The main problem with the PowerBooks right now isn't the G4 chip or even its clock speed so much as its slow bus speed of 167Mhz. The bus speed hasn't been raise in a long time and seems to be the biggest factor that slow the PowerBook line down. I would be all for a PB G4 if they could get a significantly faster bus on the motherbord.
My parents finally got broadband about a year ago. I had them immediately cancel their AOL account. This was right after the class action lawsuit again AOL so the billing dept stopping charging their card right away. They didn't want to lose my parents as a customer so they offered them 2 months of free service. After two months my mom called to cancel and they gave her another free month. This has now been happing for 11 months.:)
My guess is they don't want to have us become just another stat.
I used to be a COBOL programmer for an insurance firm. It wasn't by choice. I started out on a Java web app team and got transfered. I must say that there was a general lack of good technical knowledge about mainframe programming at the company (it didn't help they laided off some of the best guys) which made it even hard to do my job. Developing on the mainframe is much different, I find it more mondane and boring, then working with modern PCs and OO languages.
I am sure some people like it but I hated it and had to leave the company to get away from it since no one would transfer to my position.
One way to help structure your PHP application would be to use Fusebox, an open standard that encourages separation of logic from data (from a DB for example) and presentation (HTML).
I have used Fusebox with several Cold Fusion applications and have that it with FuseDoc are a great combination for creating a webapps in a standard fashion. It allows new developers who are familar with the Fusebox structure to pick up on your design quickly and implement their assigned pieces in a more reusable manner.
Here is a good tutorial on Fusebox with PHP. This site is another great Fusebox with PHP resource.
I am 24 and I just got out of large insurance company where I was assigned to be the only programmer on a mainframe system. I had several years experience builting web applications in Cold Fusion and Java so I was supposed to be on a Java team. Then someone left the company and I got transfered to the mainframe position.
I feel for you. Cobol and JCL are really a pain in butt to work with. My co-works were are 50+ and not very fun to be around either. Keep working on your other skills. That is what I did and was eventually able to get a web developer position at another company even in this economy.
JCL, COBOL and IMS are still here after quite sometime. They are still the major backbone for most large insurance companies data processing and storage. Oh yeah and they are still a royal pain-in-the-you-know-what to work with!
At my old job for a large insurance company I got stuck working on the mainframe. I was hired for a Java web application developer position for which I was qaulified for after college. I went through a three month training program where the first 2 month where mainframe skills: Cobol, JCL, and ISPF.
Most of people that were hired as programmers with me where no technical people working their second career or people with CS degrees like me working their first job out of college. All of us who had CS degrees got position working on the Java or Microsoft teams working on web apps or VB stuff.
My third day with my Java team they told me that they need to transfer me and I got moved to a mainframe only team of one other programmer. It sucked. Programming on the mainframe was no fun for me. I could see how someone might like it if they wanted a very static borning job but not me. I spent the next 18 months trying to transfer into a Java team. I finally found a web developer position with another company because they my company didn't want to replace me if I transfered.
Since you use Cold Fusion I would recommend checking out FuseBox is a web application methology develop orginally with Cold Fusion but now applicable to all the major web app languages (PHP, Java, ASP, ect).
Part of FuseBox is FuseDoc which is a XML based spec for putting docuementation inside your CF code. By using Fusebox and FuseDoc you can break your web apps out into separate modules that work together much like different objects in C++ or Java. This allows you to have multiple people working on an app at the same time, while also separating your content from programming logic. I have used this approach in several web apps and it has worked well.
Couple these techniques with something like CVS and some organizational programming standards (make standards that make sense!) you should be able to improve your work enviroment.
Slashdot Mirror
The main problem with the PowerBooks right now isn't the G4 chip or even its clock speed so much as its slow bus speed of 167Mhz. The bus speed hasn't been raise in a long time and seems to be the biggest factor that slow the PowerBook line down. I would be all for a PB G4 if they could get a significantly faster bus on the motherbord.
My guess is they don't want to have us become just another stat.
I used to be a COBOL programmer for an insurance firm. It wasn't by choice. I started out on a Java web app team and got transfered. I must say that there was a general lack of good technical knowledge about mainframe programming at the company (it didn't help they laided off some of the best guys) which made it even hard to do my job. Developing on the mainframe is much different, I find it more mondane and boring, then working with modern PCs and OO languages.
I am sure some people like it but I hated it and had to leave the company to get away from it since no one would transfer to my position.
--Kurt A web developer's weblog
One way to help structure your PHP application would be to use Fusebox, an open standard that encourages separation of logic from data (from a DB for example) and presentation (HTML).
:)
I have used Fusebox with several Cold Fusion applications and have that it with FuseDoc are a great combination for creating a webapps in a standard fashion. It allows new developers who are familar with the Fusebox structure to pick up on your design quickly and implement their assigned pieces in a more reusable manner. Here is a good tutorial on Fusebox with PHP. This site is another great Fusebox with PHP resource.
A ColdFusion, Java, and PHP developer's weblog might also be helpful. (Disclaimer this is my weblog!
I am 24 and I just got out of large insurance company where I was assigned to be the only programmer on a mainframe system. I had several years experience builting web applications in Cold Fusion and Java so I was supposed to be on a Java team. Then someone left the company and I got transfered to the mainframe position.
I feel for you. Cobol and JCL are really a pain in butt to work with. My co-works were are 50+ and not very fun to be around either. Keep working on your other skills. That is what I did and was eventually able to get a web developer position at another company even in this economy.
JCL, COBOL and IMS are still here after quite sometime. They are still the major backbone for most large insurance companies data processing and storage. Oh yeah and they are still a royal pain-in-the-you-know-what to work with!
Most of people that were hired as programmers with me where no technical people working their second career or people with CS degrees like me working their first job out of college. All of us who had CS degrees got position working on the Java or Microsoft teams working on web apps or VB stuff.
My third day with my Java team they told me that they need to transfer me and I got moved to a mainframe only team of one other programmer. It sucked. Programming on the mainframe was no fun for me. I could see how someone might like it if they wanted a very static borning job but not me. I spent the next 18 months trying to transfer into a Java team. I finally found a web developer position with another company because they my company didn't want to replace me if I transfered.
Part of FuseBox is FuseDoc which is a XML based spec for putting docuementation inside your CF code. By using Fusebox and FuseDoc you can break your web apps out into separate modules that work together much like different objects in C++ or Java. This allows you to have multiple people working on an app at the same time, while also separating your content from programming logic. I have used this approach in several web apps and it has worked well. Couple these techniques with something like CVS and some organizational programming standards (make standards that make sense!) you should be able to improve your work enviroment.