samuellevy

That's pretty much how it is, but I believe the why is largely to do with the large amount of bad PHP learning aides available for free on the internet (I'm looking at you, w3schools).

That being said, I have met (and work with) some "PHP first" programmers who are genuinely great programmers, and who get how to write clean, reusable code. "I learnt in PHP" isn't a blanket euphemism for "I'm a horrible programmer".

I've worked for a reasonably sized (business) host myself, and yes - anything that's idiot proof is just waiting for a bigger idiot, but PHP is far easier to deploy for a non-programmer than anything else.

there's mod_python, which has never worked in living memory, and there's PyHP which... went into beta in 2008, and hasn't noticeably changed since.

They won't support the code; that's not their job. They will restart the server when it goes down, and handle firewalls/security/keep their servers clean of root kits, etc.

Dreamhost, as an example (seeing as I use them), just upgraded all of their servers to support PHP 5.4, which is much better than any of the other hosts I've found. They're cheap, give relatively good support, and have recent versions of PHP available. If there's a problem with PHP or apache, that isn't broken application code, they'll fix it.

With python or ruby, you're on your own.

Not quite; I'm also factoring in support costs (both to me, and the client), as well as the ability to sell a higher-costing hosting solution to the client.

I'm quite comfortable deploying python projects, and I've done it for a number of clients, but the problems I'm faced with are:

- Sometimes the client comes with hosting for a previous site, and insist that it has to be hosted in the same location

- There isn't much in the way of reliable, cheap hosting where the client will get support for anything other than PHP.

- I am not going to manage a client's server for them. They do not pay me enough to justify waking up in the middle of the night to restart a linode that crashed. I am not in the hosting business (I used to be), and I like it this way.

I will often try to push the client towards managed business hosting, where there's a bit more freedom to move, but even then, it's an uphill battle. PHP is a (the) reality of my line of work.

I think that's a chicken/egg situation there.

SEEKING WORK

Location: Brisbane, Australia / Remote

Things I do really well: PHP; Javascript; MySQL

Things I do pretty well: Python; Server admin

Things I can do if I need to: Java, C#, perl

Some open source things that I built:

http://www.samuellevy.com/mico (2010) - PHP, MySQL, Javascript; Simple call tracker for small businesses. Translated into Russian, Spanish, and (shortly) Chinese

https://github.com/samlev/blogfile (2012) - PHP, MySQL; A single-file PHP blog (which I have since largely re-written since it was released to make my own blog better: http://blog.samuellevy.com)

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/samuel-levy/17/195/3a4

Contact: sam+hn@samuellevy.com

Except for when it's a plant (canola, a.k.a. Rape/Rape-seed).

I get your point, though, but it was clearly generated by a computer, as are all the other shirts in that companies "KEEP CALM AND ______ ON" line. Most of them don't make any sense whatsoever.

The computer doesn't "mean" any particular use of the word, because it's a computer, and couldn't tell the contextual difference between "rape" and "yell" or "run".

The fault here is a poorly (or not at all) checked pool of words, and no human interaction between "generate slogan" and "submit to Amazon"

Yeah, for sure, but there are also a few power users who like to make bold statements (I'm loathe to name names) which usually end up being shown to be bullshit, but still end up as the top comment of a thread.

You would still be able to see the comments from a particular user by visiting their profile and going through their comments (I know that that's not ideal), but assuming that an opinion is the right one just because of who said it is dangerous.

What happened in mid-July last year? A massive spike in page views, it seems, for what looks like about 2 weeks.

Try reddit it r/shamelessplug, try other communities.

HN isn't the be-all and end-all of views. In fact, it's usually good for a server-crushing influx (if you manage to hit the magic sweet spot of "interest" and "timing"), but most of that traffic disappears after a day or so. If it's really cool, it will start getting shared around on twitter from HN, but that won't new you a huge amount of traffic.

Reddit will usually provide a smaller amount of traffic in one hit, but it'll keep coming for a week or so - the way stories move on there are just generally different. If your tool is relevant to a particular subreddit, then that's your best bet for getting consistent traffic.

Finally, put a link to your tool in the comments here - it's worth another shot.

It often depends on a customers needs. A VPS is fine if you're willing/able to set up and manage s server yourself. If you're not in a position to do that, then it's managed shared hosting or business hosting. Both are at the mercy of what the hosting provider feels is best.

I'm just hoping PHP 5.4 adoption starts picking up. As it is, it's hard enough finding shared hosts that support 5.3

I use PHP an Python. Not exactly Rails, but it's a similar question.

They both have their place, and they both have situations where one is an easier/better choice than the other.

