Post-rsses on Hire This Guy!

Do you wanna build a redirect

Fri, 12 May 2017 01:49:09 -0400

Wow, this actually was a really fun final problem. Not sure if my solution was the intended one, but I think it should be at the very least approved methodology. :) I am LOVING the flexablity of the _redirects file. There are SO many ways to play with this!

However, to not pen another essay, I’ll get right to the task given:

(optional/bonus) Can you set up a redirect from “/netlify/anything” to https://www.google.com/search?q=anything ?

I give you:

https://hire-marvin.bentleyfamily.us/netlify/anything

https://hire-marvin.bentleyfamily.us/netlify/everything

https://hire-marvin.bentleyfamily.us/netlify/and+all+the+things+in+between

Oh, and check out my band (or not, but can I have credit for it working in the context of this assignment? :D):

https://hire-marvin.bentleyfamily.us/netlify/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D0fLRMU-khK8

In closing…

Thank you very much for the assignment - this was great experience! I am excited to speak with you further.

So your site won't build?

Fri, 12 May 2017 01:48:48 -0400

Good day, and thanks for reaching out to us! I know I’ve run into a few cases in the past where my site wouldn’t build for me. I have some questions for you so that I can get a better handle on your issue, but first let me give you some ammo to try while you’re getting back to me (it might even take care of it for you!). Firstly, have you checked your deployment logs? I know from personal experience that I tend to forget to mate my double quotes sometimes, and this often throws some sort of error that I can find by searching my log for “escape character”. Once there, I can usually track it down from the line and column numbers it gives. If it’s not that, it may be something else that shows up pretty clearly in there (search for “err” codes in your log). If the build failed on our servers, the log can be found in your deployments section (https://app.netlify.com/sites/your-site-name-here/deploys).

If that doesn’t take care of it for you, could you kindly get me some more information so that we can troubleshoot this further? Is the build failing locally, or on our end? If on our end, could I trouble you for your user name and site name so that I can dig in and try to help tease apart your logs? If it’s failing locally, could you kindly indicate what you’re using for your build, and (if possible) send me the log it’s generating? Please let me know if I can help with any of the above, and thanks again for reaching out to Netlify!

Two Major DNS Complications

Fri, 12 May 2017 01:48:00 -0400

Speaking as someone who has dealt with enough quizzical looks when I bring up the subject of DNS records with colleagues, there are a few common issues one could run into.

First is the fact that DNS is NOT instant. It can take a while for changes to propagate across the web. This can lead to a user making a change, seeing it NOT work, and then thinking THEY did something wrong. Which can sometimes lead to them then UNDOING the change in the first place, and setting them back even further.

I have also seen users run into trouble trying to assign a non-IP address to an A record (or similar). New users are often given little indication of what exactly is needed for each setting (especially if they have no formal training in the subject), which can make choosing the correct record to set (and sometimes what to set it to!) a scary thought. Even worse when coupled with what I mentioned above about propagation times.

Why is encryption critical

Fri, 12 May 2017 01:43:39 -0400

Your original question was only in regards to SSL/HTTPS, but I’m going to open this up a bit more to encryption in general, if you don’t mind.

I’ve been sending money to the EFF since… 2008 (I think?). I do this because I believe they (or rather, the mission they are undertaking) are of the utmost importance to nothing less than the safety & security of the people of the United States of America (and likely the wider world, by extension).One of the single biggest things the EFF works towards is maintaining the right to encrypt (and let me just take a moment to say “go you guys!” for supporting their Let’s Encrypt service so well with your own, it made securing this little site with SSL VERY straight forward). I’m saying all of this as a way to show, not tell, how important I personally feel encryption to be. Heck, I feel so strongly that I even polished off my copy of InkScape a few years ago and whipped up the below image for a reddit post for fun:

Which leads me directly to WHY it’s so darn important. There are MANY reasons (personal security, privacy, trusted authentication just off the top of my head), but the one I will focus on for this page is Free Speech. Encryption is SUCH a critical part of free speech, the UN declared it essential “key to free speech” in 2015.

As much as it would be more convenient if it were otherwise, anonymity has a critical role to play in free speech. Dissenters cannot safely dissent without it in some regions. One of the many things encryption can provide is that precious anonymity.

One cannot truly speak freely unless one is secure in their safety - anything else puts one in a position of duress. Cryptography helps to minimize the dangers with speaking out. It allows you to be anonymous, but it ALSO allows you to verify the authenticity of whom you are speaking with (Some systems even let you do both). For a real word example, these facets of encryption (anonymity & authentication) were both used by Edward Snowden when he Contacted Laura Poitras (Archive.to Link for those without a sub after trying and failing to convince Glen Greenwald to engage securely.

Please forgive me if this turned into an essay, but encryption is both a personal and professional passion, and I’d love to discuss it further. :)

Best. Documentation. Ever.

Fri, 12 May 2017 01:43:14 -0400

First off, the title MAY be a misnomer - it’s more like the best documentation I’ve been exposed to. But that didn’t sound as good. Anyway…

As someone who often stuffs things into Wolfram Alpha (sometimes just to see what can come out), I find myself referencing the Wolfram docs. I don’t generally do anything too crazy with it, but for the times that I can’t figure out why my input isn’t working (or what input should I be using), it’s been a great help.

