Matthew Lang avatar

Matthew Lang

Family guy and web developer

Has Web Development Gone To Shit?

There was me thinking I was absolutely bonkers for not falling head over heels in love with the current trend towards towards JS web frameworks.

The web (specifically the Javascript/Node community) has created some of the most complicated, convoluted, over engineered tools ever conceived.

— The Sad State of Web Development by Drew Hamlett

I do like Drew's advice for web applications that have one or two pages with a complex user-interface.

So my advice is to use Rails Django, Play Framework, or Phoenix to develop most of the app, because they help you with most of the boilerplate stuff, and bring in the flavor of the month on a page that needs it. So when the next flavor of the month comes out you’re entire app is not knee deep in the last flavor of the month. You can just re write that one page.

— The Sad State of Web Development by Drew Hamlett

Four Essentials for a Winning Proposal

Curtis McHale continues his look into winning proposals with a look at four essentials for any proposal.

Real business owners who want to take their business to the next level aren’t interested in airy-fairy notions of how your work will help their company. They want tangible, concrete evidence by which they can measure the success of a project.

— Defining Deliverables, Outcomes, Metrics and Values by Curtis McHale

Still the best blog for freelancers in my book. It's an essential every day read for me.

Kurt's family business is ticking over nicely as the winter break comes to an end.

My wife and I joke that we operate a small business. There is the storage unit business for unused furniture, old college books, out-of-season clothing, and odd items to be collected from the attic, garage or basement at some to-be-named time in the future. There is the consulting business for reluctant “clients” who ask for advice and help just past the right time to ask. The 1:00 a.m. call from Lexington - “Derby ate a battery; what do I?” The Saturday far-away-from-home comment “the truck sounds really funny,” or the “I know” reply to “you have a tail light out” on a Saturday away from home.

— The Fleet is Out by Kurt Harden

I didn't realise it until I was a parent, but you never stop being a parent. Even when the kids have grown up and left the nest, you'll always be a parent.

Our kids are still young, but I'm now curious as to what kind of "client" calls I'm going to get in the wee hours of the morning.

2 for 4 on the wildcard weekend predictions, not bad. Good to see the Packers back to good form.

Predictions for the NFL wildcard weekend. Wins for the Chiefs, Bengals, Vikings and Packers.

I’ve been re-discovering a few blogs I used to follow years ago but moved away from. Nice to find them again.