Pick the best tools for the job. It doesn't matter how awesome your power drill is, even a double-clawed hammer is better at driving in nails.

There's no built in "PM" system. Some users will list their email or other contact details in their profile.

Build the site; it may not make you e-famous, or a millionaire, but I'm sure it would help someone.

It is a pain point for many people, not just in the hacker scene.

SEEKING WORK

Location: Brisbane, Australia / Remote

Things I do really well: PHP; Javascript; MySQL

Things I do pretty well: Python; Server admin

Things I can do if I need to: Java, C#, perl

Some open source things that I built:

http://www.samuellevy.com/mico (2010) - PHP, MySQL, Javascript; Simple call tracker for small businesses. Translated into Russian, Spanish, and (shortly) Chinese

https://github.com/samlev/blogfile (2012) - PHP, MySQL; A single-file PHP blog (which I have since largely re-written since it was released to make my own blog better: http://blog.samuellevy.com)

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/samuel-levy/17/195/3a4

Contact: sam+hn@samuellevy.com

I don't know. Some people have real difficulty discerning the difference between welfare, socialism, communism, and dictatorships.

That one was a bit odd in my mind, too. Maybe it re-uses some code or something?

I can't find a cached version of it anywhere that shows what it looked like an hour or so ago

I scroll the page to keep the text I'm reading at a relatively consistent height.

I don't read the entire length of the page before scrolling, I read a paragraph or two before scrolling.

When I read a book, I don't usually put the book in one place then read down it, I'll often move the book up slowly to that it's always in a position to read where my head/neck is comfortable.

I, for one, am glad that the world doesn't scroll this way.

The Communication minister (Stephen Conroy) is, apart from a horrible "filter the naughty stuff off the internet" plan which has since gone away, pretty switched on about tech.

Although he has been critical of iinet in the past, be's also said that he's not going to push new laws into place unless both sides agree on them.

I have several side projects which I do work on, but working on 25 hours for free on someone else's project is more likely to lead to future paid work than working for 25 hours on my own projects.

I also find it hard to justify working on my own projects when there's client work to be done.

The difference is that there's a limit on the "free work", and it's on my own terms. I'm already running a self-sustaining business (contributing to my savings rather than living off them), so giving out some free work to get interesting projects won't kill me. It will, however, help me to stay sane.

25 hours may not be enough for a full project, but it's a massive discount which I can handle swallowing to work on the type of project that I love working on.

It's a reality of life as a freelancer that many of the jobs I take on are uninspiring. This is an attempt at finding some of the type of jobs that I would really enjoy working on, and hopefully encourage someone to take the leap on a project that may have otherwise stayed on the shelf forever.

For me, I'm hoping to find people and projects that I'll get excited about working with. Giving away $2000 of work for free is about as much as I can possibly justify. I've brought a number of projects through from start to finish (complete code base, from scratch) in under 40 hours, and in this case it would represent the difference between a project costing $1200 and the same project costing $3200.

This could also be enough to get a functional prototype in place to impress investors, etc.

A link that actually works: https://github.com/mattquiros/omnitor-android/

Hiya, this is my site. I noticed the spike in traffic (I tend to watch analytics when I'm bored. I don't have a problem)

I updated the code so it will respond to both htm and html.

I hear that the LEGO Mindstorms kits are good for simple, programmable robots.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms and http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx

It's not just developing markets like Romania. I grew up in poverty in Australia, and pirating software was simply the only way to access it.

Without access to the software, I would never have been able to learn the skills required to earn the money to pay for the software now.

I'm not saying that piracy should be accepted for that reason; I'm saying (and I believe the OP was saying) that piracy is simply the only way to access the tools required to get out of poverty for many, many people.

This shouldn't be how it is, but some serious thought has to go into how to make things available fairly to those people who would otherwise just pirate it. Some money is better than no money, and software that is frequently pirated is obviously in demand with people who can't afford it.

Tomorrow on HN: "Legislation passed to embed DRM chips into people's heads, which automatically shut down visual input if un-authorized content is detected playing in their vicinity. Three strikes policy before permanent blindness."

In my opinion? Yes.

If you're getting paid a rate similar any other IT professional, then you're getting paid to provide more service than just typing code into a text editor. Seriously, the rate for a decent programmer is insane, yet many of them seem to think that anything other than writing code is outside of their job description.

If a client doesn't appear to be paying attention, then you either have to be more persistent, or re-think how you're communicating with them. Are your questions too technical? Too vague? Full of words that they don't understand? If so then they're not going to give you good responses. If they still don't answer them, then at least you have a record of the questions that you asked.