What can I get for $100?

Not much perhaps, but probably a lot more than you might expect. The $100 program service is a more basic version of the standard Bespoke Software Service. If you have read the page on this, you will know that the security, performance and favourable functionality to cost ratios offered, come with caveats. The service is fully remote and all the programs are written in C++, use real time techniques, run on Linux, are based on the HadronZoo C++ Class Library and all web functionality is impliemented using Dissemino. The $100 program service comes with further caveats: The level of sophistication is limited to what can be achieved within two or at the most, three man-days. There will doubtless be special cases that warrant more time and perhaps higher fees, but the intention is for something akin to the 'dollar shop' concept, where everything in the shop costs a dollar - except that it is 100 dollars rather than only one.

As is readily apparent, the $100 price represents a significant discount from the standard rate, so where's the catch? It lays partly in the price itself. Although the program will be bespoke to a good extent, for that money it is going to be relatively simple. This increases the odds of the program doing something routine, which in turn increases the odds of others wanting something similar. However, it would be stretching a point to describe this as an 'economy of scale' operation. While it would be true that once we have written the first variant of whatever it is, subsequent variants can be expected to take less time, this service is firmly in 'loss leader' territory. The justification is our intention to use the service to build a significant repository of such programs, and see where this takes us. In particular, it is hoped that this repository will help enrich our download.

Given this intention, it is entirely possible that a generic form of the program you ask us to write, becomes free in the download a few months later. This is not a service one can use for commercially sensitive material. For that you must use the standard bespoke software service. Using a $100 program to navigate rockets is also a very bad idea. But for $100 you will get a program that actually does something useful.

What type of program can I have?

Within the above caveats would include:-

- Backend number crunchers such as transformers for data migration
- Data gatherers such as automated web scrappers
- Automated test programs
- General utilities
- Basic services such as simple proxy servers.

Other than the above, we are hoping you will tell us!