Aileen Apolo

I was at Google’s first ever Dev Fest event in the Philippines last week. The guys from Google were great as I was expecting, of course, showing all their stuffs from Open Social APIs to App Engine and Google Maps. But the entire event was downed on its knees by one major technical problem - Internet connection was out for almost the first half of the show.

Yes Google guys, that’s how it always been like on this part of the earth.

Hooray! It’s finally up and running.

After weeks, oh no, make that months of planning, and waiting, and drafting, and coding, and getting squeezed in between client projects and all the valid excuses in the world, my portfolio website, jogsters web design + development is finally up and running!

Special thanks goes out to my friend Karl for helping me with the design and to Tin for the great logo! I’m really good at making websites work, but when it comes to design, its always end up on an oh help me God scenario. Best thing I’ve drawn so far is the stick man version of the 3 Little Pigs flying on a balloon together with Dumbo that actually looks more like a pole of bamboo.

Now it really makes me wonder how I managed more than a year of freelancing without a portfolio site. Quite a painful memory, I must admit. Imagine having to copy paste all those information on my emails to prospect clients?! Haha, not again!

OK, now that the portfolio site is up, takers, anyone?

The past few days have me heavily desiring to have that magical wand as advertised on the Disney Channel and wave either my client or his reported problem gone. For good. But too bad for me, fantasy and freelancing don’t cross paths so I was left with no other choice but to get my hands dirty and fix the problem he’s reporting.

But the problem is that I don’t think the problem he’s raising is actually a problem. Well, at least that’s the case for me and the 3 other people whom I asked to try and test the feature that the client is reporting to be faulty.

So how do I fix a non-existent problem? A product ‘error’ that I am almost sure is caused by his own ignorance. An ID-Ten-T-Error as they call it. Below are some points that I learned from this experience.

ID-Ten-T Error (also seen as ID10T and ID107) is a term often used by tech support operators and computer experts to describe a problem that is due to the user’s ignorance instead of a software or hardware malfunction. It is a masked jab at the user: when ID-Ten-T is spelled out it becomes ID10T, l33tspeak for “idiot”. (Though the usage actually predates L33T as a part of geek culture.) It is also known as a “Ten-T error” or “ID:10T error”. (from Wikipedia)

1. Give your client the benefit of doubt. The problem might not be appearing on your or your testers’ end but that doesn’t automatically qualifies the client reported problem as a fake. As a developer, you have to accept the fact that there is no such thing as a perfectly made, bug free software. Mighty bugs could still get through no matter how thorough you test your programs. As a consolation, consider it your lucky day to have beaten that one in a million odd of a bug getting through your infallible testing procedure.

2. Ask the client as much details as possible. Unless you have psychic powers, you won’t be able to solve the problem until you get to know the real score. How did the bug appear? Did the client do anything wrong that provoked the error? Ask as much questions as you need to in order to get the steps that would allow you to reproduce the error on your own machine. Screenshots would also be great!

3. Provide the client a documentation a.k.a. manual. Manuals are great in making paper boats during stable times but could serve as the client’s lifeboat on rough times. If the project is quite big and complex (I personally define this as projects which takes me more than 2 months to finish), then you might want to consider adding manhours on compiling a manual on your initial quote. Or if you want your client to love you, add a manual on your deliverable as an extra free service. Whatever the case, you just have to remember that manuals take time compile so you have to weigh-in first the benefit of making one against the efforts you’ll have to spend on making them.

4. Double check their computer’s setting. This is the most common culprit for the ID:10-T error. And this is actually the star of this post being the reason why my client was experiencing unexplainable bugs. Don’t expect your clients to be as technically savvy as you. That’s why they hired you in the first place. But sometimes, people could be so unnerving. You give them instructions in clear, plain English and yet they still don’t get things right. Exercise extreme patience on cases like these lest you’re ready to burn bridges with the client you’re dealing with.

