Blog
Dave’s first speaking event and meeting notes from 7th May 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On 7th May, ten freelancers met in the Lord Nelson Inn to talk all things freelancing and tech. This is some of what we talked about: Matomo – PHP based web analytics package Tariffs and changes since last week Trying to get a business bank account when the bank IT is crap Monzo becoming an […]
Limiting exposure to clients and meeting notes from 30th April 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 30th April, 17 freelancers met in the Lord Nelson Inn, Brighton, to talk all things self employment and tech. This is some of what was talked about: Clients not testing when asked Typing your code Enjoying digging through an undocumented and messy codebase The best browsers for ad blocking A sudden outbreak of […]
Looker Studio, batching and filtering news – meeting notes from 23rd April 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On 23rd April, eight freelancers met in the Lord Nelson Inn to discuss all things self employment and tech. This is some of what we talked about: What you can claim as an expense Using GnuCash as a UK company Clients who are picky about costs like WordPress plugins, but spend more on devs to […]
GnuCash, task management and more – freelancers meet notes from 16th April 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On 16th April, thirteen freelancers got together in the Lord Nelson to talk all things freelancing and tech. This is some of what we talked about: Retainers GnuCash for organising your accounts (free and open source) Trying to buy property as a freelancer Modifying your electric bike battery for longevity Finding old code written by […]
Retainers, tariffs, and our meeting notes from 9th April 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 9th April, eleven freelancers met in the Lord Nelson Inn, Brighton, to talk all things tech and freelancing. This is some of what we talked about: American tariffs Manufacturing in China The market for Python programming Daft tech tests as part of job interviews Writing your own programming language The Shopify CEO letter […]
Stress and notes from our freelancers meet up on 2nd April 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 2nd April, eleven freelancers got together in the Lord Nelson Inn, Brighton, to talk all things tech and freelancing. This is some of what we talked about: New work! Using conferences as an excuse to travel Stopping the aggressive crawlers for AI bots OggCamp is great Clock change confusion for remote team members […]
Freedom or Fatigue? Navigating Burnout in Freelance Life
Posted by Paul Silver
This is a guest post from copywriter Rosie Buckley The freelance life is exciting; it’s no secret why people choose this path for their career. You can be your own boss, follow a flexible schedule, and work anywhere you want to. Even though freelancing has many benefits, these can be pushed aside if you start […]
Self employment and pensions, notes from 26th March 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 26th March, eleven freelancers gathered in the Lord Nelson Inn to talk all thinks freelancing and tech. This is some of what we talked about: Working when tired Getting new work via open source and your network Limited company tax setups Sole trading and claiming expenses Walking as exercise and distracting yourself while […]
Vibe coding and meeting notes from 19th March 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On 19th March, fourteen freelancers and business owners got together in the Lord Nelson Inn, Brighton, to talk all things freelancing and tech. This is some of what we talked about: i360 reopens and is £5 for Brighton residents “Vibe coding” and being hacked Will your job be replaced by AI, or will it be […]
Taking breaks between projects and notes from 12th March 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 12th March, six freelancers met in the Lord Nelson. A small but fun meet up, we chatted about various topics: Nepotism as a hiring strategy Turning a mess into a structured project Trying to work around cats Mt Gox payment arrives! Taking a break between projects Working with APIs which have incomplete documentation […]
Working for bad payers and meeting notes from 5th March 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 5th March 2025, twelve freelancers met in the Lord Nelson Inn in Brighton to talk all things freelancing and tech. This is some of what we talked about: Blocking over aggressive website crawlers Local games Using AI to help write your own tools Rust and getting into other programming languages Tesla cars being […]
You are your marketing department and notes from our meeting on 26th February 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
A small meeting of eight freelancers on 25th February, but there was a lot of great chat. The smaller meet ups often end up with everyone in the same conversation, which makes for a variety of views and ways to solve the same problem. My notes from our conversations: Work is sporadic in the current […]
