A small webapp for a local non profit.
Does its job, but doesn't really need anyone but some members of the non profit to log in. (The URL isn't currently publicized)
So I block all foreign country IPs, have a pretty good lockdown on open ports, and check for updates every now and then.
Yeah, this is spot on.
It also helps "block" that time slot so that other people can invite you to meetings or other activities taking this into account.
My father in law is 59.
He works as the main "maintenance guy" for a large warehouse. He's pretty good with electronics and mechanics, but did not know how to program. He noticed that some stuff could be automated but PLC's were not enough. So, he bought an Arduino board and learnt by himself. Of course, me being a software engineer helped and I put him on the right track or helped him debug stuff.
He actually got a pretty nice bonus because the stuff he automated saved the company a lot of money.
But the main point I'm trying to make, is that I would find a problem in my current job/field to which programming can help, and use that to drive the learning.
Yeah, 100% agree with you. It takes away a lot of enjoyability from your free time. And it also simply eliminates a lot of activities, like playing pretty much any team sport.
In my case, I like playing basketball, and I can't go to a friendly game with friends when I'm on-call, unless there's more people to rotate for the game(so if I have to leave it's not that big of a deal for the rest)
I didn't mean that being on-call it's great, far from it. I just think it's a reasonable way to compensate the employee.
It sucks to be on-call, but someone has to be. The right people have to be notified of the right alerts and not just notify everyone affected. Also, if it's been a night call, they usually allow the employee to come in late.
I think we as a collective have "dropped the ball". Doctors do "on call" on premise, getting paid every hour, or have ample wait times. We don't have any of those
Yeah, as long as you don't get a lot of calls it's great.
What I'm having trouble figuring out is if in other companies (like yours) when you are "on-call" for a week, do you work or don't work regular 9-5 M-F? Or are you "on-call" for the entire week, with no other responsabilities, maybe similar to a doctor?
I'm assuming some companies do and some companies don't, but not sure...
I've seen different definitions of "on-call".
In my company, if you are "on-call", you work your regular hours, and after that you are "on-call" for emergency prod stuff.
You get a 30% bonus on that day's salary for each day you are on-call.
So if you're on-call 15 days, you get a 15% bonus for that month, if you're on call a week it's 7.5%, and of course, full month is 30%.
There's no difference if you get called every day or don't get called at all.
Anecdote of course, but my personal case may support this claim.
My grandfather died when he was 34 (1960's) from an intestinal ulcer. Not diagnosed with anything. Born in south America but from Jewish immigrants (relevant as I've been told Crohn's is more prevalent among Jewish people)
I was diagnosed with Crohn's when I turned 31, after having a colonoscopy because of severe diarrhea. Humira's been working so far, I've been on it for 2 years after other meds didn't do the trick.
Edit: just in case it wasn't clear: I also had a pretty big intestinal ulcer. But getting diagnosed helped it not get worse, and after going on humira, it eventually got better
The first time it was my boss in a very small company (8 people total)
After trying to work it out with her, receiving an apology, but then going back to the same attitude, I went to the company owner, and we arranged a way to work 100% separately. I left a few months after.
Second time it was a high level person in a big company, similar to your case. I tried to stay out of their way, then I transferred inside the company but far away.
Third time it wasnt my boss, it was the boss for a contractor. He continuously mistreated his employees, yelled to them, and they were mostly young people around 20 years old in their first job. I tried to get all of them jobs elsewhere and mostly succeeded, I also don't really talk to him unless needed and actively ignore him.
In my neighborhood there's a neighbours commitee that works on making everything better, there's a local library and a few public squares.
They collect monthly fees from members and vote on the council every three years.
They didn't have a system to keep track of this and sometimes had issues really knowing all their members.
I made them a real simple web app and it helped them a lot, I was already a member and they asked in the members Facebook group if there was a programmer.
Gaming as you said
Gardening, I grow edible stuff in my backyard. It's physical and rewarding.
Cooking, necessary as I have kids but I try to get better, cook different things...
I think for that last part, you could go into education.
I've thought about the homeless part. Why is it so difficult to eradicate? There's enough homes for everyone, and we can build a lot more. I know the state should do it, but is it that expensive to build some sort of permanent refuge where people can get support, and also housing for as long as they like?
So I block all foreign country IPs, have a pretty good lockdown on open ports, and check for updates every now and then.