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What to ask during a job interview?

Jul 23rd, 2009
by webwesen.
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So you landed an interview and are asking yourself – what next?

  • Do some research.
  • Read the job description and requirements carefully.
  • Check their the web site for clues on what their environment looks like.
  • Check LinkedIn and Glassdoor sites for any info related to the company.
  • Armed with all this knowledge prepare these or similar questions:
  1. What exactly would my day-to-day responsibilities be?
    It is essential that you clearly understand your role and the tasks that you would be expected to undertake. It is easy to make assumptions and get the wrong impression of what the work would be so it is vital for both sides that there is clarity in what is expected of you. If the interviewer cannot give a clear answer then this is a worrying sign, so politely follow up with more questions. Some people even ask to see exactly where they will sit.
  2. What are the opportunities for training and career advancement?
    It will help you to understand where the job might lead and what skills you might acquire. It also signals that you are ambitious and thinking ahead.
  3. What is the biggest challenge facing the organization today?
    This sort of question takes the interview away from the detail and towards strategic issues. It allows to you see and discuss the bigger picture. It proves that you are interested in more than just the 9 to 5 aspects of the job. It can lead to interesting discussions that can show you in a good light – especially if you have done some intelligent preparation. If appropriate you can follow up this question with some questions about the objectives of the department and the manager who is interviewing you.
  4. What are the criteria that you are looking for in the successful candidate for this position?
    The more that you can discover about what they want and how they will make the decision the better placed you are to influence that decision.
  5. How do you feel that I measure up to your requirements for this position?
    This follows on naturally from the previous questions. It may seem a little pushy but it is a perfectly fair thing to ask. In sales parlance this is a ‘trial close’. If they say that you are a good fit then you can ask whether there is any reason you might not be offered the job. If they say that you are lacking in some key skill or attribute then you can move into objection handling mode and point out some relevant experience or a countervailing strength.
  6. Would you like to hear what I could do to really help your organisation?
    If you want the job then this is a great question to ask at the end of the interview. Most interviewers will reply, ‘Yes.’ Drawing on what you have learnt in the conversation, you can give a short sales pitch on why you fit the criteria and why your strengths and ideas will siginficantly assist the boss to meet their objectives. Make it short, direct and clear with the emphasis on the benefits for them of having you in the team. At the end ask something like, ‘how does that sound?’

Don’t take a passive role at the interview. If you are a proactive candidate who asks the sorts of questions given above then you will be seen as more dynamic and you will significantly increase your chances of being offered the job.

Posted in: jobs.

FogBugz 7 and the Australians.

Jul 20th, 2009
by webwesen.
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Joel Spolsky wrote a nice article about their vision statement for the upcoming FogBugz 7 release.

I especially liked the

“Every little feature will be a delight for somebody, especially that person who keeps emailing us because he can’t believe that the feature he wants which is obviously only six lines of code hasn’t been implemented in FogBugz 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, “4.5″, or 6.0, and if we don’t get it soon he JUST MIGHT HAVE TO GO OVER TO THE AUSTRALIANS.”

piece.

Is he looking at you, Atlassian? :) FogBugz still cannot beat your price though.

Posted in: software.
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Customizing a PrimePress WordPress theme

Jul 18th, 2009
by webwesen.
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Replace images

  • Header banner images are 920px × 150px
  • located @ http://blog/wp-content/themes/primepress/headers/
  • where to look for images?
    • www.flickr.com
    • www.sxc.hu

Posted in: software.
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Why did I choose Atlassian suite for my company?

Jul 17th, 2009
by webwesen.
3 comments

AtlassianFrom a slide stack I presented to the overlords:

Why Atlassian?

Atlassian suite provides highly integrated modern comprehensive lifecycle tools that are fully integrated and provide capabilities for the application development infrastructure needed to meet the needs of the most modern development communities.

Atlassian: unified approach

Unified approach to the life cycle: At any time, business analysts, programmers, testers and other participants in the application development process can see what others are doing, and where a project stands. For example:

  • Which requirements have been coded, tested and released?
  • Which are still works in progress?

Single view of the truth

  • Atlassian suite is designed around a common stack of control data where the tools fit in around that data.
  • That common set of data is presented through different views of the same information, depending on whether the user of that data is concerned with business requirements, coding, testing, and so forth.
  • It is a single view of the truth as opposed to multiple copies of the truth.

Build a release portal

Deliver current release information to

  • DEV managers
  • IT stakeholders
  • Business stakeholders

Posted in: process, software.
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What packaging tool to choose for AIX deployments?

Jul 12th, 2009
by webwesen.
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rpm vs. installp

It seems it was  impossible for a long time to find an installp-experienced engineer outside IBM. rpm on the other hand has been freely available for years. For scripty type stuff there should be no special considerations for AIX so the large body of experience, knowledge and example code available for rpm on Linux is very helpful.

