Having just read a post on TechCrunch regarding the ‘new’ virtual world offering of HiPiHi(rumoured to be owned by the famous Anshe Chung), it appears that HiPiHi have announced that they wish to persue standardisation and interoperability between virtual world platforms(TechCrunch mentions ‘interact and transact’ as possibilities for interoperability)

Now, ask yourself, why would HiPiHi be eager to do this ? Well, to me i think this is rather simple.

The fact is SecondLife already has the market lead on this format of virtual world(fully user content created), any other company that comes along with their own platform, is going to have a seriously hard task ahead enticing players away from SecondLife’s environment to their almost zero value economy and almost zero level of content.

So, what’s the easiest route to the solution in this situation ? Well as is happening on HiPiHi’s part, claim you wish to make things work togethor, this way they almost bite into SecondLife’s economy and use it for themselves. There is nothing business friendly here, or with the intent of simply progressing to a global network of virtual world grids, this is simply a way to make themselves business compatible to the already market leader, in order to make their almost clone offering viable.

Now i think the really scarey/naive bit comes when HiPiHi are offering to create this standardisation of interoperability. This kind of alerts me to the possibility that HiPiHi are in the process(or at least hoping to be) of creating a standardized central assets server hub, to which any virtual world who wishes to be apart of the global network grids must be compatible with and connect to. OK technically it’s not a bad thing, and it’s one way to implement interoperability and compatibility, however, at a business level this so much sounds to me like HiPiHi are subtly trying to become the ‘one ring that rules them all’. Let’s face it, who ever controls/manages that central hub, has control over the every universe out there ! The naivity of this comes, i feel, on HiPiHi’s part. Do they *really* think LindenLab(owner of SecondLife) is about to hand that sort of power over to them ? Some how i think LindenLab will be intending on creating the standard, and controlling the centralisation themselves, and i think HiPiHi are having a serious laugh if they think otherwise !

Somehow i think if any one implements this interoperability/compatability open grid standardisation, it will be the market leader, SecondLife. Infact i have it on fairly good authority from a conversation with a Linden(a LindenLab employee) from around 18 months ago that this concept has already been thought of by LindenLab, and is refered to by them as being ‘gated’. Weather they have already started work on implementations of this and are keeping it secret is any one’s speculation.

Note: for those who haven’t seen this yet, why not check out an already operational open source open implmentation of SecondLife’s grid, DeepGrid, as well as a related product, an open source implementation of SecondLife’s sim server OpenSim

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91200-1276113,00.html

Some how i think they’ve been ripped off on that virtual studio build though !    I’m actually surprised the sim it occupies is even still running with the amount of active scripts that are cleary there.    Watch the video and check out the number swirling script activity indicators !

Think i’ll be off to check that island out later today

Anyway i’ve spent the best part of 3 and a bit months looking for a new job, and finally i have been made an offer of employment as a Web Developer – HOORAY !

It has been an interesting few months how ever, dealing with many many many agents, being put forward for many many jobs, and attending many interviews(11). Some interesting points have come out of all of this for me though :

Employment Agents

Many many employment agents out there would fit the descriptiong of “underhanded, SCUM”. I have completely hated the way i’ve been entered into a meat market, effectively being pimped by these people, and all the while they’ve pretended to have my best interested in mind. I swear these people think every one else is stupid !

The amount of times i’ve gotten calls from them, about an employment ‘opportunity’ that they’re calling me about because from what i can tell *one* of my skill keywords matches their job spec ……. and then they wonder why i don’t want to drive 1/2 way accross the country to go for an interview ! The fact is, do they really think i’m that stupid that i dont realise the only reason they want me to go, is just on the slim off-chance i may actually get that role, and make them a fortune …… The more shit you throw, the higher the chance of some eventually sticking !!

Oh, and some of the tactics ……… i even had one a few months ago threaten me !! (i wont name names) But to cut a long story short, one agent submitted my CV to a company with out my say so(which in this country they’re not supposed to do), so when another agent submitted my CV after i had given my permission, the original agent phoned me up claiming rights on it and threatening me over it !! I could not beleive what i was hearing !!

