I prefer to listen to the gentle hum of fans, wind rustling leaves, the chirping of birds outside my window, and whatever tunes are playing on the computer. Wait, what, you have to sit in a cube farm? *shudders*

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development | Do you need a specialist DotNetNuke developer? Plithy remark available in Beta 2

I used to test applicants with a 10 or 15 question multiple choice before the interview began. The test was designed in such a way that a basic knowledge would get you 25%, competent was 50% and above, and if you got all correct you'd have to be pretty special. It had questions as simple as 'what is the correct way to declare an array' and ones like 'which of the following four table relationships best describes a many-to-many relationship'. After the test was complete you could see the level of confidence with people. If they didn't score that well but were confident it was just because the test didn't match their backgrounds, that was OK. If the didn't score well and had no idea why, then you knew that they were chancing it. I had experienced developers complete the test professionally and calmly, and I think they were happy that the person interviewing them actually appeared to have a clue, rather than some jockey from HR. Because if you get interviewed by a person with no clue, chances are when you start work, you'll be surrounded by incompetent people who all easily slipped past the interviewer. You would be floored to know how many people get past recruiters with absolutely no programming idea at all. Generally it's people trying to switch languages and pick up experience on the job, or perhaps helpdesk people trying to move themselves up the food chain. I once asked a guy what he liked most about vb.net (back when it was new) over vb6 and he answered that the 'todo list' at the bottom was pretty neat. I surmised he had opened the IDE once and looked at it, and this was the sum total of his vb.net experience. I think interview tests are more important than meangingless questions like 'where do you see yoruself in five years' (answer: not working for you, hopefullly) and 'what's your biggest fault?' (answer: I haven't yet managed to find a way to avoid going to interviews)

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development | Do you need a specialist DotNetNuke developer? Plithy remark available in Beta 2

Let's say you get paid 10,000 per month. You've decided to spend 1,000 per month on a car. So the guy asks 'how much weekly'. You respond '250'. He says, OK, puts it into his payment plan. Only 250 / week is 13,000 per year, not 12,000 as you thought, or, 1083 per month, not 1000 of your budget. Multiply the extra 83/month by the leverage of financing, and all of a sudden you've got a contract in front of you with a vehicle much more expensive than you had planned. And he says 'you said $250 a week' - which you did.

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development | Do you need a specialist DotNetNuke developer? Plithy remark available in Beta 2

Google 'confessions of a user car dealer' - It was an article published (I think) at 'Edmunds.com' or somewhere. One of the journalists went and worked as a dealer in three different lots for a month or so each, and wrote a diary of his experiences. Your account sounds exactly the same as the ones in those articles. The reason you got passed around was to try out different 'closers'. These guys use different techniques on people - sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Some abuse people, and they feel intimidated and sign up. Some try to be your friend, so you sign up to help them out. Of course they are trying to rip you off- the thin margins, intense competition and difficult trading conditions mean they will try and take anyone for a ride who looks like they will fall for it. I wouldn't feel upset or bother following it up with anyone. Just take your business elsewhere, and anywhere that gives you the same techniques, just walk out without a further word. Or, you can give your phone number on a card, walk out and go home. They'll be on the phone, no problem at all. Last time I bought from a used dealer I strung the negotiations out over a week and got the price reduced by about 20%, plus got the vehicle serviced and some repairs made. I even got a full tank of fuel in the deal. The reason is I decided on the vehicle I wanted, then told them the price I wanted. They refused of course, but in each step between the price they wanted and my starting price, I extracted concessions. In the end we met about halfway but by then I had added the aforementioned service, minor repairs and the final concession was a full tank. You've just got to take it seriously, and not personally. Realise the salesman has a wife and kids to feed, and he's just playing the game to feed them as well as he can.

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development | Do you need a specialist DotNetNuke developer? Plithy remark available in Beta 2

You'd probably enjoy the writings of Jack Welch, former CEO of GE. One of his big items is getting people to talk frankly, and hold people accountable. This means rejecting completely mindless corporate double-speak. If someone isn't performing, say so and get them to perform or leave. That's what you're there for.

