Estoy en busca de un desarrollador Ruby y Ruby on Rails para unirse a la empresa en la cual estoy trabajando en Nueva York. La posición es para trabajar permanentemente desde la Ciudad de México en la Col. Roma con muy buenas facilidades, ambiente y un salario altamente competitivo.

A continuación la descripción de la oferta:

Selectable Media is looking for a talented engineer to be a major contributor to the development of its new social video platform. You should be a technical generalist who is eager to conquer our most challenging problems and is excited to learn new skills.

Selectable Media is the leading video distribution network targeted at the Gen Y audience. We make video advertising fun as we provide advertisers with an efficient and effective way to reach the younger demographic. You will be part of a rapidly growing startup as we look to expand our distribution network across social networking and mobile platforms.

Requirements:

• Strong communication and team working skills
• Demonstrated self starter
• Ruby & Ruby on Rails backend development
• Experience designing software and APIs
• Deep understanding of web applications, REST, and HTTP
• Knowledge of Nginx and Mongrel

Plusses:

• Proficient with Javascript, JS libraries (ExtJS, jQuery, prototype)
• Experience with Git version control
• Familiarity with the popular Rails Plugins/Gems
• Use and contribute to open source software projects
• Knowledge of MongoDB & PHP/mySQL

Candidates should reply with a resume and links to any projects they have contributed to.

Si estás interesado o sabes de alguien que lo puda estar, por favor enviar resume (en inglés, desde luego) a david@nabbr.com. No me queda más que decir que en realidad es una gran oportunidad y el trabajo es altamente flexible y divertido.

I recently read a blog's about page where the autor mentioned to have 11 years of programming experience, parenthesizing that he started really young. Although I certainly don't think any serious professional experience should include the kind of coding you do as a kid, it made me remember how I started programming myself when I was a a child.

I didn't have my own computer before 1996, when I started secundaria (junior high school). Previously, my only computers' experience had been playing around with Flow on my elementary school's very recent computer lab. Those Commodores were cool but didn't really caught completely my attention. I was slightly surprised when, on late 95 or early 96 I went to my friend's place and saw he had a computer that displayed really neat colors and you could draw freely without a command line interface but with a mouse, a toolbar and all. As I learned later, that must have been Paint on either Windows 3.1 or 95. I was much more interested on that kind of computer action since I was more into paper drawing than the actual computer at the time. But it didn't caught completely my attention either (I was a very lame uninterested kid, I guess). During that time, I started playing with my cousin's machine in Mexico City, running Windows 3.1, but I was very afraid to use it or ask to use it, since I had no clue what to do with it. When my dad bought me my first computer, my cousin Bruno was my first-hand information resource. I remember I asked him if he knew how I could get rid of the "Acer" blue screen that appeared immediately every time I booted the machine. He said "that, I don't know".

I remember I had no Internet connection for like an entire year (come on, it was already late 1996!) and I used the computer primarily as a typewriter. I could do my homework papers in it and pretend I was a graphic designer (I was still into drawing) using Paint. I didn't have (or didn't know it existed) Microsoft Office, but I had this thing installed called Microsoft Works where I used to do it all. In early 1997 I started surfing the Web using Telmex's "Internet Directo Personal", the pre-Prodigy (Mexico's most popular ISP these days) service. At school, I started learning QuickBASIC and since I was some kind of nerd as a child, I also bought some literature around the topic on magazine stands and that way I became very, very interested on the topic of programming. Around 1998, when I was 13 or 14, I used to do a lot of little programs in it, that was really my first experience with code. But I never got too deep into anything, I wonder why now. My family owned and operated a seafood restaurant, and I came up with an entire program (written in QBasic) for the waiters to order on the computer and print their orders in the kitchen where the cooks would pick it up and dispatch it. But I only knew QBasic, all of the food menu was a never-ending list of variables, I had no clue what a database was (I didn't have Access or didn't even know what it was), etc. The entire code was a single file, with a lot of if-then's and goto calls. I wish I still had that code.

What I rescue telling this is that coding as a child was a experience full of fun. I remember I loved to spend hours and hours thinking on how to come up with a better "interface" on the program, if you could call it like that. Sometimes I hope I could still retain that kid momentum when programming or that I could have kept it when I first went to college. The worst part of programming is that one sometimes forgets that it is lots of fun.

