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Happy Dogs NYC | Full-stack Python/Django programmer | REMOTE with chance to visit New York occasionally | Full-time with flexible hours | Competitive local mid-level USD salary for Ukraine/Poland/Belarus/etc.

Happy Dogs NYC is a leading and fast growing multi-location dog daycare business in New York City. This job is for ongoing new feature development, general code maintenance, and bug-fixing for a Django web app with more than 50k lines of code.

There will be regular code review. You will work with a former Google product director who wrote the first version of the web app.

Requirements:

-- 3+ years of hands-on experience with Django, ideally 5+

-- A love of Python

-- Comfortable with things like class-based views, multiple inheritance, monkeypatching

-- Skill with Javascript

-- Produces highly readable code

-- Postgres and MongoDB experience (including PyMongo)

-- Experience with unit testing

-- with a pragmatic sense of when to write them

-- Unix sysops/devops knowledge a plus

-- Experience with celery and Redis a plus

-- Strong verbal and written communicator

-- Strong independent problem-solving skills

-- A knack for understanding business requirements

-- Excellent attitude and enjoyable to work with

Bonus: Do you know and love Abelson and Sussman's SICP? If so, tell us why.

Apply via jobs@happydogsnyc.com with the headline "Full-stack Python/Django programmer application".

Last line of the blog entry announcing Blaze as the new feature in the 0.8.0 release: "Just one more big item to go before 1.0 now!"

New York City -- Grasshopper NYC looking for business co-founder for interactive game table venture

As part of our mission to revitalize face-to-face play for the 21st century, Grasshopper NYC has created a beautiful interactive game table that has potential as a standalone product and business. We are now looking for a business co-founder and leader to unlock this potential.

We’re looking for someone who knows the relevant entertainment markets (including both traditional at-home game consoles and the out-of-home entertainment market); is skilled at business and strategic planning; has experience getting integrated hardware/software products to wide distribution; can get us the right industry partners; can lead fundraising as needed; has executive management potential; and is generally a excellent person who is fun and inspiring to work with.

Our game table is being featured this month at IndieCade East, the annual independent games festival, at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image. We think it’s both gorgeous and ergonomically unique, comfortably sitting up to 6 players with plenty of leg room. (Design has been led by a cutting-edge architecture firm headed by MIT/Harvard architecture professors.) Technically, it’s a smart combination of open-source and proprietary software, including our own game framework built on Unity3D. (The core table engineering was led by an MIT Media Lab expert in multi-touch tables.) Unlike many interactive tables, it’s cool and smooth to the touch and is seamless and spill-proof; having a cocktail or beer at the table is encouraged by design. We already have around a dozen games working on the table -- ranging in stage from alpha to polished, some our own, some from third-parties indie game developers.

In short, we think we’ve created a special product that enables a unique and wonderful face-to-face game experience -- bringing the best of digital technology into a fully present, truly social interaction. Now we’re looking for a co-founder to turn an exceptional product into an exceptional business.

Additional background: the founder and creative director of Grasshopper NYC is an MIT engineer with a track record of product and business innovation in new media, including high-level executive positions in business news and as as a product management director at Google. A blog post in Gamasutra, a leading games industry website, noted that Grasshopper NYC is being talked about as “the coolest thing happening in the New York game industry at the moment.”

Interested? Email Ien Cheng at ien@grasshoppernyc.com.

New York City -- Grasshopper NYC looking for business co-founder for interactive game table venture

As part of our mission to revitalize face-to-face play for the 21st century, Grasshopper NYC has created a beautiful interactive game table that has potential as a standalone product and business. We are now looking for a business co-founder and leader to unlock this potential.

We’re looking for someone who knows the relevant entertainment markets (including both traditional at-home game consoles and the out-of-home entertainment market); is skilled at business and strategic planning; has experience getting integrated hardware/software products to wide distribution; can get us the right industry partners; can lead fundraising as needed; has executive management potential; and is generally a excellent person who is fun and inspiring to work with.

