A case in point the question above: What is the next in the sequence SSS SCC C SC? This IT interview question is said to be from Google Corp. You can google for the answer, as I did. I found the solution here.

The answer is neither logical, binary nor very clever. “SSS” stands for 3 straight lines, with which you can print the letter “A”. “SCC” stands for one straight line and two curved lines, which makes for the spine of the “B”, as well as the chest and belly. “C” simply stands for itself. The “S” of “SC” stands for the spine of “D”, and the “C” is the belly. Logically the next in the sequence is “SSSS”, four straight lines which can then create “E”. Write code like this and the support programmer after you will curse you and your ancestors for 1,000 years, and rightly so.

As a backlash against these corporate interview questions, the Career Cup has created a database of interview questions, sorted by job type, company and question type. This is a logical step in this interview arms race, and I applaud their efforts. Still I wonder if the effort put into remembering the solutions to these obscure questions is really wasted effort. They add nothing to the candidate’s technical or interpersonal skills, nor do they add to the candidate’s general knowledge of the world. While learning useless facts and figures may be acceptable for those who wish to learn such, I am sure this is not the case for the vast majority of candidates.

And what about those who’s first language is not English? Do these interview questions help find the best candidates, or simply eliminate qualified and talented individuals?

I wonder aloud if these questions by interviewers are meant to satisfy some perverse need to psychologically torture candidates? Are interviewers simply spicing up their daily grind of a job by having fun at the expense of interviewing candidates? I am unsure. While these questions are not technically illegal they do cast the interviewing company in a very bad light.

As an interviewer we all have personal choices. Asking questions that have seemingly no bearing on the candidate’s background, experience, education and applicability to the job position seems like an abuse of your authority over a candidate.

More bluntly, if you are an interviewer, don’t be a jerk.

The TTC seems to have stayed the same. I expected advancements, but this is not so. They struggle to keep from falling backward on themselves. While most bus drivers are courteous, I have met those who are not. Once there was a detour because of a crime and police had closed the road. This driver did not even announce why he was detouring, so many people asked. He got so mad.

One day on the Yonge subway line I was able to try out the new subway trains. This is one long train that you can walk from one end to the other. Very nice. The schedule has LEDs that light red or green, but have no legend, so I did not know their meaning. Was I to guess? The loudness of these trains was by far much less than the old TTC subways, and much more comfortable. Annoying was the fact that the metal passenger handles on the roof and in the middle of the car squeaked incessantly when passengers and the train moved. This was a new train, and these metal handles were squeaking like rusted objects left out in the rain.

Finding your most efficient TTC route takes some time. The Finch East towards Yonge Street has had construction for the last year. Traffic was down to one lane, slowing the express bus to a crawl. That was the last I used that route.

As I knew before, most TTC commuters sleep. At leat 60% of all commuters close their eyes and try to wish away their commuting experience. Others have ear pieces and listen to music while sleeping. It is annoying to walk behind those that fiddle with their phones and e-toys, who slow down because they need to concentrate on their fiddling. Please, people, step aside and fiddle, and let others walk to their destination.

Electronic toys will be the death of many, I am sure. I saw some guy trip on the sidewalk while texting, and there was no break in the sidewalk. Two people walk into each other, both texting on their devices. It is comical. Darwin candidate?

People are as colourful as usual, with a variety of dress and looks. It is interesting to see them and analyze their dress. Pretty girls everywhere. To fit in and to look normal, seemingly.

I walk and look through my narrow periscope, trying to see the big picture. Maybe the solution is to aggregate these experiences and build up a composite.

C-vents:

