didn't even paraphrase the rfp checkboxes. wow.

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Just curious.. Why is this bad? I mean, besides the consultant being clueless that is.

Several times, when I got to a project I couldn't handle, I sought out open source solutions for it. Isn't that the basis of open source? If someone knows a solution, then I can use it and if I have a solution, I should put it out there and hopefully someone who needs it can use it.

I just don't see an issue here.

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The issue is mostly being paid a ridiculous sum for someone else's solution.

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While I agree it's a bit ridiculous, it can also depend on how you look at it. The company is paying her to solve the problem, sometimes it's more important to know where to look for a solution than how to do it.

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The level of clue is so minimal here as to be insane.

The specification she's posted (verbatim) appears to be for a server or a client/server pairing. Pidgin is a CLIENT program. (Similar to trillian, it used to be called gaim). 99 percent of what she's asking doesn't apply AT ALL.

Which means to me that she doesn't understand scope-of-work.

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*shakes head*

So some company is paying her the money and she thinks you (at at least, someone other than her) should do the work of determining if pidgin fits their needs?

I admit I'm not a consultant, but that message seems to be expecting you to do her job for her; even a quick look at her list of requirements suggests that pidgin isn't want she needs.

If she can't understand the description well enough to determine this, she's probably consulting in the wrong field.

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DAMN. This person exemplifies the idiocy that went into creating the saying "Consultant: If you're not part of the solution, then there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem."

If you're going to be paid a stupid sum of money to fix a problem, at least read the label on the proposed solution!

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I've always hated it when I end up on, say, an SQL help page where someone goes over the syntax for a SELECT or UPDATE or something extremely simple, and there's this person in the comments saying, "I need select the fields something, else, and whatever from my whatsit table. What is the SQL to do this please."

HE TOLD YOU RIGHT UP THERE CAN'T YOU READ.

I've long been of the mind that it's usually a bit stupid to ask questions. I've just remembered, the other day, that one can ask questions when one is without reference material, but most days I have the entire internet to help. If I have a question, I'll do my research.
I didn't know what a CMS was, so I looked it up. I didn't know how Joomla or Drupal worked, so I checked them out. I didn't have a clue about Wordpress, so I installed it. I've gotten Python and Django installed (though I haven't gotten Django configured, yet).
Mainly: When I find something new, I explore.

She's just not... human.

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