Questionable job hunting

Got a response from a job application.

They asked me for contact info and a good time to call. I plastered said info all over my coverletter, resume, and email application. *Flag 1* (okay fine, I omitted contact times just to see what would happen)

Their website doesn't exist either. *Flag 2*

Well, the server responding to the site works (whois reports GoDaddy). It completes the 3way handshake and ACKs the HTTP request, but it doesn't send the page and the connection stays alive. *Flag 3*

I'm not quite sure if this company exists or not. It was a craigslist posting (some companies don't like posting who they are), they're responding from the craigslist email *Flag 4*, and the person who responded has 3 phone numbers in 3 different area codes. *Flag 5*

Because this is a QA position and "why not?", I responded with an overview of what Wireshark captured.

Asala Greatsword Progress #2 and Job Hunt Update

The polycount is quickly rising. I'm almost at 6k (original is included in the screenshot's polycount). I'm making the topmost details in the texture physical geometry with the rest staying in texture. This method is giving me some bad vibes about the end result, but I don't want to sit here twiddling my thumbs because it may not look right.

If I made the rest of the metal...uhm...bands on the crossguard geometry, I'd probably add another 1200 polygons. It is quite tempting.

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I got a rejection email, ahem, personal response saying the following:

• I had "a lot of technical skills" (good) "to acquire" (ouch) before being able to work in their Junior IT position.
• "It would take a lot of training" (You said you were willing to train...) "to provide you with all the business, sales, and technical knowledge" (Sales? That wasn't in the description and I'm not going to sell product when I'm trying to fix machines). 
• "We have no problem providing training" (Uh huh) "But $15/hr is too much to pay a Junior IT position" (So, the bottom end of the average salary for a Junior IT position according to Glassdoor is too much.)

For the technical skills, I knew I wasn't going to get the job as soon as I read them. Here they are:

1. Ethernet, TCP/IP protocols (down to the packet capture level)
2. Telephony (PRI/ISDN/POTS/PBXs)
3. Linux
4. Planning, installation, troubleshooting and administration of Exchange 2003 and 2007/2010.
5. Planning, installing, troubleshooting and administration of Microsoft Windows 2003/2008/2008R2 Server and Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 Desktop operating systems.
6. Active Directory and Group Policy creation and deployment.
7. SonicWALL firewall and security products
8. Hyper V and/or VMware virtualization technology
9. Microsoft SQL and mySQL
10. Asterisk PBX compiled from source code and Polycom IP phones
11. Programming: PHP, ColdFusion, .NET

Out of all those requirements, I had half of 1, maybe 2. Should probably add Windows 8/Server 2012 to the list if they haven't filled the spot yet.

From what I've seen of other "Junior IT" positions, the requirements for this position were absurd. For example, another Junior IT position ($12/hr, 3 days a week) I applied for required the following:

1. Installation of Windows XP/Vista/7 and drivers for specific hardware
2. Familiar with joining machines to a domain and setting up/using Active Directory
3. Familiar with troubleshooting Windows machines
4. Familiar with networking

For these requirements, I definitely had 3 out of  4.

I kind of wish there was some sort of standard on what is and isn't "Junior" level because the differences between these two are ridiculous. (I didn't get the bottom position either. Oh well.)

A+ Certification Study Cards and Practice Tests

I've found a couple online practice tests and flash cards to help study for A+ Certification, but I'm not too confident with them. Why? Take a look at some of the questions and answers:

Apparently DVD-/+RW (1997/1999), DVD-RAM (1998), and BD-RE (2006) do not exist. This is for the 2009 test I believe. However, the dates were grabbed from the first 5 results of a Google search, so take them with a grain of salt.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screwdriver#Blade_types

According to this practice test, the correct answer is the second one. Is a printer with only a USB A or B connector not considered a USB device then? Some portable USB devices used mini-B. I haven't seen a mini-B connection on a PC, laptop maybe, but not a desktop. I also haven't seen a USB B on a PC.

Seeing how I measure up to A+ Certification

I'm looking into A+ Certification. I'm already familiar with assembling/disassembling PCs, installing an OS, and troubleshooting, so I might as well put another bulletpoint on the resume. There's just one problem: The practice tests I've found have quite a wide range of topics, with a few that are oddly specific.

