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Staffing News
Posted by Chris on 10 May 1999, 21:06 GMT

Phil Genera, also known as "ldspartan" on IRC, has joined ticalc.org staff to work primarily on file archives. He's been working behind-the-scenes for the past few weeks, and we're very happy to have him involved. Kirk Meyer, our previous backup file archiver, will no longer be doing file archives now that we have Phil on board.

Ahmed El-Helw, who has been working with us on our Upcoming Programs and Buy & Sell sections, is voluntarily retiring from our staff due to a busy schedule and a desire to devote more of his time to programming. We'd like to thank Ahmed for his commitment and wish him good luck in the future.

In addition, we are looking for at least one more volunteer archiver. Please read the following list of criteria carefully before contacting us.

  • The archiver's duties are to test (where possible) and post new files submitted to ticalc.org, to periodically monitor programmers' web sites for new programs to add, to handle email sent to filearchive@ticalc.org, and to nominate programs for the Program of the Month award.
  • Potential archivers should have about an hour of free online time each day at minimum (more free time is a plus).
  • Familiarity with existing programs and shells is highly suggested.
  • Owning multiple calculators is a plus.
  • Being able to cooperate and work well with others is a necessity!

If you'd like to offer your help, please email us at newstaff@ticalc.org with the following information:

  • Your name, handle (if applicable), and age
  • The amount of time each day, on average, you expect to be able to spend
  • Which TI graphing calculator model(s) you own
  • An overview of any programming experience you have (computers or calculators)
  • Any other relevant information you think we should know

Thanks in advance to anyone interested in helping out. We will do our best to move ahead as quickly as possible, but please be patient if you don't hear back from us immediately.

 


The comments below are written by ticalc.org visitors. Their views are not necessarily those of ticalc.org, and ticalc.org takes no responsibility for their content.


Re: Staffing News
Joe

I need more information about the requested time. I have about one hour online free a day, but how long does it take to test each of the programs once you are offline? Could someone who used to do the testing please reply.

     11 May 1999, 18:19 GMT

Re: Re: Staffing News
ticalc_chris

One hour a day is basically a minimum for how much time is required for everything. The time it takes to test a program varies, depending on whether you have to send it to the calculator or just pull it up on an emulator. Usually it's just a quick check, and even if you had programs to send to each calculator, it probably wouldn't take more than a few minutes for each calculator to try out the programs.

Some days there are 5 new programs, sometimes 25, so it's not a constant time commitment, either.

Chris

     11 May 1999, 19:47 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Staffing News
Adam Berlinsky-Schine
(Web Page)

Have you, personally, ever done file archiving, Chris? It takes more time than that. If you want to check it thoroughly and write a description of it then it's going to take at least 10 minutes per program to do a good job.

     12 May 1999, 02:30 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Staffing News
ticalc_chris

"Veterans" will remember that I was the maintainer of the Unofficial TI-Calculator Home Page, one of the predecessors of ticalc.org. I had file archives then, and continued to do the archives for the first few months of ticalc.org.

In addition, our file archive system was written in-house and automates much of the process. I'm definitely not the expert on it, but it's fair to say your experiences at maintaining archives one way aren't necessarily indicative of how the process works at our site. If uploaders help us out by filling in the description and other information themselves, the process is very quick indeed.

Again, one hour a day is a _minimum_.

Chris

     12 May 1999, 11:35 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Staffing News
Bryan Rabeler
(Web Page)

And who was hired back in 1997 when the archives here were in shambles and The Fargo Archive (TFA) was far more popular than this site for TI-92 (Fargo) programs... ?

And just from experience, just because the author or submitter fills out the information on the form, doesn't mean the information is correct or the standard way to display things. Although if you don't wish to have a standardized and/or accurate file archive, then be my guest.. obviously my opinion isn't worth anything anyway.. :)

     13 May 1999, 00:37 GMT


Re: Re: Staffing News
Dan

GOOD GOD A RELATIVE COMMENT!!!!!!!!!

