[AccessD] Freelancing

I definitely hear you on the NoSQL front, and wish I had enough money to buy
a few more GBs of RAM to make my elementary tests more real-world, but I
don't, so I can't. The technology remains fascinating, and it makes a ton
more sense than hard disks.

On your first point (You will never make money building one-offs), I also
agree completely. In Canada, the established law is that subject to a
written contract specifying that the ownership of the code goes to the
developer, in which case should you devise, for example, an app for
veterinarions, then the code belongs to you, and not to the vet who
constracted you to write it; hence you are free to turn it into a
mass-market app (well, that assumes that vets are a mass-market, but you get
the point). Such an app, in terms of development cost and potential returns,
is vastly smaller than, say, eHealth (that's a Canadian term, and is vaguely
equivalent to Medicaid or whatever they call it in USA); basically it means
that every medical item on your list is stored in a massive db, including
all your X-rays, CT-scans, MRIs, previous phyisicians, etc., and that it is
all obtainable by both your current physician and also the Department of
Health (that would be provincial not federal; there is no federal Department
of Health in Canada; but that in turn causes needless complications: a very
popular thing to do in Canada is move from Newfoundland to Alberta, where
jobs in the oil industry abound, and transferring your medical records from
one province to another is non-trivial. It can be done, but it take time.

Since I am not a citizen of the USA and haven't bothered to explore the
legalities lurking therein, I have only the Canadian model from which to
work. Here, the client must specifically include a clause claiming ownership
of the code; failure to do that means that the code belongs to the
developer, who may freely sell it numerous times; but to be fair, if it were
a hair-salon app, it would be a tad rude to sell it to the hair-salon across
the street -- still legal, but rude.

I think there are at least a couple of USA lawyers who visit this list, and
I would be most interested in their perspective.

TIA,
Arthur

On Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 2:51 PM, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote:

> There are a number of areas, which look very interesting in which to spend
> new time. The problem is finding the time.
>
> First; You will never make many money building one-off products for a
> client. Building and marketing a product multiple times is much more cost
> effective.
>
> Second; everything is going web-based, especially if you live and work in
> any major urban centers. So it is time to learn everything you can about
> HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript > JQuery, JASON etc. There is so much free code,
> information and inexpensive services out on the web that it can be amazing
> how fast an application can be hacked together, with little knowledge.
>
> Third; converting apps to display and run on SmartPhones is a great idea.
> There are a host of free or cheap application that will allow you to do
> that. In addition, there are a number of great frameworks out there that
> can
> fit anyone's needs. (They will of course have to be hacked for any complex
> or specific designs...I like VS ASP.Net for building boilerplate code).
>
> Fourth; databases can no longer be just SQL types. The new map-reduce or
> NOSQL databases are quickly replacing systems where over a 10 million
> pieces
> of data that require routine searching. Most of these new databases are
> free
> or very inexpensive.
>
> Fifth; backend server technology is also changing as well as the DBs.
> Checkout NODE.js...it is incredibly fast and this allows you to leverage
> your JavaScript skills.
>
> Sixth; hosting your or having your client's hosting their own databases may
> not be a good idea as cloud hosting is coming into its own. There are deals
> like one TB of data for $8.00 a month, including full backups. If you are
> up
> to it you can build, you own Cloud, as drives are very cheap now. (Example:
> 2TB = $89 for an external drive...I just pull them apart and stuff the
> drive
> into the server.
>
> There are lots of opportunities out there for programmers, even old codgers
> like myself, but the learning curve is real steep though not
> expensive...this is something to do for guys that say they have retired.
> ;-)
>
> Seventh; I would recommend do not try to do it all on your own. One fool
> working alone is only a third as effective as two such individuals are.
>
> Jim
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Tony Septav
> Sent: Friday, August 26, 2011 12:26 PM
> To: 'accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com'
> Subject: [AccessD] Freelancing
>
> Hey Susan
> Your article was an eye opener.
> I have been producing database applications for over 20 years. No ego being
> inferred but I figure I have produced  quality products that are 99.9%
> bullet proof (many are still in use today). But I feel I am going the way
> of
> the dinosaur. Since the 2008 recession I have found that most companies no
> longer want to spend money to save money (no matter want you do to try and
> convince them of such). To be honest, on my end, the market is drying up. I
> am kind of looking at leaving ACCESS and starting to develop customized
> iPad/iPod (whatever) "Apps" for clients. If that doesn't work then I will
> be
> buying a "Weenie" wagon and hanging out at the beach. Not a boo hoo
> scenario, just reality.
> --
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