code_Whisperer

Thanks, Warrenm, for your comments and questions. In the past have used far too many languages to list. What I'm currently using is mostly .Net/C#, but as explained, I grow weary of the constant tweaking, the constant confusing releases and naming conventions, etc. Yes, I will stay in webdev, and location matters not, as I work for myself and have managed to service clients all over the world, often without ever even meeting face to face. My clients range in size from single employee startups to over a dozen multinational corporations.

By "fast/efficient" I was mainly speaking about speed of execution, although speed of development/maintenance is always important. Fast/efficient means (generally, and in my case) be able to handle thousands to tens of thousands of simultaneous users on a single web server. Which I currently can handily do with no problem.

By saying "scale well" I realize that I am addressing a different skill set and cracking open a completely separate set of topics, but in general I was targeting the frameworks with that phrase. If a framework already has features baked-in for horizontal scaling then that would be a plus.

In my experience, Windows servers are always more expensive and often require a bit more horsepower (CPU and RAM) to get similar performance. Not only that, but (again - in my experience) I must then add additional solutions that generally cost more in a Windows server environment (WAF, firewall, monitoring, etc.), and which can often be had "for free" or low cost with a Linux solution.

As for your comment about "basically any language/framework will check this box," I would respectfully disagree. Although I am far from feeble-minded, I am - as mentioned - older. And even though I feel that I am as sharp as ever, growing older brings a certain resistance to change. It's not that I CAN'T learn new things, it's that I DON'T WANT to spend a lot of time and frustration making the change. If you are saying that all languages and dev environments have a similar learning curve (which I doubt you were saying) then I would have to disagree based on real-world experience. Learning APL and Lisp were very different from learning Databus and COBOL and Pascal. Learning C++ is very different from learning Cold Fusion. Etc.

But your points are well taken. Perhaps my questions are simply too broad. I was just hoping to open a discussion about tools and frameworks that people have found to be fast-executing, relatively easy to pick up, and which might bring a certain amount of joy back to web programming and getting things done, rather than being mired in minutiae. As an example, I've just seen a recent post here on Sveltekit/Svelte, which I am now researching. As another example, I've frequently heard people attribute a certain amount of happiness or joy to using Ruby/Rails.

That sounds nice.

Of course it all boils down to personal preferences, and YMMV, but I can say I've truly been enjoying the atmosphere and friendships at counter.social since leaving the other big platform.

Great question. You and I sound alike in this respect. I created a quick-and-dirty marketplace for my own portfolio (https://clearance.domains) but it does not get much traffic. I have also tried these:

- Dan.com (now part of GoDaddy)

- NameLiquidate.com (part of Epik)

- Sedo.com

- Have converted a few to stand-alone, no-maintenance sites using newsy.co (if you are open to referral links: https://www.newsy.co?r=newsyco-1000) and really dig it. But sadly, I'm pretty much convinced that trying to build any meaningful revenue solely from PPC ads is no longer a viable model.

If you find something that works for you, please let us know here.

Love that quote.

I am fortunate to be part of a book club whose members will read almost anything, but who tend to gravitate toward SF. Over the last few years we've read some amazing stuff. Here are some recommendations from my list of favorites, and which I continue to ponder many months after reading:

"This is How You Lose the Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Without a doubt one of the most amazing and beautifully-written books I've ever read (and I read a lot). Astonishing.

"Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky. If I had read the book jacket short-description of this book in a book store, I probably would have put it back on the shelf, but I am so glad I didn't do that. Seriously.

"The City and the City" by China Miéville. A difficult beginning. To be honest I had to start this book two or three times before it finally clicked, but when it did... oh man.

"The Book of Strange New Things" by Michel Faber. This is a story that has been done by a couple of other authors (notably Mary Doria Russell in "The Sparrow"). But this book is so delicate, so lovely that I have purchased and given copies to my nerdy-wordy friends more than any other. It sticks in my head and I still think about it in some way almost every week.

