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[Cross-post from the FB group] What do you guys do for a living? Any of you not satisfied with what you're doing, or want to be doing something that more directly moves the world toward peace and rationality? I've had a pretty good year financially, and I'm looking to reinvest in projects that make the world more awesome. And I'd obviously prefer to work with / employ / empower philosophically-minded friends, if possible. I have a ton of project ideas already, and am open to hearing your ideas too. Almost any skill can be useful, but I'm immediately looking for people with programming, Photoshop, social media, research, and writing skills. The main "qualifications" are reliability, good communication, and commitment, so don't be scared off if you don't think you have any hard skills. Since you're here, I'm guessing you're smarter than the average bear, and you could learn what you need if you're motivated enough. So seriously, let's talk and figure out if we can work together. You can comment here, or feel free to reach out to me privately. --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- At the moment, my most pressing need is for an experienced C++ developer. See my job posting on Indeed, and please forward it to anyone you know who seems qualified (and is located in the right area). We're building charting software for independent stock traders; very competitive salary and benefits available. But as I said, there are a lot of other projects that we could collaborate on. Feel free to *propose* a project, as well. And the more we work together, the faster we can make the world better. So even if you aren't a developer, let's chat!

Hey FDR community! I am reaching out today because I am extremely interested in starting a small community of developers, hackers, technologists and futurists who share the same values. I think a community of highly intelligent, capable and passionate individuals - in both tech and freedom - would be awesome. Not only can we get to know each other and make friends with others who share the same interests; but we will also have the opportunity to talk about newest innovations, projects we ourselves are working on and even collaborate with others! Ultimately I would love to get to know you, get a chance to work with great people on cool, liberty-oriented, money-making, open source projects. Let me know! Slack link: technophilosophers.stamplayapp.com

I would like to propose something disruptive. There are now thousands of schools and courses devoted to CODING. That is writing computer code. Someone wants an APP for this and an APP for that. The natural solution is to hire a team of coders to write the app, debug it, deploy it, debug it and so on. Programmers rate their own value as how well they write programs. Users rate the value in a given application by how well it helps them do something more efficiently. We have an ever increasing mountain of computer code. Over time, this computer code needs to be refreshed, updated or deprecated. Much of it is never documented as the programmers frenetically write the code to get it into the wild as fast as possible. Also, programming well is an art form. Not everyone who can write a little bit of code does it well. As systems increase in complexity, the interaction of many different variables becomes increasingly difficult to test. Having been a professional programmer/engineer since I was 16, I've written tens of thousands of programs. If I had a penny for every keystroke, I'd be rich. I've added to the mountain of code that someone will need to maintain. Let's examine business forms. Business forms are meant to collect data and shove it into a database. Ideally, there would be validation that the input data is correct and the user would be prompted to correct input errors. Take a very simple demographics form: FIRST NAME LAST NAME ADDRESS PHONE NUMBER EMAIL ADDRESS The person designing the database table needs to set up a column for each of these input fields. The person developing the input form needs to create the UI for each field. Another person needs to glue the front-end to the back-end with various scripting. What we find is that this process is repeated ad-nauseum. The programmers involved believe that their worth is in coding all of this by hand. This is a disconnect from the value of the User who wants a reliable product. 10 years ago, I developed a completely different approach. I call it "Business Objects". A business object is a functional representation of data in an application. The business object has methods and properties to tell it how to behave. Schemas are defined in terms of business objects instead of primitives (string, integer, bool, date, etc.) though the primitives are defined in the business object itself. The UI rendering engine digests the schema against the form layout and creates the UI. When a schema is saved, the environment will construct all of the necessary tables and generate the form. At this point, the application is ready to operate. Because the business objects are tested and the engine is tested, the quality of operation can be assured. Business objects are infinitely reusable and extensible. WHY should we need to code by hand a LAST NAME field every time we want it in a table and application? Can't we simply use a widget? That's the point! We now change the programmer's role from writing a mountain of UI code to that of creating the real value - the functions specific to that business that are not simply a part of the business object. Examples would be the calculation of shipping charges on an order, computing insurance benefits in a patient visit, updating inventory counts, etc. For those of you who are coders, you'll recognize that this represents a philosophical change to the way that you approach your work. For those interested, please check out my website: www.pavuk.com. And to the moderator, if you feel this post is inappropriate, please feel free to delete it. I'm an engineer and not a salesman.

