Michael Kennedy wrote:

actually, I disagree.. the vast majority of those users are maintaining
something where the developers are gone, nobody knows anything, nobody realizes
the rest of the community has been gone for 10 years, etc. etc. etc..

just like the guy in CO we're talking to right now (sigh)



--
Steven Green - Waldorf Maryland USA

Diamond Software Group
http://www.diamondsg.com/main.htm
Paradox Support & Sales - Corel CTech Paradox
---------------------------------------------------
Diamond Sports Gems
http://www.diamondsg.com/gemsmain.htm
Trading Cards and other Sports Memorabilia
---------------------------------------------------

Bruno wrote:
The best way to find developer-support, for anything, is Microsoft Terminal
Server or its equivalent... and a VPN (Virtual Private Networking) router.
You can have a qualified contractor log-on to your system .. securely ..
from anywhere. There is no need to have a person sitting in =your= chairs,
occupying =your= office space, running risks on =your= liability insurance
policy and so-forth, when the Internet is here.

This is how specialists of all kinds are working now. With internet video
conferences, free IP phone-calls a-la Skype, and terminal services ... you
don't need to be looking at the back of someone's head.

That's how we're doing several projects right now.

----
ChimneySweep(R): F-A-A-ST table repair at a click of the mouse!
http://www.sundialservices.com/products/chimneysweep

Good <g>.

Two camps here (IMO):
- It's "old", generally unsupported, few spare parts - we'd better get a
newer model...
- It's "old", ...ditto..., and works well, etc, and the newer models ain't
much better, so... "if it ain't broke..."

Generally, I hang out in the latter mindset. Confining ourselves to IT, and
as I've mentioned before, major clients of mine are running apps
round-the-clock - that I (and others) wrote OVER 30 years ago (not a typo
<g>).

Best regards,
- Mike

Michael Kennedy wrote:

same here.. as long as there's support..

but 99% of the calls I get are from people that have no support, and no clue as
to the position that puts them in when disaster strikes.. they won't realize
that they're screwed until it's too late..


--
Steven Green - Waldorf Maryland USA

Diamond Software Group
http://www.diamondsg.com/main.htm
Paradox Support & Sales - Corel CTech Paradox
---------------------------------------------------
Diamond Sports Gems
http://www.diamondsg.com/gemsmain.htm
Trading Cards and other Sports Memorabilia
---------------------------------------------------

You're preaching to the choir. I understand working remotely, we have
employees in three states that I have to support, I work remotely all
the time. I just need to figure out why management insists on someone
local, and then maybe I can change their mind. They've been in
sporadic contact with the former employee who developed this app over
the last 10 years, even when he was in Australia, but the amount of
contact with him and the ability to have him do anything has slowly
decreased over the years. We haven't heard anything from him since
last summer, and he was supposed to be working on some stuff.

I haven't lost this battle yet.


Michael Bruno
TCA, Inc.
http://www.tcatel.com