What it boils down to is that the usefulness of public libraries depends on how willing you are to adjust your reading preferences. In high school I didn't have much money, but I read constantly. I just read whatever was available at my local libraries and discovered a lot of great authors I would never have otherwise heard of.
Making the best of whatever resources are available was one of the most important things my Mom ever thought me. Whether for cooking, reading, or software development it always proves to be good advice.
The simple answer is that ideas are a dime a dozen. Really. The power of an "idea" isn't the concept, it's the execution. And there's a long, long road from idea to finished product; that's why the overwhelming majority of "ideas" never make it.
Think of it this way: you have an idea. Now how will you make it happen? Can you raise the capital? If you can't, then what value is that idea to you? And remember that if it's really profitable, there are probably already 1,000 people who have the same idea and are trying to find funding just like you are.
Contrary to popular belief, no one pays money for ideas. What they will (sometimes) pay for is the idea, plus a *detailed* plan of how it will be put into action, along with market research and analysis, income projections, etc. Even then, most investors will prefer to give their money to someone who's already done all that and is generating income, if only a little.
Even here on Slashdot, you can often see comments to stories that go "I had that idea xxx years ago, I should have patented (?) it, etc..." The difference between that/. poster and the person who made the news is that the latter actually executed it successfully.
I can't personally understand why parents want to filter the internet for their children
Well, I am a parent and the reasons are not always what you'd think. First, note that my 3 year-old doesn't do any more with our computers than type his name and those of his friends (hey, it makes him happy:-) Even so, his mother and I have already agreed that when he needs a computer, it will be in plain sight so we can occasionally glance over at what he's doing. I personally don't think filtering is worth the effort.
That said, children vary in their responses to different things. I tried watching Miyazaki's Spirited Away with him. Yeah, I read the "scary for kids" warning, but I figured I'd gauge his response to it. He was terrified. By what you ask? The scene where the child's parents turn into pigs. He's not afraid of pigs, he thinks they're funny. But he was terrified that his mother and I might turn into pigs like in the movie. Make sense? No, but he's three years old!
In real life, we already have issues with him being influenced by kids whose parents (if you can call them that) apparently have wildly different ideas about childrearing than we. So he already knows a few words he we don't want him using and has made a few statements that would be pretty nerve-wracking if he actually knew what they meant. We can handle stuff like this because it's out front. If he were learning this stuff online it would be much more difficult to figure out the source and decide how to handle it.
Most parents' response to the net is similar to how they view books or movies: I don't want my son watching "Saving Private Ryan" for quite a while because I know how many nightmares he'll have. But if he happens to see the occasional bare tit on TV, no big deal. He'll just giggle and forget about it.
The fundamental issue is that of not exposing a child to material that he's not yet ready for. And this decision should rest solely with the parent. Our job's hard enough as it is; for those who want to use it, filtering is just one more tool.
Me 2. Oddly enough I have never tried playing MP3s through my stereo. I can hear artifacts listening to them (recorded at 320kbps i think) through headphones, so I figured after going through a good amp and decent speakers, it would be even worse. Only reason I even want to put CDs on HD is that we have over 500 CDs and it can be hard finding a particular one since my wife refuses to keep hers in any order.
BTW cool site. I haven't checked out DIY audio online since I built a custom designed preamp to drive my Rotel 971 about 5 years ago. I didn't even know people were still building audio gear. Nice to see that they still are:-)
you could build a little embedded Linux system with a swish GUI
One reason that comes to mind is that no one (IOW not enough to matter) really cares about "plays more formats." How many people do you know that play anything other than CD, DVD and MP3?
Another reason is marketing and distribution. Consumer electronics typically has extremely low margins so you need to be selling huge numbers of these things for it to be worth your time. Now factor in that the popular (Sony, Kenwood, etc) manufacturers aren't stupid (just slow) and they are probably already working on products like this and they already have better access to the distribution chain than you have and you may understand why it's only being done by a few.
Slim Devices (Squeezebox) looks like they have a great product. Good enough that I'm considering buying one for my basement reading room, but unless they have great marketing, I don't think it'll be in Best Buy anytime soon.
Now, if you could identify a niche that would allow you to price the product high enough to make money off a small number of customers (and I have been toying with this idea!), you're on to something, but I think the main reason is that it's very difficult to compete in consumer electronics.
I used to get tons of free trade publications, but I had to cut down as I never had time to read them all. This is the current list.
