wenbert

I was a full-time programmer. The job I was in was draining my energy and programming became really boring. While I had the job, I worked on the side developing websites. I also had a bunch of pet-projects for fun - hopefully people will use them and I can earn more money. But fast forward a few years, programming wasn't fun anymore. I was too tired to finish my projects.

So, I quit my job and moved to a non-programming job. The pay as of now, is not that high, but I am happier. The job is fairly easy on the brain. That means less stress and I have more time to think while I am at home coding my personal project.

Maybe my programming job sucked or it was something else. I could go on like this until I finish my personal project.

Well, my designs are mostly 960px wide because I use Blueprint CSS. Saves me a lot of time. Time is money. The faster I finish things, the more projects I can do on the side, the more money I make.

I feel that I owe John Resig a lot.

IMHO, I am more concerned about Google Apps. If they decide to do something "evil" on it, then I am dead.

Google Search on the other hand; I can use Bing or other alternatives easily without actual loss.

Blueprint CSS is really good. I have saved to much time using a CSS framework rather than coding all the CSS myself.

I am not one of the biggest fans of Wordpress but after working with Wordpress 3 I was surprised how easy it was to fully develop a theme. The dynamic menus for me where one of the biggest time-savers for me. I've had so many problems with clients wanting different stuff on the main menu.

I sub-contract quick Wordpress jobs, code on my pet-projects during my free time and work on my day-job. So any improvements on Wordpress affects a lot of my routine - I can do more stuff :D

This is really interesting. I work for a company that maps the seabed and generating 3D models is part of the job. We have an application that renders the points into a 3D model. For this, how do you go about rendering the map? Got any tips? Where should I start?

Time and practice are the best teachers. If you can tell what (you think) looks good, then you have already solved half of your problem. Spend a few hours tweaking and improving on a design until you are able to come up with a design that you like. Look for inspiration on movies, photographs, nature or other websites.

I remember spending a couple of days on my old website design. I listened a lot to soma.fm and I noticed that the music kept me focused on the design I was working on. I remember dreaming about what I am going to tweak/change the next time I opened Photoshop.

Also, learning to imagine and think ahead on "how to do this and that in HTML/CSS" will save you a lot of time and effort.

Right, I was about to say Vim myself. Especially with the project manager plugin and NERDTree - it works like charm. I am on Windows and Putty is always a life-saver for me.

Thanks. NFSN looks really awesome - but the pricing is a bit too complicated. Right now, I am with Webhostingbuzz and I get a warning for using too much CPU from time to time.

Kiva / Kickstarter is very interesting. I wished I have heard of these sites right before my "busy season".

Right now, I am planning to save up so that I can get a Linode for one year.

Try http://www.philweavers.net - I am not sure how it is now, but I have had a bunch of clients from their old site.

I think most people there are from Luzon - the biggest island in the Philippines - has the biggest city - so it is probably more expensive there than to get someone from Cebu. http://www.mynimo.com/ is local to Cebu. Or you could try JobsDB.com OR Jobstreet.com (almost all the big companies in my place advertise in JobsDB.com and Jobstreet.com)

What sort of skills are you looking for? I know some people who can run Linux boxes.

Edit: Just contact me through my email in my profile since I am a bit busy at the moment to check HN regularly.

Hopefully it will be cheaper. $20/month might sound very cheap but for some guys (like myself) living in 3rd world countries, it's almost next to impossible.

Although the article has valid points, banning these words would be the last thing on my mind. I think it is all about creating a better experience for your users/readers.

I used to work an American company it started to pay well but then the US economy got hit a few years ago.

Working on the weekends is not related on the day job. I do other stuff online to make extra money. It's funny, now that I have thought of it, I have been doing sidejobs longer than my dayjob. I had sidejobs since at the 2nd year of college.

Also, I forgot to post that I am shifting careers. Now, I code on my free time - for fun! I now work for a Norwegian surveying company. I spend a lot of time in a ship inside the survey room. Still computer related but I with less hours :D and hopefully bigger pay.

While many people here may disagree with this; this is very real in the Philippines. Maybe in your country, you are compensated for your efforts. But here, when you are working you never feel you are compensated enough. Seriously, the basic salary here isn't enough to raise a family. It isn't even enough to buy yourself a decent and healthy meal daily.

