All,
I wasn't sure what volume of response to expect when I originally
wrote. Thank you all for the comments that you all are making. They are
helping. Given that the response is fairly high, I'm waiting for stuff to
roll in rather than replying to each of you. Don't think it is falling on
unappreciating ears. :-)
To respond to a few recurring comments / questions:
Me? I've spent most of the last four years working on mod_perl-based stuff
and most of the last eight working with Perl. Actually I've worked with
folks who were involved with some of the projects you've mentioned, having
been at idealab!, a parent of eToys and CitySearch. One of the original
(THE original?) developer at CitySearch was probably the most helpful
mentor / teacher I've ever worked with. I programmed in C a lot early in
my career, but at this point I couldn't write anything substantial without
brushing up, and frankly wouldn't care to. It just isn't as fun to work
with C. But then, the argument, "But if you used C, you wouldn't get to
work with ME!" may not convince some of these people with their values all
screwed up... ;-)
The project? What I consider to be standard web junk. About 30% ecommerce
combined with lots of database-driven, interactive content, some
authentication foo and things like that. The thing is that it is in the
adult industry and the investor in question turns on the hose... well...
there will be lots of traffic.
Mistakes and misunderstandings? Sure. And yes, as some of you have
pointed out publicly or privately, not my fault. I was kept very insulated
from the people who were familiar with the alternatives. My involvement at
this point is to try to smooth things over and keep the project
functional. These immediate problems aside, the people involved are great
to work with and if everyone feels better about the situation and things
move forward in the best possible way from here, there will be a lot of
valuable work for me. So I'm trying to help.
More than you cared to hear about and terribly off-topic for the
list? Sure. But you did sorta ask, and somehow it seemed rude to not
reply. Forgive me and thanks for providing all of your commentary.
Cheers,
Jeff
--
Jeff Yoak 626-705-6996