Embedded Systems Programming: It's shrunk from its former glory and most of the good content is online, but it's still a good read. And it's free
Electronic Design: Good EE trade publication and free.
IVD: A trade rag of the In-Vitro Diagnostics (medical device) industry. Good read for understanding what's happening in the industry and improving my knowledge of the biochemistry behind the code I write.
Communications of the ACM: The ACM's (Association for Computing Machinery) monthly magazine. Well written articles, but sometimes too theoretical for me.
ACM Queue: a "developer" magazine by ACM. Very readable, a lot of useful and interesting topics generally more immediately relevant to the software developer than Communications
ACM Transactions on Embedded Systems: not really a magazine, but a quarterly report on research in the field. Sometimes interesting, sometimes waay too abstract for me to even get the point.
Smithsonian: Somehow we got a free copy and decided to subscribe. Excellent magazine!
Backpacker: mostly read for suggestions of things to do/places to go visit.
Art News: lots of nice pics that occasionally inspire me to get off the couch and produce some crappy art. Good articles on art history and current happenings in museums/galleries around the world.
Let's wait until we have the same kind of experience making these products before we hold them to the same standard.
Well, by that logic no one should sue aircraft manufacturers either, as airplanes have only been made for about 100 years. But yet it happens. You can't cop out of liability by saying "my product is too complex for me to build properly." That's crap and you know it.
If it can cause the same kind of damage as a physical product, then it should have the same liability as a physical product.
If your word processor crashes and you lose all your work, it's unlikely that a lawsuit will recover enough in the way of damages for it to be worthwhile. When the fuel management computer in your airplane causes a fire and kills passengers, you bet your ass there will be lawsuits flying.
No, it's not! Compilers, HTML tools and wave soldering machines are all examples of technologies that eliminated or reduced the need to manually do skilled work. The fact that the debate currently centers around outsourcing doesn't change that. It's the same "problem" in different guise. That we're now seeing technological solutions to a lot of the work being outsourced reflects that.
This is not a "critical flaw" in capitalism. Rather, it's the way capitalism should work. Knowledge is not a fixed quantity. As we encode more knowledge and ability into machines, we will continue to make advances and create new technologies that only humans can accomplish... until those are in turn automated and so on. There is no reason to suppose that human progress is stopping any time soon. Until (Vinge's?) Singularity occurs, this will be going on for a very long time. The unfortunate thing is that there is always disruption at the edge of technological advancement and this is where a more socially-conscious government could be of help.
What will people do when there is nothing to do?
They'll probably do the things they *like* to do as opposed to doing the things they *have* to do. Believe it or not, this is a *good* thing.
you still need a vending machine repair person, but you don't need _ten_
No, you need a hundred. See, now that a single vending machine is cheaper than ten people to dispense the same produce, more stores want those vending machines than could have afforded the ten people, so there ends up being a net gain.
Because automating things is what we do for a living.
Exactly. I asked a similar question during the last big Slashdot debate on outsourcing: Why is it OK if I write code that eliminates the need for 100 people and so increases a company's bottom line, but not OK if I outsource those 100 jobs and have a smaller positive impact on said bottom line?
The silence in response to the question was deafening...
Figure out how much it has cost to develop/will cost to deliver, double that, there's your price
My first job was at a tiny company with less than 10 employees that sold I/O boards and embedded controllers on the retail industrial market. The general rule I learned was take 5x parts cost and consider that your base price. Next, look at the competition and adjust that base in the right direction (our niche was a low-cost specialized I/O supplier) so we came in a little lower. Unless it was a custom job, we never considered development cost since the stuff that was expensive to develop also tended to have expensive parts and sell higher volumes so it averages out well.
The 5x parts cost worked well and covered parts, overhead, and a hefty advertising budget and generally allowed about 20% net profit. It also allowed us to offer quantity and reseller discounts and still make tons of money for the owner.
For delivery of 1000 units of specialized hardware, I'd say these guys are at about the same level. Pricing is one aspect of business that I've always found interesting, but can never find enough "rules of thumb" on.
If you can't meet the contract's terms, the license won't be your real problem.
So true. There are two major issues here: a) Do you have an enforceable contract? For delivery of 1000 units of something to a customer I've never dealt with before, I want my lawyer to look over the purchase order/contract and tell me it's OK. The lawyer will tell you whether or not they can back out of it after you've bought parts/assembled boards and leave you screwed and how to fix that. Lawyer's cost will probably be less than $200 for something as simple as this.
b) How will you deliver 1000 units? If you have sufficient cash on hand/credit this is not a problem. If you don't have cash, start asking friends/family for loans. Look at getting more credit cards.You should already have lines of credit with some suppliers; if not, start now. Once your lawyer has said OK on the contract, you should take the attitude of "we will deliver, it's just a matter of finding the money."
