<– This is what happened to 70% of the applications for a junior web designer position that I recently advertised on Bizcommunity.

Over and above the fact that the applicants who’s CVs managed to make it to the recycle bin did so because they didn’t have the necessary skills, weren’t residing in the right province, weren’t junior enough or generally didn’t fit the criteria, there were some common errors made by almost all these applicants that could have cost them the job even if they did meet the criteria.

I am a freelancer, there’s no HR department here, I got seriously frustrated with the quality of applications (not necessarily applicants); so what do you think your chances are when you’re up against hordes of other people applying for the same position at a larger company with an HR squad that doesn’t have insight into the position offered, just a checklist that should include these points:

Learn to read:

Sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many applicants miss obvious facts like:

• Position level (junior, mid, senior, etc.)
• Required qualifications
• Area (I received applications from Gauteng for a position in Cape Town)

Read the list of requirements and if there are too many of these that you don’t meet, don’t bother, you’re wasting time and energy.

Keep your CV up to date:

Pay attention to what is asked of you. If only a short CV is required, list only your most recent positions, qualifications and keep it concise.

List positions in a-chronological order (in other words: start with the most recent one first, etc.)

Keep the list of references short and relevant to the position that you are applying for.

Keep your portfolio up to date:

Regularly add new content (if you have) and make even your portfolio as concise as possible (also checking file size in case you might need to email it).

If the job requires that you submit a portfolio, do so … you’d be surprised at the amount of applications I received that only had CVs … in one case, the CV was so well laid out that I actually mailed the applicant and requested that they forward what turned out to be an impressive porfolio; things could have gone very wrong had I been someone working in the HR department of a large agency.

Send portfolio in PDF format (everyone/anyone can open those) … I really don’t have time to unzip large files and wade through a plethora of Powerpoint presentations – make it easy for me please.

Use Google:

Do some research on the company that you are about to apply at – make sure you want to work there, get an impression of their work and if you’ll be able to live up to their standards and/or compliment their style.

If you are handed an assignment to complete as part of the application process, don’t leave sections blank or unanswered, but also don’t try to sound too knowledgeable about fields that you know nothing of … at least show that you have a basic understanding (in other words: that you know how to research where your knowledge is lacking).

Get personal, but not too personal:

Avoid the general “to whom this may concern” greeting, the advertisement for the position should/would have listed a contact person – address your application/message to that person.

DO NOT CC ANYONE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES … unless you are trying to reach more than one person in the same company for the same position, you should never EVER CC multiple recipients from different companies … it’s unprofessional, creates the impression that you are hard-up for a job, might be flagged as spam and only serves to show how little effort you are putting into your application – how much will you put into your job?

That’s it … my short list – pay attention to these and you’ll stand a better chance of creating that vital first impression (at least on my watch) … think I left out anything that is important to you? Then add to this list in the comments section.

Post image courtesy of stock.xchng – image by nkzs

Anyhow … to the point of this post. It would seem that one of the most requested features for BuddyPress, is a means of dividing (or at the very least being able to select individually) the member profile info groups. I needed to do this and also create a simple navigation to the profile groups, so my solution had two components.

First let’s start with the default member profile loop (found at wp-content/bp-themes/your-member-theme-/profile/profile-loop.php) …

<?php if ( bp_has_profile() ) : ?>
	<?php while ( bp_profile_groups() ) : bp_the_profile_group(); ?>

		<?php if ( bp_profile_group_has_fields() ) : ?>
			<div class="info-group">
				<h4><?php bp_the_profile_group_name() ?></h4>

				<table class="profile-fields">
				<?php while ( bp_profile_fields() ) : bp_the_profile_field(); ?>

					<?php if ( bp_field_has_data() ) : ?>
					<tr<?php bp_field_css_class() ?>>
						<td class="label">
							<?php bp_the_profile_field_name() ?>
						</td>
						<td class="data">
							<?php bp_the_profile_field_value() ?>
						</td>
					</tr>
					<?php endif; ?>