• Canada Day and Parade, 2011: Riding, Premier M, J, U, poking fun at people. Used my ruddy turned up blue nose, to good effect. It is not too heavy. Was tired for the P, but happy as well.
• Waterford Festival, 2011: My premier twisting event. Some kid called me “dog”, which apparently is a good thing. U not good on grass or steep hills. Used my round yellow nose, very light and comfy, to good effect.
• Halloween Skating, Scarborough, Oct 30 2011: Had fun skating, used a very large red round. A little too large to stick and started to separate, bobbed up and down too much. Attracted lots of kids, but especially two kids, Mingming and Yeye, whom I have been sitting beside for about 3 months but they did not notice me through that time. Now they say Hi every week.
• Thornhill Historical Parade, 2011: Crowded, there was no bus at the end of the event, so had to walk. Lots of people, but Ok. Helmet top of 3 toys was too heavy, kept falling off. Performed M for a little girl on the TTC that sat across from me, while all the adults watched. Used my small red nose. Light and comfy.
• New Year’s Eve, Scarborough Civic Centre, Dec 31 2011: Little Weed twisted and had a great time. He learned a lot from another, Sparky. I did M and J. Used my new small and shiny red nose, light and really comfy. Freaked out a lot of adults, mostly. I met the rest of the SCofC, which I could not do previously. Did M in Mandarin and freaked out a lady and her son and daughter, who ran from me. No, this is no voodoo. Stiff rope went over very well, as did Prof’s Night. Fun was had by all.
• Port Union Winterfest 2012: It was raining and there was a high wind, so everyone was inside. I got lost getting to the event, and parking was terrible. We were late. Little Weed enjoyed twisting, but we ran out of supplies an hour before the event ended. They fed us a burger and drink, which was nice. Few events treat us to food.

Onward, Forward, Upward.

No one notices, and really, no one need notice. To those who have thrown up hands in frustration, I see your point. To those that have done something radical as a result, I also see your point, though we tell ourselves we will get through it.

At times it seems unbearable, but we trudge on. Oh, to Transform myself into a rock.

I am amazed at the amount of talent that Canadian society wastes. Those that attend university, only to scowl at themselves in the mirror after graduation, staring at the face of unemployment. Those that migrate here from other countries, lured by the possibility of a better life, only to be sorely disappointed. Canadian business is extremely conservative and will not take a chance on these people. They are invisible here in Canada. A pox on those who accuse them of laziness. The privileged condemn the unlucky.

On to Transform into a rock.

What is their message and why did they choose to dress as clowns? Kids would easily identify them as clowns.

The Pharma Hack is very intelligent. Your content is not changed, and when you browse your own site you can detect no change. Search for your site on Google Search and your blog titles and short description will be changed to flogging pharmaceuticals. Search for these blog title changes and you will find none.

From what I have researched, this Pharma Hack is very common. Even spookier, no one knows how sites get infected. This makes prevention more difficult. Somehow some code is changed in one of your plugins and some extra PHP files are added to this plugin. When WordPress is loaded, this plugin is loaded along with this virus. Certain database changes are also changed.

I have checked with my host service provider. Their audit of my site shows no breaches of security and no unauthorized changes to my WordPress blog nor account.

This blog entry from Pearsonified helped me diagnose and immunize myself. Securi‘s tool did not detect the virus. DigWP recommended some really good plugins that hardens WordPress as well as reports file changes. The Ultimate Security Checker grades your site and recommends steps to increase your grade.

It is worth taking these remedial steps to harden your WordPress install. Having someone take destroy your hard work on Google Search really is disappointing. Google Search has already started to reindex my site, a big step in the right direction. A pox on all those that use the Pharma Hack on all unsuspecting and innocent WordPress authors.

You can phone the City of Toronto’s 311 information number to have someone locate your municipal shutoff valve. This is usually on your front lawn, on the side of your house where your water meter is located. Since my grass covered my municipal water shutoff valve, this was not easy and I needed help. The city will dig out the grass covering your shutoff valve as well.

The process for replacing or repairing your main water shutoff valve is pretty simple but a little expensive. These details include:

1. Call a plumbing company the day before and arrange for a plumber to be at your house at 10:30 am. This can be done in advance.
2. The day of the repair, call the City’s 311 information number and request your water be turned off. Tell them that you have booked a plumber for 10:30 am. While the official turnaround time for the city is within 24 hours, they will strive to turn off the water before your plumber arrives. They will provide a reference number, so that if a City worker does not arrive you can call the city back with your number. Today I called the City at 06:00 am to shut off my water, told them about booking my plumber for 10:30 am, and the water technician was at my house at 8:45 am. Someone needs to be home for them to turn off your water. The City of Toronto charges $75CAD to shut off your water. This takes them about 1 minute.
3. The plumber will arrive to change the main water shutoff valve. This valve is under pressure and you certainly do not want this to leak. As well, there is some leakage from the municipal water shutoff valve, and this seepage can make soldering a new valve difficult. Water deep in the pipe turns to steam and prevents a good soldered joint. You might be able to stuff bread in the pipe to prevent this. I had to use a thin polyethylene tube to suction out enough water to replace the valve before it overflowed. This is not a DIY job. Expect to pay around $250 – $300CAD.
4. Once your plumber repairs or replaces your main water shutoff valve, call the City’s 311 info number again to have your water turned on. This will cost you an additional $75CAD, and will take the technician about 1 minute to complete the work. I was told I was lucky today because they arrived at my house 30 minutes after I called. The city will again provide a reference number.
5. Turn on your main water shutoff valve and enjoy your water.

