The CMS Decision

I've decided to avoid a CMS for now. The content I'm looking to provide is much easier to handle if I hand-code the system. Now I'm just trying to standardize my scripts so that, rather than have a dozen different php and javascript files that are all performing nearly identical actions (with slightly varying parameters) I can have one of each.

It'll mean a very little more overhead in the design aspect, at least as far as making sure that all of my pages have all the right attributes to use the standardized scripts. I think that's definitely a worthwhile price to pay though, as I'd rather fix a script bug in one place than a dozen or more.

I'm thinking, once I launch, I may write a few blogs about the Javascript/PHP stuff I've done, since I think some of it is pretty handy and I'm sure that other people (like myself) who are seriously diving into PHP for the first time would really appreciate it.

Help Wanted

Firstly: Two posts in one day?! Amazing!!!

Anyway, I've decided that, for the project I was discussing below, I really need a partner who can do the same sort of coding I'm wanting to do. Or at least someone I can bounce ideas off of that won't just smile and nod with that glassy look in their eyes.

I need to find someone who would have the same interests that the project is intended to target and the skills with which to help me progress with it. So far, everyone I can think of falls in one of the two categories or falls into both but has too much else on their plate or it would be a potential conflict of interests.

I'll just have to put some feelers out there, see if I can find someone who is both interested and capable, and go from there. If you know any geeky gamer/programmer types, let me know. The project most certainly can't provide much more than a hobby since I have no money to pay anyone and I've no real intention to monetize it, but if nothing else it could make for some a nice learning experience and possibly resume padding depending on how successful it becomes.

To CMS or not to CMS

Lately, I've been toying with the idea of making a website that does a few things that I've not found any other website to do. Of course, it's nothing earth-shattering or revolutionizing to the world at large, but the target audience that I have in mind would find it useful.

The concepts have been largely worked out, in my mind. I know how the site should work and how all the pieces should come together. Really, it's a beautiful website... in theory.

The dilemma I'm having is whether I should code the entire thing from scratch or try to use some sort of Content Management System (CMS) like Drupal or Joomla. So I thought I'd list some of the Pros and Cons I've come with for using a CMS vs. coding it myself.

CMS Pros:

• Much of the backend stuff is already built (forms for creating news, web pages, users, forums, blogs, etc.)
• 90% of the work is already done on building the site. Only the features of my specific site would need tweaking.
• There is a community of other users of the CMS who could help me with any specific issues I might encounter.

CMS Cons:

• The flexibility of what I can do is greatly reduced since I have to ensure that everything plugs into the specific framework(s) of the CMS I choose.
• My site will be dealing with lots of custom data "objects" and there's not a convenient way to implement it in a CMS.
• The CMS will invariably be upgrading from time to time which may require the site's code to also be tweaked to meet new upgrade expectations.

Hand-coded Pros:

• I have complete control over everything that happens in the site. I can control the exact code that gets generated for every object, page, user, etc.
• There is no restriction to how I must generate my data objects. They can be constructed in whatever fashion I require.

Hand-coded Cons:

• I have to do a lot more work to hook up all the pieces. Rather than having anything built for me ahead of time.
• There is a near infinitely higher probability of running into odd little bugs in the code.

I can't think of more Pros and Cons at the moment. If I think of them later, I'll edit this post to add them.

Another thing to consider. I could try using a CMS for the front-end side of things, such as news articles, event notifications and so forth. The back end will likely be better if it's hand coded. So I guess I'll have to try and do that and hope I don't shoot myself in the foot.

Health Care

I was talking with my wife last night about Universal Health Care and how I don't understand why so many people are against it. So today I did a little research and found this. Mostly, I'm using this as an excuse to write a post, and I'm sure people will agree/disagree with this vehemently no matter what direction I take. But being that we've been getting all sorts of junk from the hospital and insurance company (mostly the hospital) for services we received six months ago and weren't notified of until recently... it's only logical that I'd be drawn toward the idea.

So I'll go through and address the problems presented on that other site. At the very least I'll give my opinion on it. Take it as you will.

