stevejalim

Hi - author here. I retired the book during the pandemic but am planning to update and unretire it soon. I can't do that now because I'm away with my kids.

If you want me to ping you when it's back, drop me a line using 8qwt95ckm@mozmail.com

(That's an aliased address using relay.firefox.com BTW)

SEEKING WORK - Remote (UK-based)

Product-focused senior dev / tech lead with experience of getting startups from nothing to MVP to funding to scale-up stage.

I'm happy to pitch in with an existing team, help you create and expand a new team or simply take a feature or problem out of your backlog/roadmap and replace it with a solid, working solution.

I'm available solo, or could bring 1-3 additional, trusted developers with me - whatever you need.

Skills include:

* Python, Django - expert level.

* Modern JS (ES6 and Vue.js, plus jQuery for legacy stuff), HTML5, CSS3.

* Excellent communicator, facilitator and developer mentor - I enjoy making teams happier and better.

* ‎Until recently I was tech lead at http://www.yunojuno.com, with a multi-disciplinary team of ~8.

* Big fan of testing, of good documentation, of automation, of creating clear, developer-empowering processes and of keeping production environments as dull as possible (because no one likes being on call).

* I know my way around machine learning (incl. TF) and am keen to apply it real-world projects.

More about me, including recommendations:

* https://www.stevejalim.co.uk

* https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevejalim

Location: UK, remote. Can be available for US-timezone calls.

Contact: steve@somefantastic.co.uk or @stevejalim in most places (Twitter, Keybase, etc)

Full disclosure: one of my books is on the list, but there are lots of titles - many of which seem relevant to fellow HNers

Yeah, I know - we started with three because

a) it's a side project - our daytimes are spent busily making www.yunojuno.com for a client

b) small print runs of posters (eg 1-5) are unsustainably expensive per item - leaving no or even negative profit when printing just one - so we had to pick a few designs to test the water and get those printed up, up front

c) I wanted to be sure that every poster we make is 100% 'legit' in terms of usage of the quote. Even the dealings with the PSF (which is v friendly and generally awesome) took a fair amount of back-and-forth to ensure everyone was happy

So, yeah, MVP out the door - see what the water is like, then add more designs. That's the plan

Aaaand my Buy Now buttons are down while HN is all over my side project.

Thanks Mirai...

Hi - I made PP with a friend/colleague as a tiny side project. Because it seemed small, I thought would be more likely to ship. (Client work takes up most of my working time).

It came about for a few reasons:

1) My current main client's walls were a bit bare, which started me thinking. 2) I then wondered about nice motivational stuff for developer workspaces, specifically -- ideally more cerebral/stuff about good practice, rather than the adrenaline-pumping 'CRUSH IT!' kinda tone or funky designer-oriented posters. Oh, and no crappy jokes. 3) I like the Zen of Python, even years after discovering it. 4) It thought it would be interesting to ship a product that wasn't just bytes.

So, it's a static site (Pelican) + a Shopify backend + a designs from a designer friend + some cash up front to create an affordable print run + a big stack of posters on my spare office desk.

Easy, right?

Er, not quite. It's only been a few weeks and I’ve been rapidly learning that even simple physical products (rather than a SaaS, say) bring a world of complexity... Even though I had experience of the print world (long ago), I’d never had to deal with the mixed quality of print-house results (therefore reprints, therefore delays). Then there's absorbing the cost of defects and damage, plus that need to pre-buy and hold actual stock to reduce the print costs and the angst over shipping physical objects safely (including crossing your fingers when you get a Slack message saying "Hey! The posters just arrived! Opening them now!")

So, yeah, it’s been taking a surprising amount of headspace, but it is still fun – and with lots of small bits of learning (or, perhaps more honestly, small bits of realising that so much of the stuff I've read about physical products is true, even with "simple" posters).

But, yeah, at least it shipped :o)

PS: I know about the FOUC - it's an annoyance of the theme I adapted for the site, which uses skel.js to do responsive layouts (for some reason that I regret not spotting before I pulled the lever and made it live a few weeks ago)

A friend runs http://lancelist.com - points to a bunch of sites

The opening line made me feel OLD:

> The last time I played Nintendo was years ago, on an original Wii console.

I can't speak to whether or not it's good, but I think http://cushionapp.com/ is a really nice idea in terms of helping freelancers track and manage cash flow. Wish I'd thought of it :o)

Am too tired to write a clever self-deprecating yet self-promoting post, so: please check out my profile - you might find a link there useful...

