Let’s all keep in mind that universal truth that states “Crisis is another name for Opportunity”.
I seriously believe in it and live by it. Never give up and seize all opportunities one might have to progress in knowledge, experience or simply to rest and recoup!
I’ll talk some about this soon, soon. Until then,
Cheers to y’all!
A year has passed since everything in life seemed to be too complex and difficult to tackle. But things do fall together, eventually, and I managed to get the projects I needed and the help I asked for.
Now, it’s time to clean up the store and move on. Expect the best! I do.
Thank you all.
I am a freelancer. I’ve been one for years and I do like to be so.
However, somehow lately I do have a lot of customers. Projects. I think this *crisis* or recession, or whatever!, brought a lot of opportunities for “hard-core” coders.
So, I have been asked to resolve a lot of “issues” in existing systems and applications, whereas in former years I was ignored or plainly turned down (mostly cuz I was deemed to be too “senior”! – read, “too expensive”). The thing is, I KNOW HOW TO DO IT. 
Do you, also? Well, then, you can partner-up with me in some of my projects. Customers are cheap, they are desperate and pay around 15 EUR per hour. It’s good enough to pay the bills, and, when too many projects are coming at the same time, why wouldn’t I share ‘em??
I guess the point is easy to get 
So, are you a “coder”, someone that can handle this?
- Websphere (JSP/Themes/NavigationModel… (any of WAS, WPS, WCM…))
- Lotus Notes !!!
- Believe it or not, if you can also copy+paste some Javascript and CSS stuff (intelligently)
- RoR!!
- of course, PHP 
and, God forbid!, PERL
- and MySQL
- and some DB2, you know, lot’s os IBM custs…
- NO TIBCO!!! — well, if you can do some JMS, it will help here…
- Of course, knowing some Java will help. Definitely. The OOP stuff does count. No worries about EJB’s, one can learn them, right?
- Ah! and Eclipse! Let’s put it in, it’s not a forgettable item!!
- And, of course, you must understand that RAD is Eclipse, right? No steroids there, just plugins, addons…
- NO NETBEANS!!! (LOL!, just kidding, of course Netbeans is fine! Or vi, or joe or whatever you feel like – even Emacs qualifies!!! …) (( or ed *grunf!*) ((.. or “cat >yourfile”…))
- It will be a MUST that you can connect, use SSH, and it will help loads that you know what the heck Subversion is. Yah. We don’t use Git.
Anyways, I do hope you got the point. I need help from people that understand what I am talking about and can be professional about it – and deliver!. ‘Simple as that. And I will pay 15 EUR per hour. Cool?
Just to close this: This is serious, and no irony or sarcasm here. I am indeed posting for professional, paid help.We will discuss conditions and other details if you actually feel you are up to the task and reply to my rept – and if you qualify.
Unless you spam or insult me, you will get a reply.
Thanks.
Yours truly,
-Sergio
Please tell me it’s possible and that someone is interested!
I — Yours truly here — do need someone to help me, as a freelencer, in RoR* projects. Given the customer needs and all that comes with the (*beeep*) crisis we are enduring here in Portugal, I actually need that this person is able to handle CSS and javascript.
Hey!, we are talking RAILS, right? One’s supposed to understand the model, right?
Well, yes, I need someone to work with me in projects that aren’t that long or “that” well paid. But – I insist! – we must be professionals and deliver the best we can, within specs and agreed product.
My customers ask for a lot. I manage it, and I always deliver. And I check for quality. So does the customer, who will only pay after “acceptance”. I do control that “phase” in my own servers, though…
We’re talking 15 EUR/hour here. No more. And lot’s of effort.
Cool, drop me a line, then
Cheers! Yours truly,
-Sergio
* NOTE: Please, if you don’t know what RoR IS, don’t bother spamming me. Thanks.)
People have frequently pointed out that my logo, that I use for corporate identity as well, is childish and silly. Well, I know
The smiley, colored logo is still there for sentimental and historical reasons. The same way I still use the domain name serso.com (see about it here), I am still attached to this logo and I will tell you the story so that at least when pointing the obvious silliness of it, you will know how it came about
So, when I and J-M Dault were launching serso.com in Toronto, Canada, we were aware that the concept of the Internet and web was something that only a younger, educated crowd would pick up back in 1994. The internet was only starting, for one.
Also, running on a very low budget, I decided to make as much possible on my own and save money the buy any necessary equipment we needed for the operation. Modems and computers were still very expensive at the time.
We started everything by walking down College Street distributing fliers and inviting people to our launch party that would take place at a cafe called “Ser-Veja-Ria”. To make it look like something more serious than just another student party, I wanted to make T-Shirts that our staff would wear at the event, and that’s when the need for a corporate identity kicked in
The question then was: would we use a logo or just the name? The name was clearly bad and non meaningful to others but myself and was used only because the domain had been registered in that fashion (an offer from CompuServe, my personal ISP at the time) and I had no money to spend in registering a new one…
Hence the next challenge was: how to make a logo if we were both non-creative individuals, both tech geeks, self-made engineers schooled as Managers (we both studied economics in college, but went on to be computer professionals)?
We then decided to keep going with the “young, low-budget” idea. Since J-M was a heavy IRC user, and hooked me on being one as well and on using “smileys” (J-M’s most used smiley was “=)”, mine was “;-)”) while chatting at IRC channels (chat rooms, as we called them back then), we quickly considered that this was something we could relate to ourselves.