Making APIs, Accessibility, AR use and more – notes from 19th February 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 19th February 2025, twelve freelancers met in the Lord Nelson Inn, Brighton, to talk all things tech and freelancing. This is some of what we talked about: University of Sussex Hack Day coming up Building APIs for partial testing when the provider has no test version Handling a Brevo ecommerce integration Farm contraction […]
Learning with AI help, server talk and parenting – our meet up on 12th February 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On 12th February twelve freelancers met in the Lord Nelson pub in Brighton to talk all things tech and self employment. This is some of what we talked about: Getting suddenly booked up with work is very welcome! People still using bare metal hosting in 2025? “Get cloud servers because they’re more better” Upgrading your […]
Spotify suspensions, Kotlin and more – freelancers meet up 5th February 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 5th of February, eleven freelancers met in the Lord Nelson pub to talk all things tech and self employment. Welcome to Joan, who came along for the first time. This is some of what we talked about: Insolvency, an unwelcome mess The Brighton AI talk by Anil Seth was very good Spotify suspending […]
University, AI help laziness and hardcore tech, notes from 29th Jan
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 29th January, we seven freelancers got together in the Lord Nelson pub to talk all things tech and self employment. It was a bijou meet up, but the chat was still good. Some of what we talked about: Circular graphs in PostgreSQL Site scraping & RSS & APIs Is there too much box […]
Donations to Open Sources projects and more, freelancers meet on 22nd Jan
Posted by Paul Silver
On 22nd January 2025, 11 freelancers met in the Lord Nelson pub in Brighton to talk all things self employment and tech. This is some of what we talked about: Donations to Open Source projects as funding for programming Government Digital Services is being revamped Musk’s “salute” at Trump’s inauguration Getting a rat mat to […]
Drupal CMS launches, Toad in the Hole the game – freelancers meet on 15th January 2025
Posted by Paul Silver
Our second meeting in 2025 was relatively quiet, with ten freelancers coming to the Lord Nelson to chat. This is some of what we talked about, I missed noting several topics down as I was too busy talking to interesting folk to remember to write: Drupal CMS 1.0 Bluesky ‘hacks’ to see your followers The […]
Welcoming in 2025 and the Recession Question
Posted by Paul Silver
The evening of our first freelancers meet up of 2025 was snowy, which is quite a surprise for Brighton as we get very little snow. Happily, fourteen freelancers made it through the slush to meet in the Lord Nelson Inn in Brighton. This is some of what we talked about: Snow! The City of London […]
Notes from our freelancers meet up on 18th December 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
Our last freelancers meet up of 2024 saw 15 of us meet in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton. This is some of what we talked about: Writing straight HTML and CSS with no Bootstrap/front end framework Cooking gluten free pastry (Laura’s recommendation: coconut oil) Having work suddenly cancelled or put off A project […]
Notes from our freelancers meet on 11th December 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 11th December, 14 freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to chat all things self employment and tech. This is some of what we talked about: Being expected to quote for a build before designs are made The Apple design methods The rarity of a native Brightonian Not underselling yourself works! (Positive […]
Notes from our freelancers meet up on 4th December 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 4th December, 16 freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk all things self employment and tech. This is some of what we talked about: The business of vouchers Full time freelancing is very possible A very varied education Handling birthdays in a big family Brexit effects on the car industry […]
Freelancers networking notes from 27th November 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 27th November, 16 freelancers met in the Lord Nelson Inn, Brighton, to talk about the tech industry and freelancing. This is some of what we talked about: Insolvency of the Brighton i360 Games consoles for family use Digital life balance When a client cancels a project Banter VR game pitching Farmers and inheritance […]
Freelancers meeting notes from 20th November 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 20th November, a dozen freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk all things freelancing and tech. This is some of what we talked about: It’s cold! Lapses in productivity Putting code in helpers vs models Bluesky and Mastodon Deleting your tweets and X account Integrity AI and Drupal Upgrading an […]
Growing into an agency, notes from our 13th November 2024 meet up
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 13th November, twelve freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton. This is some of what we talked about: Can you / do you want to retire? Jewellery as a hobby and business Bitcoin valuation spiking Should you grow into an agency? Trying to work as a collective Trying to get […]
Should I grow into an agency?
