If I'm on page 1 for an hour because I'm reading other stories or - gasp - doing actual work, and I click more, I should see whatever the hell is on page 2 at the time, not get an error about my specific version of page 2 no longer existing.
Whoever came up with the expiring "More" link idea is a goddamned idiot.
It's cheaper, but there's no less red tape (although maybe a little less general paperwork). Most positions in the US are At Will so you can be fired for any non-protected reason, at any time, with no warning. Similarly, you can quit at any time with no warning.
I'd like to just respond to the his specific points about hiring freelancers.
1. Only use freelancers that have been recommended by people you trust. Do an initial Skype chat before you seriously consider hiring them. This chat will weed out any bad apples. Ask for two references and call or email them. Don’t skip this step even though it’s time consuming.
100x yes. References are paramount, as are code samples or portfolio entries (depending on the job).
2. Do rough wireframe first and agree on the scope of the project.
Definitely. Scope and budget.
3. Agree a fixed fee for the job. Pay 20% up front, 20% on completion of rough beta, 40% on launch and 20% two weeks after launch (to iron out launch kinks). Define what “launch” means.
This is where I cocked my head to the side a bit. I prefer fixed fees but they don't work for every job. 20% down payment? Unless you're doing a $20,000 job, 20% is woefully less than what it should be. I don't recall doing anything for less than 50% down at the contract signing.
20% two weeks after launch? Never. You're asking the developer to take you on your word that (s)he'll get paid 2 weeks after you have all the code and everything is running.
4. Insist they use your company GitHub account for the code repo.
This would be a deal breaker. Until you've paid 100% of the bill, you have 0% of the intellectual property and 0% of the source code. I'll show you your product with a URL on one of my servers (for back-end work like PHP/Python) or via a screen sharing situation (for front-end stuff like basic web themes).
I didn't really have any input on points 5 and 6, both seem fine. Personally I hate Gantt charts, but clearly they've worked for Ryan.
I know several Associates and Senior Associates at lobbying firms. A good state firm will run you $4-10k per month on a 1-year contract. Not sure about Federal but I'd imagine one of similar caliber would be 3-4x that.
Now, this is in PA which has a relatively large, well-staffed and full-time legislature with (partisan politics aside) legislators who want to learn the issues and want to help their constituents. YMMV based on state.
When is the last time in any business you've seen or even heard of non-technical management (including clients) accepting blame for a technical malfunction?
A math-centric piece of software that allows you to write in equations via a stylus, then converts these to working equations. So, you write down the quadratic equation and can define in the software what a and b are, then solve for x.
There has to be something similar to this already.
By my cursory look at the first page of your comments, 60% are either down voted below 0 or contain multiple obscenities. Perhaps if you could form a coherent though that wasn't littered with obscenities you wouldn't get down voted into oblivion.
It's cheaper for the consumer directly, but it costs a similar amount to produce (according to this article, which is again not cited anywhere). The difference comes in the government subsidies, which the consumer pays for only indirectly.
I'm not disagreeing with you, just pointing out that small semantic difference.
Whoever came up with the expiring "More" link idea is a goddamned idiot.