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Good suggestions all, Jeremy. Back when I contracted a lot in addition to my day job, I applied your principles without consciously using the word 'trust'. I made sure folks knew I did this on the side, I limited my hours to 20 per week, and I didn't answer emails or phone calls from contract customers when I was at my day job. I was also pretty good about estimates, and usually came in within a few days of the quote.
Software Zen: delete this;
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You are so on the money. There was an old saying: "Nobody ever got fired for buying an IBM computer."
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Look out for the dammed bus, the bane of every contractor/ single person development is the bus that seems to follow them into every office. "What happens if you get hit by a bus?" The number of times I ran into this question when trying to sell either myself or software to large companies was depressing. And I never did find a satisfactory response.
You need a champion from each of your current department clients to push for you. Good luck!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: "What happens if you get hit by a bus?"
I have used several answers depending on the impression I had from them, but ending in only two options, depending on if I was consulting (a.k.a. I am alone) or if I was part of a team.
First part of answer mostly joking:
- The bus will get broken because I am like superman
- Bus drivers are really nice, they won't hit me
- My wife will celebrate a party
- You will be screwed without me
And then: "Jokes apart / no, seriously..." (something like that)
Being solo:
- I always document my work in a way, that a middly skilled person could follow my thoughts and take over the project after a certain learning curve
Being part of a team:
- One of my competent colleagues will take over and continue where I stopped
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I am using an Escrow solution.
My sources with instructions are deposited at a notary service.
I update the sources every 3 months.
If something happens (Meteorite, Alien attack... there is no bus around where I live) the company can get the sources and take them to another company to be maintained/developed.
You can instruct when a company can access the sources, and which company should have access.
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Interesting 
But I am not a consultant anymore. If my company doesn't manage my backups properly... Not my fault, and speaking about what might happen so that those backups get relevance... I am not sure if I will care a crap about it.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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You find the "line manager" that will be most impacted, and pitch it to them (first). Costs and benefits and a "firm" timeline (?)
Companies don't just "buy"; they "evaluate"; which can run weeks or months. Lunches, etc: the (imagined) "expense account".
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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Hello Behzad,
I'm currently reading a book titled, 'Selling Value' by Mark Stiving. Because the only thing that software provides is value, this is good reading for any of us.
An important message from the book is to present in the order of:
1) Problem
2) Value of Solving the Problem From Their Perspective
3) How Your Solution Solves the Problem to Create Value from Their Perspective
When I started looking for customers I used to do the opposite - and just confused potential customers!
1) Problem - learn where their current software is different from yours where yours is better. Present that as a problem.
2) Value - describe how (and how much) things would be better for them if those problems could be solved.
3) Solution - Show them your solution and how it really can provide more value from their perspective.
Good Luck!
Dan
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I learned something new.
Thank you.
Behzad
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I think in most cases, companies only buy proven software that has been running for a year or so, generates large sums of revenue, and has a team dedicated to it. In this case you would have to release it to the world to consume first and test the reaction. Like Figma, it ran free to use, and proved to be a technology worthy of owning so Adobe bought it. Or that guy that used AI to remove the background of product photos, and sold his app on Apple Store, and now Adobe is looking at it as well, or they are trying to copy it.
Most of these applications or software were backed by Venture Capital, companies like Softbank made investments and provided a staff of experts to make sure the investment pays off.
I know a guy that knows a guy that created stamps.com, and the guy cleared $75M USD for it, sold it to a company. And the same guy created the base code and interface for Uber Eats after that. Got paid in stocks and some cash. I heard he created a white paper on his project, and pitched it to several companies that he saw fit to use the technology. It's pretty much an opportunity for someone with capital to create money out of thin air, and follows the rules that Adam Smith laid out for Capitalism.