Here's an idea: A smartphone application that allows users to stream audio and video to a server in the cloud. This could be used to protect citizen against unlawful police (or any other) force. Currently smartphones have the ability to record data, but these devices can be easily destroyed or confiscated. Applications such as Periscope and Meerkat enable users to broadcast live video streams, but, as far as I know, don't enable them to store the video for later reference. The idea application would allow for this storage and later reference. A use-case would be: A user is stopped by the police; the user starts the application and the phone's video camera begins observing the interaction; the data from the device is streamed over the Internet to an online server; when the stream is disconnected it is stored securely and indexed to the user's account for later retrieval. I'd be happy for any feedback on the idea, and if anyone is interested in working to bring it to fruition please let me know. I have the skills to work on creating such an application, but not the manpower to do it in any sort of realistic time frame.

I have been thinking about dropping out of University and going to take some web development classes in order to break into the career. I am a history major right now and I just don't see much value in continuing my debt for a liberal arts degree. Does any one have an advice who works in the field? Good decision? Seems to me that the field is only growing. Please, any thoughts are helpful.

I want to make a game to release on Steam, Desktop, or Android. Games are a passion of mine and always have been. All of my co-workers enjoy cruising on their six figure salaries putting in 8 hours a day and have no interest in pursuing side projects. I am mostly self taught and believe that even someone with no experience can learn to be proficient very quickly when paired with an experienced developer. If you want to join me in iterating through ideas, concepts, game mechanics, and the like I can share what I know about programming. We can both learn how to make a great game and make some money in the process. This would be a 50/50 partnership. Although having some skills already would be a plus, they are not required. Any experience with Photoshop/Illustrator, graphic design, writing stories/comics, or anything else creative are also great skills to bring to the table but are not necessary. If you are short on cash, I can teach you quickly how to make a few bucks freelancing while we work on the game project. I need someone who is willing to go all in and be dedicated to making a great game. I am currently a senior programming analyst for a large company with experience in C++, Java, PHP, Javascript, MySQL, and too many libraries/frameworks to mention here. I've developed enterprise web applications as well as automated systems for large and small businesses. My other work experience includes: *Becoming a commercial loan officer at the age of 19 where I was responsible for an $80k/year marketing budget, established a co-operative marketing campaign with a small commercial bank which had more than $1 billion in assets, published several investment articles, guest speaker at an investment conference for the author of Commercial Investing for Dummies, and arranged more than $20 million of financing for commercial property. I trained junior loan officers whom I am still friends with today. *Started with no experience as a network technician and became a system supervisor and then the training manager within 1 year where I covered all systems across Oregon/Washington. I created a new training manual, developed the best practices, and brought the training time of new technicians from 3 months down to 1 month before they were considered competent to begin installations. Other ideas I've had include quadcopter security system, and embeddable hosted fully styled web site widgets. I'm not married to any particular idea yet, just looking for some good people to team up with.

i have been looking into Paul Rosenburg's (he was at some speaking engagement where stef went once time) program suite for encryption called "cryptohippie". I saw a writeup he did on dailyanarchist.com. It's expensive to purchase, but gives you a solid vpn with exit nodes in panama and other countries with more privacy protections. Your phone and web connections will be gibberish to your isp. Since he is an entrepreneur who has personal leanings toward the libertarian/anarchist movement, it seems he could be trusted ethically for selling the real deal. I haven't committed to buying it yet, but i am leaning that way. What do you guys think? ..about this company and whether their is an even better option.