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Common Program Bugs That Can Sicken Any User

By on December 5, 2007 in

It was just a few short years ago when blue screen of death jokes ran rampant through computer culture. Despite numerous advances in the staffing of Microsoft, literally hundreds of thousands of bug reports are open submissions. These bug reports are automatically submitted to the developers of Windows whenever a user clicks okay following a program crash.

Thankfully for Microsoft, a large proportion (although not high enough to make their project renowned for bug-free operation) of bug submissions are actually the result of other programs failing to interface correctly with either the API or Kernel.

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Designing Scalable Software Products

By on November 8, 2007 in

When you bought your computer and turned it on, more than likely Windows came up. That is of course, unless you’re running a Mac. Regardless, what you saw was the product of scalable software. Scalable software refers to programs that are written with the intent to grow and evolve over the course of time.

Good scalable software designs are generally scalable for audiences of one to hundreds of users. Take for example the Windows OS. Originally, it was clunky. It would work even in VGA 16 color mode. Many of the classic software applications back then still exist today in the same format. But as a whole, the scalable design of windows allowed to progress along with the evolution of hardware and technological improvements.

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How to Get Your First Programming Job

By on November 7, 2007 in

You’ve completed high school with high grades, attended a mid-tier college, and all the sudden you set foot out into the world awaiting to land your first programming job. You know everyone is going to be dying to hire you for a programming job the second you get that diploma, right? That’s what every counselor has ever told you said.

The media published numbers about how easy getting a programming job is. You go into the phase of submitting your resume to not only one, but possibly as many as three programming employers of your choosing, knowing you’ll have the cherry pick of the programming offers when it comes to your first job.

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Marketing Your Software Catalog and Finding Release Venues

By on November 6, 2007 in

Marketing your software catalog is more difficult than tucking handbills for a keg party under windshield wipers at college. Marketing a software catalog requires at a bare minimum a polished catalog, a good marketing strategy, and an understanding of release venues. There are many articles, sites, and services dedicated to polishing your catalog.

Moreover, there is an abundance of individuals and companies willing to assist you in developing a marketing strategy. However, relatively few resources are available to help new entrepreneurs locate the appropriate venues for the release of their software catalog.

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Making Money With Mediocre Software

By on November 2, 2007 in

Taking a lame software program and making money with it is something many smaller developers and entrepreneurial individuals do. It can be a great way to make money often costing very little money to produce mediocre software programs. These programs can in turn be spun off with resell rights to other individuals in a legitimate software distribution software program.

Another great way to make money selling mediocre software is add advertising third party programs which are installed upon accepting the user agreement. A variety of media distribution channels can be used to make money from the transferal and distribution of your software endeavors.

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Releasing Gradual Functionality With Updates For Maximum Profitability

By on November 1, 2007 in

The most profitable software is that which has an extraordinarily long life cycle. Take for example Windows, the most popular and profitable software program to date. Windows first became profitably ubiquitous with Windows 3.0, although years before this point in time, Microsoft had made profits through adding progressive updates to software based on Xerox and CP/M to provide software alternatives to IBM Dos and extended functionality even for now nearly forgotten brands such as the less-than-profitable Commodore Amiga.

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Outsourcing Software Online – Benefits of Using Non-Conventional Tactics

By on October 30, 2007 in

Traditionally, an individual or a small team of individuals would be meticulously assembled from far and near, and flown to a central location to live, work, and commute together. The era of classic programming gave rise to Silicon Valley and other worldwide hot spots of software design, including Redmond, Washington and Tokyo, Japan.

Nowadays, the internet has smashed the barriers of software design and developers can skip all the buss and fuss by outsourcing online. There are many benefits to outsourcing software online which include the availability of outsourcing worldwide talent at essentially your very doorstep. Additionally, outsourcing online allows you to shop for competitive pricing advantages.

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Clone Software – Adding Features to Preexisting Products

By on October 29, 2007 in ,

You are a developer interested in releasing a new software product. Unfortunately you lack a firm design plan having completed your last software project without lining up a new one. Undeterred from a lack of a future software plan, you decide to clone another software product on the market. While copyrights generally protect software programs against blatant infringement, clone software products are an extremely active category in software development.

Clones are essentially copies of existing software, with enough changes made to avoid legal conflict. Any software can be cloned as long as the clone does not violate any patents, is dissimilar enough to avoid a line-by-line software code comparison, and adds enough features or support to give value.

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Offshore Programming – What Does It Really Cost?

By on October 28, 2007 in ,

With today’s spiraling information technology labor costs, many employers find themselves looking out their windows to depressed economies worldwide. There is no doubt that significant reserves of offshore programming talent exist. Offshore programmers would love to come to the United States and employers would love to get this offshore programming talent into their portfolios. You may ask why, but the answer is simple.

With a good software native programmer costing many businesses upwards of $120,000 annually, costs for programmers are simply cheaper elsewhere. Additionally, there is not a pervasive stigma associated with programmer rights offshore. Developers can get an offshore programmer from a developing or even mature economy who does not require special pampering without experiencing the risks of losing talent for failing to schedule in Halo 3 as part of paid-work time.

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How to Market and Deliver Your Software Product

By on October 24, 2007 in

Marketing and delivering software products requires certain finesse when it comes to understanding the endless assortment of consumer personalities. There are many tools used by marketing agencies across a broad spectrum of marketing and delivery firms. From TV’s Nielson ratings, to grocery stores reliance on market studies from Consumers Choice, to consumers who read Consumers Digest and other consumer periodicals – developers rely on assays and advertisements to guide every consumer to making the correct and intelligent choice.

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