Recipezaar is looking for a self-starting, well-organized software developer with 3+ years of experience in software development, specifically AJAX technologies (DHTML, XML, Javascript) in a LAMP environment.

If you:

• enjoying building and debugging software that millions of people use and love
• are willing to throw out code you wrote because you realized you did it wrong
• think Unix jokes are funny
• like working independently, from the comfort of your own home
• cringe at the thought of working at a large company that requires four meetings to decide anything
• believe cooking is both technology and art
• know the significance of the number 42
• enjoy eating…

…then this job might be for you.

The Details:

We’d like someone with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, 2+ years experience with PHP and SQL (preferably MySQL), Ajax technologies (DHTML, XML/XSL, Javascript) and an interest in hardware and networking. You don’t have to be an expert on Apache, but should be willing to become knowledgeable about it. If you don’t know what Apache is, forget it. If you know C, you probably understand what happens behind the higher-level scripting languages of the web. That’s important. If you know C++, you understand OO principles. If you love C++, you’ll fit in.

Recipezaar is a small, dynamic company and requires people who can work independently and manage themselves and their workload efficiently. Small companies require you to wear many hats and be able to adapt quickly to changes and be able to solve problems quickly, and Recipezaar is no different. Being a great chef is not a requirement, but having an interest in helping others to be is. An interest in food and food preparation will make the job more fun.

We are a small distributed company (and we plan to stay that way) focused on building the most powerful web application for cooking and eating and sharing. Recipezaar is profitable and growing at a rapid rate. We’re not yet #1 in our market, so if you’re the type who likes to work hard to become #1, Recipezaar wants to talk to you.

To apply, send link to your online resume or text version in email (NO ATTACHMENTS, except PDF) to jobs@recipezaar.com.

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I have tremendous respect for Martha Stewart for what she has accomplished as a woman in business. She has been talking more openly about her conviction and why she (rightly) chose to do the jail time in her column and on her show. Every entrepreneur goes through rough patches. Martha’s advice is inspiring:

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I just read Paul Graham’s Hackers and Painters. Paul Graham is the founder of one of the first web companies, viaWeb, an online storefront hosting company that was bought by Yahoo! in 1997 and is now Yahoo! Stores.

Continue Reading »

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For the first time, VeloNews.com made more money from advertising on their web site than their print issue. How many offline/online publications can say that? Not many, if any. Granted, this was the Tour de France month but it’s an interesting sign of the times, I think. What they seem to have found is something I’ve never heard a print publisher hint at: that advertising on the web can grow dynamically throughout the month while print publications have to forecast interest in their issues and sell ads based on that.

I had always assumed that the print publishing world was doomed simply because people would demand the more timely, more dynamic online version, i.e., it’d be reader-driven. But if this is the start of a new trend, the print publishing world’s demise may be driven by the publishers, not the readers.

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We both find Steve Jobs a very inspirational figure. OSX and the iPod are truly amazing products for their innovation and simplicity. This Businessweek interview with Jobs captures a fundamental truth in a pithy answer about how businesses stop innovating, and describes much of what I experienced about Microsoft causing me to leave:

People always ask me why did Apple really fail for those years, and it’s easy to blame it on certain people or personalities. Certainly, there was some of that. But there’s a far more insightful way to think about it. Apple had a monopoly on the graphical user interface for almost 10 years. That’s a long time. And how are monopolies lost? Think about it. Some very good product people invent some very good products, and the company achieves a monopoly.

But after that, the product people aren’t the ones that drive the company forward anymore. It’s the marketing guys or the ones who expand the business into Latin America or whatever. Because what’s the point of focusing on making the product even better when the only company you can take business from is yourself?

So a different group of people start to move up. And who usually ends up running the show? The sales guy. John Akers at IBM (IBM ) is the consummate example. Then one day, the monopoly expires for whatever reason. But by then the best product people have left, or they’re no longer listened to. And so the company goes through this tumultuous time, and it either survives or it doesn’t.

Q: Is this common in the industry?
A: Look at Microsoft (MSFT ) — who’s running Microsoft?

Q: Steve Ballmer.
A: Right, the sales guy. Case closed. And that’s what happened at Apple, as well.

Making great products is the most important driving force. We’ve always said the money will follow — maybe not Microsoft money, but the kind of money that will allow us to keep making great products. So far that has proven to be true, and we are slowly moving to a place where our primary customer will be actual people who use our software, rather than advertisers, so that we can continue to build great products for individuals instead of marketers.

Jobs also mentioned how the “Think Different” marketing campaign was as much for Apple to remember who its heroes are, as it was for advertising. Isn’t it important to know who your hereos are in order to be inspired at your own job?

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Authorize.Net still being attacked by a DDoS, and ComputerWorld is the first to mention the rumor that they are being extorted for money as the reason behind the attack.

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I loved Friendster as much as the next guy for the 20 minutes I played on it, but I just don’t see how it is worth $10 million. Does anyone remember “I kiss you” the dancing Arab guy meme? Am I Hot or Not? Sure there have been sites that have generated enormous traffic, but where are they now? Certainly not making $10MM. What am I missing that these classic dot com investors get (Yahoo, PayPal, etc.)? I understand the network effects and online dating applications for Friendster, but …

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Who buys music? Kids. Who should we sue? Our customers. Proving that they are bigger idiots than anyone ever thought: the RIAA

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Kraft/Phillip Morris changed their name to the ever corporate meaning-free “Altria”. I don’t have much to say about it, but I am love with their logo graphic and I don’t know why. I sort of get that it tries to communicate the multitude of brands the conglomerate represents, but I prefer to think of it as a pixilated detail of some meaning-free photo. I’m sure it cost at least $100k to produce, and my spirits lift contemplating the hours spent debating it within the bureaucracy — “don’t you think that red block just makes us look ‘fat’?” — but for me, it was worth it. It is one of the prettiest things I’ve seen in a while…and yes, it probably does make me forget for an instant that they are Marlboro & Lunchables.

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Amazon gets approval to sell domain names (WSJ). What don’t they sell?

They speculate that this will be a convenience to their Marketplace sellers (surprisingly “Third-party merchants were responsible for 21% of the items sold through the Amazon site in the fourth quarter”) but me thinks Amazon might have something else up its sleeve…

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