Kirkman Enterprises

 This posting is mostly to serve as a reminder to myself, but others may find the details useful.  The Drupal content management system has a ton of modules that can be installed to enhance a website.  One of the modules that is used on most every Drupal based website I run is "Service Links".  It is what allows the icons to appear the bottom of a post to allow people (including the blog writers) to link to blog entries on various social networking sites.  For example, the Twitter icon will open a new window to allow you to tweet about the blog entry and provide a link to it.  This can be useful for sites who get a large number of their visitors through their users or themselves using these links to advertise and promote the blog entry.

The Service Links module includes a long list of social networking sites built in, including: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit and a ton more.  One service it doesn't have built in is Tumblr.  However, the module can be fairly easily edited (if you know what to do) to add more sites including Tumblr.  The module creator posted the code for adding Tumblr to the Service Links module, but didn't include any details on how to manually add the code.  Since future updates to the module might remove the manual addition, in this post I'm going to document how to add Tumblr to the possible links. Read more »

 No, this is not a get rich quick scheme, not by a long shot.  In fact, unless you live in a third world country or in a place that has a very low cost of living, then this is not likely to pay the bills.  However, working jobs at Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) can help you earn some spare cash.  Over the last 4 years as I've worked with it off and on it's helped me out of jamb or two on those tight months.  So what is MTurk and what kind of work does it have? Read more »

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How are felons to reintegrate into society? 

In a previous posting I expressed concerns that I may ultimately be unemployable due to earning a criminal conviction back in the year 2000.  I am about to the point of determining that I don't have concerns about being unemployable.  Rather, I am feeling that I really am unemployable.  It seems that it doesn't matter how well I did in school, what technical skills I've acquired or how many good things I have done in the last six or seven years to show that I have turned my life around and that I am a different person compared to who I was 12 years ago.  I have about decided that society doesn't want me to be part of it. Read more »

In my rushed and poorly written review of Being Geek, I neglected to point out that there was a nibble that really resonated with me.  It's the idea that gamers can make good employees.  I think there are people who would scoff that idea.  In fact, I've heard people scoff at that idea.  If you stop to think about why people like to play games and some become obsessed by them, it isn't difficult to see how it can relate to corporate life. Read more »

In the last couple of months I have received two conditional job offers.  One was with a multi-national software consulting company with a number of government contracts.  The other was with a small (less than 40 employees) software development firm.  Both of the job offers were rescinded for the same reason.  I am unable to pass a criminal background check. Read more »

With as frequently as I update this blog (or lack of frequency rather), it's a good thing I don't depend on this blog to pay my bills .... yet.  Otherwise, I'd have to post more often and, most likely, would have to post on topics other than the latest computer related book I just read.  Speaking of which, a few weeks back I finished Being Geek by Michael Lopp.  It is subtitled, "The Software Developer's Career Handbook".  I was hoping that this book would be good for someone like me who is attempting to break into the software development industry out of school. Read more »

 If someone has an answer to the question that is the title of this post (How does an asocial person network?), I would love to hear it.  Twice this week, it was suggested to me to attend the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) career fair at school this coming week.  I inwardly cringed at the thought because, to me, it's a very much social situation and I do very badly in social situations.  I wouldn't even consider myself asocial, but socially inept.  I guess that can be attributed to spending much of my formative years sitting in front of a computer.  I never really learned how to interact with people.  I do fine in more formal, business-like settings.  I'm also okay once I know a person and have some common basis in which to interact with them.  However, to approach a perfect stranger and introduce myself I wouldn't know what to do or say once I tell them my name. Read more »

For those who are curious, yes, I am still looking for work.  I've been focused on looking for work in the Austin to San Antonio area to save myself the hassle and expense of moving.  I realize that may limit my options and it is a decision I will be thinking heavily about over the next week or two.  Finding full-time professional work over the last several years has seemed to be difficult for me.  I know some of the reasons why that is so (and I may discuss them at some point on here).  But there are other reasons which elude me.  The current book that I am reading makes mentions of nerds and geeks, like me, trying to live life as if there are a set of rules and objectives.  When the current objective is trying to start my career, sometimes, unclear rules are very frustrating for me.  One thing that is sometimes frustrating is the issue of industry certifications versus raw skill and talent. Read more »

About a month ago I checked out a number of software engineering and development books from the University library to read.  I figured it would be a good opportunity to shore up those areas I am less clear on.  The first book I read (and am now finally getting around to write about) is User Applied Stories by Mike Cohn.  It was a very good book covering user stories as a replacement for traditional requirements solicitation in software design and development.  It provided an introduction to what user stories are and how they can be used throughout the development process. Read more »

I should start this post before the center-piece of it gets too far out of date.  On December 12, the Austin-American Statesman published an article about the lack of people with software development and design skills in the Austin area.  It was somewhat interesting, to me, that in this article that the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce is trying to encourage the University of Texas and the Austin Community College to do more to produce skilled programmers.  A number of questions came up in my mind as I read the article. Read more »