     12 May 1999, 04:32 GMT

News on TI sites
Frank Schoep
(Web Page)

I have a little off-topic question:
1) Is there a special Email adress for the news of TIcalc.org, and if so what is it? (???news@ticalc.org???)
2) Is there a special Email adress for the news of Dimension TI, and if so what is it? (???news@calc.org???)
Thanks for your help.

Yours sincerely,
Frank Schoep

     11 May 1999, 19:13 GMT

Re: News on TI sites
abc

Yup, I think both of those are the right addresses

     11 May 1999, 20:53 GMT


Re: News on TI sites
Adam Berlinsky-Schine
(Web Page)

news@calc.org or news@dimension-ti.org work for Dimension-TI, and I'm pretty sure ticalc.org uses news@ticalc.org.

     12 May 1999, 01:30 GMT


Re: Re: News on TI sites
Frank Schoep
(Web Page)

Thanks both for your help. I really appreciate it.

Yours sincerely,
Frank Schoep
dsfs98@westbrabant.net
home.concepts.nl/~dsfs98 (Check it out- I've written a Z80 decompiler) (is that news?)

     12 May 1999, 21:12 GMT

Re: Staffing News
mhlandry

Whats off topic? Something that has nothing to do with the news article? Or what about something that is relevant to the previous comment but not to the news article?

     12 May 1999, 00:04 GMT


Re: Re: Staffing News
Paul

What is relevant and ontopic for one person is off for the next. It all depends on what Chris and the ticalc operators deem suitable.

     12 May 1999, 04:08 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Staffing News
mhlandry

Thats where the problem occurs. The rules of relevancy arent clear.

     12 May 1999, 05:02 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Staffing News
moose

While there may be some gray areas, there are some definite distinctions.

For example, if I talk about the 83+... relevant!

If I talk about Melanie McLaughlin... IRRELEVANT! (I really wish that kid would just tell_her_she's beautiful and spare the rest of us...) :P

BTW, I guess this wasn't related to calculators either. Oh well...

     12 May 1999, 16:33 GMT

Re: Staffing News
Terrence Wong

I think there is one thing that was neglected in the resume for the staffing position. Since much of the testing and such may involve high level math (Many AP Calculus aids have been pouring in...are they accurate?) I think that should have been one of the criterion or maybe education in general. An algebra student (no offense) will have some trouble testing a new integration program...
terrence

     12 May 1999, 21:24 GMT

Re: Re: Staffing News
Paul

Very good point

     13 May 1999, 02:19 GMT


Re: Re: Staffing News
ticalc_chris

Testing usually doesn't involve checking the math. So if you send us an integration program, no one's going to do the equivalent calculations by hand and check the answer :)

It's true that sometimes you would have to be familiar with the program's subject in order to know what it wants for input. For example, if you had no experience with circuit analysis, you probably would have trouble with a program like SCS when it asked for circuit elements. In that case, a good math background alone wouldn't help much. So we would have to demand a college graduate :)

The main purpose of testing is just to make sure the program isn't corrupt, bogus, or a ripoff of somebody else's code. So with that in mind, we don't want to exclude anybody who's still in algebra.

Chris

     13 May 1999, 06:56 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Staffing News
Jean Canazzi
(Web Page)

You're right. Don't forget that there is a review section in ticalc.org, that stand exactly for this sort of test.

     13 May 1999, 10:12 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Staffing News
terrence

Ok. That makes sense.

     14 May 1999, 01:23 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Staffing News
Abe
(Web Page)

I agree with Chris... read below comment.

     15 May 1999, 21:41 GMT

Re: Staffing News
danny
(Web Page)

Sorry this is [OT]. But when are the POTM results comming out!? They should have been out already. Please respond ticalc.org.




-danny

     13 May 1999, 03:10 GMT


Re: Re: Staffing News
ticalc_chris

We'll post them ASAP. They should show up later today (Thursday).

Chris

     13 May 1999, 06:49 GMT

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