Posted by Paul Silver
This has been a reoccurring theme through the history of the Farm group. Once you’re doing at least fine as a freelancer, should you grow into an agency? I’m basing the below on the agency I used to work for full time, and the many agencies I’ve known over more than twenty years freelancing. The […]
How much work do you get done, and more… freelancers meeting on 6th November 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 6th of November, twelve freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk all things self employment and tech. This is some of what we talked about: Finding code in heavily abstracted projects Task management systems Padrone ring mouse Finding work for several days a week rather than full time US election […]
Feature flags and more, freelancers meeting on 30th October 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 30th October, 14 freelancers got together in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk all things tech and freelancing. This is some of what we talked about: Figma’s iffy UX means you can incur costs unexpectedly When client relationships go wrong The Rocky Horror Picture Show Doing tasks that your client doesn’t understand […]
Notes from our freelancers meet up on 23rd October 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 23rd October we had a small meeting with nine freelancers meeting in the Battle of Trafalagar pub in Brighton. I was along for a shorter time than usual as I was getting over a cold, here’s what we talked about while I was there: Sharepoint – much better to work on than it used […]
Notes from the freelancers meet up on 16th October 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On a very rainy Wednesday evening, 12 freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar, Brighton. This is some of what we talked about: The challenges and benefits of working within the charity sector Ideas for finding work What did you do before freelancing? Jobs that are a grind Recommended: the TV show “Alma is not […]
Juggling client comms & meeting notes from 9th October 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 9th October, thirteen freelancers in the digital sector met in the Battle of Trafalgar in Brighton to talk freelancing and tech. This is some of what we talked about: “PHP bad” – competitiveness in programming languages Stopping smoking (congrats!) Slim PHP microframework Juggling clients and their foibles Having enough clients that if one stops […]
Freelancers meet up notes from 2nd October 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 2nd October, 15 freelancers got together in the Battle of Trafalgar in Brighton to talk all things tech and self employment. This is some of what we talked about: Dealing with a very dead EV car Travelling near(ish) Israel is tricky right now Amazing diving pictures Puppy! Programmers not actually getting much productivity boost […]
Working out what you want to do, a visitor from Wales & more…
Posted by Paul Silver
On 25th September, 17 freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk all things freelancing and technology. This week we were joined by Jeni for the first time in years, as she moved away from Brighton and couldn’t come back during the pandemic. It was great to see her! A very welcome visitor […]
Freelancers meet up on 18th September 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 18th September, ten freelancers met up in the Battle of Trafalgar. I couldn’t make it as I was ill, thanks very much to Hazlitt for his notes on what was talked about: I’ve got a new client! Dead electric car, they disconnected the meter My best client is closing down The new iPhone […]
Working for companies in other countries, job security and more
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 11th September 2024, nine freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar in Brighton to talk all things self employment and tech. This is some of what we talked about: Power problems and laptop problems Debugging very old PHP code Brighton Fibre connection debugged with a very strong torch Memorising (pointless) things Strange cheeses […]
HMRC mistakes and more, freelancers meet up on 4th September 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 4th September, twelve freelancers got together in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton to talk all things freelancing and tech. This is some of what we talked about: HMRC mistakes are a massive pain as you can’t easily get hold of them WordUp Brighton – WordPress Interactivity API Brighton Fibre vs Hyperoptic […]
Freelancers meeting notes for 28th August 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 28th August, fourteen freelancers gathered in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton to chat about work they had on, finding new work, and a bunch of other stuff. Here are the topics I managed to note down: Pass the parcel with ethernet connectors Orkney and archeology Consulting work […]
