> On Oct 18, 2008, at 3:21 PM, Alexandro Colorado wrote: > >> I dont think you understood my point. > > I understood your point. But I agree with kazar your reply, no matter > what you intended, came across as condescending. > >> 60 dls an hour is steep but perhaps you can shop around sites like >> odesk.com or elance.com and hire a java developer for much less >> (10dls an hour).
Aside: I once paid a "programmer" US $50 to write a program for me. He wasn't too pleased in the end, but he did provide a working program finally; our contract required him to do that much. I neglected to put a firm time limit on it. Then I paid a real programmer $37/hr to "fix" the first program for me however he saw fit. I got charged for 2 hour's of his work. Nice guy, got the security & bells, whistles I wanted. Apparently it was pretty easy. Even if it had to be entirely rewritten I figured at least, since I had a working model, that the specs were relatively solid and we just hashed out the bells & whistles I wanted at the kitchen table. Everyone walked away happy. > > Getting your car fixed by an average auto dealership costs more than > $60/hr. Not around here. My dealer's rates are $45/hour or part thereof, and my cheap mechanic gets $22.50/hr plus prorates less than an hour in 15 minute incrments. They have equivalent warrantees, too. Now maybe if you owned a Spider or something like that you'd pay a lot more, but not for Chevy/Buick. In the US the minimum for computer professionals (meaning > everyone in the development cycle programmers, QA, documentation) > generally makes at least $27.63/hr (USD). In fact that amount is > written into the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). (BTW people might > find it interesting to learn 'computer professionals' are hourly > employees who are not eligible for overtime. Their pay need only > reflect the number of hours worked each week paid at straight time > only. Read this for more information <http://www.itstime.com/ > may2006.htm>) I have NO idea what that site URL is about; it doesn't look like any place to spend any time at and showed nothing related to the subject here. Wrong link maybe? Also, re the straight-time-only, be careful when you refer to the FLSA act: your are dealing with a lot of different and often overlapping rules & regs there ranging from fully exempt to straight hourly and software "programmers" come under a lot of different headings, including but not limited to, SW engineer, technician, coder and a host of other names. Your claim about "computer professionals" is vague, off target, and can even be considered just plain incorrect. As one who worked their way up from technician to Director of North American Research & Development at a telecom company, I was subject to a number of the rules and regs. Saying that a programmer only makes $27/hour and then that their pay need only reflect the number of hours worked is misleading at the very least. Perhaps 30 years ago, $25/hr was a starting salary for a good, ambitious person to write software but believe me, even starting salaries are a lot higher than that. I don't want to write a book here so I'll simply refer you to the FLSA site and let you do your own homework; perhaps it will help you understand things a bit better. It's a little like the guy that worked "by the job" (big mistake sometimes!) vs the guy who got paid hourly straight time. I never authorized OT, so he never worked OT, and thus never deserved OT. Ot in that case was his choice. What REALLY matters is the contract you sign with the organization you go to work for. And then you have consultants et al, and another whole new ball of wax because they work for themselves. THEY are the company. > >> With 200 dls you might be able to have a feature like the one the >> original user asked. Maybe he can get a better rate once the >> developer is aware it will be open source and under LGPL3 an end up >> paying much less. > > Not bloody likely. Not bloody unlikely either, IMO and IME. > >> But the point is not really the money, is what are you going to do >> about it. > > Since most people choose OO.o over Sun's supported edition you have to > assume that even $70 is a burden for them. > >> Raise money for your project with your local government and >> get a grant for science and technology to improve OOo is not such a >> bad Idea either, then u can hire many java developers or your local >> university and have a contest for $1000 dls bounty on FOSS. > > Local governments in the US do not fund R&D. The have money for > schools, road repair, snow removal, and stuff like that and little > else. Actually, they do, in similar to ways that were suggested. Especially in the sciences. In addition to that, and more likely, there are many private enterprises that will give grants for many reasons to those who have a goal that matches the foundation's goals. I think you could call SUN one of those, actually. They may have their own version of OO.o, but they believe in open source and were instrumental in the development of OO.o. That can be good or bad, I know, but ... so far it's been pretty good. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be confrontational; I just wanted to sort of set the record straight with my own 2 ยข about all this. I'm probably guilty of inaccuracies too since this is all off the top of my head, but ... I feel fairly confident in my comments and the numbers I gave I have personal knowledge of most of them since I signed the pay checks and created many of the policies that went along with them, over time. Cheers, Twayne --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
