Leaving the Day Job: One Year Later

Posted by Paul Lefebvre in Software Business Mar 16th, 2009 | 4 Comments A little over 1 year ago, I wrote about my decision to leave the full-time corporate world and start working for myself. It proved to be one of my most popular posts, so I thought it would be good to have a one-year follow-up. After one year, I can absolutely say that I really should have done this a lot sooner. Working for myself, at home has been a lot of work, but it has been incredibly fun. I actually look forward to starting work each day! I absolutely love working at home and being able to set my own schedule. In the summer, I could enjoy a nice sunny day and choose to work at night instead....

When Websites Attack!

Posted by Paul Lefebvre in Software Business Jan 23rd, 2009 | 3 Comments On Tuesday morning, I awoke to find that two of my web sites had been hacked. They had some malicious JavaScript embedded into the HTML on several pages. At first I thought it was due to a security hole in WordPress and spent the rest of the day cleaning up the mess and upgrading to WordPress 2.7. Alas, that wasn’t the problem. Yesterday my hosting company (FatCow) posted a notice that they were reseting all FTP passwords on the main accounts for “security reasons”. That’s not the end of the world, but a hassle to be sure. But then I found out they also reset all the...

2009 Web Site Changes

Posted by Paul Lefebvre in Software Business Jan 2nd, 2009 | Comments Off Now that it’s 2009, I’ve taken a little bit of time to update my web site slightly. It really hasn’t changed all that much: Updated copyright to 2009 Updated services page to include more testimonials and reworked some of the text for the various services Added a new page for Pharmacaid, which warrants a separate post all its own Used RapidWeaver 4.2.1 Tweaked the style template slightly Made contact information more obvious It’s annoying how long these minor changes took, however.

Blog Blazers: My Interview

Posted by Paul Lefebvre in Interesting Things, Software Business Dec 19th, 2008 | Comments Off Not that I was worthy, but had I been included in Stephane Grenier’s Blog Blazers book, this would have been my interview: What makes a blog successful according to you? Is it traffic, reach, revenue, etc.? If you write regularly for your blog, then I think you can consider it successful. After all, most blogs die on the vine. When did you decide you finally reached success with your blog? I’d have to say that it felt good when people I know told me they enjoyed reading my blogs. But I’ve felt successful since I started writing regularly in 2006. How long does it take to become...

techMaine 2008 Conference

Posted by Paul Lefebvre in Software Business Dec 11th, 2008 | Comments Off This year’s techMaine conference was held at the Clarion Hotel on outer Congress Street in Portland, Maine. It’s always fun to go to this inexpensive one day conference to catch up with old colleagues and meet new folks. The keynote this year was by Douglas Banks, editor of MHT: the Journal of New England Technology. He gave an interesting talk on technology trends in New England, but he was not as good as speakers from past years. The first session I went to was on “cloud computing”. Here, an industry analyst covered the various companies that offer cloud computing services....

Consultant’s Corner

Posted by Paul Lefebvre in Software Business Oct 20th, 2008 | Comments Off asp.netPro magazine recently launched a new column, called Consultant’s Corner. If you’re a software consultant, it’s worth checking out even if you don’t work with ASP.NET. So far topics have included: “Starting Your Business” (Aug 08), and “Managing Client Expectations” (Nov 08). You can get the 3 most recent issues for free (in PDF format) directly from their web site: asp.netPro PDF Issues

Good Customer Support

Posted by Paul Lefebvre in Software Business Oct 20th, 2008 | Comments Off Last summer Rhapsody switched to offering DRM-free MP3 downloads from their online store. They also had a promotion to get a $10 credit when you created your account with them. I already had a Rhapsody 25 (free) account with them to stream up to 25 songs a month. I primarily used it to listen to a new album once before I bought it. I was able easily to associate this account to their new online store and get my $10 credit. After some short research I decided to use my credit to purchase the new (at the time) Judas Priest album, Nostradamus. Ignoring my taste in music for a moment, I felt it...

Random Tidbits

Posted by Paul Lefebvre in Software Business Mar 15th, 2008 | Comments Off On My Own It was a hectic last week of work at AMS Services. I was in a lot of meetings as people tried to “pick my brain” one last time. My last day was Friday (3/14), so now I’m officially on my own. As I mentioned in my original Leaving the Day Job post, we’re parting on good terms. In fact, we just signed a contract for some consulting work for the next few months. In particular, I’ll be helping them build out their community web site, virtualization farm and continue with Team Foundation Server administration. REAL World Next week is REAL World, so I’m...