Hacker News Reader

Just development positions at the moment.

Developer for a small financial software startup in Boston.

BTW... We are hiring and are having a real hard time finding good developers. Shoot me your resume if interested.

KBon Three Questions About Each Bug You Find

Interesting. I was under the impression the "5 Whys" were a convention created by the Six Sigma process... Instead they merely adopted it.

KBon Listening Post's Top 10 Hottest Music Sites

http://amiestreet.com isn't mentioned either and I've discovered lots of good music through the site. I guess they just aren't popular enough.

KBon Deepening Cycle of Job Loss Seen Lasting Into ’09

A few months ago I had read on CNN Money that for the most part technology based jobs are in the clear and will not be directly effect by the poor economy.

I just left a large company and went on a slew of interviews for new jobs, so it appears this is a decent theory so far.

KBon Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?

I was just hired by a startup and I provided a cover letter along with my resume. In fact it was mentioned to me that my cover letter was part of the reason I was brought in for an interview. Cover letter's don't have to contain all of the regurgitated crap you find on resume help sites. Its a great way to get a lot of the finer points across that your resume simply can't. Be sure that every cover letter (like your resume) is tailored to the particular job and company you are applying to. Nothing looks worse than a cookie cutter cover letter where someone can easily tell you just swapped out the hiring manager's and company's name.

On top of that... I wore a suit to the interview. I was on the fence on wearing it or not, but when in doubt its always better to be over dressed.

KBon At Glassdoor, Find Out How Much People Really Make At Google, Microsoft, Yahoo

Thanks for pointing that out.

I wonder what their collection threshold is before they begin publishing this data. I imagine it could be a static number or a percentage based on the population and industry in the locale.

KBon At Glassdoor, Find Out How Much People Really Make At Google, Microsoft, Yahoo

I'm not seeing a place for location when it comes to the salary reported. Location (cost of living) is a big deal when it comes to market rate salaries. I'm sure a Software Engineer at Google makes more money working in CA or NY compared to the market rate for the same job here in Boston.

Am I just not seeing these details since I haven't signed up?

KBon Ask YC: Leaving consulting to build a product. Is my consultancy worth anything?

I'm fairly certain Tony Wright of RescueTime sold a design/programming consultancy a few years back. If you can find a buyer, why not go for it. The extra cash could provide capital to your new venture.

KBon Django - starting from ground zero - any advice?

Best place to start would be to read the free online book written by the authors of Django.

http://djangobook.com

I would also recommend "Python Pocket Reference" (3rd Edition) by O'Reilly. It really helped me get up to speed with Python in a short amount of time.

Good Luck.

KBon IPhone Applications in Python

I haven't read too deep into the Apple guidelines yet for writing and distributing iPhone apps. Could you expand on why Apple wouldn't allow an app written using something other than Obj-C to be distributed through iTunes?

I've been learning Obj-C, but naturally if I could use a language I already know, I could avoid a huge learning curve and get right into creating an app.

KBon Apple iPhone SDK beta 2 now includes Interface Builder

I've been messing around with the SDK over the last few weeks and the lack of a standard interface building tool was annoying but easy enough to work without. Its really the mental switch from Java to Obj-C that kills me when I leave work.

Considering that I spend my days at work using the Matisse builder for Java Swing GUIs, it should be an interesting comparison.

KBon You weren't meant to have a boss

I keep my eye on the job boards for most of the major tech blogs and sites, but even there it tends to be larger organizations.

The other issue would be the mass amounts of jobs posted for work in CA. I would really like to stay here in the east (Boston) as oppose to moving halfway across the country for a job that very well may exist where I'm located already.

I think CA would be a great place to live, however it just doesn't fit into my current situation at the moment.

Are there any other resources out there for startup type jobs other than the major players (TechCruch, GigaOm, 37Signals, etc)?

KBon You weren't meant to have a boss

Its also possible I haven't been looking in the right places either. From what I've noticed, its hard to pinpoint jobs at small companies since they don't seem to advertise as much as the larger ones.

However, Jamie from snaptalent was nice enough to email me and pointed me to their job ads page. Unfortunately there's only one company on the east coast listed so far, but I'm hoping once they get rolling with more job ads that my chances for finding a small startup or company to work for will increase.

KBon You weren't meant to have a boss

I'm 26 and just passed my fifth year at a very large company (18000+), with four years in IT and the past year in Software Engineering. I've been looking for an oppurtunity at a smaller company, since my current one is stifling my ability to learn and be productive.