Secondary to this is the code licensing issue and the parent already covered this well enough. Personally, in my past self-employment delivering embedded hardware, I always assumed the customer would want the code, so I factored that into the price up front.
Customers are hard to find as I'm sure you know if you got this far. With a good contract (a Purchase Order is a contract) in hand, you want to do whatever it takes to deliver the product and turn these guys into happy return customers and good references.
As you're looking for full time employment, are you doing anything on the side? If you know PCs, get some business cards, print up flyers and try to drum up business doing small office/home office/home support/computer repair. It's one way of bringing in additional income while giving you valuable business experience dealing with irritating clients (yes, I'm serious!). It's also one way of increasing your base of contacts; one of those people whose PC you clean up may know someone who's hiring and can now give a good reference.
Do you have hobbies? Try writing software that can be used in your hobby. Like building handmade birdhouses? Write a program to calculate how much wood you'll need for projects and how much it'll cost. That kind of thing. The software itself doesn't have to be very useful, but it will accomplish two things: it keeps you developing and improves your skills and it gives you something interesting to talk about when you finally get an interview and makes you look productive.
Employers hiring for entry level positions won't expect much in the way of experience, but they will want someone who can work in a team and is motivated and smart. You'll probably find it easier to improve in that area rather than getting useful development experience quickly.
I work for a medical device manufacturer. When I took the job it was really because I wanted a change of scenery and they paid to relocate me 1,200 miles away.
Now the reason I'm still here many years later, and what motivates me to do a good job is that my work has impact on people's lives. It's nice to see the occasional letter from a patient who thanks us (along with his doctor, to be sure) for saving his life.
Sure, our QA department will remind us from time to time that if we screw up, we can kill people, and that is a *huge* motivator to try to do a good job, but a much larger one is realizing that my code really does improve someone's quality of life.
And for that reason I'd really like to spend the rest of my software career in the medical/biotech field.
Say youre given 6 months to develop something with no required feedback during that time. Will you develop the way you'd write drivers for the linux kernel?
The fact that my Linux Device Drivers book is still unopened on the shelf notwithstanding, no I wouldn't. Why not? Well if I'm writing a device driver outside work it's for something *I* need. I can customize it to what I want. But if I'm developing for someone else, there's no way I would go 6 months without feedback. Even if I have a spec carved in granite, I know that customers usually aren't sure exactly what they need, and they need feedback to converge on just what they want the product to do. Even if I think the product is stupid, I will still try to produce what they want as best I can, which leads to my next point...
Its just kinda yucky to put effort into software which will make another man rich
This really doesn't make sense unless you don't like to eat. Any way of making a living, except crime or barter, involves the exchange of money which can potentially make someone else rich. So are you saying you'd do a crappy job when working for hire, but a good job when doing hobby projects?
If someone asked Da Vinci to put a smile on Mona Lisa, he'd probably spend only a few hours on it,
I disagree completely. True artists and craftsmen try to do their best work whether or not they like the project they're tasked with. Sure, you may not be inspired by boring, run of the mill stuff (like most jobs!), but that's no excuse to not produce good quality work. Especially in the case of artists where the quality of their work is so readily apparent, they'd better do a good job on everything public lest they get no more commissions.
I would grant that the level of technology necessary to maintain such a floating city is not nearly as great as maintaining a city in space
Change "not nearly" to "not remotely" and I will agree with you. That's all I've been saying: it's far easier to build on Earth. All of the resource problems you (correctly) identify with living at sea would also exist in space.
That said, there is a good reason this isn't happening, and perhaps we should try to see what other issues are involved in preventing such a floating city from actually happening
That much is obvious: there is more than enough landmass for all of us and there is no motivation (besides research) to build homes/cities on the sea. In fact, I'll posit that it's the same reason we don't build homes/cities in space and won't for a long time...
Dreamers (and yes, my apparent negativity notwithstanding, I am one:-) will always come up with reasons why we should move to space, but until it has a hope of being profitable, it just ain't gonna happen. Half my lifetime ago I decided I wanted to go to sea and I did so and loved the experience. But cargo-carrying merchant ships make money. Lots of it. Until we get to the same point with spaceships, we're pretty much stuck here.
