drrob

My thoughts exactly; I can remember reading that the first time around on HN/Reddit.

I've worked in places with open offices that have a no-headphone policy, so I was pretty scuppered in this regard.

"What you really need is time". This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This. This...this.

Over the last 6 months I've finally had the chance to a big bulk of my working hours to my main side-project, and it's taking shape very nicely. This is after starting it 3 years ago. Time and concentration are the biggest hurdles to getting anything off the ground.

I removed mine as soon as I'd gotten my first post-university job. The thesis part of my CV was only a single paragraph, if I recall correctly, so it was mostly a bit of filler.

If I also remember correctly my CV was shit at that time. I've gotten so much better at writing them as time has gone by.

Prior to having any "real world" experience on there I'd say yes: bung it on. Once you've clocked up some actual solid work experience I'd remove it though.

Incidentally, and in no way related to the discussion, "Chatty" in Nottinghamshire (UK) speak means "unclean or dirty".

Realistic example in a sentence: "Pigpen from Peanuts worra right chatty bastard."

Quite simply: brilliant.

I read this book about a month ago, it's excellent.

Indeed, though I suppose you've got to hope that the keeper of the passwords gets their hands on a similar level of processing power as the attackers do, with which they can increase the encryption work factor.

Or some curious, thousands-of-computers strong grid-based cracking enterprise. I suppose, even constrained by the current state of tech, cracking bcrypt with some kind of massively parallel dictionary attack isn't entirely unfeasible.

I suppose the main danger is the possibility that someone might, at some point in the future if processing power should suddenly take a leap forward, come up with a way to crack them.

I'll bite, how do you want to get in touch to discuss?

Couldn't agree with you more; out of the half dozen bouts of serious depression I've had in my life (I'm 32) only 1 of them had a series of direct triggers. The rest had no basis, and this is what makes them all the more discomforting; you know in your bones that there is simply nothing you can rectify in your life to make them go away.

Completely agree. There is something massively satisfying about surrounding your colony with ploughed fields and roads into the mountains, maximising the resource gain. And finally recruiting a proper blacksmith to make tools, as opposed to the Firebrand Preacher I've had temping for him for ages.

I'm English, and I have never used or even heard the phrase "host it on physical tin" before.

Then again, I just tend to say "hosted on our own hardware" or just simply "self-hosted".

We've used a local PR firm for our UK e-learning business (tuitionkit.com). We got a few newspots in local papers and the like, but nothing too groundbreaking that put us on the map. I'm not entirely sure it's the perfect fit for us.

The key point about engaging PR folks is that the longer you give them in advance of launch the better. We contacted them about 2 months before we launched (we launched back in April, so it was February time) and they said they like at least a 6 month run up to do the best job they can.

In the past I've worked under Giant and Parasol. I used Giant back in 2008 when I wasn't sure if I was staying in contracting for forever. All umbrellas are much of a muchness; there's a legal limit on how much tax efficiency they can help you with, so you'll take home the same with whoever you choose. In the long term a limited company is definitely the way to go.

Agree entirely. All my contracts come through recruiters, and I've never had a problem with them, once you get a good rapport going with a decent contract recruiter they'll do all the hard work for you.

Indeed, I wasn't writing that solidly until into my 20s.

For a couple of years, back in 2008-2009, I had a freelance support gig with a former employer who I'd built a system for when I was a permie. We didn't have any real solid agreement on my availability, and the deal was for £100 a week, paid 4 times a year. I'd moved on to contracting, so I had to juggle my new full-time work with the support phone calls.

I'd stick with keeping it separate, rather than the higher hourly wage. I'd also try and put a limit on the amount they can contact you (perhaps a maximum number of hours per day), as I had occasions when for weeks I'd have no phone calls, and then on one day spend 6-7 hours on the phone to them.

Typically I'd say give it at least 6 months before making a decision about whether you'd want to stay in the job. Obviously at 4 months in you've already given it some time, but a little longer won't hurt (well, clearly from what you've said it will hurt, but I'd hang on a little longer, just to see if things suddenly 'click').

On the other side of the spectrum; I began a contract job about this time last year...and I gave it 4 days before jacking it in. The job was just awful, but the people weren't the problem; it was the system we were working on (their revamped mobile website). It was already a year late (and still unreleased to do this very day) and architected from scratch by another contractor in a weird and unorthodox way. It was painful to work with, and as a contractor you feel like you should "know your shit"; it's embarrassing to have to keep asking the permies how the hell something works. Fortunately for me IT contract jobs are plentiful in the UK at the moment, but I'm guessing you're not in quite such a cushy situation.

Wow. Even just this little summary had me hooked, you should write the whole tale up in full, you'd get readers in droves.

If we define a "failed project" as one that someone has worked on and then shelved when it didn't gain traction, then I think that perhaps a more common scenario is that of the Zombie Project; after spending so much work on something you can't bear to shut it down, so you leave it ticking over, not updating anything and not attracting any new users. Until you pronounce the project officially "dead" it's not a failure...until then it'll just keep limping along. I think recognising when a project has gone "zombie" and having the balls to kill it off is massively important, both for time, sanity and closure's sake.

I posted this on my site a few weeks ago, detailing my most recent failed project. "Failure" might be a harsh description in my case, but "success" hardly seems appropriate either.

How Not to Build Phone Apps: The Story of Twelve Gauge Software: http://drewrobey.com/articles/bydatepublished/2014-09-09