Maybe it'd work better for folks like me who shop at big&tall stores... We have the perfect body for this t-shirt. Finally, all my McDonald's days are about to pay off!
148 karma · joined July 11, 2010
Seeking an internship or entry-level position. I speak PHP and Python.
I've been a computer enthusiast since 1987; on the internet since 1994; creating and hosting websites since 1997; with my own dedicated servers since 2004. I've been programming in PHP since 2004 (not full-time) and Python since spring 2009. I'm competent in HTML and CSS; I do alright in Photoshop.
I interned in 2009 with the US Forest Service, writing a Python front end to a framework also written in Python; and worked on a couple of web applets in PHP (with JS that I did modify a little) that displayed smoke and weather data.
I have previous technical experience - helpdesk, web design, some programming. I'm working towards getting my Bachelor's in Computer Science, but it's slow going.
Seattle is a bonus, but not a huge deal.
Also, I've uploaded my album for a little larger test:
http://burnbit.com/torrent/153663/Daychilde_Journey_Beginnin...
I'd love to spend a few days living 'in' a particular time period. And then get back to reality.
The question isn't: "Would a London cabby using satnav software without having learned the city do better than a London cabby who learned the city?"
The question is: "Would a London cabby using satnav software do better than one without - both having learned the city?"
In other words: Assuming good satnav software that knew current traffic conditions and historic average speeds of the roads, with an easy interface to offer multiple routing options that are easily changeable (for instance) - wouldn't that be helpful to a cabby vs. a cabby that didn't have that extra tool?
I don't think it's fair to compare human+tech vs. human-only performance with no tech. Better to compare them with tech, since the whole point is that technology is available and used.
Guilty until proven innocent, eh?
If all goes well, Paypal is generally by far the best option.
If all goes poorly... not so much.
But for most, it goes well.
Joking aside, thank you very much for the feedback. You've given me some things to think about and directions in which to head.
I actually did open a dialogue with a Microsoft recruiter - they want more than I have right now, but it's a possible direction, for sure.
Thank you especially for the profile advice - didn't realize my email didn't show, but I updated with a little more info.
On an unrelated note - notice you listed ww.com - I saw a reference on Reddit today: someone claimed to have seen a male in a bit less clothing than they desired. Nice coincidence to have you post here. :-)
I interned in Seattle via that program with the US Forest Service - speaking as an intern, they provided a good helping hand (set up my housing, took rent out of my paychecks).
Although most interns will be Hispanic, not all are (like me). About half or so come from Puerto Rico. I was generally impressed with most interns I met.
During my internship, I was able to write a useful program (a front end in Python for a framework written in Python to help automate running multiple instances with different settings), as well as work on web pages (in PHP). It was an excellent chance for me to get to do work I wouldn't have gotten otherwise (I'm 35 and have plenty of tech experience, but I'm back in college working on a Computer Science degree, looking to break into programming).
I think the nice thing about HACU is that they have experience in finding good students and helping take care of the administrivia.
While we're on topic - what are the chances you work with Python and/or PHP? ;-)
I was actually a part of making this happen for someone who called in -- I had a high voice at the time, got called "ma'am" a lot. A male customer was coming on to me, wanted to send me flowers. As I was trying to assist them, I noticed the call records - some employee codes I recognized as males had notes like "lost call" and "customer hung up"; females had notes like "customer made inappropriate comments". Long story short, a supervisor listened in, and after they made sexual advances and used profanity, got their telephone service cut off (and I don't just mean long distance, I mean local service - the LECs in those days still had a good relationship with AT&T)...
So where's the right of free speech there?
Still not quite the same issue, because that involved federal law, whereas this is regarding Rackspace contracts... But it's an example of something trumping free speech.
The shorter and more classic example is the [lack of] right to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theatre [when there is no fire].
You absolutely have the right to free speech in the US. But any owner of private property can pretty much ban you from that property, for example (there are certainly some protected exceptions, but in general 'the law' is on their side).
Similarly, Rackspace has the right to stop servicing their customer if they feel the customer has violated the contract. Now, whether or not a court has to step in to determine the validity of the contract, etc, is a completely separate issue.
But this most certainly all has absolutely nothing to do with constitutionally protected speech.
I'm not sure if it'll prove to be too distracting vs. mildly helpful for me, yet.
But on the topic at hand (as it were): I was hoping for some German-inspired mashup name, like "Device that allows one person to sometimes hear part of what another person is saying, no matter where they are, at least 80% of the time".
Well, now that I type that, I suppose it's not very funny. But arguably more funny than calling it "head".
Speaking as one, I noticed the slowness and time-out problems basically went away as soon as they spun up those servers.
Whatever the financial relationship with Conde Nast, Reddit Gold is definitely a success.
They still produce more insightful comments than Youtube commenters.
In my mind, these systems try to offer a complete GUI development interface. They're complex and difficult to learn.
Basically, I think there's a need for something far simpler.
