See Pages 5 & 6 for Annexes: Limited Driver & Kernel Exposure + Management & Organisation- al Experience + Agents & Recruiters Notes Page 5 : Limited Driver & Kernel Exposure ( Beyond { Unix since 1978 + C since ~'81 + BSD since UCB 4.2 + FreeBSD patch-set contributor before FreeBSD adopted versions num- bers, eg inc. 386BSD) } ) - 6800 parallel port relay & stepper motor control, de- signed developed built tested & documented hardware & soft- ware. - Wrote Z80 embedded sio driver (interrupt with watchdog polling); - Hardware & software design & build of an NSC 32016 prototype microcomputer inc. monitor in C + hand assembly of test loop, tested with logic analyser; (followed by work toward building a product & company). - Read parts of Lions' book & bits of code on Version 6 Unix (Around '82). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Com- mentary_on_UNIX_6th_Edition,_with_Source_Code - Enhanced Minix floppy driver to double the capacity; - Searched for tape driver bug on Symmetric 375 (BSD 4.2) (but link-able kernel modules had other bugs, so wrote recovery program instead). - Run time init for VRTX RTOS devices, - Looked in FreeBSD kernel re 16M bounce buffers & cache etc. - Rolled custom kernel FreeBSD configs for decades, - Looked for clues to failure & chip-sets etc in FreeBSD drivers (last urtwn, re. heat, still pending). - 3 of Addison Wes- ley series "Design & Implementation of *BSD.." on the shelf. - Nothing big yet, always something else more ur- gent to fix or develop, but interested to do more. Page 5 : Management & Organisational Experience Liason operational & projects departments & suppliers, BTI london. Chaired Student Union Elections Committee: Managed election of ~2,500. chaired unruly meeting of many hun- dreds, after previous 2 chairs no confidenced. Business plan & Venture Capital seeking, Canterbury (NSC 32016). Team of 2: assessing & specifying 1 million pound database (1983 prices). Responsible for DP esp. Unix services to 30 developers, BTI London. Managing 2 technicians for BTI, London. Supervision of student project, BTI, London. Re- sponsible for Siemens 7 language 2 CPU architecture produc- tion. Created Vector Systems Ltd, sought & found work for associates. Organised countless ski trips for up to 38 people in 13 cars. Recruited & installed programmer for VSL on 3 Siemens developments. Recruited & flew over ker- nel programmer to present to Siemens. Landlord of 2 UK rental properties ... tenant relationships. Sys. eng. re- quirements: design, budget, lethal floor loading alert. Lecturing in German (& controlling some !) & examining for Dekra. er for elections & firework launch teams of sports & social club. Organised organisers of ski trips & beer garden trips. Created & run many mail lists on http://berklix.org Host other peoples domains & lists on Berklix servers. Created & organised http://berk- lix.org/bim/ & http://berklix.org/mecc/ Organised BIM exhi- bition manning for Elektronik Boerse & Systems Expo. Team assembly, management, & use of lawyer to sue debtor. Re- cruited team of speakers for http://berklix.com/free/talk/ Management of Vector Systems Ltd, UK, inc. company tax etc. Page 6 : MONEY, CONTRACT TERMS, & AGENTS & RECRUITERS: German / Deutsch & French / Francais @ http://www.berk- lix.org/trans/ Contract Terms: Preamble - That the employer (or agent) will pay the contractor does Not entitle a potential employer or agent to waste time of- fering one sided contract terms. - The contractor has long business experience, & used to re- jecteing some Client's initial predatory clauses, sometimes argued as supposedly `standard' (from employers' one sided view). - A reasonable balanced contract is easy for Both sides to sign with minimum delay to project. Agressive one sided contracts are always rejected, & delay your business. - Contractor is just as free to reject Client's terms & job, as Client is equally free to reject Contractor's terms & services. - Don't waste time offering one sided contracts. Sometimes foolish lawyers for the employer draft one sided contracts seeking to protect employers from all risk & expose consul- tants to maximim risk. Such lawyers delay or frustrate business from even starting. Such lawyers line their own fee paid pockets at expense of employer & contractor. - I have frequently rejected contracts with un-balanced terms. - I'm a professional, contracting & negotiating 35+ years since 1985. - Contracts must be balanced for both sides, else Not signed & no work starts. The money & the work are of equal value, else the price would rise, Both contractural partners are Equal in negotiation, neither has the right to shove their draft contract on the other. - Employer or agent contract terms if received are treated merely as a first suggestion for consideration, equally if contractor offers employer or agent contract terms, please treat them the same: Suggestions. - Both sides should offer reasonable terms for quick accep- tance, not one sided terms that foolishly delay or prevent business. - Technical project managers (usualy employees) often don't realise when they let their company lawyer provide a con- tract unchecked, that such contracts often seeks to prove lawyer's worth to the employer, by over- securing employ- er's interest at the expense of the contractor; Such lawyer's agression delays or kills business when contrac- tors then reject un-balanced terms. - Project manager should, (though they don't always) skim any such "standard" contract their lawyer provides, with the eyes of a recipient contractor, to check it's roughly