Jack of all trades
I write on this blog mostly for fun, when I have a few free moments. It’s a great way to get out some of the thoughts that might be on my mind, and is also a good outlet to practice longer-form writing (at least longer than an email).
It was in this context that I [...]
I’ve been a climber in some way, shape, or form since around late 2007. It’s kind of part of the Seattle community, and coupled with my love of the outdoors, I suppose it was always meant to be. In 2009, I took the Basic Alpine Climbing course with the Mountaineers to learn how [...]
Everyone is talking about yesterday’s Surface announcement from Microsoft. If you missed it, Microsoft announced two tablet models of their own, plus two smart covers. What’s notable about the announcement is that this marks the first time Microsoft will design, build, and ship its own computers. Previously, they have exclusively relied on their [...]
I love CloudFlare, mostly because I’m terrible at ops and they do a great job of handling some of the really hard problems in this space. We use it at CareTrio for all of our customer-facing web properties, and it allows us to do some really cool stuff and helps us keep [...]
A few months back, @tjmerrill asked for my advice on a strategy for shipping a mobile app on multiple platforms. He wanted a recommendation on what technology to use to build his app. I quickly jotted off an email with some thoughts, which subsequently got forwarded around quite a bit. I decided to [...]
Ah, the resume: the one page document that you’ll spend literally hours on! I probably don’t have to tell you that having a well-written resume is critical if you are searching for a job. Your resume will get an average of 10-15 seconds of attention from a recruiter, and in that time, you’ve got to [...]
The software industry is full of people with great ideas, great brand names, and original and interesting code. I think an important part of being successful in any industry is understanding the legal environment you operate in. For those of us in software, it means we need to understand the basics of intellectual property law. [...]
I was walking by someone’s office the other day and saw this taped to the window:
Besides being totally hillarious and awesome, this got me thinking about how common this is in the real world. I can remember a good many years ago working on several web projects that had [...]
This is the probably most obvious statement you’ve heard today: the job market is really tough. Although people are hiring in the software industry, as any recent job hunter will tell you, it’s very competitive, particularly for those with less experience. As competitive as it is, you would think that people would step up their [...]
Every year, thousands of students graduate with computer science degrees. Sadly, many of those students are totally unprepared for the workforce. For those that are, they are increasingly finding themselves up against a cadre of workers with more experience, and better-qualified graduates from overseas. No wonder enrollment and graduation rates have declined in [...]
Welcome!
My name is Jack Nichols. I'm an entrepreneur, professional software engineer, and all-around nice guy. This is my web site, full of random stuff that's on my mind. More