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development | Do you need a specialist DotNetNuke developer? Plithy remark available in Beta 2

I saw an interview with him last week - he said his restaurant business will do a 10 million pound turnover this year. I think any reasonable person would class that as success. Anyone who has ever managed or been managed will also tell you that level of success is not due to yelling at people. However, to denigrate him, his methods and his success based on a couple of TV adverts is not very intellectually honest. I'm not a fan of the 'hells kitchen' TV series (and I get the impression neither is he) but on Kitchen Nightmares, when he is in real businesses, with real people and real financial problems, you can tell when he gets enthusiastic about the possibility of success for someone. The f-words and swearing are advertised heavily for the TV show - it's a gimmick to drum up controversy and get the punters in. Certainly I would not watch a show if it was just an hour of profanities, but Kitchen Nightmares is a fundamental study into how to be successful in business. It's about taking it seriously, not pretending to yourself and getting over your pretensions of grandeur and producing a product, profitably, that people want to buy. What he does is force people to get serious and stop leaving in dreamland, as most of the people he goes to help in 'kitchen nightmares' are in some sort of self-congratulatory state of denial about their business, their skills and their life direction. The people he swears and yells at are usually performing badly, ripping off the owner or refusing to take a critical look at themselves. I've never seen him belittle someone who didn't deserve it (at least, from the editors point of view). In fact I have seen him tear strips off restaurant managers who belittle their own staff. If you watch him, he does good cop bad cop - making sure everyone knows he is serious and won't take any crap from anyone, and then zeroing in on the people who are willing to put in the effort, praising them and pushing them forwards. Not all the businesses he goes into go on to succeed - I would suggest that most of these are due to the owner being unwilling to change, rather than any failure on Gordon's part. Anyone who is interested in managing people and running a profitable business would do well to watch the show. If you're offended by a bit of swearing. Personally, going back to the OP - the softly softly approach works for the most part, but usually in large businesses who can afford to be inefficient for the sake of avoiding conflict, but I think a bit of 'buck stops here' a

It's an interesting table. Funnily enough you are within a couple of percent of what I charge / think I should earn if I were to get a job. Now I'd like to see a spreadsheet on how I can convince people that a $20/hr outsourced developer is not comparing apples with apples. Incidentally, do you advertise your rates or just save them up for when people ask?

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development | Do you need a specialist DotNetNuke developer? Plithy remark available in Beta 2

I've spotted a bug in your code; should be : if (Sphincter.Relax()) { Anus.Expel(_poo); } If you contract your sphincter, you're going to get into a recursive loop and pop an eyeball trying to expel. Just sayin' :)

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development | Do you need a specialist DotNetNuke developer? Plithy remark available in Beta 2

If you do it right you can delete a whole day from your life. My brother had one of his birthdays 'erased' by leaving the USA on the day before and arriving in Australia on the day after. So if you've got an important deadline, just arrange to fly from the USA to Australia, and when you land say 'sorry, couldn't meet the deadline - that day did not officialy exist in my life' :)

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development | Do you need a specialist DotNetNuke developer? Plithy remark available in Beta 2

I've always worked on the premise that nobody minds if you have links in your forum signature, as long as you don't go (a) over the top and (b) actually contribute something to the ongoing topic at hand. On my blog I always delete comments that just say 'hey thanks, really useful - visit my 15 links here'. This person definitely falls into that category of (a) too many links, and (b) not actually contributing anything.

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development | Do you need a specialist DotNetNuke developer? Plithy remark available in Beta 2

well I thought it looked very spammy so marked them all as such.

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development | Do you need a specialist DotNetNuke developer? Plithy remark available in Beta 2

I'll play. Honour is contextless by itself - used as a shortcut for a larger meaning. To Honour something is to do as expected or asked. You honour your debts when you pay them off. You honour your parents when you act in a way that they would expect you to.

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development | Do you need a specialist DotNetNuke developer? Plithy remark available in Beta 2

When I was 23 I had the following: - home mortgage - 2nd loan from my parents to carry the part of the house cost the bank wouldn't lend - car loan - student debt (in Australia the government lends you the money and then takes it back through the taxation system) - virtually no savings 4 years later it was all paid off and I had enough cash for a deposit on an inner city apartment. How? Well, I bought my house in a good part of town even though the house was the worst in the neighbourhood. I rented the spare room to help pay the 2nd mortgage and eventually sold it and made a modest profit, but crucially, paid back all my loans. I also packed up and went overseas to work in the UK and the USA as a contractor, which not only gave me invaluable experience, allowed me to travel to a lot of great places, but also gave me the opportunity to make pretty good money, some of which I spent, but some of which I saved away on a forced savings plan. My advice to people in their early twenties : save lots of money. Lots. I had no TV at all, begged, borrowed and stolen furniture. I had an old hand-me-down computer. I had friends around to my place for parties rather than go out. I played sports that don't require lots of equipment, and I didn't travel anywhere or go on holidays until I was 25. I also studied a post-graduate degree that my company was willing to pay for - it not only enhances your future prospects but also keeps you busy and not out spending cash. All my friends made fun of me at the time for my lack of television and ratty old couch covered in blankets. To a lot of people it might sound like not much fun, but a bit of suffering while you are young and can take it will alleviate a lot of pain while you are old and can't take it. I've now travelled to over 25 countries in the world, have a house by the beach and run my own software development business from it. All this stemmed from two main goals: save lots of money and never develop a spending habit, and go to where the work and money is, even if that is on the other side of the world or the other side of town. Oh, and always get a place to live smaller than what you want. It will be cheaper and you don't need that extra space and you'll only fill it with crap you don't need.

