HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

j_rosenthal

3 karma · joined October 4, 2017

submissionscomments
j_rosenthal··on Show HN: Pickaxe – A TypeScript library for building AI agents
The library name is confusing given https://pickaxe.co/, a nicely done low code platform for building/monetizing chatbots and agents that's been around for 2.5 years or so.

(No connection to pickaxe.co other than using the platform)

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2021)
SiteSpect | Full Stack Engineer, Backend Engineer, Front-End Developer, Linux Operations Engineer | REMOTE - Boston | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test, target or personalize your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user. We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client facing front-end developers to help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

Open Technical Roles:

Full Stack Engineer http://app.jobvite.com/m?3ThvSlwn

Backend Engineer http://app.jobvite.com/m?3FfDNlwa

Front-End Solutions Developer (Customer Success) http://app.jobvite.com/m?3HfDNlwc

Linux Operations Engineer http://app.jobvite.com/m?3KfDNlwf

Platform Engineer (EU) http://app.jobvite.com/m?37NIFlw7

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2021)
SiteSpect | Backend Engineer, Front-End Developer, Linux Operations Engineer | REMOTE - Boston | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test, target or personalize your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user. We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client facing front-end developers to help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

Open Technical Roles:

Backend Engineer http://app.jobvite.com/m?3FfDNlwa

Front-End Solutions Developer (Customer Success) http://app.jobvite.com/m?3HfDNlwc

Linux Operations Engineer http://app.jobvite.com/m?3KfDNlwf

Platform Engineer (EU) http://app.jobvite.com/m?37NIFlw7

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2021)
SiteSpect | Front-End Developer, Linux Operations Engineer | REMOTE - Boston | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test, target or personalize your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user. We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client facing front-end developers to help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

Open Technical Roles:

Backend Engineer http://app.jobvite.com/m?36MIFlw5

Front-End Solutions Developer (Customer Success) http://app.jobvite.com/m?37MIFlw6

Platform Engineer (EU) http://app.jobvite.com/m?37NIFlw7

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2021)
SiteSpect | Front-End Developer, Linux Operations Engineer | REMOTE - Boston | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test, target or personalize your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user. We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client facing front-end developers to help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

Open Technical Roles:

Linux Operations Engineer (DevOps) http://app.jobvite.com/m?3mDvvlwP

Front-End Solutions Developer (Customer Success) http://app.jobvite.com/m?3oEvvlwS

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2021)
SiteSpect | Front-End Developer, Linux Operations Engineer | REMOTE - Boston | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test, target or personalize your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user. We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client facing front-end developers to help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

Open Technical Roles:

Front-End Solutions Developer (Customer Success) http://app.jobvite.com/m?3jj3slwX

Linux Operations Engineer http://app.jobvite.com/m?3pk3slw4

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (January 2021)
SiteSpect | Front-End Customer Success Developer | REMOTE - Boston | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test or target your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user. We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client facing front-end developers to help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

Open Technical Roles:

Front End Solutions Developer (Customer Success) - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3JgOalwN

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2020)
SiteSpect | Front-End Customer Success Developer | REMOTE - Boston | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test or target your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user. We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client facing front-end developers to help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

Open Technical Roles:

Front End Solutions Developer (Customer Success) - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3JgOalwN

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2020)
SiteSpect | Front-End Customer Success Developer | REMOTE - Boston | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test or target your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user. We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client facing front-end developers to help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

Open Technical Roles:

Front End Solutions Developer (Customer Success) - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3JgOalwN

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2020)
SiteSpect | Front-End Customer Success Developer | REMOTE - Boston | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test or target your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user. We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client facing front-end developers to help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

Open Technical Roles:

Front End Solutions Developer (Customer Success) - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3JgOalwN

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: How many of you are employed, self-taught SWEs?
Self trained SWE here. AP CS in HS, 1 CS class in college. Two degrees in archaeology which I studied and worked in on three continents (and an island).

- Why did you get into the field? What did you focus on at first?

It was kind of an accident. Archaeology is inherently destructive, so data management is pretty important. I'd always been on the data and mapping side. I wound up in a data production/management role at a government agency. We had a web mapping product delivered that didn't do what we needed, and it landed on my desk to figure out if we could use it to improve our internal workflows... and so I fiddled and read, and fiddled and watched Doug Crockford's videos, and fiddled and went to see John Resig speak at a meetup... and along the way released multiple little (and eventually big) tools to help my colleagues get stuff done. 3 years later I was speaking at conferences about the technical side of what we were doing, not the archaeological side. Asking some good questions to a co-panelist in the municipal SaaS space led to more discussions and a job offer.

- What are you doing at your job? Is it everything you dreamed of and more?

I'm an engineering team lead at a company that handles a lot of traffic, doing everything from new product development, bug fixes, R&D, and more. It's fun and interesting. Is it what I dreamed of? Not at all. I didn't set out seeking this, just followed the opportunities as they happened. I do miss working outside and digging in the dirt though, but definitely enjoy the stability, lack of poison ivy, salary and benefits.

- How did you break that first-job barrier?

