Have you thought about starting a side project outside of work?
Something that might satisfy your itch for meaningful work or something that might "force your hand" in building relationships or interacting with others?
I've always found that when I'm working on something that I'm really interested in, that the positivity of it transferred into my life outside of that work.
I tend to disagree with the statement that you've already failed if you decide to eagerly load resources before they are used or needed. Take queue from Google or others who pre-fetch resources based on anticipated usage. In the world of SPAs and client-side heavy apps, combining resources into a single or logically grouped set of resources is common practice to cut down on the amount of overhead that many http(s) calls impose.
Also, the intended use of PleaseWait.js doesn't have to be used to stall while client side resources are brought down. This concept could easily be used for long running, server side processing.
I'm not sure that I understand all of the negativity around this. If Campbells had called this a contest instead of a hackathon, would it change your opinion on the details of the event? They seem to be pretty open about their intent and what happens if you win and/or make it to the finals.
Some positive things to keep in mind:
* submitting an idea costs you nothing except for your time to write up an idea
* the winner will receive $25,000 for a 3-week build prototype, NOT a market ready application
* there are no posted rules on the level of completeness required for your prototype. Can you win with a slide deck that shows how you use their API to execute your idea? maybe.)
* presenting your idea in the finals does not require you to travel to NY, they clearly state that you can video conference in for the event.
* if you do win you are then offered, not obligated to take, an additional $25k contract to complete it (likely not worth it)
For all of the folks that don't win, it's not an entire loss either:
* a well written idea is all that is needed to enter the contest, not much lost if you aren't selected as a finalist.
* if you make it to the finals, your only cost is 3 weeks of your time for a 1:30 chance of winning $25k or less for winning the $10k as a runner up.
* if you make it to the finals you walk away with something tangible to tack onto your resume. "Made it as a finalist in a nationally recognized brand's competition for my idea" sounds pretty good.
Finalists are granted access to the API on Feb 11, 2013 and are required to submit their entries by March 1, 2013. Assuming that they also notify you as a finalist on Feb 11 and not before, that gives you 3 weeks to build and submit your prototype.
$25k / 3 weeks == $8,333.34 USD per week. That's a pretty good payout for anyone in my opinion.
Also, assuming that you're not spending 40 hours a week at this for all 3 weeks (120 hours). A working prototype can be made in 10-15 hours. Also the amount of time you spend on it is up to you.
So 1:30 shot at $50K, for a 15 hour investment? Up to you to decide.
Haha! Having developed with both languages I can honestly say that Coldfusion (one word) simplifies 90+% of the tasks that you would need to use on a regular basis. Is PHP more feature rich, perhaps, but you're not land locked with CF. It allows you to delegate to any other jvm runnable language(in the same execution context, ie. Pass variables between) if need be.
You (and others) should give it a try, you will be pleasantly surprised by its simplicity.
"The bonus system was originally set up for high up executives to tie their comp more exactly to company performance since they are responsible for it. As a dev you are not responsible for company performance."
As a dev, we might not be "responsible", but we sure as hell have an impact on the performance of the company.
So many people overlook the fact that we design, build, implement, enhance and support the products that earn the company revenue. The products might not be our idea, but we are the ones executing them. And in true HN fashion, we all know an idea is nothing without the execution.
You can affect it, but that's not what the bonus system is about. It it were you would "deserve" a bonus for simply not destroying the place, since this is the only thing really somewhat under your control.
Everyone, down to the cleaning service, has some effect on the company. Otherwise they wouldn't be there. Should a big chunk of everyone's compensation be based on company performance? If you do that then we're all suddenly big risk takers, and therefor vastly underpaid.
As sad as it may be, IE6 and IE7 are still the most prominent browsers used by corporate America. If you are building b2b apps you must be conscious of these antiquated beasts.
Best of luck in your freelance endeavors!
EDIT: I have found this tool to be pretty useful in testing against various versions of IE, IETester http://goo.gl/4Egz9
Been using CF for 10 years, Java for 5. CF is a great bridge from the functionality and performance of Java with the ease and natural fit of a loosely typed language when building for the web.
CF and it's community is not the same beast it used to be, I would encourage you and others to take a second look.
Something that might satisfy your itch for meaningful work or something that might "force your hand" in building relationships or interacting with others?
I've always found that when I'm working on something that I'm really interested in, that the positivity of it transferred into my life outside of that work.