[pgh-pm] Perl Programmer wth MOYD

Malcolm Nooning m.nooning at comcast.net
Wed May 10 09:34:29 PDT 2006


Hello,

This is going to seem pretty strange.

I started up a company on the premise that my product would be ready 
roughly two years ago.  Well, here it is two years later and it is 
finally finished.  I need help now in areas where I do not have a lot of 
expertise.  Unfortunately I have no money.  I am unemployed, and have 
been so for over three years.  No points for guessing what I've been doing.

Could I interest anyone in a MOYD program.  That is, I Might Owe You 
Double money if you worked on this.  That is to say, if sales were zero, 
you would get nothing, nada, zero, zip.  If it sold, you would get 
double the going rate.  So, I MOYD.  No hate mail, please.

For those of you who have not deleted this email while grinding your 
teeth and shaking your heads, please let me give more information.  It 
will either dissuade you or interest you.  I will be wanting to 
correspond with only those who know the actual state of my company, and 
are still interested.

My product is yet another type of backup program.  I wrote it in Perl 
because that is what I know.  Yes, I know, there are roughly 30 other 
backup programs on the market (t-h-i-r-t-y, really!) but like all 
inventors, I think I have the next best thing.  I have been using the 
product myself for over a year now.

My uspto patent application was accepted a couple of months ago.  It is 
not due to be docketed for another few months but at least it passed 
their primary checkers, and it may be totally accepted, totally 
rejected, or anywhere in-between.  Just so you know.

My plan is to come out of the starting gate fully prepared to take on 
customers through every which way they can be found.  There are a couple 
of small things that have to be taken care of though.  Such as the fact 
that I do not have a web site.

An anti-piracy system I was thinking of is patented (6,449,645) as the 
recent Microsoft and Adobe versus z4 Technologies dispute attests to 
(Incredibly, Microsoft and Adobe lost).  I still may use it, depending 
upon the reasonableness of z4 Technologies but I have thought of 
others.  In any case, it will require me to modify my product.

I have a little marketing background.  Emphasis on "little".   I have a 
little Apache experience.  By that I mean I have installed, and have 
been the administrator of, Apache web servers on both Windows and Linux, 
but since I was one of but a few users, it all kind of ran on it's own.

Let me give a gift to those who have read this far.  The Joel Spolsky 
books were outstanding.  If you get nothing else from this email, invest 
in this book:

"Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That 
Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, 
and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in 
Some Capacity"
Joel Spolsky; Paperback; $11.99

If you now discard this email, but read the book, you will have done 
yourself a favor.

Where was I.  Oh, yes, my product.  I have the book

  Open Source Web Development With Lamp: Using Linux, Apache, Mysql, 
Perl, and Php (Paperback, 2002) Brent Ware, James Lee

It is my next read, assuming I do not go with a hosting company that can 
fill my needs.  Even then, I would like to have some other Perl 
programmers on board.  The product is not yet Linux ready.  Just 
Windows.  If I have to do it myself, it will be several months yet 
before Linux is ironed out.

My needs, not-so-by-the-way, could not be met by a certain 
hosting/marketing firm here in Pittsburgh, and I suspect trouble with 
most because of issues like Try Before You Buy (TBYB) with the 
corresponding ideas of temporary passwords, and also permanent 
passwords.  And the back and forth emails to accomplish it.  With the 
typical web site put up by godaddy, 1&1, and most others, the customer 
simply selects one or more products and makes a purchase.  Simply done!  
Alas, that approach will not work for me.  $pecialty $oftware on their 
part would be, well, pricey, so if I have no other alternatives I will 
build my own web site.  I don't want to, but ....

There are lots of other issues, but, you get the idea.  I have a 
finished product and I want to come out of the starting gate with it.

No flames, please.  Please do not spam me.  I am not trying to take 
advantage of anyone.  Yes, I agree that the idea of MOYD is something I 
would not want for even myself.  If the product does not fly, you will 
have worked for free.  Charity, as it were.  I understand.  This is a 
needs driven letter.  Not an avarice driven one.

If you live far from Pittsburgh's Brighton Heights area (27th ward), zip 
code 15212, this probably will not work for you because with the price 
of gas I don't see us being able to get together all that often.

For anyone who is left reading this, if I have to do it all myself I can 
and will, but I want to minimize time to market (Ha-ha-ha, it has 
already been soooo long.  Ha-ha).  Don't forget about issues like 
Non-Disclosure agreements and such.

Hmmm.  Now that I think of it, I suppose a good candidate would be a 
Perl type who is between jobs.  So ... what else are you doing?  Want a 
sandwich and some free beer?  Let's meet.

Perhaps you can think of something better than MOYD.  What?  Yeah, yeah, 
half the company.  I don't think so.

Okay, that's it.

Civil replies only, PLEASE.




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