Leo con tristeza (pero entendimiento) que Patricia Mercado ha renunciado del Partido Socialdemócrata luego de los problemas que tuvo el partido al ser robado por corruptos y mafiosos que con putas chingaderas alejaron los verdaderos ideales de los sueños que muchos tuvimos al votar por el partido en 2006, dirigidos principalmente por esta mujer.

Esos mismos ideales me llevaron a conocer a gente interesantísima cuando el proyecto Socialdemócrata empezaba a interesarse por las tecnologías libres, como a Andrés Lajous (quien también ha dejado el partido mas no las ilusiones) y a Benjamín Ubach a quienes les guardo un profundo respeto y amistad fraterna. E incluso, junto con Raquel, cuando intentábamos construir el proyecto Alternativa Libre y gracias a Andrés, tuvimos la oportunidad de conocer y platicar con Patricia Mercado en su oficina de Insurgentes sobre este asunto y ella se mostró muy interesada y nos brindó todo su apoyo.

Personalmente no creo que Patricia Mercado se quede hasta ahí, creo y espero que siga impulsando el proyecto de socialdemocracia en México (como lo había hecho anteriormente con México Posible) porque habemos todavía mucha gente que creemos y estamos comprometidos con él.

Gracias por el pescado.

I've enjoyed reading Sarah Hatter's (from 37signals) blog post about phone support. I can't say anything else that I totally agree about it, and I'd like to share my own experience.

Recently, I bought a ticket for my mom to come to visit us in New York. She finally couldn't do it for the dates we had picked so I had to cancel the airline ticket that I had already paid in Orbitz. I did this through their website, I saw how much of penalties it'd be, and it wasn't too much, so I accepted without too many other alternatives. Basically, from the total cost of the ticket, I'd have to take a small penalty fee for Orbitz and big one for the airline. The rest wouldn't be reimbursed but could be used as credit for another reservation, for the same passenger, of course. None of those tickets are transferrable, which yes, it's OK, it was just a delay of dates on the trip. Now, she is able to come again in a couple of months, so I tried to find a way to use that remaining credit to make a new reservation. I couldn't. After spending a lot of minutes (I should be an idiot, I guess) trying to find their phone number on the website, I called. A nice lady with a very weird accent for me answered, I tried to explain the issue and she was very gentle and told me that I had to do the reservation by phone. I asked if there wasn't any way that I could do the reservation online myself. She said no. I asked how come. She said that in order for me to use that credit I had to do it by phone. She started asking me the preferred days for traveling, whether at morning or at night, etc. All of this was OK, but it was very, very difficult for me to understand what she was saying sometimes, and most of the times I was embarrased to ask her to say things again and again. It was very, very difficult and frustrating to do this over phone for me. I apologized, thanked her and hung up. I couldn't do it.

This could have been easily solved over an online interface or over email (they already have my freaking credit card numbers!). I've been mostly happy with Orbitz and after all they are not guilty on having me as their customer, one that cannot speak to nice ladies with very weird accents, but it'd be easier for everybody to not leave phone support as the last resource for solving an issue. I still have to call and claim my unused credit. I've been avoiding it, both because I still want to find the energy and patience and because I'm waiting for next payroll

Paralelly, having spent a couple of weeks with the family in Mexico City I remembered how annoying phone calls to people's houses from companies are. All of us at my family place are economically actives. Because of this, a lot of companies, credit card companies, banks, inssurance companies, etc, annoy at any time offering their products. I almost had forgotten it since my phone activity is not too active here. Those fucking companies (or the representatives rather) call, introduce themselves and start talking saying that you've won an special thing, bonus, award for your records' activities, whatever. This is so impersonal, so cold, so bitter, tacky and so stupidly impolite and annoying that I've reached the point on saying nothing at all but hanging up immediately. Some other times I interrupt saying I was busy, how they dare calling with all their bullcrap without asking me a single question on whether I can or want to receive the call. This is incredibly annoying and find it very unpleasent and impolite. What, as customer, I have to do? Avoid connections with those companies, they don't deserve my attention, they had lost it. I should only maintain a private cell phone for family and friends and try to not give that number to any kind of company.

Die phone support, die!

