• Registered: 2007-02-02
  • Posts: 14

Topic: making a living

I'd like to know how the people that work hard at DriverPacks make a living.  Is this all a volunteer thing?  How do you make time???  How many hours a week do you devote to DriverPacks?  Are you just rich already and don't really have to work, such that you can pursue a rewarding occupation without worry about money (I'm so jealous).

  • Jaak
  • Old Timer Rookie
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  • From: Eeklo, in the East Flanders
  • Registered: 2006-07-23
  • Posts: 3,594

Re: making a living

Hi
Q; volunteer thing? A: Yep. I'm not paid. I'm an enthusiast.
Q; How do you make time???  A: If I knew, I'd add some to my lifespan.
Q; How many hours a week do you devote to DriverPacks? A: Don't make me think about it. When I want to get an issue fixed, I'll work on it. Seems like at least 16 hours per week.

I have a short bio in my signature. tells you something about me.
No, a mecanic is not a rich guy. I work for a living.

The answer was 42?
Kind regards, Jaak.
  • From: Cambridgeshire, UK
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 6,226

Re: making a living

Q; volunteer thing?
A: Volunteer.  I don't think anyone around here is paid. I'm an enthusiast. 

Q; How do you make time??? 
A: I just keep winding my watch backwards...easy. smile

Q; How many hours a week do you devote to DriverPacks?
A: According to my wife...every waking moment!  I'm like a pitbull, when I want something fixed, I won't let it go until it's fixed.  It's a perfectionist flaw.

I work for a living.  As an aircraft mechanic/technical writer & manager.

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  • OverFlow
  • DriverPacks Administrator & BASE Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Cincinnati
  • Registered: 2006-12-02
  • Posts: 6,730

Re: making a living

We are all volunteers...

there is never enough time... I think most of us do this instead of sleeping at night.

I spent at least a hundred hours codeing the bartpe plugin this winter.

I am a computer consultant - self employed - and work full time (and definately not rich)
I think we are hard core users who reconize the need to work as a group to make life easier for us all.
commitment if you will.

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  • From: Hasselt, Belgium
  • Registered: 2006-05-26
  • Posts: 2,609

Re: making a living

I'm a volunteer as well, probably the craziest of them all, since I've started this project. I'm not sure I'd do it again (it's insane for sure), but I've learned a lot from it, got to know a lot of interesting people directly and indirectly.

mr_smartepants wrote:

Q; How do you make time??? 
A: I just keep winding my watch backwards...easy. smile

Heh big_smile I *used* to make time for it by spending less time on school stuff that was not hard anyway. Instead of 80-85% getting 70-75%, who cares, right? But that was high school. Now it's university and those differences in grades do matter now, so I don't have that much time left anymore. That and my summer jobs now, have left me with virtually no time for the DriverPacks project in the past months.

Q; How many hours a week do you devote to DriverPacks?
A: According to my wife...every waking moment!  I'm like a pitbull, when I want something fixed, I won't let it go until it's fixed.  It's a perfectionist flaw.

Exactly the same here. Except for that wife-thing tongue Ok, there are some tiny bugs left... See the above and you know why they aren't fixed yet.

Founder of DriverPacks.net — wimleers.com

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  • From: MI - U.S.A.
  • Registered: 2006-05-27
  • Posts: 301

Re: making a living

Pretty much same as above...

When I was at my height of contribution, I worked at a local PC repair shop and would use the packs to do reinstalls for customers. Since I had many, many different sets of hardware at any given time... When I found something that didn't work, or wasn't in the packs it ended up here.

I would like to thank Bâshrat the Sneaky as well as all the other regulars that helped me along my way, I couldn't have completed half of the work that I did without you guys!

However, that job was a dead end. I was at the top of my pay scale, and management was a paycut...
I quit after coming back from my (paid) vacation,  just to find out that they decided that they didn't want to pay me.
...I have since moved on to bigger and better things, I am now on a team of 15 agents that manage ~55,000 GM client computers. With my limited time and lack of hardware to test, it is hard, but I try to stay as active as I can...

~Dave

  • From: MI - U.S.A.
  • Registered: 2006-05-27
  • Posts: 301

Re: making a living

yikes
I just got a promotion!!! I figured that I would share the news!
As of tomorrow, we will be taking on a new contract for GMAC! which means ~ 16,500 more PC's to manage!!!!!
Sweet!

...bad thing is that there is already a standard Windows build in place... Maybe I can persuade them tongue

  • Registered: 2007-02-02
  • Posts: 14

Re: making a living

Yeah, never enough time.  I don't waste time... don't even own a TV... though I'm not the model of efficiency either.  I freelance IT support, but most of the time I'm in my own world learning and finding myself.  For fun I contra dance  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_dance

Twig, how the h*ll do you manage 16,500 computers!  People's data must be centralized, and the computers expendable so you only need to have some ready to replace the ones that fall.  If I were in Michigan I would be stopping by your trash pile daily.