1. Freelance computer software support & hardware repair services, web programming technology.
Practicing in the Washington D.C. area ( Maryland, Northern Virginia, & the District of Columbia ).
Numerous clients, private and corporate. Proud to boast of a 100% approval rating from all clients to date.
Practice currently covers many technical solutions specialties, among which are:
MS Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 & XP admin / support; MS networking, TCP/IP;
Computer virus detection, system cleaning. Java 2 programming.
SQL programming. MS Office software support. Device & PC repair.
Cable installs. Hard disk & file system maintenance. Web technology.
Pentium PCs, laptops, network rewiring. Tech support: in person,
by email, & by telephone. Email systems. Linux. Consultation on
PC equipment procurement & open source sw. JavaScript apps & certificates.
Standard rate for computer services: $ 39 per hour - plus, if a hardware repair is contracted for, the sales & shipping cost of parts needed and authorized - as of 11/23/04.
(Supersedes 12/01/03 rate of $37/hr & 7/31/01 rate of $35/hr & 9/01/00 rate of $30/hr.)
[ Subject to limitations. Exact fee charged subject to negotiation, as appropriate for equipment serviced and other circumstances.
All advanced programming (e.g. Java, Perl, SQL) starts at $ 45 per hour, as of November 23 2004.
Some services at lower rates: appliances & electronic devices repaired at $ 28 per hour + price of parts needed; cf. email support rate below.
For all services but email support, travel time to site is added to total charged, at $10/hr, for Washington DC area travel. -I will work at e.g. Baltimore MD sites, if, also, round-trip rail travel cost is prepaid. ]
- Inquiries on rates/terms welcome! (-Tech support questions require advance fee.) by email to hess1@bigfoot.com
[ Email support is charged at $ 36 per hour for time spent preparing/sending reply or replies, usually about 10-20 minutes. ]
[ Please note that all price quotes are good for only up to 3 months after the estimate of
rate is communicated to the customer. Hourly charges as stated here are subject to change without advance notice. ]
Transcript of currently held certifications (Brainbench).
Gross business income per quarter for the freelance consultancy of Russell Hess
in the previous 2 1/2 years, as of April 2003.
Graph shows overall tendency to growth; 2nd quarter of 2003 is on the order of the last three quarters shown.
( - Please note: I operate on (& have) low or zero debt - unlike many firms through the '90s. The earnings shown are before profits but are 100% real income. The figures I graph here are literally significant, in the simplest of real terms and in the manner of their appearance. )
The Foundation Trilogy as satire - Isaac Asimov's still-distinguished original Foundation novels (the ones written after 1980 do NOT count!) contain a wealth of character portrayals of politically satiric intent...
Lovecraftiana? The Ancestry of Cthulhu Mythos gibberish, a rummage sale from primeval pre-Lovecraft eras, of possible precedents for
H.P. Lovecraft's bizarre & uncanny use of nonsense syllables.
9. Money and brains: (A multi-Currency Converter, a super info resource: http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic )
New: (A calulator of the values of old money or old monetary figures, taking inflation into account: http://www.westegg.com/inflation )
10. Java, HTML, JavaScript, Web pages & browsers & the Web:
- Java...
'Materia': generates manual info on a given Java Class, by the mechanism of 'self-reflection' using java.reflect; useful if your manual is unavailable or outdated. Download as a ZIP archive, or as all the other individual files (which are all necessary), and place the files in the same directory, with java.exe and javac.exe in the PATH. [Note: This utility is for Windows/DOS, not UNIX or LINUX.]
When run with correct parameters, will generate and open a text file with complete information on the Constructors, Fields, and Methods of the Java Class specified.
- JavaScript...
'XBMgraphics' - a JavaScript sketch program using the old X-bitmap format ( now universally implemented, but not in MS Explorer < 5, which may not render your work but will generate the graphic file code properly - Navigator > 3 renders this format A-OK ). Create your own thumbnails right here! (in monochrome) 100% free, see page code for freeware / shareware terms.
- Also New: 'XBMgraphics in 16 x 16 pixel format demo/freeware/shareware.
Astronomer Royal data list (biographical sketches & info summary), in honor of the Royal Greenwich Observatory's closing on Oct. 31 1998 ...R.I.P.
New, July 2003: What was the earliest bird well known in the fossil record? Why is a bird a bird? 'Hesperornis Vs. Archaeopteryx' tells in detail what the answers to these questions are, and why.
Gosling Hypotheses: speculations suggested by closely observing young Anser canadensis. Archaeopteryx's wings, goose dietary (and more, when there is time to add it.) New, July 2003: 'UFOs, Cold Fusion, and Probability' - what the nature of science is, at its best.
New, November 2004:A Properly Savage Fairy TaleFor Good Bad Little Girls Who Are Boys (READ TH' FINE PRINT!) - fiction, but bearing some resemblance to reality. No apologies offered, but redemption possible.
About the Zapruder film of President Kennedy's assassination... New Oct 13, 2000. -completed Aug 2001.
Tell the Webmaster! ...not your life history, but all suggestions and comments are welcome. Email link to <hess1@bigfoot.com>.
( . . . you are guaranteed not to be put on a mailing list nor subjected to email ads - except my signature block of course. )
This website's twin....is discovered to be defunct/removed, as of May 19 2003... horrid news, but it (and links to it in UpSky2) will be restored....so this link will not work: . . . . 9 of the above categories with different content, at 'UpSky'.
(In case you wonder, "What happened to 5 (or 6, 7, 8) ?" - - see F.A.Q.)
( "Initial italics: ~~ Why?" )
UpSky2 being updated... November 23, 2004 and October 24 in 2004; & March 3, May 20, July 12-13 & 14, and December 20 in 2003; & September 22 and August 12 and June 14 and January 2 2002 ... also November 2 & 25, October 14 & 18 & 23, September 19 & 27, August 4 & ~ 15 & 21, July 24 & 30 2001. ( - Frequently updated also, in 2000, and in 1999.)
'Icarus', down to earth - Less exalted and more negative :
Life patience and fools! Beating dead horses! Ineptitude verse! A cure for hair problems...! ...and more!
The logical end result of the current Spam junk-e-mail scene, is email services resembling current systems for transmitting secure data:
To send to someone will require not only the right email address [ analogous to a 'public key' ], but also the correct Subject line code [ as a 'private key' analogue ].
...Email systems would be, in this nightmare scenario, designed to filter out all email with subject lines not equal to ( for instance ) "iD:Qs0196s24QQz3". (...more about this possible future...)
[ . . .Watch this space, more to come soon . . . Links to be activated:
( Future Editorials to be placed here. If any. )