The OP referred to wanting to live in space in order to be free and escape "normal" society and government. I suggested he get a sailboat and live alone at sea (outside territorial waters). The remotest place I've ever been is in the middle of the Atlantic and it's a hell of a lot easier to do that than to move to space in the near future. No assumption of building a society was made, but that is an interesting idea...
there are still environmental dangers that you are dismissing out of hand
What dangers? Dangers *from* the environment or *to* the environment? If the former then while the air/sea interface is generally considered the most hostile macro-environment on Earth, I think you'll find that it's substantially easier to build habitat there than in LEO/interplanetary space/another planet. We also have centuries of experience living at sea, if only for a few years at a time. If the latter, then remember that pretty much any environment humans are put into will eventually be changed by their presence. Moving to space just gives us a chance to do it from scratch all over again. No, I'm not saying we can contaminate cubic parsecs of space, but we will certainly contaminate our local living environment given enough time.
It's certainly possible to build floating cities (look at some large floating oil rigs). If you are suggesting that it's somehow financially and technologically easier to do this in space than on the ocean, you're out of your mind.
I'm not trying to be argumentative, but I do think you're missing the point. About breaks: sure Slashdot access is not a *need*! I don't *need* to go to the post office or take an hour to do my grocery shopping at lunch either. But knowing that my employer doesn't have a problem with me doing those things as long as I get my job done makes me feel better about working here and makes it that much harder for someone else to woo me away by just offering more money. I like it here! People with good attitudes towards their job do better work, as opposed to just being glad they get a paycheck. YMMV
As far as net access for work, I guess if you don't see the need for it I can't convince you. It's like books: my department will buy us whatever books we need for work on the assumption that we know what will help us and the cost of the book is a lot less than the cost of a developer's time to figure out something on his own. At the same time they have to trust that we are only requesting work-related stuff as no one bothers to check what's being ordered. Access to the net is just more of the same.
Dude, if you're worried about "Trident-class subs all over your ass" the same thing would exist in space. If you could get there, then governments could also, and they'll always have bigger guns than you. This is nothing new, been that way for millenia. Real explorers learned to just ignore that and get on with the business of exploring.
Are you sure you're not just trying to get away from yourself?
I've been trying to find a quiet, non-NWO spot on this planet to live, but there ain't none left.
OK, for everyone who wants to go live in space cause it's 'free,' remember there are millions of square miles of ocean right here on earth to live on that no one claims ownership of. All you need is a boat and a bit of skill. If you want isolation, even in the 21st century you can isolate yourself from humanity just as much by going to sea, plus you get those beautiful sunsets/sunrises all to yourself.
I want to see what good reasons people have for having internet at their desks because I personally haven't seen any good reasons for it, in general
Then I have to assume you're not a software developer, or any other kind of knowledge worker. The most easily justifiable reason is Google. It's often simpler for me to get an answer & sample code for some C++/MFC question than it is from the built-in help. A step down from Google is MSDN online. Since I also do hardware integration, I can go to, e.g., TI's website to get PDFs of a chip's data, or see how other developers have solved a problem I currently have, etc. A mechanical engineer uses a term I never heard of in a design document? Faster to look it up online than to track down that particular person who may not even be in the building at the time.
Want a not so work-related reason? A break. During a long compile (which can take upwards of 10 minutes depending on which machine I happen to be developing on) I can check out/., armadillo, google news, etc. Or even when I'm feeling burned out and want to zone out for half an hour or so. Regardless of what you say, your attitude implies that you don't trust people. That's OK, but some of us can have a lot of freedom and still not abuse it: it's called maturity. My monitor is easily visible to passersby and yet no one bothers me about the amount of time (sometimes a lot!) I spend online. Why not? Because I get my work done on time regardless of the available distractions.
There are many reasons for knowledge workers to have access to the net. Employers who can't understand that and provide it won't be in business for much longer.
Think replacing the head unit with a touch screen that runs software you wrote to control the system. Who needs a dvd nav system. Put the GPS receiver and the software rigth on the computer
Yup, that's exactly what I wanted to do. Started looking for parts too, until I realized it would take months of work before it was done (as opposed to merely usable), and I just don't have that kind of spare time -- I'd like to stay happily married, and I would want it done before the end of summer!
