Welcome, I’m a person who develops software as a part-time hobby. Some of it I sell from time to time, but it usually only pays for some of my own costs in developing it. My current app is for education use (it’s not an education app, it doesn’t teach anything), and it seems most of the sales are in August-September period each year, and some other sales scattered throughout the year.
On a personal note, I have been diagnosed (in 2010, after being observed for 30 days in a hospital, by a psychologist) with what used to be called Asperger’s but is now Autism Spectrum Disorder Level 1 (this is different than the “retarded” autism, yes I’m comfortable using the “R-Word” as they call it, it’s a valid word in the English language commonly used by people in my lifetime). Asperger’s wasn’t a valid diagnosis (even though it has been renamed, it still exists) until 1992, by then I was out of high school. I had other diagnoses over time, however those labels were determined to be inaccurate. They had confused sensory autism issues (specifically when over-stimulated) for psychosis, even though I told them “I experience it as if it were real, but don’t believe it,” if I believed it, it would be psychosis, but I never believed it was real and I told them that at the time. When people ask why I’m on disability, I have (and may still) identify with the other diagnosis, because that’s what it was when I applied for disability, but the Autism Level 1 diagnosis is the correct one. There are successful people with Level 1 Autism, but I have been hindered by misdiagnosis (again, because correct diagnosis didn’t exist at the time) and medications which alter motivation (and have other bad side effects) as a result.
Programming Software as a Hobby and Business
Filtrob Message Filter (IOS) (est. 10/19/2024)
Block and Allow keyword text message spam filter for IOS. I wrote this because I needed it (similar products were available, but they charged a monthly fee). I made it available in the App Store, but it was designed for my own use.
Student Centered Class Asst. (<- click to visit) (est. 2017)
Mobile/Tablet App (2017-present) designed for teachers to use in classrooms. A teacher in my family requested this app. It’s only on IOS now (android app discontinued) and on IOS (Apple), I have at least 178 customers (as of Late-Janauary 2025). The app uses a seating chart for attendance/homework (handed in or not)/Fire-Drill-Attendance, and randomly picks and groups students. See on App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/student-centered-class-asst/id1278771321
FMail for Windows Store (est. 2012)
From 2012 to 2014, this was a POP3 e-mail client for Windows (from when its mail app lacked pop3 support). This one earned me a few thousand $ on the side. I wrote this is C# with “Windows Metro”.
Contract: Contact Management for Windows (est. 2006)
I worked with Anritsu (2006-2008) to develop a contact management App for Windows (with a PHP/MySQL Back-end to store contacts remotely). This tracked field service technicians for all the major cell phone carriers, displayed in a heirarchy (tree) format (with drag a drop repositioning). This was written in C# on the front end with, again, PHP on server side.
Contract: Tribunal/Dispensation Management System (late 1990s)
1998-2003 Contracted with NAV Co., LLC to codevelop case management software sold to Catholic Diocese Offices. I visited the NYC, Syracuse, and Atlanta Diocese offices to help get the software up and running. This software did things like track annulment cases using Canon Law rules and generated reports to be sent to the Vatican (“Rome Report”). This was written in Borland Delphi, which was also known as Object Pascal.
I earned the CompTIA A+ Certification back around 2001, but it seems to still be valid as of May 2024. The logo is pretty, so I’m adding it here. Many of my other certifications from back then have been retired (Certified Novell Engineer 5, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer [NT4], and Linux Professional Institute Certified Level 1 [expired 2008]). For fun, I might take some new certification exams as time allows.