Is the problem people? Freelancers meet up on 21st August 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 21st August, thirteen freelancers got together in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton to talk all things tech and freelancing. Here is some of what we talked about: Moving a project from Laravel 6 to 11 Getting paid for estimates/quotes Domain records – what to change in DNS when you move website […]
No-GPT learning, freelancers meet on 14th August 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 14th August, 15 freelancers met in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton to chat all things self employment and tech. This is some of what we talked about: The Eisenhower Matrix for prioritising tasks Learning React Trying to break into tech Farm history Coworking in Thailand Chiang Mai […]
Potential riots and equipment budgeting – freelancers chat on 7th August 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
Having missed two Farm meet ups due to holiday and illness (they went fine, but no notes from them), I was delighted to make it his week although with a riot rumoured to be happening nearby, the starting of meeting was a little anxious. Happily, the riot did not happen, and an anti-fascist protest against […]
Not a huge success? Really? Our freelancers meet up on 17th July 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 17th July it was warm enough for us to meet in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar in Brighton. Fifteen of us were there across the night, spread over three of their picnic tables. This is some of what we talked about: The protections of having a Limited company Chasing money […]
Applecare win and more, freelancers meet up on 10th July 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the evening of the Euros 2024 semi-final between England and Netherlands, I expected a low turn out. I was wrong, there were 17 of us in all. While the football match played inside the pub, we enjoyed various chat across three picnic tables in the beer garden. Topics of conversation: The election result and […]
Freelancers meeting notes for 3rd July 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 3rd July, twelve freelancers came to our meet up in the Battle of Trafalgar. This is some of what we talked about: Finding work when you can do lots of things for clients Breaking down your work to niches YunoJuno Marketing via your own website Finding new clients Networking where your clients network […]
Freelancers meeting notes for 26th June 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 26th June, fifteen freelancers met in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk all things tech and freelancing. There was a lot of different conversations going on, this is some of the topics I managed to note down: Using frameworks and libraries vs writing all the code in a […]
Meeting Notes for 19th June 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 19th June, eight freelancers met in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar to talk all things freelancing and tech. Some of our conversations were: Using Clickup for task management Relocating to a different country Seagull stories Taking a long time to complete a Masters or PhD PHP in the modern world […]
Dealing with old code, learning multiple languages and more… freelancers meet 12th June 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 12th June, 14 freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar to talk tech and self employment. This is some of the many conversations I noted down: Balancing work and health Old PHP in the wild Finding clients with old code – not as lucrative as hoped Moving to a full time job Work/life […]
Windows Recall madness and more… freelancers meeting on 5th June 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 5th June, eight freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar. A small but good meet up, we covered quite a few topics including the recent news about Windows Recall, a feature coming with certain new Windows computers. Here’s broadly what we talked about: Windows Recall madness Photoshop alternatives Proud dad moment: child in first […]
Freelancers meeting notes for 29th May 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 29th May, ten freelancers got together in the Battle of Trafalgar pub, Brighton to talk freelancing and all things tech. Although there weren’t as many of us as usual, this was a lovely meet up and I got to play with the iPhone app Sky is making. I promised not to talk about what […]
Freelancers meeting notes for 22 May 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 22nd May, nine freelancers met at the Battle of Trafalgar to talk self employment, tech, and elections. This is some of what we talked about: Pensions – moving, paying in, hassles and positives Problems with old school server setup Storing your code – Github vs Gitlab vs others Deployment systems UK election is coming! […]
Freelancers meet on 15th May, 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 15th May, 12 freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub, Brighton, to talk all things freelancing and tech. Some of our conversations included: Git desktop vs CLI Losing energy for streaming Do you just not like AI or are you too old for this shit? Working on a client project when you’re […]
