Ze Frank is hiring for a new startup | Hacker News Reader

Ze Frank is hiring for a new startup

zefrank.com

60 pointsduck32 comments

I truly can't wait to see what Ze comes up with next. The Show was a great contribution to the internet, and he has created a ton of engaging and clever online games in the past few years. And, all without financial backing (he said The Show took him hours each day; his only payment was donations).

I'm thrilled that he found investors to give him money to just do something cool. If anyone can create a cool game and/or start up, it's Ze.

For the laughs alone I recommend everybody read the job descriptions he posted. He's a funny writer. Here's one favorite example from the Web Designer reqs:

"... and you should be able to use HTML and CSS well enough to defend your work against Internet Explorer."

ooh, ooh new favorite: "You should have had a prior job that made you question your profession."

I'll shutup now. Really, go read that page.

"You should tell your coder friends that you are a designer and your designer friends that you are a coder."

  You should have sent at least one email
  to someone you have never met telling 
  them that they should stop using tables.

But I like tables. There's so organized. I hate this floating div crap.

Is someone going to email pg? HN is all tables.

Pfft. I've sent Dave Winer at least one email telling him to stop using tables.

(He didn't.)

Me too but the separation of content and layout is important.

Can you please explain this or link to something that does? I mean, I've been 'floating divs' and 'clearing both' for a while because someone/some article told me that its better, but tables are so much more predictable. The only reason I ever use floating divs in practice is when I'm worried some designer friend is going to view source on my pages and laugh at all the tables.

Also, if I am expected to use floating divs all the time, can someone just link me to a floating div table generator already? :)

Separation of layout and content allows you to do things like this: http://www.csszengarden.com

A few benefits that may be worth the headaches of floating divs:

* Redesign your pages without ever touching HTML (mobile/tv version)

* Improved SEO by arranging important content up top

* (Generally) lighter page sizes because CSS is in external file being cached

But I actually use floating divs because I find them easier. Tables are easy too, but after years of hacking on broken CSS--most of the thorns have faded away for me. YMMV. Use what works best.

It's already seperated. One is in the db, one is in a pile of files that will be mostly deleted on the next major update.

I think that used to be more important, but these days when your pages are being generated from templates on the fly it's not much harder to change the template than the CSS.

I've always thought it's much more important to avoid tables when you're using templates. Using divs allows you to make your website more modular, you don't have to think to yourself "ok, should there be a tr there or another table?"

Tables may be easier on the initial setup, but for maintenance they are a pain. And considering the tools we have to make CSS easier (the Blueprint framework, 960grid, etc.), there's no reason to use tables.

Unless you're displaying tabular data. Yes, I've seen sites using divs for genuine table data.

People probably like table better when writing HTML by hand since table gives a rough mapping between the source and the rendered result, whereas with floating div you really have to imagine what it looks like. With WYSIWYG tools, it's not so much a problem using floating div.

I like this line:

You should know by experience that whatever you don’t understand you can learn quickly.

It's a good way to put how I've approached many contracts and jobs in the past.

Those job descriptions are a work of art.

Makes me hang my head in shame over the tragically corporate-sounding job descriptions that I post when I need to recruit someone new.

These are pretty great and it looks like an interesting project, but why "4+ years of experience"? First of all, what exactly is a "year of experience"? You spent the entire year using some piece of tech? You used the tech once a year ago? I hate how commonplace these sorts of non-verifiable claims are in job postings.

Edit: I've been thinking about this some more and perhaps "hours of experience" is a better metric, given the 10,000-hours-to-mastery correspondence.

It's simply asking that you have 4 years of experience as a developer (or designer), and not a specific technology. I think that's completely reasonable. So it wouldn't matter if the longest you've ever used a specific tech has been 3 months, as long as you've been coding in general for 4 years.

You should have sent at least one email to someone you have never met telling them that they should stop using tables.

/bows out of the race :)

"If you can see these job descriptions it means that they have not yet been filled!"

Companies that post jobs, please understand how truly great this line is and incorporate it into your own job postings. Thanks!

This embodies the irreverence that I love in this industry.

I'm pretty sure most of you don't have a lynda.com subscription (I got mine through a company I did work for), but the Ze Frank interview is awesome - http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=53856.

Actually, all of their "Creative Inspirations" interviews have been great.

4+ years experience for a startup makes me sad :(

Yay! Disclaimer: I'm an investor.

Are you hiring for your startup?

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/01/feeding-frenzy-as-delicious...

Maybe after it gets funded? I will surely post on HN

Yay! Disclaimer: I love little duckies.

Wow... -1. I suppose HN doesn't appreciate Little Duckies the way Ze and I do.

http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/05/050806.html

“Please make that look more like a Muppet vomited SteamPunk.” Story of my life.

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