12.08.07
Posted in General Site Stuff at by jason.michael
Whether you are developing an application with PHP, Java, or Ruby, applications always take time to develop. I think many customers of custom programming underestimate the time required to build, test, and deploy new applications. They have no concept of how much time it takes to put a program together. Often, I have seen programming firms underestimate their time, stating to the customer that a project is small and should not take long to do, yet they move forward in denial, getting the project done, but not truly charging the customer for the number of hours the project really took. This practice is a black mark on the industry - it doesn’t help the programmers get paid for the time the really spent, and the customer is kept in the dark as to exactly how much time the project took, and thus go from project to project expecting to only pay X amount of dollars for X amount of little time for a smaller project and not find satisfaction in the quotes.
I had a customer this year whom I grossly underestimated my time on a project. Actually, I had two of these customers, each battling for my time. I started working on the first customer’s project, thinking it would be done in a snap, only to find that the logistics of the project were more than just one person could handle. I ended up having to pay for some additional workers, which ate up all my initial funding…. The customer wouldn’t pay me more, and I was running out of money as a business, so I had to take on additional small jobs just to keep my electricity and Internet connection going. Then the second customer, whom I thought just needed a simple Joomla install with the exact content of their current website installed, turned around and provided new content and wanted not just a few changes, but TONS of changes made to a template they purchased - changes that went far beyond what the template was designed for. I ended up learning how to trick out Joomla to do just about anything I wanted it to do in the process, but a 2-3 week project ended up requiring 6 months - no profit in that…
The customer kept making remarks, early on about how more time would need to be used sometimes to get maximum results and get a smaller profit, but honestly, I lost all my profit on his little project in the first 16 hours. I have logged over 400 hours on his site now, and unfortunately the contract I have in place only allows me to charge him $200 for the whole project - 50 cents per hour, if even that.
So as I continue to write code, I am finding that it is only fair to not underestimate and not be in denial about time and the cost of time on one’s business and the business of your customer. If you think you can get something whipped up in 15 minutes - honestly, every minute adds up and it could very well take 20-30 minutes, plus 15 more minutes of testing and bug fixes. That 15 minutes turns into 45 - 60 minutes, quickly. So if the project might take an hour, just multiply it by 3, just in case for your estimate.
Also, when estimating, put every single detail down in paper as to what you’re expecting to do for the customer. You might not estimate down to the detail level for the customer to see, but at least keep a running tally for the overall estimate, then multiply this by a percentage based upon how familiar you are with the type of project. If its something new, just multiply by 300%. If you don’t get the job, maybe its best. If it is something you’re familiar with, still factor in some unexpected curveballs the customer will throw at you - if they’re too severe, dont be a nice guy - tell the customer it will cost extra, and have them pay it up front, or at least half the amount for the new work done outside of the original, agreed upon spec. This will make sure the customer thinks things through before throwing you every pitch they have (curveball, slider, knuckleball, change up).
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12.17.06
Posted in General Site Stuff at by jason.michael
I don’t know who to complain about this, but I haven’t been able to use Yum to do updates because tons of the files had the wrong damn signatures on them, and nobody does #@A%$A to fix it!
In my opinion, if they’re so damn concerned about security, then they would get this SIMPLE assed thing fixed, rather than leave it broken for years so that people can’t even update their systems updated and left with security holes!!!! I have servers that I can’t easily upgrade the kernel on and don’t have any physical access to. Maybe if I did get updated to Fedora Core 4, it would alleviate some issues, but I doubt it! I saw some comment from one of the FC team just apologizing for signing stuff with the wrong signatures, but nothing was going to get done to fix it! Its as if they really didn’t give a care - it happened and that was that…. sorry… GRRR..
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12.15.06
Posted in General Site Stuff at by jason.michael
In putting this game together, I am finding that there is alot more to do than just writing all of the code. Planning is of the essence. I think that my game will be good since I am building upon an already established foundation of game play that is very simple and hard to go wrong with. Nonetheless, I have done some reading and noticed a very graphical MMRPG builder that is available called Realm Builder, which allows you to create your own MMRPG realm, and it uses a high-end graphics engine. I am very impressed with that they are doing and how they are running the business. Their standard version of the software is only $65, which gives you all the tools you need to get started to build your game - very affordable! Plus 3D items can be purchased or built with your own 3D modeling software - another impressive feature. There are no royalties or hidden fees. These guys are just too good to be true! So I think after I’m done with this PHP project, I might spend some time working on a realm with their program and see how it goes. By early 2007, they expect to have the professional version completed, which allows you to use your own server for their game server software - a definite plus.
Nonetheless, our PHP project will be concentrating on a nice simple HTML based MMRPG that can be played from the comfort of your office computer, without having to worry about shutting down your system when the boss comes coming in, or worry about all the sounds of sword fights and bloody gore being heard down the hall, or over the cubicle walls. The Realm Builder site is a great reference for just fundamental terminology and features that MMRPG games are expected to have. In fact, I had this idea of what they call a “pet” that I would incorporate in this game, which is basically a thing that follows you around and helps you do battle - like a guard dog, and was definitely going to include that in the game. The twist I was going to make is that the guard dog can be converted to a bad guy, by the other bad guys, so you have to go out and find a new pet to help you do battle.
If the pet is a robot, my strategy was to allow the player to either buy a new one with credits, repair features on it, add features, or find parts and build it themselves, but also with the help of a manul that they would need to find or purchase. I think in the early stages of the game, I’ll just launch the game without pets robots, but introduce them later to help do battle.
Anyway, I have a few more things to study, and am going to continue working on this. I hope to be able to get some more ideas out there and release some code, soon.
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11.23.06
Posted in General Site Stuff at by jason.michael
If you’re like me, which I hope you’re not, you have all of your sites hosted on a server that you’re co-locating, and have hundreds of accounts setup with abbreviations that you have to look up in an excel file, to keep everything straight. Well, my system bit me, as I spent 2 hours trying to figure out which account was tided into the domain for internet-computer-helper-mi.com.
The two accounts I *thought* were for possibilities for this domain, I thought I had narrowed it down to one or the other, several times, till I finally logged into my shell account, and renamed the index.php to index.phpz, and realized I was still getting the default page, even though the index.php file was renamed.
Anyway, I figured out which account was really tied into this blog, and I can now start posting to it.
For all of you in the USA, I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving - I know I will.
-Jason
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