Sean Bamforth

How not to apply for jobs:

So I just got one of those slightly spammy emails asking if I want to go and work for some VC funded web 2.0 company in Londinium. The job sounded alright actually, but I’m not sure why they would ask me to apply for it. Either they’re asking everyone or someone put in a good word for me. I wouldn’t mind working for them actually, but thought it’d be best if I kept my reply honest. 

I’m not sure why I’m sharing this. I guess I thought people might be interested in my weirdly open and probably utterly ineffective method of promoting myself. 

This is how I apply for jobs: 

[redacted],

Thank you for the email and the consideration for a position at [redacted].

The sort of role you’re offering is exactly the sort of role I would be interested in. However, I’m not exactly sure that I’d be a good fit for a position with [redacted].

I’m actually based in Halifax and have no desire to move. I would definitely consider remote working, but I am not able to move nearer to London.

I’ve only been programming Ruby for a small time. I quit my job last November in order to retrain from Dataflex (A programming language barely anybody uses) to languages like Ruby that provide more opportunities. I know you said that you’re impressed with my profiles and contributions, but in actuality I’ve produced little. I could demonstrate the work I’ve done in Ruby if needed.

At the moment, I’m not looking for a full time job. I took a year off to retrain, and I’m set on taking most of that year off. I’d be happy to look at a part time position, but feel a full time position isn’t yet in my best interests.

I’m not used to working in large teams. For the last 18 years, I’ve worked either solo or in small teams. I’m a sociable chap who gets on with people, but the experience isn’t there.

All that being said…

I’m an experienced and quick programmer. I’ve got twenty years experience in programming. In the last 12 years, I was lead developer for a company called [redacted]. I’ve developed software for a multitude of industries (Service Management, Copier, Printers, Travel Companies, Steel Manufacturing) and have extensive experience developing back office systems. Most of my experience is with Windows development, though I have produced web based applications.

I’ve developed Stock Control Systems, Full accounting systems, Order Processing, Call management and Itinerary planning software. My skill set leans heavily towards database heavy, back office development.

I’m great with customers.

Because I’m looking for a part time role primarily to aid my retooling, and because I’m based outside London, then I’m probably going to be quite cheap in comparison to anyone else you could get with my amount of development experience.

If my particular situation is still a match for [redacted], then I would be happy to talk to your team.

I look forward to hearing from you,
regards,

The PayPal Express Checkout API should have a TransactionSearchTotal method.

So - I’m doing a bit of work on the Paypal API, and I’ve come to the part where I try and work out exactly how much a certain person has paid over the total of a subscription. I need this because a percentage of this total gets sent off to a third party. Now I admit this is an unusual usage of PayPal, but I can see it being useful to have this information in a number of scenarios. 

Now - The hacker in me thinks I should just do a Transaction search for the last month, and add it to a total I hold locally. I can then use that to compare what I’ve paid out against what’s been paid in. Easy Peasy. 

Problem is, the programmer in me isn’t happy with this. There’s a replication of data, and as with all data replication, there’s a chance that the two systems will fall out of synch. 

My side of things could crash and have to be restored from backup. The Paypal side could retrospectively cancel a transaction. Something weird and unknowable could happen with the network and something, something, fall out of synch.

So - What I need is a way of querying the PayPal API for a certain reference or email address. 

Luckily, Paypal have a way of querying the database. It’s called TransactionSearch and it’ll return up to 100 transactions. 

Unfortunately, I have to (a) add those transactions together to get a total, and (b) hope that there haven’t been more than 100 transactions in the period I’m querying. 

Not good. 

So - I’m asking that PayPal add a new method to their API called TransactionSearchTotal that will allow me to get a Total Amount for a specific Transaction Search. Because the transactions may be in different currencies, it’s probably OK to return the total in a specified currency, or to return a Hash containing one amount per currency. 

Actually - I just thought of that Currency thing. That throws a bit of a spanner in my works. 

My point stands. If The paypal Dev team are looking for new methods to add to the various PayPal API’s, then can I suggest TransactionSearchTotal. 

Thanks for reading. 

Now comes the part where you say “oh, but can’t you just do this, and I’m all - Yes! You’re right. I’m such an idiot. 

Johann Hari Interviews Thom Yorke

tomdavenport:

“I’m a creep,” Thom York tells me as he sips tea fresh from the pot, staring vacantly though a misty window. “I’m a weirdo.” He confirms the statement later when he picks something from his ear and eats it, but first he shakes himself from the distraction.

Read More

 

From here:

I chose to remain a domiciled taxpayer for a couple of reasons. The main one was that I wanted my children to grow up where I grew up, to have proper roots in a culture as old and magnificent as Britain’s; to be citizens, with everything that implies, of a real country, not free-floating ex-pats, living in the limbo of some tax haven and associating only with the children of similarly greedy tax exiles.

