Developer Side Projects
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I tend to always think I need to invest more time into my non-work related projects, be it writing or programming. I typically do an hour a day outside of work hours. I'll be starting a new development project this week which will really just be an enviroment for me to play about with a few new technologies and techniques but could possibly lead to more. My questions to everyone and anyone is? 1. How often do you develop outside of work? 2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point? 3. What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer) www.simonshugar.co.uk "If something goes by a false name, would it mean that thing is fake? False by nature?" By Gilbert Durandil
1. used to be close to 40hours. now it's almost none at all. 2. both. 3. http://www.smalleranimals.com
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So how do you "sharpen your saw" and learn stuff that you don't have available at work? How do you keep your skills relevant and up to date?
I have time at work for that. I develop industrial software (machine control, data aqusition, etc...) and I'm encouraged to seek out resources for furthering my skill level.
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Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
1. How often do you develop outside of work?
I'd say that anywhere from 25% to 50% of my time, I'm developing stuff outside of work. For example, most of these[^] are things I've worked on to further my knowledge of Ruby on Rails, and that doesn't include my latest venture, arctiores.herokuapp.com (ugh, I just noticed the nbsp's!) which is still a work in progress, I'll eventually publish an article on the core stuff and the UI is really raw for prototyping and playing around.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point?
Both. And the third category is, enhancing my "portfolio", aka resume.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
3. What do you like to work on outside of work?
I love metadata concepts and looking at new and different ways to work with technologies, data, databases, relationships between data, and just goofing around with different concepts. This is also the impetus for a lot of my articles. Besides programming, I also am involved with some interesting community stuff, like generosity communities, needs & gifts, investment opportunity networks, spiritual studies (yes, I have strong spiritual convictions as well.) Sometimes there's a synergy between my non-programming activities and what I do programming wise. The needs & gifts site and the Arctiores site are examples. And of course, I love writing, and CP is a great outlet for that. Oh, and I'm learning to play the lyre. A lovely instrument! Marc
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote:
:-D I had to do the href tag manually because the URL didn't start with "http" and I was being hasty! Marc
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I tend to always think I need to invest more time into my non-work related projects, be it writing or programming. I typically do an hour a day outside of work hours. I'll be starting a new development project this week which will really just be an enviroment for me to play about with a few new technologies and techniques but could possibly lead to more. My questions to everyone and anyone is? 1. How often do you develop outside of work? 2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point? 3. What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer) www.simonshugar.co.uk "If something goes by a false name, would it mean that thing is fake? False by nature?" By Gilbert Durandil
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point?
It never starts of like a project; it often happens when you want to try some code and keep adding. "I've never solved the travelling salesman problem" "Geocoding? Never heard of it, time to Google" "Now how do I get the distance between two points?" "It'd be cool if I could show that path on a map" "Can I run this when I boot into Ubuntu?" "That's weird, it doesn't compile anymore - where did those 40 compile-errors come from?" ..and just as you want to get some sleep, you look at the time and wonder if the sun is up already.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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I tend to always think I need to invest more time into my non-work related projects, be it writing or programming. I typically do an hour a day outside of work hours. I'll be starting a new development project this week which will really just be an enviroment for me to play about with a few new technologies and techniques but could possibly lead to more. My questions to everyone and anyone is? 1. How often do you develop outside of work? 2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point? 3. What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer) www.simonshugar.co.uk "If something goes by a false name, would it mean that thing is fake? False by nature?" By Gilbert Durandil
I'm working on a web site for a local speed shop after hours (barter for labor on future planned work)
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
1. How often do you develop outside of work?
I'd say that anywhere from 25% to 50% of my time, I'm developing stuff outside of work. For example, most of these[^] are things I've worked on to further my knowledge of Ruby on Rails, and that doesn't include my latest venture, arctiores.herokuapp.com (ugh, I just noticed the nbsp's!) which is still a work in progress, I'll eventually publish an article on the core stuff and the UI is really raw for prototyping and playing around.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point?