J-M's smiley on an IRC client looked like "=)" and mine like ";-)". So mine was the one that became our logo.
SerSo’s, as an ISP, was my idea and my “smiley” was a little more expressive and popular than his, so I had no trouble deciding to style it (just coloring it) and use it as a cheap to make and produce “logo”.
Then, we bought a few very cheap polo shirts, white ones, and ironed the logos on them And we printed it in our fliers as well and it all looked naive, but appealing. Better still, it did cater to the young but educated College Street crowd that would be our potential subscribers.
The “;-)” smiley was also meaningful regarding the spirit I had towards this project and I know J-M would agree with that statement (1). It means someone that uses it in a conversation is smiling and blinking an eye, as in “hey, you know what I mean, right? This is crazy, kindda low budget, but isn’t it a good idea?”…
Yes, we were appealing to our crowd’s cumplicity and using J-M’s popularity on IRC. Actually, he would take the night shift at the janitor-cubicle-turned-server-room where we had our modems and phone lines, because he just spent the whole night chatting on IRC. And giving tech and customer support. And getting new customers
And thus this was how it started being used. It’s naiveness did help big time. People actualy felt they “belonged”, that they could participate — more than being just customers. They could help this project. It was a “community” thing and in Toronto it was well accepted the idea that one has to pay in order to benifit from something, so the project started with the right foot and went on to actually become a real ISP.
I have often considered changing the logo, or at least to change it’s style and looks. But then the memories kick in, and the idea of keeping it as it is starts making sense again and I give up the intent
Notes:
(1) When J-M came from Sherbrooke, Quebec, carrying his own tower PC (Slackware Linux), on the bus (he made a makeshift handle for it with string), wearing his gray suite and tie, he was definitely not expecting me to be almost broke. He came for a job and found a challenge. And he did not give up, and went on to embrace the project and work hard for it. SerSo.com would not have been if not for his efforts.
SerSo.com is looking for a coder that can:
Further, nice to have, skills are:
The skills needed are deemed to be at an Intermediate level. This job will be a part-time (aprox 35 hrs/mth). Telecommuting is accepted, however a weekly meeting is required (can be done online). Salary and conditions to be discussed upon interview. Language is English (or Portuguese). References are required.
Please let me know of your interest: send me a resume or email me here. I’ll discuss details and answer all questions upon your contact.
Thank you.
After a long while, there are some changes to the site. Mainly, I just moved this blog to a more suitable subdomain and now it’s available at http://blog.serso.com. I also retouched the “looks” so it matched more closely the main site design.
This way, the main domain www.serso.com will again be used for business, as indeed it should. Yes, this is me changing my mind from my former intention of not using this domain name for business. Truly, this now happens because of SEO needs. I hope it is understandable to y’all
So now, when someone comes looking for the former domain, they will be greeted by a page in Portuguese. I know, that’s regrettable, but it makes business sense for now. I started writing this blog in English only, but always intended to translate it and offer a Portuguese version as well. That will be done in a next move. And the main site will also be offered in both languages, as it should as well.
As for design, well, I still use a simple but functional template that I chose a couple of years ago. I am a coder, not an artist, so I tend to go with what is already out there
For now, I just wish you all a very happy and successful 2011!
Yours truly,
-Sergio
SerSo.com has been upgraded again. At the speed and frequency new releases of WordPress are made available, this is a bit crazy, but one thing I am happy with: their “upgrade” feature. The 5 minute install, the export and the upgrade features do make a lot for WordPress.
In a certain way, it compensates for many other shortcomings of the engine itself. I still am not completely accomodated to the idea that one doesn’t have any simple way to get the page slug, for instance, and there are many more like that.
I’ll stop complaining because I realize that this is community development driven, and I, for one, haven’t contributed anything to it. I will, I will!
I was already tired of winter. And spring came, the “fever” came along, and here am I updating my blog / site. This new look has a lot to do with the selected WordPress Theme (find more about it at the About page) and a renewed commitment to actually do stuff for myself, for a change. The selected template was fiercely customized and integrated by me, but to its merit, it really gave the site that particular look I was seeking.
In the future, I’ll select, customize and publish the site with other Themes chosen from the bounty of excellent free WordPress themes available. This is also my way of giving credit to whom made them.
So, this site now has a new look and feel, new content, new organization, new ideas and new areas of interest. I can point some new things that might be of interest:
And, to top it off, these new areas aren’t just looking the same as the rest of the site. Oh no, not necessarily
I can advance that I do have plans to open the Game Area to external participation, and definitely we will have downloads, code samples, how-to’s, maps and mods to share. The sharing of code and how-to’s extends to Mobile Development as well.
Of course, there is the usual content, posts and articles about several themes, that now include Living stuff such as Food and Drinks, Movies, Books, etc.
All in all, I hope you find this site useful, entertaining or, simply, enjoyable.
Welcome and have fun. Yours truly,
-Sergio
Banco Espirito Santo – Lisboa (Portugal)
Jun. 2006 – Mar. 2007
Responsible for the Implementation of all Customer Communication Services (Statements, Advices, Confirmations) regarding the activities in the Trade Floor, using the API of Calypso Software (developing Java, J2EE) and integrating with Tibco (EAI), SWIFT and other external systems such as Mailtec.
Being the first area to enter qualification, delivered on time all advices and confirmations completely integrated;
