NYCPHP Meetup

[Tim Gales]

There have some cancellations for the Security 
Seminar (given by Chris Shifflet) tomorrow 
evening from 6:00 - 8:45 at the Masonic Hall
at 71 West 23rd St. 
 directions at:
(http://www.tgaconnect.com/web/ssdirect)

This means there will be some (more) extra 
seats available.

I can tell you I was more than a little 
annoyed with one or two people, who from 
the begging said that it would be great to 
have affordable PHP training -- we support 
you all the way (meaning go rent the 
facilities and we will show up) -- and now 
are not going to show.

My initial reaction, in an attempt to turn this 
adversity (of people not showing) into an 
opportunity was to offer discounts.

But after thinking about it for awhile, I 
realized that that idea would only make 
matters worse for training in the future.

People would wait and not commit to coming to 
future seminars hoping to get in for a 
discounted price.

That would make things considerably worse 
in trying to plan and schedule the events
(that has been the major stumbling block 
so far in getting this seminar series going -- 
people not making a more definite commitment 
early enough to get things set up)

So my new idea is 'karma discounts'.

Here is how it will work:
If you use the information you gain from 
the seminars in 3 hours of contribution to 
a participating open source imitative, you 
can receive up to a 50 percent discount on 
the price of admission to the upcoming 
seminar (and future seminars).

The discounts will be ongoing in the 
future -- i.e. you don't have to wait 
until the last minute and see if there 
will be vacant seats (like flying standby 
or something like that).

Sorry about the length of this post, but I 
want to note something interesting about 
karma.

The law of karma, says: `for every event that occurs, 
there will follow another event whose existence was 
caused by the first, and this second event will be 
pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was 
skillful or unskillful.' 

Of course the 'skill' being talked about there is 
really mental (and spiritual) attitude. But it makes  
for an interesting parallel meaning when applied 
to web development -- if you do something 
(create a web app) without the proper skill set 
the following (or resultant) event can be very 
very unpleasant.

One last (thankfully -- I know this is too long)  
remark on karma for the people who are already 
planning to attend (mostly motivated, I realize, 
by trying to help get the training program off 
the ground):

Thank you, and I hope that destiny, fate, or 
whatever you want to call it, boomerangs (as it 
often does) and (more than) repays you for your support. 
I have more than a strong inkling that attendees 
just might receive a lot more understanding than 
they 'bargained for' (it could happen).

To close, let me quote Woody Allen's metaphysical 
words of wisdom:

"Eighty percent of success (in life) is showing up."

Woody Allen.

T. Gales & Associates
'Helping People Connect with Technology'

http://www.tgaconnect.com

P.S. 

Anyone interested in coming to security seminar, 
please contact me off list..

Tim G.