How Not to hire an iPhone dev consultant / A challenge for a great OpenGL dev | Hacker News Reader

How Not to hire an iPhone dev consultant / A challenge for a great OpenGL dev

taptaptap.com

Interesting story. He said/she said stories like this, though, are often difficult to parse. Regardless of what is fact, what is fiction and what is in between, the allegedly sheisty developer Daniel Pasco seems pretty flippant:

http://twitter.com/#!/dlpasco

>> My side of this story is actually pretty funny. May tell it sometime.

This type of attitude seems like a poor response when your business is dependent on clients. I certainly wouldn't want to work with someone who, when our working relationship gets difficult, treats the issue as a joke.

I don't get the modern trend of airing your dirty laundry in public like this.

Just comes off as shit-stirring to me and makes me want to avoid both parties.

Matt Drance's Twitter alter-ego, Batdrance, put it pretty well:

"I like to complain publicly and play the victim when my business partners do anything I don't like. Who wants to work with me?"

https://twitter.com/batdrance/status/33276755297046528

I have a some good friends who work at Black Pixel and had the fortune of meeting Daniel Pasco (and others on the Black Pixel team) a few days ago, just after MacWorld. They're all class acts and damned good at what they do. I wouldn't hesitate to work with or refer someone to them, period. I don't know anyone who wouldn't. Aside from Casasanta, apparently.

I don't know the full story. I don't know what Casasanta is hoping to achieve by posting this. But, I do know other stories from people who do contracting that have been left hanging by him or have refused to work with him due to insane deadlines. And thats enough for me to think that this is a load of bullshit on Casasanta's part to try and make himself look good for whatever reason.

+1 — Dan Pasco's a great guy.

I think quitting a job by tweeting that the company is trying to extort you into indentured servitude precludes being a "class act".

> I don't know the full story. I don't know what Casasanta is hoping to achieve by posting this.

Well, he was publicly accused of trying to extort someone. Doesn't that merit a public response?

Depends on what the threat is in this alleged extortion. You might want to get out ahead of something like that.

Not sure twitter is the best medium for that, but hey, it's what happened..

The more I read everything, the more it looks like Casasanta was likely threatening to write a bad blog entry about this if the developer didn't work more for him doing something. I don't know the facts here, but it feels like there was a mismatch of expectations here somewhere. Not sure if it was an intentional deception or a X didn't think the same thing as Y or what. Perhaps Casasanta is due more than he got, perhaps not. That's a niggling factual issue we are unlikely to ever know without more information.

I DO know I wouldn't touch this code with a 10km stick. Who know who really owns copyright on all this after this sort of blowup. It's a good way to end up in court if nothing else.

> Not sure twitter is the best medium for that, but hey, it's what happened..

I'd say that if you've got 1.3k followers, and the company you are slamming has 100k followers, Twitter is definitely not the best medium to take your fight public in.

Depends on what the point is. If the point is to get proof out before the article that you've been threatened, well, its likely better than nothing. Press release would probably be better.

Casasanta has a history of this sort of thing: http://kingscourt.posterous.com/more-from-john-casasanta-mac... is another example.

And to me, it sounds like the only reason this isn't extortion is because Dan didn't go along with Casasanta's plan.

I don't know either of the men involved, but consider the source:

http://www.bynkii.com/archives/2008/01/come_on_crybaby_cry.h...

(For anyone who doesn't remember that MacHeist drama from a couple years ago)

For what it's worth, I talked to John over a year ago and he mentioned his frustrations with how slow the project was going. After Daniel posted his tweet, I could see this coming.

After running the app, it looks nothing like that graphic.

Actual Screenshot of the program: http://i.imgur.com/DQkVq.png

(Didn't look at the code, just dropped in a blank icon and hit compile to inform the discussion).

What developer with a real backlog takes customers without a willingness to make a deposit? Following this advise is a sure way to get the type of developer they're alleging Pasco is.

tap tap tap, famous in the iPhone dev world for making tons and tons of money want to crowd source the development of an app? I wonder if having tap tap tap as your publisher is worth a 60% cut of the profits.

There is a pretty sweet plasma globe game in the store right now http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plasma-globe/id400905823?mt=8 if you're looking for ideas or want to see what is out there already

It is worth it. I am the developer of Voices, which has to date sold 644,000 copies thanks in large part to their publishing power.

Whether or not Black Pixel is at fault, John Casasanta has guaranteed that no iOS contracting company with a reputation to consider will want to work with him, ever.

Daniel just posted this via Twitter: http://cl.ly/1D440f190n2n2g2K2K28.

Sounds like Casasanta gave them fair warning. Public fistfights like this, though, are pretty obnoxious.

Right; at this point if I were considering working with either of them, I'd probably not.

>gave them fair warning.

Fair warning they're going to put out a hit piece? Or a "We will put this out if you don't do X, Y and Z".

That sort of fair warning runs awfully close to "extortion" in the layman's use of the word.

I don't KNOW either party or the facts. One or the other could have acted horribly here. But "fair warning" with a demand for value is pretty good definition of extortion.

I'm not really excited about a business relationship with either side of this spat.

I absolutely agree. I was merely pointing out that Pasco tweeting a screenshot that was essentially a threat does nothing to support his side of the story. All it shows is that he knew it was coming: He had received a fair amount of warning from Casantas. Not that I think it's fair to publicly air grievances in a manner that is frankly libelous.

Anyhow, I think this whole thing is tasteless and obnoxious.

I disagree with you about it not supporting his side of the story. Extortion is gaining something via a threat of coercion. The SMS (if authentic) is pretty clearly a threat, leaving us just in the dark about the exact action demanded.

Whether or not a crime or tort occurred here is for those with JD's to discern.

You are correct about the obnoxious part of it, but I'm uncertain that Pasco had any opportunity to avoid this public crap beyond giving into the demands of Casasanta according to Pasco's twitter, he got a threat in the mail yesterday this was going to happen: http://twitter.com/#!/dlpasco/status/33271220623384576

EDIT: OH, you're talking about the "Oh is this enough work" part that Casasanta is talking about. I was talking about the "Why did this dispute go highly public" part.

seems both side made mistakes but instead of being men and working it out in private want to bitch fight in public..

Clients of both parties than loose..sad

Reply on news.ycombinator.com