Our game table is being featured this month at IndieCade East, the annual independent games festival, at New York’s Museum of the Moving Image. We think it’s both gorgeous and ergonomically unique, comfortably sitting up to 6 players with plenty of leg room. (Design has been led by a leading contemporary architecture firm headed by MIT/Harvard architecture professors.) Technically, it’s a smart combination of open-source and proprietary software, including our own game framework built on Unity3D. (The core table engineering was led by an MIT Media Lab expert in multi-touch tables.) Unlikes many interactive tables, it’s cool to the touch and is seamless and spill-proof; having a cocktail or beer at the table is encouraged by design. We already have around a dozen games working on the table -- from alpha to polished, some our own, some from third-parties indie game developers.

In short, we think we’ve created a special product that enables a unique and wonderful face-to-face game experience -- bringing the best of digital technology into a fully present, truly social interaction. Now we’re looking for a co-founder to turn an exceptional product into an exceptional business.

Additional background: the founder and creative director of Grasshopper NYC is an MIT engineer with a track record of product and business innovation in new media, including high-level executive positions in business news and as as a product management director at Google. A blog post in Gamasutra, a leading games industry website, noted that Grasshopper NYC is being talked about as “the coolest thing happening in the New York game industry at the moment.”

Interested? Email cofounder@grasshoppernyc.com.

If you don't know it already, you might like a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay called Renascence.

This looks really impressive.

One note -- there is an established current affairs/culture magazine/media brand called Monocle. While Monocle (the magazine) doesn't focus on tech, monocle.io's remit of "anything that appeals to the inquisitive mind" could lead to some overlap.

Dunno if there could/would be trademark conflicts. May be worth checking out if you haven't already.

Yes. And even if we limit the scope to "hacker" (since the blog is called "Singularity Hacker"), the lack of any hardware skills on the list seems a rather glaring omission.

Yeah, your thought indirectly reminded of The Big Year, in which in a bunch of unlikely friends/competitors try to get the record of number of bird species spotted (or heard) within a year.

New York, NY -- SPRING AND SUMMER PAID INTERSHIPS

Come be part of what some are talking about as "the coolest thing happening in the New York game industry at the moment" (from a recent Gamasutra blog post: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BenServiss/20121220/183953/Th...).

Grasshopper NYC, a game-lounges-for-grown-ups venture based in New York, is looking for spring and/or summer paid interns in game programming and design. Create games that allow people to have fun together face-to-face in a sophisticated lounge atmosphere, including on our custom multi-touch Round Table.

Experience with Unity 3D in C# preferred. We're also looking for a great attitude, willingness and ability to learn quickly, a combination of technical smarts and creativity, and a personal interest in what we're doing.

We're also looking for folks with Flash, Python, Arduino etc., or event production skills.

For more information, see our website at GrasshopperNYC.com. For questions or to apply, please send resume (and if possible code/game samples) to Ien Cheng at ien@grasshoppernyc.com.

As an American who lived in the UK for a number of years, I can attest that we Americans are much more wary in these post-politically correct age of using the word Christmas for the holidays than the Brits. For better or worse, I dunno.

Motivating video indeed. The slide showing what percent of Americans fail to get the RDA for various nutrients is eye-opening. Thanks.

Interesting. I'm going to try that. Yes, the hard-reset of a power nap can be hugely efficient. I almost feel like I get two days in one thanks to the fresh energy I have afterwards.

Good tip. As someone who doesn't do well with coffee -- it makes me twitchy -- I find green tea helpful. I drink it several days a weak, in part for the general anti-oxidant health benefits, in part for the caffeine boost. But I feel like it sharpens my brain to use my available energy better, more effectively, so perhaps unlike most caffeine-consumers I tend to drink it only when I already feel fully rested. It doesn't seem to provide extra energy when my brain is already tired. In fact I fear in those cases it just prevents me from taking a quick nap which helps much much more to recover my brain energy. That's my experience with green tea so far -- I definitely want to explore it more.

Very nice re: the search alias. Thanks for sharing that -- it was the next thing I was going to try to figure out. I just wish there was a way to get a Gmail search result without the sidebar with the number of unread emails in your inbox... To look or not to look... :-)

Fun. Would be nice to have a way to attribute the quotes, so you show quotes from notable people. Sometimes a quote is inspiring for who says it as much as for what it says.

