xylex

Yes, it would. Almost all of your pointer sizes are doubled since what used to take 32 bits takes 64 bits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit#Specific_C-language_data_models

Are both machines using a 64-bit OS? If your production is 64-bit and your dev is 32-bit, that would do it. And you're checking your memory usage with memory_get_peak_usage()?

IBM's often attributed with a claim that a great programmer has 10x the productivity of an average programmer. Joel Spolsky has an awesome blog entry entitled "Hitting the High Notes" also about the really good programmers vs the average programmers. I'm assuming you're U.S. based, which means you're below average for a software engineer's salary, which would seem to line up well with your ideologies. Learning on the job is one thing, but how much can you really learn with an attitude of hack away until it works so the check clears? I'm sure that a lot of people here are willing to put in the time and effort to learn what it takes to make it to the top of the developer skill curve, which requires a lot more work and patience than what you're suggesting. Not to mention the disservice you're doing to the industry with the trainwrecks of hack code you're leaving behind for us to clean up as you bounce from client to client or job to job.

Did you do anything to optimize your query in MySQL? Create relevant indexes, etc? Or are you comparing a highly tuned compiled data source to a fresh drop of a CSV in MySQL? Tuned properly, MySQL should be able to query as fast as the C++ library, though MySQL will always be a much bigger footprint as it gives you a whole lot of other things the C++ library doesn't.

If you do some Googling on Flash sockets, AMF, and SmartFoxServer, you'll get an idea of one possible route to go that's pretty scalable and has been proven on other MMO systems.

Sounds like what you could use is a document repository. If you Google for "document repostiory" or "document management", you'll find a bunch of enterprise class vendors and systems that should meet your school district's requirements. We use Alfresco at work, works okay but I don't know that I'd really recommend it. Or you can always just go with Sharepoint and call it good.

To quote Rasmus, "PHP is a template engine, so why would you build one for it?"

The low pay problem gets compounded with the small insurance agency factor IMO. Decent programmers and ambitious ones out of school might consider taking low paying positions in a dot-com type atmosphere, either with great potential for startup rewards, or surrounded by brilliant engineers with backgrounds top-tier companies. Or a newer programmer might consider low paying jobs for big-name companies, even if it's through a contractor, to get some good experience on their resume. Doesn't sound like any of those potential payoffs are applicable to you. And learning to make tools for a few insurance agents to sell and manage insurance isn't exciting enough that a bunch of people are going to be lining up to do it. So without being able to offer any of the non-pay perks of the IT industry, why would someone want to come work for you for far under market rate?

rad_lat/rad_lon are radian equivalents of the latitude/longitude degree measurements. radians = (degrees * pi)/180