Open Side Menu Go to the Top

04-24-2014 , 09:05 AM
Super excited to move back to Boston today. There is such an absurd amount of work for a web developer in that city it's wild. I should probably pack more since the movers are coming in an hour.

I'm probably going to end up getting a space at a coworking space and joining a guy who has a cool algorithm to be applied toward the SEO/SEM sector as a bit of a long term play (needing a web layer).

There's also a guy with a somewhat vetted idea for a facebook style site for a specific activity (he has a crappy MVP that has a lot of users in a short period that stay on the site for long periods) and the people who would use it would be very valuable. I'd like to crank that out (since he already has a sweet design for the new version) as it'd have a lot of fun programming challenges. Depends on what percentage I can get for sort of a revenue stream down the road. I like the idea of passive income.

Anyone here in Boston that has experience with any of the coworking spots? I never checked any out last time I was there.

Also, does anyone have any good suggestions for potentially finding some mentorship? My friend is doing thoughtbot prime (which allows in person meetings once a month or something and some other mentorship perks) and says it's very helpful. I've just decided that I really want to get involved with stuff at the cofounder level, which definitely restricts my ability to learn about stuff more in depth than relatively early stage apps (unless one gets a lot of traction and we can hire a really senior guy). I've done well learning a lot on my own, but it's definitely a slower process than when you can work under some super stud developer(s).
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD **
150% up to $2,000 Welcome Bonus on CoinPoker
Join the action now
Daily Rewards ? Splash Pots ? CoinRaces
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD **
04-24-2014 , 09:27 AM
You had Techstars connections, right?

Have you thought about going the Hackstar route? You get to work with lots of different companies and hopefully there's at least one that you find interesting and that already has a super star engineer to work under.

We thought the technical skills for a lot of the founders were kind of on the weak side but there were still a pretty good selection of people with crazy skills and interesting ideas. And they were all hiring.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 09:44 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jjshabado
You had Techstars connections, right?

Have you thought about going the Hackstar route? You get to work with lots of different companies and hopefully there's at least one that you find interesting and that already has a super star engineer to work under.

We thought the technical skills for a lot of the founders were kind of on the weak side but there were still a pretty good selection of people with crazy skills and interesting ideas. And they were all hiring.
Techstars is great, and I've built two sites for two different techstars companies in the last year.

I guess what I mean is I'm trying to either co-found a company while improving my skillset beyond the scope of an early stage project, or work for a super flexible really early company. Most companies frown on 5-7 weeks of vacation and working from 6:30-3:30 instead of 9-6 (I'm not afraid of hard work, I just prefer doing stuff on my own schedule). Ideally I'd like to do a program like techstars as a co-founder in the next year or so.

Being a hackstar is good exposure, but they were all super junior and had a TON of responsibilities outside of just helping with code. They spent the first month of the program doing 80% transcribing meetings between founders and mentors, which is pretty ridiculous.

Thanks for the thought.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 09:50 AM
nc,

Not offhand hmm. I've used polymorphic associations before but when it came time to query data I was getting it out of a de-normalized version indexed inside of elastic search rather than AR.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 09:58 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nchabazam
Most companies frown on 5-7 weeks of vacation and working from 6:30-3:30 instead of 9-6 (I'm not afraid of hard work, I just prefer doing stuff on my own schedule). Ideally I'd like to do a program like techstars as a co-founder in the next year or so.
You can be a co-founder. You can work your own hours. You can take a bunch of vacation. But you can't do all three.

Edit: At least right away.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 10:25 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jjshabado
You can be a co-founder. You can work your own hours. You can take a bunch of vacation. But you can't do all three.

Edit: At least right away.
I agree. I guess I don't feel the need to take as much vacation if it's something I'm passionate about. A program like techstars you really can't take any time off during.

If I ever did run my own company I'd have a minimum 4 week vacation policy. Europeans have it right when it comes to not working people into the ground.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 10:56 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nchabazam
I agree. I guess I don't feel the need to take as much vacation if it's something I'm passionate about. A program like techstars you really can't take any time off during.

If I ever did run my own company I'd have a minimum 4 week vacation policy. Europeans have it right when it comes to not working people into the ground.
I've seen a few job postings advertise a roll your own vacation policy. Do any of you know how that works in practice? It sounds good on the surface, but I could see where it morphs into a no vacation policy in practice due to work pressures.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 10:58 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by derada4
What do you guys think is a reasonable salary to try to negotiate for a junior python/django developer in NYC? I'm going to what will be my 4th interview with this company (2 phone, this is the 2nd in-person). I was expecting something like 68k-72k, however the recruiter told me that their offers are usually around 60k for a position like this.

My experience: Recent CS grad, 6 months professional experience in C#, I did a 4 month PHP internship last summer, and have built two websites for personal projects in python/django.