The financial cost at the end of the day was $260CAD for the plumber and $150CAD to the City, for a total of $410CAD.

While the charge from the City seems excessive, we taxpayers must pay more for the water infrastructure that we enjoy daily. In my case my municipal water shutoff valve worked wonderfully, even though it had not moved for near 30 years. The water technician used a tool that was only 1.5′ long. The valve is actually over 4′ deep underground, but there is a 3′ metal rod that stays in the ground and is connected to the shutoff valve. Note that in Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto with over 320,000 people, there are only 2 water technicians on staff.

I could not believe that the plumbing company would charge $235 + HST to change one simple water shutoff valve. It certainly became believable when the plumber showed up. My supply pipe, buried in the concrete in my basement, was now a non-standard size. The measured supply diameters were 3/4″, 13/16″ output, 3/4″ threaded output. This connection was soldered. The output of the shutoff valve that goes to the water meter, was a threaded brass pipe. It turns out that the company that made my valve discontinued it many years ago. It took a trip to Home Depot and two trips to the plumbing supply store to get the right fix. This fix took a long time to figure out, but was quickly completed once a solution was found. Alan is a smart guy.

There are some repairs that the average handyman should not do on their own. The risk of flooding is too great to take this risk, so I was willing to call in a professional. I am glad that I did, because in the end it was done properly, and should last another 30 years.

Thanks to Alan Pir of Anta Plumbing (416-231-3331) for a job well done.

Note that the City of Toronto is in the process of replacing all house water meters. Started in 2010 this program will ramp up between 2013 and 2015, Scarborough and most of the City of Toronto included. This water meter replacement will require the home owner to shut off their main water shutoff valve so that the water meter can be replaced. If any homeowner has installed a water shutoff valve after the meter, this will be insufficient. The main water shutoff valve, between the city supply and the City water meter, will need to be serviced.

And because he asked, my Mandarin is quite good. I love this editorial cartoon.

The more the US has access to cheap oil, the more they will waste it. Overall I think the US and therefore the World would benefit by more expensive oil prices. This also applies to us Canadians. While we all talk conservation and environmental protection, I see way too many SUVs and other large vehicles transporting one driver, and a lack of motivation to fund and build mass transit. I hope that gas prices will double and therefore match that of Europe. ]]> http://dontai.com/wp/2011/11/22/hows-your-mandarin-editorial-cartoon/feed/ 0 http://dontai.com/wp/2011/11/17/disposal-of-construction-garbage-in-toronto/ http://dontai.com/wp/2011/11/17/disposal-of-construction-garbage-in-toronto/#comments Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:22:53 +0000 dontai http://dontai.com/wp/?p=4020

Inside a Solid Waste drop-in Depot, Toronto, Canada. Garbage everywhere.

Not all garbage is disposed of in the same matter. Here in Toronto, Canada we have fairly strict rules of garbage disposal. There are organics, recyclables and yard waste, all with their special pickup schedules. And then there the pickup for “the rest”, that that is destined for land fill, tilled down and buried into some hill, whereabouts unknown. Old shingles from my recent shingling task needed to be disposed of, so off to the Toronto Solid Waste Drop-off Depot I went.

Torontonians seem to be fanatical about the ever changing weather and garbage disposal. We sort out all our garbage to an amazingly fine detail. How someone trained us to do this monkey work and actually enjoy it is a mystery.

There are the organics, which are all vegetable and fruit peelings, plant material and anything else that is natural and can be degraded. Most of this, with the exception of meat products and think tree branches, goes into my composter. We use our composter all year, in all weather. While fine in the summer, in the winter I often need to knock the ice off the top with a good rap or two in order to free the lid. Refuse I put into the large black bin in the winter promptly freezes, then thaws out to a gooey mess in the spring. All this compost goes right back into my garden. Nothing is wasted. While I do not consider myself a die hard, tree hugging environmentalist, I try to do my part to not destroy our dear Mother Earth. A futile attempt, one might say, but to not try would be courting certain disaster.

