I used to live on Fagelstraat (the street quoted in the article), directly opposite this garage. Within 4 minutes you can walk to 2 different supermarkets which are open 8am-10pm each day.
I've used one of these services (Gorillas), and while it is amazingly fast with pretty decent pricing, I'm not convinced its filling a crucial in densely populated Dutch cities, due to already easy supermarket access.
Agree though that there is a difference between a pyramid scheme (Herbalife imo) and a fad (Groupon) though they have similar growth trajectories.
There are lots of startups that could arguably be considered fads e.g. snapchat, it's yet to be seen whether or not it's a novelty or solving a basic human interaction problem as Facebook did.
1) Stop drinking alcohol (after about 3 weeks I find my thinking is a lot clearer and more I'm interested in learning/working).
2) Change your work location - drastically if you can but often the next room will do.
3) If you're working alone find a space where you can work with others in the room, even if the tasks are completely separate. (or vice versa)
4) Get those big tasks that weigh on you out of the way. Realize how much better not having them around will make you feel, and that should be enough incentive to get them done.
5) Tutor somebody.
6) Stop thinking about work/study all the time, clear your head by listening to stories, I like radiolab from WNYC because it's not too tech. (Something like this would be in lieu of meditation which would probably be better long term.)
7) Wake up earlier.
8) Reward yourself for tasks. For me this used to be ciggies, which then transitioned to cups of tea.
9) Start your day with small easy tasks. If you're thinking about a productive day in terms of 10-12 hours you are likely scaring your sub conscious. Success is 20 minutes of work early in the day. Make that your goal. Everything that comes after is a bonus, and fun.
10) Switch careers (this is what I eventually did)
I use a 5 bay Synology Nas with three 3TB drives in it atm in what Synology call Synology Hybrid Raid (easy auto set up/1 disk fault tolerance).
The software on it is highly configurable and you can install third party addon's, plus I use the web station as a local web server which makes it easy to test mobile dev.
It's a little expensive but generally considered to be the best in that range (in terms of hardware/software/storage). The 1GB Ram is enough to stream to multiple devices, even if the server's doing some other stuff on it's own (downloading content or whatever).
If that's overkill in terms of space or price Synology make smaller ones with the same software.
Definitely this. It's very low risk, and you have the skills to make quick money on smallish jobs. You won't be earning what you are worth but that's not really the point if you need the cash fast. People posting ads on these sites are primarily looking for an indication that you fully understand the requirements, so when responding lay out in detail what the job entails then pitch why you can do it and the timeframe/cost.
These sites are crowded with non-native English speakers that often pitch for a job with something like "yes i can do", so putting in a little work up front will get you good hit rate.
I haven't really looked at this stuff for a while (and I'm no expert save from hiring a few people) but last time I checked odesk.com and freelancer.com were the main ones.
Not good money and yeah it's traditional, but fast and fairly reliable/predictable.
I've used one of these services (Gorillas), and while it is amazingly fast with pretty decent pricing, I'm not convinced its filling a crucial in densely populated Dutch cities, due to already easy supermarket access.