Freelancers meet on 8th May 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 8th May, eleven freelancers got together in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk business and tech. It was great to see Sul for the first time in ages and to hear about the internship he’s recently completed. Here’s some of what we talked about: Payment problems Tesla robots Speculative investments Not sure […]
Meeting notes for 1st May 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 1st of May, nine freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk business and tech. Trying to build up and subcontract to other freelancers House renovations and fixes The Bank of Dave Mutual project catch up Finances for your children Dealing with an awkward project manager Linting your code PHP version […]
Meeting notes for 24th April 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 24th April, nine freelancers gathered in the Battle of Trafalgar to chat freelancing, tech, and a bunch of old nonsense. Here are the topics I noted down: Trying to get funding for Open Source work Managing to market yourself Open Source AI projects Gadgets a go go: new phone! New step counter! Bad […]
Google Consent Mode v2 and learning vs marketing, meeting on 17th April 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 17th April 2024, ten freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk all things self employment and tech. It was great to see Carl for the first time in years, he was back in town on other business. Some of the topics we talked about: Google Consent Mode v2 What causes delays […]
Using recruitment agencies to find work, bad sleep and more from 10th April 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 10th April eleven freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton to talk all things freelancing, and many things about cooking too. Some of what we talked about: Clarity website visitor tracking Big companies and awkwardness – Microsoft, Google, Apple Spreading vacancies out to job boards E-learning Businesses we’ve worked in Going […]
Meeting notes for 3rd April 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 3rd April, nine freelancers got together in the Battle of Trafalgar to talk all things self employment, tech and… cooking kept coming up a lot too. It was great to see Mike for the first time in ages. Here’s some of what we all talked about: “Quit” by Annie Duke is very good […]
Meeting notes for 27th March 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 27th March, the Farm met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub, Brighton. Ten people came to talk all things freelancing and tech. Here is some of what we talked about: Being made redundant Life in rural Portugal Building boar proof fences (no, you can’t just eat them) Being a “technology tart” – learning […]
Discovery phases, self marketing and more, meeting notes for 20th March 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 20th March 2024, thirteen freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar to talk all things freelancing and tech. I was delighted to see Elliot, who was visiting Brighton after moving to the West country five years ago, and Paul for the first time in ages. Here’s some of what we talked about: Building products […]
Meeting notes from 13th March 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 13th of March, 14 freelancers gathered in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to swap notes and chat. This is some of what we talked about: Mailgun and support Making websites low carbon A ‘responsive’ site that serves different HTML via PHP WordPress and getting speed from it Mt. Gox payments are trickling in […]
Learning new skills as a freelancer, our meet on 6th March
Posted by Paul Silver
On 6th March 2024, twelve freelancers got together in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton to talk all things freelancing. This is the topics I managed to note down: “Work no longer falls in my lap” – searching for work in the current economy Proxy header problems impossible to diagnose with Safari’s browser tools […]
Rokit AR demo, LLM use and ethics, and more – meeting notes from 28th Feb
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 28th February, 2024, ten freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar, Brighton, to talk freelancing and tech. This is some of what was talked about: Science fiction books and films The Apple Vision Pro A break in Thailand Oliver Sacks Reaction videos – the good and the bad Watching easy media when you’re […]
Working in VR, meeting notes from 21st February 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 21st February, 13 freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar, Brighton, to talk business, tech, and random nonsense. This is the topics I managed to note down: Insight Time meditation app Politics and the economy Work levels Focusing down the services you offer The Rose Hill Tavern How disturbing are phone calls in coworking […]
