Hooray for Boston! As another commenter said, it's nice to see some Boston action. I moved here in July and am loving the start-up scene here.
I released Zen To Done App last fall (http://zentodoneapp.com), which is a to-do list manager based on Leo Babauta's Zen To Done. It's a simple app that allows you to define a few major tasks for the week and then fit in all the little tasks around them.
Also working on a wine management system that my father wants but no link for that...yet.
I've got to disagree. Libraries are not just a book repository. They are community centers and often the location of free or low-cost workshops. They are places to bring your kids on a Saturday to listen to stories. And librarians are a vast treasure trove of information. Libraries also provide free internet to those who don't have it, access to computers to those without. I take for granted the 3 computers I own with the internet connection that is always available but this is still considered a luxury.
As for losing the print editions or print editions being based on the digital ones, I certainly hope not. I can't imagine sitting in front of my laptop, or holding a nook, or reading on an iPad for hours. But that's my personal feelings and often see people on the T with their ebook readers.
Yea, they really need to emphasize the community center / place of learning aspect. Dale Dougherty from MakeZine was discussing how we might start to including a workshop for making things in a library. If you guys haven't seen http://techshop.ws - I think it's a great model what libraries could incorporate into their services to maintain relevance.
I'm about to do this and am actually looking forward to it. I cut the TV cord over 2 years ago and haven't missed it. There have been days I forget to bring my cell phone in (it's an older Blackberry model). The only thing I've used it for is to check my email and text messaging, all which is accessible on the web.
I wholeheartedly agree that what the editor, Ms. Griggs, did was unethical and copyright infringement. I believe she should, and tried to, make it right. However, after watching the whole debacle through Facebook and Twitter and reading some of the reprehensible things, I was disgusted. The things that were said or written about were very often irrelevant from people who had no dog in the fight. And, there were some things that were written that would never have been spoken. I fear this event goes beyond copyright infringement.
Douglas Rushkoff, in his book 'Program or Be Programmed' has an entire chapter about the social aspect of the web and the mob it/we produce; it's quite a good read: http://www.orbooks.com/our-books/program/
It's not just the 10 character limit but also they disallow special characters (i.e. no exclamation mark). When I developed my web app, I had a wise programmer tell me to allow up to 32 characters with special characters. I don't like being limited to what my password can be. My bank's website is horrible at that.
I have to agree with a lot of the posters here that fixed bids are better than hourly. I've been doing the freelance thing for a while, as well as working for another company, and have a very good understanding at how long it takes me to complete task X.
When looking at a new project, I can usually estimate the time it will take me to within a few hours and then I always add an additional 25%. I don't ever bill a client for phone calls or emails and even when the project is completed will answer emails/phone calls from them to assist. Yes, my prices are a bit higher than average but my clients don't mind paying it and don't mind passing my name along.
When dealing with a new project that I haven't a clue as to how long it will take me, I give an estimate about how many hours I believe it will take me and, if it gets close to that, the client is immediately told and we decided together how to move forward.
My contracts are also pretty detailed. I learned early on that specs that aren't spelled out in a contract have a way of coming back to bite you.
I grew up with that drilled into my head in typing class but, come to find out, now it is not followed in many cases. Most type faces should only have 1 space after the period. http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/spaces.html
It took me forever to stop hitting the space bar twice after ending a sentence.
I've just started working with a recruiter a former manager introduced me to. While I appreciate what they are doing, as jrockway pointed out with playing hardball regarding salary, I often feel that they don't have any interest in me whatsoever. Communication is, at best, sporadic and every time I've been to their office, I hear a bunch of yelling, see paper airplanes flying and general lackadaisical attitudes.
This is my first experience with a recruiter and I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone. It's much better to market one's self than to rely on others, even if they can negotiate a better salary.
Recruiters work on commission, so they're in the same boat as real estate agents and used car salesmen. There are good ones out there, but they're all constantly looking for the next payday. It's like sharks - they have to keep swimming or they die. If you're not likely to get them cash in the immediate future, then you're exactly right - they don't care.
Recruiters are more like Doctors than used car salesmen. They are a necessary evil for some companies who have a problem that they can't solve on their own. People don't like going to the doctor and they don't like going to a recruiter, but sometimes you just have to do it to get on with things. You can self-medicate before going to the doctor and you can go to the online classifieds, but that isn't the answer for you every time. Just remember that recruiters are not all STAFFING AGENCY PEOPLE.
Sorry, but I have to call bullshit on this one. I've been working in the IT sector for more than 15 years and I haven't seen a recruiter yet (whether agency or in-house) that cared that much about any of their candidates ... unless they had a position open at the time and could cash in.
It's not much different from the employer's point of view either. Unless your vacancy is for something which is very low skilled, you're much better off making contacts through your existing programmers or reaching out to local user groups.
I've had recruiters berate me for asking for a resonable salary. One said I was being foolish and that I had "over-exaggerated self tendancies", whatever those might be.
Apparently wanting to be paid $10K more then I was getting working in a supermarket as a drone was rediculous.
Thanks! Yes, it's super rough. No Photoshop magic, just pure HTML/CSS designing (the 37Signals way!).
Really it's designed to just hold the basics. I have some concepts (done nice and pretty in PS this time round) that will be implemented in the coming weeks. Opens it up to a lot more features and looks way more... awesome.
I released Zen To Done App last fall (http://zentodoneapp.com), which is a to-do list manager based on Leo Babauta's Zen To Done. It's a simple app that allows you to define a few major tasks for the week and then fit in all the little tasks around them.
Also working on a wine management system that my father wants but no link for that...yet.
Email is in profile.