But MP3 player, GPS receiver with map (couldn't find any Linux software that would read the Garmin, etc. CDs, tho!) and DVD output to back seat so kids/friends can watch movies on long trips. All in one unit! Except for the MP3 hard drive player, though, you can buy an all in one unit like this from Crutchfield. I'll wait till the price drops below $1000!
the only way this can be justified is if you didn't spend any money
Or you have more spare time than I do. I have been thinking of this for a while. Even came up with a preliminary design for a custom steering wheel-mounted control that would communicate with the main PC by RS232/485. Then I realized that even if I found a suitable PC for $50 or so (or fitted the only spare motherboard I have into a small industrial case that would cost about that much), all the time I would spend writing code, designing an easy way to load new MP3 files (along with the CDDB data) was worth a lot more to me than the $200 that a hard-drive based portable MP3 player would cost.
It's a cool project, don't get me wrong, but a lot of us have so little spare time (and enough spare cash!) that our projects have to be stuff we can't buy at Circuit City!
Slashdot Mirror
What it boils down to is that the usefulness of public libraries depends on how willing you are to adjust your reading preferences. In high school I didn't have much money, but I read constantly. I just read whatever was available at my local libraries and discovered a lot of great authors I would never have otherwise heard of.
Making the best of whatever resources are available was one of the most important things my Mom ever thought me. Whether for cooking, reading, or software development it always proves to be good advice.
The simple answer is that ideas are a dime a dozen. Really. The power of an "idea" isn't the concept, it's the execution. And there's a long, long road from idea to finished product; that's why the overwhelming majority of "ideas" never make it.
Think of it this way: you have an idea. Now how will you make it happen? Can you raise the capital? If you can't, then what value is that idea to you? And remember that if it's really profitable, there are probably already 1,000 people who have the same idea and are trying to find funding just like you are.
Contrary to popular belief, no one pays money for ideas. What they will (sometimes) pay for is the idea, plus a *detailed* plan of how it will be put into action, along with market research and analysis, income projections, etc. Even then, most investors will prefer to give their money to someone who's already done all that and is generating income, if only a little.
Even here on Slashdot, you can often see comments to stories that go "I had that idea xxx years ago, I should have patented (?) it, etc..." The difference between that
Well, I am a parent and the reasons are not always what you'd think. First, note that my 3 year-old doesn't do any more with our computers than type his name and those of his friends (hey, it makes him happy
That said, children vary in their responses to different things. I tried watching Miyazaki's Spirited Away with him. Yeah, I read the "scary for kids" warning, but I figured I'd gauge his response to it. He was terrified. By what you ask? The scene where the child's parents turn into pigs. He's not afraid of pigs, he thinks they're funny. But he was terrified that his mother and I might turn into pigs like in the movie. Make sense? No, but he's three years old!
In real life, we already have issues with him being influenced by kids whose parents (if you can call them that) apparently have wildly different ideas about childrearing than we. So he already knows a few words he we don't want him using and has made a few statements that would be pretty nerve-wracking if he actually knew what they meant. We can handle stuff like this because it's out front. If he were learning this stuff online it would be much more difficult to figure out the source and decide how to handle it.
Most parents' response to the net is similar to how they view books or movies: I don't want my son watching "Saving Private Ryan" for quite a while because I know how many nightmares he'll have. But if he happens to see the occasional bare tit on TV, no big deal. He'll just giggle and forget about it.
The fundamental issue is that of not exposing a child to material that he's not yet ready for. And this decision should rest solely with the parent. Our job's hard enough as it is; for those who want to use it, filtering is just one more tool.
Me 2.
Oddly enough I have never tried playing MP3s through my stereo. I can hear artifacts listening to them (recorded at 320kbps i think) through headphones, so I figured after going through a good amp and decent speakers, it would be even worse.
Only reason I even want to put CDs on HD is that we have over 500 CDs and it can be hard finding a particular one since my wife refuses to keep hers in any order.
BTW cool site. I haven't checked out DIY audio online since I built a custom designed preamp to drive my Rotel 971 about 5 years ago. I didn't even know people were still building audio gear. Nice to see that they still are
One reason that comes to mind is that no one (IOW not enough to matter) really cares about "plays more formats." How many people do you know that play anything other than CD, DVD and MP3?
Another reason is marketing and distribution. Consumer electronics typically has extremely low margins so you need to be selling huge numbers of these things for it to be worth your time. Now factor in that the popular (Sony, Kenwood, etc) manufacturers aren't stupid (just slow) and they are probably already working on products like this and they already have better access to the distribution chain than you have and you may understand why it's only being done by a few.