Meeting notes for 7th February 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 7th February, 11 freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk tech and all things freelancing. This is some of what we talked about: Retrocomputing Living in rural South Africa Living with the wildlife in rural South Africa Online communities which florish on hate Brighton AI meet up Endless projects Politics and […]
Meeting notes for 31st January 2024
Posted by Paul Silver
On 31st January, ten freelancers got together in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk all things freelancing. This is a selection of what we talked about: Project problems A run in with a local “character” Can an aged PhD in AI be turned into being an “expert” in the LLM world? Dealing with someone […]
Meeting notes for 24th January
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 24th January 2024, nine freelancers met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to talk tech, business and various nonsense. We welcomed James along for the first time. Some of what we talked about: Don’t forget to “defer” your Javascript Teaching your spouse Python Chasing money? Use a “Letter before action” and a “Without […]
Meeting notes for 17th January
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 17th of January 2024, 14 of us met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub to chat all things freelancing. This is some of what we talked about: Turning your competition into customers Advertising your services Being full of work (a nice change) Photography meet ups? Projects coming to an end Physio and recovery […]
Meeting notes for 10th January
Posted by Paul Silver
On 10th January 2024 we held our freelancers meet up in the Battle of Trafalgar, 12 people attended. My notes, although I missed a lot as a lot of conversations were going on: Overrunning projects Suddenly booked in with lots of new work (woo!) Klarna payments development Working out a mix of booked days and […]
Meeting notes for 3rd January
Posted by Paul Silver
On 3rd January 2024 we held our freelancers meet up in the Battle of Trafalgar, eight people attended, including someone who hadn’t come along for almost a decade. My notes: The Farm Christmas week special Xbox setup hassles Keeping tech for as long as possible WordPress development help Scope creep “My business consultant says kindly […]
Meeting notes for 20th December
Posted by Paul Silver
On 20th December 2023 we held our freelancers meet up in the Battle of Trafalgar, nine people attended. A small turnout but good for being just before Christmas. My meeting notes: Is it time to buy a house? Foundation series two and Asimov’s writing style ACF based WordPress development Referring work around Getting time and […]
Code library woes, Paul Walsh book and more – freelancers meet up 13th Dec
Posted by Paul Silver
Being close to Christmas, our freelancers meet up on the 13th December 2023 was a small one. Six of us met in the Battle of Trafalgar to chat programming, freelancing and various nonsense. Topics of conversation included… When you rely on a library but the maintainers are awkward about what they’ll support City Fibre rollout […]
Farm Christmas 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
Wednesday 6th December 2023 was our Farm Christmas meal and drinks at the Shakespeare’s Head pub. The food was lovely, the company was excellent. I’d like to extend a huge thank you to Laura and Chris for helping organise the evening, and especially to Laura for bringing in crackers and home made mince pies. After […]
Getting better at quoting, visitors from Basildon and more – the Farm on 29th November
Posted by Paul Silver
On 29th November 2023 our freelancers meet up was in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton. 15 people came along. Some of the topics talked about: Starting freelancing Invoicing Self promotion Finding work Finding networking events near you Learning a big, complicated system is hard and you need to remember that Learning Golang Recovering […]
Project comms, client acquisitions and Banter TV – freelancers meet 22nd November
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 22nd November 2023, we had our freelancers meet up in the Battle of Trafalgar pub, Brighton. 15 people came along. Here’s some of what we talked about: Project communication nightmares Old equipment, still plugged in and burning electricity Returning to the Farm Clients being acquired – can be good and bad Being a […]
Pacing yourself, Bluesky and virtual machines – freelancers meet up 15th Nov
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 15th November, 2023, we had our freelancers meet in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton. 13 people came along. As usual, conversation hopped around quite a lot, here are the topics I noted down: DDEV for building local development environments Lagoon and Docker Bluesky experiences Eternal September What has backend development got […]