1. Reduces patient incentives to find the best possible prices for the best possible services/products available.
The author points out that people will, essentially, abuse the system to get as much as they can for free. We already have that problem. It's called disability, among other things. There are plenty of people out there who might legitimately be able to work for services they receive. Instead they're getting money that they didn't earn to buy things they don't explicitly need to live. If we're going to say that Universal health care will fail for that reason, then perhaps we should look at fixing some of these other issues where people are taking advantage of the system.
That said, there are also people who simply can't afford the best treatments. And our insurance companies are more interested in making as much money as they can (as any reasonable business would be) instead of giving their clients the best possible help. Who are we to judge that little Timmy doesn't deserve his medication or surgery simply because the deductible is too high or it was a pre-existing condition? Is it really justifiable to say that a human life isn't worth our trouble simply because there's too much monetary risk in trying to help them?
Ultimately, I think this issue can be put to rest with some controls. For instance, making medications that are required to treat an ailment isn't unreasonable. I don't think that I should get free tylenol or cough syrup though unless that's the only way to stop a life-threatening disease. Those things aren't that expensive. In fact, any medication you can get "over the counter" should probably stay the way that it is. I'm not even against paying a co-pay for prescription medications. I just think that money shouldn't be a factor in major healthcare instances.

2. Reduces physician incentives to provide competitive care and reduces drug companies' incentives to provide new drugs and treatments.
Firstly, if the only incentive to provide quality care is because they make tons of money, I don't think I want those doctors. Because as soon as I'm unable to pay, they'll drop me. It doesn't matter if Susie is halfway through the healing process, if she can't pay then she's not important to them. I understand it's a business, but it's also a human life. Furthermore, some regulation in costs would be a good thing. I've personally been told by a doctor to go take a test that he said probably wouldn't show us anything useful, however it still cost a lot more than it should have for ten minutes of their time and maybe fifty cents worth of paper and plastic. If you have to break into savings to pay for a ten minute test that you have to have, because the doctor won't do anything without it, how is that fair?
Concerning the drug companies, they may not be quite as encouraged to come up with new things. However, it's not like they'll have any less demand. Price controls may hurt them, so this is definitely a legitimate concern. I don't have any great answers for this one, other than making sure that they still receive enough money to make research into new drugs a profitable venture for them.

3. Steals from your wallet to pay for my health care.
I take serious exception to this point. By this same argument, I have a right to call on the police to help me if I'm being robbed, but that would be stealing other tax-payers' money. Similarly, as I mentioned earlier, there are lots of people out there who don't work and receive food stamps or other government support. Isn't that stealing, by this logic? I don't believe that those people should have to live on the street, but I do believe that if we're going to take care of the poorest in our society we should try to take care of the middle-class who aren't rich enough to be able to afford it themselves, yet aren't poor enough to qualify for support.
Also... the author says "... taxes stolen from other people." Is the government a thief? If so we've got a whole new topic to get into.

4. The quality of "free" health care will deteriorate and the average citizen will get sicker.
Ultimately, I think this is a serious issue. If the quality of the health care drastically declines once it becomes "free", then that's obviously not a good thing. However, I also don't think it's fair to say that this is a necessary outcome. Simply because other countries have experienced this doesn't mean that it's guarateed to fail.

5. Destroys your privacy
First of all, is it a bad thing that people would be concerned about the overall health of their neighbors? I don't want them looking in my windows to see if I'm doing something dangerous, but I also don't want them to let me fall off my roof simply because they don't have to pay my medical bills. On top of that, I highly doubt that whether or not one individual is hurt, the effect on taxes will change. Sure, when you multiply that over a few thousand people, the effect might be noticeable, but most people are too shortsighted to see that. However, I'm sure there would be plenty of organizations springing up to try and counter unhealthy habits in the interest of lowering taxes.
In the end, it's unlikely that anyone will be too nosy simply because they don't want people nosing into their business either. Yeah, I may want you to put on a helmet or not smoke, but I don't want you following me around and telling me what I'm doing wrong either.

6. Destroys your liberty.
I see where the author was coming from with this one. If the government controls everything, they might only issue 'off-brand' medications to cut costs. However, in some cases those might be medications that someone couldn't afford before or wouldn't even have considered due to cost.
I don't suggest we "blindly support (the) system" or expect it to fix all our problems. I believe that this concept has potential and, if well managed, it could be the answer to a lot of problems that many people face on a daily basis.

