Howdy

BlueKai

Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm in San Francisco and have been doing freelance web design for 6 years, back-end and db for a couple years. Thought I'd put my php knowledge to the test and see if I can help other people.

rulian

hey there, welcome to the club
help is always welcomed
whats san fran like for a developer?

BlueKai

It's real easy to find work. Good programmers (and graphic designers for that matter) are surprisingly hard to find and there are a lot of businesses here who want their own little web2.

If you want a full time job with a good paycheck and you know what you're doing you can find a job in no time.

Freelancing is pretty easy as well. Every time I go to a coffeeshop there is at least one business meeting about a website. I overhear conversations about linux/dbs/design everywhere I go.

rulian

yeah the west coast I know is thriving on the 2.0 craze,
pretty much all the up and comers are coming out of there
craigslist I believe in san fransico, facebook and google nearby.
think it's a good place for a guy in his (soon to be) late 20's to check out?

BlueKai

I'm in my late 20's and I dig it. It's the only place in America besides New York that I'd live. I'm moving to Europe by the end of the year.

laserlight

Welcome 🙂

I'm moving to Europe by the end of the year.

Where would your next home be?

rulian

I'm in the nyc region now, just outside the city
cali seems like a happening place to me from here

NogDog

rulian wrote:
I'm in the nyc region now, just outside the city
cali seems like a happening place to me from here

Usually New Yorkers look at California something like this. 😉

PS: I'm in that little strip just across the Hudson labeled "Jersey."

BlueKai

Where would your next home be?

Not sure. Probably going to London and Paris, then south of Spain. Thailand and South Africa are also destinations. Pretty much anywhere but America is good for now. We'll see where life takes me. I love freelancing.

How's Singapore? Noticed you put chess on your interests - have you ever played go?

Usually New Yorkers look at California something like this.

Cute.

rulian

Haha, I'm on the jersey side as well, Paterson (reppin 973) son.
North NJ is kinda draining, i'm communting about 3 hours a day.

BlueKai, good luck in your travels man, my dream is also to freelance abroad, some place warmer though, my money is on brasil. Conversion rate!!

laserlight

How's Singapore? Noticed you put chess on your interests - have you ever played go?

No, but we call it weiqi around here.

Elizabeth

Hi and welcome! 🙂

cbesh2

I overhear conversations about linux/dbs/design everywhere I go.

Are you a Linux guru?

BlueKai

I don't know about guru, but I'm definitely comfortable in linux. I've used it off and on for years and I've been using it as my primary OS for about a year. It seems to be easier than windows these days...

cbesh2

I love Linux (although I'm not a guru either). What distro do you use? I've used a couple of flavors but am currently experimenting with Ubuntu.

rulian

I should get my hands on linux, will it unleash pandoras box for me?

NogDog

Linux is fine for the geeks/nerds who have the desire and time to figure out how to install and use it (which probably applies to a large majority of this forum's users). As far as I can see (unless there have been major changes in the last year or so), it is far from ready for the 90% or so of the computer-using population who just want to turn on their computer and read email, surf the net, and play "World of Warcraft" (though it has come a long way from where it was several years ago when installations could take several days as you searched the web for patches to get Linux to recognize your particular hardware and tried to figure out how to install them).

laserlight

As far as I can see (unless there have been major changes in the last year or so), it is far from ready for the 90% or so of the computer-using population who just want to turn on their computer and read email, surf the net, and play "World of Warcraft"

I am not sure if 90% of the computer using population want to play "World of Warcraft" :p

But for reading email and surfing the net I daresay that some Linux distros these days are likely to allow one to do that with a shallow learning curve for installation and software configuration and usage.

Horizon88

Heya, BlueKai. Welcome to the forums!

My primary OS is Linux, too - I use Ubuntu on personal machines and CentOS on server boxes, but I'm pretty comfortable with a lot of distros.

I have to dual-boot XP on my laptop, though - need MS Office 2007 for a class I'm taking. But right after that, it's back to all Linux! 😃

BlueKai

I'm currently using xubuntu on my work laptop. I also have two servers at home - one mac and one xp so I can check my work on all major platforms.

I was using kubuntu for a while. Ubuntu seems to just work, so I've been sticking to it. As far as easy install, you'd be surprised these days. I watched my girlfriend install Vista and Ubuntu on her machine, and she had problems finding drivers for Vista where Ubuntu worked without any issues. We're beyond the days when linux is a pain in the ass.