I'm currently making 58k in NJ, so anything <65k is really a pay decrease considering relative living expenses. I really like the position though and if 60k is all I can get, I will take it, but of course I want to get as much as I can without risking losing the offer, and feel like the high 60's isn't unreasonable?
Unless this is your dream company, don't take less than $70k. There are plenty of jobs around that pay more than that.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 11:10 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by maxtower
I've seen a few job postings advertise a roll your own vacation policy. Do any of you know how that works in practice? It sounds good on the surface, but I could see where it morphs into a no vacation policy in practice due to work pressures.
I know a few places that do this. A couple are in the ~4 week range that people take. I know a couple that are basically no vacation policies because of the pressure from managers/coworkers... sounds really awful.

I'd much rather have a fixed amount.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 11:31 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by maxtower
I've seen a few job postings advertise a roll your own vacation policy. Do any of you know how that works in practice? It sounds good on the surface, but I could see where it morphs into a no vacation policy in practice due to work pressures.
i think it's interesting we live in an era where passive-aggressive "positivity" is so effective that unlimited vacation works out better for companies than the 2 week/year furlough we've always had.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 11:34 AM
Last company was super well known boston tech company that had unlimited vacation policy that ended up with no vacation. Now they switched it to 2 week minimum, which I am pretty sure I heard is resulting in 2 weeks total vacation.

Where I am at now I have 3 weeks and 3 personal days (that can be used however I want) with unlimited sick days and in the last year I probably only took 7-8 days off total. That has been totally personal though, other members of the company take more time, I am going to take time soon and an encouraged to do so, just have had several things to get done I couldn't get my mind off of, which are now in place.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 11:38 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nchabazam
I agree. I guess I don't feel the need to take as much vacation if it's something I'm passionate about. A program like techstars you really can't take any time off during.

If I ever did run my own company I'd have a minimum 4 week vacation policy. Europeans have it right when it comes to not working people into the ground.
That's great and all. But say you're starting a company with 3 people of which only 2 do any technical work. It's not workable to be down to 1 technical person for 8 weeks of a year. And as good as it is to share knowledge when you only have 2 people working fast you can't share everything.

If you're a founder you presumably will have some what of a leadership role and its not great to have a person like that working completely non-standard hours.

Edit: Last comment. Even if you're right about your flexibility (and maybe you are), you severely limit your options for finding a cofounder that wants to work with you. I'm generally pro-time-off, but I'm still not sure I'd found a company with you. I'd be too worried that you will need a break at a time the company just can't afford it.

Last edited by jjshabado; 04-24-2014 at 11:45 AM.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 11:39 AM
We have unlimited vacation. I use it way more than anyone else but I set expectations at the start that I was going to take a bunch of vacation once we had enough people that it wasn't terrible to do that.

Edit: Also, I don't like it. I think it discourages vacation use and BOO to that.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 12:15 PM
jj, in your 3 people where 2 are technical situation I would hope that everyone is on the same page when it's crunch time. I too wouldn't want to work with someone who decides in the middle of a really hairy spot to go away for 2 weeks with little notice. Work hard for a few months, see things through for a bit and then go away when stuff settles down for a couple of weeks.

I think part of the allure of consulting/freelancing is that you decide when you want to do things. If you're feeling burnt out and want to get away for 2 weeks you can just go as long as you're not mid-contract.

Most clients in the lower end freelance job bracket aren't in super crazy rushes to get things done. I've had clients not care about waiting 10-14 days before getting started. They tend to have plenty of other things to do so you don't really lose the client in the end.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 12:54 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shoe Lace
jj, in your 3 people where 2 are technical situation I would hope that everyone is on the same page when it's crunch time. I too wouldn't want to work with someone who decides in the middle of a really hairy spot to go away for 2 weeks with little notice. Work hard for a few months, see things through for a bit and then go away when stuff settles down for a couple of weeks.
I agree, but I want a co-founder that is still going to be around even if crunch time lasts for a year.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 01:01 PM
Its been a long road, but really excited to announce that we (myself and my brother) have finally managed to launch our first Robocoin ATM in London (Shoreditch)

** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 03:53 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jjshabado
That's great and all. But say you're starting a company with 3 people of which only 2 do any technical work. It's not workable to be down to 1 technical person for 8 weeks of a year. And as good as it is to share knowledge when you only have 2 people working fast you can't share everything.

If you're a founder you presumably will have some what of a leadership role and its not great to have a person like that working completely non-standard hours.

Edit: Last comment. Even if you're right about your flexibility (and maybe you are), you severely limit your options for finding a cofounder that wants to work with you. I'm generally pro-time-off, but I'm still not sure I'd found a company with you. I'd be too worried that you will need a break at a time the company just can't afford it.
I mean working 6:30-3:30 still leaves an overlap for pretty much anything important to be done in person if need be. I'm not against being there at 6pm if it's important, but I'm also not gonna be pair programming all day everyday and google hangout works fine for small things. I do think it's good to connect in person at least a bit most days. If I were running a bigger company I'd almost definitely have a core hours type of thing (be there 10-3 and get your work done).