The first step would be to write something that simply stores the main content portion of each page in a database, loading the correct content during the page building process.
So my page template might look like:
<html> <head><!--stuff--></head>
<body> <div id="header"><h1>Sitename</h1><h2><?=$pagetitle?></h2></div> <div id="content"><?=$pagecontent?></div> <div id="footer"><p>stuff</p></div> </body> </html>
There would be a backend interface to generate new pages and define the variables, like page title; a textbox to work with the page's HTML code... read/write this from/to database.
Complexity could grow from that - but that's the basic idea.
Are you aware of CMS that work from that point of view? Just the sheer simplicity of the system, in my mind, is different.
For example, you can work in HTML mode in Wordpress, but there's all the rest of it that goes with Wordpress that's not needed for a small site - it gets in the way.
So a lot of what WordPress does, I like. But my idea would be geared towards making websites for small local businesses, for example; rather than blogs.
It would also be cool if multiple copies of the tool could dynamically be added to pick multiple colours at a time - with, say, up to eight blocks at the top showing the current colour for each selector, and a text box to easily copy the various colours...
Thanks for sharing - this is nice!
1. Need a favicon. In the expectation that I'll use the service, I added it to my bookmarks bar - where it shows up as the default icon. d'oh!
2. Notification on new posts is great! I'd also like the option to subscribe to new comments as well. Two levels: 1) an option to automatically subscribe to comments for each new post, and 2) an option on each post to subscribe to that post. I would use the former; but most would probably like the latter to subscribe to the occasional interesting post. Also, 3) if both above options were implemented, an option to unsubscribe from new commenta made to a post (that would over-ride the global subscription comments - so I could opt-out of a post I had no interest in)
3. UI when uploading a pic could use some work. I'm not sure what you can detect, but I assume you can know how many files you're getting - at a bare minimum, "Uploading $num of $total..." would be a help.
4. Youtube videos are only embedded when the URL is the entirety of the post. Took me a few tries to figure that out... Perhaps a button like "Add a Youtube video" that, when clicked, becomes a text box to paste the URL into with a "Post" button on that...
5. Similarly - it looks to me like pictures upload as a separate post - so instead of clicking in the post field, then clicking 'add pictures' - maybe that should be separated out like the Youtube button idea above - an "add pictures" button (or separate function somewhere easy to find, but separate from a text post). Well, could even have tabbed submission - chosing text or pics or youtube...
6. Profile pics need a little work: looks like it makes the largest square it can from the picture, starting at top-left, and cuts off the rest of the picture. All thumbnails seem to do this, which is a little odd. Might be better to at least center the square in the cropped dimension... On the profile pic: Being able to drag the image to set what part of the image was displayed for the profile pic would be awesome, and UI-light, I'd think.
7. Per a suggestion below, I set up an "HN" group - for anyone interested: http://www.frid.ge/?ginvitation=3kharhhlv8owo4wgk0wwo4kcc - I note that the email address to send is at "hn@" - which is great. To test, I set up another group also called "HN", and its email is "hn1@" - which means this is extraordinarily easy for spammers to guess... certainly to send to a@, b@, c@ etc... Also, when I changed the name of the group and created another "HN" - it got the "hn1@" email - meaning if the name is changed and someone has the old addy in their address book and someone else uses the name.......... I don't see how this can end well, even if I like the email feature itself.
I like the cleanliness of the interface. I like the ease of switching between the groups I created.
I hope this takes off - it seems useful and good.
Beyond that - there aren't really any goals. It's a huge sandbox. However, there may be some depth you're missing:
- There are some 'toys' to play with - minetrains, for one. You can build tracks and minecarts - unpowered and powered.
- If you dig deep enough, you can get redstone, which can be used to simulate electrical circuits. There's a whole thread on the Minecraft forum with basic constructs like OR / AND / XOR / etc - people have built things as complex as a twelve-hour clock (although it doesn't keep time accurately because there's no way to synch time - but it is as close as could be made and does function in the sense that it accurately counts 60 seconds, 60 minutes, twelve hours...) - I also saw a turing machine being worked on, as well as a few other similar devices. VERY complex stuff, considering.
- People have developed cannons
The more basic activities include finding caves and exploring them...
But there's some great silly stuff - like you can make a saddle and go ride pigs.
Is any of that stuff you've missed that sounds interesting? I hope so.
I suppose it's a game that might appeal more to younger folks - but as a 35-year-old, I love it. But I always loved SimCity, Simutrans (a freeware transportation simulator. Disclaimer: I'm the "Benevolent Dictator" of the International forum, and provide much of the hosting)... I also played GTA:SA, but not really the official missions - I just drove around and made it my own sandbox... Flight simulators...
All in all, I don't so much like games as I do simulated environments... so Minecraft is right up my alley.
Even the request for daily affirmation was answered with the contact of a possible company that might provide it; so perhaps if knowledge of this service spreads, it might be a recommended source of that service.