Slim Devices (Squeezebox) looks like they have a great product. Good enough that I'm considering buying one for my basement reading room, but unless they have great marketing, I don't think it'll be in Best Buy anytime soon.
Now, if you could identify a niche that would allow you to price the product high enough to make money off a small number of customers (and I have been toying with this idea!), you're on to something, but I think the main reason is that it's very difficult to compete in consumer electronics.
I used to get tons of free trade publications, but I had to cut down as I never had time to read them all. This is the current list.
Embedded Systems Programming: It's shrunk from its former glory and most of the good content is online, but it's still a good read. And it's free
Electronic Design: Good EE trade publication and free.
IVD: A trade rag of the In-Vitro Diagnostics (medical device) industry. Good read for understanding what's happening in the industry and improving my knowledge of the biochemistry behind the code I write.
Communications of the ACM: The ACM's (Association for Computing Machinery) monthly magazine. Well written articles, but sometimes too theoretical for me.
ACM Queue: a "developer" magazine by ACM. Very readable, a lot of useful and interesting topics generally more immediately relevant to the software developer than Communications
ACM Transactions on Embedded Systems: not really a magazine, but a quarterly report on research in the field. Sometimes interesting, sometimes waay too abstract for me to even get the point.
Smithsonian: Somehow we got a free copy and decided to subscribe. Excellent magazine!
Backpacker: mostly read for suggestions of things to do/places to go visit.
Art News: lots of nice pics that occasionally inspire me to get off the couch and produce some crappy art. Good articles on art history and current happenings in museums/galleries around the world.
American Craft: a craft version of the above.
Finally, someone says it! There is hope for Slashdot after all
Well, by that logic no one should sue aircraft manufacturers either, as airplanes have only been made for about 100 years. But yet it happens.
You can't cop out of liability by saying "my product is too complex for me to build properly." That's crap and you know it.
If it can cause the same kind of damage as a physical product, then it should have the same liability as a physical product.
If your word processor crashes and you lose all your work, it's unlikely that a lawsuit will recover enough in the way of damages for it to be worthwhile. When the fuel management computer in your airplane causes a fire and kills passengers, you bet your ass there will be lawsuits flying.
No, it's not! Compilers, HTML tools and wave soldering machines are all examples of technologies that eliminated or reduced the need to manually do skilled work. The fact that the debate currently centers around outsourcing doesn't change that. It's the same "problem" in different guise. That we're now seeing technological solutions to a lot of the work being outsourced reflects that.
This is not a "critical flaw" in capitalism. Rather, it's the way capitalism should work. Knowledge is not a fixed quantity. As we encode more knowledge and ability into machines, we will continue to make advances and create new technologies that only humans can accomplish... until those are in turn automated and so on. There is no reason to suppose that human progress is stopping any time soon. Until (Vinge's?) Singularity occurs, this will be going on for a very long time. The unfortunate thing is that there is always disruption at the edge of technological advancement and this is where a more socially-conscious government could be of help.
They'll probably do the things they *like* to do as opposed to doing the things they *have* to do. Believe it or not, this is a *good* thing.
No, you need a hundred.
See, now that a single vending machine is cheaper than ten people to dispense the same produce, more stores want those vending machines than could have afforded the ten people, so there ends up being a net gain.
Exactly. I asked a similar question during the last big Slashdot debate on outsourcing:
Why is it OK if I write code that eliminates the need for 100 people and so increases a company's bottom line, but not OK if I outsource those 100 jobs and have a smaller positive impact on said bottom line?
The silence in response to the question was deafening...
My first job was at a tiny company with less than 10 employees that sold I/O boards and embedded controllers on the retail industrial market.
The general rule I learned was take 5x parts cost and consider that your base price. Next, look at the competition and adjust that base in the right direction (our niche was a low-cost specialized I/O supplier) so we came in a little lower. Unless it was a custom job, we never considered development cost since the stuff that was expensive to develop also tended to have expensive parts and sell higher volumes so it averages out well.
The 5x parts cost worked well and covered parts, overhead, and a hefty advertising budget and generally allowed about 20% net profit. It also allowed us to offer quantity and reseller discounts and still make tons of money for the owner.
For delivery of 1000 units of specialized hardware, I'd say these guys are at about the same level. Pricing is one aspect of business that I've always found interesting, but can never find enough "rules of thumb" on.
So true.