Cuando me pongo a pensar y dejar volar la mente imaginando cómo puede ser estar en un túnel donde cien personas empujan hacia una salida minúscula, trancada por la policía, siento una muy, aunque breve, incómoda desesperación. Imagina que te falta el aire; que por más que quieres zafarte de la multitud, no puedes; intentas abrir espacio, pero tus tristes brazos son impotentes contra el choque humano; la vista se te empieza a nublar, te sientes débil, te duele el pecho y los pulmones, sudas frío, sientes el sudor en el cuello y de repente lo dejas de sentir. Gritas, o intentas hacerlo, pero tu voz se sofoca; sabes que duele, pero empiezas a olvidar el dolor. Gente alrededor de ti hace exactamente lo mismo. Imagina si tú, que pesas cien kilos y mides casi un metro ochenta, experimentas todas esas sensaciones, qué sentirá una muchachita de uno cincuenta, de 55 kilos, en la misma situación que tú, está al lado de ti, llorando, sufriendo, muriendo. Y luego mueren los dos asfixiados. Dejas de sufrir porque has muerto. Y tu compañera, con la que diez minutos antes estabas bailando en la pista, coqueteando y tomando una cerveza, te esperaba muerta minutos antes. Al final, son trece los que, como tú, murieron en la misma situación.

De verdad que es bien lamentable, triste, inconcebible, que la policía provoque ésto. Cómo es posible. Cómo. ¿Y qué hicieron al respecto Felipe Calderón, Marcelo Ebrard, Joel Ortega? Puta bola de bufones infelices muertos de hambre. Ojetes de mierda.

Intenta imaginar, tan sólo por un instante, cómo pudo haber sido y qué debió haber sentido la gente.

Recomiendo mucho esta columna de Jacobo Zabludovsky.

Una vez que una persona está dada de alta en Hacienda y puede expedir recibos de honorarios por actividades profesionales extras, como muchos de nosotros, programadores y desarrolladores que nos salen chambitas eventuales, nos topamos a veces con que no entendemos cómo es que se calculan bien las cantidades para los recibos de honorarios. Y a mí también me ha pasado mucho hasta que realmente me puse a estudiar al respecto (en realidad no, pero mi papá me echó la mano entendiéndolo).

Hay tres casos en la vida de un consultor que expedirá un recibo de honorarios. Digamos que hemos quedado de acuerdo que la programación del HolaMundo.pl va a costar $1'000 pesos.

1. Actividad limpia.

Es decir, quedas de acuerdo con quien te está empleando que las actividades que realizarás no les van a incluir impuestos. Ésto tiene sus ventajas buenas y malas, tanto para la empresa como para uno, pero puede darse. En ese caso, como es de acuerdo mutuo, haces tu trabajo y te pagan los 1'000 pesos.

2. Cantidad antes de impuestos.

Ésto es lo que usualmente le conviene a las empresas. Al total pactado se le suma el IVA, luego del total pactado se calcula el 10% para retenciones, uno para la retención del IVA y otra para la retención del ISR. Finalmente, al subtotal se le restan ambas retenciones:

• Honorarios: $1'000
• + IVA 15%: $150
• Subtotal: $1'150
• - retención ISR 10%: $100
• - retención IVA 10%: $100
• Total a pagar: $950

A final de cuentas uno termina viendo un poco menos de lo que se pactó al principio, 5%.

3. Cantidad después de impuestos (o «hacia arriba»).

Para muchos de nosotros es mejor acordar que el costo total será, después del cálculo de impuestos. Se hace la misma operación, pero al revés, ahora los $1000 pesos deben terminar como el total a pagar. Primero dividimos esa cantidad por 0.95, para obtener la primera cantidad de honorarios, y luego hacemos el mismo mecanismo usado anteriormente:

• Yo quiero cobrar: $1'000
• David me dijo que divida entre 0.95 y da: $1'052.63.
• Honorarios: $1'052.64
• + IVA 15%: $157.89
• Subtotal: $1'210.52
• - retención IVA 10%: $105.26
• - retención ISR 10%: $105.26
• Total a pagar: $1'000

¿Por qué entre 0.95? Porque esa es los $1'000 son la cantidad que quieres obtener luego de agregar 15% y restar 20% por las retenciones.

De cualquiera de ambas formas, a quien le das el recibo de honorarios debe darte un acuse de recibo de que se quedó con tus retenciones, cosa que tú presentarás ante el SAT a su debido tiempo.

También suele suceder que la empresa te requiera el recibo de honorarios antes de que te paguen, precisamente para que el dinero pueda ser comprobado. Aunque este es un paso completamente innecesario es mejor respetarlo, en México las empresas hacen cosas muy raras para "protegerse".

Espero que te sirva.