Interviews

Probably about 75% of the interviews i went to, went smoothly and i didnt feel to uncomfortable, although i still have a slight nervous/shy problem around new people which gave rise to a question over my ability to communicate effectively(we’ll cover that under role requirements in a second). One thing i’ve learnt though is that it’s very rare you can guage how well an interview went. Of the 75% that went smooth i pretty much thought on the majority i would be successful and get an offer, but it never was. The interviewer(s) will smile and be nice and let you think you’re doing great, they never seem to give any clear indication of the fact you’re actually doing crap ! This *really* annoys me, if i’ve gotten 10 mins into an interview, and they’ve already made their minds up, why not just tell me ? Why let me continue for another 45 mins, then perhaps have me sit a test for another 45 mins to an hour, instead of just saying they already know i’m not suitable ? Why waste my time and theirs ?

Also, what is it with technology companies ? I’m a developer, and as such all of my interviews have been for developer jobs. Why is it that companies who employ developers are generally promoters of the use of technology, being as that’s what they sell, yet, when it comes to interviewing a potential candidate who may have to travel some distance to get to them, the thought of a VIDEO CONFERENCE never enters their minds ? Some times i wonder if part of the point of an interview is not only to find out weather the candidate is suitable but just how much the company will be able to take the piss if they offer the position to that candidate !

Interview technique is something i’ve never really thought about before, but i think i’ve found out the hard way that telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth is not a good plan. Of all the interviews i’ve been to til now, i’ve always never really prepared for the questions that i might get asked. My philosophy on this is that i want to portray me, as i am, so that if i should be successful in the interview, when i turn up for work, it will be the same person as i portrayed in the interview. To this ends, there should be no nessecity for me to prepare for any questions that may get asked pertaining to me, if it’s a personal question i will know the answer off the top of my head, and likewise if it’s technical and i really *know* the answer.

However …… one of the last employment opportunities an agent emailed me details of, came with a rather good interview guide, infact so good i was some what annoyed i had gotten offered a job a few minutes after reading it ! Armed with this i feel i could have gotten nearly any opportunity that i got an interview for ! After reading through, and going by previous feedback from failed interviews and having thoughts about “telling them what they want to hear”, things began to add up some for me. PREPARATION IS ALL. The guide listed many common questions that interviewers ask, and suggested about 1/2 as many questions that you could ask the interviewer(this is something i am always stuck for) But any way to cut this short, preparation, if you have a pretty good idea what you’re going to get ask before hand, it makes the interview an almost no-brainer. You’re not constantly having to make sure you don’t tell the interviewer something that may well put them off you. Some how i think the whole interview game is not so much about telling the complete truth, nor about lieing, it’s more a case of telling the truth, less any bits that could let you down …… the point being: I’M TOO DAMN HONEST FOR MY OWN GOOD SOMETIMES !!!

One final observation on the interviews i went to, in a few of them it was clear to me that certain interviewers seemed to attempt to assert their ability through rank ……… ie; Some of them were just blatently useless, but knew i was hardly going to get into an arguement with them over the technical things they talked about that they clearly had little understanding of. Yep sure, i could have said something like “i dont think you’re quite right there ….”, but i just know that would eventually escalate into heated developer debate that i really just can’t be doing with.

Role Requirements

One thing that has come through via this whole experience is that of what a company actually wants from an employ. Before i rant on here, one thing to bear in mind is that i express myself and communicate best via writing, i’m not a great talker, and i’m some what shy/nervous around people i don’t know, which i always mention in interviews(yes i know most people are a bit nervous in interviews, but it’s a natural disposition of mine so it comes accross ALOT worse)

Now the general trend in the feedback i’ve had from interviews is that “Kris is great technically, but is a bit lacking communications wise” – What is severely annoying about this, is the fact i’ve taken the time to explain, and been honest about, the fact that i’m shy/nervous around people i don’t know, and that after being around them a few weeks, i’m fine. But even more annoying is the fact that i’m being assesed on my ability as a developer at the interview, weather or not i am capable of writing quality software, to deadlines, and my ability to deliver ……. yet they were knocking me back on my communications level due to a disposition i explained ! Yes i accept that part of development work is the ability to communicate, but despite the fact i’d explained in the interiew that my shy/nervous disposition only manifests it’s self for a few weeks until i get to know the people around me, surely the actual technical ability and programming ability should be taken into consideration more ??

