asgaard

Take home interview programming tests

Sun, 29 Nov 20 15:08:50 +0000

A few times in my career I've been invited to perform a take home programming test as part of an interview process.

So far, every time I've encountered this I've gone through a similar thought process that starts with me being initially open to the prospect and ends with me withdrawing my application before writing any code. My reluctance can be split into a few different points.

Every time this has come up, I've already been employed and have just been assessing the market for growth opportunities. Obviously, if you're unemployed with no savings and have bills to pay then the balance shifts a lot, but in my case "I'm not interested in this job after all" has always been a perfectly acceptable outcome.

How long is this going to take?

It's obviously a bad sign if a company expects you to work for free, but I think most of us would agree that up to two hours of work is not completely unreasonable (assuming that it cuts out two hours of interview time).

So far I haven't been asked to produce a piece of work that would take up to two hours. Or anywhere near that. They've all been in the 15+ hour range, requiring some kind of full application touching many dependencies to be developed from scratch.

That's not reasonable at all.

What am I actually being assessed on here?

The implied criteria of assessing the test is that the candidate produces some 'sensible' code that does what it's supposed to. But without clear requirements, 'sensible' is a very subjective word.

Suppose there's an implied need for a data store. Am I going to get criticised if I use SQLite for speed of set-up instead of the full blown SQL Server installation that the employer uses? What if I decide that storage isn't really an important part of a demo application and just serialize to JSON and stick it in a file on disk? What about error handling; robust, production standard error handling can easily make simple blocks of code 3-4x as long as they'd otherwise be; if I skip this will I be opening myself up to criticism? If I implement it, will I be criticised for over-engineering?

Without clear requirements it's difficult to reliably produce a piece of software that does what it's supposed to. This is a basic tenet of professional software development. Usually, in real life, a lot of the requirements are implicit because of obvious real life constraints (e.g the customer's budget or current number of users, etc). But for a fictional scenario, assumptions are a risky thing to make.

So far, I'm yet to see a take home assessment that has clear requirements. If we need to start going back and forward to clarify the requirements, this firstly takes up additional time, and secondly implies the test isn't being administered to a professional standard.

How does this make me feel?

An interview is a two way process, and a mutual investment of time. The company invests its time, as do I. A take home programming test is not mutual. The company expects the candidate to put in time, but the company isn't investing in the process at all. If the company isn't investing its resources into hiring a candidate, why would the candidate feel that pursuing the matter further is an effective use of their time?

A candidate's motivation for entering an interview process is to determine if they want to work somewhere. "Go away and spend a few days on some fairly basic CRUD application code" isn't adding value to the candidate. They're not gaining any more idea of whether they want to work for the employer or not. For them it doesn't move the process forwards at all.

Final thoughts

I think my thoughts can be summarised as follows: A take-home test is a very one-sided thing. While I could invest a lot of time into it in the hope that it might result in an offer, 1. It might not, and 2. I don't have much guarantee at this point that such an offer is likely to preferable to my current circumstances.

For me, it's never made sense to progress further.

The (virtual) Great North Run

Sat, 19 Sep 20 14:35:58 +0000

I did the Virtual Great North Run last week, which is the first virtual race I've done, and I have to say that it was a pretty underwhelming experience.

The Great Run Company hyped it quite a lot by promising an app that would deliver some kind of 'experience', but it didn't work properly and it ended up being 'just' a long run.

The app they chose is called viRACE, which wasn't doesn't look like it was developed specifically for the Great Run company.

I used to work for a company that developed low budget apps, which it did by offshoring development (mostly). Every so often I'd get called into my boss's office, where he'd ask me to rescue the latest disastrous project and I'd be shown an app that, generally, would look abysmal. When I opened up viRACE, I had (unwelcome) flashbacks to working for this company. It just looks like an app that won't work properly. Beauty is skin deep, but software often looks exactly as well as it works because people who do a good job tend to make their work look at least presentable.

viRACE disappointed in every way. Standing on the (virtual) start line at 9:30, viRACE wasn't connecting so I had to forget the app and just run. Fortunately I have a Garmin watch so (unofficially) recording my run was not an issue, but viRACE was the official means of actually recording it. There was no instructions from the Great Run Company explaining what to do in the event that viRACE didn't work, so that was a pretty bad experience.

