College doesn't cost that much. I go to Texas Tech. 4-5K a semester for 8 semesters is 50k. A starting dev makes 50-60k.It's pretty easy to pay it off.
I program and I'm also studying music. Several of the programmers at my workplace play music. I would say %50 of my team. I think music theory and programming are very similar. The other musicians I know don't see the relationships I see.
If you sanitize every input then I think you will be ok. You just have to get in the habit of always running your safe() function on every variable that comes in a POST or GET. I would also make sure that SQL errors don't return anything. The page should just die. Automated scripts testing inputs look for error messages.
When you say Java I immediately think of all the crappy programmers in my CS program who would choose Java as their favorite language even when it would be the worst possible choice. Hackers don't program in Java unless Java is the only solution. If you want better programmers offer more money. If you're tired of interviewing make them take an online coding test before they get a face to face interview. I wouldn't event interview someone if they can't pass the code test.
If it has to be updated on every page load I don't think there's anything you can do...I may be wrong I'm sure someone on HN will have some performance tricks. You can generate your headers and footers and store them in a file instead of touching a database every time. If you're killing your database server you're probably returning too many records or your queries suck. I wouldn't know without seeing them.
I wouldn't spend it or invest or anything. Leave in the bank or a CD and just feel secure enough to leave your job if you start hating it. The economy is bad.
I think it depends how much money you have to spend. If you have money then see about finding a developer. If you don't have money and you don't expect investment then I would say take your time. 6 months is not that long. Unless you're idea is fully developed it will probably take that long to figure out what it is you're really going to end up building based on feedback.
I would get cracking on web development if I were you. You can definitely do it alone for a while. That way you're not at the mercy of a programmer and you will have learned a useful skill in the likely event your idea doesn't make it.
Right. So Groupon probably didn't go around hush hush. I agree with the post above about execution. It's not about being first it's about being the best.
If keeping it secret is that big of deal it's probably going to fail anyway. If something is so easy to copy that you can't tell anyone then it's not worth pursuing. IMO.