A cat.
NDA? OK.
In response to a discussion on twitter between myself, @toxinide (Fabio Basille) and @dezinezync (Nikhil Nigade) I thought I’d right up this blog post.
Fabio had tweeted saying “I never like signing NDAs, if you want to hire me you should trust me as well, it’s my job after all… :/”. It is an understandable dislike, signing contracts, especially those that seem to insinuate that you are untrustworthy. However, when you work with clients who’s income is based at least in large part on the success of one or two apps it is important to understand a few things.
First, an NDA does not indicate a lack of trust. It doesn’t indicate anything about trust. Trust must be earned, just like anything in the business of freelancing. If a client comes to you, or you apply for a posted contract job, and they don’t know you personally or from previous experience, expect an NDA. It’s not saying they don’t trust you, it’s saying that they feel very strongly that they need to protect themselves from somebody, not you, that would steal their ideas or code. In the words of Lord Cutler Beckett (although, if your client seems like they’re bent on domination of the world’s oceans for their own personal graft perhaps you should avoid them): “It’s nothing personal, It’s just good business.” And good business it is; if you have no plans of leaking any information that is protected under the NDA then you have nothing to worry about. So what if the damn thing takes you 30 minutes to read? Sign the contract, get the job, and hey! You’re a freelancer. You can reasonably bill them for those 30 minutes, as without spending that time you wouldn’t even be there.
Second, the client is always right. In this business, clients are ornery, bossy, controlling, freaks. It’s the nature of the beast. They’re paying you, it’s part of the deal. It may be your job to design and develop, but it’s not your job to keep your mouth shut. Just take a look at Dribbble. The entire philosiphy at Dribbble is to share what you’re working on, be it your own personal project, or for a paying client. But why, you ask, don’t they just ask me not to share? Well, dear reader, that is what they are doing when they give you an NDA. They are asking, only in this case, it means there are legal repurcussions if you do share. Once again, in many cases there is quite a lot of money riding on small projects and one lose-lipped employee can cause it all to go down the drain. You know, and I know, that you’re not that person. The client who’s never worked with you before doesn’t.
Third, all things considered, NDAs indicate that the client is on top of things legally. I require a contract with all of my clients, and many refuse to sign. I refuse to do the work in that case. Contracts are a necessary evil, and it’s just another part of the job that we all have to deal with. Don’t be offended by it, as that only means that you won’t get the job. Sure, if you’re @SoftFaçade you’re probably not hurting for work all that much and can afford to lose a few clients because of contractual issues. But if you’re not, then take the time to do your due diligence, read the NDA, sign it, and get on with your work. If you truly love what you do, you shouldn’t let an NDA get in your way.
- Zak Auerbach is a developer from San Diego. He’s signed over 120 NDAs in his short career, most of them for the same company. He’s also got a jewfro.
An email re: mobile me
A good friend of mine just emailed me this, if any of you are interested…
Hey Zak!
I was totally just creeping your twitter page, and I saw you tweet about customizing outgoing mail to use your zak@zaksoup.com email…and I just wanted to let you know that on the server side of things, Apple has disabled that for now. (and the only true way to get email to come from your domain is to have it setup as such on the server side.)
If you just change headers, or route it through Gmail, you will end up with issues, because if you would need a complex SPF record, DKIM would be very difficult to setup and your email would most likely show the “on behalf of thing” (for example, messages will show that they are from:”zak@zaksoup.com on behalf of zaksoup@me.com” or whatever.) If you have the ability to use a custom SMTP server, you might be able to accomplish this, but even then, you still need it to be sanctioned by iCloud.
Ever since MobileMe was released and had similar functionality to Microsoft Exchange, everyone wanted custom domains, but Apple still has not given in. As of now, the only way to get a good synchronized email, calendar, contacts, and task list system is to use Microsoft Exchange, or Google Apps. I think that until Apple allows custom domains, and opens up a hosted Mac OS X Lion Server reseller program, iCloud/MobileMe will never take off in the business/professional world.
Anyway, just thought I would share my knowledge on the topic, in case you were still wondering. I would love to help you out with your email setup if you need it…I do this kind of stuff all the time, and was trained by some industry experts that I did an internship with last summer. :)
Hope all is well!
-M
Valiocon
Every now and then you see something or meet somebody and you just can’t help but get really happy. That happened this weekend at Valiocon. I’m still smiling. I just had an awesome time with all those incredibly talented folks.
I’ll have a full writeup of my thoughts tomorrow.
<3
Connecting to MongoHQ with PHP
It’s actually deceptively simple.
The standard PHP mongo pecl extension goes like this: $databaseVariable = new Mongo(“mongodb://[urlwheremongoishosted].com”);
With MongoHQ it’s basically that form. You must know a couple of things first. The Server your database is hosted on, the port it’s on, and the database user and password. For example, my app’s databse page looks like http://d.pr/HuPX
after you create a user just set up your mongo class like this:
$databaseVariable = new Mongo(“mongodb://[database_username]:[password]@[server].mongohq.com:[port]/[database_name]”)
easy peasy
I got a job!
Sorta, but still, A JOB! WOOHOO.
Thus, I am incredibly pleased to announce I am now a “Web Developer Intern” with Participatory Culture Foundation. They make Miro (it’s awesome!) and this new thing called Universal Subtitles. If anything go check out Unisubs. It’s an awesome way to blow off a few minutes of boredom, and you’re contributing to a great project!
It’s a great team, and I’ll be working with some amazingly talented people, so I’m really excited to be telling you all this. If you feel so inclined, go check out my bio, and (horribly ugly avatar) on the pculture about page (you’ll have to scroll aaaalllllll the way down).
I also like parenthesis
Bloggers Block
I haz it.
The dickbar shouldn’t have surprised anybody.
It’s simple really, twitter needs to make money. So far you’ve been using a free service. This free service has no paid version, and no benefits for donors or paid members. The ONLY revenue that the service has is from advertisers.
The question is not “how dare twitter add what amounts to an advertisement to my FREE twitter app” but “how dare we complain about it.”
Are we so entitled to free everything that we throw a complete fit when the service attempts to make some money? So far twitters entire business model consists of “MAKE MONEY FROM INVESTORS, AND HOW.” I’m sure it looks great on paper, but in practice it’s not sustainable.
In short, you get a free app from a free service for free with no limits and you have the audacity to complain about an advertisement? One advertisement? literally, 34 pixels. Quit whining, you entitled babies.
