Wait, I know this one... To waste everyone's time? :)

Thank you all for your input. I think a lot of you misunderstand. This is not a matter of me being over-ambitious. This is a matter of my project manager saying one thing to bring me on board, then completely forgetting about that once I did. I'm sure it was a business decision, and, honestly, I probably don't have the necessary experience to be considered a senior developer at this time. The fact of the matter is, I wish he would have just been honest with me. I probably would have still jumped on board if he would have come to me and said "Casey, we really want you to come on board and _eventually_ become our senior level developer". And, secondly, not to offend, but I don't care much for some of the condescending responses that I'm getting from this post. A lot of you have provided really helpful input, but a few decided to be patronizing. Listen. I don't claim to know everything about .NET and be the best developer that's out there. I don't have as much experience as a lot of you. I have, however, managed to develop a complete CRM and a billing system for this company in the amount of time that I have been here (4 months). I'm not a rookie. I like this web site, and I appreciate good input, but lets not battle egoes.

I am in Dallas, TX. I was hoping for something closer to 80k/yr (which would have still been a drop from what I was making as a contractor).

I've been doing .NET contract work for about the last 2 1/2 years, focusing on C#, WinForms and SQL Server Stored Procedures. I have just recently been converted to permanent (about a month ago). This position was my second IT contract. The salary was quite not what I was expecting (around 70k), but the company is a start-up with some great ideas, a lot of capital, and a lot of smart people behind the helm. It barely has an IT department, so one of the major appeals was being able to get in on the ground floor. I was assured by my project manager that if I stayed on board, I would achieve Sr. Level Developer status. This also interested me. We have one senior level developer already on board, who has about five-seven years in the industry. He has recently accepted another position with a different company, so I was looking forward to stepping into his shoes, as my project manager led me to believe I would be able to do multiple times. I was being trained on the different areas that I would need to know to take over his position, and I had not received any complaints. As a matter of fact, my manager had asked me to step up to bat and fill in for him at this time, and to quote "make me proud". Well, today my project manager hired another Sr. Level Developer to replace him, so I'm left wondering what happened? Was my project manager simply trying to tell me what I want to hear to come on-board full-time? Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have a full-time position and to be able to work for this company, but, somehow, I feel a little cheated. I may sound over-ambitious. I'm only 25 and have been doing this only 2-3 years, but I've been busting my ass for this company, working late nights (often until midnight or into the early morning hours), giving up weekends and corporate holidays to meet deadlines, and doing all that was necessary to get the job done on time. Any opinions?

OK, so it can be released under the GPL as long as it "references" the outside library, correct?

I have an application that I am considering releasing under the GPL. The application that I am considering releasing references a library that is not covered under the GPL. Can I release my application under the GPL if I reference a proprietary library? Is the LGPL a more flexible option?

It is akin to Google Desktop Search. A user creates a standard set of "schemas" that they can attach to any file or folder. Once the schemas are attached, they can fill them out to provide information about the file or folder. I am actually currently using to organize my work. I created a class library schema and attached it to all of our class libraries so that I can organize and search them by language, purpose, developers, functions, etc. I also created a project schema and put all of the resources for each project into their folders, then attached schemas to them so I could organize them by project leader, due date, subject, etc. I create the schemas and I set the fields. I can perform searches for this metadata straight through Windows Explorer. The thinking behind going open-source is that if I release the code, users can still use the engine, but design the UI to fit their needs. It's being used at a motorcycle wheel shop right now to organize all of their blueprints. The search interface actually shows a picture of a wheel, with "fill in the blank" dimensions surrounding it as their search platform. I will post an article soon.

Let me just relate how I went from shareware/spammer to open source donator. I've always wanted to start a "software company", but I never realized what was involved in doing so. I didn't have a lot of money, but I did have a prototype. I decided that I needed to be creative with my marketing, so I figured that if I posted messages in message boards that seemed like they were coming from a third party, I would gather more attention. Well, I quickly realized that all it would gather is the label "spam". I have a lot of faith in this project, and without sounding too full of myself, I feel it would be a shame if it were not made public. Around the same time, my computer crashed, and a lot of the applications I had on my computer were "borrowed", and I no longer had the original disks (Microsoft Office, etc.) A friend introduced me to Open Office, which I have been hooked on ever since I first installed it. The concept of open source software opened plenty of other doors, and I began realizing that the majority of my "commercial" applications had equal, if not better, open source equivalents. This is why I want to contribute this to the open-source community. For one thing, I don't have the time, money or resources to start a "software company". For another, I want to give my knowledge to environment that seems to be built around innovation and collaboration. What better place to incubate this project?

That's actually a really good idea. Let me ask you this... I was considering submitting a story to a site like Digg.com to draw more attention to it. Would this be considered spamming? I'm not trying to sell anything, I'm just trying to get some interest in it.

First of all, I would like to say (if anybody recognizes this screen name), many months ago I made a really bad decision. I had just written my first shareware application and I was looking for good (free) ways to market it, so I posted a message in this forum to try to advertise it. Of course, I was immediately accused of spamming (which I was). I thought I was just got that out in the air so no one thinks I'm spamming again. As much as I hate seeing spam in messsage board, I'm really ashamed that I sunk to doing that. After much consideration, I've decided to give back to the development community and make my product open-source, but I don't know how to release it. I think my first step is putting it on SouceForge, but after that, I'm really not sure which direction to go. I was wondering if anybody here had any insight on releasing an open-source project? I know (I think) my first step is placing it onto SourceForge, but, after that, I really have no idea how to draw attention to it. I had originally planned to sell and market it, but, after heavy consideration, I decided that my project could be much more if it were released into an open-source community. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank You, Casey.

I apologize. As a Micro-ISV with zero operating budget, it is hard for me to find new avenues to pursue when it comes to marketing. Placing a post in here was obviously a mark of poor judgment. Apologies, Casey.

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