Those that do not compost or for items unsuitable for the composter, but not plastic, can go into our weekly green bin pickup.

Yard waste is the next category. These are tree trimmings, leaves, roots and anything that grew in your yard. This biweekly pickup is usually frequent enough, but in the fall with all the leaves dropping from the trees, biweekly is not sufficient. There is no defined bin colour or size for yard waste. Some people buy large paper bags, and some people use plastic yard waste containers.

Recyclables (goes into a blue bin) are anything such as paper, styrofoam, card board, metal cans, etc but only specific types of plastic, that can be recycled by the City of Toronto. The list of acceptable recyclables constantly changes each year, so I need to review the acceptable list. It is a little complex. I have put items out that were on the acceptable list, only to be rejected by the garbage guy and thrown on my lawn. Hey, I thought we’d be reading the same list of acceptable items, but sometimes we have differences. This biweekly pickup has no limit on bin size. There is no extra charge to pickup more recyclables, as Toronto is encouraging recycling.

The four sizes of grey garbage bins, Toronto. The larger the size the more you pay.

The rest of everything else, including all excluded plastics, goes into what I call regular garbage (goes into a grey bin). The city simply calls this “garbage”. These are items that go into a landfill somewhere near Toronto, though I do not know where. Home owners can choose between four sized bins, depending on family size and preference. Use the smallest bin and you get a small credit from the city. Use any of the medium, large or extra large, and the City charges you a premium. Most people have opted for the small size, which holds only one garbage bag worth of garbage. There is also a long list of unacceptable items for the grey bin. One of these is construction material, such as wood for framing a house and my used shingles.

To dispose of my shingles I had to figure out where is the nearest Toronto Solid Waste Drop-off Depot. They are open most days and for long hours, but infrequently for residential waste. The hours for residential waste are all day Mondays, and only 6-8 am and 6-8 pm on weekdays. This is most inconvenient, and I had to plan my trip accordingly.

Waste at the Drop-off Depot is charged by the kilogram, the more you have the more you pay. They weigh your vehicle as you enter, using a large scale built into the pavement. Then some guy directs you to a place where you can dump your trash. No workers help you, so you are on your own. Once you have dumped everything, your vehicle is weighed again. The difference is the amount of trash you disposed. My shingles weighed 260 kg, or 573 lbs, and I payed $26CAD. This works out to $0.10 per kilo or $0.45 per lb. A standard bundle of shingles that weights 75 lbs would have a disposal fee of $3.40CAD, or an additional 19% of its original cost.

There is a minimum charge of $10CAD. The Depot’s credit card reader was broken so they only took cash, which I thankfully had. The whole ordeal was relatively painless, though calculating the dumping cost and hours of operation from their web site was confusing. Getting up for the 6 am trip to the Depot was also unappealing, but I do hate a queue.

Our family lived in a rented apartment building until I was in my early teens. There was no issue of privacy nor of many worldly possessions. We simply did not have the space nor the money to buy many toys. Talking about our family situation to the Little Weed draws blank stares and a vacant look. Did I live on the same planet as we do now? Grow up in a house from birth and you know nothing else but house living. It really is difficult for him to contemplate apartment living, nor sharing a room.

Ten boxes of “stuff”, lots of plastic bags, models, Lego, Kinex, it all adds up, which all needs to be stored. His main concern when moving back in is not clothing, which he cares little, but of storage capacity. Where will he display his Hot Wheels collection without his shelving? How can he add more storage to his room? Where to display his models and Transformers?

Freshly painted, bed reassembled, it was time for a new and clean slate. The paint needs to cure, which will take a couple of days. We cannot add his shelving to the walls until this occurs. Put out he was, though in good spirit he did not show his annoyance. More shelving will come in due course.

There is nothing better than custom woodwork. The Little Weed now expects this. Route a curved groove longitudinally into a shelf, which allows his cars to not roll off. The wheels park in the groove and they stop, as they should. This is how Hot Wheels should be displayed, from the Book of Little Weed. Unfortunately “Hot Wheels ready shelving” is not readily available at the Big Box stores. One must set up the router and do it oneself, followed by cutting to length, sanding and sealing. Yet for the Little Weed this how one stores Hot Wheels, and is part of his expectations for living.

New lighting is being considered, halogens that can point where he wants. There is no “if” but “when”.

At least he is happy with his newly painted and drywalled room. The baseboard looks pretty nice. As always, expectations are high.