Main Page

The "S" Stands for "Simple"

Everything I hate about SOAP -- the so-called "Simple Object Access Protocol" -- has been summarized quite nicely in the dialogue The S Stands for Simple in Pete Lacey's Weblog.

Don't Be Part of the Web 2-point-SLOW

As web applications evolve to provide the rich user experience that was once the sole domain of desktop applications, their CSS and JavaScript files have grown in size and number. Since a web page won't even render under its CSS and JavaScript files have been loaded, each one of these files slows down the application a little.

The solution put forth by Wormly's site is simple: consolidate and cache. In other words, gather all your CSS into a single .css file and gather all your JavaScript into a single .js file. That way, only two resources are required before page rendering starts, and two simultaneous downloads is well within the limits of most browsers. Serving the necessary HTTP headers alongside these files encourages the browser and the proxy server to cache them aggressively, meaning more perfomance gains.

FAQ for Programmers About Living in India

Kevin Barnes has posted a FAQ for programmers about living in India on his blog, Code Craft. The questions covered in his FAQ are:

  • How did you end up going to India?
  • How much do jobs pay in India?
  • How can you live with yourself for helping to move American jobs to India?
  • What’s the cost of living? / How can people there live on so little?
  • Can someone from the US get a job working in India at US wages?
  • What’s the visa/tax situation like?
  • What’s it like raising your kids in India?
  • Aren’t Indian programmers better/worse than US ones?
  • Don’t you hate ... in India/Bangalore?
  • How long will you stay in India?

"If you want a more artistic sense for my feelings about India," writes Kevin, "read this or this."

Job Opportunities at Tucows

If you're look for a job in a place with a long history and a good work environment, may I suggest Tucows? We've got some openings right now, including:

Web Developer

Here's the job description:

Build and maintain company websites and online web applications focusing primarily on the presentation layer using current Internet and scripting languages and Web authoring tools. Develops code using industry best practices for structure, usability and design. Responsible for ensuring code is compatible across current popular browsers. Keeps informed of the latest browser and plug-in technologies. Operates under minimal supervision.

For details, see the page for the web developer position.

Customer Service Manager

Here's the job description:

Manage a team of 9-10 Customer Service personnel responsible for dealing with a variety of Internet related end-customer issues. Support staff work 8am – 8pm seven days a week. The Customer Service Manager develops standards for Tucows technical and customer support; provides technical guidance to the staff; liaises with internal technical and business management personnel to resolve customer issues and escalates to Senior Management accordingly. Able to act as an escalation point for support staff when appropriate. This includes not only resolving issues, but also acting as the end-customer’s advocate, ensuring that the customer has the right product / service to meet their needs and requirements. Accountable for providing leadership and direction in the planning, implementation and administration of quality measurement and evaluation of vendor performance for contracted services to ensure the optimization of resource use and the continual improvement of services from a client perspective. Responsible for alerting appropriate personnel of recurring problems and / or quality deficiencies.

For details, see the page for the customer service manager position.

Doc Searls and Elliot Noss on "Internet Service: The Fifth Utility?"

Doc Searls and Elliot Noss at their keynote at ISPCON Fall 2006

It's always good to see Doc Searls, and I'm glad I had the chance to hang out with him at the recent ISPCON Fall 2006 conference. He's been a friend of Tucows since he first met us as ISPCON years ago, and he's been up to Toronto for a number of visits since then, the most recent one being last year's Christmas holiday party. In fact, it was a blogger get-together that he had during his visit in early 2003 that led to my getting a job here.

Doc's long time friendship with Tucows and Elliot is probably why their ISPCON opening keynote, Internet Service: The Fifth Utility? was more like a listening in on a casual conversation than attending a panel discussion. In their hour-long chat, Doc and Elliot talked about the internet not as a bonus service offered by telcos, but as a utility on par with things like roads, water, waste treatment and electricity. I attended this keynote and made a recording of their chat, which you can hear by downloading the podcast below.

We'd like to express our thanks to Jon Price, Denise Miller and the rest of the people behind ISPCON Fall 2006 for putting on a great conference, and to Doc for driving up to San Jose to take part in the keynote.

Podcast:
The Internet: The Fifth Utility
File Tucows Podcasts - Internet Service -- The Fifth Utility.mp3
Format MP3 file
Length 57 minutes, 54 seconds
File size 28.9 MB