There were also a few interviews where they expected me to be in a shirt and tie every day for work ! WTF i really dont understand these companies, who want to employ a developer, however they feel the need to dictate his/her dresscode for some reason ? My brother once said something to me about a sarcasm he had used when dress code was introduced in his work place, something along the lines of how he was “astounded at the increase in production due to the new dresscode”, which pretty much says it all ….. why why why does a company feel enforcing an uncomforable dress code is beneficial to that company ??

Anyway in conclusion to all this, to all the asshole interviews, and the underhanded scum employment agents(you know who you are and why) i encountered through this :

YOU CAN ALL SUCK MY BALLS !!

I’m quite happy now to have found a job with a 1/2 decent company paying a 1/2 decent wage, it will suffice until one of my personal projects starts to pay off or i find something better.    Many thanks to the genuine people(agents/interviewers) though for helping me get back to employment status.

BUT

Whilst watching this this evening, i began to wonder ……. is there really any nessecity to be running this as a videocast(video pod cast, or what ever you call it), rather than just another tech blog ? Think about it, short of a lovely lady(Morgan Webb) presenting it, do we actually gain anything else in having the video format ?

Why do i need to stream a 10-20mb video to my machine, when a complete episode could be on my screen in a 10k html only web page, perhaps adding another mb or so for some pictures, and would supply me with just as much information !

I note on the site they’re also looking for donations, which isn’t really any surprise because of the amount of time that must go into creating an episode, yes it’s very very clean presentation. But i can’t help thinking how much cheaper and maintainable this could be with out the video …….. it just doesn’t make sense to be using that presentation medium.

Is there not also an accessibility issue with video, when an html/image blog would do ? For me it’s fine, i have a 20mb uncapped internet connection, but there are many many internet users out there with far less.

Maybe i’m old fashioned or something but, remember how many times statistics on the amount of spam email is about and how much that percentage of such chokes up the internet, well ever considered how much bandwidth un-nessecary internet videos are now taking up ? The way i think i see it is, if video is required then use it, ie; in the case of hak5.org the videos make sense to be using, since the content is better demonstrated than simply written about …… But when all the video is doing is supplying a pretty face, why use it, what’s the point ? Unless of course you’re looking for a bunch of internet letches to be viewing your site It’s just choking up bandwidth(apologies to WebbAlert for using them as an example, there’s plenty of un-nessecary video about)

Perhaps there is something to be implied though from WebbAlert’s approach ? Perhaps the pretty face is a pretty ploy to attract most of the tech market to their site ………. ie; all techies are letches, well perhaps that’s what WebbAlert feels ?

Of course, i would have posted all of this as a comment on WebbAlert.com, had i have been able to find any place that i could make a comment ! Somehow i think they’re missing the point a little about blogging and the new generation of technology known as Web2.0. I was under the impression that part of this was to do with user interaction, user created comment and collaboration ……. In this case the ability to allow viewers to comment and discuss what’s been in the show, not so at WebbAlert.com

But, i guess there’s nothing wrong with a pretty face presenting the tech news

additional(20th Aug, 2007): apologies to those Morgan Webb fans i appear to have upset over at the iheartmorganwebb.com forum who evidently don’t seem to read to well, and fail to realise that this post isn’t about the use of un-nessecary video on *JUST* WebbAlert.com, but, it’s un-nessecary use any where !    Oh and to those who make the sarcastic comments along the lines of  ‘all the other youtube and google videos about aren’t choking up bandwidth’, i think you’ve some how missed the point, many of those videos serve a purpose, humour & demonstration for starter.    WebbAlert adds nothing to a normal html/image news based blog, other than a pretty face, the point still stands.

yep i know the final one isnt a *video* – still rips me up though ! For more things that tickle my humour check these out :-

Jerry Jackson Cartoons

Devvo The Chav

We Like The Moon (this must be an all time classic)