Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com

I gotta say I strongly disagree with alot of the things that Dan says in your podcast. For one if he's not doing consulting professionally or full time then I don't think that he can properly speak for it.

I used to do some applications on a moonlighting basis when I didn't have to pay for office space, employees etc and let me tell you it's entirely a different world when once that change is made.

I agree with many of the criticisms of the large consultant shops. But the small shops suffer from many of the same issues.

He said something to the effect of
"What is your budget.. ok I can do something for that amount"

If you were asking someone that was shopping for cars if they would like it to go 225 mph and get 50 mpg? Of course they would.

There are things that are great that many clients may or may not be interested in paying for. Error logging, Unit Test, User Management, Support, Browser Compatibility, etc. Certainly if we all were looking out for their best interest we would do these things. However if they are trying to keep the project cost low then cuts have to be made somewhere.

If we were looking out for their best interest all of their web apps would work on phones, tivos and everything else for no extra charge. It's not charity it's business.

Also if any software shop were to use the "Here is what you are not getting approach" then they would eat way to many hours. If I were the customer that would imply to me that anything not listed as "not getting" but conceivably in the scope would be done gratis.

Good luck to him if he can stay alive with that model without extremely expensive support contracts.

I've been a big fan of Appleman's mustache for quite some time. I will enjoy listening to this one on my walk tonight.

Anyone want his WIN32 API with VB 6.0 book for FREE? (Who would pay anyway) Reply in a post.

I don't think I've ever opened it. I bought it because of his great API documentation but it turned out I didn't need to use the API anymore.

My WIN32 API book now sits under my monitor at work to raise it to an acceptable level. It funny how that book was soooooooo great at one point in my life. Now it helps keep my neck muscles from being strained. :-)

APress books are pretty damn good. I hope Dan stays focused in that area IMHO.

Yeh, he actually made going through API fun. APress definitely publishes my favorite books.

[ I haven't listened to this podcast yet]

I don't know what he's up to lately but I haven't seen anything new from him for a loong time. His products at desaware.com are the same ones I have seen for years. Same website content too. His API book was invaluable duing my early VB days.

Not being part of the VB world, I really didn't know who Dan Appleman was, but what he talked about was pretty much dead on for the most part. I agree with software specs need to list what they don't do as well as what they do. You need to have both to have reasonable expectations for what will be delivered.