Viewing profile — zapperdapper

Depends. What are your objectives? Why are you learning it? Is PHP your first language? Are you trying to get a job, get general stuff done, or have a specific project in mind? Are…

I see where you are coming from, but I have a built a few big XML processing tools in PHP that run quite happily on the command line. Having said that, it was a few years back, and…

Actually COVID stopped a planned relocation for me. To be more exact, I tend to split time between two main locations and was planning to increase the time in the other location, b…

It sounds like quitting to take a less stressful (but probably less well paid) job would be a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I would think seriously about taking some s…

Had the same problem. I just write a blog for myself primarily, with notes on the things I'm working on, code, tools etc. I'm surprised by how often I go back and read my own artic…

For me still Python. It just makes it easier for me to build solutions to the everyday problems I need to solve. When I have a little itch that needs scratching Python is what I re…

I wrote my own static site generator in Python. Source format is GitHub-flavoured Markdown. Both VSCode and Emacs have nice plugins for Markdown. Nothing fancy but it does the job.…

I think this is good advice. Tune in to problems. Listening is harder than it seems because we tend to apply our own filters. For example, I did some work for a friend in a non-IT …

Move on. You deserve a better company than that.

If you really must! A little static site generator is a nice one. The great thing is, it's the kind of thing you can pick up whenever you have a spare few minutes, as there's alway…

My thoughts exactly - some very long walks in the fresh air and some good nights of sleep would be my top priority!

In 3 weeks!? If you want something tricky a compacting memory allocator in C should be doable in 3 weeks. Maybe I'm just slow! :(

I had a similar thing about a decade or so ago. Thought I might be able to wrangle a (part) remote gig with them. No dice. There's no way I was going to commute to London every day…

It's real deja vu looking at this thread. Many of the questions/comments here are exactly the same ones that came up in the early 1990s with Taos on CiX, and then later with Elate/…

I have a friend that turns time allocated for other things into paid time. For example, she got certified as a Spin coach, so takes classes a couple of times a week and gets paid t…

Yes, the peace of mind that comes with it is a good point. I do really appreciate that aspect.

Yeah most companies in Europe I would say. Even in a non-unlimited PTO company you'd get at least 25 days (paid) typically plus 8 paid public holidays in addition. At some companie…

On your first point: In UK there is a minimum usage by law . For full-time workers that's 28 days paid leave and that includes typically 8 public holidays. Not sure if that applies…

I'm currently on DTO (Discretionary Time Off) and it works great. Last year I took 7 weeks paid. If I'd had a decent justification I could have taken more. Some colleagues took a l…

I have some recent experience of this where a friend switched into web dev from a totally unrelated (non-computer) field. Originally she was looking at Python/security as a path, b…

Difficult question. But look at the closest competitors and see what they charge perhaps? For example, take a look at Cockroach Labs, or MySQL InnoDB Cluster, or one of the many da…

Useful starting point? https://developer.nexmo.com/contribute/guides/writing-style-...

Stack Jobs has, or at least had, a feature where you can specify you're interested in "remote only".

Your income is mostly a function of the value you create and deliver. It could be you were not creating or delivering enough value. You say you can create static sites? That's a go…

Surprisingly common to feel like this. You've done 4 years. Hope you've been saving hard. You should be able to take a year out and rest up and see what takes your fancy - you migh…