{"version":"https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1","title":"DylTec notes","home_page_url":"https://dyltec.com/notes","feed_url":"https://dyltec.com/feed.json","description":"A few real notes from Dylan Schwering at DylTec in Dubuque, Iowa.","authors":[{"name":"Dylan Schwering","url":"https://dyltec.com"}],"language":"en","items":[{"id":"https://dyltec.com/notes/custom-software-vs-off-the-shelf","url":"https://dyltec.com/notes/custom-software-vs-off-the-shelf","title":"Custom software vs. off-the-shelf: when a build makes sense","content_text":"Write down one thing people need to finish. Follow it from the person who starts it to the person who takes it next. Include what happens when information is missing or something needs to stop. That is a more useful starting point than asking for a custom app.\n\nThen try an existing product against that same path. If it does the job well, buying it may be faster and less expensive than paying me to build another version.\n\nA standard website, branded radio player, or inventory list has plenty of ready-made options. Check the essential actions, how your data gets in and out, the recurring cost, and whether the people doing the work can use it.\n\nA different color scheme or one awkward label is not necessarily a reason to commission software. Configure what you can, and decide whether the remaining friction actually prevents the job from getting done.\n\nCustom software is worth a conversation when an important handoff or exception does not fit the available tools. In the warehouse example, the issue is more than counting items: a lot, its location, and a hold at the dock need to stay visible to the next person.\n\nThe radio example is smaller. It brings the stream and show clock onto a phone. The size of the build follows the job; the word “custom” does not imply a huge platform.\n\nFor a ready-made product, check the subscription, account limits, setup work, and cost of leaving. For a custom build, check the build price, hosting, updates, support, and future changes. Neither option is free to operate just because the first version exists.\n\nMy two project figures describe very different scopes: about $500 plus $20 a month for the small radio job, and $50,000 plus $2,000 a month for the warehouse platform. They are examples, not a price list for another project.\n\nAsk who owns the code, data, domain, and platform accounts, and what can be exported if the arrangement ends. With DylTec, you own the product, code, and accounts. Monthly care pays for the work of keeping it running; care stopping means hosting and support need a handover.\n\nIf you want to talk through a build, send the workflow, the options you have tried, the part that does not fit, and a budget band. I work from Dubuque with Iowa organizations and take remote projects nationwide.","date_published":"2026-09-30T12:00:00-05:00"},{"id":"https://dyltec.com/notes/monthly-care","url":"https://dyltec.com/notes/monthly-care","title":"What the monthly care fee actually is","content_text":"The build price is the thing existing. The month is the thing staying usable. I do not hand you a zip file and wish you luck with the host panel.\n\nA $20 month and a $2,000 month are the same shape. They are not the same hours. The radio app needs the stream to stay up and the grid to change when the schedule does. The warehouse needs holds, docks, and exceptions to keep matching the floor.\n\nHosting. Updates. Support. New features when the job in the building changes. I am still the person who answers. There is no ticket queue behind a brand.\n\nThe product, the code, and the accounts. I do not keep the only copy. I do not hostage the work. Source and the domain sit in your name whenever the platform allows it.\n\nCare stops. Hosting, updates, and support stop. I hand over what you own — code, data, and how to run it. If I was paying the host bill, the public URL comes down unless you take that over first. I will say so before it happens.","date_published":"2026-09-18T12:00:00-05:00"},{"id":"https://dyltec.com/notes/five-hundred-radio-app","url":"https://dyltec.com/notes/five-hundred-radio-app","title":"What $500 actually buys on the low rung","content_text":"People hear five hundred dollars and picture either a toy or a scam. Here is the real low rung: a local station whose listeners were hunting a buried URL. They needed the live stream, the show clock, and a way to keep the station on the phone.\n\nAbout $500 to build. $20 a month after, so the stream stays hosted and the grid can change. That is typical of a small live product I still take. It is not a package. It is one job.\n\nA phone app for the stream, the clock, and the lock screen. No website — the listening app is the deliverable. Enough care that a schedule change does not mean a buried URL again.\n\nA marketing campaign. A 12-station network. Push ads. A redesign every quarter because someone saw a template. If that is the job, say so in the brief and I will tell you I am the wrong shop.","date_published":"2026-09-18T12:00:00-05:00"},{"id":"https://dyltec.com/notes/sending-a-brief","url":"https://dyltec.com/notes/sending-a-brief","title":"What to put in a brief so I can answer","content_text":"The brief is not an RFP. It is not a seven-step estimate. I need a sentence I can hold, a band so we are not pretending, and a way to write you.\n\nIf you already know which rung you are near — a Saturday order button, a stream, a warehouse still on clipboards — say so. If you do not, that is fine. Mark “not sure.”\n\nI read it. There is no intake team. If I am the wrong shop I say so in the first reply. If I am the right one, we agree on a build price and a monthly care fee before I start.\n\nA 12-page deck. Equity instead of pay. A bid to shop against ten agencies. I will not pretend those into a rung.","date_published":"2026-09-18T12:00:00-05:00"}]}