Just a quick note to those wondering where I have gone. Still here but taking a break from the hobby to deal with life events. I spent the last two and a half years working as a sub-contractor (software architect) for Visa. That contract ended last September but while I was out of the marketplace I hadn’t realized how much of my bread and butter work had been automated as well as off-shored to foreign developers. When I came out of my contract many of my previous clients had begun using automated web-building services – leaving me without work!
I realized that I needed a full-time job and therefore the last few months have been spent looking for work and retraining in emerging technologies. Happily I landed the first job I applied for and now work for a ‘big data’ company in San Francisco. They are a great company and I’m glad to have a steady job at last. Things are getting back to normal and I should be able to get back to my first love ‘model trains’ in the next month or so.