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filvdg

379 karma · joined November 15, 2010

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filvdg··on I completely messed up a freelance project,seeking options to end this
So it looks like you took a job for a fixed price. you could have opted for time and material but you did not.

When you work fixed price, you need to have a fixed scope.

It is completely normal to have discussions with the customer on the scope of the project. the key is to see this negotiation as a way to ask more money from your customer.

I have the impression from your description that at the start of the project you did not define the scope in detail and that now you battle with the interpretation your customer makes from your scope description and your interpretation of that same description. Every time you hear your customer saying something you did not expect, you need to formally put on paper that that was not your interpretation and that your customers interpretation will be seen as a (scope) change request and will result in a new offer (= added cash)

so you should stop coding and start better defining what the scope is of the work that needs to be done.

(and always make a contract with your customer that states he can not ask more damages than the contract value)

filvdg··on Chemical Weapon Munitions Dumped at Sea: An Interactive Map
The dumpsite in front of the belgian coast is at the wrong location , it should be at the right side of the port of zeebrugge http://www.wereldoorlog1418.nl/gasoorlog/paardenmarkt.html

it is a well documented dump site that is tested in regular intervals, no concentrations of pollution is detected in the water up until now .... it has been discussed to clean up the place but the risks are too high ...

filvdg··on Why did disastrous floods in the Balkans fail to capture US attention?
the article should say US attention, it was in the news in europe (Belgium)
filvdg··on Visualisation of the expansion of IKEA
Why no stores in South America ? import restrictions?
filvdg··on 9007199254740992
I don't see the game , just doing up,left,up,left, for ages and get points ... so ?
filvdg··on Tesla Model X
The bmw z1 is the only production car with sliding doors btw http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Z1 it did not meet US safety regulations ...
filvdg··on Show HN: Can you see a single pixel on a retina display?
with the bad pixels in my display i had to find the "artificial" one lighting up
filvdg··on On being a single founder for 7 years
Mark, nice project,but don't be scared that the product is not completely finished ... it will never be ...

your most important next steps are now get customers , get customers and get customers ....

so

- remove the "closed beta" tag

- have a graphic designer give it a 2013 layout

- put up an price page

- buy some adwords to start doing live user testing

- start optimizing the sales funnel

filvdg··on We Aren’t the World
I wonder in A/B testing you might see different results for landing page conversions with different nationalities ...

it is said for example that the dutch are more price conscious and the french more relations/support minded ...

filvdg··on Ask HN: Why Settle Down?
The freelance life is fun until you have kids around, you start to value security and predictability a bit more when a family depends on you i guess
filvdg··on Berkshire and 3G Capital to Buy Heinz for $23 Billion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_57 has the list of the 57 varieties
filvdg··on New York City Mayor Bloomberg to to ban Styrofoam?
It seems it is code 6 and can only be reused
filvdg··on Berkshire and 3G Capital to Buy Heinz for $23 Billion
Understanding value investing might be nice if you want to attract VC interest in your start up , taken that most start ups are bought by other companies and don't go IPO (if they don't fail)it might be interesting to understand the fundamentals ...

this one if brand identity for sure

filvdg··on Berkshire and 3G Capital to Buy Heinz for $23 Billion
Business development ?
filvdg··on Berkshire and 3G Capital to Buy Heinz for $23 Billion
Every dev needs Ketchup ...
filvdg··on Heroku's Ugly Secret: The story of how the cloud-king turned its back on Rails
You can Model Queues and calculate the service level when you do inteligent routing

The Erlang C formula expresses the probability that an arriving customer will need to queue (as opposed to immediately being served).

http://owenduffy.net/traffic/erlangc.htm

filvdg··on Ask HN: When are you ready to freelance?
from the moment peers start to ask you for advice
filvdg··on I'm a 30 year old with no experience, I want to build a startup
If i was in your situation i would move to silicon valley, visit coding events and finds bright coders and offer them your time , not your cash to help them to get traction , you will develop plenty of other skills you will need to succeed and you might find an activity you really enjoy that is not coding
filvdg··on Ask HN: Career advice for a 23 year-old
I never worked for the big three , i once did an interview, with my long hair back in the days and refusing to wear a suit, it did not feel like a match ...

There are agencies that specialize in brokering freelance consultants , but it all depends on your CV , so the best thing to do is to fill it with some nice projects like the http://www.hixup.com/ you made ... , if you want to discuss in detail , mail me at HN id@gmail.com

filvdg··on Ask HN: Career advice for a 23 year-old
Bert, I am doing consulting in Belgium, in general as a consultant you are selling a service , that service is yourself , you need to define what are the unique skills, experience you have that makes you special , the more special you are, the higher your day rate will be.

so the key is to develop your skills.

if you want to do startups i would advise you this belgian startup coaching program http://www.iminds.be/en/entrepreneurship/training-coaching/b...

Fil

filvdg··on "earthquakes in north korea"
I checked "earthquakes in the Netherlands" : nothing there

Google news has the one of 8 feb

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws...

filvdg··on What freelancers’ directories do you use?
Do you want to work

- time and material? contact agencies that specialize in freelance/contracting

- Well defined projects ? find requests for tender in freelance market places / contact potential customers directly

Thats what I do in Europe ...

filvdg··on Meeteor.com Has Shut Down - Post Mortem
Philco , thanx for the info, I am 3 years after I had to close down shop of my startup, and my biggest regret now looking back is not to have stopped sooner ... its a very difficult decision to let go of something that you have invested so much time/effort/money in ... good luck , this experience will help you a lot for the next projects
filvdg··on Meeteor.com Has Shut Down - Post Mortem
Some lessons learned & stats would have been nice but it looks more like a rip post , maybe the poster has not closed the chapter yet
filvdg··on What It Feels Like to Be Stalked
Scary if you think about what information can be found online about your personal life
filvdg··on How I taught myself Design and shipped an app in 12 weeks
I Have decent experience with both and even if illustrator would probably be more fit for the job here , Photoshop is easier to master and can be used in more use cases (like manipulating images)
filvdg··on Taking payments online in Europe in 2013
your right , if i remember well it was about 50-80 euro a month just to keep the account alive
filvdg··on Taking payments online in Europe in 2013
I don't think i saw someone mentioning http://www.ogone.com

Their solution is a bit oldfashioned ... needing to skin one of their pages and send over the customer for processing but they offer plenty of payment options like debet & webbanking payment options

filvdg··on Ask HN: How do you organize your time as a Freelancer/Contractor/Consultant?
As a contractor /freelancer i prefer to work trough agencies, ok , they take a margin, but they give you the reach and leverage to find well payed projects.In general these projects are invoiced time & material , not fixed price , it allows to put more of the development risk at the side of the customer
filvdg··on Programmer behind YouPorn empire arrested in Belgium
Just like megaupload was a bandwidth monster, you would be surprised with the hardware and bandwidth requirements these sites have once they become popular ....its not a system you run on Amazon AWS ... And investment in network protection you need to defend against DDOS ...?
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