seekely

I have been working with Chef for a handful of years now and heavily at Quid. Finally put together a few of my many thoughts on Chef. Hoping to touch on a few other topics in the near future.

Quid (quid.com) - San Francisco - H1B/VISA welcome

Our product combines mathematical models with advanced data visualizations to help turn the world's information into high value intelligence. With a still small development team, every developer's contributions matter a lot (seriously).

We just rose a round of $39 million and have some series momentum with clients such as Hyundai, Microsoft, Samsung and the Boston Consulting Group.

Check out one an example of a network generated of news in the last couple of years: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9pqvtbs2bdzuy4e/quidnews.png?dl=0

We are looking for a variety of developers including:

* Visualization developer pushing web browsers to the limits with 10,000+ node fully interactive networks

* Full stack application developer with a Javascript specialty

* Infrastructure developers to make provisioning of entire clusters a push button experience

* Test automation developers working embedded in teams and keeping code quality and test coverage high

* And more!

Apply by emailing hn@quid.com with a resume/portfolio.

I've been working at Quid for the last two and half years. The momentum here is getting really exciting. Let me know if you have any questions! We're (of course) hiring and also just completed a solid round (http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/19/quid-series-d/)!

Quid (quid.com) - San Francisco - H1B welcome

This place has so much potential and great momentum with huge clients like Microsoft, Samsung, Visa, etc...

Our product combines advanced data visualizations, mathematical models, and data processing techniques to generate valuable insight for our customers. With only 12 developers, every developer's contributions matter a lot (seriously).

Check out one of our network visualizations (a news network about Lady Gaga =p): https://quid.box.com/s/kxc7hskuzokmd3f38c0w

We are looking for a variety of developers including:

* Data science developer to apply computational algorithms and statistical methods to unstructured data

* Visualization developer pushing web browsers to the limits with 10,000+ node fully interactive networks

* Full stack application developer with a Javascript specialty

* Infrastructure developers to make provisioning of entire clusters a push button experience

Apply by emailing hn@quid.com with a resume/portfolio.

On a Windows box, Helvetica is aliased to Arial as true Helvetica is not installed.

Oops! Thanks!

Thanks, I will fix this for next sale.

I have had the damnedest time getting the size right on those buttons. Can you tell me your device/browser/screen size?

Bummer :(

I would really really like to ship to Europe (and everywhere), but as a 1 man show right now, I can't logistically make that happen for some time.

Good question and obviously not an optimal situation.

Since I'm a small shop going through a third party printer, I am last in line for raw t-shirt supply. Mix in color and size availability, and it gets pretty tricky to rely on one brand. So for now, I am using a few high quality brands to make sure t-shirts get out in a timely manner.

If I have data worth releasing (i.e. sales volume), I most certainly will. I'm very curious myself!

The shirts are being water/discharged printed by http://forwardprinting.com. A very high quality and award winning printer.

The t-shirts are of quality, I promise :)

The subscription suggestion is great and might be a better fit for Nifty. I'll have to give some thought.

Another direction I am thinking of going is more clearly separating the purchase from the pick. So you pick your shirt to buy and then make a separate pick for the least popular. I worry the additional UI may complicate things, but it is probably worth testing.

Below in the comments, I mention I am very curious to find out if people will take buying the least popular t-shirt as a positive (I'm unique) or negative (Why would I want a trash shirt). You clearly fall in the latter category, which is very reasonable. I am very open to tweaking the game mechanics so it is perceived as a win win by everybody while still a sustainable site.

The shirt and printing style are of high quality. I need to do a better job on the site emphasizing that.

Sorry you did not like this week's designs. Maybe next week (or not based on your comment =p)

I am fulfilling the orders myself (with help) via USPS and FedEx until it gets out of hand.

Thanks!

I have some shirt info at http://getnifty.com/shirt/info, but agreed it should be more prominent and detailed.

And pushing out copy change to 'Sign up for weekly sale notifications' as we speak.

As a very frequent t-shirt purchaser myself, the reason sites like TeeFury (which I love) do not sell at $25 is because their t-shirt quality, design, and printing style is not anywhere near as nice as Threadless or DesignByHumans. I am hoping Nifty will earn a reputation more like the latter sites than the former.

With that in mind, I will definitely test price points and appreciate the perspective from a fellow t-shirt buyer.

I do not want people making regrettable purchases, so I will play around with the concept if that's the impression I get from buyers.

I am very curious to find out if people will take buying the least popular t-shirt as a positive 'i'm unique' or negative 'i suck'.

I had this idea rolling around in my head for the last couple of years, and I finally decided to build the damned thing just to get idea relief.

The backend is a typical LAMP stack with the Symfony2 framework backing the P. Varnish sits in front of all the Chef managed Linode boxes. The site will work without Javascript (up until the checkout), and the style degrades really nicely depending on your viewport (try it out by resizing your browser).

