sector777

MSPs (managed service provider, basically outsourced IT) are a great source of leads, and they often have customers in widely different sectors. They seem to get a constant trickle of software development work. Maybe one out of ten of these could turn into something big. MSPs will want 33%-50% of total for finding the lead so be up front about how long you pay them that finders fee (first $X thousand). Eventually that small project could turn into something full time. So pre-covid, you could go to Spiceworks (or similar) meetups, not sure best way to reach out to them now.

I've worked as a software developer for smaller non-software companies (manufacturing more recently). I make half of what FAANG pays (still well compensated though) and I used to feel bad about it. But recently I've started to think that maybe not unravelling the fabric of society is worth something?

My customers (machine operators) are right outside my door. I can cut the time it takes to process a production order, the code ships by the end of the week, and I can go out on the floor and get feedback whenever I want. I generally only work on stuff that improves the primary business of the company, so there's very little "garbage" being built.

I'm probably similar in age to you and am so sorry to hear what you are going through.

Last year, my single mother's health transitioned from self-sufficient, but secretly hiding chronic problems, to completely unable to care for herself in the course of a day (she bore some responsibility for this, it was not completely an accident). I let the US health care system walk us into a nursing home situation. Some of the health care workers there went to the wall to do what they could, some had no business being health care providers.

I'll never forgive myself for the how it turned out. I don't think I would have done anything substantially different. She did not go gently, it was unpleasant at times and she fought us more than she fought to get better. She lived for 6 months in the nursing home. Maybe I could have stretched it out a few years if I had quit my job, moved into her home and taken care of her myself, but she never would have been self sufficient again. I'm pretty sure I would not have "made it" though that experience though, not sure how else to say it.

I would absolutely personally take care of my wife in our home if she fell ill, and I'm saying that knowing a lot more about the end of life than I used to, how difficult and long it can be. I do not want my children to do this for me.

Is this fixable in the next generation in hardware, or is this a permanent tax on performance going forward?

What I mean is (using a hypothetical): Suppose there's a flaw in the arithmetic unit (e.g. integer division). There's a microcode update, all integer divisions are correct, but run at 86% of previous performance. In next generation, the hardware is fixed and performance will be back up to 100% of designed performance.

Does the same type of handwaving apply to these types of security exploits?

Log file break/fix did not result in termination. But I probably wouldn't have remembered the former if it weren't for the latter.

I remember 1e+9 because it shifted a log file over by 1 character. And less than a week later I was out of a job (travel industry).