September, 2, 2024 archives

A reason that I finally implemented better thread navigation for the PHP mailing list archives is because it was a bit of unfinished business — I had implemented it for the MySQL mailing lists (RIP), but never brought it back over to the PHP mailing lists. There, it accessed the MySQL database used by the Colobus server directly, but this time I exposed what I needed through NNTP.

An advantage to doing it this way is that anyone can still clone the site and run it against the NNTP server during development without needing any access to the database server. There may be future features that require coming up with ways of exposing more via NNTP, but I suspect a lot of ideas will not.

Another reason to implement thread navigation was that a hobby of mine is poking at the history of the PHP project, and I wanted to make it easier to dive into old threads like this thread from 2013 when Anthony Ferrara, a prominent PHP internals developer, left the list. (The tweet mentioned in the post is gone now, but you can find it and more context from this post on his blog.)

Reading this very long thread about the 2016 RFC to adopt a Code of Conduct (which never came to a vote) was another of those bits of history that I knew was out there but hadn’t been able to read quite so easily.

Which just leads me to tap the sign and point out that there is a de facto Code of Conduct and a group administering it.

I think implementing a search engine for the mailing list archives may be an upcoming project because it is still kind of a hassle to dig threads up. I’m thinking of using Manticore Search. Probably by building it into Colobus and exposing it via another NNTP extension.

Another month in the rear view mirror, and time for me to reflect on my job search and remind people that I’m still out on these streets looking.

Some days it feels like I am not any closer to having a job than I was when this all started. I have a lot of applications behind me, a handful of screening calls with recruiters, a smaller number of interviews, and as of yet no offers. I have been ghosted on countless applications and once after a screening call. (That position still gets re-listed periodically.)

I am in the interview process with a very large tech company with a drawn-out interview process. I have very mixed feelings about it. Do I really want to work there? Am I going to pass through their interview hoops? A big factor in those mixed feelings is that if an offer does happen, it will require moving to another city and working out of an office several days a week.

Some of the rejections, even when they came early, have been hard. There have been positions at a few different companies that were focused on building internal tools for the company, which is something I believe I would be particularly well-suited to do, so I have been looking harder at listings that push that button.

I am grateful to everyone who has offered support, and leads on positions.