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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
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I do a lot outside work as I'm not working much. Most of it has a commercial aim, but is often experimental. Or just plain mental.
speramus in juniperus
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Simon Lee Shugar wrote: How often do you develop outside of work?
Lots and lots. I generally have several projects either on the go, or in planning and requirements gathering stage. I currently have one I'm working on for an article to be posted next year. I spent a lot of time at the start of this year, writing code for Intel which was very cool.Simon Lee Shugar wrote: Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point?
Generally personal. I use these projects as opportunities to do the stuff that I don't do during the day.Simon Lee Shugar wrote: What do you like to work on outside of work?
Well, currently I'm working on pulling together some initial tunez to riff on with the ever cool Christopher Duncan.
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote: Well, currently I'm working on pulling together some initial tunez to riff on with the ever cool Christopher Duncan.
Link when you get some stuff done please. 
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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Will do. Given that we both have a fondness for 70's style rock, it should be in that vein.
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Almost never. I get enough of it at work.
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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?
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Seems I always get thrown into whatever the technology is at work, with or without training.
The few times I've tried to learn a technology outside of work, it was year before I ever got to use it, and by then, it was so rusty, I had to start over anyway. I've decide it's not really worth the effort to chase the latest trends in technology.
But then again, I'm not at the top of the developer food chain either.
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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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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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Simon Lee Shugar wrote: 1. How often do you develop outside of work?
Not often as I have young children
Simon Lee Shugar wrote: 2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point?
They always start as a personal project.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote: 3. What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
I like to work on stuff that I don't do much of at work, at the moment its web based.
Every day, thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians.
Help end the violence EAT BACON
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2-4 Hours a day. 4-5 days a week. I do also projects just to play around and also some to be commercial at the end...
There is no limitation on the subjects for these pets of mine. Everything I read and find interesting can start a new pet-project...
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is (V).
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Simon Lee Shugar wrote: 1. How often do you develop outside of work?
At least an hour per day. Not all projects I work on provide me means to upgrade my skills and learn new things. So I do that at home.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote: 2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some
point?
Mostly open source. Giving back to the community. Here are two examples of what I do:
- A preemptive multitasking operating system for 30 years old machine /Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k/.[^]
- My tech bloggy.[^]
Simon Lee Shugar wrote: 3. What do you like to work on outside of work?
Things that increase my knowledge, improve my career prospects (also via the mechanism of *fame*) and are fun to do. Pretty much what I would do in a crazy startup company / but without limitation on time, finances, features, etc. And with self-management.
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Since we're plugging, I work on my IDE for developing software on Commodore 8-bit machines for about 5 hours/week.
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1. Occasionally.
2. Personal.
3. Arduino/Raspberry Pi projects.
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1. At the moment not much, too busy at work.
2. Personal mostly, but a bit of both
3. Audio stuff usually.
I've been writing an MP3 decoder on and off for about 5 years now, really trying to understand it all. I've got layer I && II sorted but Layer III is just a killer. Unthinkably hard. How many bits does it take to encode an integer between 1 and 5? 2.3 - that's how many! (But that's layer II).
It's interesting doing in .NET as well. Number are usually integer aligned, or perhaps byte aligned, not bit aligned or 'sub bit' aligned. When finished I'll have proof that you can do this sort of stuff in .NET!
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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1. I code all day at work, I've had enough by the time I get home. ALthough occassionally the code I've worked on gets stuck in my head and I can't sleep so I'll work on it at home to solve it and get it out of my head. Some of my finest solutions have come from home.
2. I have done some personal stuff at home for record keeping and such and I've dabbled in creating VST plug ins for audio.
3. Music, I play in a band, write songs and record music. Playing out about once a month, it's great! What other part time job do you get paid to drink beer and have fun? It's an expensive hobby that pays for it's self.
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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Simon Lee Shugar wrote: 1. How often do you develop outside of work?
In past, very less. Hereafter I'll get more time I think.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote: 2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point?
Personal. No projects, but small utilities & R&D to # Axe. Planning to publish articles here next year onwards. And focusing Mobile development.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote: 3. What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
Recently started practice animation* after long time research. I'm planning to release couple of shorts on next year.
* Some more things too
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Simon Lee Shugar wrote: How often do you develop outside of work?
Much less than ten years ago. I mostly maintain my open-source project (see my signature).
Simon Lee Shugar wrote: Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point?
Neither - it is an open source project and is pretty widely used, but I get no money for it.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote: What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
I like reading when I have time: technical articles, history, literature.
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I kind of need to
By need I mean that I really have the need for it, not because of any external "force".
And yeah I have a daily life without computers.
And yeah I sleep enough (6-7 h a day) and a lot more on weekends.
And no, I don't loose any important time commuting to/from work.
Working hours tend to be more of the same and usually after the projects initial fuss there's really nothing new to do.
Outside working hours what I do is exactly that... do stuff will all those shinny new toys that pop up in full bags every day.
In these side projects I do something I never do in a production serious client project, I use the latest most untested and shinny peace of technology I read on my daily news feeds 
What do I get from it?
I know they exists, I know how to use them and I know (this is really important) when NOT to use them.
What next?
Most of those shinny new things tend to disappear in smoke but for those who resist and prove themselves I might have a use for them in the future... The thing is that if I never tested them I would never now!!!
What's the alternative?
Google for solutions and apply them blindly or with few PoCs and real practical experience.
People tend to trust Google results a lot and that may come with a price... an expensive one.
We're in a ever evolving and changing business.
People tend to create things out of nothing or build some other out of the existing.
It's essential for any serious professional to know what runs behind the scenes otherwise we're merely assembly poorly designed Lego castles...
Cheers!
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Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
1. How often do you develop outside of work?
Never, I have other things to do.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
2. Are the projects you work on personal or intended for commercial use at some point?
See above.
Simon Lee Shugar wrote:
3. What do you like to work on outside of work? (other than the latest bottle of Gin)
I don't work outside of work, I only do things that pleases me. (not that I don't like paid work).
I'd rather be phishing!
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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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Marc Clifton wrote: A lovely instrument!
Lyre! Oh, and I think you mean this[^] link.
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote: Oh, and I think you mean this[^] link.
 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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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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