I can't say how "amateurs" maps to MIT freshmen, but I wanted to point out that back in the day SICP was used, in its entirety, in 6.001, the one-semester entry-level computer science course at MIT.

NEW YORK CITY: FULL-TIME C# GAME PROGRAMMER

Grasshopper NYC is hiring a full-time C# game programmer based in our new studio at digital/physical media cooperative Collab in Soho, New York. Come join the team creating game lounges for grown-ups -- the "arcade" of the 21st century. You will program games for multitouch tables, tablets, walls and floors -- all meant to to foster meaningful face-to-face social interaction.

Experience with Unity 3D and multitouch interfaces are big pluses, but most important is serious fundamental game programming skills; strong software design and architecture; pride in code quality; understanding of practical software engineering, testing, and deployment processes; good communication skills; an eagerness to dive in and work hard to get things done correctly and quickly; and above all a love for programming as a creative craft.

For the right candidate, there will also be many opportunities to contribute to game design and overall design of the Grasshopper space and experience. Compensation is based on experience and expertise.

For more information or to apply, check out some videos at GrasshopperNYC.com and send questions and/or resume and cover letter (including where applicable links to user profiles on programming-related sites like Hacker News, Stack Overflow, github, and Unity Answers) to Ien Cheng at ien@grasshoppernyc.com.

Note: Grasshopper is also hiring game programmer interns and freelancers.

I used to do this. I had the same suspicion. About two months ago, in an effort to improve my sleep quality, I banned the iPad (and all other devices, except a first generation books-only non-backlit Kindle) from the bed when sleeping. My sleep is indeed better, in part because I no longer spent "just a few more minutes" randomly browsing before going to bed, in part because if I wake up early or in the middle of the night, I can't just reach for a device and start checking email.

EXTRA NOTE: for the first position, i.e. game developer, there is a full-time junior staff position available.

New York -- PART-TIME CONSULTANT, INTERN, REMOTE WELCOME

Project Grasshopper, created by a former media executive and Google product director, is looking for game designers and developers to build games for a novel interactive tabletop platform based on Unity 3D, among other opportunities.

The goal of the project is to use games and innovative digital and physical media to foster meaningful social interaction and genuine local community in cities everywhere.

We're looking for:

1. Game developers, especially with experience in multitouch interfaces and Unity 3D;

2. Game designers, especially with an interest in face-to-face (as opposed to online multiplayer) play;

3. Microelectronics hardware engineers, to work with world-class architects (i.e. the kind who design interiors and build physical spaces) on embedded systems for enhancing social face-to-face play in a physical setting;

4. A multitouch engineer, to work with a leading MIT Media Lab researcher, on multitouch platforms, including a round interactive table that comfortable seats 4-6 people based on computer vision technology;

5. An event project manager (New York only), to help organize and run an ongoing series of successful game-night-like test events at various locations in New York City.

Intrigued? Get in touch with your CV or a bit about you and why you are interested and I'll send you more about the project, including specifics about the games development/design projects and videos about the the project overall and the interactive tabletop platform we've built.

Email: ien@alum.mit.edu

SEEKING FREELANCER -- New York, remote

Happy Dogs NYC (happydogsnyc.com), a local dog daycare business, is looking for a programmer to maintain and enhance a Django/Javascript web app used for internal task workflow, scheduling, billing, and customer management.

Features to be added including exposing parts of the app to end-customers for self-service tasks, enhancing Facebook and other third-party login, adding automated credit card processing, optimizing mobile web access, supporting multiple store locations, and streamlining input forms.

This small, interesting project would be ideal for a capable freelancer or part-time intern looking to improve his or her Python, Django, and JavaScript skills in a real-world application -- and who wants exposure to agile and/or test-driven development methodologies -- with training provided as needed by a former Google product director (and co-owner of the business), who wrote the existing web app.