So far, I have failed every practice test I've taken. Why? I didn't know the following:

• Minimum and Recommended System Requirements of Windows 2000, XP, Vista Basic, and Vista Home Premium/Business/Ultimate.
• What "1x" speed is for CD, DVD, and BluRay.
• How long SATA and PATA cables can be. (1mr and 45cm, respectively)
• The history of ATA, revisions, and when features were added as well as what they do.
• The most common form factors of usb flash drives (ex: 1.8in, 2.5in)
• The form factors of CompactFlash devices ("Type I (3.3 mm) and Type II (5.0 mm)")
• Region codes of BluRay (A, B, and C, not 0-8)
• That CPUID is a code that determines the capabilities of the CPU being run. Not the program of the same name I have used in the past that reads that information and has some system monitoring capabilities. *This question was an A, B, C, or D with both the definition of CPUID and the features of CPUID as possible answers.*
• All cpu sockets, their names, functions, pin counts, and what CPUs used them. (Did you know Socket 7 could accept processors from multiple manufacturers?)
• The default addresses used by the primary and secondary IDE controllers.
• How a laser printer works.

Other problems I've had:

• Reading a question about optical drives speed ratings of  48x 32x 52x as having commas and thus getting the Write, Rewrite, and Read speeds question wrong.
• Associating "Master/Slave" and "Standalone" modes for PATA as the same thing. Why? Because I did that all the time in my Computer Diagnostics class. I'd plug a drive in, set as CS or Master and that was "Standalone".
• Vocabulary. I.e. What is a "Stepper motor" used in? "What is a stepper motor!?" (It is, in a sense, what I've been using consistently in my Portal 2 maps: MOMENTARY_ROT_BUTTON. Well, the SetPosition input at least.)
• Forgetting Decimal to Hexadecimal conversion (25 is 19, not 1a)
• Forgetting the pin counts of floppy and IDE ribbon cables. (34 and 40. However, you can also have 80pins for IDE. And the number 1 pin is not always denoted by a red stripe along the side like it says in the tests. Sometimes it is black or blue, depending on color scheme and aesthetics.)
• Why am I being asked how to change the desktop background in Windows? Granted, I've met someone who didn't know how to do that. But given the multiple ways you can do it (MS Paint, PhotoViewer, Desktop properties) and only being able to select one way as being correct, there's something wrong here.
• "How many devices can a SCSI controller support?" They don't ask which version (1, 2, or 3) and all their numbers are off by 1 which, I'm assuming, means they are zero-indexed.

I guess I'm still on the consumer side of things and reliant on web searches and, to a lesser extent (way less), books, to find relevant information. However, I don't believe memorizing every ISO standard and every connector pinout is a good measure of a PC Technician.

I need to overcome my mental roadblock of "I don't like the game, so I won't play. It shouldn't be this way. Should it?"

Just another post

I picked up Dead Island during the Steam Summer Sale after watching the GameTrailers review. I have an odd feeling that they played the console version because, well, the PC version is terrible. I'm noticing a trend where I say "Game X is screaming console port!" and I think it's because, well, I keep playing games that are console ports...but anyways, this one is definitely in that category.

The following is a list of things that I...noticed while playing the game:

• Rebinding the Use key doesn't completely work. There are instances where I had to press the originally bound key to do anything.
• No quickslot keys. I have to use the middle mouse button to pull up a radial menu.
• The camera moves a little until the mouse moves past a threshold wherein the radial menu completely redirects input. So, the radial arrow AND the camera both move for a little bit.
• Switching weapons into radial slots takes a second before it registers. So, if you exit the menu too quick, your weapon won't switch spots.
• You have to sell stacks of items one, at, a, time.
• Inventory is categorized and placed in one huge list.
• Not sortable.
• I can carry bottles of bleach, several cans of food, bottles of water, nails, batteries, large batteries, a dozen bottles of champagne, and several engine parts, but can't carry more than 16 tonfas, 75 pistol bullets, 90 rifle bullets, and 30 shotgun shells.
• I get it. The tonfas are weapons and the rest are misc/crafting materials, but I raised my eyebrow at this several times because, if you're going to be somewhat realistic about ammo, why stop there?
• Skill descriptions persist instead of only appearing when the mouse hovers over them.
• They also obscure everything underneath them, so you have to click around in order to reveal the skill tree.
• Some descriptions are a bit...weird.
• If I alt+tab, vsync turns off.
• I've lost audio for everything but cutscenes once. No idea why.
• No FOV slider
• Shotguns or assault rifles at point blank range tend to do no damage to npcs, but npcs can shoot you at the same range.
• If I aim at an enemy and fire, it'll miss when the second shot from the same position hits. Yes, guns sway, but when the sway never takes you off the target (at around 20ft), shouldn't I hit?
• Gun specialist with no guns for the first quarter of the game.
• Except for her Fury.
• Mouse acceleration dramatically different between the menu and ingame.
• Too low and your camera is perfect, but your mouse has to run the length of a football field in order to get anywhere in the menus.
• The blood effect I had on screen has become a white, textureless blur. <-- I'm a bit concerned about this one. Better retest my graphics card.
• I got killed by a car door as I exited a vehicle while it pulled to a stop.
• My checkpoints are always where the main quest is, not where it says "checkpoint saved" or whatnot.
• Cars disappear if you venture more than 100 yards away from them. "Why yes, I wanted to trek across the entire island to turn in this quest."
• In one quest, you can't leave a key character in the SAFE ZONE without failing a quest and being forced to restart. However, you can leave said character in the middle of nowhere with no defenses whatsoever.
• If I have a stack of medkits, but my inventory slots are full. I cannot pickup another medkit and add it to the stack until I drop a weapon, pickup the kit, and then pickup the weapon I dropped.
• One cutscene sequence at a police station has no sky and reminds me of the hall-of-mirrors from the Source engine. Repeatable and only this cutscene, not the others.

