Lots of things change over a ten year period. On the Internet, that's close to a century of real time.
And I've had absences from Perlmonks, but I keep coming back for the thoughtful replies and the local brand of humour. The beer's good, too. :)
If I can pass on one piece of advice, it's "Never stop learning." In the world of high tech (which is clearly where software development lives), if you stop learning, you go stale. And stale folks aren't employable, either in their current job, or their next job.
Don't have time? Make time. Watch a little less TV, read a little less Fail Blog, and stay current. After all, it's only your career.
Alex / talexb / Toronto
"Groklaw is the open-source mentality applied to legal research" ~ Linus Torvalds