There were two barriers, neither of which I set out to break.... the first barrier was "how did I get the Archaeology job to let me spend time learning and fiddling", while the second barrier was "how did I get that first job where they actually hired me to do software developent". To the first barrier, I built tools. Tools beget more tools, beget absurd amounts of time saved, which led to bosses willing to let me say "I have an idea, I know its possible, I'm sure I can build a "good enough" version, I just need time to figure it out."

To the second barrier, I asked questions, I answered questions, I went to lectures and was lucky.

- What were you doing before this?

Archaeology. Shovel Bum. GIS.

- Any tips for the rest of us?

The things I'm most proud of that I've built over the last 15 years are tools that let other people do more, be more productive, answer questions, see data, better help their citizens, etc. If you're in any sort of knowledge/data intensive/adjacent role, almost certainly there are data systems that could be improved, optimized, etc. Routine tasks that could be partially automated. Listen to the workflows, learn the pain points, and find a way to improve them.

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Has anyone built a SaaS for local municipalities?
www.peoplegis.com's peopleforms and mapsonline, on which is built everything from building permits and payments, workorder management and snow ops, to elder services, dog permits, cemetery management and a lot more. Incredibly flexible SaaS used by a lot of small-medium cities and towns.
j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2020)
SiteSpect | Various - Full Stack Engineer, Front-End Customer Success Developer | Remote/Boston/Newton, MA | REMOTE/ONSITE | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test or target your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user. We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client and non client facing front-end or full-stack developers, optimization specialists, release engineers, operations engineers and more to build out our (angular) control panel, proxy engines, help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

Open Technical Roles:

Backend Engineer - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3lXQ7lw5

Full Stack Engineer - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3rYQ7lwc

Front End Solutions Developer (Customer Success) - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3nYQ7lw8

IT Engineer - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3uYQ7lwf

Linux Operations Engineer - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3xYQ7lwi

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2020)
SiteSpect | Various - Full Stack Engineer, Linux Operations Engineer, IT Systems Engineer, Front-End Customer Success Developer and other roles | Boston/Newton, MA | ONSITE | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test or target your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user.

We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client and non client facing front-end or full-stack developers, optimization specialists, release engineers, operations engineers and more to build out our (angular) control panel, proxy engines, help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

Open Technical Roles:

Full Stack Engineer - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3wlMWlwp

Linux Operations Engineer - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3plMWlwi

IT Systems Engineer - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3tlMWlwm

Front-End Solutions Developer (Customer Success) - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3ylMWlwr

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring right now?
SiteSpect | Various - Full Stack Engineer, Linux Operations Engineer, IT Systems Engineer, Front-End Customer Success Developer and other roles | Boston/Newton, MA | ONSITE | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test or target your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user.

We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client and non client facing front-end or full-stack developers, optimization specialists, release engineers, operations engineers and more to build out our (angular) control panel, proxy engines, help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

Open Technical Roles:

Full Stack Engineer - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3wlMWlwp

Linux Operations Engineer - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3plMWlwi

IT Systems Engineer - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3tlMWlwm

Front-End Solutions Developer (Customer Success) - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3ylMWlwr

Solutions Architect - http://app.jobvite.com/m?319dYlwb

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2020)
SiteSpect | Various - Full Stack Engineer, Linux Operations Engineer, IT Systems Engineer, Front-End Customer Success Developer and other roles | Boston/Newton, MA | ONSITE | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test or target your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user.

We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client and non client facing front-end or full-stack developers, optimization specialists, release engineers, operations engineers and more to build out our (angular) control panel, proxy engines, help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

Open Technical Roles:

Full Stack Engineer - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3wlMWlwp

Linux Operations Engineer - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3plMWlwi

IT Systems Engineer - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3tlMWlwm

Front-End Solutions Developer (Customer Success) - http://app.jobvite.com/m?3ylMWlwr

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2019)
SiteSpect | Various - Front End Web Developer, Full Stack Developer, Operations Engineer, Release Engineer and other roles | Boston/Newton, MA | ONSITE | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test or target your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user. Currently, we are handling ~10,000,000,000 visits a month.

We're looking to fill a variety of roles, including seeking client and non client facing front-end or full-stack developers, optimization specialists, release engineers, operations engineers and more to build out our (angular) control panel, proxy engines, help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience.

If you are interested, please look at the positions and apply at: http://app.jobvite.com/m?3pHWqkwh

j_rosenthal··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2017)
SiteSpect | Various Web Developer, Sys Admin and Web Optimization roles | Boston | ONSITE | https://www.sitespect.com

SiteSpect is a digital optimization platform that lets you test or target your web traffic without having to change any code on your side. Under the hood, SiteSpect is a reverse proxy. Requests from end users are routed to an appropriate backend and SiteSpect modifies the response based on what tests the user is assigned to and then delivers those changes back to the end user. Currently, we are handling ~10,000,000,000 visits a month.

We're looking for full-stack, front end, and optimization specialists to build out our (angular) control panel, help our clients use our tools to test and modify their websites, and advise clients on how best to test and optimize their customer experience. We're also looking for a senior sysadmin to help support the platform.

If you are interested, please look at the positions and apply at: http://app.jobvite.com/m?3jAT4jwE