				<?php endwhile; ?>
				</table>
			</div>
		<?php endif; ?>	

	<?php endwhile; ?>

	<div class="button-block">
		<?php if ( bp_is_home() ) : ?>
			<?php bp_edit_profile_button() ?>
		<?php endif; ?>
	</div>

<?php else: ?>

	<div id="message" class="info">
		<p><?php _e( 'Sorry, this person does not have a public profile.', 'buddypress' ) ?></p>
	</div>

<?php endif;?>

As should be obvious, the loop just returns another div.info-group for every profile group that has at least one field completed by the user, but offers us no hooks – so we need to add an ID to each profile group. This will allow us to target individual elements later in the script. What I’ve done is to call the bp_profile_group_name and then use the WordPress sanitize_title function to create a valid ID from the group name … the loop needs to change to this:

<?php while ( bp_profile_groups() ) : bp_the_profile_group(); ?>
	<?php global $group;?>
	<?php if ( bp_profile_group_has_fields() ) : ?>
		<div id="<?php echo sanitize_title($group->name);?>" class="info-group">
			<table class="profile-fields">
			<?php while ( bp_profile_fields() ) : bp_the_profile_field(); ?>

				<?php if ( bp_field_has_data() ) : ?>
				<tr<?php bp_field_css_class() ?>>
					<td class="label">
						<?php bp_the_profile_field_name() ?>
					</td>
					<td class="data">
						<?php bp_the_profile_field_value() ?>
					</td>
				</tr>
				<?php endif; ?>

			<?php endwhile; ?>
			</table>
		</div>
	<?php endif; ?>

<?php endwhile; ?>

Each profile group will now have an ID, which thus far is pretty useless unless you just want to style each profile group differently, but it should be apparent that we can now use the hooks as named anchors (part of the solution for making those UI Tabs) and navigate to those profile groups.

The method I used for the UI Tabs comes straight from jQuery for designers (a brilliant resource by the way). Bear in mind that WordPress already loads jQuery, so no wp_enqueue_script required (well not in my experience in this implementation) – I used the script inline thus:

<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
	jQuery(function () {
	    var tabContainers = jQuery('div.tabs > div');

	    jQuery('div.tabs ul.tabNavigation a').click(function () {
	        tabContainers.hide().filter(this.hash).show();

	        jQuery('div.tabs ul.tabNavigation a').removeClass('selected');
	        jQuery(this).addClass('selected');

	        return false;
	    }).filter(':first').click();
	});
</script>

The only change that had to be made was to change “$” to “jQuery” throughout the script (thanks Stii – well spotted). Now all we need do is to add the navigation, which you can do manually with an unordered list; although my preference was again for something a bit more dynamic, because the page looked a bit flimsy when a member has not completed all the additional fields in their profile info.

I basically duplicated the loop and stripped it out to end up with just enough markup for a menu that only returns links for items that has data in them. That loop looks like this:

<ul class="tabNavigation">
	<?php while ( bp_profile_groups() ) : bp_the_profile_group(); ?>
	<?php global $group;?>
		<?php if ( bp_profile_group_has_fields() ) : ?>
			<li><a href="#<?php echo sanitize_title($group->name);?>"><?php bp_the_profile_group_name() ?></a></li>
		<?php endif; ?>
	<?php endwhile; ?>
</ul>

All that is left for us to do now, is to wrap both loops in a container (div.tabs for preference) for the JavaScript to sort itself out and style the navigation to taste. If you are using the above loop for the navigation as opposed to a static option, you can remove global $group from the second loop – it only needs to be set once.

