ayers

You could always send a candidate a simple(or complex, depends on what you are looking for) task that they need to complete a working solution for. This could be more beneficial than already prepared code samples.

1: You will know the time frame in which it took the candidate to write the solution.

2: You are setting out the parameters for the task and can choose an area(specific skills) that you are particularly interested in testing knowledge for.

I know a lot of companies do this as a standard practice.

My best hours at work are between 8am and 10:30am. This is usually because I arrive earlier than my workmates who are in my immediate vicinity and as a result I have less interruptions.

Second to that is 4-5pm for the same reason as the OP(know what I need to get complete before I leave the office).

As well as allowing users to find other people to travel with / split travel costs. This could be anything from group booking a hotel or tour guide. "Click here to find other people interested in visiting the Taj Majal" ?

The ability to authenticate that someone wanting to action a takedown actually owns the copyright would be paramount to a service like this working. It would be mayhem otherwise.

Once a user is signed up and authenticated would you restrict their search to only titles that they own the copyright to?

Yes this is quite normal. By normal I don't mean that every company or even every second company uses this practice. I just mean that it is nothing to be skeptical of.

I have completed a few of these for companies over here in London (UK). Sometimes they organise a set time to send you the instructions and expect you to send the working solution by a certain time. I have done this twice and I was given 2 hours to complete the task. The other ones I have completed were not timed, they just advised that I send the working solution within the next few days.

You might also find some useful information on Mixergy. Andrew Warner interviews startup founders and there is a vast collection of interviews to watch.

http://mixergy.com/

I don't really think that programming is something that ever kid needs to learn. IT fundamentals certainly, but I am not sure programming is something that is a necessity in life. If it is just an optional subject then that is different.

I was going to say that years down the line it might impact on the ability to get programming jobs as everyone will "know" how to programme. Upon reflection I don't think this will be the case though. People need to enjoy a subject to choose it as their vocation. Being taught something at school doesn’t equate to people wanting to make it their profession. Compulsory (if it is) exposure to programming at school at such an early age might captivate people whom might not be exposed to it otherwise. So the number of programmers might increase slightly but I doubt the numbers would be noticeable in the job market.

As for quality; it will only be as good as the teaching resources that are put together. At the moment the quality of different teaching institutes vary so much. I don't think it will have a noticeable impact on the overall quality of new programmers. I could be wrong though :)

One difference is that Google hangouts allows you to have multi video sessions for free. To do this in Skype one member needs to have a premium membership.

I have used Mikogo quite successfully in the past. Something that I found useful was that you can swap who the "Presenter" is at any time. This allowed different members to share their desktops when trying to explain something.

http://www.mikogo.com/

"Introduction to Algorithms" by T Cormen ,C Leiserson, R Rivest and C Stein.

This book covers both basic and advance topics in a well written manner. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe this book is used in some MIT courses.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Algorithms-T-Cormen/dp/...

I would recommend some more information on the landing page(or an about page) with some more information. I personally would like to know more about a service before signing up to it.

Is one of the goals for this project to learn a new language/framework or purely to get the project up and running? If it is the latter I would suggest sticking with what you know (PHP) and this way you will get the project off the ground quicker. If it is part of your goals then first I would suggest looking into whether you want to deploy on something like the google app engine or heroku. This might help you decide if you want to go down the Ruby or Python route.

Pendulum is indeed a great band to code to. They have a lot of songs that get me in the mood("zone") to hammer out some code.

What are your thoughts behind being against a CCTV network?

I had log in and log out but recently I switched to sign in and sign out as log in just didn't seem right for my service.

If you are in the UK, you could try http://www.coderstack.co.uk/

I am a Kiwi currently working in the UK. I only moved over to the UK a few months ago so I still have a fair idea of what is going on in NZ. You are more than welcome to contact me with any questions you have about NZ and the development scene.

How long do the surveys last for?

Pretty cool little idea. Just out of interest what stack is this on?

Your location?

I can second that people will rely on the browser to remember the new password or copy/paste the password and then refer to that email when they need it again. I do this myself sometimes for some sites that I do not use regularly. Like many others have suggested I think a link to a form to create a new password would be better than emailing out a temporary new password.

No you are not being too picky. Answering that one question somewhere in the cover letter will not be a big deal to someone who is actually interested in the job.

I won't pretend to have any answers but if you want someone to discuss ideas/share experiences with, drop me an email. (contact email in profile)

That is a great skills matrix. I have some set learning goals for myself(outside of work) this year and this matrix just confirms that I am heading in the right direction.

I am very interested in the outcome of this. Could you please make sure to post what you do and the results of those actions.

I dove straight into the code for my current project. Since it is something that I do not have exposure to at work, I was more concerned about learning the language and environment than developing the concept out. Next time I will definitely spend more time planning and on specs. I have found that if I had spent more time developing out the concept and defined initial core features at the very least, I would have less coding interruptions and some set goals that I could gauge my progress.

Thanks for the insight, sounds very interesting. I will have to put this on the to read list.

I had the same issue as you. I had a stack of books that I wanted to get through but always found it hard to force myself to make the time in the day to read them. I started taking books to work and reading in my lunch breaks. This worked quite well and also provided a good break from work which left me ready to get stuck into work for the afternoon.

I have recently moved over to London(UK) and now I catch the train to work(25min train time each way). I now use this time to read and I love it. I am actually getting through the books on my list.

The commute to work is obviously not for everyone but I would recommend giving the lunch time reading a go.

I second the question on how you define the "best" book.

I love that quote from Sam. If you learn nothing else from this experience, I hope it is that you need to have everything in writing. Such an important thing that many of us sometimes forget amongst the pressures of everything that is going on.