bal- anced, before sending it to the contractor, to avoid project delay when one sided contract terms are rejected. - As a professional engineer with decades of experience, I'm aware of many agent ploys that delay & deter business agreements, often such foolishness is tried by young re- cruiters with far less experience, who haven't yet moved on, & haven't yet learnt: Don't be too agressive, don't waste our time, annoy, & promote dis-trust, as it Stops business contracts. Some examles of agents ploys are at: http://berk- lix.org/mecc/#false One more example to beware: Some agents sign up workers exclusively, then keep them on hold unpaid, unable to work elsewhere, then delay as they still havent signed up the employer ! Dealt with by having a German style "Ausfall-honorar" in contract, so agent must pay half of daily rate for each day the job is delayed not through fault of contractor. (Shades of UK "Zero Hours Contracts") Partial Deposit Pre-Payment: I require an initial pre-payment from new customers to prove employer or agent can afford to pay & will pay at least some of the consultancy ordered. Amount negotiable. Early exit clauses OK. If you won't pay a deposit in advance, your last option is you can pre pay in- to an escrow account (German: Treuhand Konto?): The bank se- lection, & charity default recipient on failure by Date etc, all to be mutually agreed & your deposit paid before work starts. I've experience using lawyers for debt collection from dead beat debtors. It's extremely annoying, grossly in- efficient, & not my profession, hence a deposit is required. Consultancy Rates Are Negotiated In Euros Per Hour For Work in Munich or Aachen area, Germany Offices (mine or client's) Outside Munich or Aachen commuter area, extra costs are charged: Please do Not mislead your client or yourself by just multiply hourly rate by 8 hours/day & GBP/EUR to get some false Pounds Per Day rate ! You probably need to add German MWST (=VAT). Hourly Rates in Euro or Sterling on enquiry. Currency Rates at http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/rates/ A discount may be avail- able for fast payment &/or some charity type work. Consul- tancy Cost Component Examples For London or Berlin etc: Consultancy On Site At Client, eg in London or Berlin: Initial week(s) on site, as determined by client & consultant (not agent) discussing technicly, then periodically on site at client during development project, at an hourly rate some- what more than the Munich/ Aachen office rate. Typically no more than 32 Hours per week of work (Mon AM & Fri PM typical- ly travelling). Travel Time between Consultant City & Client City: Payable by client at half the hourly working rate. (Neither client nor contractor to pay all wasted travel time.) Air Flight Costs Business rates as clients short term schedule changes preclude finding tourist rates. Weekly flights, or for days clients require visits. Trains usually less practi- cal. Choice of planes, trains or rental car or own car is at Consultant discretion, Not client or agent. Client to pre pay travel costs before booking (as some clients pay too late, & occasionaly go bust on the job, so contractor will Not use his own credit card!). Best that the secretary of client's project manager helps contractor find flights & de- ploys firm's debit card to pay for tickets. Remote Consul- tancy From Munich / Aachen Offices: Once consultant understands technical requirements of client, consultant reduces working presence in eg London/ Berlin etc to part time, doing most development in Munich / Aachen of- fice, at a somewhat cheaper rate with no expenses, & as no travel, more work done, typically 40 hours per week. Trans- port Costs In Client City Airport/ hotel/ client office taxi/ train as appropriate. ( Agent to offer estimate of what con- sultant needs to charge, as agents often keep client loca- tions secret, & only agents know geography & transport infra- structure between airport, client office & hotels, & eg Lon- don & Berlin conurbations are huge.) Hotel Costs: Business rates, clients schedules preclude tourist rates. Agents alone know client location, what other local events may affect hotel occupancy & transport, all unknown to con- sultant (eg Munich Oktoberfest & Hanover Computer Fair occa- sionally book out all hotels for 100+ Km radius). If agents don't know their own city, they should find an estimate eg here http://www.booking.com (unlike most, bookings often flexible): No flat rental as project & rental termination/re- newal dates mis-match, & it takes months to find a flat, & consultant should be working as a highly paid specialist, not wasting time seeking & arranging travel & accommodation, that could be done by secretarial staff of client or agent. One project after development I would have been required on site for delivery: my business partner thought he needed the secu- rity guards only available in his luxury hotel, so I told him I'd have to price a small room in same hotel for same securi- ty, he thought I didn't need his security. I refused the project. No loss :-) Foreign City Nightly Allowance: Cost of a cheap pizza & a beer alone does Not compensate business trips in foreign cities, alone & bored, meal fol- lowed by drink at pub or finding a cinema etc + transport. All major employers financially compensate employees who have to travel, above the price of hotel + meal, & I require simi- lar reasonable commensurate compensation, though not luxury. Some places I won't go to or work for: too dangerous, whether biologically or criminal or vile governments, etc.