Ryan Kinal
100 E. St. Clair St.
Warren, PA 16365
716.581.1000
ryan.kinal@gmail.com
Ryan Kinal is a programmer and web developer, specializing in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS,
with experience in PHP, SQL, ASP.NET, and graphic design. But beyond being technologically inclined, he is also artistically motivated, through music, lindy hop, and drawing in various media. Combining these interests and talents, he is a skilled developer with an eye for aesthetic design.
On Freelancing
Monday, January 11th 5:42 pm
On Security
I'm in the process of squashing bugs in an application I wrote that, to say the least, uses suspicious technology. And what I mean by that is it uses elements of web development that I wouldn't use otherwise, and that could be construed as attempts on security in other contexts.
Specifically, it uses iframes, which then contain pages from another server which use XMLHttpRequest (through jQuery) to send user-provided data to that same server, which (until today) used a PHP session to store data while the user input more data, which was then sent back to the server. Today, I changed it so instead of using PHP sessions, it sends identification information back to the javascript, where it is stored as a string until it's sent back to the server for the last time. (This change was made because some browsers wouldn't accept the session cookie from the script that's called asynchronously. Good job, Safari. Props on your security.)
All in all, this has been the skeeviest application I've ever written. If at all possible, I like to avoid iframes, as they've been inextricably connected with phishing in my mind. Even if, for some reason, I have to use iframes, I certainly don't want any asynchronous server calls in them, especially to other servers. And then to have a cookie on top of that - or, as it is now, information stored in JavaScript strings - well, to say the least, it gives me a bad feeling about it. (And all for eas of use - it's a clean-looking widget that collects email addresses in a slick manner).
But it gets me paid. And as much as I hate to undermine my own standards (much less accepted web standards), we all need to get paid.
On Getting Paid
I hate invoicing. I always feel like I'm overcharging, even when I'm invoicing for less hours than I actually worked, or less hours than I quoted, regardless of how many I worked.
I also hate quoting projects. When I do quote a project, I try to estimate how many hours it will take (a very inexact science), and then multiply by the rate I set (which I'm never sure about - I often feel like I'm overcharging the client while underpaying myself).
But the fact is, it needs to get done. I need to find a middling rate that I feel good about (which I think I've done - sort of), I need to get more comfortable estimating how long a project will take, and I need to just write the damn invoices when they need to be written. As does every freelancer.
On Getting Shit Done
Just do it. No matter how overwhelming it is, do it, get the project done, and get on to the next one. It seems to be the only way to make it in the world of Freelancing.
Of course, I've been struggling, but that's my best guess.
Still, I kinda feel a sense of failure, freelancing, because it highlights the fact that I haven't made something that I can sustain myself on. I haven't come up with an odesk.com, a google.com, something that I can work on from month to month as my own project and it pays back. Actually, ninjawars is the closest thing to that, and we all know how close to being a good game and being monetarily productive -that- is.
So these days I end up envying people who can commute in to work and be at work for 8 hours and paid for all of 'em, even if they weren't getting anything done for two of those hours.
My ideal career:
Part time work that involves going out into the world, meeting real human beings face to face, and getting paid hourly and consistently, and then working freelance/web programming the other half of the week. Hybrid, best of both worlds.
Anyway, back to work with me.