You would have to think about your vision or creation, and learn how to explain it in a simple way and document it on paper, and calculate it's profit or revenue potential, and learn to speak the language of money like an investor or capitalist, when you attempt to sell it. When you ready, send an email to the CEO of the company to pitch your software and see if the CEO has any interest, if not move on to the next company and keep pitching it until you sell it. Consider your next meeting a practice session because they don't have the authority to buy your software unless they need it to fill in a missing gap.
If it ain't broke don't fix it
Discover my world at jkirkerx.com
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I have had some experience with this in a Government realm. One important thing is to "know thy enemy", meaning do some research on the other vendor's products and assess how they meet your customer's needs. Look for some of the shortcomings in those products and consider how much extra time they might have to put into setting up the off-the-shelf system for their use.
One thing that also came up was a vendor overselling and overstating the system's capabilities. The integration they were claiming was vaporware. Integration may be a helpful selling point for you as well and the point is you're not an unknown vendor to the company, as a whole.
And definitely work your contacts that you know to put a good word in for you.
Good luck!
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I think if you have solid foothold in those first two departments, then referring to them is your best option.
However, I would advise caution with pursuing that deal however. If they really require a 99.99999% availability (and you think you're only good for 99.999%) then this could result in a very slippery slope for you, if you are only a 1-man-show. I don't know the requirements for the other two departments, but 99.99999% seems to be exceedingly high to either exclude all entities but one that they have already chosen, or they might really try to nail you to the cross if something (anything) happens that jeopardizes that availability rate.
There be dragons...
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Noooooo.
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Looking at the tiny (relative) number of Windows 7 and Windows 8 systems out there, I suspect Microsoft decided that the remaining systems would never be upgraded. We already know they won't run Windows 11 and were only a little over two years to Windows 10 end of support.
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...and therefore, what's the benefit to them?
I mean, the more people on 10/11 (rather than 7/8), the better for MS, no? Are they really thinking they're losing so much money on license sales that didn't happen because of that loophole?
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While people frequently gripe about Microsoft, I think the reality in this case is that it's easier to support fewer operating systems, so Microsoft "benefited" by keeping this upgrade route alive.
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That's exactly my point, it still benefits them to keep this loophole...so why close it now?
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I suspect there's a service that needs to be updated or removed and it has a direct impact on this upgrade path.
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Right...'cuz nothing in Windows is self-contained, not even the freakin' license check...
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It's not the current hardware that is an issue, it's the key itself. Folks that upgraded to 10 from 7/8 using a 7/8 key can no longer use that key in the future.
This is a big deal for folks using 7/8 keys on 10/11.
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back to the future or something..
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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I updated a 2015 industrial touchscreen Windows 7 computer to Windows 10 last year and was surprised to find the license update process still worked.It was missing a couple of drivers, yellow exlamation points in Device Manager, but for its stopgap purpose worked fine. I needed a computer for a customer while I waited on their new one to arrive in a month or so.
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I wrote a little C implementation of a ring buffer I was using for serial UART code. It wasn't very efficient because it only dealt with puts and gets one byte at a time. I improved it to deal in adding and reading series of bytes at a time.
I wrote it for someone I met on reddit who taught himself to code recently. I respect the effort, but bear in mind he taught himself to code recently.
Not really thinking about that code, I sent it off to him and it didn't occur to me to stash it somewhere. It was just something I threw together to help someone out.
Turns out, that bit of code was gold. And I can't find it. I could get some iteration of it back from the person on reddit, but I know they've already hacked it some - they told me as much. Yikes.
I tried to wrap my head around it to rewrite it, but I'm already dealing with overlapped I/O in windows w/ COM ports right now, and I can't spin that many plates these days, at least at once. I'll have to come back to it later, except I'm blocked now for want of the ring buffer.
I wish I had that code. Nice bit of kit that, a circular buffer you could write entire chunks to and from. I didn't think it was that big of a deal when I wrote it.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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That's why I often write a quick Tip here on something I've done - it's come in handy on several occasions when I get to need it again!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Indeed.
"In testa che avete, Signor di Ceprano?"
-- Rigoletto
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