I've used maestro in the past and liked it, very easy to get started and add decent coverage quickly.
Just wanted to share a project that I'm keeping a close eye on. I haven't actually used it yet but hoping to do so soon:
https://github.com/takahirom/arbigent
Millions of people have some degree of hearing loss. Not all hearing loss requires a hearing aid but I have been wearing hearing aids since second grade.
My very first hearing aid was a "behind the ear" model and it was very uncomfortable when I also wore glasses. The technology then was not great as it simply just amplified sound. Further, it was very visible which made me conscious about my disability.
Later in high school, I moved to an "in the canal" model. This was less visible to others and the technology was a bit better. The hearing aid would be abel to help filter out background noise which made hearing people in loud settings easier.
My current pair of hearing aids are also "in the canal" but it does a much better job filtering background noises, can be environment aware to automatically adjust volume. There are models that even have bluetooth support.
One thing that isn't talked about much, to my knowledge, is that no insurance will cover the cost of hearing aids. Good hearing aids are not cheap, the model I currently have cost somewhere around $8,000 for my pair.
I have not had dropbox installed on any of my devices for a few years now. I still have files in dropbox but that is mostly files from when I was in college.
In the past, whenever I put my address into Google Maps, it went to the correct location.
Probably sometime around October 2015, I noticed that if I put my address in Google Maps, it is now saying my house is located a block away and down a side street than where it actually is located.
Late last year a friend of mine was involved in a car accident.
The other driver was following the Google Maps directions on their phone which told them to go down a one way street, it just happened to be the wrong direction. Luckily no one was hurt.
People really need to pay attention when they drive and read the road signs. Just because the GPS says to go down a street, doesn't mean you are allowed to go down it the wrong way.
I am starting to question whether my Prime subscription is worth it or not. I only have it for the 2 day shipping as I don't watch Prime Videos, listen to Prime Music, etc.
Recently, I attempted to purchase a TV from Amazon. They used a third party courier, XPO, to do a scheduled delivery.
The day before delivery, I get an email from Amazon saying things are on track. Delivery day comes and I wait, wait, wait... Lo and behold the scheduled time comes and goes. I give Amazon a call and they tell me that XPO has had issues all week and that the earliest they can get the TV to me in next week.
No thanks, cancelled the order and went to BestBuy to get the same TV. I ended up spending more time on the phone with Amazon CS than it took to buy the TV from BestBuy.
I dislike when Amazon uses USPS to deliver my packages. Usually the package will arrive in the 2 days like expected but it goes to my local USPS office which will deliver the package the next day.
In this case since you have more experience with PHP, go with Laravel.
Sure it is nice to learn a new language/framework while you work on an idea but it is also the easiest way to get discouraged from finishing as it will take longer to complete.
I briefly did work for Normal this past summer, where James was the CTO. He was a great guy and I'll never forget the standup we did while standing on our chairs at the Quirky office... That was James' idea to do that.
Be sure to check with your CS department that you can work on your own idea.
I know at my university, if I wanted to work on my own project, I had to submit a proposal several months in advance. In addition to that, I needed to have an outside stakeholder who wanted to "sponsor" the project.
1. The idea needs to be technically challenging.
2. The idea must be small enough in size to complete in the allotted time frame.
3. An outside stakeholder must "sponsor" the project to mimic the real world of working with others such as a project manager.
Just wanted to share a project that I'm keeping a close eye on. I haven't actually used it yet but hoping to do so soon: https://github.com/takahirom/arbigent