If they're not supposed to be in the same place at the same time, potentially 'conflict' (in HTTP 409 sense)

Absolutely - as much as I wish she wasn't, our toddler is currently hooked on the equivalent of 'unboxing' vids on YT ('surprise eggs', if you're curious). We limit her time watching, of course, but I still have to keep an ear open for ads kicking in. I'd certainly pay.

VC-funded or well bootstrapped startups, mainly. But that's mainly because it's a sector I'm choosing to pursue

Do you mean silence? (In which case, you could try DND mode.) Or do you mean clear?

I found this handy: https://leanpub.com/talking-with-tech-leads

Why not just serve from S3 over HTTPS?

A friend runs http://www.lancelist.com/, which lists and summarises various types of freelancer job sites. Might be helpful.

I can't speak to what it's like to "sell" time on http://www.airpair.com/ -- never tried -- but it might be worth a look

Wow. I knew it was cheap - that makes sense in light of what you're saying. Though there is a minor sting: "mobile networks charge each other interconnect fees of at least US$0.04 when connecting between different phone networks" [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Message_Service

http://wagtail.io is definitely worth checking out.

I published http://leanpub.com/freelancedeveloperbook via, well, Leanpub.

It started as an itch to scratch: I was being asked the same or very similar questions again and again by friends and colleagues, so I decided to package it up.

Wrote it all in Markdown. Tried Scrivener, but didn't get on with it, so went with my code editor.

Writing took longer than expected, because it was done in the time around helping with my then-newborn daughter, so it's tricky to tally up how much time I actually spent on it.

I'm a former journalist and editor, like my wife, so shaping and refining the manuscript was straightforward, with her second set of eyes proving invaluable. However, useful advice for anyone, regardless of experience, is: set a limit on the number of drafts/reads/edits you do. When you hit it, publish, rather that get trapped in Edit Valley. (And with self-publishing, it's easy to push out updates, after all - particularly with Leanpub).

I've actually done very little marketing for it. Google Adwords didn't prove cost-effective for me, so sales have mainly come via word of mouth/blog posts, HN, Reddit and the like.

FWIW, in the first two months, I made more from the book than the advance was on some print, publishing-house books I was asked to write when I was a journalist (but I turned down).

It's still ticking over fine at the moment, but (in terms of boosting sales) I should really make time to do a big revise-and-expand v2, rather than the incremental tweaks I've been doing. At the same time, I still believe it's relevant and useful as is, so I don't mind keeping my time clear for family, other projects, etc.

Yes.

Can you spare a moment to educate me about the panels (what, how different, which machines)? (I've got a 2011 15in MBP - last of the models one could maintain oneself, so am keeping it alive as long as poss)

I'm not familiar enough with them, or your product (obv), to know, but would user streams help in place of site streams?

Naive/obvious questions:

Have you

a) done everything listed at https://dev.twitter.com/docs/streaming-apis/streams/site#App... ?

b) considered getting on a plane to SF, spending a few weeks there, and network like hell, in an attempt to meet face-to-face with someone at Twitter? You said you're desperate, so all options are on the table, though I suspect I'll get shot down for suggesting this.

"I think having a great idea is vastly overrated. I know it sounds kind of crazy and counterintuitive. I don't think it matters what the idea is, almost. You need great execution."

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/felix_dennis.ht...

People have been saying Alfred.app is threatened by a jazzier version of Spotlight. Here's the team's response to that: http://blog.alfredapp.com/2014/06/02/alfred-and-os-x-10-10-y...

Personally, I'd just suck it up and move on. And if the guy comes back later, I'd politely decline to do any more - the way he handled you clearly isn't how you (reasonably) expected to be treated, and those early interactions with clients are almost always an accurate forecast of how any working relationship would continue.

So, walk/move on and don't give yourself a hard time about it. Yep, you did some work for someone who seems to have stiffed you. It happens, but don't worry too much about it -- it's all part of the learning curve.

PS: For an admittedly biased book recommendation, http://www.leanpub.com/freelancedeveloperbook

I've had good experiences with Webfaction - they've been quick to respond to tickets and communicate issues/outages well.

Roughly looking, your setup would be about $20/mth with them, I think.

Direct link: https://www.webfaction.com/features

Shameless affiliate link, even though I'd recommend them anyway: https://www.webfaction.com/features?affiliate=stevejalim

Which country are you in? If you're in the UK, Contractor Weekly has some IR35-friendly ones: http://contractorweekly.com/free-resources