Freakonomics author Stephen Dubner says magazines can learn from air-conditioner companies -- which confuses me a little, but it's something about when independent writers should get paid by magazines for the work they do. While I'm not sure I understand the analogy, I do know that for the past 17 years, Hammock enters into its payment system the invoices of writers -- and photographers -- "upon acceptance," not "upon publication." Publication dates can be months after the photo is shot or article is written and accepted, but that shouldn't have any impact upon when the contributor gets paid.

We don't often have the kind of major assignments that involve the long lead times that Stephen describes in his blog post. However, on a few occasions, we have contracted with independent editors and videographers for such projects and set up a relationship that takes into consideration the need to "advance" such individuals for work they are being commissioned to do.

Being fair makes a lot of sense to me.

Always an exception to the rule: I double-checked with our accounting department to make sure our policy adhered to the post I was about to publish. It does. However, on very, very rare occasions, I was told, in the tsk-tsk sort of way that accounting department people are known for, an invoice may disappear into thin air. (Translation: It gets stuck on an editor's or art director's desk.) Again, that's very, very rare. And even more rare now that this post has be made.

I hate to say it, but today is Patrick Ragsdale's last day as director of hackology at Hammock Inc. His actual title was something other than that, but I could never remember the official one. As Patrick touched about everything in the office that plugged in -- and knew how not to get shocked while doing so -- he'll be missed.

We've known for several weeks that he's leaving to take a job more focused on his lifelong love of tying string between Campbell soup cans -- or something like that. During the past few weeks, Patrick has helped us put together the support resources necessary to keep our technology up and running and we feel confident that when we arrive at work next Monday, everything will boot up properly. We'll be announcing other tech-related developments in the coming months, as well.

We wish Patrick all the best. We'll miss you. But we'll keep up with you on your blog.