I work for the Dutch Government. A regional waterboard in the greater Rotterdam area. Its called Hoogheemraadschap van Schieland. Founded 751 years ago by Count Floris the Fifth. There are just around 170 employees and I sort of take care of their computer-related problems. I'm the helpdesk person that also takes care of some network-related issues. I do this 4 days a week from 7 am 'till 4:30 PM, the 5th and 6th day are spent on some free enterprise, the 7th is a family day.

The free enterprise: in 1999 I started a small (really small) company called Bee-Data. I do wholesale in personal computers, assembled to customers specs (If I can live with that!). I also sell Network servers made by Compaq, however these are usually sold in a turnkey configuration with a max of 10 clients. I usually do the whole circus including cabeling and configuration on my own. Since I'm a Netware CNE I go for the the one and only true server software made by Novell, OK Unix is okay, but hey...you get crummy fingers from editing all those huge command lines. Another part of the business is support. Support hardware wise, installed software and the complete network. This brings in a better yield since the computer market has gone ballistic the last couple of years. However the low prices the systems are sold at doesn't mean you get a-Grade hardware or that you get full compatability, and these are issues someone should shop for if he plans to upgrade in future. Try getting a windows 98 driver for 2 year old sound board that has no identification of the manufacturer on it, or howabout getting a bios fix for a motherboard with nothing else on it than 'Manufactured in the Peoples Republic of China' and 'Bob's Computer Deli' just went in to bankruptcy so getting support on the NoName NoQuality NoGuarantee motherboard you want to stick your new 50Gig harddisk into is a lost cause! You end up buying a new NoName NoQuality NoGuarantee motherboard at Hank's Computer Shack and can await the next forthcoming surprise attack some piece of software or hardware will render it outdated! Computers are like cars, the faster you wanna drive the thicker the wallet should be. And believe me, it makes a difference, but hey if you just want to play a game on the thing you need another kind of machine than the one someone needs to make music on or do some serious desktop publishing on.

There's no competition when there's service included! Just imagine your fully installed computer delivered and installed at home...that's what I call service!

I don't sell to the general public because:
1 they want a low-down basement bargain price and no matter how well I try to explain the difference between an Intel BX chip set and a BXTOO made by some asian basement chips factory that also makes electric blankets in the next room.
2 They expect me to be there when the system hangs because they installed some illegal hacked copy of MicroSoft Office 2000 on their computer and blame it on the hardware and not on the collection of outdated crap they downloaded.

A picture of my old home office on 18 sq.ft. (1999)