I find it very interesting that apps are downloading images that are an order of magnitude larger (in file size) than they need to be. First we use expensive bandwidth to download the image, battery life to use the radio longer, and then more battery life to resize this image on the device. One easy thing they could do is resize and optimize images server side.
The script would be for huge amounts of images that may change, if they are provided from a third party. Most thumbnail scripts implement caching, so effectively they are only doing the work once too.
That's a good point. My values would require that I run the thumbnail script myself and not the first visitor to see the image. Shoot, a Photoshop action could much the same thing.
Whether or not his websites are still online doesn't erase the built-up brand. The "Dive Into..." books are still mirrored and generally respected resources.
I think the problem is that Google is increasingly optimized for the vast majority of people who have no idea how search engines work and don't put any thought into their query. They make it so that you can search for "i have this mole and i want to know if it is cancer and also can i get tickets for the knicks game tomorrow" and get something useful, but when you need to search a specific error or programming construct you're out of luck. I wish I could remember specific examples, but I keep having + operators and quotes ignored by Google, or searching for two equally important words and having the second result not feature one of the words. Highly irritating.
Hate it. I was always annoyed when I had to switch from Top News to Most Recent, and now I don't have a choice. The addition of random visual embellishments like blue corners and 3d borders takes away from readability and scan-ability.
Also I can't imagine why I would want a side feed of people commenting on people who I'm not even friend's with photos. This violates peoples expectations of Facebook.
So good job guys, you broke your core product. This is just what you need to defeat Twitter and Google Plus.
Edit: I just noticed they stapled the real time feed to the buddy list, halving it. So now I can see even less of the buddy list (the one they broke last month) at once.
Also note that all these numbers really depend on location. 80-100K out of college in Minnesota (where I am) would be insane. I know people with 15 years experience making 100-120k.
Now if you are in the Bay area making 32K, that sounds weird, otherwise, start investigating salaries in your area.
You need to buy insurance for your IT job? Please describe. I've never heard of this before. Are there different standards for employee fault in different states? Are there any notable court cases?
I did once work at a place where employees were financially liable for the cost to the company of any mistakes they made, but I assumed that was legally along the same lines as the company's policy of not sending employees 1099s until we threatened to report them to the IRS. We were all hourly, scheduled "independent contractors" too.
(And I hear you on the salaries since I'm making $0 a year and looking for one of those $32k a year jobs. I can understand kick-ass coders with experience making $80k and up, but to imply that I should expect that amount with my degree but no talent or experience? I'm not seeing it in the market.)
You're going to have to tell us more about your situation - where are you, what sort of company is it, and what is your general experience in software?
I'm not the OP, but I have had some experience with this when looking for my last job. I made the mistake of posting my resume on a popular tech job site, and the vast majority of contacts were from shady recruiters trying to get me to work 2 hours away in a "contract to hire" position where I would have to pay my own insurance. Making less than I was currently making, still employed at the time.
Perhaps this is similar to the OP. It was a complete ripoff - I think they were trying to take advantage of the massive layoffs going on in the tech industry in my area. The arrogance of these guys was unbelievable.
If developers always have the fastest machines available, how will they test or care about speed? I hope they have automated benchmarks of common tasks at least.
(Although it is obviously good to have things compile as fast as possible.)
In the case of Windows im sure they have a large test suite which runs benchmarks over tasks to weed out the non performant areas. Not only that in the later builds im sure its tested on thousands of systems to ensure that this code is weeded out in most cases.
Honestly, giving your developers a slow machine to "encourage" them to write faster code is a fallacy. The average user is not running multiple databases, multiple IDE's, debuggers, editors, multiple browsers, help documents and all the other programs they require to get stuff done. By all means make the test machine match what the users have but invest (yes it is an investment) in a fast machine for your developers.
If nothing else it will make them feel appreciated which will return more then the $1000 odd it will cost to spec their machine up from your users base model.
you need the fastest dev box to compile as fast as possible and run unit tests and bvt tests quickly. It's a true pain having to wait 20 or 30 minutes for something to compile and test just to keep working.
Performance tests are done separately on machines on a lab and there's lot of them, with components on and off,different configurations etc. In some cases you can simulate slowness like latency or less bandwidth ,as in a client with a 14.4k modem connection, with things like wansim. That allows to automate as much as possible.
Your website needs to have a one sentence explanation of what it does, e.g. measure sleep and wake you up when you're in a light sleep. You pretty much have to read the FAQ to figure out that's what it does. Not saying this makes it seem like a quack magnetic bracelet or something. Just a suggestion.
We made the assumption that the average purchaser would not be interested in details like what phase of sleep you are woken up in. That is why those details are provided, but not prominently displayed.
The average purchaser is probably not interested in the details, but they are most certainly interested in a sentence describing what it does.
All that I knew about it when I clicked the link and skimmed the page was:
- They're ready
- I skipped some stuff about pre-orders
- I might not be able to get one before Christmas
- When you make them, they're all arranged in a big tray, are charcoal and light blue
- The manufacturing process somehow involves baking and cutting.
I had to click in my url bar and type in "wakemate.com" before I got anything useful. It's a fuzzy bracelet, it has something to do with waking you up and making you feel better, a few platforms like iPhone, some video I don't have time for, and I finally read "Wake up at the optimal time in your sleep cycle."
Have a good portfolio and gradually build up awareness. If you offer this service, link to a portfolio in your profile.
Don't compete on the same turf as elance types. I've used PSD2XHTML type services for $150-250 before and the main reasons I stopped was that the product wasn't really done to our house style and they couldn't hit deadlines. (Now I have staff that do these jobs for me.)