Both. And the third category is, enhancing my "portfolio", aka resume.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
3. What do you like to work on outside of work?
I love metadata concepts and looking at new and different ways to work with technologies, data, databases, relationships between data, and just goofing around with different concepts. This is also the impetus for a lot of my articles. Besides programming, I also am involved with some interesting community stuff, like generosity communities, needs & gifts, investment opportunity networks, spiritual studies (yes, I have strong spiritual convictions as well.) Sometimes there's a synergy between my non-programming activities and what I do programming wise. The needs & gifts site and the Arctiores site are examples. And of course, I love writing, and CP is a great outlet for that. Oh, and I'm learning to play the lyre. A lovely instrument! Marc
Marc Clifton wrote:
I love metadata concepts and looking at new and different ways to work with technologies, data, databases, relationships between data
Multidimensional databases are cool stuff, just wish I had more time to build them rather than fix what others have broken.
Common sense is admitting there is cause and effect and that you can exert some control over what you understand.
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Marc Clifton wrote:
I love metadata concepts and looking at new and different ways to work with technologies, data, databases, relationships between data
Multidimensional databases are cool stuff, just wish I had more time to build them rather than fix what others have broken.
Common sense is admitting there is cause and effect and that you can exert some control over what you understand.
S Douglas wrote:
just wish I had more time to build them rather than fix what others have broken.
Amen to that. I've been in "upgrade" and "debug" mode for the last year on a couple projects. I end up doing a lot of personal stuff because otherwise I would be starved--architecture and design is really what I love, and I only *really* like coding when it's on a new project, rather than working around the tragedies of others' code. Marc
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Almost never. I get enough of it at work.
I thought the same. Then I downloaded my personal code from FTP and put it onto a machine for a work-related monitoring project. It felt like falling in love. I love my personal projects, in a way I'm not allowed to at work because I'm constantly forced to 'leave my ego outside', or I get reassigned or because somebody tells me how to do it. If only people understood ownership of projects, the work would be better, more enjoyable and more efficient. Pair Programming?
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I tend to always think I need to invest more time into my non-work related projects, be it writing or programming. I typically do an hour a day outside of work hours. I'll be starting a new development project this week which will really just be an enviroment for me to play about with a few new technologies and techniques but could possibly lead to more. My questions to everyone and anyone is? 1. How often do you develop outside of work? 2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point? 3. What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer) www.simonshugar.co.uk "If something goes by a false name, would it mean that thing is fake? False by nature?" By Gilbert Durandil
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
How often do you develop outside of work?
Not as often as I wish. Most of the time I have little to no available time (pun intended) to devote to any personal (or otherwise) pursuits outside of work an family.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point?
Generally personal. Though I have 2 projects I would like to promote commercially.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
Games. Browser based (HTML5/Canvas/javascript) and tabletop (board games). Then again, my latest project was a life-sized drawing of a Barbie I made on the door of my daughters' room to use as a ruler for measuring their height progress. It's a Barbie drawing with a ruler on the side, where I mark each one's height and date measured. They're 4 and 2 years old now.
Φευ! Εδόμεθα υπό ρηννοσχήμων λύκων! (Alas! We're devoured by lamb-guised wolves!)
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I tend to always think I need to invest more time into my non-work related projects, be it writing or programming. I typically do an hour a day outside of work hours. I'll be starting a new development project this week which will really just be an enviroment for me to play about with a few new technologies and techniques but could possibly lead to more. My questions to everyone and anyone is? 1. How often do you develop outside of work? 2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point? 3. What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer) www.simonshugar.co.uk "If something goes by a false name, would it mean that thing is fake? False by nature?" By Gilbert Durandil
1. How often do you develop outside of work? Not as often as I would like. I would love to spend more time developing and experimenting outside of the office. Most of my time at home is enjoying my time with my 2 year old. 2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point? Most of the projects that I have worked on are personal. There are many things that we think about needing at home for our own use that I mess around with. Most recently I have been throwing together plans for my father in laws business. He needs an inventory and I am in the processing of getting a proposal together to share with him. If he likes it, I can make the basics and then keep improving it for him. I know there are inventory apps out there, but this would be tailored to his needs specifically and only have what he needs.
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I tend to always think I need to invest more time into my non-work related projects, be it writing or programming. I typically do an hour a day outside of work hours. I'll be starting a new development project this week which will really just be an enviroment for me to play about with a few new technologies and techniques but could possibly lead to more. My questions to everyone and anyone is? 1. How often do you develop outside of work? 2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point? 3. What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer) www.simonshugar.co.uk "If something goes by a false name, would it mean that thing is fake? False by nature?" By Gilbert Durandil
1. How often do you develop outside of work?
Whenever the mood strikes me. I have other non-computer hobbies to keep me sane which I sometimes spend time on, so computers is sort of sporadic.
