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Shopify is looking for some great Rails developers!

The Shopify platform hosts over 10,000 online stores around the world, ranging from shops run by stay-at-home moms and small budding entrepreneurs, to big names like Angry Birds, Tesla Motors, and Foo Fighters. We’ve helped thousands achieve their dreams of running a successful online business, like DODOcase, who won our recent $100,000 contest.

We are growing and we need some fantastic Rails developers to help continue making Shopify the best ecommerce platform on the Internet. We are renowned for our gorgeous UI, our flexible and customizable templating system, and our developer API and ecosystem, including our own App Store and Theme Store.

Shopify is one of the largest and best-known Rails applications and we’re a big part of the Rails community. Our team includes former Rails Core Alumni, O’Reilly authors, open source project contributors. We’ve release lots of open source projects, extracted from Shopify code, such as ActiveMerchant, Delayed Job, Liquid and a host of other gems used by Rails developers around the world. if you love Rails and want work in relaxed, open development environment, working side-by-side with designers and other passionate Rails developers, come join Shopify!

We’re looking for passionate Rails developers who love clean code, TDD, and pair programming. We want people who love open source projects, want to keep up to date on the latest developments and techniques in the ruby world, and love to hack on cool new projects just for fun.

But we’re not just all about coding. We have an awesome office in the heart of downtown Ottawa where we play lots of Street Fighter, have weekly pool nights, and have lots of team outings. Friday afternoons are reserved for your Friday fun projects, and we have an amazing completely peer-driven bonus reward system called Unicorn.

Visit here for more info and to apply: http://jobvite.com/m?32YxZfwg

jobs.rubynow.com: Rails Developer @ Shopify

I am a computer science major in college but I’m fairly new to everything. I just got a job at my school and I will be doing some web development. I understand that PHP is a scripting language, but we are going to be learning CakePHP and Ruby on Rails which are frameworks. What is a framework? Can somebody please explain it in layman’s terms. I think I understand the concept of an API, but what is the difference between an API and an IDE? I thought Visual Studio was an IDE, but someone called it an API today. also, are there any computer science resources that will explain the basics such as these (not how to program, but terms and things) in an easy to understand manner?
Also, what is a CMS or content management system?

What is a framework? I need help clearing up API’s and IDE’s as well?

Extole, inc., the leading provider of social marketing solutions, is looking for a Senior Ruby Developer. Located in San Francisco, Extole provides advertisers and online stores with unique and powerful online marketing solutions via software-as-a-service (SaaS). our solution drives greater consumer engagement and word-of-mouth communication via social networks, while enhancing brand identity and accelerating revenue.

Extole helps brands harness the marketing potential of the growing social channel. We design, deploy and optimize referral-based customer acquisition programs, social recommendation campaigns, and other customer-powered programs—all of which are highly measurable, proactively optimized, and designed to leverage the power of social networking platforms. our clients range from mid-sized companies to Fortune 500 companies here in the US.

Our team is made up of smart, motivated and hard-working individuals. We have built a fun and dynamic work environment where we work hard and play hard while remaining committed to beating expectations. If you are looking for a fast-paced, exciting and challenging position, this job is for you.

Job Requirements:
We are looking for talented and passionate Ruby on Rails developers who love building great products. our development team is fast, smart and independent. You will work on multiple projects that include building customer-facing web applications on top of our RESTful service layer and applications that utilize Facebook, Twitter and other third party social service APIs.

Experience Requirements:

– Experience developing great applications with Ruby on Rails
– Strong passion for your work
– Intelligent, hard-working, down-to-earth individual
– Experience working with RESTful web services is a big plus
– Expertise in Javascript a big plus
– Facebook and/or Twitter API experience a plus
– Open source contributions are a big plus
– Experience with NoSQL databases a plus

Compensation and Benefits:

– very competitive salary
– Stock options
– Employer paid Medical, Dental, and Vision plans
– 401(k)
– Commuter Benefits
– Generous holiday schedule and PTO days
– Stocked kitchen
– Company sponsored events

<a href="http://www.centernetworks.com/jobs?job_id=226tag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.centernetworks.com/jobs?job_id=226Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:29:14 GMT 00:00″>Senior Ruby Developer

VAX
I had a dream that I came home one day and found that my dad had bought a massive old server computer that was VAX-compatible. by VAX-compatible, I mean that it was built with the intention of running OpenVMS on it, because in my dream it was pointed out that it wasn’t fully VAX-compatible, and couldn’t run old VAX software. In fact, it came with the commercial version of SuSE Enterprise. but the machine must’ve had some weird hardware, because it was also pointed out in my dream that SuSE Enterprise was the *only* Linux that could run on it. Proprietary hardware drivers? who knows. It was about the size of a college dorm refrigerator.

Anyway, my point is: why did my dad buy a mainframe minicomputer in my dream? he explained it to me in my dream, but I forget now. something about orchestrating a big supercomputing environment. he had called me for help.