For those who are not to keen on figuring this out for yourself and prefer the winning copy|paste recipe – here’s the complete loop as I have it … should work right out of the box, just overwrite everything in your profile-loop.php … enjoy

<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
	jQuery(function () {
	    var tabContainers = jQuery('div.tabs > div');

	    jQuery('div.tabs ul.tabNavigation a').click(function () {
	        tabContainers.hide().filter(this.hash).show();

	        jQuery('div.tabs ul.tabNavigation a').removeClass('selected');
	        jQuery(this).addClass('selected');

	        return false;
	    }).filter(':first').click();
	});
</script>
<div class="tabs">
<?php if ( bp_has_profile() ) : ?>

<ul class="tabNavigation">
	<?php while ( bp_profile_groups() ) : bp_the_profile_group(); ?>
	<?php global $group;?>
		<?php if ( bp_profile_group_has_fields() ) : ?>
			<li><a href="#<?php echo sanitize_title($group->name);?>"><?php bp_the_profile_group_name() ?></a></li>
		<?php endif; ?>
	<?php endwhile; ?>
</ul>
	<?php while ( bp_profile_groups() ) : bp_the_profile_group(); ?>
		<?php if ( bp_profile_group_has_fields() ) : ?>
			<div id="<?php echo sanitize_title($group->name);?>" class="info-group">
				<table class="profile-fields">
				<?php while ( bp_profile_fields() ) : bp_the_profile_field(); ?>

					<?php if ( bp_field_has_data() ) : ?>
					<tr<?php bp_field_css_class() ?>>
						<td class="label">
							<?php bp_the_profile_field_name() ?>
						</td>
						<td class="data">
							<?php bp_the_profile_field_value() ?>
						</td>
					</tr>
					<?php endif; ?>

				<?php endwhile; ?>
				</table>
			</div>
		<?php endif; ?>

	<?php endwhile; ?>

</div>
	<div class="button-block">
		<?php if ( bp_is_home() ) : ?>
			<?php bp_edit_profile_button() ?>
		<?php endif; ?>
	</div>

<?php else: ?>

	<div id="message" class="info">
		<p><?php _e( 'Sorry, this person does not have a public profile.', 'buddypress' ) ?></p>
	</div>

<?php endif;?>

Uncle Sam is getting serious about Africa and is using social media channels to drive initiatives and spread the word … most of us are oblivious to this and even more couldn’t care less about trawling the internet for information related to this topic; but what if you could aggregate this information? Planned visits to African states, speeches, tweets, photos … Yes We Can!

Afrigator has just launched such a service that aggregates an information stream from the American government – proving again that they are on top of their game and leading the pack where providing afri-centric information is concerned. The site includes a live stream, news, blog and photos, videos and links section, making it a comprehensive, one-stop information outlet for Africans interested in this topic.

Awesome initiative guys (and one girl) … Afrigator rocks!

More on the initiative and the mechanics behind it over at stii‘s blog …

Microsoft claims that Internet Explorer 8 is faster, easier and safer than any of the previous incarnations (unfortunately IE just won’t die … leave alone stay dead) and go on trying to convince us that they now have the superior browser … or at least one that can go ten rounds with any of their opposition, blow by blow – which is true in part, seeing that it still blows big time. You can read the full, official release here.

Now, for the moment, let us forget about all the hogwash they’re spewing about IE8 reigning supreme over other browsers based on security, privacy, ease of use, blah-blah – it’s all one big lie anyway. Most of these “facts” are based on opinion and preference anyway, with no instrument/means by which we can measure these claims. The only useful tools that they do offer us are the developer tools (pretty useful for fixing IE specific lay-out bugs), but then Firefox has the inimitable Firebug in its camp.

What about the Web Standards claim?

As a developer/web designer, my biggest concern is with web standards – something that they claim to have down pat at present. I much prefer facts and statistics over hype, so I figured a quick reality check in the form of the Acid Test should be just the ticket. For those who are not familiar with the Acid Test – it is a Web Standards Project initiative that puts your browser through its paces and then weighs its performance against the W3C guidelines for markup. In plain English then: it checks if your browser will display all websites as specified and gives it a score out of 100, depending on its performance.

