Binary Code

The dearth of quality resumes has become a pretty common theme amongst bloggers in positions of hiring authority. And every post seems to be driven by how amazingly poorly written most resumes and cover letters actually are. Robert Scoble is the latest to weigh in with some quality advice and I’m going to throw my own out as well (since we’re hiring at DreamBank for a PHP developer):

1. Google for advice on how to submit a resume before submitting resumes. Start with Scoble, look for Rands, and so-forth. Some extremely smart, influential people are trying to tell tyou how to game the system they control - pay attention to them.
2. Submit in the manner the job description states, not via your path of least resistance. For instance I want resumes as PDFs. Not Powerpoint, not raw email, and never, ever a Word doc. I state that in every job description I write and maybe 50% of people follow through with it.
3. Don’t apply for jobs you’re not qualified for. I wrote my own software to keep track of and score every resume I receive and it works well. You don’t want to apply for a position you’re not a fit for and then again for one you are - I’ll remember you.
4. Most importantly - honestly! - is to proof-read your resume. If you’re reading this blog then chances are you’re applying for a developer position. As someone hiring I tend to expect developers to either be very detail-oriented or know how to use their tools to compensate for their short-comings. If you send me a resume with spelling mistakes, copy-paste errors, and the like you’re out of the running immediately. You’ve just told me you don’t give a crap about the quality of your own work so I’m certainly not letting you get your hands on mine.

It’s really not that hard to stand out from the crowd when applying for a job, which is a shame when you think about it.

Via Obie Fernandez, the Me Meme.

1.Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture. (should be super-easy with Photobooth)
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4 Post these instructions with your picture.

Wondering what the hell just happened (is happening) to the global banks? This New York Times article is the best accounting of it I’ve read thus far: As Credit Crisis Spiraled, Alarm Led to Action.

This is what a credit crisis looks like. It’s not like a stock market crisis, where the scary plunge of stocks is obvious to all. The credit crisis has played out in places most people can’t see. It’s banks refusing to lend to other banks — even though that is one of the most essential functions of the banking system. It’s a loss of confidence in seemingly healthy institutions like Morgan Stanley and Goldman — both of which reported profits even as the pressure was mounting. It is panicked hedge funds pulling out cash. It is frightened investors protecting themselves by buying credit-default swaps — a financial insurance policy against potential bankruptcy — at prices 30 times what they normally would pay.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of Computerworld soundly debunks the myth that Linux is developed by unpaid hobbyists in their spare time in Who writes Linux: Corporate America:

I’m not sure why the silly notion that “Only .10068% of Linux kernel developers are paid” keeps circulating, but it does. So, let me just say, once and for all, Linux is written, for the most part, by paid software engineers and programmers from major American corporations.
…
By January 24, 2008, when the 2.6.24 Linux kernel was released, over a thousand developers from over 186 companies were contributing to the Linux kernel. That doesn’t count any work done on any particular Linux distribution or other open-source program.

Read his article for the specific details, or the original Linux Kernel Development (April 2008) by the Linux Foundation for the nitty-gritty details.

And a “thank you” to all the companies out there putting money behind Linux.

If you’re in Vancouver and you’re looking for a great job on an interesting project:

DreamBank is hiring.

http://www.dreambank.org

DreamBank is about creating an alternative to traditional gift giving in a way that helps both the planet and important social causes. We’re currently looking for one more software developer with solid experience developing MySQL-driven PHP web sites (aka LAMP).

You’ll be working with the head developer to improve and solidify the current codebase, scope and implement new features, and help plan the technical growth of the company and site.

Real-world Ruby/Rails experience is also definitely an asset as we make considerable use of Rails at DreamBank.

If you’re interested, please send your resume and cover letter in PDF format as well as a links to examples of software you’ve worked on, to info@dreambank.org.

Regards
Chris Cummer
Technical Director, DreamBank

Location: Yaletown, Vancouver
Compensation: 60-70k on contract, depending on experience.
This is a contract job.

“If climbers used the word ‘beta’ the way most software houses do, we’d all be dead.”
- Unknown

The programmer, who needs clarity, who must talk all day to a machine that demands declarations, hunkers down into a low-grade annoyance. It is here that the stereotype of the programmer, sitting in a dim room, growling from behind Coke cans, has its origins. The disorder of the desk, the floor; the yellow Post-It notes everywhere; the whiteboards covered with scrawl: all this is the outward manifestation of the messiness of human thought. The messiness cannot go into the program; it piles up around the programmer.

- Ellen Ullman

Ted Dziuba may be crass and crude but at the end of the day he’s also the one making the most sense of Chrome and the rise of “desktop-killer web apps”:

Users have pretty basic needs when it comes to computers. They want word processing, spreadsheets, communications, and games. These needs have not changed much since the advent of the personal computer. So, when your Aunt asks why her 1.2GHz computer isn’t fast enough to run an online word processor that has the same fucking features as the 1987 version of Corel WordPerfect, you don’t have an answer for her. There is no justification.

If you’re reading this you, like me, are probably one of the people who should be paying close attention to that message because the other 90% of the world isn’t, and doesn’t have to, and they’re just fine with that.

Update: Dziuba follows up over at The Reg in Chrome-fed Googasm bares tech pundit futility.

The blogosphere sprayed its shorts and Google is sitting there, holding its whistle, trying to figure out what the fuck is going on.

YA-programming Q&A site is springing up (perhaps I shouldn’t complain; anything that helps dilute the online influence of that PoS Experts Exchange can only be a good thing) and it is members-only beta. Unless you circumvent the security-through-obscurity via this weak bit of trickery:

P.S. If you’d like to try Stack Overflow yourself, simply go to http://beta.stackoverflow.com and type the following into your address bar: javascript:alert(document.cookie="soba=-9999999");

Then again, perhaps gaining access is just the first skill-testing question on the site….

(Via Stack Overflow: the Blind Leading the Blind).

Xbox 360 + Connect360 + MacBook Pro + Airport Extreme + external 500 gig USB2 hard drive = media centre awesomeness!

(I confess I stole the title from here because that title rocks. And fits.)