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Desperate Recruitment was originally published on November 22, 2007.
The Beat on the Street in Peterborough (England) is that Data Interchange is looking to hire Software Developers. And I mean “on the street” quite literally:
Illicit Process Improvement was originally published on December 11, 2007.
Christian R. was in trouble. Despite his experience across hardware and software, desktops and server clusters, thumb drives and SANs, he hadn't found any freelance work in weeks. It was clear that he'd have to figure something out to pay the bills.
Monitoring the Email Monitor was originally published on November 21, 2007.
“Ummm…” the top email in Alex M.’s inbox started, “why did you delete my message about the approval bug? And then delete the message inquiring about the deletion? This issue isn’t going away – please investigate this right away!”
My Computer (from Kay)
I work in a small school district. One day, a high school teacher called me up to complain that a computer wasn't working correctly. Bit by bit, I coaxed out that she was having trouble retrieving a file on her personal folder on the school's network--her folder simply wasn't there. 90% of the problems our users report are solved by a simple reboot of the user's computer. So I asked the teacher to go restart her computer and call me back if the problem still existed.
She called me back ten minutes later and said she was still having the same problem. I checked--I could see her logged in on the network, and I could ping her computer. I checked her permissions on the network--everything looked fine. I asked her to try a couple of other things. Nothing seemed to work, and this teacher (already known for her crabby, high-strung attitude) was getting progressively grumpier.
One day, Darrell worked in the Vancouver office of a small California-based company. The next day, a Fortune 500 company went “OM NOM NOM” and Darrell found himself suddenly employed by them.
Before long, the word “integration” tricked down from above, like a golden stream of endless project work. Trying to link the small company’s software release with the behemoth that had swallowed it was going to be no small task. The massive undertaking meant that Darrell had to spend 30% of every month in the California headquarters.
To the outside observer, it might appear as though Amanda had consumed a double-large caffeinated "something" before arriving at the office, but actually, she was just that excited to start her new job.
After spending the 90's as a code monkey working for big businesses downtown, she had finally escaped the maddening world of long commutes, smog-filled lunchtime walks, and stuffy corporate processes. Her new refuge was a small, niche software company located right in her comfy suburban neighborhood. Heck, not only could she walk to work, but she could even wear jeans if she wanted to.
In the world of software consulting, there are many ways in which software is delivered to the client. Sometimes, a consulting company may choose to sell the software to the client, providing both the working application and the source since (most of the time) the software is so customized to the client’s need, the consulting company does not have much reason for keeping the source code to themselves. In other situations, though, consulting companies may choose to license the software to the client, with regular patches and bug fixes, while retaining all ownership.
Paul was working as a freelance coder, fresh out of college, when he accidentally stumbled upon a third option: give the source code to the client, but obfuscate the software to such a degree that any developer who tried to work on it would go mad.
Nov 10