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x0t

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Ruby Developer. I'm known as 'nilmethod' elsewhere.

http://altbit.org http://www.hackernewsers.com/users/x0t.html

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I've updated the landing page with a FAQ that addresses this. The point is that you don't have to actively look for news, it's sent to you on regular intervals.

There are plenty of Go related blogs, this simply aggregates the week's highlights for you.

Shuush 15 years ago

My guess was on shell, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Consulting by night to bootstrap a couple of products while working a day job as the "Infrastructure Administrator" (read: netadmin managing linux boxen) for a small municipality to feed the wife and son.

Not sure when the day job will end, but it's soul sucking work.

- E-mail/calendar/docs: Google Apps

- Hosting: Linode

- Invoicing: Google Docs, Billings Pro

- Project management: Pivotal Tracker, Basecamp

- File-sharing: Dropbox, UbuntuOne

- Version control: Git (via Github)

- Instant messaging: Skype, AIM, GTalk/XMPP

Congrats to DataMarketplace, hopefully they made some scratch off the deal. I hope Infochimps decides to lower their commission, 50% is a bit steep.

Maybe this explains the issues with DataMarketplace in the past few months.

> Seriously consider having the baby sleep in your bed with you, especially if you/your spouse are breastfeeding.

We've got our little one in a cradle next to the bed and my wife is breastfeeding. This is just as convenient, if not moreso than having him in the bed. I sleep like a rock and I'm concerned about squishing the poor guy.

> Don't waste your money on a change table. You will change that baby's diaper wherever you need to do it. (We've changed our baby's diaper in the trunk of our car.)

Our changing table has a ton of room for storage and can become a dresser for the kid later in life. Our house isn't that big (1750sq ft), so we take him to his room to be changed. It saves a lot of bending over and I think my back is better for it. Additionally, it keeps all the necessary supplies at hand. We have changed him in the trunk, as well. I think it's a rite of passage...

> Get in the habit of keeping a utility bag with you at all times.

This. Always have baby supplies (and parent supplies) with you.

As for the attachment parenting, we have a mobi-wrap and a baby bjorn. I use the hell out of the bjorn, but the mobi-wrap is a bit of a hassle (it's a giant strip of black fabric). My wife, however, loves the mobi. Find some sort of baby carrier that works for you, they're indispensable.

EDIT: Also, look for a crib that can be adjusted over time. We picked one up that goes from crib, to deeper crib, to twin sized bed, so our son can potentially use it for years to come.

I just had a little boy on 05 OCT 2010. The biggest thing I've noticed is I no longer have much time for my side projects (freelancing) outside of my day job (network administrator). I have to cram fits of coding into little hour blocks of time when the kid is asleep, it's not very productive.

I'm not terribly exhausted, but I am tired. I'm still interested in all the things I was previously interested in, but I have to focus on the kid now and put those things aside until he's old enough to communicate better and isn't near as helpless.

Lastly, I don't know that he gives me inspiration so much as motivation. Previously I worked to pay the bills so my wife would be comfortable, now it's for my son and wife. If I was single, my living requirements would be far less. I'd likely have a small shack in the middle of nowhere and far fewer possessions. That being said, I love my family and my life as it stands. I wouldn't have it any other way.

From the comments:

"There is a third kind of manager, who is typically a ‘nice guy’ who doesn’t have a problem with chicken suits or a bit of browsing or working time as long as the job gets done but micro-manages the crap out you stopping by every 15 minutes to see ‘how you’re getting on’, just like Dick. Micro-management sucks ass"

I think the third kind of manager is almost worse than Dick. Micromanagement makes getting anything done near impossible. I've taken to wearing headphones at the office and generally ignoring my manager due to him falling into the third category. The phrase "How are you doing over there?" makes my eye twitch these days.

It would be easier to stand up against Dick, assuming you have nothing to lose by losing the job. Usually the third category is the type to have his/her feelings hurt and resort to personal attacks should you question their management style.

Just my personal experience, I realize that's probably a sweeping generalization.

I was always dismantling things as a child. Remote control cars, clocks, lawn mowers, etc. I had a strong desire to just learn how things "worked."