"Bewilderment" and "The Overstory" by Richard Powers. OK, to be frank, anything by Richard Powers is worthy of your attention. There are very few authors working today who can construct prose like this man. Perhaps his work is not for everyone, but if your brain works a certain way, you will no doubt fall in love with this guy's writing. He has many books, but for those with a sci-fi slant, also check "Galatea 2.2" and "The Gold Bug Variations"

"Exhalation" and also "Stories of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. Two collections of memorable short stories, including the story that the movie "Arrival" was based on.

"Providence" by Max Barry. Wow. This needs to be made into a movie NOW. This book was so intense at points that I had to stand up and put it down because my heart was racing. A very fun, quick read.

Some sci-fi gems that were scattered in between those listed above include: "Starplex" by Robert J. Sawyer, "The Clockwork Dynasty" by Daniel H. Wilson, "Solar Warden" by Ian Douglas, "Hench" by Natalie Zina Walschots, "The Peacemaker's Code" by Deepak Malhotra, "Hail Mary" by Andy Weir (don't let the naysayers fool you, this is a fun book with a lot of interesting ideas), and the entire "Vaz" series by Laurence Dahners.

That entire album is golden.

Thank YOU for the Hinkstep

Tigran Hamasyan is a musical genius, and this is the most interesting and memorable piece I've seen/heard over the last couple of years. I still get chills whenever I watch it:

https://youtu.be/z7j7bdEPSd0

(if interested, I post an eclectic pick like this each day over on counter.social under the tag #codesmusic, and almost never a mainstream piece)

What an incredible read! Thanks to all who responded.

Thought I should toss my own response into the mix. For a long time I've sent little (hopefully) helpful emails to fellow entrepreneur's websites letting them know about misspellings, script errors, and other issues. Never as criticism, but rather as an attempt to be helpful. I close by letting them know about my service at https://www.picnits.com/ Almost all send back an email with profuse thank you's, but I've still not landed a single customer for picnits. What I thought was a great idea is apparently not. I suppose I can just keep the site live, but it has become discouraging.

I also have a graveyard website littered with the bones of all my past startups, as well as projects I did for clients that either failed to generate positive cash flow or (more likely) never got launched. For various personal reasons I am now starting to offload all of the domains to try and recover some of the time and cash investment. Ironically, this website has ALSO made zero dollars. :-) If you want to see my boneyard of domain names, shoot me an email (address in profile) and I'll send you a link. I don't want to post it here publicly because I started this post out of a genuine curiosity about other peoples' projects, not to try and sell stuff.

Thanks for introducing us to your products. Glad to have found you (and I just ordered a couple!)

Ah yes. Those types of projects can be expensive but - with care and attention - will reap tremendous reward in your lifetime (and beyond).

Congrats! :-)

Fascinating, thanks for sharing! (fellow musician/composer)

Thank you for sharing. I really dig the PartisanPlayground site/idea. Very well executed. As for the idea to extend that as a service to analyze other types of data, it sounds fascinating. When you say "others", do you have an idea who your target market would be? (e.g. government? enterprise? SMBs)?

AWESOME

First, happy birthday.

Second, this is pretty cool. I'll be checking it out more over the weekend, thanks for sharing it.

It can be a struggle, for sure. Personally, I am driven (for some unknown reason that seems bigger than potential income) to create new things, and am swamped (plagued?) by dozens of new ideas every week. Not just in tech, but also in art, writing, music and more. I'll be the first to admit, I've had plenty of stinkers, and on occasion it took someone I trusted to be bluntly honest with me before I would give up on an idea. For an embarrassing, personal example of this, see nubbers.com, which made exactly THREE sales over 3+ years before I finally shut it down. Although my friends and family still use the product - for free, of course.

But I guess in the end, it comes down to what you believe. Do YOU think it's a good idea? Are you willing to fight for it? If your answer is "yes", then keep going. Ask yourself what you would do if someone cloned your product overnight and started selling it... what would you do to make your original product or idea better and compete against them? How would you reposition and regroup to fend off this tedious interloper? Or would you just throw in the towel? Ask yourself if you might be able do some guerilla marketing. Take a group of your friends to pertinent trade shows, all of you wearing shirts emblazoned with your website or product name, just wandering around. Make business cards with special offers and leave them in random office building restrooms (or bars or clubs or whatever makes sense for your product). Find a related product with whom you can partner and ride each other's coattails. Hire some social influencers to mention your brand. Create giveaways and contests. Yada^3.

