Running a Business

Isawyouoo wrote: if they are unique, sure they can be defined due to their unicity. You're absolutely right, of course they can be defined and identified. But the identifier can add no meaning and will probably look something like 87fad930-be8c-928a-0384feead334 If that's what you want, then fine. You're asking for AI that can look at "any" algorithm and, from the universe of possible "things to do", extract a meaningful name / description. (e.g. find factorials; compute best route between 3 points; find a perfect love match). To do that the AI has to have "Knowledge" of the entire universe and the language used to describe that universe. At this point - and for the foreseeable future - no AI system is that widely knowledgeable. You could build a system that operates on algorithms in a very well-defined sector (e.g. fluid mechanics, perhaps) such that the system could "learn" to categorise code that implements one of a set of predefined algorithms. BTW, you can also - without the need for any AI at all - build a rule-based parser that uses English-like language to say "this is a routine that takes a string and an integer and uses them to return a string and a boolean". Depending on the algorithm you might even be able to further indicate that it determines whether the first [n] characters of input [string] contains a make of car (provided you give your tool a list of every maker of cars). Isawyouoo wrote: it's very easy to examine each instruction and conclude the main idea Sorry, but to put it bluntly, that's rubbish. A high-level language is (almost by definition) easier to extract "ideas" from. At a low level, trying to determine the importance of outcomes is virtually impossible. Loading a number into a register could be because you need that number in the register to do other things with outside of the algorithm itself, or it might be the primary objective of the algorithm. You can have no idea of the intent of the code when examining it at that level, partly because at that level the code is not divided up into clear enough structures to even know the boundaries of the algorithm, and partly because the sheer number of instructions at low level will complicate the task by several magnitudes. As an aside: many, many years ago I had the joy of maintaining a suite of COBOL programmes. The original coder had delighted in the following valid code:

As a freelancer, I wouldn't even contemplate working without Professional Indemnity insurance. It *might* be OK if you're delivering a non-mission critical standalone app and don't *ever* go anywhere near the clients' servers or collect any data. But in practice I wouldn't sleep at night without it, especially as I frequently have to make changes to the clients' servers, manage confidential data, and write systems that are central to my clients' businesses. Never had to claim on it, but that's not the point - it's knowing it's there. I'm in the UK so can't recommend any US providers.

What others have said... plus: * It's become very easy + cheap to post a project on these sites. So the sites fill up with thousands of tentative projects, from buyers who don't really know what they want and don't care much about the outcome. The "real" projects get swamped and unless you check each site multiple times per day, they very quickly end up a long way down any result lists. * "Real" projects tend to be posted by people who know what they're doing and how to do it, and who've been doing it for years. They will have built up networks of people they know and trust, and they either go direct to them or offer "Private" auctions to just those invited bidders. * Auction sites are cheap for small projects. But once you get above a certain size, they can become very expensive indeed, for both buyer and seller. A fixed-price $500 job is worth bidding on - but when you need a 20-strong team for a year, it's cheaper to go down the traditional agency route. * Big projects tend to be started by big companies. They will have HR departments, preferred-supplier lists, suitability requirements, plus a whole raft of legislation and tax considerations to worry about. Picking up an un-identifiable individual via an auction site is so far off their modus operandi as to be unthinkable for them. There's not actually any reason why teams can't be composed of remote-working individuals, even across time-zones. It can be done, if you pick freelancers with the appropriate skills and motivation. In fact it can be an extremely efficient way of working - I've built projects myself as a buyer by outsourcing very specific tasks to developers across the globe. If co-ordinated well, they don't need to communicate and there is zero interruption + distraction. But you need very good specifications! In working through these sites over a long period, I've come across some really big projects. Some were, as above, highly compartmentalised, and I contributed a small cog in a big wheel. Others were very closely managed. Most, though, start off as a small - even tiny - task but then morph - off the original site - into something very much larger. The sites will all have rules about not taking work off-site, and definitely discourage (often with good reason) users from doing this (lack of financial escrow being the main one). However depending on the situation it's certainly possible to do so without infringing T+Cs and I've had long-term clients who originally "found" me through one or other of the type of sites you ment

Who do you want to be in control - the client, or yourself? It also depends on where you are - in the UK you need to be fully conversant with IR35 (personal services company taxation) and it's virtually certain that a client-provided contract will be inadequate. If you're a contractor, you should be a member of your "local" trade association - in the UK that would be IPSE[^] and any decent association will provide sound template contracts. I always offer my "standard" contract (based very closely on the IPSE one) and clients are normally happy with this. If they are reluctant, just tell them that you can use their contract but will need to charge them for an independent contract review. Even if they insist on using theirs and refuse to stump up the review fees, it's usually worth paying for the review yourself anyway - certainly in the UK in the current climate. FYI, my standard contract simply refers to a "schedule" for the actual scope of the project, timescales, and fees. That's again based on a boilerplate but customising the contract and schedule normally takes only 1/2 hour or so, even on a larger contract.

This is very informative site. Really so helpful.

You must try Google SEO, EMail Marketing? Or maybe find something on the Fiverr! Finding a client might be difficult but I'm pretty sure SEO could solve the purpose. Why not give a try before the current project ends.

We have been using Regnow for more than 10 years without any problem! But now they are closing the service as it was aquired and moving everything to share-it