yozhik

I've just started using D for this sort of thing. It has web framework called Vibe.d (http://vibed.org/). I'm pretty happy with it, and it seems to satisfy all of your requirements. Note that I've only just started to use it, so I don't know how well it will hold up over time, but I'm enjoying it so far.

I've been playing with the idea of a 'karma economy': everyone starts with 1.0 karma. If someone uses a service or product you made, your karma increases by c * (user's karma), where c is some coefficient. Karma also decays over time, but never drops below 1.0. Creators of expensive (scarce) items could hold onto those items until someone with high karma wants one, thus maximizing their own karma gain.

I'm no an economist, so I have no idea if something like this would work, but it's a lot of fun to think about.

Is this similar to eh whuffies from Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom?

I had the exact same need, so I started a group with some coworkers to provide encouragement. As people shifted jobs membership has expanded to include people at several companies. We get together every other Tuesday and hack on projects, drink beer and network.

http://www.dicerealm.com makes me minus $5 per month, but it was mostly an experiment to validate some of the advice from Start Small Stay Small (http://www.amazon.com/Start-Small-Stay-Developers-Launching-...), which is a fantastic book.

I actually prefer working on a programming assignment when applying for new jobs. Most of my side project code is undocumented with few tests, so getting a coding assignment gives me the chance to prove that I do include those elements in paid work.

The community is amazing. I've been to groups for other languages, but they aren't as hands on or useful as the Ruby meetings. The Ruby group in my area does monthly 'hack nights' where experienced rubyists pair up with noobs and implement a small project. That kind of interaction keeps me motivated and lets me pickup standard practices and tools much faster.

I suspect it's because of Rails and the commercial potential of the web these days (Groupon, etc.).

As an aside, it seems like a pretty nice GP language in its own right. I had to write some shell scripts for a Windows box and picked Ruby largely on a whim. Two months later, and I've got a stack of Ruby books and I'm going user group meetings.

I agree. Open Pandora was really interesting for me when it first came out. Now, I have a Nokia n900. Other than the game controls the n900 is mostly comparable, with the additoin of GSM support. The n900 is also very open, and prevents me form having to carry a separate phone.

I recently started using Bluetile (http://www.bluetile.org/). It has all of the keyboard bindings, but there is also a dock that allows mouse control of major features. It's been a pretty easy transition for me because of this.

I have felt this way for a long time: In general, the more you pay for software, the worse it is (this is why anything with the word 'Enterprise' in the title frightens me). Note: I don't play many games, so this may not apply to them.