And it matters how you define vacation. I really don't mind being mildly connected when I go away, so doing a bit of work is something I prefer to do everyday anyway. Just taking a step away from grinding all day is nice.

And obviously there is discretion for all of this stuff. If we're making a lot of headway and it's important to keep plowing ahead, I'm not going to take a break. My 6 weeks vacation would ideally be at a bigger company someday, or when things calm down in a smaller company (sometimes there are just lulls). If I'm in a leadership role, it means the company is probably doing quite well and that's an exciting reason to be there as well. I'm not gonna just jump ship in the middle of something important.

I mainly don't want to burn out, which has happened to me before working my ass off with no end in sight. I doubt I'd take anywhere near that much vacation, but it's nice to have the option. Obviously you really can't have everything I listed above at once when there are two or three of you. I do think there's a bit of a culture attached with start ups that you need to work your ass to the ground, which there shouldn't be. Most everyone I know that works 70 hour weeks (at early stage startups) would be just as productive in 50. Sitting there at 10pm when your brain is fried is not productive in the short run or long run unless there is something that needs an urgent fix (like a problem with your site). It also just gets people pissy at one another, and harms long run morale.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 04:52 PM
I'm planning to release my node framework to open source in a couple months. Basically it sits on top of node and express and provides an easy scalable way to create components that would be analogous to a page, Ajax call or some other call to the server.

It has a standard preprocessor which can do any kind of API logic based on query params, etc. Then a post-processor which acts on all the API data, which is automatically put together from n-API calls that run in parallel, then it sends that data to a jade template which lives in the same folder or as straight JSON. Sort of like what Java devs are used to with JSPs - but better in that it enforces clean separation of presentation logic and the template itself. The components live in whatever folder structure the developer wants, and can be moved around w/o any refactoring.

I think node is still so new a lot of people are solving the same problems, and from what I've seen a lot of them are going through the same beginner mistakes, or getting it flat wrong. Hopefully this will fit a niche for anyone who wants to connect to an API back end and just get a bunch of pages/components up and running quickly.

So that's the background. I'm trying to come up with a name. So far the best I have is:
  1. nails (like rails but for node, get it?)
  2. conductor (to further with the express analogy)
  3. conduit (because that's how I think of it in my head - a two-way conduit between the client and the back end API).

Any other ideas?
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 04:53 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrWooster
Its been a long road, but really excited to announce that we (myself and my brother) have finally managed to launch our first Robocoin ATM in London (Shoreditch)

Congrats! Looks pretty cool.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 06:02 PM
MrWooster,
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 06:20 PM
suzzer99,

Is it much different than sailsjs? Depending on exactly what it does I think #2 or #3 are both equally cool. Conductor might make more sense but conduit is nice because it makes it sound like you're a crazy mad scientist. The first thing that pops into my head when I hear conduit is nikola tesla.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 08:56 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by well named
Time for Nittery: IRC is a protocol, like HTTP or SMTP. Internet Relay Chat. There are IRC servers and IRC clients. Some IRC clients are command line, some have a GUI.

The protocol itself runs over TCP and involves plain-text commands, which is why writing a client is fairly straightforward. Writing a server is a little more complicated since the server handles taking a message sent from a client to a chat room (called a channel) and broadcasting it to all the other clients which have joined the channel, as well as a bunch of other housekeeping

My first "programming" experience was writing scripts for IRC clients as a teenager...
Ah the good old days of writing irc bots in Perl or Tcl

MrWooster:Lookspretty awesome, I'll check it out next time I'm there

Last edited by clowntable; 04-24-2014 at 09:08 PM.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 09:12 PM


Software Engineering homework

I did question 4, my graph is in the image. Can anyone explain what the heck question 5 is actually asking, the wording is terrible.

Is it asking if an extra developer is available for 15 days, but he can complete 30 man days of development work?

And does it mean he can just jump in anywhere and work for 15 days, or do they want it from the beginning, or what?

If he is just an additional developer that can jump in anywhere then I would have him spend 5 days on T9, reducing the time it takes to complete T9 from 15 days to 5 days (our superman extra developer gets 10 days work done in 5 days.) Then I would have him spend the remaining 10 days on T8, reducing the time it takes to complete T8 from 35 days to 15 days. This would reduce the total number of days spent on the project from 95 days to 75 days.

Anyone with experience on project management stuff know if that is what they are looking for here?

