Yeah that is one potential problem, turning people off with politics. Really I think Progressives serve the science and technology sectors better than any other party/political group though, which is why we decided in the end to put these three topics together
Just upgraded to 10.10 and everything works just as expected (provided you've installed the System76 drivers), including wifi and the webcam. It really is a beast too, performance-wise, with 8 cores and 4 gigs of ram.
Two words: browser compatibility. I really don't care what else they do as that won't affect my life in any way, but this is something I have to deal with daily, and is ultimately extremely frustrating, time consuming, and costs my employer a lot of money.
As a developer and cyclist, I really like your idea and implementation. It's modern and intuitive, something a lot of cycling sites lack, unfortunately.
One feature you can think about that I've often thought would be useful, would be to track road quality via a device that detects vibrations. Poorly maintained roads = big vibrations. I don't know the technical feasibility of this off hand, but hopefully it gives you a new avenue to explore.
Originally the sign up form was behind a tab. I moved it out because it seemed like a superfluous click, but you are right about sign up forms being scary on the front page.
In this situation you really have to look at 1) how many people are asking for this, 2) how vocal are they, and 3) how much development effort do you need to put into adding an option in the menu to change the laser sounds?
Sorry to answer your question with a question (or three), but comparing your answers to these questions will give you a good context for choosing a solution.
Having recently started as a "professional" developer, coming from the realm of the hobbyist, I can say that the best thing you can do is get a job.
Start with an internship if you are not yet confident in your skills. The best way to hone your abilities is to set up a situation where you get unexpected problems from code you did not write or an environment you aren't entirely familiar with, and fixing it with the mindset that failure is not an option.
It also helps to get paid while you're doing it. Really. It shows that someone has put an incredible trust and investment into you, and they value your intellectual output.
Start a personal website to host your projects, make it available to the public. Take a look at the tools you use. Try submitting code contributions to the open source projects. Start a blog and document your hardships and discoveries for other budding hackers.
Hopefully this advice helps you some, best of luck!