Learning A New Language.

I'm working on building out someone else's vision for a site that will eventually sell lock and key services for classic cars.

I'm working on an application that the owner and I sketched out on my home office whiteboard.

In this case, the application doesn't call for a login application or other heavy requirements. I want to move a bit faster on the implementation (read quick and dirty). I decided to go with PHP since this ISP supports that.

I wrote my first test page that grabbed content from MySQL. It worked so I immediately went to my online resume and add PHP to the languages I know :).

Anyway, it's an example of choosing a different way to implement something (usually I implement in JAVA/JSP) and the reasons behind it.  I also would like to teach PHP to my wife. PHP is simpler because doesn't have all the heavy error checking and such you have to deal with in Java. It's good for lightweight, small scope applications.

I believe being a jack of all trades leaves you open for all sorts of opportunities. Be prepared to meet the opportunities that come up by casting a wide net on your technology knowledge. Have a strong foundation or theme that your career is based on. For me, it's data warehousing.  All these other fringe skills that I exercise allow me to build the ancillary components around a data warehouse data model. These ancillary components allow a front end for outsiders to enter data, view/report on the data mart, etc. I don't need anyone to build a complete application.  I believe that's important with so much competition going around.