5. Don’t forget the warranty clause on your contract. It’s my standard policy to provide all my clients warranty against defective work. However, I try to make it clear to my client that defective works are limited to errors attributable to my coding mistakes. Any errors outside of that should be charge accordingly. If you don’t do this, you will find yourself with the burden of having to support your client for the rest of your days here on earth (if that doesn’t scared you enough, contact me and lets celebrate Halloween together).

6. Charge support/maintenance fee if you must. The problematic work that I did for my problematic client is actually just an add-on feature to a previous web app which I did for him. And I only charged him a day’s worth of work since, well, it’ll only take me a day of work to finish his job anyway. Sounds fair enough. But then, the unimaginable thing happened. His job kept me occupied for 2 more days thus greatly reducing my income from that work. Extra work wouldn’t matter if I’ve caused the problem as stated on item #5. However, I didn’t. Sometimes, letting my clients know in advance that I’ll be charging them extra for the support is enough to filter out valid support requests from ID:10-T type of errors thus saving me time that I could instead use on making my other clients’ projects better.

Client’s have the right to request support for the services which they paid for and service providers have the obligation to make sure that their clients walk away with smiles on their faces.

For the past year that I’ve spent freelancing, I’ve learned that clients love the assurance that they have someone to run into should things go amok. After sales support is the magnet for repeat works and referrals.

But of course, assurance should come with a price. I guess it’s pretty safe to assume that my clients don’t want to work with a dead hungry developer. So don’t go fuming mad with the client if they keep on giving you ID:10-T errors. Help them solve it. Guide them. And don’t forget to bill them.

This is I think the most common question I am being asked whenever I find myself talking with a newly met stranger.

And trust me, it’s one of the hardest to answer without finding myself being bombarded with a string of follow up questions.

I came from a society where payrents constantly remind their children “to study hard so that they could get a good paying job where they could work until they retire and live happily ever after”. Sounds sweet and too utopian right? Yeah, it sure is.

So me telling people that I, technically, don’t have a job is a sure way to raise their eyebrows. They always expect that question to be responded with the standard spiel that is “I work at <insert Fortune 500 or NASDAQ listed company here> as a <insert job title here>”.

But I’m a hard headed, stubborn, wayward son who loves challenges and adventures that for once in my life, I decided not to heed to my payrent’s golden mantra with the heavenly wish of not putting into waste all the resources they pour in for my 15 years of formal education.

After more than a year of being confined on cubicle farms , I called it quits and decided to face the wild, wild real world armed with a pea sized brain, my dependable laptop, a not so reliable but expensive broadband connection, savings enough to put myself on a full course instant ramen meal for the next 3 months, and courage as expansive as the rapidly declining polar ice caps.

A year and a month fast forward after I made that nerve wrenching, heart thumping, and pee inducing decision, guess what, I am now happily blogging besides the fountain of life up here on heaven after a long bout of malnutrition and emotional depression down earth.

Kidding.

I’m still alive. Fortunately. Though I’m still a few lifetimes away from that ultimate goal of bringing Google down on its knees, I’m really happy that I survived my first year. Beginners luck I guess? I hope so not. But as Mr. Wise Man puts it, nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.

Though I really haven’t accomplished anything yet that would qualify me for a monument, nor even some cheap key chains, its nice to acknowledge the fact that I learned, and am still learning, a lot of priceless stuffs as I journey along this road less traveled. Stuffs which I wouldn’t have learned have I stayed sitting inside the cubicle farm. And its a fun experience actually.

So please people, no more raised eyebrows. This is 21st century. Gas costs an arm and a leg these days. And just because I stay inside the house all day long doesn’t mean I am constantly pigging out on box after box of choco, chips, and coke while channel surfing.

I’m on a full course instant ramen diet, remember? :p

Welcome guys and I hope you’ll find this site both entertaining and, oh well, educational.

A blog site to keep my non-existent fans club informed of my howabouts. Somewhere where I could share my experiences as a self-employed, 20 something, web professional hoping that I, and in any case, you, won’t repeat them. And most importantly, a place where I could promote my IT Consulting services, Jogsters Solutions, for all the search spiders to see.