As it turned out, though, viRACE did connect, after about 1.5km. The first clue I had to this was that every so often my music (from my phone) would pause. I learnt at about the 10km mark that it was attempting to play audio, as it then informed me I'd run 5 miles. Well I was actually part way through the 7th, but never mind... This would happen every so often - sometimes it would manage to play a sound clip, other times my music would just pause.

Eventually I finished and stopped my Garmin and had a look at the app, which told me I still had a few km to go. I ended up running almost 23km in total so that I would officially finish.

Overall I found the experience extremely poor, and the Great Run Company haven't issued any statements or apologies about it or indicated that they will learn from it. Unfortunately, this is not surprising to me as the Great Run Company have previously disappointed. The last non-virtual Great Run event I took part in was the 2019 Birmingham Half Marathon, which they announced at the last minute was a mile short (though it was around 3-4km short according to my Garmin).

Coming off Citalopram

Sat, 22 Aug 20 12:28:16 +0000

Some time ago, I wrote about my experiences with anti-depressants.

The time eventually came for me to come off them entirely. Here's how it went.

Contents:

Background
Withdrawal
Summary

Background

I started taking Citalopram from August 2019. Citalopram was very effective for me and let me adjust the circumstances of my life that had caused me problems.

In May 2020, I decided that I'd been feeling stable and happy for long enough that I probably didn't need to still take the Citalopram and it was time to try coming off it.

Withdrawal

To begin with, I tried alternating a full dose (20mg) with half a dose in order to gradually reduce the amount in my system. This turned out to be unrealistic, and after about four days of this I was having mood swings and generally feeling pretty bad.

It's important to distinguish between relapse (i.e. you feel bad because this is the state of your body, and it needs to be treated) and withdrawal (i.e. you feel bad because of withdrawal symptoms, which should be temporary). Relapse takes more than a few days to appear, so this was definitely withdrawal.

Lesson learned: take it slower.

So I bumped it back up to a full dose for a week or so to regain my stability, and after that I started reducing the dose much slower.

I alternated a full dose with a three quarter dose, so in effect I was averaging 17.5mg. After a week or two on that, I went down to a three quarter dose daily, so I was averaging 15mg over two days.

I repeated this process for quite a while, going from a two day average of 20, to 17.5, to 15, to 12.5, to 10, to 7.5, to 5, to 2.5.

That's quite a long process. It took about 6 weeks as I was sticking at each interval for between one and two weeks.

But it worked really well. The transition was gradual enough that I didn't notice any withdrawal effects. I was probably overly cautious and could have gone down a lot quicker.

The final hurdle was going from a small dose (2.5mg) down to zero. Surprisingly (to me, at least), this was a bit rough. I had thought that 2.5mg was so low as to be effectively zero already, but apparently not. I had a few days of feeling a bit unwell physically - nausea and stomach issues (similar to the effects I experienced when starting Citalopram) and some strange minor dizziness (not enough to affect me in any practical way), but that settled quickly, and after which I was fine.

Summary

Citalopram for me has been a wholly great experience. It helped me get out of a bad situation and into a better one to the point that I didn't need it anymore.

Withdrawal was a bit slower than I expected, but by taking it slow I was able to come off it without any serious problems.

The Mandalorian

Sat, 08 Aug 20 20:01:26 +0000

The Mandalorian, or the reason I got a Disney+ subscription, is a Star Wars spinoff centred around a character known as The Mandalorian, or Mando. If you're into Star Wars lore, you'll know that the Mandalorians are a warrior people who wear distinctive suits of armour. If not, you do now. They're aggressive in the sense they fight a lot, but they see battle as their way of life. They are generally calm and easy-going outside of it. They're not quite like angry Klingons is what I'm trying to say.

Briefly, the Mandalorian is a classic western set in space. The western part of it seems to be a conscious influence. The theme tune has a slight western twang, the character is a quiet loner, but a very determined one, reminiscient of Clint Eastwood's "The man with no name" character in The Dollars Trilogy.

I see The Mandalorian get compared to The Expanse over a lot of social media. Let's be clear here: The Mandalorian and the Expanse have pretty much nothing in common except they're both modern sci-fi series. Although, calling Star Wars sci-fi after watching The Expanse seems slightly tenuous. In many ways they're polar opposites. The Expanse is a detailed and gritty series of interwoven stories. The Mandalorian, by contrast, employs a very straightfoward episodic approach where Mando (the main character) solves his problem of the week. In The Expanse, you're never quite sure who's safe and how things are going to work out. In The Mandalorian, you're always sure that Mando's going to be OK. The Expanse is quite character-rich. Mando's just a guy who wanders around and looks at things, and occasionally says "hmm". Or was that Geralt of Rivia? I get my strong and silent types confused.

