Heka is really stupid to configure, really fast, and now deprecated... I've used it for log tailing and metrics forwarding extensively and can't recommend it enough if you need to use amqps out.
If you don't need amqps out there are more modern, better supported projects.
Are you using HA functionality and also on disk backing? These two things bring down performance roughly 5-10x and are mostly required for situations that can't afford message loss. I still like the rabbitmq solution, it is my own, but i've found it takes more hardware than you are suggesting.
You could solve it the way that my employers have: take your end of the cost out of their invoice.... I didn't think it was the best solution ever, but I honestly didn't have enough leverage to do anything about it, either. I'll probably just bill more next time =p
Spend 9 months working on something and learn via the work. Don't spend 9 months simply studying programming information. ( Bonus points if you are getting paid by someone else while you are learning... but be clear about that upfront. )
Pick a problem, a tool set and get experienced. You will not gain as much if you simply read across multiple applications and disciplines.
For a focus on the academics, and not the practical, I would not suggest going it alone unless you are really that strange type of person that gets math intuitively.
Fantastic demo. Layering and simulated motion were dead-on. I've only done this kind of stuff in more traditional game engines. I'd be willing to be it was less of a headache within a web framework.
No. I will never bother to watch video blogs. Sorry, I skip all video links on HN, or any other source I read from. It's less accessible 99% of the time.
This is true for Ipad and PC. I can't speak to the other platforms.
It's too bad that Bose sound systems are terrible for almost every type of music that I like... It's almost like they forgot that there is an entire range of frequencies between the 'highs' and the 'lows.' ( Try the U2 album Zooropa on a Bose system - is Bono even on the record anymore? )
I thought I was the only one that had noticed this until I saw some genius in San Francisco with a bumper sticker that lambasted Bose for this.
Here's to you, Mr. Anti-Bose bumper-sticker-man. Slick marketing and exorbitant pricing haven't hoodwinked everyone.
If you have the job offer back from them, with their signature on it as well your own, then I would also recommend outing the offending company... That is probably one bridge you can afford to burn - and current and future employees of the company all will probably see the information as valuable.
If you never got a signed copy of the job offer, then I would think your options are fairly limited.
If you don't need amqps out there are more modern, better supported projects.