So, without further a-do … the test results:

• Safari 4 – 100/100
• Google Chrome – 99/100
• Firefox 3.5 – 93/100
• Firefox 3 – 71/100
• IE 8 – 20/100
• IE 7 – 12/100
• IE 6 – 11/100

So … while it is indeed true that IE8 is a vast improvement over its predecessor, it has a long way to go before we really see the results of Microsoft having “invested heavily in having world-class, consistent support for the entire CSS2.1 specification”. While they now claim to offer us crash recovery, I can only imagine that this feature was included simply because it really needs to recover from crashes frequently … that has been my experience in the short while that I have been testing the official release.

It is not all doom and gloom though and I think we have to accept that it’s early days for this new approach from Microsoft. Acid Test aside, I have found that CSS-techniques generally work well since IE7 (albeit after some recent Windows updates), without the need for hacks or IE-specific stylesheets.

For now Internet Explorer is still a #FAIL in my books and I think that, with IE8 finally released, it is really time that Microsoft lays IE6 to rest … here’s hoping.

The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. The GPL is the most popular and well-known example of the type of strong copyleft license that requires derived works to be available under the same copyleft. Under this philosophy, the GPL grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the free software definition and uses copyleft to ensure the freedoms are preserved, even when the work is changed or added to. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD licenses are the standard examples.

Basically, the GPL is a bill of rights that tries to ensure that open source remains open source (a very broad description) and anything released under GPL may only be re-released as GPL without limitations to the original license. So if I were (for argument’s sake) to download WordPress, I may use and modify it in any way that I see fit. If I decide to modify it and re-release it, I may only do so under GPL again. So, as the WordPress post explains, it follows that themes that I create for WordPress are bound by the same rule, simply because everything I create is made possible by the WordPress core; thus becoming a modification/extension thereof – the CSS and design work will be exempt from this ruling, because that will not form part of the WordPress core; my site will also function without CSS and pretty pictures. I MAY NOT release it under a different or more restrictive license (Creative Commons for instance) – essentially it remains the property of the public domain.

The GPL also does not prevent anyone from charging for modified versions – as someone jokingly put it yesterday: you can actually sell the WordPress software to anyone stupid enough to buy it from you (stupid because they can download it for free), but I am sure someone will comment here and disagree with that statement. This also means that I may buy a premium theme, copy the code verbatim, slap my own design/CSS on it and resell it as my own theme (not something that I will actually do and there will surely be some restrictions as far as the markup is concerned).

So far I have been talking about WordPress and the whole debate around GPL, but what of other open source projects/software. Some years ago we saw the birth of Joomla as a consequence of a licensing debacle around Mambo. Joomla became very popular (especially in South Africa) for quite a while, but as it’s popularity grew, it became a pain in the butt for web designers/developers; not because of licensing, but due to end users. Once people know that you get the software for free, they want you to work on and maintain it for free. How many times have I heard complaints from bloggers that they shouldn’t be paying THAT MUCH for a theme for their personal blog? How many times have I been approached by organisations that expect you to do a Joomla freebie? How many times do you have to hand someone a Linux distro, only to start receiving phone calls from people who now have technical questions or queries that they need assistance with and are not willing to pay for the support of a free product?

I think that, for starters, end users need to be educated as to what exactly open source means – it doesn’t necessarily mean FREE. Somewhere someone needs to get paid for their efforts. The open source community thrives, simply because every useful platform has some potential for being monetized. We might not always see or understand the revenue model, but it is there or else people would lose interest. Some projects might just be a means to an end, but follow the trail … eventually it will lead you to the money. Further to this, students in Information Technology, multimedia and web should be introduced to licensing and the options available to ensure that they do not violate others’ rights due to ignorance.

So what of WordPress and premium themers then? Premium themes have been given the thumbs up (as stated, you are allowed to charge), but will need to release the code for their themes under the same GPL (or no license at all) – this has in fact always been the case; I think that Matt’s post simply makes official what a lot of us have felt for a long time. I believe that the community will continue to go from strength to strength and that there will be an incentive to develop and share knowledge for this platform for a very long time still. The community is growing exponentially and I think that we can be sure to see more people giving back to the community that nurtured them and helped them expand their skills base. If you don’t believe me, go have yourself a look at the WordPress support forums.

