Pencils Down

JavaScript developer (Davis Square)

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Reply to: gigs@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2009-01-13, 12:43PM EST
Hi! We’re looking for a JavaScript developer to help us out with various features on our website.

So here’s your first task We’d like to see the most elegant solution to this problem:

We have username and password boxes on our website. But, we don’t want to have external labels (next to and outside the boxes) as we do now.

Instead, we want to make the labels appear inside the text fields, and have them disappear when you click inside them. The labels should reappear if the user doesn’t type anything and clicks outside the field, but should not overwrite anything the user types.

We’re looking for a smart person who knows his JS, so send us your solution to this problem (HTML plus whatever scripts you used), plus a short description of your background. Hours are flexible, payment is negotiable. (If we choose you, we’ll compensate you for your time spent on this problem too.) We prefer local candidates (we’re located in Davis Square in Somerville) but we’re willing to accommodate the right person.

Thanks for looking!

Location: Davis Square
it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Compensation: negotiable
PostingID: 9999999

So, why do people think that a qualified developer will do this? It’s typically a non-trivial task that would take a few hours. It’s going to be very specific to the client and non-portable. The client has no reason to acclaim someone’s response as correct – they can just incorporate as needed. There is no recourse as there is no info on the client to see if they stole your code.

We bought a Sony World Tour game for someone this Christmas.  This is one of the most popular games this past season.  Typical out of stock problems for a popular seasonal item.

It never worked.  Tried replacing various components about 6 times.  Finally returned the whole thing to the store.

At the store one of the clerks mentioned, “Oh, yeah.  Those don’t work a lot.  Be thankful you didn’t buy an XBOX.”

This prompted my curiosity, “What do you mean?”

The clerk said, “Oh, the XBOX’s fail about 75% of the time”.

Being in software I was a little flabbergasted.  “How can that be?  These are extremely popular items; that YOU sell.”

“I just work here.”  Realized he had revealed too much and proceeded to hush up for the rest of the transaction.

Being in commercial software I have lived through the horrors of bugs in software that persist well past the FCS date.  Some of these can be fatal, most are doggedly consistent errors in logic that just mess things up.

Maybe I am being stuck up, but the game software DOES NOT START!  This is not even close to an FCS quality level.

Do game software writers not work in the same realm as the rest of their brethren?  Are they immune from the QA/QC police?  Management/marketing breathing over your shoulders about typos and nits they found over the weekend?  Heaven forbid your application does not start, boot, begin correctly for them in whatever strange configuration they manage in their household.

The more you think you understand something the less you actually know.

The wheels have come off at Satyam Computer Services (SAY). The company, which just a few weeks ago tried to pull off a giant acquisition of two companies tied to founder B. Ramalinga Raju, shocked the Indian stock market on Wednesday with news that Raju has resigned after admitting he overstated the strength of the company’s balance sheet and misreported the company’s profits. The company’s shares were trading down as much as 70% in India this morning.

Reuters has published a copy of his resignation letter, in which Raju confesses to trying to use the the failed acquisitions to “fill the fictitious assets with real ones.”

A stunning tale, which is going to cost holders a lot of money.

  Barron’s Tech Trader Daily

What a mess.  Satyam was the 4th largest IT company in India.  This puts a shadow of doubt on all companies controlled by Indians.  Possible side affects against outsourcing companies as well.

It will take a while for this to subside.  If there is another blowout from some other company (likely given the financial meltdown worldwide) this could destroy the Indian IT market.

I didn’t notice this flying by in November – probably too concerned with my 401K getting demolished:

You cofounded Twitter.com with venture-capital money back in 2006, and it still isn’t turning a profit. In November, the company declined Facebook’s offer to buy it for $500 million. Say what? We admire and respect Facebook. We are big fans, actually. They approached us, and we took it seriously. But we feel like we want to continue this path we’re on — sustaining this innovation — and the time is not right.

  Boston Globe interview with Biz Stone, founder of twitter.

I am voting for this as the #1 bonehead move by a tech company for 2008.

When exactly would be the right time to take $500 million for your company?  How many companies out there dream of this phone call from Facebook?

Note the article says the company has never been profitable and probably will not be for some period of time.

Further, most of the development has been funded by VC’s.  I’d like to know which VC’s.  They must have the worst lawyers/negotiating skills in the business.  How could they let this guy turn down that kind of payback?