Currently building a scraping "IDE" for a client using nodejs, jsdom and ExtJS for the client side - some of the hardest problems have come from sites where there is a reliance on JavaScript.
For example say the site has a category list, but to access that list you have to click a link first to load the content via ajax - a challenging problem when the client wants 'NO CODING' in the app, everything has to be event driven.
98% there, some small bugs but it has been one of the most interesting challenges I've faced in a good few years.
The Kinks were banned from entering the US for 4 years - wasn't such a bad thing for them.
Also, why should we live in a Stasi-like state and change our behaviour.
I've been very critical of the US on my twitter for example, because from the outside the behaviour of the US is that of the later years of the Weimar Republic.
I've know for quite a while it's probably not advisable for me to try enter the US - hell last time I was in Canada (last year) I let my girlfriend go shopping across the border and I stayed back - I didn't even want to enter your country, let alone have to deal with prick border guards who have me on some list.
Just wanted to add to this - I had two interviews recently and the techniques used were worlds apart.
The first interview I would call the 'standard' interview - I was put in a room with three other people and they asked me standard interview questions like 'Name a time...'. When it came to the code part, the first question was to write a prime number finder function.
Math isn't my strong suit and I fluffed it, and from there the rest of the interview (I felt) went downhill. It was difficult that the three of them were in the room and putting me on the spot to answer questions and program, them optimise fizzbuzz for example. I walked out knowing I did't get it.
The next day I went for the other interview. I actually nearly didn't get this interview - their initial response to my CV was it was too back end orientated for the position they were looking to fill (I've done a lot of nodejs/couchdb in the last year, and PHP and Python for many years before that) - but I emailed back and fought to at least have them have me come in and talk about my front end experience - they agreed and I think in the end both they and I are happy that they did (I got this job in the end, I start Monday).
The second interview process I was put into a room on my own for 2h and given a singular problem to solve - not a brainteaser but a real situation they are facing, and at the end of it they came back in to ask me questions about my solution (as well as some of the standard stuff too). They then got me in for a second interview to ask a couple more technical questions, and later that day I got offered the job and I gladly accepted.
A week or so later, the first company did get back - they realised that in the end maybe the interview didn't go so well, but based on my previous examples, github and sites I could give them examples of they did want to ask me back in but by then it was too late - even if they were offering more money and benefits I had been put off because I felt they didn't really understand what they were looking for in a developer.
Having used CouchDB, and seeing what's being done with CouchBase I'm actually glad to see this.
The problem at the moment is the fragmentation - CouchBase doesn't have all the features of CouchDB - but what it lacks, it makes up for in the memcached features which start to put it on a par with the likes of Redis for speed, with a much simpler API that other document store databases (you can't beat the language of the web for simplicity vs a binary driver)
Hopefully it will be a smooth transition and I will most likely hold off using CouchBase right away - but I foresee me using it in the next year for sure.
Shows like the X-Factor, and the endless tirade of crappy movies, prove this - big labels are essentially music/film factories that pump out the lowest common denominator, wrapped in a DRM bundle.
Here we have someone who loves their craft, actually has some respect for the fans and proves that by willing to put trust in them, and it paid off.
It's not going to work for everyone - if you're not established I think this model will be quite hard to work with at the moment, but it opens up spots for independent companies to step in and help provide the distribution channels needed (and we've already seen this work with music to some extent).
Thief was one my favourite games of the day, and I even played with the editor to create levels (unfortunately none ever released, but it was still a lot of fun - if frustrating)
This is the best advice anyone can listen to! Resonates very closely to the experience I had (especially the 200% for 5% and no bootstrapping or fund raising).
I'm the guy who posted the blog - thanks to @mcantelon who posted it here, I didn't expect that but so far the response has been positive.
I did indeed post my story in the hopes that it might resonate with some people in the tech community. Sometimes I feel as developers we have the skills but are at the mercy of the people who have the money, and almost all of the time none of the same skill we do, yet their expectation of what we can do is almost always too high.
That's the situation I was put in and while I never felt bullied in any way, I did feel that at any time if I didn't perform to their expected level then the rug would be pulled from under my feet. In the end this did happen, and I pretty much drove myself to stress doing that.
On top of it, I had lots of personal stuff going on as well that not everyone will experience, but some certainly will and I'm a guy who wears my heart on my sleeve - personal stuff will always come first - Hoes before Bros. That doesn't mean I won't put in 100% when I need to but life isn't all about work - and I think some developers forget that which in the end causes the burn out.
Anyway thanks for all your positive comments on the post, great to see.
50Mb connection here and mine isn't blocked. However I have had some weird DNS issues with some other sites - especially weird is I can visit them in the browser, but can't ping them.
Shameless self-promotion here, but if you want to try CoffeeScript and are using the Cloud9 IDE I wrote an extension so you can see your coffeescript output live: https://github.com/tanepiper/cloud9-livecoffee-ext