You could be a victim of circumstance

[austin_dern]

Good news, everyone: I may have a new job soon. Not losing the old one, so far as I know, but a project I could do as independent contractor, or freelancer, or what-have-you. A new interdisciplinary program at my grad school needs a web site which explains such things as how to get to it, what their mission statement is, who's in the program, that sort of thing. My advisor suggested me to them and based on a phone call I think they like me and I can do most of what they want right this minute, given minutes.

They do want some password-protected areas where groups can share files and also set up shared calendars of events and news bulletins. I've actually written code that could be redirected for most of this, but they are hoping to use something called ``Drupal''. I never heard of that either, but as a comical fake word of two or three syllables it's a web thing and it looks like it should do all the boring work of coding very well.

The one thing they asked which I'm stumped on is: what do I charge? In light of my comments about artist commissions a few weeks back the answer might seem obvious. I'd like enough money to cover the cost of a new laptop, as I'm getting about to my projected replacement time. The more the better, of course, although I see this project more as first item in a portfolio for as a paid web making thingy. So all I really want is to make sure I get the job, but don't put a price so low they suspect there's something wrong with me.

Oddly, back in grad school, I did a little web page design job, coding a tiny special-purpose search page, which I'm pretty sure I got $3,000 for. And that was a much simpler project, although I did have to learn enough Perl and cgi-bin to open dangerous security holes nobody would ever care about to do it. However, I also suspect this was the department chair throwing me some funding because there weren't summer-instructor positions available for me, so I don't know how to use this very old project for much simpler goals from a different department as a guide. Plus I'd have to learn ``Drupal'', assuming that is a real thing.

I'm trying to get my advisor to prod the people involved and see what they were planning to pay; my attempts to fish that out in the phone call didn't work. I may try using the earlier experience as a starting point, since $3,000 would cover my new-computer desires with room to spare, and by talking about it as what's-guiding-my-thinking might let me feel out their price range without committing to too much. Still, it'd be easier to know.

Trivia: Morton Thiokol's data before the final launch of the space shuttle Challenger indicated that the worst Solid Rocket Booster O-ring damages, field joint blow-bys, had come with a ring at an estimated temperature of 53 degrees Fahrenheit, the coldest launched to that date (STS-51C, January 1985), and at 75 degrees Fahrenheit, the warmest launched to that date (STS-61A, October 1985). Source: The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA, Diane Vaughan.

Currently Reading: How Markets fail: The Logic Of Economic Calamities, John Cassidy.

Comments

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Right ON!! Good luck on the new one!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'm optimistic.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

...``Drupal''. I never heard of that either, but as a comical fake word of two or three syllables it's a web thing and it looks like it should do all the boring work of coding very well.

"Joomla" is another comical sounding alternative- must go with the territory. I heard of neither, though, until your post ;o)

aside: In a past 'professional' life I was a QE for a company which manufactured engine sealing components for Rocketdyne. Challenger was tragic, and frightening for me personally because all my paperwork was stamped "failure of these devices will result in catastrophic failure of the mission and loss of lives..." or some such wording. The failure was not attributed to any of our supplied assemblies.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

The Challenger accident is one of those things that fascinates me maybe more than it ought to. But it's still chilling to me that the launch decision was made, basically, by intelligent, well-intentioned people who had a pretty good understanding of the relevant issues and had an appropriate set of data available to evaluate them, and they got together and made a horribly wrong decision.

[orv.livejournal.com]

I currently maintain a Drupal site at work. Setup is extremely straightforward. The only problems I've had have been weird glitches caused by some add-on modules interacting in unexpected ways. Like most complex web apps, it does have a history of security issues. These are generally promptly fixed, but you may want to make arrangements to see that it gets updated properly after the job is done. This could be an opportunity to negotiate an ongoing maintenance contract sort of deal, if you want some continuing income.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, they've been evaluating Drupal and now they're less confident that it's actually what they need. So that may be out already.

I did ask if they were looking for a project where I set things up and turn it all over, or if they would want me to carry on with updates and tinkerings. They prefer the first, but they are also expecting they'll have a regular web master sometime in the near future.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Anthrocon works on a Drupal system; you could contact Giza about it and he'll talk your ear off about its many benefits, of which about 20% are really genuine benefits I presume. It apparently means 'drop' in Swedish or something.

Figure out about how long it will take you, figure out a fair charging by the hour including research, and charge that. You can say "I did something similar for about $3,000 back in Grad School. Of course, that was years ago and this is a more complex project..." leading towards a $5,000 figure if they nibble at that, but able to swing back towards $3,000 if need be. "Well. It *is* for the Alma Mater, and I do need to get my toes wet."

--Chi

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

My brother, who's done various side projects like this, advises me the thing to do is think of what I want to buy and price for that. (In this case, it'd be the ``most expensive MacBook Pro'', with ``maybe an iPad plus a year's data plan'' to top it off.)

But basing a price on the old project is probably a good way to anchor a price in. Even if it ended up just $3,000, that covers the most-expensive-laptop under consideration.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Ah, the iPad intrigued you? I'm.. well, I just got a netbook (named Lappet) less than a year ago, and therefore I'm a good three years away from any dissatisfaction with a device I use about five hours a month to overcome the purchase price. So I'm far enough removed from the possibility of purchase to react beyond "Ooh, shiny."

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm interested. I do have an MP3 player, although it's a slightly outdated and small thing which doesn't interact with iTunes nicely, so that loading up audio is a bit of a nuisance. And it's pure audio --- no video, no Internet, no games, no nothing. So the roles that an iPod would serve, this would serve just as well.

And some portable computing power would be convenient for me, for example for writing and uploading stuff while away from home: the data plans are a reasonable-to-me dollar-a-day, and the size and weight seem like they'd fit effortlessly in my messenger bag more easily than even my laptop does. And for example, taking notes from books while at work would be awfully convenient if I could slip the desk drawer open, tap away for a couple minutes, and slide it back when I've had my little break and feel I should get back to work. I'd also feel more vaguely comfortable not actually using my work computer to putter all over Usenet, a difference that may seem trivial but which still somehow nags at me.

If I already had an iPod (or iPhone) it'd be a much harder sell, but it happens that I've put off buying any of that long enough that this actually has a job it'd do nicely.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

my first Mp3 player was purchased in the early, early, pre-iPod days. I remember it held natively 16MB of mp3s. that's right. 16. I managed to get an extended memory card that gave it a whopping 128MB.

Then I bought an iPod mini used at Best Buy, and I'm now on my 5th and 6th iPods. Quite locked into the system.

As you've gone with a non-Iphone phone, I can see the iPad working for you. I'd imagine you'll want to actually poke and tap and fiddle with it a bit first, though.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure whether mine is an 8 or a 16 MB player. It was included as incentive towards buying a DVD player that I was buying anyway, which made the point of the inclusion all the stranger. It will not surprise you then to know it was a Singaporean transaction, from the same chain which gave me a photo refrigerator to sweeten the purchase of a camera I was buying anyway.

I definitely want to hold one of these things and try out the virtual keyboard and whatnot before seriously thinking of buying one, though, and even then I'll probably delay quite a bit.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

I'd be surprised if yours were not 8 or 16 GB, not MB. Though I suppose those 'five songs maybe' players did need to be given out somehow.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm tired of waiting for my player to recharge (it doesn't hold battery at all), and web documentation is scarce, but if the handful of advertisements I can find from people reselling theirs is accurate this is actually a whopping 256 MB MP3 player. It's an LG FM-11, for the record, and good luck getting LG to admit it ever made such a thing.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Good luck, Austin, I'm happy for you.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Thank you, dear. I hope I get it.