Subcontracting from home
-
Hi all, As my son nears his first birthday I've been looking at work I can do from home. I've had an offer which is right up my street (ecommerce website dev), well, pretty much - I've not had too much to do with the design side of the sites I've worked on before but now I'll be delivering the whole package. So I'm just wondering, does anyone else here work from home? Any great advice? For the first few weeks I'll probably be even more sleep deprived than usual (Mikey still has two feeds a night) as getting Mikey into daycare for a couple of mornings a week is proving a nightmare so I'll be burning the midnight oil I guess :). Also, as we've just emigrated I don't have the capital for a lot of dev software. The pc we've bought came with XP home edition - is there any real reason (I don't mean irritations, I'll live with those) why I won't be able to get by with this? Also, are there any free .NET IDE's anyone can recommend? I've always been in the fortunate position to have my employers worry about this sort of thing before. What about SQL Server? Is it even legal to use a free SQL Server IDE when SQL Server is an MS product? Hopefully I'm not breaking any rules asking these questions on CP or offending anyone :).
A mum and loving it!
Microsoft really wants you to use their tools :-) Take a look at the EmpowerISV and Partner MAPS programs. For very little $$$ they will provide you with everything that you need to develop M$ centric apps. There are significant conditions/requirements to doing this, but they do assist you (sometimes too much) and want you to succeed. HTH, G
-
Hi all, As my son nears his first birthday I've been looking at work I can do from home. I've had an offer which is right up my street (ecommerce website dev), well, pretty much - I've not had too much to do with the design side of the sites I've worked on before but now I'll be delivering the whole package. So I'm just wondering, does anyone else here work from home? Any great advice? For the first few weeks I'll probably be even more sleep deprived than usual (Mikey still has two feeds a night) as getting Mikey into daycare for a couple of mornings a week is proving a nightmare so I'll be burning the midnight oil I guess :). Also, as we've just emigrated I don't have the capital for a lot of dev software. The pc we've bought came with XP home edition - is there any real reason (I don't mean irritations, I'll live with those) why I won't be able to get by with this? Also, are there any free .NET IDE's anyone can recommend? I've always been in the fortunate position to have my employers worry about this sort of thing before. What about SQL Server? Is it even legal to use a free SQL Server IDE when SQL Server is an MS product? Hopefully I'm not breaking any rules asking these questions on CP or offending anyone :).
A mum and loving it!
Strength to your arm! I was retrenched 3 years ago and decided to quit the "real world" and work from home - it is the best (and the worst) thing I have done so far. Some tips: 1. Dress for work - don't jump into work with your pj' 2. Have coffee first thing 3. Do not give out your home number to clients - have a cell phone number 4. Limit yourself to a normal office day - you are actually more productive at home (no travel or talks around the coffee machine) 5. Remember to take breaks and get out of the house 6. Get a cheap ASP.Net host to test your stuff on 7. Stick with tried and true development methods 8. Remember to bill your clients on time - also remember to collect on time - cash flow can be a problem 9. Honor the week-end (OK at least one day of the weekend then) 10. You tend to work a lot harder when working from home - watch the stress levels. Good luck!!
-
But VS2005 has a built in web server, doesn't it ? Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++
Be careful--VS 2005's web server is very limited. IMHO, you can't do any real development work on it. David Veeneman www.veeneman.com
-
Hi all, As my son nears his first birthday I've been looking at work I can do from home. I've had an offer which is right up my street (ecommerce website dev), well, pretty much - I've not had too much to do with the design side of the sites I've worked on before but now I'll be delivering the whole package. So I'm just wondering, does anyone else here work from home? Any great advice? For the first few weeks I'll probably be even more sleep deprived than usual (Mikey still has two feeds a night) as getting Mikey into daycare for a couple of mornings a week is proving a nightmare so I'll be burning the midnight oil I guess :). Also, as we've just emigrated I don't have the capital for a lot of dev software. The pc we've bought came with XP home edition - is there any real reason (I don't mean irritations, I'll live with those) why I won't be able to get by with this? Also, are there any free .NET IDE's anyone can recommend? I've always been in the fortunate position to have my employers worry about this sort of thing before. What about SQL Server? Is it even legal to use a free SQL Server IDE when SQL Server is an MS product? Hopefully I'm not breaking any rules asking these questions on CP or offending anyone :).