IBM is not dropping AIX anytime soon, but at the same time they are actively porting the standard linux tools to AIX and some of the AIX tools to Linux so the environments are converging. This might mean that its only a matter of time before installp become “depreciated” in favor of rpm.

rpm resources

Posted in: programming.
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Windows PowerShell Execution policy

Jul 9th, 2009
by webwesen.
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The first time you try to execute a script from PowerShell you will most likely have to change the execution policy for PowerShell. It is recommended to set it to RemoteSigned. This would mean that all remote scripts must be signed or PowerShell will refuse to execute them. To change the execution policy:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

If you’re uncertain what your execution policy setting is, type :

Get-ExecutionPolicy

For reference – these are all supported policy types:

  • Restricted
    No scripts can run.
  • AllSigned
    Ps1 and .Ps1xml files must be digitally signed.
  • RemoteSigned
    Ps1 and .Ps1xml files from the internet must be digitally signed.
  • Unrestricted
    No digital signatures are required and all scripts can be executed.

Posted in: programming.

Livescribe logs of CITCON Brisbane ’09

Jul 7th, 2009
by webwesen.
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Posted in: process, software.

Install and configure PMD on CentOS 5.3

Jul 6th, 2009
by webwesen.
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cd /opt
mkdir static_analysis
cd static_analysis/
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/pmd/pmd-bin-4.2.5.zip
unzip pmd-bin-4.2.5.zip
ln -s pmd-4.2.5/ pmd

to be continued…

Posted in: programming, software.

How to promote artifacts

Jul 6th, 2009
by webwesen.
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Chris has been tasked with implementing a process to control the promotion and deployment of application builds. The project for which Chris is implementing this process is a typical three-tiered web application, with some static content to be served by an HTTP server, dynamic content that needs to run on an application server, and a database to store all the data. Chris’ organization has four different environments, DEV, QA, UAT, and PROD, that are used as any application goes from development to production. Each environment has a different number of servers dedicated to each role (HTTP, application, and database).

The DEV environment is used by the development team for system integration testing and contains a single server that runs everything. The QA environment is used by the Quality Assurance team to test the application. The UAT environment is where user acceptance testing takes place. In the QA and the UAT environments, there is one HTTP server, one application server, and one database server. The PROD environment is the actual production environment exposed to the world, and contains many load-balanced HTTP servers, a cluster of application servers, and a cluster of database servers.

Because AnthillPro uses the concept of Server Groups to model different environments, Chris configures a DEV, a QA, a UAT, and a PROD server group. He can then add the agents running on each of the machines in those environments to the Server Groups. So the DEV server group will end up with a single agent; the QA and UAT server groups will end up with three agents (one for each HTTP server, one for the app server, and one for the database server). The PROD server group may end up with an agent for each HTTP server, each app server, and each database server; however, this does not necessarily have to be the case and will be impacted by factors such as a shared file system for the HTTP server, using an app server-specific deployment manager, etc. When deploying the application to each environment, AnthillPro uses server roles to ensure that the appropriate pieces of the application get installed on the corresponding machines.

To complicate matters further, each type of server has different credentials in each of the different environments. So the username and password required to make database changes in the DEV environment is different than that required for the QA environment, the UAT environment, and the PROD environment. The same goes for the HTTP servers and the application servers. This is actually a very big piece, and is required for regulatory compliance. Any solution to this problem must make sure that the credentials for a particular environment are never exposed to an unauthorized user. So a developer that can deploy the application to the DEV environment should not be able to deploy the application to the QA, UAT, or PROD environments; nor should that developer have a way of accessing any of the credentials for the servers in those environments.

AnthillPro easily handles this situation. The credentials for servers in each environment can be stored in a secure location and referenced by the Job Configurations in AnthillPro (using parameters that are resolved at build-time). The same workflow configuration could be used to deploy the project to each environment, and at build time the workflow would resolve the parameter that returns the name of the server group that is the target of the Workflow Case. Based on this, the proper selection of the credentials can be performed at build time in a secure fashion.

In Chris’ organization, any developer may deploy the project to the DEV environment to test changes. But promoting a build (Build Life) to the QA environment follows a very different process. The development lead decides what build (Build Life) is ready to be promoted to the QA environment. Then the QA manager is informed and it is up to the QA manager to decide when the new build (Build Life) is to be actually deployed in the QA environment. This way, if the QA team is not ready to receive the new build (Build Life) one will not be forced on them.

These types of hand-offs are explicitly supported by AnthillPro using manual tasks. Chris would configure two additional workflows for the project in AnthillPro, a Promotion-Request Workflow and a Promotion-Approve Workflow. The Promotion-Request Workflow is the one that would be invoked by the development lead on a Build Life that is ready to be promoted to QA. This workflow would create a manual task for the QA Manager role in AnthillPro. Upon affirmative completion of this task, AnthillPro would run the Promotion-Approve Workflow on the Build Life. The Promotion-Approve Workflow would be responsible for orchestrating all the activities and jobs required to promote the Build Life and install the application in the new environment. The same two workflows would be used to promote the Build Life from the QA to the UAT environment; only the target server group would change.

