>PHP 8

Someone had asked me recently about which PHP version I used for some custom new few hundred line script and I couldn't think why it would've mattered as long as it was a version within the past 10 years or so. Was some curl, JSON and some logic. I guess when you intermix with 3rd party stuff then PHP8 becomes a bigger thing.

Barely touched PHP for 5 years other than vanilla hand-written stuff.

>2023

Making sure my daughter does OK in her 1st into 2nd year in high school. If not, maybe I can move - but probably not necessary. There's a better school nearby but I dunno, sometimes it's better to mix the rough and smooth as it goes.

Trim some costs out my life. I run a few dedicated servers for the past few years that have a ton of keyword and domain data, bit of a side project but Moore's type laws say I can store that data at 1/3rd of the price. BTW, anyone into domain or keyword data? Have 670M registered or previously registered domain names. About the same number of records of keywords with data for autosuggests, keyword volumes, cpc etc. Maybe we could do a th3core thing.

At home continuing to upgrade the house.

Making sure to keep regularly in touch with my widowed mum who lost her husband at the start of the year. 2 brothers nearby but I'm the one in walking distance. Maybe take more holidays to Spain with her and the family since she loves the sun (vs Scotland's effort at weather) and I definitely don't mind the hot weather and all-inclusive beer. Most hotels have wi-fi nowadays for working away.

No firm plans. Upgrading my home has been a thing, new windows last year, new doors this year + floor and roof insulation in the post. Still a bit chilly downstairs until floor is done. Long term thing.

Grateful atm because of all the cost of living nonsense that I'm doing OK. Trying to donate here and there where I think it's worthwhile. Local youth rugby club, food bank, local flora community efforts that kind of thing. Things seem pretty grim in the UK ATM, but at least the value of GBP thinks the future is better

>>  3rd party stuff then PHP8 becomes a bigger thing.

If you're using Laravel or Symfony, it's definitely a big thing. And using Composer is a must. One of the things I hate about Wordpress is that it is still not Composer-friendly, which seems nuts for a modern PHP app.

>>plugins

Have you built any WP plugins before? In Drupal, I found one of the best ways to dip my toes into more complex module design was to find a module I needed and then look at the issue queue and try to build a patch. Every patch has to be reviewed by the community and approved as meeting the coding standards and such. In general people were friendly and helpful and it really helped me level up. I also got a lot of pleasure out of closing an issue that had lingered for over a year and had seen several rejected patches.

I'm not sure how that relates to Wordpress. The WP system is more freewheeling/individualized with plugins, so I'm not sure they have the same review/mentor system for plugins.

Quote from: BoL on December 06, 2022, 05:22:37 PM
BTW, anyone into domain or keyword data? Have 670M registered or previously registered domain names. About the same number of records of keywords with data for autosuggests, keyword volumes, cpc etc. Maybe we could do a th3core thing.

That would be really interesting as far as I'm concerned. I manage a few fairly decent sized Google Ads accounts so the keyword data would be really useful and we dabble in dropcatching .uk domains using our Nominet tag so the domain data would be ace as well.

>If you're using Laravel or Symfony

I haven't. That's probably what I'm missing out on.

>Have you built any WP plugins before?

Never. Most I've done with WP is scale out installations on threadbare resources for PBNs. Looked at a few but never written any.

I guess my prior experience is mostly my own code and not much of anyone else's.

>really interesting domain/kw data

Send me a PM in the New Year?

Have had it sitting around a while, I make some beer money off it but know some data is a pain to get at nowadays.

Quote from: BoL on December 09, 2022, 01:51:34 PM

>really interesting domain/kw data

Send me a PM in the New Year?

Have had it sitting around a while, I make some beer money off it but know some data is a pain to get at nowadays.

Perfect, will do. Thanks BoL, much appreciated!

Quote from: littleman on December 05, 2022, 07:34:11 PM
Kinda an insurance policy.

I've been thinking about this ever since. In addition to the insurance policy, I also think there's a lot to be said for just staying creative and if you don't practice a skill, you don't generate ideas in my experience. This is true even for things like climbing - if I'm climbing, I have a lot of climbs I want to do. If I'm not, I don'.t. If I'm building stuff, I have ideas for modules and plugins and patches at the least, and occasionally for full products. And finally, looking to the more distant future, I'd rather be an old geezer writing code than doing Sudoku puzzles. I gotta think writing code is infinitely better for the mind than random puzzles.

Quote from: littleman on December 05, 2022, 07:34:11 PM
Also, I have things I want to make.

And that's the rub. I was thinking about how in the past I had more projects than I could possibly build and some I wish I had built as I've seen similar ideas become not just viable businesses, but ones that even seem like businesses I would be proud to be part of. But now I think of it, and I don't have any projects like that, meaning in the sweet intersection between doable and interesting. And I think probably for the reason listed above - once you get far enough out of something, the mind just stops seeing problems and opportunities and generating ideas.

So it got me wondering what you're doing as you try to extend your skills. Are you working on real projects that interest you? Playing with "made up" projects to challenge you in new ways? A combo?

>And finally, looking to the more distant future, I'd rather be an old geezer writing code than doing Sudoku puzzles. I gotta think writing code is infinitely better for the mind than random puzzles.

Right, this is another type of insurance.  I have a relative who is in his mid-80s who uses the stock market in this way.  He studies companies, buys and sells after doing a lot of research and analysis.  He holds stocks for months at a time, never day trades, never holds long term.  He's always done very well and it keeps him sharp.

