Hi all,
Sorry I haven't been able to participate on the lists so
infrequently as of late. And thanx for the many personal well-wishes I
have received from so many members over the last couple months. I am
amazed my friends here have shown their support and care so much more
than those I've known locally since grade school! But I guess it's more
due to the fact that they are still living their lives nightly sopping
up beer at the firehouse trying to keep up Schuylkill County's
reputation as drinking more per capita than any other county in the
entire State of Pa., while I only show up for meetings anymore!
Although it's been tough getting back into my work I HAVE been
trying to create a different interface for XP and/or Vista unlike those
commonly available because most of the few small business clients I
still have loyal to me are constantly complaining that they want more
integration into the OS of the various solutions I offer them.
Especially for those that have upgraded to Vista, where Microsoft is
doing it's best to make it impossible for the lone programmer to get any
work because of their offering everything I used to provide with desktop
solutions for free! Basically, the only two programs I've sold in the
last year have no real visual UI of their own but simply get called and
work from the OS's menu systems. I wouldn't mind so much but even
business clients who should know better don't like paying for something
they can't see no matter how well it works or what problems it solves
for them!
There was a well written but depressing article/editorial in a
freebie NET mag I read last month, ( the name escapes me at the moment
), in which the writer compared guys like me to canaries in the old coal
mines, and how unless you can re-educate yourself to work using NET as
part of a team, but specializing yourself in one particular area of the
target solution, it is impossible to make a living anymore.
I never made a living or really tried to as programming has
always been more of a sideline for me having started so late, but I used
to at least make it pay for itself and used it as an additional asset to
the services I provided my clients!
How are some of you that might work alone as I do been dealing
with such problems...or aren't you?
I've dallied about with VS and NET over the last two years, but
I must admit that I find Delphi much easier to work with and understand!
NET programming feels to me like cooking by recipe in place of
experimenting with your own creativity and finding how to make a dish
that tastes good. And its taking programming where the availability of
computing power has taken the game of chess...making it a worthless
endeavor unless your idea of fun is in crunching data!
Any comments?
from Robert Meek dba "Tangentals Design"
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Freelance Windows Programming for XP and Vista
Also proud to be a Moderator of the "Delphi-List" at elists.org
"Reality cannot be explained...only enjoyed or endured as your current
perspective allows!"
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