DRM - Daniel’s Random Mutterings

An interesting (well, to me anyway) tangent to my recent post about GetAFreelancer. While looking through my Google Analytics report, I just found a number of referrals from rentacoder.com. Looking further, I find that someone had been looking for a developer for build a solution for “Video Blogging using Django and Flash(tm) Video (FLV)”.
If this sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it’s the title of one of my earlier blog posts. That’s right! My blog posting was cited as a reference on a rentacoder.com posting: “The initial scope of this project is to establish a Django-based video blogging site to accomodate YouTube-like functionality, as described by the DRM blog at http://blog.go4teams.com/?p=56. The blog includes the essential code snippets.“
I’m actually a bit flattered. Of course, it’s hard to ignore the obvious question: “Why the %&§§%§! did you not contact me?”.
Unfortunately, the offer was not bid on, was later canceled and nothing seems to have come of it. Pity! Might have been an interesting project to follow up on. Maybe there are some takers in the Django community? I’d be willing to participate by sharing some of my trogger.de source code, if that would be of any use.

Technorati Tags: django, rentacoder, youtube

Jacob Kaplan-Moss posted to his blog yesterday that the Django book (Pro Django. Web Development Done Right) is completed and is now going off to the printers. He writes: “It should start shipping to bookstores around the second week of December.”
This is great news! It’s great news for the Django platform — it’s a true sign of the maturity of the platform that Apress is publishing a book about it. It’s a strange effect, but in some way having one or more (good) books available gives a technology a certain degree of “manager-cred”, which could make more widespread adoption of Django in “enterprisey” settings easier. Also great news for novices to Django (especially if, like me, they prefer having an actual book which you can read in bed at night, etc.).
As a side note, I must admit that I had become so fed up with the regular “shipping delay” emails I got from Amazon about my preorder of the book (originally scheduled for March) that I canceled my preorder a couple of weeks ago. Once the book is actually available, though, I’ll be sure to order it. I really couldn’t have built the trogger.de platform in the short time it took my without the great framework that Django is and without the good documentation that was on the project’s Web site already.
I’m also pleased for Adrian and Jacob, as the initiators (instigators?) of the Django framework and project, as it appears they managed to get their book out of the door before other authors’ books on Django come out.
So, congratulations to Adrian and Jacob on finally completing the book. It’ll definitely be on my Christmas wish list and I’m looking forward to reading it.

Having klicked through from a Techcrunch posting, I have just discovered GetAFreelancer. I’m amazed. And amused. Is this for real? Are people really doing business over this service?
Just for the heck of it, plonk some names of Web companies / brands into the search box. The results are astounding! Someone has a budget of $300 to $1500 for developing an EBay clone. Great! I’ll take you up on that offer just after I return from the Caribbean vacation I’m financing with the $1000 I make from building this guy a Digg clone from scratch. Oh and someone is offering to build a Twitter clone for $1365.
Just on the off-chance that there are people out there who can actually deliver on something like this, here’s my list of job offers:

• EUR 750 for a Google clone.
• EUR 1500 for a Google AdSense clone (must be fully internationalized)
• EUR 850 for a JavaScript reimplementation of Microsoft Project (must be able to read MS Project files uploaded over the Web GUI).

Any takers? I’ll even throw in the Donuts you need over the course of the three days you’re scheduling to build the system.

Technorati Tags: freelancer, auction, business, nonsense

CYA-Style Disclaimer: I am of course in no way questioning the validity of the GetAFreelancer service or the quality and sincerity of their product. Just a couple of the offers posted on their site.