Last time we talked about it he was expressing interest in offloading his trading to someone else, he said he is starting to worry about his age and if he would start to make bad decisions.  I discouraged that line of thinking.  One reason is that no one is going to keep as keen an interest in his portfolio as him, but the main reason is that it is greasing his gears and keeping him sharp,

>So it got me wondering what you're doing as you try to extend your skills. Are you working on real projects that interest you? Playing with "made up" projects to challenge you in new ways? A combo?

In the last month I haven't been doing nearly as much as I want to.  I had to scale back because I was having more to do than hours in the day to get them done.  Coincidentally, just yesterday I started practicing code again.  One of the first things I want to do is build a little cost/earnings  analysis script that could replace some of the spreadsheet work I've been doing laity.

Another thing I want to do is dig more into some type of arbitrage model, I am not sure what yet, but I feel like there are opportunities there that aren't being exploited.

I am also very interested in *selling* options and feel like coding can be used there too.

Right now the biggest hurdle is time, between the family, taking care of my health  and work I have very little extra time to do big projects.  So, for now I am going to do small things that will help with productivity.

>When I designed the house I planned a place for an elevator.

Elevator being installed this week.  This is Day 3 of installation, will probably take 5 total. 


>planned a place

Saved me $20k.

It isn't the same level, but I've been doing a lot of my own maintenance and repairs lately  to save money.  Skilled labor has gotten outrageously expensive in my area.  I just finished a job with about $500 of parts and equipment that a contractor quoted as $12.5 thousand. 

$500 vs $12.5 K sounds pretty good.

>labor

It's nuts even here in the hinterland.  HVAC workers really jacked up prices. Heat pumps are driving demand, I'm told.

Here's a marketing beauty shot of the elevator model. (kinda weird choice of photo, IMO.)  The mfr only got this full wheelchair size version approved 2 years ago.

https://stayinghome.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Elevator-with-SHC-Enclosure-scaled.jpg

Looks nice imo.  I like the windows.  My wife's aunt has an elevator built into her place and it feels like a ride in a telephone booth.

Re: labor

I think all the national disasters has made demand completely outstrip supply and people are charging outrageous amounts because of one person won't pay it tue next person will.  It is a very good time to be a contractor.

>phone booth


Like so:
https://www.savaria.com/products/telecab-elevator?lang=en

The Telecab model (now owned by Savaria) was one of the first in this 'booth' style. Originally UK based, IIRC. They've added acrylic panels to brighten the interior while making them weigh less.  This booth style is very popular now, but wheelchair-capable units are harder to find.

IMO, these single, upright occupant styles are better than nothing ...but if space & money are available you should get a wheelchair-capable elevator with 500-600 pound capacity, as it is pretty common to have a helper riding along, too.


>windows

Yeah, I'm having it installed in the glass corner foyer, so the open/airy look is good.  The 2nd floor landing is right outside the master suite and also a guest bedroom.   It is a little 'industrial" in appearance, though. I might have a cabinet maker come up with some fluted corner-boards for the foyer.

>>$500 vs $12.5 K sounds pretty good.

Nice return on your labor!

Any idea how much time it took? I've found in similar circumstances, the return on my labor can be $500 an hour. I don't quite understand that, because the contractor doesn't make that much, and yet...

>the return on my labor

You're slower, but you're also spending time & effort to make it the best you know how rather than the quickest way to get the job done.  Also, gathering materials & tools generally takes you more time & trips to the stores than a pro.

Generally, I find that my return is usually 8-10X $$$, probably more on smaller projects like plumbing repair because the pros are going to charge a high-$ minimum just for the house call.

On projects that require special tools but otherwise any mouth-breathing yokel can get the job done, I buy the tools if they are a significant part, say 30-50%, of the project cost.  A Collated Screwdriver For Decking & Sub-Floor Installations is a good example. 
https://www.amazon.com/Metabo-HPT-W6VB3SD2-SuperDrive-Fastening/dp/B07SR5MD8J

The other issues that weigh heavily in favor of DIY are convenience & **security**  --mostly security.  Convenience swings both ways, the time it requires is an inconvenience but having to schedule meetings and work dates with contractors is a giant PITA.

SECURITY: Every person you let on your property is a security risk. Period.  My next door neighbor had 3 separate burglaries over a 15yr span. One of those happened while they were home and asleep.  All 3 were perpetrated by people who had been at the house earlier to do maintenance or landscaping work.

+
Never, ever have a safe or lockbox visible in your house.  If hidden, keep it that way!  And don't go inside and retrieve some cash to pay someone.  I have some horror stories I'll tell at the next corecon.

>>best you know how

But the good pros know how to make it better than you can. We had our deck refinished last fall. It is over living space, so the waterproofing has to be perfect. They guy we hired had been doing it for over 40 years (inherited his dad's business). He had noticed that flimsy flashing was often a culprit, so he has heavy guage flashing custom made for his jobs. Our neighbor did it as a DIY (no living space beneath so lower consequence) and he said the pro used 2-3 times as much of the crucial (and expensive) resin as our friend did.

Like everything, the pros run the gamut and the good ones are worth every penny they charge. When we saw this guy work, my wife just looked at me and said, "I'm so glad we hired Randy instead of doing this ourselves."

I like saving the money... but also being aware of the limits of my skills (which are not very good TBH)