Ask HN: anyone working on software for vehicles/infrastructures/anything? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: anyone working on software for vehicles/infrastructures/anything?

7 pointssnitko3 comments

There are so many people on HN working on some web/mobile/gaming stuff that I was wondering if there's anyone who writes software for other purposes? Like maybe for controlling vehicles (airplanes, trains) or for managing infrastructures such as huge airports or traffic lights on the roads. Or I don't know, what else needs software and is rarely mentioned in that sense?

Could you tell us an interesting story? How is it different? What's your workflow? What one should learn to understand in order to do your job? Or anything you may find interesting.

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We help develop software for a few "traditional" industries that have mostly had installed thick client apps (or mainframe) stuff to date. These applications are now seeing benefits of becoming web applications beyond simpler collaboration suites-> light, mobile and distributed. The advent of development frameworks, agile & TDD driven processes have reduced costs that 5 years ago would have put custom enterprise apps in the several million dollar range. I used to work with a "player" in the "middleware" market which was thriving 5 yrs ago and now only belongs to a few of the big guns.

The extent of command & control experience has been limited, as there are more hesitations with security and less node-based infrastructure, but things have been continually shifting. This market does still command top dollar to the consulting companies, but the SaaS model is doing quite well for new entrants. OPOWER.com comes to mind with energy-savings modules and reporting for consumers and utilties.

Notably, with the advent of lightweight web-enabled control "kits" (arduino for example), we're seeing more and more of this especially in the last 24 months. I'm excited to be in this field and hope that we have a chance to pickup a project or two incorporating more control interfaces in our work.

The last few years I've worked on mostly desktop graphics ranging from a virtual oscilloscope to process control UI. Last summer I was working on robotics, some iPhone UI stuff for a spy camera, and a desktop OpenGL based color picker. This year I'm working at my best job ever - I'm doing Windows/WPF and computer vision stuff for guiding lasers for a 3 person company.

As a regular reader of HN one might get the impression that:

(A) The web is where all the developer jobs are.

(B) The alternative to working at a startup is working for Ginorma Corp in a veal fattening cube farm.

While the above is mostly true, there is an alternative developer world where none of those things are true.

(a) I've never worked on the web (unless you count web clients for handhelds).

(b) I've spent most of my (non-contacting) career working for tiny companies (1-2 devs) and I love it.

Here's the kicker - I'm not some genius but I've managed to only work at dev jobs I've loved since 1985...

In short, my brothers in the web world aren't the only ones having fun. There a rich development world outside of the web world as well.

I programmed embedded controllers and interfaces for home automation. It is fun and challenging to integrate lights, security, iPHones, pool heaters, pet doors, disco balls together. It sucks because the it is so closely tied to the construction industry and people treat it the sames as day laborers. I have some examples on my blog if you are interested.

http://mcotton.posterous.com/

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