HACKER Q&A
📣 el_benhameen

Anyone do one-off consulting jobs?


There’s a small business in my neighborhood that relies on an outdated accounting tool. They want someone to get them upgraded, migrated, or set up on a VM that can keep running the old version.

I’ve been curious about consulting, and while this isn’t exactly my area of expertise, I’m going to be far more technically literate (not a value judgement) than anyone there, and I can probably get them a decent result for less than an established business.

Has anyone dipped their toes into consulting in this sort of one-off way? Or am I just asking to waste their and my time?

  👤 sargstuff Accepted Answer ✓
How outdated? [1][2] make ai OCR conversion camera & awk scripts look like a relatively 'new' approach while retaining backward compatibility.

Why the switch now? aka Is it hardware the tool is running on, 'obsolete'/can not be maintained aka:

  ** 3d printing the punch card keyboard parts / photographing punch card for record storage at terminal end of punch card machine more expensive than setting up / running vm instance on cloud (including internet connection $$)
  ** vs. able to add functionality such as automate generating/sending accounting reports on same 'new' machine (vs. maintaining two different 'computer systems'.
Are there old/new functional/non-functional requirments (aka what's anticipated to change/stay same -- app same, but what about new OS interface requirements the vm is going to be running under? Can the change over be done without disruption?

[1] : https://www.pcworld.com/article/468250/if-it-aint-broke-dont...

[2] : https://www.chron.com/news/article/Conroe-company-still-usin...