[vox] Does this sound...totemo baka?

[Dave Peticolas]

On Mon, 2004-05-10 at 15:08, donw@examen.com wrote:
> I've been running through my mind, coming up with ideas of how to make
> an income after I leave my wonderful cush sysadmin job and go back to
> school full-time to finish off my BA and MA.  I've got money saved up,
> and so don't 'technically' need to work, but I don't feel like finishing
> school up and having insufficient funds to purchase a postage stamp,
> which by the time I graduate, will probably cost several thousand
> dollars.
> 
> One of the ideas I came up with, partially inspired by LERT, is offering
> contracting / consulting / support services to area businesses and schools
> interested in using open source software, covering everything from
> drop-in general replacements for applications running on Windows
> (Mozilla, OOo, etc.), to full-blown Linux setups using LTSP.  I've got a
> pretty decent sysadminning background on both Linux and Windows, so I
> can offer services for both, as well as security services -- things like
> firewalls, intrusion detection, setting up edge-level mail servers with
> virus scanning and spam filtering, etc.
> 
> But, the question remains: Does this sound like a totally stupid idea?
> If not, does anyone have any suggestions as to what reasonable rates
> would be, as well as good places to advertise?  I've got some ideas, but
> it'd be nice to hear back from the local linux geeks as to what their
> ideas are.
> 
> Oh, and you'll see me at more than one meeting a year after I'm not
> working full-time and doing night classes. *grin*
> 
> Thanks-in-advance!

I was able to pick up quite a bit of consulting work
at Guru.com (they were ITmoonlighter.com when I was
using them).

If you've never worked solo, I recommend 'Working for Yourself',
published by Nolo.com which has good tax information for the
self-employed.

dave