We’re currently hiring for a few .NET programming positions and always ask applicants to provide a code sample. Some applicants can’t provide one since everything they have is confidential information, and we don’t penalize people for this. Some others have to check with their employer or previous employer first, and we always consider this a good sign. And others just go ahead and send us samples, which is usually ok but it can also be bad.
On occasion we get samples that have obviously confidential or proprietary information in them. This is always a red flag. Even if the code is very good, the fact that a person was willing to send his current or previous employer’s confidential information to a prospective employer as an example of work is bad.
In one particularly agregious case we received an application that had the company’s database domain name, username, and password all within the config file. That’s a major security problem. Not the type of security problem we’d like to hire into our company.
So if you’re applying for a job and providing a code sample, think not just about the quality of the sample but what information it contains and what it conveys about you, your honesty, and your consideration of others confidence and privacy.
For today I would like to discuss the important of a “Product” vs software consulting, and how that can lead to different requirements/focus. If you have worked as a consultant developing applications for a specific client, generally the most important item is usually to meet the requirements, and make sure the application works well. Although this on its own is important, when you are developing a “product” there are other factors that suddenly become important. I have found developing products to be truly an enjoyable challenge. Continue reading →
Recently I had to display a lot of text in a page but didn’t want it all initially displayed–I wanted to toggle some of it based on user interaction. I wrapped the functionality in a custom tag for easy reuse.
This is toggled text content.
tag and provides a
separate
tag with a link to display the content. The link
can act as either a display once or a toggle. When the hidden
div is diplayed once the link text is hidden. When the hidden
div is a toggle, the link text is toggled between two alternate
values.
-> showText Text to display initially and when the content
is hidden. Default "(show)".
-> hideText Text to display when the content is displayed
and toggle is set to yes. Default "(hide)".
-> toggle True if the link toggles the content display
and false if it displays once and stays on.
All other attributes are passed along to the content div. The
text div has a class of "hiddenDivText" which can be used
for styling.
Only tested in IE6 and Firefox based browsers. Should work
in other standards compliant browsers. If it doesn't work
in your target browser, modify the getElement function.
--->
var hiddenDivShowText = new Array();
var hiddenDivHideText = new Array();
function toggleHiddenDiv(index) {
var textDiv = getElement('hiddenDivLabelDiv_' + index);
var contentDiv = getElement('hiddenDivContent_' + index);
var textSpan = getElement('hiddenDivLabelSpan_' + index);
var display = (contentDiv.style.display != 'block');
You might have heard about Sapien’s New Years special
“On December 31, 2004 starting at 12:00 noon PST and ending at 11:59PM PST, PrimalScript 3.1 Download Version Only, will be offered at $129.00.”
Well, the Sapien guys were kind enough to allow us to offer a special for our blog readers. Purchase PrimalScript during the new years special and during checkout enter in the coupon code “ChaficRocks” and you will get an extra $31 off. That results in a total of only $98. If you have been waiting to purchase PrimalScript, this is the best time.
This was inspired by a slashdot article the other day
I’m so tired of Flash bashing on slashdot. I find it funny that an audience that generally doesn’t care about a user friendly UI can comment so much about a product aimed solely at that market. The reality is that 99% of computer users are not software development geeks like us, until software developers understand that they will keep bashing Flash and i’m tired of it. I’m not obsessed with Flash, I just think that there is a proper time to use it and a proper time not to. Here are some realities that people who don’t have extensive experience with Flash need to keep in mind Continue reading →