Anyway, the point is that the Mandalorian is very simplistic and quite sparse in terms of characters, dialog, story-telling, well, everything really. If you're expecting a gritty, modern TV series then you're going to be disappointed. If you're expecting anything like the most recent trilogy films where everything moves at a million miles a minute then you're also going to be disappointed. It's actually quite simple and slow paced. It has a tiny bit of mystery and continuity between episodes in the form of baby yoda.

Overall it's not the most gripping TV I've ever watched, but it's certainly well made and enjoyable and I'll be watching the second series.

I have to draw attention also to the fact that The Mandalorian has done something noteable in that it has introduced a female action hero type character and made her very believable. The actress in question is an ex-MMA fighter in her late 30s, and she has the gravitas both physically and just in her general demeanour, to pull off the character perfectly. The casting here was absolutely spot on.

DIY metatarsal dome

Tue, 04 Aug 20 15:54:40 +0000

If you're here, you probably know what a metatarsal dome is and why you want one, but in case you're not clear, I'll give a summary.

What is a metatarsal dome?

A metatarsal dome is a dome shaped object that sits just behind the ball of your foot (under the heads of the metatarsal bones). The idea is that as the foot supports your body's weight, the dome supports your foot by spreading your metatarsal bones apart slightly around it, relieving pressure on the soft tissue around the metatarsals.

Metatarsal domes can be useful in managing certain types of pain in the forefoot, for example a Morton's neuroma. In the case of a neuroma, which is usually caused by nerve compression between the metatarsals, the dome helps by spreading the metatarsals and giving the nerve just a bit more space.

When I say 'dome', I am not referring to things often marketed as 'pads'. The terminology is inexact, but pads tend to be cushioned flat pads that are designed to be worn somehow underneath the ball of your foot. These do not support the metatarsals. Instead they just add a bit more cushioning, which may or may not be useful (or desirable, as they will cause your foot to point upwards slightly).

How to create your own metatarsal dome

I make my own metatarsal domes, and it's really easy.

Insoles with in-built metatarsal domes are an option, as are individual metatarsal domes, but I tend to dislike these because:

Insoles often come with other things like cushioning or arch support, which my shoe is already giving me
Insoles can make the shoe fit tighter, and tight shoes can aggravate neuromas
They often don't wear very well
Metatarsal domes seem to be a poorly defined thing. Some domes are huge, flat and wide and aren't really giving support in the right area. Others are too tiny to do anything.

Overall I find it easier to do it myself.

It's actually really easy. All you need is a shoe, ideally with a removable insole (which most if not all running shoes have), some podiatric felt and some tape (I use microporous tape because it's fairly easy to remove, but it's really not important).

The felt I use is this stuff, but you can use whatever you can find. This one is 7mm thick and has adhesive on one side.

What I do is I cut out a teardrop shape from the felt, and right in the middle of it, I add another little square (maybe 1cm square) of felt, so it's doubled up at that one point. It's not exact, the idea is just to create a dome shape, so that it's not all one height.

I stick the smaller one onto the bigger one using the adhesive on the felt, then I tape it underneath the insole.

You will need to play around with placement, which is why it helps to use tape rather than the adhesive on the felt, but basically you're aiming for the fleshy part slightly behind the ball of your foot.

The felt dome will flatten a bit under your weight when you wear it regularly, and the insole will mould itself slightly around it.

Summary and thoughts

I prefer to use tape instead of adhesive on the felt because it makes it easier to move around if needed.

I prefer to put it underneath the insole instead of on top because 1) you can tape it more easily (see previous point), 2) it protects from the mechanical friction and moisture from your foot, and 3) I suspect that the way the insole moulds itself around the felt helps create more of a 'dome' shape than having the felt above the insole.

The felt tends to come in 7mm or 5mm thickness. As it's doubled up, I have a 14mm tall dome digging into my foot, which sounds quite big. In reality, it gets squashed down pretty quickly so it's not really that big, however, if you have small feet you might prefer the 5mm.

