About Clients And Rikanopfruls.

More about Rikanopfruls later. First: Clients.

I've noticed quite a while back that some of our clients have mastered a certain game. It's usually clients who know they've asked too much of us. If you push anyone working 'for' you too far, they'll be a whole lot more reluctant to reply 'how high ?' when you ask them to jump. Our clients, in general, know this. Most of our clients pretty much don't push us too far: if we say we're working on it, we're working on it, and most of the stuff they can do themselves. But some push us far, and keep pushing limits like "I *know* you said no, but how 'no' is it REALLY ?" or "I know I only have 40 hours of total support and I've made you guys put in about 250 hours so far, but could you please handle this very, very urgent task that will only take 50 more hours ? And could you call me back in an hour and please tell me it's done ?"
These clients know that it helps to make it up to us. If you stay on someone's good side, you can push them VERY, VERY far. It's the difference between being a friendly drunk in a bar and an annoying drunk: both might vomit or knock things over, but the friendly one's likely to be semi-cared for where the annoying one will simply get thrown out and left in the street. Web developing isn't that much different. It's awfully easy to ignore someone's email for a while if you get hundreds a day and you're not too fond of that specific person.
In the past, clients who pushed us too far have sent us custom-made cake, or sent us jokes they received, or sent us champagne or small gifts related to their department, or just dropped by to 'finally meet', etc. It's actually a rather nasty game if you ask me, since it's completely manipulative: they pretend to suddenly be your friend so you'll go that extra mile for them ONLY because they NEED you to go that extra mile. And in our department's case, where we already go several miles further than we should for our clients, that's a long way's away.
So a client is taking me and another coworker out for dinner tonight. After all, it's cheaper than actually paying for the extra hours we put in on her request.

Oh, and you were wondering what a Rikanopfrul is ?

Oh, Before I Forget...

I would just like to thank all of you for the hundreds upon thousands of flowers I was sent, the cards, the emails, the enormous support I've received from all of you. Thank you, it means a lot to know that so many were concerned about the huge tragedy that unfolded in my life, but I come bearing good news: The situation has been resolved now - the nightmare is over !
Or, in plain English: thanks all of you for not giving a shit (I got exactly ONE email from a friend who was sorry to hear that I'd lost my coat) but it's all OK now because the friendly people at the Cul de Sac informed me (actually, a shout out to Jorg for this since, despite the fact that it were Cul employees that found it, HE was the one to actually call me) that they'd found my coat on Saturday night, so I biked over in the middle of Sunday night to go pick it up. I can't even BEGIN to describe how happy I am with this turn of events (even though I'd semi-expected it would turn up again, after all, the Cul de Sac's just not really THAT kind of bar where people steal other people's coats and don't care about address books or anything in them indicating whose coat it REALLY is) especially now that it's not just freezing cold but RAINING to top it off, too. My long coat (which was serving as a substitute winter coat so far) would NOT have sustained that too well - it always starts to smell up to high heaven when it gets in contact with even the SLIGHTEST bit of rain. Since rain decided to accompany me on my way home, it was very nicely timed that I'd retrieved my coat.
So everyone can rest easy again now - I have your phone numbers and everything again, and my treasured coat is once again returned to me. Goodnight, folks !

The Lost Word

So I vanished off the face of the planet a few days there - at least for anyone reading this. Same old excuse as always: I've been very, very busy (and very, very tired). I'm currently working out a major storyline for The Grim DotCom which'll mean I'll start drawing like mad soon, so don't expect to see me around too often anymore because I won't be for a while. See you when it's over.
Unless you found my coat in which case, return it already !
Later folks.

Update On That Last Post

So yeah, as luck would have it, in the Cul de Sac the owner of the coat I borrowed was there and very glad to have the coat back. Unfortunately my coat hasn't turned up.
Also, that damn bug resurfaced AGAIN in the Probeersel code, and this time I truly figured it out - it had to do with the substractions, well, I won't get into the details, but it would have produced the wrong weeknumber all year. Fixed it, and the fix I implemented actually makes that whole part of the code a lot more elegant. Took me nearly an hour to figure out, again, though. I hate programming.
Anyway, The Breakfast Club is on, and hey, who can object to Molly Ringwald ? So I'm gonna watch it for a while and then go to sleep. After all, today's another working day, I switched the Friday I usually have off with last Tuesday to benefit my direct colleague. So I'm off to Amsterdam in a couple of hours again, without my beloved coat. I hate this shit.

Papa's Got A Brand New... Coat.

OK, people, anyone who knows me and is in my address book, listen up. Some drunk took my coat after the Cul de Sac New Year's party and it had my address book (as well as my prescription sunglasses, but that's besides the point). I do not have an up to date copy of it, so I basically have lost contact info for a lot of you. If this coat will be returned to me anytime soon I cannot say (obviously it DOES have my own contact information in it, so if this person has half a brain, figures out it's not their coat, and searches the pockets in sincere effort to get this coat back to the real owner, they should be perfectly capable of tracking me down - they haven't yet) so please, PLEASE, email me your information if you were in that book so I can make a new copy.
In any case, I had a good time and most of the people I know from the bar were there. I did have to take a different leather coat that was left behind, which is slightly too small and doesn't quite cut it as well as the other one did as a winter coat. So I hate this shit and I want my coat back - it was a damn good coat and it's been all over the world with me as well, damnit ! So hey, if by any chance you're reading this and you accidentally took a pigskin black leather coat with some kind of cheap imitation italian brand name in it and it contains prescription sunglasses and my address book, or you have lost a coat that says Jack&Jones (with nothing in it, by the way), please contact me. I am now actually about to return to the Cul de Sac to at least return the coat I borrowed there, because after all, it's not mine, but please, PLEASE - I really want my coat and address book back.

Nothing else to report.. I am sore in several places due to sleeping bad and the fact that I biked home in too small a coat in unexpected cold weather, and I'm tired because first thing when I got up this *cough* late afternoon *cough* was fix yet another stupid date related bug in the Probeersel code. I hope I now finally have all the bugs I never tested the code on out, at least related to the date.

Anyway, I have to hop on my bike and head out to center city now. Wish me luck. René out.