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Before you write a patch, write an email
I often get surprise patches in my projects from people I’ve never heard from. I’m not talking about things like fixing typos, or fixing a bug in the bug tracker. I’m talking about new features,...
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Please help me with terminology for “small acts that add to a greater whole”
I’m looking for a term to describe small positive actions that individuals do to add up to a greater whole. Examples in the world of open source software might include: Answering a question on a...
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Rethink the post-interview thank you note
Good golly do people get riled up by the idea of sending a thank you note after a job interview. “Why should I thank them, they didn’t give me a gift!” is a common refrain in /r/jobs. “They should be...
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My Solr+Tomcat troubles, and how I fixed them
I’ve been working at getting Solr working under Tomcat, and spent most of a day working on fixing these problems. The fixes didn’t take so much time as the trying to grok the Java app ecosystem. My...
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Self-selecting for the thick-skinned means turning away contributors.
Every so often, usually in the middle of an online argument or flame war, someone will say that the climate of the group has him or her uncomfortable. He’ll say something like “I don’t want to be...
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My YAPC::NA 2012 recap
Random notes and comments about YAPC::NA in Madison, WI ack 2.0 I uploaded ack 2.00alpha01 to the CPAN. All that week, Rob Hoelz did a ton of work, and Jerry Gay was invaluable in helping us work...
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SELECT * is a bug waiting to happen
A SQL SELECT statement that use * instead of an explicit column list is a bug waiting to happen. Beyond the quick-and-dirty prototyping stage, every SQL query in an application should explicitly...
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A little Ruby program to monitor Solr DIH imports
Solr is a text indexing package. All interaction with it is through GETting and POSTting to the service, and then XML responses. After you do the GET to start an import with Solr’s DataImportHandler,...
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Slides from today’s resumes & interviews talk
This morning I gave a presentation titled Resumes & Interviews From the Hiring Manager’s Perspective at the Career TOOLS Conference in Milwaukee, WI. Big lesson learned: Even when the conference...
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Solr’s DataImportHandler can’t handle line-based SQL comments
At least twice now I’ve run into this problem where I try to comment my SQL code, but doing so makes my Solr data importer blow up. I post it here for posterity. Part of your DIH configuration will be...
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Tell me about weird, frustrating or bad job interview questions you’ve been...
I’m working on an article for SmartBear on handling bad or weird job interview questions, and I’d like to get input from you. Have you been asked weird, insulting, inexplicable or just plain bad...
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How to prepare for a job interview: The 4-point summary
The core of your preparation for the job interview: Learn what they do. Learn how they do what they do. Figure out exactly what skills, experience and background you have that will help them do what...
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When it comes to job hunting advice, question everything you’re told
Punk pioneers Stiff Little Fingers‘ signature tune “Suspect Device” admonished “Don’t believe them / Question everything you’re told.” It’s sound advice for anyone looking for guidance in the job...
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ack 2.0 has been released
ack 2.0 has been released. ack is a grep-like search tool that has been optimized for searching large heterogeneous trees of source code. ack has been around since 2005. Since then it has become very...
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My bash prompt with git/svn branch+status display
After spending a few hours last night switching between three different branches in the ack2 project, and typing “git br” over and over, I decided I needed to put branch status in my bash prompt. The...
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The simple math of why your resume probably isn’t getting read.
You spend hours slaving over your resume, crafting every word of every bullet point, and yet you’re getting no interest from the companies you send the resume to. Maybe your problem is that you’re...
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Those “illegal job interview questions” aren’t actually illegal
It’s common knowledge that it’s illegal for US employers to ask about your age, sex, religion, marital status, national origin, or other protected statuses. Thing is, it’s not illegal for them to ask....
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Make the Linux chkconfig service list easier to read
If you run a Linux box, and you want to see what services start up at which level, you use runlevel: $ chkconfig acpid 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off atd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off...
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How to talk in an interview about problems at your past job without coming...
Someone on reddit asked “Why is talking bad about a previous job a taboo? What’s wrong with complaining? It’s showing dissatisfaction with the rules or environment. If I see a rule that’s unfair or...
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“Fifteen minutes longer and a thought process and probably you wouldn’t have...
In last month’s Esquire, there’s an interview with George Clooney where he briefly discusses Twitter: “So one drunken night, you come home and you’ve had two too many drinks and you’re watching TV and...
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