A second reason, however, was that I am indebted to the British welfare state; the very one that Mr Cameron would like to replace with charity handouts. When my life hit rock bottom, that safety net, threadbare though it had become under John Major’s Government, was there to break the fall. I cannot help feeling, therefore, that it would have been contemptible to scarper for the West Indies at the first sniff of a seven-figure royalty cheque. This, if you like, is my notion of patriotism. On the available evidence, I suspect that it is Lord Ashcroft’s idea of being a mug.

- J.K Rowling

Open Letter to Tim Swift

An open letter to Tim Swift, Boothtown Councillor for Calderdale detailing the tale of the bus pass, Calderdale council and it’s bureaucratic, Kafkaesque deafness.

Dear Tim Swift,

OK – I didn’t write this immediately on getting your tweet, because I wanted to get my facts straight, but here goes. I’ve anonymised the people involved because one’s a child and the other feels weird being talked about on the interwebs.

In Summer 2008, B—- was choosing a school for A—-. There were a couple of choices. St Catherine’s in Halifax and All Saints Catholic College between Brighouse and Huddersfield. For a variety of reasons, B—- changed her initial choice from St Catherines and chose All Saints. All well and good.

In August 2008, she received a letter from Calderdale Council telling her that as All Saints was further away than St Catherines, A—- was no longer eligible to receive a free bus pass.

I can understand why there are rules about the provision of free travel. If a child is offered travel to one school at a certain cost, and parents choose a school with higher travel costs, there is a legitimate argument to be made that the parents should pay the higher charge. However, the bus pass price to either of these schools is exactly the same. Calderdale Council would pay no more to get A—- to All Saints than it would have to get her to St Catherines.

We wrote a letter to the council expressing this, and they wrote back to tell us they’d reviewed our case, and although we could contest what they said, we still weren’t allowed a free bus pass.

We sent another letter explaining the reasons why we believed All Saints was a better school for A—-. She had been intimidated by the atmosphere at St Catherines, and we were worried that the lack of multiculturalism at St Catherines would make it harder for her (being mixed race) to integrate.

Again, we got a letter denying our request for the bus pass, but we were told that we could come to the town hall and put our case to a review board. We took this invitation.

At the “review” , B— was not asked to explain her point or put forward any reasons for getting the free bus pass. She was told bluntly by an intimidating panel of four council officers that they had reviewed the facts and she was not allowed the free bus pass. No discussion, no nothing. Just a colossal waste of Council funds to tell somebody something that had been decided months previously and which could have been sent in a letter.

This was all frustrating. Because she wasn’t even asked to talk at this meeting.  Because she just couldn’t see how sending her child to a slightly different school could invalidate her from getting a free bus pass. Because she had to leave work early to go to a meeting that wasn’t even a meeting. Because, as a single mother with a part time minimum wage job, she’s exactly the sort of person who would benefit from the £31.00 a month the bus pass costs.

I’ll just repeat this bit because this is the bit that really sticks in my throat. The Bus Pass to All Saints costs EXACTLY the same as the bus pass to  St Catherines. By denying this bus pass, the council is saving money by taking metrics which were designed to stop people getting more expensive transport and applying them to poor people who have the audacity to suggest that their child goes to a school which is better for that child than the one chosen by the Council.

So – Short story long, she wrote a letter detailing all this to you. As her local councillor, she thought you’d be able to do something about this. You got the letter, because she got a call from someone in your office explaining that you had the letter and someone was dealing with it. This was three years ago and it was the last we heard on the matter.

B— gave up the fight then. As this is the internet, I should probably reference Franz Kafka again.  

Then a couple of weeks ago, you started following me on Twitter. And when I told B—, she said to “Ask that bastard why he never replied to my letter.”

You, using the twitter handle @timswift answered “What Letter?”

Well, it was three years ago, so you may not remember it. You may never have read it. You may have decided that one person trying to get a bus pass wasn’t the sort of exciting thing you got into politics to fight for. But I’ve detailed what happened for you to read through.

You’ll notice that I’m posting this on the internet. Hopefully, phrases like Calderdale council and arrogant and jobsworth idiots will lead other people here. Because I don’t expect that we’ll ever get any satisfaction over this issue, but I’m damned if I’m ever going to stop telling people that if you’re based in Boothtown or you’re a single mother or you want a little bit more humanity or common sense from Calderdale Council, then you are shit. out. of. luck.

Writing it out again makes me doubly angry. I’m going to stop myself from kicking off here. Hopefully, you can see how unfair this whole situation has been.  Feel free to tweet me at @seanbamforth or even phone me on 07802 653722.

Also – If you could sort out the free bus pass and get the last three years of bus travel paid to us retrospectively, that would be awesome.

Love,

Sean. X x x