Immediately, I pointed out that his VAX machine was very old and that any cheaper, smaller x86(_64) machine would do the job much better. but he was irritated that he couldn’t set the thing up himself and just wanted it to be done, even if this machine wasn’t optimal. the guy at Meijer said that this VAX was the thing he needed. I was like “You bought this mainframe computer at Meijer?” and he was like “No, I came in there looking for this stuff, but they didn’t have it. I told the guy in the computer department what I wanted to do, and he said that he’d heard that VAX machines were how people did that, and told me where to get one.” I was like “You went to Meijer for advice on how to set up a supercomputing cluster?”

I pointed out that in order to set up the supercomputing architecture he’d described, we’d need to buy a bunch of other computers (otherwise it wouldn’t be a cluster). he was disappointed — he thought he had everything he needed. I tried again to convince him to replace the VAX while we were at it, but he wouldn’t have it. the guy at Meijer told him that this was what he needed. Couldn’t I make it work? I made the mistake of saying that technically, I could make it work. That locked me in.

So I started thinking out loud about the physical and logical layout of the cluster. “Hm. We’ll have to move this VAX machine over there so it can serve as the director. then I’ll have to install some of the new boxes here to be the cache.” my mom pointed out that it was very hard to move the VAX, and couldn’t it serve as the director AND the cache? (My dad had insisted that the VAX be the director, and I thought that was a fine use for it, since its load would be small compared with the actual working machines). I thought my mom’s advice was sensible. the same machine could serve as the director and the cache, and the VAX was already set up to be the first machine attached to the network — being the cache would work well for it.

After I’d drawn up the plans for the physical layout, I started writing the software that we would use on the system. I started thinking “Man, it seems like people try to do this sort of thing a lot. Shouldn’t there be some software that does this stuff out of the box so I don’t have to write so much? Oh well, I’m almost done…”

Well, when I woke up, I realized that the software I was working on was basically Apache Hadoop. It would’ve been a lot easier to just use that. Also, I only *thought* I was almost done because I hadn’t yet run into all the complexity.

Computer programming, people, amirite?

galaxor: VAX

Hello, we need help setting up a Mosix or OpenSSI-like cluster for use with GameServers. we need the GameServers to be started in the node with less load and then to be moved from one node to another depending on the nodes’ load… (Budget: $30-250, Jobs: Cloud Computing, Computer Security, Linux, Software Architecture, system Admin)

Take the job!

Mosix / OpenSSI Cluster by DotSi

So I’ve been a professor at this ‘little school’ for a while now. I love my job. My classes contain students from all age groups. I have a few 17 year old high schoolers that are here because they are bored during the summer. I have a few seasoned folks that have IT experience. I also have a few people that are clearly here just for the three credit hours.

The classroom is set up in a ‘lab’ environment. each student has a PC in front of them that netboots linux from a central box located near my desk at the front of the classroom. This setup works great because the students come into the classroom every day, power on their PC, and they get the exact OS load and lesson they need for our session. Not to gloat, but I designed it this way and I’m the envy of a few other professors *cough* windows instructors *cough*.

Computer teacher pwns l33t h4×0r kid in his class. Classic.

The moat around the .NET programming community has long been difficult to cross from either direction. Developers from both sides see IronRuby, an open source implementation of Ruby for the .NET platform, as a possible crossing point.

“The greatest advantage of IronRuby is the bridge it provides between the .NET and the Ruby world, which opens so many opportunities to both parties,” said Shay Friedman, author of IronRuby Unleashed, in an e-mail interview. Ruby is an open source dynamic programming language popular with developers because of its ease of use.”This is similar to what Java developers have been able to do with JRuby,” said Rob Bazinet, a freelance software developer who writes in both Ruby and C# and has worked with IronRuby. “It will open doors.”

To open those doors, IronRuby is designed to appeal to both the Ruby and .NET communities. “[Ruby developers] love it because it expands their worth,” said Jimmy Schementi, program manager at Microsoft and a core member of the IronRuby team. “We’re pretty sure we can say to Ruby developers that you don’t have to turn down the job at the ASP.NET shop.”

“On the other side are .NET developers. Part of [the appeal to them] is saying there are these new languages coming out and the .NET framework is powerful enough to support them” Schementi said.” you can pick the right tool for the job.”

IronRuby has been in development since 2007. IronRuby Version 1.0 Release Candidate was released in November, 2009, and IronRuby 1.0 RC3 was released March 12. New release candidates appear about every two months. IronRuby is built to run on Microsoft’s Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) along with implementations of other languages, such as IronPython.

IronRuby not yet in step with Ruby, but offers new options

While IronRuby can appeal to both .NET and Ruby communities, Ruby developers have not been quick to embrace it. One reason for this could be that IronRuby lags behind current Ruby trends. “It’s still a ways off, I think, from keeping up with current Ruby implementations.” said Bazinet.

