IOException - Disk Quota Exceeded error - yet there's lots of disk space

I use a Mac for work.  I've run into an interesting issue with making backups of client web sites and zip files with my Mac...  It seems that whenever I've zipped a file and backed it up to my Mac, I get these wonderful __MACOSX folders - that's 2 underscores at the beginning of the folder name injected into the folder mix.

Restoring a site from one of those backups on a linux machine can have adverse consequences because of those 'injected' __MACOSX folders.  It seems that certain flavours of linux really don't like that folder name and as a result will not write a single file to the machine any more.... at all.  Instead, it throws an a 'Disk Quota Exceeded' error.  You can try touching a file, you can try unzipping some other files - whatever you do, you'll get that error.   The error didn't go away for me until I deleted all __MACOSX folders that got copied up to my machine in the zip file.  Once I did that - it was all good.

The interesting thing about this error was I could have tons of disk space still on the machine, and yet it would still throw that error until I removed those offending __MACOSX folders.

There are various commands out there for removing these folders from zip files created on a Mac... something like this:
zip -d your-archive.zip "__MACOSX*"

Get Hired as an IT Newbie Part 2 - Soft Skills

I participated in a focus group this past week at SAIT where we discussed their 'Web Developer Fast-Track Program' and its relevance to the industry.  The goal behind the meeting was how can we make the course more relevant to the changes and continual evolution of technology that is happening in the industry so students are more prepared for positions when they leave.  The discussion was engaging and took some interesting turns.  Here's what I took away related to Soft Skills:

Soft Skills
Employers like student hires to be reasonably technically adept.  Their technical expectations aren't in the stratosphere.  However, they want their student hires to have more than just technical ability.  Students should be well versed in soft skills.

Soft skills is (to some degree I'm sure) an ambiguous subject for many students.  I can hear you thinking 'What do people mean when they say that??'  In the context of our discussion  yesterday,  it meant prospective IT employers in the focus group yesterday were looking for students to have, in addition to technical skills:

• An ability to communicate well with a client - verbally, directly in front of them or over the phone.  Also having the discernment to know when to send an email versus when to talk verbally.  Poorly written emails are notorious for communicating the wrong things - particularly negative feelings where there were none.
• An ability to know what good work is.  Does the design and function of a web site fit the purpose/company it was designed for?  For example, does a sales/marketing website have lots of good calls to action?  Does the site feel right?  Would 'Joe's Mom' know how to navigate and use the site.
• A can-do attitude.  Students will likely get the soul-crushing repetitive work that senior developers/designers don't want to do (or don't have time to do).  Students should accept this and be prepared to do it with gusto.  If you're in an interview and you don't have a clue about a technology they asked you about, reply: "I don't know about that, but I will know about it tomorrow" and mean it.
• An ability and desire to collaborate and work in a team setting.  Its a fact of the industry - if you want to work in an agency, you're going to need to be able to work on a team and collaborate with team members. 

Also discussed was: What habits should students have (or start to form if they don't have them)?

• Students coming out of school should love learning and know how to learn things/solve problems on their own.
• Students should be able to receive constructive criticism without responding with excuses about bad instructors, poor course material, or the speed at which things were taught.  You don't get much chance for excuses on the job.  Employers are looking to 'break even' economically on their student resource investment within 4 months.  

Get Hired as an IT Newbie Part 1 - Have a Good Portfolio!

I participated in a focus group this past week at SAIT where we discussed their 'Web Developer Fast Track Program' and its relevance to the industry.  The goal behind the meeting was how can we make the course more relevant to the changes and continual evolution of technology that is happening in the industry so students are more prepared for positions when they leave.  The discussion was engaging and took some interesting turns.  Here's what I took away related to portfolios:

Student Portfolios
15 years ago I had gone through a similar IT fast-track program and we had to do portfolios of our work for potential employers.  I wasn't aware of a single employer who looked at my portfolio and as
a result I haven't placed much emphasis on it in my classes.  BIG MISTAKE.

It turns out that prospective employers for SAIT students DO look at their online portfolios.... and generally weren't super impressed.  Here's why:

• Industry attendees said that a student's portfolio should reflect the position or career track that the students are looking to get into.  There should be evidence in the portfolio that the student tried on their own to investigate, explore, and work with technologies and code that interests them.  Posting student projects (with every student having very similar projects) doesn't help anyone in making a hiring decision.
• Prospective employers are not just interested in the technologies that students used, but also: 
• Thought processes that the students went through in completing their projects - why they chose to make certain decisions (for example, use a canned WordPress theme instead of design/develop their own)
• Challenges students encountered in design and development and how they overcame those problems in their journey to the completed project - Employers are interested in soft skills like perseverance,  the ability to google a problem and uncover a solution on your own, the ability to asking for help when you are stumped (not before you've tried googling the problem)... etc.
• Is the student willing to go the extra mile, put in some extra effort and explore interesting tools and technologies outside the classroom?  The industry was quite clear that this was one of the main things they were looking for  - a motivated individual with the right attitude.  This kind of motivation should be clearly seen in a student's portfolio.

There was also some suggestions during the focus group that students should be given the opportunity to provide constructive feedback to their peers on their portfolios.  A good critique is a gift.  Can students accept constructive feedback and use it to improve?  Could providing peer critiques give them a better perspective and more experience with what is good (design, code, functionality, etc.) versus what is not good.  We thought so.

Finally, here's a couple of links to student portfolios that 'make the grade' so to speak, in my humble opinion.  One was a student of mine this past semester, the other is a current student at the University of Calgary:

- Gary S. Jennings (former SAIT student)

- Carrie Mah (U of C student)