With recent multiplication of cloud telecom provider like Twilio, Plivo, Tropo, Nexmo, TelAPI, Apifon…. and many more popping out every day, I had this idea about how easy it should be now to build a calling card solution based completely in the cloud and on one of the provider’s rich API. A weekend or so of coding, thought I and it should be ready for production! But little did I know about what it takes to create something as simple as a calling card service.
On hiring software developers
Thoughts
This post is inspired by the recent job posting I came across of from Kikin.COM. InsideStartups sends me emails every weekend, and obviously some of those get opened, with some of the links clicked.
It is indeed true, that many of the software developers come from the crowd of complete nerds who are deeply submerged into their own culture. While hiring process involves measuring their qualifications, it does not account for anything beyond that. And by beyond, I mean creativity and ability “to look outside of the box”. I have met situations like this a few times and while developers were shining their diplomas, some of them were just good at writing the code, but nothing else.
Party playlist : JS/JSON + YouTube
Hacks Reviews
Update: Initially purchased www.tophdvids.com did not get enough traffic to keep it viable, this this project resides at tophdvids.webandblog.com
I have been to quite a number of parties recently, where host’s entertainment options were limited to a TV with audio system and/or connected iPod/iPhone. Thus a library of music/videos at times was old, not updated and let’s be honest only to the likes of the host.
To fix something like this you have two options, bring content with you and bother with setup to connect, or get a source of media which will be accessible in most setups and make sure this source constantly updated with fresh music/vids. This is how www.topHDvids.com came to life. 90% Javascript and 10% php, like anything simple and brilliant it was done in one day.
Experiencing the negative : airbnb
Reviews ThoughtsWith so much hype surrounding airbnb.com I was eager to try em out and see for myself, how easy would it be to ditch hotel uber-expensivness and stay in Boston on a budget with 4 people in my party. The task was simple – coming to Boston on Saturday I needed a place for two nights. I started my search about three weeks before the planned trip dates. Hotel rooms were at least $350 a night, and we needed two of them, which would total $1500 with taxes. Adding train tickets at $49.00 each way (oh, remind me to write another post about Amtrak pricing / service too) would make this one a hell-of-a-tour in this economy with $1900 spent in just 3 days for transportation and lodging.
I also did not know, that if you cancel your reservation no matter how many days/hours prior the arrival date, greedy airbnb.com refunds you everything, except their fees.
Eventually I was able to find a place to stay, which was almost last minute. But after learning about their policy of not refunding the 10% service fee they charge on top of the rental, I doubt I will use em again. With sites like VRBO.COM and Homeaway.COM it’s almost the same properties, except the nice interface and iPhone app.
Anyways, with airbnb.com searches returning apartments from $185 a night, the deal sounded great, but wait until it goes down to business – and see what came out of all this.
If you have a customer asking for discount
ThoughtsFor my 5+ years of consulting and web freelancing I’ve met a lot of people, some good, some bad. But there was always one thing I kept on stumbling upon – cost of my services and customers asking for discount.