I read the most hilarious request for bids on GetACoder the other day. Some buyer had a budget of 20 to 100 dollars. They wanted a new operating system to be written. You were allowed to code it in C++, C, or Visual Basic. It has to run on all PCs. It cannot be just a redesigned Windows. The buyer intends to sell the operating system.But wait. There’s more. This operating system must implement every Windows XP operating system feature. Any program that runs on XP must run on the newly created operating system. This operating system must also be “hacker safe”. In other words an install of this new operating system must require a serial number.
If that was not enough, there are even further requirements. It has to be fast. It has to be good looking. I think the list goes on. Now I wondered how I could respond to this joker. Maybe I could write a replacement for Windows Explorer. And I can ensure the install of this app will require a serial number. But that is no good. Even a little Explorer clone is going to cost this person more than $100. It would be a good joke though.
I confess that I have never actually used GetACoder, for either work or having someone else do work for me. However I hear that freelancing development sites in general are getting kind of crazy. Projects are bid extra low by competition that is hungry for any job that pays peanuts. On the flip side, you have jokers like the one above who will ask you to write Microsoft Windows for upwards of $100.
Oh well. I guess anybody is free to ask for huge jobs at any price they deem fair. I wonder whether this guy got any takers for the XP clone. If only the amount was around $1000, I could have passed off an Explorer clone with serial number registration. Yeah it would have been evil. But then again, this started out with a truly evil request.
