More Light! More Light!

This morning, my inbox melted into a thin runny gruel due to the amazing incompetence of Prodigus Tech. Also, to feed google a bit, Max Archie is a wankstain.
update: now we get pieces of flair.  See see the sidebar.

Google came out with a good idea a while ago called Google Gears.  The idea is to make some of these new fangled web applications able to function when you aren’t connected to the internet.

It never seemed like that great of an idea to me, but I’ve been using a personal Wiki to track household stuff with my pardner Sam.  I’ve been wishing for a wiki that I could use when I’m on the train and away from the internet.

I love the network.  When you are away from it though, why couldn’t you have a better cache - a mini net that is the last known version of what you seem to care about.  I’ve been using programs to download entire websites locally so I can read them while I commute.  It would be nice if you could just mark them as being of special interest in your browser.  Let computers hum and whir and keep it all up to date and in synch.  If we can do it with email, could we do it with the web, or at least the web I’m interested in?

Some folks think that offline and online will disappear as the network penetrates every corner of the world.  I doubt it.  Someone’s got to pay for it. More folks are interested in drinking water than BoingBoing, but it hasn’t penetrated every corner of the world.

> Hi Matthew,

>

> I’m very impressed with your rating/experience.

> At the current time, I have a few clients that are looking for experienced

> Ruby Rails developers (both contract & permanent) like yourself. There

> is

> lots of room for creativity and growth at these places.

>

> So, my contacts are below if you’re still looking. Also, if possible, can

> you pls forward me

> your current resume?

>

> Thanks much!

>

> Leslie Doan

> ******************

> Managing Partner

> MINDSPHERES, INC.

> 2570 North First Street

> Suite 200

> San Jose, CA 95131

> C: 408.386.7246

> E: leslied@mindspheres.com

> W: www.mindspheres.com

Hi Leslie Doan,

I know it's tough to be a recruiter.  Cold calling is difficult and much

of recruiting is a volume game.

But you aren't doing yourself any favors with this email.

You're starting this relationship with me by lying to me.  You say you've

looked at my working with rails profile and been impressed.  But that

can't be true.  I've never worked on a real rails or ruby project.  I have

no ratings or experience, so how can you be impressed.My resume is also clearly linked from my working with rails profile.  If I

can’t rely on you to know that, how can I trust you with my career?  I’ve

worked with a lot of recruiters, and I know that high volume folks treat

you like a tiny number. They are usually more interested in getting you

hired anywhere at any price so they can collect a commission.  I smell

that big time in this email.

If you show any level of familiarity with who I am or any of the many

links on my profile, I’m so much more likely to work with you.

Hope this helps you, and good luck in the recruiting game,

Matt

p.s. To make this letter worth my time as well as yours, I’m putting it up

for my pals on my website.  Don’t worry, I don’t have a very high

readership.

As you might imagine, I haven’t gotten a response from Leslie. I don’t think she’s interested in investing time in my career.

My friend Nikki pointed out the MIT Nightline for me and neither of us can get over how good this idea is. I love the idea of a number in your phone that you can call for anything. It’s staffed with volunteers.

I think you could set up a non-MIT version of this based off of free labor.

Step 1. You sign up and list what you can be called about. “I can talk to people about finances, computers, snowboarding, general whatevers”

Step 2. You sign up for a time that calls can be relayed to you. “I volunteer for 6-7 pm this wednesday.”

Step 3. You are now able to call in about any problem and get someone to talk to.

Your cost is mainly the servers, bandwidth, pbx system and phone time.

The trick is to balance the commitment that folks have to give versus the demand.

I think a good name for it would be to steal from Warren Ellis the name “Global Frequency”.