>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Out of curiousity, what would the salary range be?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>$8-12/hour (depending on experience) plus a 10% off coupon to McDonalds.
>>>>>
>>>>>I was recently out-bidded on a contract. The project consisted of two enhancements and two bugs. The application sound like it was home-grown, so there would be a bit of learning the application and the source code. The final bit accepted was a total of $100.00. If the whole thing is completed within a single day, the rate you quoted would correct. I never believed that I would be reduced to bidding minimum wage for development jobs, but here we are. BTW, the bidder is overseas somewhere. I hope he gets what he paying for.
>>>>
>>>>Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth and I was independantly contracting, I charged $40/hr and had a fewl prospective clients inform me that 'they could get people to do this for $10/hr', to which I replied "Then do so, and you'll have an ad in the paper in 6 months looking for someone to clean up after them". Amazingly, one of them DID call me back within 6 months to 'finish' what the other guy started - and they were now willing to pay $25/hr.
>>>>
>>>>I laughed.
>>>>
>>>>And no, that attitude isn't what killed my contracting - what killed my contracting was having ALL (including mainframe COBOL contracts) dry up and blow away in the early 90's in Houston.
>>>
>>>COBOL... You're that old Dorris ;-)
>>
>>Honey, I spent 14 years working for the State of Texas keeping them from knowing just how much COBOL I knew ;-)
>>
>>And yes, yes I am. While I'm not as old as some, I do go back to FORTRAN WATFOR/WATFIVE (Fortran, what for? why not?)
>
>Punched cards, jobpacks, tape drives. Ever used a hand punch to punch cards.
never had to use a hand punch, but yeah, I remember searching for the one punch machine that still had a decent ribbon in it before I learned to 'read' the punch cards

I also learned - never piss off the operator lest he shuffle your deck before giving it back
- always keep the lid on your card box, and always keep the card box full
- and when the dumb terminal starts talking back, it's time to go home