That is why many programmers here, code themselves to death here. I have many friends who are very unhealthy because they have to work 2 or 3 jobs at the same time. Coffee and cigarettes seem to make them think faster (BTW, I haven't had a cigarette in over a month, so yay for me) or probably they do not have enough time for other pleasures aside from these.

I myself used to work 9.6 hours (that's with no overtime) from Mondays to Fridays. When I got home I work an extra 6 hours on the internet. On weekends, I work at least 8 hours. And I still live with my mom because I still can't afford to live alone and have an internet connection.

Working your mind off I think is as hard ass working physically. At least my brother, who is a nurse can sleep soundly at night without thinking about solving anything. He can rest his mind and his body. I on the other cannot rest my mind and therefore it is impossible for me to rest my body.

I love to code that is why I do what I do. But sometimes, posts like these come up from time to time. Also, I think this is more of a problem with the entire system here.

FYI: Nurses here are paid dirt shit. Not even above the minimum wage: about 240PHP a day and a Big Mac is about 150PHP. They are paid less than the floor cleaners in the hospital and the hospital treats them like shit. I can easily make 3 to 4 times from what he gets per month. He chose this career because there is an opportunity for him to go to another country where he gets paid what he deserves. He is really good at his job and he has a passion for it. Too bad the hospitals treat their nurses like disposable cups.

Agree. Even by jogging for about 30 minutes to an hour a few days a week solved my lower back pains.

I am not regretting my decision to move away from Apple and it's products.

The first thing that came to my mind when I read the title is "wtf". What a really bad move. I wonder how much more can the app developers take.

Online payments are not mainstream here. So my friends try to avoid paying for anything as much as possible.

My brother uses an iPod Touch. He has never paid for apps. I know this because he doesn't have a credit card and is still in school. He just uses it to browse the internet and listen to music -- like most people here who has WiFi on their phones.

No. The Apple Stores do not sell them at full price. You must buy one from the carriers. Great isn't it?

The people I know buy their phones from people who come from the US. Most I know people use online forums and meet in person for the payment. Online payments really do not work here in the Philippines (not mainstream).

Also, shipping is expensive here because the Philippines is an archipelago :(

You are right. Carriers here (Philippines) charge way too much for the iPhone that it will be insane and impractical for the average working guy to get one. And they tie you up for 2 years. I mean WTF.

Philippines here. Everybody I know has their iPhones and iPod Touches jailbroken.

> That we could use the Django admin rather than create custom entry forms I think saved us 2 months work.

Wow! I agree with this. I was able to "preview" Django a few months back and I was blown away by the way it creates the admin forms. It almost feels like cheating ;)

The only thing that is keeping me from using Linux fulltime is Photoshop.

I had to literally get my officemates to see that video. It is unbelievable.

Speaking of names, I own doqdoq.com (read as: dokdok - it's the sound you make when you type in your keyboard) and I am open to ideas. Email me if interested. You have to admit, it "sounds" like DuckduckGo but easier to type. It would also make a really cool logo with the "d" and the "q" together.

Seabed surveying (sonar, etc) - Hopefully, I will be able to travel a lot with the projects.

Thank you for this. A few months ago, I quit my job (developer) to pursue something else that is totally new to me. I am on training right now and I have never been so relaxed in my working life. The job also allows me to travel a lot (I do not have a family yet, so I guess this is plus points).

Right now, I do a little programming at night to work on my pet projects. Within a few months programming became a lobby and I am starting to love it again.

Also cheap plastic lighters. I didn't expect it. It's probably because birds are attracted to "colorful" objects.

I whole-heartedly agree. This can be done in flash/html5/etc + browser on a mobile device.

Surveying. I get to do a lot of travelling. I am still in the very early stages/training though. But I am looking forward to everything.

I have been doing side jobs since college - around 2003/2004 until now. All of my clients are not from Elance/Rent-a-coder/etc. Most of them however sent me an email from a "local" community site of web developers.

I always tell me clients that I have a 8/9-hour day job. I update the client every few days through email. Sometimes I work at night and sometimes I don't. When I work at night, I spend around 4 hours maximum -- average is 2 hours. On the weekends, 6 hours. I was still able to go out with friends and have fun. Mostly TV time and video games were cut-off - except for a brief 2 month re-play of Diablo II :P

I do mainly web development / web design.

Right now, I am trying out a new career that doesn't involve the internet. But still though, on my free time I work on pet projects I have listed down a few years back.