A mum and loving it!
-
Be careful--VS 2005's web server is very limited. IMHO, you can't do any real development work on it. David Veeneman www.veeneman.com
I've never used it, and I probably won't, but it does represent some sort of starting point for someone who doesn't have IIS and doesn't want to spend too much at the start. Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++
-
I've never used it, and I probably won't, but it does represent some sort of starting point for someone who doesn't have IIS and doesn't want to spend too much at the start. Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++
It's great for someone who is just starting with one of the Express editions. I tried using it for some simple projects when I started working with ASP.NET, and I ran into its limitations pretty quickly. But certainly, if you don't have Win XP Pro (i.e., IIS), it's not a bad place to start. David Veeneman www.veeneman.com
-
Megan Forbes wrote:
does anyone else here work from home?
Yes, since 1999. All our staff work from their homes. My wife also works from home, few couples could stand to be around each other that much but we've found it works for us and had many years to perfect it. It's tricky to give advice on, it's so different for everyone, but generally speaking you will find that you work more hours than you would in an office and get more done. Although that's compensated for by taking swaths of time off when the weather is good and your between major tasks. I've come to give up the concept of set hours, if I feel like taking a break I take it. It's great being able to do the grocery shopping on a week day morning when no one is in the stores and avoid the traditional busy times. It's absolutely ideal for me, I have no one managing me, but I have to do the managing myself, learn my patterns of laziness and avoidance that can almost be subconscious and keep my focus on the tasks at hand. Your standards of dress and appearance may suffer, some people recommend dressing as if you were going to work at a set time each day, I don't think that's adapting properly to the situation, but you do have to have a bit of a mindset that you are going to *work* even if it's just to another room in the house. You don't get the same amount of physical activity, it's easy to slip into a pattern of getting dangerously little excercise so make time every day to get out of the house and do something physical and stick to that like glue. If you don't you will ache everywhere and have the stature of a very old person quite quickly. Working in a traditional office job you actually do get a fair amount of excercise every day, even if it's just getting to work and back. Working from home it's easy to go from the bed to breakfast to the "office" and barely have walked more than 100 meters the entire day. If you are a highly social person you must make time for that as well, you're giving up a lot of social interaction working from home and need to compensate in some other way. -- modified at 12:06 Friday 19th May, 2006 I just realized I forgot the most important thing about working from home, since you can work when *you* want to, make a big effort to recognize when you are getting stuff done and when you aren't. By carefully managing your time so that you are only working when you are productive and stop working when you are losing concentration or making m
Yes, it worked just like me too... but i donot have any experience working at home with kids bcos i am still single :-O :rolleyes: --------------------------- http://www.idlsol.com
-
Hi all, As my son nears his first birthday I've been looking at work I can do from home. I've had an offer which is right up my street (ecommerce website dev), well, pretty much - I've not had too much to do with the design side of the sites I've worked on before but now I'll be delivering the whole package. So I'm just wondering, does anyone else here work from home? Any great advice? For the first few weeks I'll probably be even more sleep deprived than usual (Mikey still has two feeds a night) as getting Mikey into daycare for a couple of mornings a week is proving a nightmare so I'll be burning the midnight oil I guess :). Also, as we've just emigrated I don't have the capital for a lot of dev software. The pc we've bought came with XP home edition - is there any real reason (I don't mean irritations, I'll live with those) why I won't be able to get by with this? Also, are there any free .NET IDE's anyone can recommend? I've always been in the fortunate position to have my employers worry about this sort of thing before. What about SQL Server? Is it even legal to use a free SQL Server IDE when SQL Server is an MS product? Hopefully I'm not breaking any rules asking these questions on CP or offending anyone :).
A mum and loving it!
