My biggest concern would be your employer claiming ownership of any intellectual property you create while employed by them. Here's a nice short answer: talk to a lawyer. It will cost you a little, but could save a bundle in the long run.

Tommorrow is the deadline, boy did it come fast!!? It's twisted but some of us have procrastinated just a tad as the thrill of an all-nighter makes things sharp and real- it must be the adrenaline. But how do you keep your mind on the game as the hours slip away and your eyes burn and squint? D...

I don't have great social skills. Like many programmers I know, social skills are something that is worked on and developed over time because it's not a natural and 'inborn' trait. When a computer is doing something wrong, you can tell it so and 'fix' it so it'll work correctly the next time. ...

When it comes to coding style I'm a pretty relaxed programmer. I'm not firmly dug into a particular coding style. I'd prefer a consistent overall style in a large code base, but I'm not going to sweat every little detail of how the code is formatted. Still there are some coding styles that dri...

I am the sole programmer for an eCommerce website. Sometimes I am asked to program something that I do not know how to do. If I respond that I cannot do that, I am usually told something like "Well if Amazon (or some other huge site) can do it, why can't we?". If I say something like "They us...

I have been asked to present examples of code issues that were found during a code review. My audience is mostly non-technical and I want to try to express the issues in such a way that I convey the importance of "good code" versus "bad code". But as I review my presentation it seems to me I'v...

So we built a website and software for a client, charged our fee and handed over the code. The client then got a request from another company about the software. The client passed on the request but said since they owned the code they would need to recieve money for it. I'm thinking there are 2...

Several projects I have worked on have satisfied all the requirements, yet for some reason lingered on. Typically what happens is that the client is spending time with their new product and is asking the vendor (consultant) to modify such-n-such "just a little". Or perhaps they realize that altho...

Many of us have worked in multiple environments over the years, and have found that some are more productive than others. In many cases, it's not directly related to the abilities of the developers, but instead to their environment. I myself have experienced this, being in places where I seemed t...

We are agile software developers, and we have a client Pm who will not accept any drop in functionality when we do a delivery. It’s a key requirement in agile software development to deliver to timelines not functionality. It seems impossible to manage his expectations - he seems a bully and wil...

While writing the code or during design do you try to generalize the problem at the first instance itself or try to solve that very specific problem. I am asking this because, trying to generalize the problem tends to complicate the things (which may not be necessary) and on the otherhand it will...

I'm thinking about looking around for another job, but I don't know when I should tell my boss because I would like to see what kind of opportunities I can land before I even mention it. The reason I'm reluctant to tell him right away is I'm afraid he'll begin the process of replacing me. If I ...

Hi All, I spend a lot of time working on projects in which I am the sole developer, project manager, designer, QT person (Yes, I know... Bad!), and sometimes I'm even the client. I've tried just about everything for planning projects and managing myself, from just sitting and working freestyl...

As a programmer working in an insurance office, I have a nasty little management hierarchy which is making programming much harder. At current, our IT department rates a three on The Joel Test, which worries me. I'd like to fix this, but management enforces an insanely aggressive release schedu...