programmer posts

Filed under: Business, Developer, Google

The fight for programming talent, Google vs VMware

by Chris Gilmer Aug 21st 2007

VMware has their sights set on programmers. This comes in the midst of VMware's IPO last week, and has upped the anti to make sure they get the best possible computer programming talent around.

After VMware's first day of trading their shares jumped 76%, making it the biggest IPO since Google. Now with Google being the top company that programmers are hunting due to their compensations and lifestyle, VMware has stepped in and flashed the green. Reports are that the company is paying out between $130,000 and $160,000 plus stock options and compensations. With Google being the only company on the block that can even come close to these salaries and benefits, there is war about to start in Silicon Valley.

VMware, a virtualization solution company, realizes how Google made it to where they are today, with smart people. And the only way to lure top talent is to offer them competitive compensations.

DLS asks, Who would you choose to work for?

Tags: coder, google, ipo, jobs, programmer, silicon valley, SiliconValley, talent, vmware

Filed under: Design, Developer, Internet, Utilities, News, Productivity, Freeware, Social Software

Toggl, free web-based time-tracking

by Ryan Carter Apr 30th 2007

So you use basecamp for project management or Google's apps, or something else, but how do you track your time on a project? basecamp offers time-tracking, but you have to pay a bit for that feature. Any cheapskates out there who like to get something for nothing, even if it means remembering yet another logon to yet another website? Many of us would jump at the chance, it isn't like any of us have a problem with web accounts, how many do you have again?

Toggl is an excellent solution, offered in a completely savvy web 2.0 interface that gets you where you want to go. The site tracks time and lets you hit a toggl (whoa, go figure) button to start and stop your "billable hours" timer. I was a bit wary at first that toggl wouldn't offer a way to change the time it had recorded, leave you stranded with pushing the button every 108 minutes until you got the right amount of time, but my worries were completely unfounded. I was ready for something much harder than clicking on the box and reentering my own length of time.

If you think pie is easy, toggl is easier. Complete with a reporting feature and multiple projects, toggl's goodness clocks in (pun somewhat intended) at the right price of free. As you know, our motto here is one more happy cheapskate, or wait, I don't think we actually have a motto. I'll have to get back to you on that. meanwhile check out toggl, and you will never wonder if you charged your client enough for the hours you spent on that killer project.

Add "toggl" to your spell-checker, jack, and you won't be disappointed.

Tags: client, coder, development, management, productivity, programmer, project, task, time, toggl, tracker, web

Filed under: Business, Internet, Video, Web services, Google

Google Announces TV Ads, users get watched

by Chris Gilmer Apr 3rd 2007

Everyone knows its America's number one pastime, and now Google has announced their entrance into the TV ad market.

There has been a lot of speculation recently surrounding the fact that Google's been nosing around the TV market to extend their offline ad experimentations, and it was just a matter of time before the news officially dropped. With this new TV Ad trial, Google hopes to improve user experiences and bring value to both advertisers and publishers. They are currently working with EchoStar and Astound Cable to deliver ads to viewers, as well as helping advertisers and programmers buy, schedule, deliver and of course measure ads on television. We also dropped news this morning about how Google and Dish Networks will be announcing a deal to serve ads over their network.

The ads will be purchased through an automated interface auction model, pricing based on a CPM basis with ads then targeted by demographic, time of day and channel. The ads will be delivered with all reporting and statistics done through set top box technologies. The boxes will report on how many times an ad was viewed and whether it was watched in completion.

So needless to say, if more advertisers buy into Google's technology and take the statistics into consideration when planning campaigns, we might never see boring, useless commercials ever again! Then again, it sure does feel a little like big brother is watching us.

Tags: ads, adsense, adwords, astound, auction, campaigns, commercials, dish networks, DishNetworks, echostar, google, programmer, schedule, television, tv

Filed under: Developer, Google

Google Code Jam Winner

by Chris Gilmer Oct 30th 2006

In the massive fourth annual Google Code Jam competition that began in the beginning of September, Google managed to attract 21,000 registrants from 100 different countries. Google's Code Jam competition is not only a celebration of the best in engineering, but it is also a way that Google can help bring together a community of people who will be building next generation tools.

The initial participants all went through a qualification round, which was narrowed down to 1,000 registrants who then went on to compete in a two round competition. The top 100 scores from the second round took a trip to Google's New York offices to complete in the finals. The talented programmers went on a wild ride competing to see who was the best in engineering using Java, C++, C#, Python, and VB.NET. This year Petr Mitrichev from the Russian Federation pulled in first place, and a win of $10,000 in prize money. The second place prize went to Ying Wang of the US, who walked away with $5,000. Not to leave out the top 100 finalists, Google gave them each a cash prize. Its great to see Google bringing together such talent, and pushing to see what can be done with such a diverse group of programmers from all over the world.

Tags: code, code jam, CodeJam, engineering, google, petr mitrichev, PetrMitrichev, programmer, ying wang, YingWang

Filed under: Design, Developer, Internet, Web services, Social Software

DeveloperID: Social Network for Developers

by Chris Gilmer Aug 31st 2006

DeveloperID is an upcoming social network site designed exclusively for programmers, designers, engineers, system administrators, and any other member of the professional developer community. It's a pretty specific market niche. The network has not yet launched, but there is a slight little clue that it most likely was, and is being built with Ruby on Rails. Stay tuned in for this unique launch.

[Thanks, Mike!]

Tags: designer, developer, developerid, engineer, professional, programmer, social network, SocialNetwork, system administers, SystemAdministers

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