Since Net Communities have their new developer, I can post the coder test I wrote to find a replacement. The test was not meant to be particularly challenging, and we only requested that developers do one out of the three problems. Most developers did all three--presumably in an effort to impress--but nobody got all three correct, first time around. That was probably my fault, because the third problem had a subtle issue that is easy to overlook.

I'll quote the problems here, including typos. Occasionally the way I phrased things was slightly ambiguous, but I didn't penalize if the candidate misunderstood a requirement due to my use of language.

Example input:

microsoft

apple

microsoft.

Apple?

security

microsoft

internet

Example output:

microsoft 3

apple 2 continue reading…

I may have spoken too soon regarding no having internet access. I just plugged in my Sony Ericsson phone via USB, switch it to 'phone mode' and Ubuntu instantly recognised the phone as a modem.

I did have mobile internet working on an older release of Ubuntu, but not without scouring the internet and typing magic incantations in to the command line. I love it when computers 'just work'!

I'm tempted to try it again in Vista to compare, but I really should get back to the packing.

As of tomorrow (Thursday 15 Jan) I'll be living in Oxford. Let me know if you need my new address. My landline number will change, but you can still get me on my mobile.

I wont have Internet access at home for a while, so I apologise if I can't answer emails until then.

Now back to the packing!