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Hey, that's what I am doing right now. My previous company shut down. I got 4 job offers withing 2 weeks, and right now I am transfering my H-1B papers. Sinc

by ardit33 17y ago

Hey, that's what I am doing right now. My previous company shut down. I got 4 job offers withing 2 weeks, and right now I am transfering my H-1B papers. Since that takes few weeks, I am working on something fun. A sms backup system, that automatically backs up all your sms, and makes them search-able from a small portal. Using Python for the backend, and java/objective-c on the client side. I choose python b/c I would like to learn it better, as in all my jobs it has been all java. So, I probably won't make any money out of it, but I will come with some solid server side Python experience that I can put it on my resume. Meanwhile I still have to tell recruiters "sorry I already accepted an offer". Got a call from google, and fb. Bottom line, if you are good, there is really no recession for you. And getting laid off is not that bad. (this is my first time). My previous company was going no-where, and my skills would have been better used somewhere else, where I can produce real economic value.

MicahWedemeyer 17y ago
No argument that playing with new stuff is always a good idea, and doing it when laid off to keep your skills honed is a great idea. However, 2 points here: 1) You're making an SMS backup / searching app, not a Twitter app (AFAIK). I don't know how you're getting the SMS in the first place, but that sounds incredibly useful to me. Dunno if it's commercially viable, but it sure sounds useful. As opposed to wefollow or twibes or whatever the flavor-of-the-minute twitter app is currently making the rounds. 2) The OP is invoking the popular myth that just making an app makes you rich. The vast majority of twitter, iphone, and facebook apps go nowhere. If your goal is to stay afloat financially, polishing your resume and hitting the bricks is a much better way to spend your time than firing up the text editor and making a new piece of Twitter trash.
bmelton 17y ago
For what it's worth, that sounds nice, and disruptive, but possibly short-lived. Someone recently asked me how I enjoyed using Google Voice, and while I didn't immediately have an answer, after thinking about it, I decided that I liked it mostly because it allowed me to keep my SMS messages in the cloud. Many people use SMS to get actual work done, as I do, and it surprises me that nobody seems to care to back them up (or at least, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of allowing that) -- but Google Voice gets rid of the problem altogether, in that they're only transiently on my phone, and always stored in the Googleplex (deletions are 'archived', similar to Gmail).
- MicahWedemeyer 17y ago
  Just because Google's doing it with Google Voice doesn't mean someone else's solution will automatically be "short lived". Most of the world has still never heard of Google Voice (let alone "the cloud"). If he makes an SMS backup product, and sells it as that, I'm sure there will be plenty of people who would be interested, regardless of what Google is doing.
  - bmelton 17y ago
    I didn't mean to imply that google was going to put him out of business, so much as I meant that I think carriers will likely follow Google's lead eventually -- They already have your SMS messages, call logs and voice mail data -- exposing them to the web effectively competes with a large portion of Google's Voice offering, and doesn't require significant overhaul of anything for carriers to implement. Of course, I could be wrong, but my point wasn't that he was sure to fail because he was competing with google as much as I feel things are trending that way already. Besides, it's not like competing with Google is unwinnable either, it's just very, very hard to do.
eugenejen 17y ago
Great. I have been thinking of sms backup for years. the problem is how to make money from the services. I am glad you made it. Is it public now?

by ardit33 17y ago

MicahWedemeyer 17y ago

No argument that playing with new stuff is always a good idea, and doing it when laid off to keep your skills honed is a great idea. However, 2 points here: 1) You're making an SMS backup / searching app, not a Twitter app (AFAIK). I don't know how you're getting the SMS in the first place, but that sounds incredibly useful to me. Dunno if it's commercially viable, but it sure sounds useful. As opposed to wefollow or twibes or whatever the flavor-of-the-minute twitter app is currently making the rounds. 2) The OP is invoking the popular myth that just making an app makes you rich. The vast majority of twitter, iphone, and facebook apps go nowhere. If your goal is to stay afloat financially, polishing your resume and hitting the bricks is a much better way to spend your time than firing up the text editor and making a new piece of Twitter trash.

bmelton 17y ago

For what it's worth, that sounds nice, and disruptive, but possibly short-lived. Someone recently asked me how I enjoyed using Google Voice, and while I didn't immediately have an answer, after thinking about it, I decided that I liked it mostly because it allowed me to keep my SMS messages in the cloud. Many people use SMS to get actual work done, as I do, and it surprises me that nobody seems to care to back them up (or at least, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of allowing that) -- but Google Voice gets rid of the problem altogether, in that they're only transiently on my phone, and always stored in the Googleplex (deletions are 'archived', similar to Gmail).

MicahWedemeyer 17y ago
Just because Google's doing it with Google Voice doesn't mean someone else's solution will automatically be "short lived". Most of the world has still never heard of Google Voice (let alone "the cloud"). If he makes an SMS backup product, and sells it as that, I'm sure there will be plenty of people who would be interested, regardless of what Google is doing.
- bmelton 17y ago
  I didn't mean to imply that google was going to put him out of business, so much as I meant that I think carriers will likely follow Google's lead eventually -- They already have your SMS messages, call logs and voice mail data -- exposing them to the web effectively competes with a large portion of Google's Voice offering, and doesn't require significant overhaul of anything for carriers to implement. Of course, I could be wrong, but my point wasn't that he was sure to fail because he was competing with google as much as I feel things are trending that way already. Besides, it's not like competing with Google is unwinnable either, it's just very, very hard to do.

eugenejen 17y ago

Great. I have been thinking of sms backup for years. the problem is how to make money from the services. I am glad you made it. Is it public now?