I'm open to all comments and critiques, so let me hear them. And if you are into graphic t-shirts, here is a code for a Hacker News 20% discount: 4803-7940-0816-5604!

SEEKING WORK - San Francisco OR Remote.

My portfolio: http://happykoalas.com My resume: http://happykoalas.com/docs/resume.pdf

I'm a full-time freelancer with about 10-15 off-hours a week of availability. I'm primarily a backend/web developer with strengths in PHP, Java and C++. My background consists of stints in the video game industry, co-founding a new media advertising startup, and a collection of client work.

Cheers :)

SEEKING WORK - San Francisco OR Remote.

My portfolio: http://happykoalas.com My resume: http://happykoalas.com/docs/resume.pdf

I'm primarily a backend/web developer with strengths in PHP, Java and C++. My background consists of stints in the video game industry, co-founding a new media advertising startup, and a collection of client work.

Cheers :)

Sorry, the 'history of contradictory evidence' should have read the 'candidate's history of contradictory evidence' (e.g. having a really strong portfolio and work history to contradict a poor showing on the whiteboard).

I try to interview a candidate like he is a friend I haven't caught up with in many years. I want to have as honest and interesting of a conversation as possible, hear all his opinions, and learn all about what he has done and can do. If I feel the conversation was honest, the personalities were compatible, and there is evidence of good work and reliability in the past, I will likely consider the candidate a hire.

The problem with this method can be

1) It relies on the candidate having some sort of tangible history (referrals, solid portfolio or resume, open source projects, etc...), so new grads are tougher for example.

2) Having an 'on the level' conversation with somebody who knows they are being interviewed is not always possible. Nor are all interviewers capable of extracting useful information this way.

Because a candidate with a mediocre background yet a strong showing on the whiteboard will get the job. The problem isn't not hiring somebody having a bad day. The problem is the over reliance on the whiteboard signal, despite a candidate's history of contradictory evidence (either positive or negative). If you are going to use typical whiteboard problems as a signal, it is really really hard to not heavily weigh the results, especially when sour.

This is not, nor are similar whiteboard questions, a good interviewing problem. Not because the problem is particularly difficult or uninteresting, but because no matter how much the interviewer wants these questions to just be 'signals' of your ability, the candidate's performance at the whiteboard will likely be the determining factor for landing a job. The whiteboard gets too much weight, because it's too hard for an engineer (or likely anybody) to ignore somebody having a bad moment and flailing on something that seems so trivial to the interviewer.

And this is why Google's interviewing process and reliance on these problems is terrible.

You are put in five 1 hour sessions where you are asked Pascal Triangle esque whiteboard problems. Get a bit intimated? Stressed because of the interview? Miss your morning coffee? Start to panic a little bit? And suddenly you stumble on 1 or 2 of the problems and make an embarrassing impression.

At this point, it does not matter how strong your portfolio is, how many recommendations from fellow Googlers you have received, past performances, or your samples of past code (all of which are much stronger signals than a whiteboard problem). You will not be getting the job.

SEEKING WORK - San Francisco OR Remote.

My portfolio: http://happykoalas.com

I'm a backend developer with strengths in PHP, Java and C++. My background consists of stints in the video game industry, co-founding a new media advertising startup, and a collection of client work.

Cheers :)

Better seems very subjective. I spent more time trying to figure out how to read a re.vu candidate's charts and visualizations than quickly digesting useful information about the candidate.

I am a fan of exploring portfolios. I am not a fan of exploring resumes. Especially when I would like to flip through a few hundred quickly.

Good looking shirts are all about good fit. None of your models have a shirt remotely fitted for them. The pictures currently do a disservice for both the shirt and the model!

Fun idea, though I am not convinced it will go far as a business/way to make money. I have seen this a couple of times. Sites like http://www.startupschwag.com/ had to eventually give it up despite a good initial publicity buzz and following.

WakeMate is the only YC company that left me feeling completely duped for dropping cash on them. My whole experience with the product felt like a sham. Good on WakeMate for having the opportunity at a 2.0, because I personally feel like they did not deserve it :(

Because I love the concept so much, I will give it another shot, and maybe my bitterness will fade, and we can all hold hands and skip in the park one day! Good luck!

You no longer need an association with the military to sign up for USAA's checking/savings accounts. They're just really quiet about it. I made the switch to them a couple months ago. Signed up online and had an account minutes later.

There are unhappy people in every industry and in every position. But the game industry has surpassed the tipping point for popularity and 'glam' to make the detractors have enough social incentive/attention to be very vocal.

There are legitimate gripes, complaints and out right abuses in the game industry. But much of the brokenness in process or hours or management or etc also exists everywhere else. It is the unfortunate nature of a work environment. You do not read/hear about everywhere else as much fewer people are passionately following their output or dreaming of breaking in.