There are two major issues here:
a) Do you have an enforceable contract? For delivery of 1000 units of something to a customer I've never dealt with before, I want my lawyer to look over the purchase order/contract and tell me it's OK. The lawyer will tell you whether or not they can back out of it after you've bought parts/assembled boards and leave you screwed and how to fix that. Lawyer's cost will probably be less than $200 for something as simple as this.
b) How will you deliver 1000 units? If you have sufficient cash on hand/credit this is not a problem. If you don't have cash, start asking friends/family for loans. Look at getting more credit cards.You should already have lines of credit with some suppliers; if not, start now. Once your lawyer has said OK on the contract, you should take the attitude of "we will deliver, it's just a matter of finding the money."
Secondary to this is the code licensing issue and the parent already covered this well enough. Personally, in my past self-employment delivering embedded hardware, I always assumed the customer would want the code, so I factored that into the price up front.
Customers are hard to find as I'm sure you know if you got this far. With a good contract (a Purchase Order is a contract) in hand, you want to do whatever it takes to deliver the product and turn these guys into happy return customers and good references.
As you're looking for full time employment, are you doing anything on the side? If you know PCs, get some business cards, print up flyers and try to drum up business doing small office/home office/home support/computer repair. It's one way of bringing in additional income while giving you valuable business experience dealing with irritating clients (yes, I'm serious!). It's also one way of increasing your base of contacts; one of those people whose PC you clean up may know someone who's hiring and can now give a good reference.
Do you have hobbies? Try writing software that can be used in your hobby. Like building handmade birdhouses? Write a program to calculate how much wood you'll need for projects and how much it'll cost. That kind of thing. The software itself doesn't have to be very useful, but it will accomplish two things: it keeps you developing and improves your skills and it gives you something interesting to talk about when you finally get an interview and makes you look productive.
Employers hiring for entry level positions won't expect much in the way of experience, but they will want someone who can work in a team and is motivated and smart. You'll probably find it easier to improve in that area rather than getting useful development experience quickly.
I work for a medical device manufacturer. When I took the job it was really because I wanted a change of scenery and they paid to relocate me 1,200 miles away.
Now the reason I'm still here many years later, and what motivates me to do a good job is that my work has impact on people's lives. It's nice to see the occasional letter from a patient who thanks us (along with his doctor, to be sure) for saving his life.
Sure, our QA department will remind us from time to time that if we screw up, we can kill people, and that is a *huge* motivator to try to do a good job, but a much larger one is realizing that my code really does improve someone's quality of life.
And for that reason I'd really like to spend the rest of my software career in the medical/biotech field.
The fact that my Linux Device Drivers book is still unopened on the shelf notwithstanding, no I wouldn't.
Why not? Well if I'm writing a device driver outside work it's for something *I* need. I can customize it to what I want. But if I'm developing for someone else, there's no way I would go 6 months without feedback. Even if I have a spec carved in granite, I know that customers usually aren't sure exactly what they need, and they need feedback to converge on just what they want the product to do. Even if I think the product is stupid, I will still try to produce what they want as best I can, which leads to my next point...
This really doesn't make sense unless you don't like to eat. Any way of making a living, except crime or barter, involves the exchange of money which can potentially make someone else rich. So are you saying you'd do a crappy job when working for hire, but a good job when doing hobby projects?
I disagree completely. True artists and craftsmen try to do their best work whether or not they like the project they're tasked with. Sure, you may not be inspired by boring, run of the mill stuff (like most jobs!), but that's no excuse to not produce good quality work. Especially in the case of artists where the quality of their work is so readily apparent, they'd better do a good job on everything public lest they get no more commissions.
Change "not nearly" to "not remotely" and I will agree with you. That's all I've been saying: it's far easier to build on Earth. All of the resource problems you (correctly) identify with living at sea would also exist in space.
That much is obvious: there is more than enough landmass for all of us and there is no motivation (besides research) to build homes/cities on the sea.
In fact, I'll posit that it's the same reason we don't build homes/cities in space and won't for a long time...
Dreamers (and yes, my apparent negativity notwithstanding, I am one
Half my lifetime ago I decided I wanted to go to sea and I did so and loved the experience. But cargo-carrying merchant ships make money. Lots of it. Until we get to the same point with spaceships, we're pretty much stuck here.
The OP referred to wanting to live in space in order to be free and escape "normal" society and government. I suggested he get a sailboat and live alone at sea (outside territorial waters). The remotest place I've ever been is in the middle of the Atlantic and it's a hell of a lot easier to do that than to move to space in the near future. No assumption of building a society was made, but that is an interesting idea...
What dangers? Dangers *from* the environment or *to* the environment?