Last edited by KatoKrazy; 04-24-2014 at 09:25 PM.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 09:22 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shoe Lace
suzzer99,

Is it much different than sailsjs? Depending on exactly what it does I think #2 or #3 are both equally cool. Conductor might make more sense but conduit is nice because it makes it sound like you're a crazy mad scientist. The first thing that pops into my head when I hear conduit is nikola tesla.
From a cursory glance of the website I think my thing very different from sails. I don't really have a model concept for one thing.

Mine is based off of component-based architecture where every component is kind of like a standalone app, except back that up to put basic stuff like the request chain - app.get(route, preApi, doApi, postApi, render) - in the framework, not each component. I don't want feature-level devs rolling their own app.get() chain on every component though because then it becomes much harder to alter global behavior as more and more requirements roll in. That way I can splice any kind of global behavior I want into any part of the request chain.

The preApi and postApi call an optional preProcessor and postProcessor in each component. The preProcessor can do any kind of logic needed before going to the api, based on query params, cookies etc. The route and api calls are set in the component. doApi calls any component level API calls, plus a couple of global ones (profile, global nav) all in parallel, then calls the postProcessor when done. The postProcessor can do any processing on the API results before sending the data back as json or to a template to render.

It was designed to allow front end devs to very quickly create node components that hit a back end API and possibly do some logic before or after the APIs, then pipe that output to their jade templates.

Here's what a fairly simple component looks like:

Code:
var debug = requireFromRoot('lib/framework/mrvdebug')('mrve:celebrity');
var _ = require('underscore');

// see app/entertainment/controller.js - defaultConfig for component-level properties/functions and how to use them
module.exports = function(app) {
  app.initModule(__filename, {

    route:   ['/celebrity/:id','/person/:name-:id(\\w+)$'],
    
    apiPath:     ['/celebrity/','/cms/page'],
    handleError: [true, false],

    preProcessor: function(req, res) {
      debug('preProcessor!!!!');
      this.apiParams[1] = { pageid:'rwd_celeb_detail', mappingid:req.params.id }; 
    },

    postProcessor: function(req, res) {
      debug('postProcessor!!!!');

      var celebDetail = res.locals.data1.celebDetail;

      this.templateName = req.query.overlay ? 'celebrity_partial' : 'celebrity_full';

      // if celebrity API fails for any reason, or doesn't return celeb data
      if (res.locals.data1.statusCode !== 200 || !celebDetail) {
        res.renderData = {
          pageData: { nameDetail: {firstName: 'Celebrity Not Found'}, itemNotFound: true},
          pageModules: res.locals.data2
        };
        res.locals.addContingency('ep_celebrity_detail_backend_failure_message');
        return;
      }

      // redirect old non-encrypted TMS ids to the new urls
      if (req.path.match(/\/celebrity\//) && celebDetail)
        res.redirect(302, celebDetail.detailsLinkUrl);

      if (celebDetail.programs.length === 0) 
        res.locals.addContingency('ep_celeb_details_no_shows_available_message', {name:celebDetail.nameDetail.firstName + ' ' + celebDetail.nameDetail.lastName});

      // Shows to render on the client
      res.locals.mrvClientData = { celebrityProgramData: _.sortBy(celebDetail.programs, 'title') };

      // Born
      if (celebDetail.birthDate && celebDetail.birthDate.length !== 0)
        {celebDetail.birthDate = calculateDate(celebDetail.birthDate);}
      else {celebDetail.birthDate = undefined}
      // Died
      if (celebDetail.deathDate && celebDetail.deathDate.length !== 0)
        {celebDetail.deathDate = calculateDate(celebDetail.deathDate);}
      else {celebDetail.deathDate = undefined}

      res.renderData = {
        pageData: res.locals.data2,
        detailsData: celebDetail,
        pageModules: res.locals.data2
      };

    }
  });
};

// Birtdate / Death date calculation - move to app/shared/util.js if needed anywhere else
function calculateDate(date) {
  var MONTHS = ["January","Februry","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December"];
  var myDate, myFormatDate;
  var date_str = date;
  var t = date_str.split("-");
  if(t[2]) {
    myDate = new Date(t[0], t[1] - 1, t[2]);
    parsedDate = MONTHS[myDate.getMonth()] + " " + myDate.getDate() + ", " + myDate.getFullYear();
    return parsedDate;
  }
}
All of the component level properties (like route, apiPath, etc.) are defined in a default component. There are a bunch more that are optional. This allows me to easily add a new feature without having to refactor any existing components.

Last edited by suzzer99; 04-24-2014 at 09:27 PM.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
04-24-2014 , 09:23 PM
KK: I have no idea what that question is asking and think there's probably a typo or something in there.
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD ** Quote
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD **
150% up to $2,000 Welcome Bonus on CoinPoker
Join the action now
Daily Rewards ? Splash Pots ? CoinRaces
** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD **

      
m