The issue I'm finding is that small companies are typically looking for someone with more experience than I could currently offer. Has anyone else come across this issue? It seems to me (and others where I work) that we have to somehow pay our dues and get experience at a large company before we gather enough experience to become valuable assets to smaller companies.

KBon Songkick is down

http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

Up for me.

KBon [dead]

I'm fairly certain you can list your cell number on the national do not call list.

https://donotcall.gov/

KBon Toolbar free competitor to stumbleupon

Personally I like the stumbleupon toolbar better than having to browse sites through an iFrame that is smaller than my screen. Also, stumbleupon has more of a sticky approach since the toolbar is always in view of the user and can click stumble whenever they choose. On SpinSnap, you have to navigate to their page to do anything.

If I had to choose... Downloading a tool bar isn't always preferred, but I think its the better approach for this style of service.

KBon Guy Kawasaki launches Alltop, an "online magazine rack"

Its simply http://originalsignal.com sans technology articles.

Not that clever or ground breaking really.

KBon Dropbox launches (YC summer 07)

Looks like the Dropbox client doesn't work if you're behind a Proxy servers.

Any plans to allow a proxy configuration setting in the future?

KBon An iPhone interface for Hacker News

Great idea Buxfer guys.

A simple version of this can also be done through mofuse, granted I think the Buxfer one looks better.

I was able to create a News.YC in about a minute.

Here's the link to the preview. http://gg20o9.mofuse.mobi/iphone/preview/

KBon Poll: If it wasn't YC who would it be?

Considering that all of these came up after YC, I'm not sure we can even assume these companies would exist without YC having first been created.

Granted I'm fairly certain someone would've conceived the YC model eventually.

KBon Ask YC: Mid-sized, livable, hacker-friendly towns?

I lived in Cambridge, MA (Harvard Square in particular) for two years and would say that Somerville, Arlington, and Cambridge are all good places to check out. Boston and the surrounding area has become one of the leading centers for BioTech research, so that would be a big plus for your wife.

I currently live in Providence, RI which is about an hour south of Boston. Smaller hacker community, but at least there is one and its not to far from Boston either. We also have a growing BioTech industry thanks to Brown University. I have a friend that works at EpiVax and loves his job. Might be worth checking out.

KBon Ask YC: How many people here have a degree and are programmers?

B.S. Comp. Sci. from the University of Rhode Island

Java programmer for a Defense Contractor.

KBon Finance app Buxfer gets some iPhone love

On a semi-related note, I came across a finance article in the December issue of Men's Health that happened to mention Buxfer.

That should work as some nice PR for them.

KBon Google's Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal

Not to long ago I interviewed with EnerNOC in Boston (http://enernoc.com) for an R&D position. They are working in green energy and have some really interesting things going on. Not to mention a decent amount cash to work with since they went public this year.

Renewable and green energy initiatives are getting big and looks to be a market to make some serious cash in.

KBon How to Get a Job on Craigslist

From the comments to Guy's post:

"And my favorite tip for sorting through resumes: Throw out half. That way you won't hire anyone who is unlucky!"

Now thats an amusing way of getting things done.

KBon Is a PMP valued in IT?

I've found that most IT managers consistently push certifications such as PMP and lead employees toward the path of management, because that is the same choice they made for themselves in the past.

I actually started working on a Masters in Program Management with a goal of also becoming a PMP to compliment the degree. After 7 courses (about half way through), I came to the realization that this path was leading me right into IT management... Something I quickly realized I wanted no part of.

I then shortly after jumped from IT to Software Engineering at my company and have become much more satisfied with my work responsibilities. Not to mention the ability to follow a technical career path, which doesn't exist in IT at my company. To date this has been the best decision I've made when it comes to my career. For me... technical is the way to go.

KBon Does anyone knows of a good mobile address book backup service?

I know a few of the major carriers offer this type of service for a monthly fee. I suppose you could look into that, however there's a build in flaw to this model.

If you use a carrier's backup service for your address/contact list, you can only use that with phones from that particular service. For example, you could transfer information from one AT&T Wireless phone to another AT&T phone, but you wouldn't be able to move data from a AT&T phone to a Nextel phone. I've seen some third-party devices out there that will help you move contacts from one service to another, but I haven't seen backup service that will allows for this functionality without manual (hardware or PC software) intervention.