Help Help ... Script resources needed

[royong]

hi guys / gals

need your help.
have a customer from work that needs some form of script developed. I understand the requirements but I feel that these might be commerically avaliable hence saving alot of money in asking a programmer develop the script from scratch. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

surfer signs up for free account
views all the files available but cannot download as he has zero credits
buys credits (somehow)
able to download files but after each download, his credits is deducted by the amount attached to the particular file downloaded

Ps - I have asked some of my buddies for this kinda things .. and they say ... Roy is running a PORN site ... please ..
(a) this isn't me but its a customer's need
(b) I can confirm that is NOT a porn site

So if anyone can point me in the right direction - I would greatly appreciate .. thanks.

[Heng Chai]

I suggest you start working on programing. I don't think there's any commerical or open source script for that purpose.

[cybertai]

There may be such a script.What i guess he may be doing is a Handphone site.... something like iguana mobile where they buy credits and it will be deducted when they downlaod a ringtone.So you'll have to try and get contacts from these iguana mobile guys..

[jessw]

Hi Royong,

I found a download manager script, is that anything near what you're looking for?

http://abledesign.com/programs/d-man/

You can assign credits to users and specify credits for downloads as well. It costs US$35 which you can pay by PayPal.

Hope it helps! :)

[alien]

www.hotscripts.com ?

[royong]

Thanks JESSW .. that's a GOD-Send
exactly what I needed.

I'm getting in touch with the owner right now - Dan Kaplan

Thanks for the link - Once again SGWHT members show their MIGHT! thank you.

[jessw]

You're welcome, royong! :) alien is right, when looking for scripts, hotscripts.com is your friend. That's where I found that script :)

[fred]

looks like a good program.

[royong]

Fred - it is man... been in touch with the owner and I'm sold !

[royong]

I don't mean to kill the local industry ... but why do script writers in singapore charge an arm and a leg for a simple script ?

I've got a quote from a local guy, and S$1,400 was the final quote. Imagine, S$1,400 for the script without any web design.

and now here, I get the script for under S$100 - plus if I were to put the web design job up at ScriptLance - I would most probably be able to get a decent design for US$250

total cost : less than S$600

Mmm... which really makes me wonder? Why are the prices locally do high? Do web designers / script writers here produce work that are of better quality that the guys in India, Slovia, Turkey, US etc ?

The reason for my post is simple. Currently on my plateer ... I have quite a few outstanding projects* which require work from a scriptwriter and web designer - I'm not looking for expensive stuff and I don't even need resale rights to the scripts - all I'm concerned with is the fact that these scripts should perform as they have been designed for and at a low cost. It's been close to 2 months and I have not found someone locally that is suitable. Looks as if I'll have to turn overseas for help.

*Perl, PHP, MySQL

Anybody care to to comment ...

[zhiqiang]

Originally posted by royong
I don't mean to kill the local industry ... but why do script writers in singapore charge an arm and a leg for a simple script ?

I've got a quote from a local guy, and S$1,400 was the final quote. Imagine, S$1,400 for the script without any web design.

and now here, I get the script for under S$100 - plus if I were to put the web design job up at ScriptLance - I would most probably be able to get a decent design for US$250

total cost : less than S$600

Mmm... which really makes me wonder? Why are the prices locally do high? Do web designers / script writers here produce work that are of better quality that the guys in India, Slovia, Turkey, US etc ?

The reason for my post is simple. Currently on my plateer ... I have quite a few outstanding projects* which require work from a scriptwriter and web designer - I'm not looking for expensive stuff and I don't even need resale rights to the scripts - all I'm concerned with is the fact that these scripts should perform as they have been designed for and at a low cost. It's been close to 2 months and I have not found someone locally that is suitable. Looks as if I'll have to turn overseas for help.

*Perl, PHP, MySQL

Anybody care to to comment ...

Does the $1400 include after-sale support?
E.g. After using the script, the customer found out there is a bug in the script, is that guy willingly to fix it free of charge?

Some programmers want the money. (They need to earn a living.)

Some programmers want the recognition. They are not that particular about money. They will be happy that a note like "This script is coded by XXX. You can contact him: xxx@xxx.com" is displayed on the web page.

I believe Singaporean belongs to the first type. Based on their professional skill, they do not see anything wrong quoting a "high" price. You are lucky that they do not ask you to "pay by the hour"...

Roy: Care to tell us what your "understanding projects" are? If it is not that "chim", someone (including me) from this forum may be able to help.

[Heng Chai]

Support is probably one of the reasons I refuse to do development work for companies even though they have been pushing jobs into my hands since god-knows-when.

Its not just coding when it comes to programming. Support is an important part of the work. As the saying goes, there is no such thing as an error/bug free script/program. Coding something like a credit based downloading system may involve lets say 200 lines of code only, but how far does your error checking/bug detection go? A lot of programmers I know, forsake stuff like that.

Hell, I was one of those when I was younger. My best record was 24hrs for a full productive version of an SMS server in Perl. My boss was impressed, because it was only 24hrs ago that I received the project specifications, SMS modem and other relevant stuff, and within 24hrs of nonstop coding I have produced half the required specifications. My peers (amazing, they were NUS foreign students while I was a mere secondary school student) could not produce anything at all at the meeting the next day.

Well, and if you think that was the end of it, boy, are you wrong (just as I was). The next 2 whole months were spent patching the whole server program to improve the API and well, you guessed it, iron out bugs. I was working 48hrs without sleep before the presentation to make sure it didn't screw up. Thank god it didn't, but that was a hell experience enough. I quit shortly after that. Working in such a grueling corporate environment was too much for me. Being my own boss was better. :D

Hence, you have to compare apple to apple if you want to talk about programming. Try stating your full conditions, such as after-sales support, bug patching, maintainance to an overseas programmer. You won't get US$100 for a quote. For S$1400, you'll probably get half of the full package I mentioned.

Honestly, if I had time (and the job wasn't mission critical) I'd just say "Roy, I'll do it for you for free, just qia one dinner and kopi". A credit download script isn't that hard. I'd say 400-500 lines at worse to cover error checking, maybe another 300 more if you want to do a full SQL integration. But end of the day, what am I suppose to do when you come running to me and say "HC, this, this and that doesn't work.. How? How? Fix for me leh!" when I'm super busy. Dunno to kill you or ignore you. This is why support doesn't come with a US$100 product, pay peanuts, get monkeys.

[royong]

while I do understand the need for support and the need for livelihood - I'm not saying that its wrong, what I mean is the vast difference in price quoted.

I would understand if the scriptwriters offer a difference in products and support - definitely a script would need constant upgrading and enhancements but bear in mind ... this was what was quoted by Dan Kaplan - the writer of the script

The purchase price includes indefinitely free updates (for a single license, of course).

which I read to determine that he will provide support. I think we all understand that software engineering doesn't provide enough clarity - having been in the software engineering environment, I only know too well the pitfalls, the headaches, the deadlines, budget, schedules, user resistance to change etc.

Perhaps I have been too rash to pre-judge the quote but quite honestly, when I saw the amount on the quote - it didn't matter any more....

Nevertheless, thank you for your input

[NeonHQ]

I like to hear the experienced speaks. Learn alot.

I love to do programming but only do it for fun and for myself. When there is bug, I fix when i have the time, there is no pressure.

[Heng Chai]

That's a different story already. D-Man is already a public available script. The price he quoted cannot be compared to a custom script from scratch.