131–140 of 265 posts
I've been working for almost 4 years on the on-board flight software for the European Space Agency's Mars Rover to look for signs of water and life on Mars: "ExoMars". It is due to be launched in 2020. Due to the embedded real-time, mission-critical aspect of the software, the strictness of the process and focus on documentation can be frustrating. The space industry typically doesn't keep pace with new technologies,…
We have written this up here: https://medium.com/paratransit-pal/paratransit-pal-won-40-00...
Right now we are trying to find our niche and cater specifically to those who are left out of UI solutions that target the general user. But even if, like most projects, this does end up fizzling out, it has already done some good and not just been a dead end.
>The best bit about being a developer I've found is when working directly with the customer who is in some distress and the look on their face when you solve the problem and make their life easier, even if it was easy to solve. I'd love to find something where every day was like that!
AGREED!
I am a bit concerned that this post is run by a russian/chinese agency that wants to capture project confessions. This would be an ideal intelligence gathering post. Maybe I should tone down on the paranoia ?
Working for my wife in her startup.
Security auditor in 2009/2010. In that job I was traveling the countryside of Afghanistan and visited the major US Army bases to provide information security assessments and write reports. I got to see some of the exotic landscape and talk to many different interesting people. I also got to go on flying adventures that aren't allowed by passenger carriers in the US. This was incredibly rewarding for the reasons not r…
"So now I just tell people to read the book and take the test from a management perspective and people look at me like I am crazy, because the test is so hard." Can you elaborate more on that? I'm interested.
Playing music with my friends.
Building a home and relationships with my partners.
Building my body and mind through long term studies of various branches of philosophical and intellectual inquiry.
Caring for specific peoples' specific needs.
That all might sound hippy-dippy or unrealistic, but because of the history of our economy we tend to value only monetarily compensated public labor as "work", when in fact the domestic labor that recreates ourselves across time (like building homes and raising children) is far more intimate and important to our lives.
That is just my limited experience; I'm open to being wrong about that in other people.
And that's maybe a tough set of priorities if you're working 60 hours a week (including commute and the domestic labor that goes into maintaining yourself for the sole purposes of being able to do paid labor).
So, as I recognized that, I optimized my for-pay labor (I'm a web dev) into a 30-hour-a-week salaried 100% remote deal with a person who is a fantastic sales person. The work is fun and interesting, but more importantly it can be "just about the paycheck" because the meaningful work in my life gets enough time and attention for me to feel good about that work and see the results.
I dunno if that would work for other people, but it's been working well for me.
There’s a bike valet service at a hospital in Portland. About 300 people use it every day to get to work. I made the web app and a few other tools using Google Apps Scripts that make it easy for the valet attendants and customers to check their bikes in and out, send automated emails and text messages. It’s fun to have made something that so many people actually use and that I hope makes the world a little bit better…
We launched 6 months ago after 1 year in product development and I've been enjoying every bit of it. All the disciplince and sacrifices that it takes, gives me the feeling that finally my ambitions are being mapped by my actions of actually doing and building.
Every small success and every obstacle is welcomed and maximised.