James Titcumb

OK, so after a couple of comments today about the slowness of loading the new Total Carange site, I’ve decided to stop using the Ext JS library. It’s very nice and all that, but on my slow server, it’s slow as hell. I’d much rather stick to some simple Javascript that I wrote myself and limit it to just that. It’s a simple site, and should load quickly, not in the 20-30+ seconds it has been today. Maybe one day when I get a fast upload speed I’ll look into using it again, but for now, it’s a no-go.

Anyway, after working at the IFE company I used to work for and dealing with enormous amounts of Javascript in web applications, I’ve had enough of masses of JS. Use JS to enhance, not as a basis.

Something I’ve defended in conversation for some time has been my choice to quit college before even attaining AS Level qualifications. I maintain still that it has been worthwhile doing this and building my career in development by hard graft. And it has been hard for me, but I’m so happy with the results I’m getting.

Lets take a look for a moment at what would’ve happened if I’d have followed the standard route of A-Levels, following that onto Uni. I would’ve done finished my Media Studies, Mathematics, Computing and Physics A-Levels. Congratulations, 2 years in college, only marginally increased prospects of a job. I would’ve then gone to Uni, most likely a Computer science or IT-related degree. Three or four years later, I’ve got a degree. And a whopping big debt. And most likely, no job. I’d find a job to tide me over, something I’m not interested in doing (like 1st-line tech support for example), and tried to find a better job. I’d still have a big debt. By luck one day, I land a junior developer job for a company. I’d get paid in the region of 16-20k salary I expect. Not bad for a 21/22 year old. I’d still have a massive amount of debt though. Plus because I’d be earning over the student loan repayment threshold, I’d have to start paying it off. So that would start coming out my pay packet. In this situation, I imagine looking into the future and seeing myself earning 30k+, slowly paying off my debts accrued from student life. Not bad.

Now look at what I’ve actually done. I quit college 4/5 months into the first year. I got a crappy job at Burger King. I moved out on my own at 17, started working at Marks & Spencers for a month or two. I found a Junior test job at a software developer firm in Chichester, getting paid a pitiful £9,600 / year salary. Within a couple of months, I’d proven to them that I could code, and I was quickly promoted to a software developer. I went on to gain 4 years of professional experience in PHP, Javascript, Linux, and loads of other bits. Armed with this experience, I went off to find a new job. I dabbled in .NET for a couple of months, and didn’t like that. So I got my job here, and I won’t say how much I earn as people who I work with read this Nevertheless, I’m 21/22 now, and earning more than I would’ve done had I gone to Uni at this stage in my life. I worked really hard to get here, but I think it was worth it. My future now, is the same as above, minus the huge debt acquired from student life.

I do have debts, but thats because I was rubbish with money. But that’s a different story.

I read a very good article on degrees and the value of them on MSN news, so have a read of it yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Probably the only thing that impressed me about .NET was a third-party set of controls made by ComponentArt. Very slick controls and (fairly) easy to implement. Now I’ve found something that’s made just for Javascript - discovered by Kelvin here at Netbasic, a cool set of controls called Ext JS. I’ve not had a look at the code behind it, but it’s available on an open source license, so I’m considering having a gander tonight and I might start re-writing the Total Carnage site from scratch… the controls just look so shiny!

Over the past few days a war has broken out in the attic part of the office here at Netbasic. Jon and myself are now warring over handsets in extreme demonstrations. Initially, the culprits were simply knocking the opponents’ handset from the phone’s cradle, but it has escalated to total removal of handsets from the phone. The war began when I removed Jon’s handset and taped it to the underside of his desk. Unfortunately, due to my dire lack of taping skillz, the handset became un-stuck and dropped during an intense match of Team Fortress 2. In response to this, I again removed his handset and hid it last Friday in the server room, so he had to make do without a phone for the entire day.

The pinnacle of the war has happened today when I went out for some “fresh air” and came back to find a message from my girlfriend on MSN claming that Jon had stolen my handset. Luckily, she saw the entire stunt on my webcam which I have set up, so he was caught red-handed. I just hope this doesn’t elevate into a full-scale phone war.

After only my fourth week at Netbasic, I’ve been trapped in the kitchen for a second time. It was a horrific experience and wouldn’t wish it on anyone.