Jeff Atwood founded stackoverflow.com after leaving his previous position at Vertigo Software. He also enlisted the help of programmers moonlighting from their current jobs. He saw his idea through to fruition and it has shown promise as we are all benefiting from his efforts. A lofty goal was achieved with the right parameters (Jeff's...
I'm in the trade of developing business web applications. They are mostly internal-use, sometimes with a partner zone, but rarely available to the public internet. They are applications that help companies run their business. For some time now I have an idea bugging me - why not use Flash for them? Up to now it's been ASP.NET + AJAX, wh...
There is a strong case out there for companies who are experiencing scaling problems with their current architecture to simply spend $$$ on cutting edge hardware to achieve the performance and scale they require. In most cases I have experienced and read about, the business case for software re-architecture never stacks up against the b...
When it comes to getting feedback from clients on larger development projects (e.g. spanning months), I use a bug tracking system (I actually developed my own, called BugWeb if you want to Google it), and that works wonderfully. but on smaller projects (e.g. < 1 month), email tends to be the tool of choice, more-so the client's tool of...
What payment schedule do you use for small projects (e.g. < $10,000)? This is the structure I use: 20% deposit before any work starts 70% payment when project gets to 90% completion (I know this based on the project schedule) 10% final payment on acceptance document sign-off So, for example, on a $1,000 project: Payment 1: $200 (d...
I've got a product something like a SEO analyser in a more enterprise level. Target is mostly medium to big sized companies. Which business model is better? SaaS (Software as a Service) or classical desktop application. SaaS comes with some great advantages such as : Easier to update the backend system (quick fixes, UI changes, inst...
I'm a business guy teaching myself some programming for two reasons: 1) I'm the only non-coder at a small software company; the only person who can't get under the hood in some useful fashion. I'd like to feel more empowered to help and I want to be better able to explain and debate our technical decisions. 2) I'm getting hooked on p...
If I was a webservice, such as Twitter, how does creating an API for people to access my data help me? I can see that they are extending your service to areas that you might not have the resources to expand to (in a way extending your own service), but is it worth all of the bandwidth and infrastructure costs associated with giving acces...
Is it OK - best practise wise - to use the second layer to redirect the user? For example: public static void ForceLogin() { HttpCookie cookie = HttpContext.Current.Request.Cookies[cookieName]; if (cookie != null) { if (Regex.IsMatch(cookie.Value, "^[0-9]+\\.[a-f0-9]+$")) { using (EibxDataContex...
I've seen this blog post : Why you should support Linux and Mac? and it kind of changed my mind about the subject. I'm developing an application (something like a SEO tool, to analyse a website and recommend stuff) in VB.NET. Theoretically I can support Linux and Mac users with Mono. Does it really worth it? And how painful is it to ...
Hi all, If you were going to start building web sites as a consulting business on the side -- keeping your day job -- and you also had a toddler and a wife, what frameworks/tools would you pick to save you typing? Any language. I'm looking for a productivity superstar stack that won't tie my hands too much when I have to update the...
For example, I fix Mr. Smith's computer. How do I get the Statement of Work first? In person I'd just write it up on the Internet I don't know how to do it. I don't want the person to say, "You didn't fix so and so." Also, do you make folks pay first? I thought I'd just use paypal. I'm afraid that I might not be able to fix the pro...
Hello, I am developing an app for which I need a more experienced developer to test my code, and also for UI & design work. I personally would hope, doing it all by myself, over the course of the next 3 months, to ultimately make about $50K a year for myself, granted that I can do all the testing and UI work for myself, which I cannot. ...
As a programmer working in an insurance office, I have a nasty little management hierarchy which is making programming much harder. At current, our IT department rates a three on The Joel Test, which worries me. I'd like to fix this, but management enforces an insanely aggressive release schedule. Basically every project is due "yeste...
Set up SB starter kit and works fine [ON MY BOX]. Before going any further with customization, I decided to publish to my web host (www.zen.co.uk) Navigating to the site gave me Parser Error Message: Theme 'Standard' cannot be found in the application or global theme directories. Source Error: Line 51: Line 52: ...
When building a commercial web application, what are the factors that go into the decision of a revenue model? How many users are necessary for an advertising-supported application? What demographic factors of the user base makes them more attractive to advertisers? Conversely, when deciding on a subscription price, what factors go in...
I'm building a web application (Java/Flex) that I hope to one day sell, but am aiming for a private beta to start with. I've been looking for some resources that explain the mechanics of processing a user's registration and payment, and then making the web app aware of that user's credentials and entitlement, but have yet to find anythin...
Duplicate of: What's the best online advertising Network and Deciding on a Revenue Model for a Web Application I have a site I'm currently building and I want to make it free, but support it with advertisements. I see a lot of sites using Google's Adsense program and others using Ebay & Amazon. But I noticed with StackOverflow, it looks...
I am currently working on a beta strategy for my mISV. I know Joel wrote that you need about 100 beta testers for a one person shop, and 100 per employee in the general sense. Is that number reasonably accurate in your experience? That number seems high to me based on previous experience. In our last beta at my day job, we had about 75...
how do you prepare a good software project presentation? How much balancing between the scripted run over features and a naturalistic use of the software. Especially to avoid something like a blue-screen of death on live TV. Thanks ...