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development Plithy remark available in Beta 2

With the increasing amount of sophistication that phishing scammers are getting, it's only a matter of time before they have better customer service than the financial institutions they are impersonating.

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development Plithy remark available in Beta 2

I've wanted to make something like this for security. Ever since I had a plant nicked from my front yard. The culprit lived across the road and was silly enough to put it in his window, but still I had to go to court because he was adamant it was his all along, despite photographic evidence. If I had motion-detector video recording and infra-red based lighting, the matter wouldn't have gotten past the defence lawyers desk... And if the lights had come on as soon as the perpetrator entered the yard, then I suspect the plant would never have gone missing either...

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development Plithy remark available in Beta 2

Hey I just returfed my 20m2 of grass as well. A couple of weeks of good thunderstorms and now it looks lush enough to lie on. I dug all the old grass and weeds out and laid all the turf in one day. Now there's some work that is harder than programming for you.

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development Plithy remark available in Beta 2

Dude your soul is slowly being eaten away with cynicism. Escape while you can still smile at people.

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development Plithy remark available in Beta 2

Personally I would avoid any type of selling where you have to basically product spam your friends and make them buy out of guilt. My wife refuses to go to any invitations for tupperware, lingerie, candles, cosmetics - anything. The pressure to buy something so as to not appear rude uses up precious friend equity, so she politely declines. You can only guilt your friends into buying something once, perhaps twice, before they won't be your friends anymore because you used all your 'friend equity' up. You start second guessing any invitation from those friends thinking it's just a trojan horse to get you into buying something from them. Money is easier to make than friends. Leave your friends for socialising and do your business with strangers. If I had a couple of hundred dollars for every time someone has tried to amway me I'd have made much more money than they ever did. For my 2 cents, get your wife into one of the following depending on her skillset, temperament and capital base: - some type of online business, whether it be a mini dot com or ebay - property investing (most of the time will be analysing listings and talking on the phone to agents trying to find a good deal) - some type of financial trading, whether it be commodities or stocks, options or whatever. Buy her some books, send her on a course and start small. - some type of childminding / housework business that she can do at home (maybe washing uniforms for sports clubs, cleaning cars, walking dogs etc) - outsourced bookkeeping / tax work from a local accountant (might only be for a month or two before tax time, but might pay well) Or any combination of the above

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development Plithy remark available in Beta 2

Well I feel the need to add my 2 cents to this, although I'm sliding even more OT. It might be the case that things like the DNN framework have changed people's minds about how long something should take to deliver, but for too long the software industry has talked about re-use only as a lofty principle. The truth of the matter is that the industry has changed permanently with both open source software, outsourced labour and a worldwide audience. There is no use in complaining about it or fighting with it. That's the way it is, and there never will be a large amount of respect for software developers craft - unlike a finely made piece of furniture, the workmanship will never be obvious. Just over 100 years ago all cars were handmade, unique and virtually one-off. They were often beautifully made and allowed owners to indulge their requirements down to the last custom tobacco pouch. Henry Ford came along, perfected production line techniques and changed that industry permanently. Software has finally reached it's production-line moment and probably will never be the same. To stay relevant in this brave new world many developers will have to find themselves a new niche and a new way of making money from software. It's not fun, can be frustrating and definitely makes you wish for a simpler time when you had 6 months to system test and get every last bug, and you could afford to wait for 4 years before implementing a new platform. There will always be cashed-up companies who will order completely customised software, just as Bugatti can find customers for it's $1m+ Veyron - but most companies can make do with a Ford pickup and a few modifications. But, like early automotive pioneers, most companies are left scratching their head after another $500,000 and 2 years development left them with another failed project. Meanwhile their competitor is using an cheap open-source derived system that seems reliable, fast and does the job. They start to feel just like the owner of an expensive but broken-down car must have felt when one of those inferior, cheap and nasty Model T's went sputtering past them with a cheery toot and a wave.

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development
My latest project: Auctions in Australia Plithy remark available in Beta 2

It's not the age of the developer that matters, it is the enthusiasm level that counts. Question is not how old are you, it is how enthusiastic you are! Problem : as you get older, keeping your enthusiasm up is more challenging. But it brings in mind an old joke: There is an old bull and a young bull in the top paddock. The farmer accidentally leaves the gate open between the bulls and the cows paddock. The young bull sees this and gets very excited. He hops around and says to the old bull 'Let's run down there and have ourselves a cow!'. The old bull finishes munching his grass, looks up and says 'No, lets walk down there and have the lot!' Age and experience will win over youth and exuberance any day :-)

Bruce Chapman iFinity.com.au - Websites and Software Development Plithy remark available in Beta 2