I don't have all the answers. I fully expect to be argued with on every point here, provided anyone who reads this actually cares. However, I know that whatever comes of it, I have no right to complain. I voted. The people in power got there because of the majority voting for them. It's not my job to complain about how they do things. They're the leaders, it's my job to trust that they'll do what's best for this country, even if I don't agree with it.

That's how democracy works.

Passion For Work

I've been feeling lately that I have a very serious problem. I have no passion for my work. That's not exactly unusual. It's work, not a hobby and not something I do in my spare time. But without a passion for it, it becomes work.

This realization came from the fact that some days I get excited about a project and will work past five without even realizing I have. Other days it seems like I'm just trying to draw out the tiny bit of progress I've made over the course of eight hours so that whenever my boss asks I can say "Yup, I got such and such done."

Bad! Bad bad bad! So I've been trying to make more of an effort to have passion for my work. Even though I'll never really use the tools I'm building, I need to be excited about them. I need to look at them less as "This is what it has to do" and more as "If it did this and this and this, people would love it."

So far, it's been a little better. However, as with any change of mindset, it's taking time to adjust to a new way of thinking...

Yay work!

Disinclined Toward Education

Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
- Sir Winston Churchill

The above quote was waiting to greet me on my Google homepage today. It struck me as something particularly true of my recent attitude. I'm more than interested in learning how to do some things. However, I have no interest in being taught, either due to the time or the nature of the teaching process.

I'm including self-teaching in that. I don't mind finding examples and emulating them, but taking the time to really understand them is something I just don't do. I convince myself that I can't or that it's not worth the effort. Therefore I spend my time avoiding becoming more than I am. Perhaps I need to adjust my views on being taught.

Gaming Itch

About seven years ago I was introduced to a trading card game. It's a memory I hold fondly. It opened the door to a whole new venue of mental exercise. My time was spent studying cards and combinations, looking for things that others might have missed in the hopes of finding a strategy that would be both simple to execute and yet dramatic in effect. I would stay up before tournaments and plot my course, or spend a few hours before a tournament in flurried activity to remedy a flaw in my deck.

When I wasn't looking through my cards or modifying my decks, I was often online on forums, reading and posting about strategies or the most recent changes to rules. In my local circle of players I became an authority on the rules of the game, often serving as mediator when questions were raised. Though I was never consistently the best player at the tournaments we held, I was a force to be reckoned with.

Then three years after it started, it came to an abrupt end. The game's owning company put it on an indefinite hold while they took the license in other directions. Since then, I've had many life changing events. I've gotten married and now have a daughter. We've bought a house and I now have a full-time job. However, the urge to play still strikes now and again.

Unfortunately for me, playing is more than just taking the decks and playing a single match. For me, playing the game is the strategy beforehand. The plotting and building of a deck that will have some new twist. But without the gaming community to appreciate the ingenuity or even to play against the ideas I constructed, the flavor was gone. So that left me with one option; move on to a new game.

One problem: A new game means a new investment into a game. Moreover any game is either a risk or too big to take on. New games have a habit of lasting for a year or two and then losing either the support of the community of players or the support of the producing company. In either case, they soon disappear, meaning that anyone who has invested in cards is in the same situation I find myself in currently.

Other games, like Magic: The Gathering, are so immense that becoming competitive alone would be a very time (and money) consuming task. With an established game, a player has a hard time catching up to the current state of the game simply because they haven't had the time to build up a library of cards, much less learn the nuances and interactions of the cards that veteran players know from experience. Regardless, both scenarios mean money has to be invested and, at present, investing money into anything non-essential isn't an option.

So, if I can't move on to a fresh game and I can't turn to an established game, what have I left? At the moment, I've been contenting myself with other venues of strategy. Real time strategy games on the computer, Chess, and Settler's of Catan are a few of my outlets. But sadly none of them really provide the in depth planning I had enjoyed before. And so, for now, I merely co-exist with my gaming itch. One day, perhaps, I'll be able to justify spending some money on it and jumping into a new game. Until then, Chess, anyone?