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Ask HN: Anyone do one-off consulting jobs?

2 points by el_benhameen ↗ HN
There’s a small business in my neighborhood that relies on an outdated accounting tool.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?

5 comments

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sargstuff
How outdated?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...

el_benhameen
Interesting links, thanks! Sounds like the current tool’s maintainers botched the conversion to x64 on Mac and so they can’t upgrade their machines without being forced onto the cloud version of the software.
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sargstuff
Well, macOS has been hosted on several different cpu architectures over the years [0][2]. So, would sound like skipped more than one OS architecture port.[1]

Base on way Apple has bundled hardware & OS licensing in past; cloud option may be only legal way to go.

vMAC : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMac

misc mac emulators : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Macintosh_platform_em...

[0] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_7

[1] : https://lunduke.substack.com/p/remember-when-apple-built-a-m...

[2] : mac kernel : https://qr.ae/pru0lW

[3] os / platforms : https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/A_Neutral_Look_at_Operating_Sy...