-
Hi all, As my son nears his first birthday I've been looking at work I can do from home. I've had an offer which is right up my street (ecommerce website dev), well, pretty much - I've not had too much to do with the design side of the sites I've worked on before but now I'll be delivering the whole package. So I'm just wondering, does anyone else here work from home? Any great advice? For the first few weeks I'll probably be even more sleep deprived than usual (Mikey still has two feeds a night) as getting Mikey into daycare for a couple of mornings a week is proving a nightmare so I'll be burning the midnight oil I guess :). Also, as we've just emigrated I don't have the capital for a lot of dev software. The pc we've bought came with XP home edition - is there any real reason (I don't mean irritations, I'll live with those) why I won't be able to get by with this? Also, are there any free .NET IDE's anyone can recommend? I've always been in the fortunate position to have my employers worry about this sort of thing before. What about SQL Server? Is it even legal to use a free SQL Server IDE when SQL Server is an MS product? Hopefully I'm not breaking any rules asking these questions on CP or offending anyone :).
A mum and loving it!
You are going to need a copy of XP Pro. for starters. As previously mentioned, you can't do IIS development on XP Home without hacking it a bit. Maybe you can check with your employer... do they have an MSDN subscription? Or can they spring for a copy of XP Pro and or dev tools in the deal somehow? You never know if you don't ask. If not, then I would start with the MS Express Editions of VS 2005 and SQL Server 2005. http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/default.aspx They will have everything you need to get up and running in the short term. If you need more IDE grunt, order/download a [free] 180 day trial of VS 2005 Pro, during which you can develop your website, and in the process be saving up to shell out some $'s for a legit version to then deliver your final product at the end of your dev cycle. All depends on how you are being paid... on delivery, at certain milestones along the way, or by hourly rate etc... If you are really desperate, you can do the same with your OS... download a 180 day Windows 2003 Server trial direct from Microsofts site. In some ways, if the customer is going to deploy to this OS, then you might do better to be developing on it too! As for the working from home setup, I've been doing it for about 8 months. I have 4 kids ranging in age from 4yrs to 13 yrs. It can be tough during school holidays to stop the distractions, but I'm lucky cos my wife is a [predominantly] a stay at home mum. She works 1.5 days a week, during which time I have my 4yr old at home and I just try to manage as best I can... thank heavens for dvds! The hardest things i find, is just the discipline thing. Some days I do well, other days not so good. But that's just life, and the way it is. Some days in an office you have both good and bad days productivity wise. The only catch when working at home is it's easier to have that bad one, if you let it happen, becuase it's a much less rigid/structured environment. Try to get into a routine if you can, I find that works well for me. I also like working late into the night/morning when the kids are in bed. My wife will be relaxing watching some TV or reading and I'll sneak off to my office - it works for us. :o) Overall though, nothing beats working from home. I love it. Wouldn't trade it for the world. Best of Luck.
-
Bob X wrote:
leppie has xacc.ide
Thanks for the plug :)**
xacc.ide-0.1.3.14 - Now with syntax support for PowerShell
xacc.ide-0.1.3.13 source code**
If you are not happy with the built in web server in VS 2005, try out this one. http://ultidev.com/Products/Cassini/Cassini2/AboutCassini2.htm It might fit your needs a bit better, but for local dev the ASP.NET version should do fine. Good luck!:) charl
-
Nishant Sivakumar wrote:
If you plan on doing ASP.NET work, be aware that there's no officially supported way to install IIS on XP Home.
Ah, thanks Nish - that might count as a little more than an "irritation" then :doh: [edit]BTW Nish, just to make sure - does "not officially supported" mean the same as illegal, or does it simply mean my life could become more difficult? [/edit]
A mum and loving it! -- modified at 23:23 Thursday 18th May, 2006
-
Microsoft really wants you to use their tools :-) Take a look at the EmpowerISV and Partner MAPS programs. For very little $$$ they will provide you with everything that you need to develop M$ centric apps. There are significant conditions/requirements to doing this, but they do assist you (sometimes too much) and want you to succeed. HTH, G
last time i checked it was $400 to get all of the software you need (and then some) as a developer under the ISV program. The only thing you are commited to is showing that you have actually built something to sell within 12 months. Levi Rosol Blog By Levi[^]