If the former then while the air/sea interface is generally considered the most hostile macro-environment on Earth, I think you'll find that it's substantially easier to build habitat there than in LEO/interplanetary space/another planet. We also have centuries of experience living at sea, if only for a few years at a time.
If the latter, then remember that pretty much any environment humans are put into will eventually be changed by their presence. Moving to space just gives us a chance to do it from scratch all over again. No, I'm not saying we can contaminate cubic parsecs of space, but we will certainly contaminate our local living environment given enough time.
It's certainly possible to build floating cities (look at some large floating oil rigs). If you are suggesting that it's somehow financially and technologically easier to do this in space than on the ocean, you're out of your mind.
I'm not trying to be argumentative, but I do think you're missing the point.
About breaks: sure Slashdot access is not a *need*! I don't *need* to go to the post office or take an hour to do my grocery shopping at lunch either. But knowing that my employer doesn't have a problem with me doing those things as long as I get my job done makes me feel better about working here and makes it that much harder for someone else to woo me away by just offering more money. I like it here!
People with good attitudes towards their job do better work, as opposed to just being glad they get a paycheck. YMMV
As far as net access for work, I guess if you don't see the need for it I can't convince you. It's like books: my department will buy us whatever books we need for work on the assumption that we know what will help us and the cost of the book is a lot less than the cost of a developer's time to figure out something on his own. At the same time they have to trust that we are only requesting work-related stuff as no one bothers to check what's being ordered.
Access to the net is just more of the same.
Yeah, that about sums it up. Dream up obstacles!
Dude, if you're worried about "Trident-class subs all over your ass" the same thing would exist in space. If you could get there, then governments could also, and they'll always have bigger guns than you. This is nothing new, been that way for millenia.
Real explorers learned to just ignore that and get on with the business of exploring.
Are you sure you're not just trying to get away from yourself?
OK, for everyone who wants to go live in space cause it's 'free,' remember there are millions of square miles of ocean right here on earth to live on that no one claims ownership of. All you need is a boat and a bit of skill.
If you want isolation, even in the 21st century you can isolate yourself from humanity just as much by going to sea, plus you get those beautiful sunsets/sunrises all to yourself.
Then I have to assume you're not a software developer, or any other kind of knowledge worker. The most easily justifiable reason is Google. It's often simpler for me to get an answer & sample code for some C++/MFC question than it is from the built-in help. A step down from Google is MSDN online.
Since I also do hardware integration, I can go to, e.g., TI's website to get PDFs of a chip's data, or see how other developers have solved a problem I currently have, etc. A mechanical engineer uses a term I never heard of in a design document? Faster to look it up online than to track down that particular person who may not even be in the building at the time.
Want a not so work-related reason? A break. During a long compile (which can take upwards of 10 minutes depending on which machine I happen to be developing on) I can check out
Regardless of what you say, your attitude implies that you don't trust people. That's OK, but some of us can have a lot of freedom and still not abuse it: it's called maturity. My monitor is easily visible to passersby and yet no one bothers me about the amount of time (sometimes a lot!) I spend online. Why not? Because I get my work done on time regardless of the available distractions.
There are many reasons for knowledge workers to have access to the net. Employers who can't understand that and provide it won't be in business for much longer.
And Mars is made of what, exactly? Bleu cheese?
Yup, that's exactly what I wanted to do. Started looking for parts too, until I realized it would take months of work before it was done (as opposed to merely usable), and I just don't have that kind of spare time -- I'd like to stay happily married, and I would want it done before the end of summer!
But MP3 player, GPS receiver with map (couldn't find any Linux software that would read the Garmin, etc. CDs, tho!) and DVD output to back seat so kids/friends can watch movies on long trips. All in one unit! Except for the MP3 hard drive player, though, you can buy an all in one unit like this from Crutchfield. I'll wait till the price drops below $1000!
Or you have more spare time than I do. I have been thinking of this for a while. Even came up with a preliminary design for a custom steering wheel-mounted control that would communicate with the main PC by RS232/485. Then I realized that even if I found a suitable PC for $50 or so (or fitted the only spare motherboard I have into a small industrial case that would cost about that much), all the time I would spend writing code, designing an easy way to load new MP3 files (along with the CDDB data) was worth a lot more to me than the $200 that a hard-drive based portable MP3 player would cost.
It's a cool project, don't get me wrong, but a lot of us have so little spare time (and enough spare cash!) that our projects have to be stuff we can't buy at Circuit City!