2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point
Since I'll pick up a project, work on it for a while, and then set it aside uncompleted, nothing I do has any commercial value.
3. What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
Whatever strikes my fancy. I'm sort of ADD with technologies [3D printers, ohhhh] and I finally learned [kindle hacking, ohhhh] to let myself be that way [plate tectonic simulations, ohhhh] in my free time [artificial life simulation, ohhhh] so I can stay focused at work [Halbach arrays, ohhhh]. Absinthe.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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I tend to always think I need to invest more time into my non-work related projects, be it writing or programming. I typically do an hour a day outside of work hours. I'll be starting a new development project this week which will really just be an enviroment for me to play about with a few new technologies and techniques but could possibly lead to more. My questions to everyone and anyone is? 1. How often do you develop outside of work? 2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point? 3. What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer) www.simonshugar.co.uk "If something goes by a false name, would it mean that thing is fake? False by nature?" By Gilbert Durandil
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
1. How often do you develop outside of work?
I'm always working on outside projects. I was put on Earth to write a certain number of programs, however at my current rate, I will never die.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point?
A bit of both. I like to work on projects that require skills I think I may be able to re-apply at work. Projects at work must function within a certain amount of time. Home projects can go into dead ends without consequence. I wrote some routines to recreate images from numbers that was years ahead of everyone else and then it languished for decades until an art restorer came across my web page documenting it. here[^] And that led to me getting back into it and just in time to know how to write a graphical document handler for work. Saved the company a boatload of money and saved me the aggravation of interfacing some third party product they wanted to go out and buy. The art restorer put me in contact with a professor who had develped the mathematics to reverse engineer the components of substances from FTIR scanners. I rewrote his Excel program to C# and mated it with a database to automatically suggest compounds to combine. We're still working on revising it and may eventually commercialize it, but I took it on because it was interesting and I figured some of the coding tech I learned to create it would usable at work. Turned out, just as I started it, work required parts I had already started to research.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
3. What do you like to work on outside of work?
Anything and everything. I've got a game I've been puttering around with since high school (35+ years) that I released a graphical rewrite of here[^] that still requires rewriting. When I first wrote it people did not trust computers and accused it of cheating. Nowadays they complain that I didn't let them trust the computer not to cheat. Times change. But I've got a bazillion MP3s that I want to clean up and de-dupe some day. I use thos
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I tend to always think I need to invest more time into my non-work related projects, be it writing or programming. I typically do an hour a day outside of work hours. I'll be starting a new development project this week which will really just be an enviroment for me to play about with a few new technologies and techniques but could possibly lead to more. My questions to everyone and anyone is? 1. How often do you develop outside of work? 2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point? 3. What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer) www.simonshugar.co.uk "If something goes by a false name, would it mean that thing is fake? False by nature?" By Gilbert Durandil
As an aside to the main topic...You code and build things because...you like to build things. It's fun. And creative. Other people never build things. They just sit in front of the TV and completely vegetate. They are called "consumers" (coach potatoes). I think it's much better to be a Builder. It's a good thing! - Grant
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I tend to always think I need to invest more time into my non-work related projects, be it writing or programming. I typically do an hour a day outside of work hours. I'll be starting a new development project this week which will really just be an enviroment for me to play about with a few new technologies and techniques but could possibly lead to more. My questions to everyone and anyone is? 1. How often do you develop outside of work? 2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point? 3. What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer) www.simonshugar.co.uk "If something goes by a false name, would it mean that thing is fake? False by nature?" By Gilbert Durandil
I work 9-5 weekdays, and may then work on ToDoList[^] an additional 0-3 hours a night. I often also work 3-6 hours on Saturdays, in between painting, yoga, reading and walking, and then a couple hours on Sunday evenings. How much time I spend tends to relate to where I am in the release cycle (Pre-Alpha, Alpha, Beta, Bug Fixes), my level of enthusiasm, and how good the weather is ;).
.dan.g. AbstractSpoon Software
email: abstractspoon2(at)optusnet(dot)com(dot)au
