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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Customer Feedback

A few kind words from our client's about their experience with McRae Technologies, LLC...

"Nick you are wonderful!  You are so knowledgeable and have so much insight!  I really truly appreciate your help and patience with me. "


K. Goode
Custom Software - Client


"Nick,
You’re the man! It looks like it is working perfectly! This should fix months of confusion, and profit losses due to incorrect freight calculations.
Great work!"
B. Bosgal
Custom Software - Client



"While managing the Application Development team at Synovia, I had the opportunity to engage Nick and his company on multiple occasions. Nick’s work was always of a very high quality with very few bugs and a genuinely solid feel. In conversations with Nick and in viewing his work, I can attest that he is highly skilled and a top notch developer. The professional manner with which he handled communication, invoicing, and all aspects of business were nothing short of spectacular. Nick and his company easily outpace the competition by being extremely flexible, easy to work with and delivering outstanding results. I would welcome the opportunity to work with Nick and McRae Technologies in the future and highly recommend him to anyone seeking custom software development of the highest quality that is delivered on time and on budget."

T. Sherfy
Software Development Manager



"As a project manager I generally feel that there is a need for more oversight of contractors. This was definitely not the case with Nick. He was a great asset to our team. He took his role seriously and kept the project on track and communicated well. He volunteered to work any additional needed time to meet the needs of the customer.

He was a pleasure to work with and would recommend him for any company. "

A. Bridgeman
Project Manager, PMO



"...Nick has finished the work we requested. We have gone over the new links and everything works perfectly!
Nick did a fabulous job. THANK YOU!"

C. Rhodes
Custom Software - Client



"Please pass along my special thanks to Nick. He was impeccably courteous and responsive. Nice to know I am working with a professional group of folks."

D. Harms
Custom Software - Client



"Hi Nick,

Happy New Year!

We have just sent an email out to everyone telling them about the website … you name will also be mentioned in the meetings. The website is great. Thank you so much. "

D. Carpenter
Web Design - Client

Monday, April 25, 2011

Why I'm Passionate About Software Development

It occurred to me the other day that as a 3rd grader, my answer to the standard elementary-school question of "What do you want to be when you grow up?" was always to become an inventor. I don't know exactly what book or movie I must have seen to influence that answer as a child, but I distinctly remember my vision of an inventor as wearing a lab-coat all day long and coming up with new inventions or ideas that would help people do things better or accomplish things easier. I finally connected the dots and realized that I achieved my child-hood dream of becoming an inventor by pursuing software development as a hobby/career.

I have a very determined attitude towards most things that challenge me in life. For example, I spent hours learning to juggle just because it didn't come easily to me at first. I did the same thing when learning to ride a uni-cycle. Playing the piano has become more of a stress reliever for me lately, but growing up playing by ear forced me to focus a lot of time on new songs to ensure that the chords I heard matched the song I was learning. The process of learning how to develop software was very similar for me as it was a challenge and a different thought process than I was used to. After the logic of coding started to make sense, there was the challenge of mastering a new coding language (and then another and another, etc...) There are always new technologies, libraries, frameworks, etc... that will keep me challenged in the future and it satisfies my need to learn and master things that aren't immediately clear to me.

Even more than the personal satisfaction I get from the challenge of software development is seeing the impact my solutions have on the end-users. When a process consumes a great deal of an individual's time and my software is able to automate it or improve it by some measure, I feel a large sense of accomplishment. In terms of opportunity cost for the end-user, the time they WERE spending dealing with the problems that used to exist as opposed to focusing on other issues now means they can be a more effective employee or business owner. It's probably a stretch, but when a client of mine succeeds in the future after having implemented a solution to save them time, save them money or increase efficiency, I feel that I was a part of their success.

I feel very lucky to have a career/business that I could easily classify as a hobby and I hope others are as fortunate to enjoy what they do for a living.