Loading …OK, I would probably act in the same way if my space craft landed on the Martian surface, but chances are (very) high that we’ll never actually know. Maybe if I ever get my hands on a Microsoft Surface…
BTW, read more about the Mars Lander here.
Nailed by two coding gotchas in two days. Argh!
Here’s the one in Javascript.
js> var a = (100).toFixed(2); js> a 100.00 js> var b = (20).toFixed(2); js> b 20.00 js> a > b false
a is 100.00, and b is 20.00. 100.00 is greater than 20.00 right? Yes, except that they’re strings! toFixed returns strings, and any comparison is a string comparison and not a numeric comparison!
Now, here’s the Ruby one that got me. If you’re not a Ruby person then this one might be a little harder to pick.
irb(main):001:0> class Klass irb(main):002:1> def meth=(value) irb(main):003:2> return 'return this please' irb(main):004:2> end irb(main):005:1> end => nil irb(main):006:0> irb(main):007:0* obj = Klass.new => #<Klass:0x83180> irb(main):008:0> obj.meth = "Do not return this please" => "Do not return this please"
Well, I wanted to return “return this please” on the assignment, but instead Ruby ignored me and returned the value of the assignment instead. What if I want to indicate that the assignment failed? My only option is to throw an exception.
I can appreciate that Ruby wants to keep things consistent and always return the assignment value, but can Ruby appreciate my view of consistency and return when I say to return!
If you can tell me why Ruby behaves this way I would appreciate it if you could leave your mark in my comments section.
Ever had an idea and thought “there’s no way that would ever work”? Well, here’s a company that has set up shop with one of those “it will never work” ideas and seems to be doing OK. CrowdSpring is a design market place that allows buyers to offer a bounty and have multiple suppliers provide creatives for the buyer to select from. In other words, need a logo? Well get at least 25 made and pick the best one!
That’s crazy right?
At first glance it appears so. But if you consider the value of $100 to a fledgling Chinese arts student, or an Indian design company just starting up, then I guess you may see how the economics may work.
But wait, there’s a catch.
CrowdSpring guarantee at least 25 creatives to select from, or they will pay for your project! That’s a great guarantee, but it raises issues. Want a free creative? Browse through the current market place and find the sweet spot where buyers offer such little money that only a handful of people actually submit any work. Presto! Free design services paid for by CrowdSpring.
OK, not quite. I registered and tried to post a project and guess what? A minimum buyer price. A logo in this case would set me back at least $150. You could pick up a decent logo with unlimited revisions on Elance for $50.
With that said, the going rate for 25 website designs is $250, and there is a project sitting at 0 bids for $300 after 13 days, and another project awarded at $350 with only 6 creatives. So I guess you could pickup a free web site design for $350 ?
Unlike my first impression, you won’t get the services “cheap” because you’re forced to pay the going rate for 25 suppliers prepared to gamble on their work. But you will receive 25 creatives at a really good price. So for buyers, I think the value is in higher end work, the sort of thing where quality through options is valued more highly than work that is simply “good enough”.
Personally, I think there may be scope to start a business around a similar idea with website design. The reason being that web designs are more easily adapted to custom needs, so sellers would have a channel to sell unique one off designs, without having to design something new for every single project they bid on.
Best of luck to these guys. I’m behind anyone prepared to take a chance on a business.