DB migrations, AI use in call centres and personal projects – freelancers meet 8th November
Posted by Paul Silver
On 8th November 2023 our freelancers meet up was in the Battle of Trafalgar pub. Eleven of us came along. Our chat jumped around a lot, here’s the topics I managed to note down: Database migrations and ORMs Arundel / Worthing / living outside Brighton AI and call centres and realtime voice changers Coworking and […]
YouTube Ads at war, stopping procrastination and running groups – freelancers meet 1st Nov 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 1st November 2023 our freelancers meet up was in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton. There was a weather warning out for stormy weather, but 15 freelancers joined in, as we’re a contrary lot by nature. Here are some of the topics we talked about: Brave and UBlock and the war on […]
Running web agencies, renting and design systems
Posted by Paul Silver
On 25th October 2023 we held our freelancers meet up in the Battle of Trafalgar pub, 13 people came along. Some of our topics of conversation: The importance of design systems Making websites for comedians Building up a product then selling Right wing comedians The rise and rise of Tiktok When language changes break your […]
High randomness – freelancers meet on 18th October
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 18th October 2023, the Farm meet up was in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton. Ten people attended, which was good given the terrible weather. Our conversations bounced around a lot of random topics, these are the ones I noted down: WordPress and React Keeping clients who are good to you When […]
Twitter’s decline and “selling” code – freelancers meet 11th October
Posted by Paul Silver
This week The Farm met in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar pub, then moved inside due to rain. Hopefully, we’ll get a little more outside time before it gets too cold. 18 people came to the meet up. Some of what we talked about: Coworking in Brighton O2 data in Brighton is […]
Meeting notes for 4th October
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 4th October 2023 we had our meeting in the Battle of Trafalgar beer garden. 12 people attended. Here are some of the topics we talked about: Updating iOS apps The different cultures of tip giving A Canadian town with a cat as mayor The Sam Bankman-Fried trial The problems that come up in […]
Freelancers meet 27th Sept: Lack of leads and random nonsense
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 27th September 2023, the Farm freelancers meet up was in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton, 12 people attended. Topics of conversation: The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Pens with torches in them What has stopped you investing when you’ve done well? Getting your head around finances Brighton property Do you […]
Freelancers meet 20th Sept: Finding freelance development work
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 20th September 2023 we had our freelancers networking meet in the Battle of Trafalgar pub, on an evening of very bad weather. 12 people came along. Topics of conversation: Is Chat-GPT helping inexperienced programmers get better or just advanced ones code faster? Going freelance Is there Go work around as a contractor / […]
Brighton freelancers meet on 13th September 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
For this Wednesday we met in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton, inside as the weather wasn’t great. 21 people attended. Some of our topics of conversation: Clients trying to get you to sign contracts with impossible clauses What’s the current freelance market like? PHP Sussex on YouTube UK work being affected by the […]
Freelancers meet up on 6th September 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
We held our freelancers networking meet up on 6th September in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar pub, Brighton. Ten members came along. Topics of conversation: Designing in Photoshop vs Figma vs Webflow Looking for WordPress work How easy is it to find freelancing work at the moment? Supabase – an open source […]
Freelancers networking on 30th August
Posted by Paul Silver
On Wednesday 30th August 2023 the Farm freelancers networking event was in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar pub, Brighton. 14 people came along. This is some of what we talked about: Motivation and regaining it Controllers and synths Holidays Finding clients Anti-work and David Graeber The exploitative aspects of work (both for […]
Farm freelancers meet up on 23rd August
Posted by Paul Silver
Our meeting was once again in the Battle of Trafalgar pub. Sam kindly filled in for me and gave me these (rather brief) notes: Did Paul unbook the table 😛 New member came all the way down from London Teaching in China Not writing down the notes… Watching videos that make you happy (or not) […]
Farm 16th August 2023: AR glasses demo and dev chat
Posted by Paul Silver