Fortunately, a few key issues were addressed using Dead Island Helper and I've been enjoying the game. However, I've been running into the "No mic = ban" groups. Yes, yes, voice chat is very useful for coordination, but I've had enough people abusing it in the past to a) turn it off and b) not bother finding out what is wrong with my mic (bass boost/constant hum).


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Anyways, I'm thinking about releasing my black leather duster clothes model for Skyrim. It's still giving me this weird stretched polygon issue. I'll have to start it from scratch to ensure all vertices keep their numbers. This does annoy me because, as I've said before, the heavy model was the original scaled up in places to accommodate a thicker body. Nothing else was changed, even the weightmaps are the same.

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I tried getting another Portal 2 map fleshed out, but wound up starting yet another one and tweaking my Backstock map. And now, I've forgotten to work on any of them because I've been running around in Dead Island ("Get money's worth" *grumble grumble*).

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2k Games has put up their, what seems to be, quarterly "QA Testers needed" posting on Craigslist. I've applied in the past, but never got a response, not even an automated one. Now, I'm not sure I even want to drive 45 miles and pass LAX twice a day. I think I once calculated that the money the job paid was not enough to cover the cost of driving to and from their general location. Making negative income, brilliant! Of course, whatever I concluded from that is void because the vehicle I drove then had its transmission die (100mi from home no less) and I now have a more fuel efficient car (No, I didn't buy it. It was a gift and I can't even cover the insurance or car wash. My parents have to.).

I really want to get a job in which I either fix PCs or work on some aspect of Game Development (or both!), but about 75% of the applications I've sent out never received a response of any kind. The 25% that did were mainly for programming positions where I bombed the phone interviews because my vocabulary was terrible. I know what I'm doing (mostly), but can't express it in the exact textbook technical terms they want. I'm only applying for entry level positions, mind you.

I did have an interview with a game publisher last year, but they misread my resume and thought I ran focus testing instead of being a focus tester. So, when that came up a quarter of the way through the interview, they just went through the motions to humor me. When I followed up saying thank you, I got no response back. When I knew I didn't get the job a month later (how could I not know from the get-go?), still no messages.

I'm finding that if I get an interview, I don't get responses back and any further attempts at contact are met with silence. I've been at it for almost a year and a half. I hate my job (i.e. job hunting) so much that I don't do it. I'm tired of these oneway conversations. At this point, my CS degree is worthless ("Oh, a degree. What else ya got?") and the only thing I've programmed in that time was a couple weeks ago. 10 lines of code to brute force calculate a number whose right edge on a number line would match the left edge of another number. Thrilling. Better slap that on the resume.

What really gets on my nerves are all the postings that are blatant "We want to exploit those of you who have lost your jobs because of the recession" positions. What I mean is for a part-time PC technician position, I had to have 5-10 years experience and previously worked on enterprise-level hardware and/or ran an IT department for a big company. The job paid $15/hr and was for some local PC repair shop (of course, they didn't say who they were, so I couldn't bike over and shove my resume in their face). The job was basic PC troubleshooting, some network troubleshooting, assembly, some part swapping, and the occasional house call.

I did apply for idTech camps as an instructor, but after blowing the bully question ("I'd ask him to stop and move him from his target. If repeated, I'd call him out. If continued, I'd put him outside."), I didn't get the job, much to my relief; I'm a terrible teacher. This was the "Oh fine, why not?" application. Of course, now I can mark "familiar with 3ds max". *sigh*