WordPress provides us with such a solid foundation, that it has instilled enough confidence in developers to create spin-offs like BuddyPress (a full blown social networking “plugin” for WordPress Multi User) and bbPress (an open source forum platform that also integrates with WPMU and BuddyPress).

So, to answer my own question then … Does the GPL debate go beyond just WordPress themes? It certainly does. The stance that Matt Mullenweg has taken and is defending passionately, is one that I would like to see adopted by all users of open source products on all levels – it is time that we check where we stand morally, adopt the share-and-share-alike attitude and not impinge on others’ rights if the community is to keep on thriving and providing us with powerful tools for FREE. WordPress also sends out a strong message and sets a fine example of how an open source project can be successful if you stick to your guns … we applaud you Matt Mullenweg!!!

I did a bit of research and came up with the shocking truth (or a reasonable, unbiased version thereof).

The test/criteria:

• Choose one Apple desktop unit that can be built with PC spares
• Determine its PC equivalent (or as near as possible)
• Compare local and international prices for both the Mac and the PC
• Apply the same, using a laptop
• We used an exchange rate of R8.00 to the US Dollar

For the desktop unit we compared the Mac Pro Quad-Core to its PC equivalent – I use the term “equivalent” very loosely here; there is no processor (that we could find) currently available off-the-shelf in South Africa that matches the Mac chipset, but for the purposes of this exercise we needed a chipset that we could find locally to compare its price to USA prices. It is therefore a given that the Mac will offer better performance (which you might want to take into account when you calculate value for money).

Mac Pro 2.66GHz Quad-Core:

• One 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” processor
• 3GB (three 1GB) memory
• 640GB hard drive
• 18x double-layer SuperDrive
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 with 512MB

Available from:

• apple.com at US$2,499.00 or R19,992
• digicape.co.za at R27,999.00
• zastore.co.za at R27,999.00

Our PC equivalent:

• Intel Xeon 2.4GHz E5530 socket LGA1366 Quad core
• Kingston Hyper-X KHX11000D3LLK3/3GX 3x 1Gb/1024Mb
• ASUS P6T7-WS SuperComputer LGA1366
• Seagate st3640323as Barracuda SATA 640Gb 3.5″
• Asus EN9600GT/HTDi/512
• Gigabyte® X3 ATX Chassis
• Coolermaster RS-A00-EFAM Real power 1000w PSU
• Enermax Aurora Aluminum Keyboard
• Microsoft Mo-MoBD Wheel Optical Mouse
• 22x DVD-RW optical drive
• Microsoft Windows Vista Business Edition 64 DSP

The Totals:

• Components bought in USA at US$1,928.00 or R15,424.00
• Components sourced locally at R24,020.00

What this boils down to:

1. The Mac price difference is R8,000.00 or 40% more expensive than the US price
2. The PC price difference is R8,596.00 or 55% more expensive than the US price
3. The Mac is R4,568.00 or 30% more expensive than a PC in the USA compared to R3,979.00 or 15% in South Africa

This prompts me to ask the question: “Who has really been screwing us?”. Core‘s snotty attitude aside, it should be really obvious that the whole “we need more competition” debate also loses all integrity, seeing that we could find plenty of local suppliers for PC spares – prices seem to vary from expensive to ridiculously cheap (we used average figures/prices for our calculations) where most components are concerned – availability does not seem to be an issue.

If you are still not convinced that PC suppliers are screwing us just as badly, take a look at our comparison between laptop prices …

MacBook Pro

• 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM – 2x2GB
• 320GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
• SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• 15-inch Glossy Widescreen Display
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 256MB

Stacks up against an HP Notebook – 8530w thus:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 (2.8Ghz)
• 2048MB DDRII 800MHz 1 DIMM
• 320GB 7200rpm
• DVD+/-RW
• 15.4 WUXGA WVA + CAM
• NVIDIA FX770M 512MB

And the pricing?