As to why I think it’s nicely done, it’s because I don’t “notice it”. It doesn’t get in the way, in other words. It’s very easy to narrow in on what I’m looking for (generally), and performs well to boot. Oh! The use of color on the tiles as a way to segment topic is a nice touch too. :)

How I would improve either the test or the job posting

Fri, 12 May 2017 01:42:56 -0400

This is actually one of the more interesting tests I’ve dealt with while job searching, so I’m not sure if I could pinpoint anything wrong with it. I guess, my one and only gripe, is I kind of wish it came after the interviews (so that, should something go wrong there, I wouldn’t be spending the time to make the site). That said, I completely understand why it came first (or at least one of the reasons), and I don’t blame you for it - I’m sure people passing and failing the test save you from a LOT of wasted interview time.

I also had no complaints about the job posting - it seemed to be pretty clear to me, and gave me a good reason to get in touch with you folks. ;)

How I made this site - You won't believe the challenge I faced!

Fri, 12 May 2017 01:41:36 -0400

I will not lie - I come from a background of dynamic site gen. Somehow, the Static Site Generator craze seems to have missed me until recently (I’m SO EXCITED about what I’ve discovered here in terms of future projects!). Which is a long-winded way to say that I came into building this site a little blind. That said, after a bit of research, I settled on Hugo as the correct choice for me. I did this for two reasons. One, it seems to be gaining in popularity quickly (which tends to be great for support!), and secondly, I have always wanted to play with Go, and have never had an excuse to before (didn’t end up having to as it turned out).

The biggest challenge I faced in building this site was simply understanding the massive paradigm shift that is occuring around me. Even with guides, wrapping my head around what the right workflow was for Hugo was challenging for some reason. That said, it was solved the way all ignorance is: Google. I spent most of my free moments today in study, and I think I’ve got a decent handle on things now, and the next SSG tool I play with will likely go much quicker with this knowlege in hand.

My thoughts on the netlify service

Fri, 12 May 2017 01:41:11 -0400

The short answer is: “I like it!”

The ability to deploy DIRECTLY from a git repo is CRAZY to me (I come from a background of WordPress, Drupal, etc.), with builds coming as I perform commits. I don’t mean to sound like a barbarian, but seeing it pop to life upon syncing to the master was almost like magic to me. At the very least, whether you hire me or not, I’ll be back to take advantage of that sweet free CDN-based hosting. :)

I didn’t bother to run benchmarks - I’ll take your CEO’s word for it that it’s stupid fast.

What's my favorite thing about tech support?

Fri, 12 May 2017 01:39:50 -0400

My favorite thing about providing technical support is the feeling I get when my client’s blocks fall into place, and their problem dissolves. There is little as potent as the “contact high” one gets from a grateful customer (which granted, sounds cheesy, but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about).

My 5 Most & Least Favorite Activities

Fri, 12 May 2017 01:39:24 -0400

The List

https://gist.github.com/fool/b0f254ff8c72a5765b6a9138249789d6

My Five Most Favorite Activities

Deliver a talk to many people you don’t know at a conference or meetup
- This was an easy choice for #1 - I have whatever the opposite of stage fright is. :)
Receive occasional phone calls requesting support from our highest-value customers
- I always enjoy helping people, but these calls usually have the best chance to make a major impact for a client.
Help train and onboard new support teammates
- Training was always one of my favorite tasks at Five Maples - I see no reason for that to change elsewhere.
Write and maintain documentation for our software and blog posts for our website.
- I was actually the one to push for & spearhead the implementation of our internal company wiki at Five Maples. :D
Work with prospective customers to explain our service and the pricing model
- I enjoy helping people feel like they’re getting value for their money, and this is a great way to facilitate that. There’s no worse feeling for a client than not realizing they’re either way over or under-provisioned.

My Five Least Favorite Activities

Dig through server logs to troubleshoot a customer’s website behavior
- While I’m always happy to do it, I’ve been bitten enough times by this to dread it. I dread it because of customers who have WAY more than they first indicate installed on their server. This sometimes causes things to go awry in… unexpected ways.
Manage a support team
- I’ve managed people before. I’m sure I’ll do it again. It’s still not something I look forward to, as I dislike being at the distance that management typically requires from my coworkers (unless by “manage” you mean in a more logistics/scheduling role, in which case, that might not be too bad).
Engage multiple users at once via chat to answer their questions and troubleshoot problems
- I don’t enjoy doing this because I dislike giving anyone less than my full attention - it just feels rude (even if they often can’t tell). Not to say that I wouldn’t be willing to do this, however. :)
Create video tutorials to help teach users a specific feature or use case
- I simply don’t consider myself particularly photogenic (which is funny, considering what I said above about how much I like to be on stage). Screencap-based videos don’t trouble me any, however. And regardless - it’s you folks who get to decide if I’m photogenic enough for your videos - not me. :)
Find and recruit teammates for the support team
- Ever since my best friend let me down after pushing for him, I’ve been shy of recruiting.