On the 16th of August we had our freelancers networking meet in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar. 16 people came in all. Here is some of what we talked about: Freelancing work levels Taiwan Wanting both change and no change Getting your head around programming in Rust Sketch-a-Sketch AI drawing app Rokid […]
Farm freelancers networking on 9th August 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
On 9th August we had our freelancers networking meet in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar. 12 people attended across the evening. These are the topics I heard talked about: Pride! Living in Taiwan The many coworking spaces in Brighton Making videos of your product Karaoke experiences LINE (Whatsapp alternative heavily used in […]
Freelancers meet up in Brighton on 2nd August 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
Last week we had our freelancers networking meet up in the Battle of Trafalgar pub in Brighton. Ten people attended, including James for the first time. Here is some of what we talked about: When to look for rental property Working on your own projects React and React Native Controlling your expenses The room that […]
Freelancers meet up 26th July 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
We had a special meet up on the 26th July. We started with member talks at our Show and Tell special at The FuseBox, then departed to the Battle of Trafalgar pub to continue the conversations. Here’s what we talked about: StackOverflow traffic halving – all down to AI/LLM use? About to go freelance I […]
Show and Tell, a Farm special
Posted by Paul Silver
Last week we started early at The FuseBox for a Show and Tell by members. Many thanks to Wired Sussex for letting us use their amazing facilities. The Show and Tell format (borrowed liberally from the version run monthly at The Skiff) gives each speaker five minutes to talk about their subject, then a few […]
Freelancers meet on 19th July 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
For our Farm freelancers meeting on 19th July we met in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar, Brighton. 12 people came along. My list of what we talked about is shorter than usual as there were several topics covered that were private, here’s what I can list: The Albion Hotel fires Worthing Digital […]
Farm meet 12th July 2023 – Reflections on VR night, Brighton tourist attractions and PHP musings
Posted by Paul Silver
This week the Farm freelancers networking took place in the Shakespeare’s Head pub near Seven Dials in Brighton. 14 people came along. Farm VR night Farm website plans Colour e-ink Android tablet demo (very fancy!) VR and motion sickness Sidequest and streaming content out of VR Tilt Five Augmented Reality – useful or not? The […]
Freelancers in VR, a Farm special
Posted by Paul Silver
Andy sweeps down a river in Banter Last week we were invited to The FuseBox by Wired Sussex to enjoy several Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality experiences. It was great fun! Some Farm members are very into VR and are well known to The FuseBox, they and Jay from Wired Sussex and Peter from VR […]
Freelancers networking on 28th June 2023 – WP development, paying tax on account and more
Posted by Paul Silver
We had our freelancers networking meet on 28th June in the beer garden of the Battle of Trafalgar, Brighton. 17 people came along. This is a little of what we talked about: Very modern WordPress development Twitter API use in mid-2023 Where to try vertical mouse/mice in Brighton? Ergonomic equipment and reasons to use it […]
VR Special next week!
Posted by Paul Silver
Our meeting next week is a special you don’t want to miss! We will be at The FuseBox using their Immersive Lab to explore the possibilities of Virtual Reality. Freelancer? Join us to try all sorts of VR experiences and to talk over both development and the implications of VR technology with experienced users and people […]
Farm freelancers meet 21st June 2023 – UX Brighton, RSI friendly equipment and pets
Posted by Paul Silver
This week our freelancers networking meet up was in the Battle of Trafalgar pub, Brighton. I couldn’t make it and Laura kindly held the fort and took some notes for us: The Battle of Trafalgar is changing hands soon Puddings How can you photograph yourself with your eyes closed? UX Brighton Vertical mouse Keyboard for […]
Freelancers meet 14th June – Mac hassles, Vision Pro, and causing technical chaos
Posted by Paul Silver
This week we had 14 people at our freelancers networking event, spread across three tables in the beer garden of the Hampton Arms in Brighton. It was great to be outside for the whole meet up. Here are my notes of what was talked about. I missed lots of conversations as I was deep into […]
Notes from 7th June 2023
Posted by Paul Silver
We had our meeting in the Battle of Trafalgar pub. Seventeen people attended. Haze kindly hosted as Paul couldn’t make it. These are his notes on what was talked about: Starting work on an undocumented codebase Spending days trying to get one thing to work Supporting elderly parents Apple’s insanely expensive VR headset! Which laptop […]