If you believe in it, don't give up and do what it takes!

Sound interesting, tried checking on it but getting a "NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID" notice (NOT a criticism, just an FYI)

I was interested to understand the concept behind this service, went to the site and clicked the Docs link, but got " Not Found". Can you provide a simplified explanation for the concept behind the site? Thanks!

Strong concept. One of my clients does CE training and I currently have to create new PDF certificates whenever they create a new course or move info a new state. Have you thought about casting this as a simple API and charging devs like me for it? I would just pass along the cost to the client, maybe with a bit of a markup. Or maybe even better (for you), I'd instruct the client to bank $10 at a time with you (recharge their account) and maybe that would allow me to generate 100 certs (or whatever makes sense here) before they have to recharge and deposit more.

If you are interested, I'd also recommend that you check out Michael Essek's YouTube channel (no affiliation, just like his stuff). He is a very successful t-shirt designer who sells books and materials to help people design stuff like this, but he also dispenses a LOT of free advice on his YouTube channel, if you are lucky he'll even critique your design on his show and give you advice on how to improve! Check https://www.michaelessek.com/ or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@MichaelEssek

Holy schnikees, I learned something new today. Thanks!

Unsolicited feedback: If this were also offered as a web-based application I'd probably use it (sitting at my desk all day I don't want to use my mobile device for music). Maybe sell rotating ads or sponsorships (on screen but not in the audio stream, please!) to make some $.

Very cool.

Thanks for sharing. I like! One of my own current side hustles involves creating and selling t-shirts, hoodies, caps, etc. just like you. And also like you, I had ZERO luck trying to sell them in my own store (Shopify, WooCommerce). However, when I listed them on popular DTG-type sites, they started selling, and now sell several hundred $ per month. I'm talking Teepublic, Redbubble, Spreadshirt, etc. I didn't initially want to go that route because I thought making $2 or $3 per shirt sounded pretty crappy when I could have my own store and maybe make $15-$25 per garment. And also have control over my client base. But hey, a few hundred $ per month at $2-3 per shirt profit is almost infinitely better than $ZERO per month at $20 profit. I dunno, maybe give it a try? :-)

This is... awesome! Great concept!

Thanks for posting this, I like low-budget and obscure, so you just found yourself a new subscriber!

Very cool!

Throughout my life I have found that hard times like what you describe are often the best motivator to start something new. This is an OPPORTUNITY my friend, so don't guess, just get out there and DO. :-)

Strange, might be an edge case, I tried and it worked for me.

I think this has potential for a certain target audience. Not a criticism, but feedback: if I stumbled on this site I'd have no idea what it was about based on the current landing page. Will you be adding an intro/description about what the site is for? :-)

There are pros and cons. Some self-hosting PROs are that you can add essentially unlimited mailboxes and new domains without paying more in monthly fees. Have a new weekend startup idea? Set up your emails yourself for 0 additional mail hosting $. Another pro: Complete control over everything (which could also be considered a con if you don't want more work). Want to set up a catchall? Want to redirect a single incoming email to multiple recipients? Want to get a copy of all emails sent by one email account for backup? Pretty straightforward. Some CONs are that you will be adding yet another set of admin and monitoring duties, which will be dramatically compounded if you host emails for more than just your own interests (e.g. if you also decide to host email for your friends, family or clients). You'll also need to be pretty fluent in SPF, DKIM and possibly DMARC, although that is something you'd probably need anyway if you are a startup and buying your own domains. You'll also need some security, since mailservers tend to get more brute-force break-in attempts than web servers. At least in my experience. And you'll also need to be on top of blacklist monitoring services and learn how to request blacklist removals. Oh! And you'll need to decide if you want virus checking for suspicious emails and attachments. Oh! And a spam filtering solution! For your specific question, have a backup at all times, even if it's only the barebones mailserver environment itself, so that you can quickly restore to a new box and be back up (although you'll still need to change your DNS settings for all impacted domains and wait for that to propagate) TLDR; If you want complete control and want to pay one price for almost unlimited domains and mailboxes, self-hosting is great, but beware the added workload and headache.