The QA team requires that all builds (Build Lives) delivered to them have successive identifiers. This can be difficult to implement, especially if the development team practices Continuous Integration and generates 10 or more build identifiers per day. The only way to ensure that each build (Build Life) released to QA has a successive identifier is to generate a new identifier for the QA team. Chris can configure multiple Stamp Styles to support the multiple identifiers being applied to each Build Life. This way, during the first stage of the Build Life (the build), the Dev Stamp Style is used to generate the identifier. Later, during the stage when the Build Life gets promoted to QA, the QA Stamp Style is used to generate a new identifier, guaranteeing that the QA team sees builds (Build Lives) with successive identifiers.

Posted in: process, software.

Taxing Move: Making your Investment Property a Primary Residence

Jul 6th, 2009
by webwesen.
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You thought you were making such a smart tax move when you made your vacation home your primary residence.

You and your spouse thought downsizing was a good idea and if you eventually sold that home you would be protected from capital gains taxes, as long as those gains didn’t exceed $500,000 (the limit if filing jointly) and you met the residency requirement.

Until Jan. 1, 2009, you would have been right. But the law has changed and you should be aware of the changes and what they might mean to your tax bill before you consider buying and selling.

Previously, the Internal Revenue Service said that if you live in the investment property for 2 years during the 5 years prior to selling the home, you could sell it as your primary residence and exclude $250,000 from the gain of your sale ($500,000 if you’re married filing jointly). If your gains were under that limit, you wouldn’t pay any taxes for long-term capital gains, which apply to assets held for at least 1 year.

A gain occurs when you sell a property for a higher price than what you bought it for plus the costs of any capital improvements you made to the property and the costs of sale.

But if you sell after Jan. 1, 2009, you may not take the full exclusion — commonly called the 121 exclusion for its section number in the tax code — if the home was an investment property before it was your primary residence.

Keep in mind the good news — any time the residence was used as an investment property before Jan. 1, 2009 doesn’t count against you.

In light of the passage of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the IRS now asks home owners at the time of sale to calculate “qualified time” (the time the property was used as your personal residence) and “non-qualified time” (the period property was not your primary residence after Jan. 1, 2009). You will owe capital gains on the non-qualified time.

And the difference under this new law could be costly.

Related reading material:

Judith Akin, an enrolled agent and manager of Judith A. Akin, EA, Tax and Financial Services in Oklahoma City, gives this example:

John buys a rental property Jan. 1, 2009, rents it out for 8 years and lives in it as his primary residence for the next 2 years, then sells for a $100,000 gain. He still meets the 2-out-of-5 years residency rule for the 121 exemption but now with the change in law he has to separate the time he used the property as a rental. So he now owes tax on 8/10ths of the gain (for 8 of the 10 years). That translates to $80,000 of gain he will be taxed on. At a 15 percent federal tax rate, that will cost him $12,000. He may also have to pay state capital gains tax. He wouldn’t have had to pay anything in federal capital gains under the previous law, Akin says.

Say you’re eyeing a vacation home that you might be able to get for a bargain in today’s housing market. And say you plan to rent out that residence until you move in for your retirement. Here are some points you should consider:

  1. Determine how long you plan to rent out the residence before moving in. Akin says the sooner you plan to make it your residence the better. “This is a particular consideration because people buying now are likely going in low so there is a greater likelihood that they will have substantial capital gains when they sell way down the road.” If much of that time the property has been used as a rental, you’re going to get hit with substantial capital gains tax, she says.
  2. Keep in mind you still have to “recapture” the depreciation costs you’ve taken on the property on your tax forms since 1997. You have to add what you’ve taken in depreciation costs back as income when it comes time to sell and that is taxed at a maximum 25 percent, says Jerry Joyce, an enrolled agent and owner of Alternative Tax Services in Tampa, Fla. Depreciation does not come under the 121 exclusion, he notes.
  3. Keep good records. Akin says the new law can pose an accounting nightmare. Because the IRS wants to know the rental versus residence breakdown, you will have to have good documentation, she says.
  4. Consult both a tax expert and a real estate agent about the change in the law. They will help you in different ways with facts and market strategies, says Jon Mann, a real estate broker with Prudential Locations in Honolulu. He says even with the change in the law, buying a place to rent out, then move into, then sell “can still be a positive, equity-improving, value-added situation for buyers and sellers,” though perhaps not quite as attractive as it was prior to Jan. 1, 2009.

Now let’s turn the tables and say your problem is not gain, but loss, when it comes time to sell your primary residence which you previously treated as an investment property. There’s some good news here in the new law, Akin says.

“Under the new law, because you portion out the part that was investment property, you get to deduct some or all of that loss,” she says. Before the change in the law, you could separate rental from residence, you would not have been able to deduct a loss on your personal residence, she says.

Source : http://www.discovercard.com/cardmembersvcs/edge

Posted in: money.
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