Contact me at ien@alum.mit.edu

New York City. SUMMER INTERNSHIPS in software (including Unity 3D), hardware, and game design at Project Grasshopper.

Project Grasshopper: game lounges for grown-ups. Starting in New York City and involving interactive tabletops and innovative physical and digital media in actual locations, with the goal of using games to foster meaningful face-to-face social interaction and in-person community. Founded by former Google PM director.

Participants in test events have basically said: we love it, we want it more, and we don't know where else to get it.

If this piques your interest, email info@projectgrasshopper.com and I can send you a concept test video that gives a brief overview of the project and includes footage from a recent test event.

That's what I figured they should do -- just kill the offending script automatically. They confirmed to me after several hours of outage that they had their best admin working on it. Not sure what there would be to work on that would take that long.

The shared hosting chart you mention sounds great! Is that available somewhere?

Indeed, I think spodek's point is that the many non-startup design jobs (with "dependable salaries") in New York makes it harder to attract good designers to startups.

I attended one special lecture by Prof. Bose while at MIT. I can't remember the subject matter specifically -- something about acoustics. But I remember the feeling of the man: humble, wise, noble. This news reminds me of that feeling.

It would be fascinating to know more about how Bose funded his company without venture captital. Has that story been told somewhere? And, who's "Lee"? Thanks!

I had the good fortune of taking this course from Prof. Leiserson a good many years ago -- and ended up having him as my Masters thesis advisor.

His ethics pep talk, which is a mainstay of all his courses, are about not cheating on the take-home exams. I still remember him saying to the class, in a fatherly, earnest way: "You've got to learn to make friends with that feeling in the pit of your stomach" and to face the fear rather than give in to the temptation to cheat. One of the MIT CS department's great teachers.

From this description, the mainstream view seems to subscribe to the discredited Lamarckian view of evolution, i.e. the idea that traits acquired during parents lifetime (e.g. bigger brains from eating meat) can be transmitted to offspring.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inheritance_of_acquired_charact...

FWIW, here's a data point on how a new member of the community (i.e. me) is reacting to these changes.

I've been an avid reader of HN headlines for some time, but only started joining the comment conversations in the last week or so.

Discarding the top-karma comment, I've made 13 comments with an average karma of 3.08, ranging from 1 to 7.

Here's what I am observing about my instinctive, not particularly thought through reaction to the change in terms of future commenting behavior:

- I'll likely avoid what I think are low-value though not offensive comments, the throw-away chit-chat that is likely to just stay at 1, and which could be considered either acceptable pleasantries or distracting noise.

- I'll also be more likely to avoid commenting on threads with many comments already, for fear that even a high-value comment late to the conversation will get overlooked and drag down my average.

- I'll think twice about commenting on new submission, which I've found to be a good way to get in early on a conversation, but which will be more risky in future given that the submission may never get noticed, leaving me with an unnoticed 1-karma comment that brings down my average.

- As I scan comments, I will instinctively skip through to the orange users. As a new user, I provisionally assume these are the users who (1) have, on average, higher-value comments and (2) which collectively define the personality and social norms of the community which I'm seeking to be part of.

- I think I'll learn from the orange users in terms of community norms, but I don't think I'll actively conform my opinion to theirs. In fact, my assumption so far is that this is a community that values merit-based argument and substantive discussions, not just "I agree" or "I disgree" type discussions. I suspect I'll conform more to the style and approach of the orange users in making arguments, not to their opinions and views as such.

Are the behaviors above good or bad? Intended by the community or not? If they encourage me to seek out fresh, likely to be popular conversations and add to them in a way that meets the approval of the community old-timers without groupthink in terms of substance (which I'd like to think would not be particularly appreciated around here), I suspect that's a good thing. But I do have a concern about my hesitance to comment on older threads (a hesitance which may be acceptable, since perhaps those conversations are effectively over) and new submissions (a hesitance which may be detrimental).

This reminds me of Jack Welch's dictum to make every interaction with an employee an opportunity for evaluation. In quiet, implicit ways, a manager should always be evaluating his or her people, he says. The flip side suggested by this piece is that every interaction could be an opportunity for feedback and coaching also.