A-list blogger Tony Pierce writes in a recent blog entry:
ashleys been calling me every night. she might think it’s hard on her. it’s doublely hard on me. see, ive been to the edge, and there i stood and looked down. i know what the future holds for me, and its definitely not super hot twenty year old blonde girls with cheerleader outfits and glitter.
Funny, that’s exactly what I see in my future.
My ongoing job search has made it quite clear to me that I have a problem with my portfolio.
In my two years of work for OpenCola, I wrote a lot of software prototypes that never made the leap to finished, complete, released application. With my friend and co-worker Chris Cummer, I wrote an application that grabbed video and MP3 files from the Gnutella file-sharing network and broadcast them as a stream, essentially creating a “what’s on the Internet?” station; the lawyers killed that project. I also worked on the user interface for two version of OpenCola’s file-sharing-and-news-finding software. both these versions were scrapped and bear only a very fleeting resemblance to the current version.
My recent work — an Web-based player registration and account management system for Silvercloud’s online trivia game — will probably never see the light of day. The company ran out of money in August, the partners have gone their separate ways, and the other members of the programming team bailed for less deadbeat pastures.
The end result is that my interviews with placement agencies and prospective employers sound similar to this conversation between a builder and someone looking to buy a house:
Potential house buyer: So, Mr. Builder, may I see the last house you built?
Builder: Um, you’re looking at it.
Potential house buyer: Looking at it where?
Builder: Right here. Right…ah…in front of you.
Potential house buyer: This is a model of a house, made out of balsawood!!
Builder: I prefer to call it a working prototype. See? A nice island in the middle of the kitchen; it’s all the rage on the home decorating shows. Look here: that’s real water coming out of those miniature sinks! And feel here — the heating ducts work! There’s a miniature water pump in ther basement, and I’m simulating a furnace with a Zippo lighter! And don’t tell me you don’t like the teeny halogen lights in the dining room…
Potential house buyer: I’ll say that the design’s very good, but do you have anything that I could actually live in?
Builder: Erm…yes. Right this way; it’s just next door.
Potential house buyer: You’ve got to be joking! This house is just a living room!
Builder: Actually, it a living room and front hallway. And the bathroom’s mostly done…
Potential house buyer: The living room is missing one wall!
Builder: Well, we would’ve gotten the rest of the house done, but we ran out of drywall. And two-by-fours. And, um…bricks.
Potential house buyer: I think I’ve seen enough. Thank you very much, Mr. Builder, and I look forward to seeing you in whatever new career you eventually follow.
Builder: Wait! You haven’t seen my cottage design! I have sketches!
I’ve managed to snag a little contract work, so in about a month or so, I may actually have some recent examples of actual paying work to show to potential employers and clients. However, where portfolios are concerned, more is better, and here’s where you come in.
I need ideas for Palm applications. If you’re an avid user of a PDA that runs the PalmOS — which means a Palm handheld, a Handspring Visor, or Sony Clie, and if there’s some program you wish existed for it, maybe I can help you. I’ll write the application and give it to you — for free. I’ll also make it available for download off this site, and credit you with the concept. It’s win-win: I get a fatter portfolio, and you get software you want.
Why a handheld application? Well, it’s an area which is still wide-open, and it’s one of the two “big directions” in which computing is travelling (the two directions being mobile computing and wireless networks). The limited memory and screen of a PDA also sets certain limits of the scope of a programming project, hopefully guaranteeing that I can finish the project in a reasonable amount of time and that it won’t grow into a Herculean task.
(Yes, I do have my own ideas for Palm software that I could write, but I figured that it might be better to write software that someone out there wants. Who knows — your ideas might be better than mine.)
If you’ve got an idea, drop me a line or leave a note in the comments.
That’s right, there are still a number of items available at the “Save Joey’s Christmas” sale.
For the musician setting up a home studio, I’ve got some killer deals. Check these out!
There’s a way to get Logic Audio Platinum 5.5 — the latest version of the de facto standard for recording studios — for US$200 less than you normally could. It’s a simple three-step process:
Your total cost: $500. That’s $200 off the retail price of $700.
You can see a photo of the Logic 4.5 Platinum package and a detailed list of what it contains on the “Save Joey’s Christmas” page.
There’s a way to get Reaktor 3.0 for US$150 less than you normally could. It’s a simple two-step process:
Your total cost: $335. That’s over $150 off the retail price of $500.
If you buy the two together, I’ll slice $50 off the total to make it an even US$500.
You can see a photo of the Reaktor 2.3 package and a detailed list of what it contains on the “Save Joey’s Christmas” page.
Hey, George, did you realize that we’ve known each other for fifteen years and a handful of silly business ventures?
My birthday tradition (not a long-standing one — it’s only been going since 1999) is for me to take George out to dinner at some expensive restaurant in New York. We went to Nobu in 1999, when Masaharu Morimoto — better known as Iron Chef Japanese — was still head chef and Harvey Keitel turned around to see who was playing Happy Birthday on accordion. Last year, we had the tasting menu at Babbo, one of the finest meals I’ve ever had. Luckily for my ailing bank account, the tradition dictates that I do it only every other year, and this is my year off.
Happy birthday, George! See, this easing-into-your-thirties thing isn’t so bad, is it?
In no particular order:
I’m going to try and get to these this week.