I picked up a Tandy 1000HX second hand when I was probably 9 or 10 years old. I mowed a ton of lawns to get a hard drive for that machine. Shortly thereafter, I received a 486 and a handful of Walnut Creek CDs of various (dated) Linux/BSD distributions. I'm still not sure how those CDs came into my possession, I believe they were passed on to me from a friend.

I spent some time BBSing and learning to write shell scripts. On a couple of BBSes, I read hacking and phreaking text files and started to learn C/Assembly. It was free knowledge as our library was lacking in tech books and I rarely got to go to a bookstore. I also developed a fascination with radio, telephony, and basic electronics.

Three to four years later, the family decided it was time we had a computer (that we could all use). They picked up a 90Mhz box from HP that I promptly installed Linux on and used it to play games, program, and read any sort of documentation I could get my hands on. I also branched out into Perl and started writing small applications with it. We got Internet access about this time and I spent hours saving/absorbing documentation and tutorials from gopher/www/ftp sites.

In my late teens, I took on a job at the local Radio Shack repairing busted electronics. I learned quite a bit there, but electronics these days are disposable, so I had to find other work. I was doing penetration testing on the side for quick cash and ended up getting a contract for the City I lived in. After I finished the job, I got hired on as an intern in the IT department while going through college.

In university, I carried a double major in Computer Science and Pure Mathematics while also attending the local community college for Network Administration. I never finished either degree as I was offered a full time job as Network Administrator at the City. I took the job, quit school, and got married.

During the year or two before I dropped out of school, I learned Ruby with some friends from the ACM at the university and began doing freelance development.

So here I am today, Network Administrator for a small municipality and part time freelance Ruby developer. I'd really like to ditch the ties of my day job and get a full time development job or break out into my own business, but I'm trying to save up some buffer before I decide to take the leap.

If it's family, they're running Ubuntu, so I use VNC to connect and resolve the issue (hopefully educating them along the way). My wife and I share a machine at home, so I suppose that one doesn't count.

I generally tell friends that I'm not familiar enough with Windows to resolve the issue in a timely manner. I also tell them that I would have to google the problem and they'd be better sending it to a specialist. Afterwards, I refer them to a couple of breakfix shops.

I tell co-workers that it'd be a conflict of interest and I don't do any "computer work" outside of our company.

Anyone else gets a polite "no."

I think perhaps it depends on the school you choose. I went through 6 years of college without obtaining that piece of paper. I bounced from electrical engineering, to pure mathematics, to computer science, and eventually to network administration.

I've been doing freelance development for around 5 years now and have been a network admin for a small municipality for 7 years. All the while I've been involved in open source projects and a few tool building projects that I apply to all of my jobs.

The experience I had in college was bitter. The CS department wasn't teaching anything useful. The only two classes from the dept. that taught me anything were Data Structures and Algorithms. They were unfortunately taught in Java (the school moved from C courses to Java in my second year there). Everything else was knowledge that I had learned on my own prior to college.

I found the pure mathematics courses to be more interesting and useful. Discrete mathematics being the most useful for development. I think the course taught me better ways to approach problems, not just the mathematics itself.

People I've worked with who have degrees seem to have a very focused skillset. They know a lot of theory, but lack a lot of practical knowledge because (I assume) they don't care to educate themselves further. I'm not making a sweeping generalization here, just an observation. There are plenty of college graduates with a ton of practical knowledge.

As mentioned, I don't have a degree, but I think I'm doing OK career/job wise. I can provide for my family and enjoy what I do.

If you don't go to college, get as much experience as you can. Many employers will ask for a four year degree OR equivalent experience. If you want to be a developer, learn other disciplines that tie into development (such as system administration) while you're writing code. In doing so, you'll be less dependent on others to get your job done and you'll be better adjusted to most any position. Understand the foundations of your work. Additionally, learn to speak/write well.

Colleges seem to focus not on learning, but completing the tasks required to obtain a degree. It's mechanical in nature and you only get out of college what you put into it. If you go, be willing to go deeper than the coursework.