It takes shape (pond life #3)

Sat, 27 Jun 20 19:26:30 +0000

The pond is now taking shape and starting to look like a pond:

We've started to put a few plants in it. The one at the front in the terracotta coloured pot is a Drosera Filiformis I already had which I just put in because I think the grassy type plants look quite nice in ponds. If it works out, we'll repot it into a darker pot, but I don't know if it'll like being so wet.

The others are plants we've bought specifically for the pond. The three groups of three are plants we bought as single plants but have split, hoping they'll fill out and look a little bit more voluminous. You can't really see it in the photo but the one on the left sitting on the surface is probably the one I'm most interested by. This is a red stemmed parrots feather, which sits in deeper areas and seems to rise up to the surface. I think this type of plant will provide most interest for aquatic life.

In terms of the more unusual insect life we've attracted so far, we've seen a few things we think are diving beetles and have had a few dragonflies taking interest in the grassy plants. No sign of any frogs yet, but hopefully once there's a bit more greenery...

We are still undecided on exactly how to edge it, but the pebbles around the top shelf seem to be working so far (though we need more), and we're thinking of slate slabs to cover the edge of the liner.

Giffgaff SMS scam - SIM swap

Wed, 24 Jun 20 10:38:31 +0000

There is an SMS scam going around targeting Giffgaff customers, which sends an SMS reading:

The request to swap your number to your new giffgaff SIM is pending. If that wasn't you, log in immediately. [URL removed]

If you go to the site, it looks like a giffgaff site and asks you to log in. It actually accepts any username and password, and then presents you with a screen asking you to confirm your personal details, including your bank account number.

This is a scam and has nothing to do with giffgaff. You should ignore the text message.[...]

TeamViewer and WaitforConnectFailed

Mon, 22 Jun 20 17:52:07 +0000

Today I had an issue whereby Teamviewer disconnected my session, and, although the remote machine was showing as online in my list of known computers, subsequent attempts to connect threw an error saying:

No connection to partner, Partner did not connect to router. Error code waitforconnectfailed

I found that rebooting the remote machine fixed the issues, though TeamViewer's status is currently showing 'degraded performance' and a known connectivity issue.[...]

Pokémon GO is discontinuing support for 32 bit Android devices

Sat, 13 Jun 20 11:20:10 +0000

Update: Niantic has backed away from this and announced that they are deferring this decision after all.

Niantic, the company behind Pokémon GO, announced recently that Pokemon GO will no longer work on 32 bit Android devices from August. You'd be forgiven for having missed this, as although it's on the official blog, it doesn't show in the in-game news.

Whilst the announcement makes it sound like only older devices will be affected, this is not the case. Many newer Android phones ship with 64 bit hardware, but a 32 bit operating system, in which case they are, for all practical purposes, 32 bit devices and are restricted to running 32 bit apps.

Unless a device has more than 4GB of RAM, there's not any great advantage to using a 64 bit OS, so a lot of budget phones come with a 32 bit operating system. For example, a large number of devices in the Motorola G range and the Samsung A and J ranges have only a 32 bit OS, even some of those released in the last 12 months. The Silph Road community on Reddit has started to assemble a list of modern devices that will be affected by this change.

Unfortunately, it's not clear that Niantic has understood the distinction between the architecture of the CPU and the architecture of the operating system. The devices in their list of examples all have 32 bit CPUs. It is very possible that they have made this decision based on data collected on hardware, and have not looked at operating system architecture data. I suspect the fact they've given this quite a low-profile announcement means they have estimated that this will not affect many people, and I also suspect that it will actually affect a large number of people. This seems like the kind of announcement that should be made 12 months in advance, not 6 weeks.

For those who will be affected by this, I recommend waiting until closer to August before replacing your device. Niantic may have made a mistake and may yet back down.

It's also worth noting that it's actually quite difficult to determine if you're buying a 32 bit or 64 bit device, as a lot of manufacturers don't publish this information. If you do need to replace your device, choose carefully.

Pond life #2

Mon, 08 Jun 20 15:25:58 +0000

It's starting to look like a pond!

We (unintentionally) timed it pretty much exactly right. The weather in the weeks we were digging it was unprecedentedly hot and dry for British May-time, and shortly after we finished it, the rain seems to have started. We are not using tap water at all, because, although the water around here is relatively soft, it's better overall that there are as few dissolved solids as possible for the health of any wildlife that may live in the water.

We started filling it with stored rainwater, but now that we're getting frequent rain, it doesn't seem necessary to artificially fill it. Looking at the weather forecast at the moment, I think it'll fill up itself in the next week.[...]