this - there are a couple of homeopathic preparations that can take you from feeling really lousy to merely feeling not very good, and that's a big win.
The nice thing about homeopathy is that its particularl bogus theory is that the more you dilute a medicine, the more subtle the hints it gives your body's immune system about how to attack the real problem, and therefore the stronger it is. (It's similar to the theory of making martinis that says that you should take the vermouth bottle and gesture meaningfully in the direction of the glass without actually pouring any in...) So unlike herbalist medicines, which you take in non-trivial quantities and can sometimes cause liver or kidney damage if you're not careful, most homeopathic medicines aren't going to hurt you, and the "really strong" stuff is no threat at all if it doesn't work.
Chiropractic is another quack theory that is obviously not useful for curing disease, but sometimes it can help with back and neck pain, and if you think of it as yet another form of massage, it's often somewhat helpful for many people. My first chiropractor was also an MD, which rather surprised both communities. The last one I went to wasn't able to recognize that my shoulder pains were early bursitis, so it was a while before I found a doctor who could do much about it, but at least he knew his limitations and could tell me that shoulder joints weren't something he knew about.
Mind in the Gutter (Score:2, Informative)
I've never had any offers of sex, but I've been given a dobro, a lawnmower, a variety of CDs, a pan of toe-curlingly delicious lasagna, a cordless phone, a gutter-cleaning job, and a smorgasbord of computer parts.
I've only cut one person off cold. "You really need to learn some of this yourself," I told him one day. "I don't need to," he said. "I have you." No he didn't. Not after that.
Wenzel Defense (Score:2, Informative)
Below is the relevant excerpt from the article:
In finding defendant guilty of careless driving, the Law Division judge stated: The defendant quite clearly operated his vehicle carelessly, failed to exercise appropriate caution in the prevailing circumstances, and endangered both the persons in the other vehicle. These conclusory remarks, however, were insufficient to establish a careless driving violation. It appears that both the Municipal Court judge and the Law Division judge applied a res ipsa loquitur analysis in finding defendant guilty of careless driving. The doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, however, has no application in the determination of careless driving due to the quasi-criminal nature of the proceeding in which the State has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt all elements of the offense. See State v. Wenzel, 113 N.J. Super., 215, 216-18 (App. Div. 1971)(the mere fact of an "otherwise unexplained jackknifing" where a tractor-trailer entering a construction area had jackknifed on the wet roadway, crossed into the opposite lane and broadsided another truck fatally injuring the truck's driver, did not establish that the defendant had been driving carelessly.) The careless driving statute provides: [a] person who drives a vehicle on a highway carelessly, or without due caution and circumspection, in a manner so as to endanger, or be likely to endanger, a person or property, shall be guilty of careless driving.
[N.J.S.A. 39:4-97.]
Here, other than the accident itself, the State only presented defendant's statement that his vehicle began to slide on the wet highway and continued to do so when he tapped his brakes. Moreover, his apology was not an admission to driving carelessly, but merely a statement that his car had slid on the wet pavement. The State presented no evidence indicating that defendant had been speeding, driving too fast for the wet road conditions, distracted or otherwise driving without due caution and circumspection. Consequently, there was insufficient evidence to support defendant's conviction for careless driving, and we reverse that conviction. We affirm the driving under the influence conviction and sentence under N.J.S.A. 39:4-50(a) and vacate the stay. We reverse the careless driving conviction under N.J.S.A. 39:4-97 and remand to the Law Division to amend the judgment.
Re:Benefits. (Score:2, Informative)