“The Ruby standard right now is 1.8.6. That’s the current version Microsoft is targeting” said Bazinet. he suggests, though, that 1.8.6 may soon be out of date. “The biggest framework used on Ruby is Ruby on Rails. The big push now is for Ruby on Rails 3.0, which requires 1.8.7 and above. [It] does not run on 1.8.6.”

IronRuby can be made to work with earlier versions of Ruby on Rails. “Rails does run on IronRuby,” said Bazinet. “It seems to run decently. I’ve been doing some testing.”

IronRuby nevertheless offers some interesting use cases for Ruby developers. “The most important [use case], in my opinion, is Silverlight,” said Friedman. “It is the first time ever that Rubyists can use their own language to develop RIA (Rich Internet Applications).”

“Next in line is IIS,” Friedman continued. “Since IronRuby eventually runs on top of the CLR, it is capable of integrating with IIS very naturally. this capability enables Rubyists to deploy Ruby on Rails Web applications to IIS more naturally than before.”

Still, some Ruby developers may be too far removed from the .NET programming environment to consider IronRuby. “For a lot of reasons most Ruby developers are on Linux,” said Mike Gunderloy, a Ruby developer who formerly worked for many years with .NET. “I would guess that fifty-percent of Ruby developers don’t even test their stuff on Windows.”

For his part, Mike Gunderloy is happy to stick with Ruby. “If IronRuby was perfect it would not tempt me to go back to Microsoft,” he said.

.NET developers use IronRuby for testing, look forward to growth

Ruby developers may not be ready to fully embrace IronRuby, but .NET developers have found several advantages to using the implementation. One prominent use case is using IronRuby to test .NET applications.

“The Ruby language has some incredible testing frameworks which do not have equivalents in the .NET framework, such as RSpec, Cucumber, and Watir,” said Friedman. “As a result of the permissive nature of the language and the powerful syntax, the Ruby language is a natural choice to write tests in general, and with IronRuby, write tests for .NET code.”

Ivan Porto Carrero, author of IronRuby in Action, agrees with Friedman. “It’s easier to test with,” said Carrero. he mentioned that Caricature, a project that aims to make interoperability between IronRuby objects and .NET objects easier, can be used to create a mocking framework to mock out .NET type classes.

Carrero also said that IronRuby can sometimes replace XML in.NET application configuration. “I could write an app in C# and keep the bits that need configuration in IronRuby instead of XML,” said Carrero. “That gives me a nice DSL for configuration.”

IronRuby has not fully matured, and there are still some issues to address over the coming months. “In the next year, there will be more focus on getting those external libraries to run on top of IronRuby,” said Carrero. “There is a vast network of Ruby libraries that are proven to work.”

Those closest to the implementation believe it is headed in the right direction. “Iron Ruby has improved tremendously in the last few versions and it is constantly getting better,” said Friedman. “We’re on the road to 1.0,” said Microsoft’s Schementi. “There’s no target date yet, but we’re getting close.”

IronRuby a big step for Microsoft in open source community

Given a history of maintaining proprietorship over its products, Microsoft’s decision to make IronRuby open source is notable. “The fact that we got the okay to do it is remarkable,” said Schementi. “It’s a big step for Microsoft’s participation in the open source community.”

Schementi believes that, though remarkable, the decision to make IronRuby open source was a sensible one. “We made IronRuby open source because Ruby itself is open source,” said Schementi. “We thought it would be wrong to take Ruby and proprietize it. it was a very rational decision.”

While community participation is encouraged, Schementi acknowledges that IronRuby is not a free-for-all. “As far as accepting contributions we’re a little more strict to the core base,” he said.

The way in which IronRuby is managed may give it broader appeal. “I have run into dev teams that refuse to work with open source projects and ones that work solely with open source projects,” said Friedman. “I think that IronRuby appeals to both. it is an open source project that takes contributions from the community but it still has Microsoft backing it.”

While it is a noticeable step for Microsoft’s open source efforts, IronRuby may also affect the more established open source community around Ruby. “Having another Ruby implementation may drive the community to standardize what Ruby is,” said Gunderloy. having additional, well funded [implementations] are only going to be good for Ruby as a whole; for settling down and being more portable from platform to platform.”

IronRuby offers options for .NET developers

Does getting professional certification payoff in terms of compensation?

It depends where you put your efforts. a recent survey of technology professionals by Dice Learning, a career Web site for technology and engineering professionals, determined the 10 certifications most likely to reap paycheck rewards.

The survey suggests a mix of certifications — from entry-level to more senior qualifications — are important. This week, Comptia added to its roster of entry-level courses. And the 750 openings on Dice that require CISSP seems to strongly suggest that you’re never to too experienced to learn more. As one IT director, who preferred to be anonymous, said, “The entry-level certificates are great — but the senior-level certificates (VCP, VCDX, CCIE, CISSP, CISA) are definitely the certificates that get more attention from hiring managers and drive salary impact.”

Dice, which also offers an online IT job board, also provided some insight as to the popularity of the various certifications in employment ads. here now are the 10 most profitable certifications to have:

Certifications That Can Boost Your Salary