1. Macbook Pro US$2,249 or R17,992.00 compared to R25,499 locally – 40% more expensive
2. HP Notebook US$2,200.00 or R17,600 compared to R28,206.00 (iShop) or R32,228.00 (ZAPS Online) – 60% to 80% more expensive

You do the math. It goes without saying that we need to take VAT and shipping costs into consideration and also the fact that the fixed exchange rate of R9.00 to the US dollar that CORE claims to have agreed upon with their suppliers will not necessarily be the same as what PC distributors are paying. We think by omitting these the playing field should be level enough though.

So what do you think? Is CORE the rotten Apple in the bunch that is the SA computer market? Could they have done less damage by taking a different stance towards their consumers? You decide, but I’ll tell you this … next time I buy a Personal Computer, chances are it will be a Mac.

Sources:
http://titan-ice.co.za/
http://www.zaps.co.za/
http://www.take2.co.za/
http://simplicity.co.za/
http://www.prophecy.co.za/
http://www.zastore.co.za/
http://www.digicape.co.za/
http://www.apple.com/
http://www.ishoponline.co.za
http://www.google.com/products

Even if the price was not the issue, I can simply not agree with the sheer arrogance of the local official Apple dealer (and more specifically the attitude of RJ van Spaandonk – Director of the Core Group). Firstly there was the fairly biased debate on 702 yesterday morning, followed by a healthy dose of smugness by RJ van Spaandonk himself via the Core Group twitter stream … screen shot here. It is obvious that Core have absolutely no intention of engaging in sensible conversation with their target market/audience and will not stand a chance of converting someone (read: myself) that spends a bundle of money annually on keeping up to date with current technology available in the personal computer market.

I also find it very ironic that I should receive a call from the new Apple iStore in Canal Walk yesterday, offering me discounted prices on a load of Apple products … not to mention that I was fairly distraught at the fact that they had my cellular number and were arrogant enough to cold call me – if they found my number online (which I will assume they found on my website) then they would also have noticed that I loathe spam and am quite verbal about the matter on my blog and via my tweets … cold calling me is obviously the right way to rub me up the wrong way. Further I have to wonder if the sudden price reductions have anything to do with the whole CORE vs CAB debacle.

Given the above, do you think you’d be able to persuade me to convert to Mac?

Thanks to friend Gerhard for sending this via email … it was just too damn good not to share.

Hard as I myself find it to believe, some people do actually read this blog (on a regular basis) and it is to these few loyal fans that I feel I owe an explanation. I haven’t been totally inactive, but there are some good things in the pipeline for designsignature that might be well worth the wait.

The to-do list:

• New theme incoming – not just a theme, I have decided (due to the amount of WordPress sites that I have been working on recently) that my WordPress skills are at a point where I can confidently start punting them. I am starting right here at designsignature HQ by turning the full site into a WordPress affair.
• For the same reason as stated above, I’ll be launching a theme and WordPress tips & tricks orientated blog. I’ll announce it here as soon as it is ready – expect FREE themes as often as I have time to play.
• Since I moved back to Cape Town, work has been streaming in – this means that I am now in a position where I urgently had to start looking for an assistant … such an individual has been found and announcements will be made when relevant. Said geek is also an ace techie – expect more technical posts, tips & tricks and gadgets soon(ish).
• … and last but not least; I have also been working my backside off on some WordPress MU and BuddyPress theme work, I hope to be putting that experience to good use in a community driven online magazine type affair (actually might combine that with the theme site).

So there it is … what is said cannot be unsaid – so this does of course mean that I cannot back down (some days I need pressure as a motivation) the above mentioned will roll out during the course of the next few weeks. So … what are you waiting for? Hit that RSS button already!