Microsoft Interview Results

I got an email from Microsoft today. Although I knew I didn't perform well on the phone/ LiveMeeting interview last Friday, there was still that small bit of hope that maybe I displayed something that they liked. . .

The Microsoft interview is easily the most grueling technical interview I've ever endured. But it was also the most FUN! (Speaking of the process in Redmond). The problems given are designed to make you think, and they sure do. I understand that they don't expect a candidate to get the problem 100% correct right off the bat (or at all, for that matter). They're really observing problem solving skills. My head hurt so bad after that interview, I went back to the hotel and just slept for like 5 hours. Then I got up and went to the bar.

This phone interview is my third meeting with Msft. I had a preliminary interview at a national convention this past March, and was flown to Redmond the next month. I thought I gave the performance of a lifetime on the six (6) (yes, s-i-x) interviews I had that day. I left Redmond feeling really good about my chances, but was sorely disappointed a couple of day later. That was a really tough disappointment - I did my absolute best, and it was still not good enough. Eventually, I got over it and decided to reapply as soon as I was eligible again.

Back to the present. . .

As I opened the email, I braced myself for the imminent rejection, expecting to see an "unfortunately" right near the beginning. When I got to the fourth sentence, and there was still no "unfortunately," that little bit of hope began to shine brighter.

And then I read the second half of the fourth sentence:

we will be pursuing other candidates whose background and abilities more closely match our needs at this time.

And things quickly went back to normal. The world didn't end. As I said, I knew I didn't perform very well in this one. I'm not upset or discouraged; but I know what I have to do now. I'm on a mission to become a better programmer. I have dedicated myself to learning as much programming as I can. I'm going to immerse myself in so much code that by the time I'm eligible to interview again, I will be able to better display what I know, and be the ideal candidate.

Here's the problem I was given. . .

For an array of size n, choose the range of numbers which yields the greatest possible sum.

For this one, it happens to be array[0] through array[6], which equals 23. 

But these are just random numbers I came up with for this example. It doesn't always end up where it is the entire range.

I managed to explain a brute-force method of finding the solution. But drew a blank when asked to describe the efficiency of it using Big-Oh notation. So, I faltered there. Anyway, I have been working on my CS basics, so that should be sharper next time around. 

Very sleepy now. Good night!

PSP Programming

Still very excited about learning PSP Programming. Today, I completed another tutorial, which dealt with outputting different colors and formatted text to the screen.

Although right now, I'm just following steps, it's still a great learning experience. I'm commenting my code so that I can look back at it and tell what each block does. These tutorials are really good. I wish they were available in a nice little PDF instead of just on the website.

Here's the tutorial I did today. The final product is an application that looks like this

RED: 0

GREEN: 0

BLUE: 0

And using the direction pad, I can control the values of Red, Green, and Blue, respectively. As the values change, the number updates, and the background color changes accordingly.

My wife humored me by telling me how "cool" it was. She's obviously very good with children :-).

PSP Programming Progress

Hello World.

That phrase has never looked so good to me. Those 12 tiny characters in the top left corner of my PSP (Playstation Portable) screen represent, to me, a level of achievement I have been (mostly half-heartedly) trying to reach for over 3 years.

In 2006, I first began my interest in PSP Programming. I downloaded Cygwin (the Linux environment emulator for Windows), but had some trouble when compiling the PSP toolchain. I put it down and didn't resume again until 2008. I tinkered and read about it for a couple of weeks, then the same thing happened, and I again brushed it aside.

This time, I dug really deep, researched the exact problem I was having, and found a way around it. Apparently, the toolchain is broken, and I had to either download someone else's entire Cygwin setup, which already had the PSP Toolchain compiled, or download a precompiled solution. I opted for the first, then read a quick "Hello World" tutorial, and was up and running!

I know "Hello World" is generally hardly a means for celebration, but this has truly brought me some joy lol. . . . it's the little things. I'm especially happy that I got this accomplished just after one day of REALLY deciding to put my mind to getting this done. My goal for this week was to have a PSP development environment set up. Now that I've gotten that accomplished on MONDAY, I have to set a new goal lol.

Now to make it do something useful!

Microsoft Interview Preparation

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to fly to Redmond to interview with Microsoft for an SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) position. To prepare, I read a couple of books, reviewed my materials from Cem Kaner's Blackbox Software Testing course, and went over some technical programming examples. This was the most intense, brain-squeezing, mind-bending interview I had ever been on. . . . but it was really fun! And although I performed what I thought was exceedingly well, I was still not offered a position. I was disappointed, but not discouraged.

My Microsoft recruiter consoled me and said that sometimes it takes people upwards of 3 tries to get hired. She said that I should work on my skills and try again in six months or so. I made it up in my mind that I would have that job, and that next time around, I would be more prepared, and give an even better shot than the first time.

Last week, I was scheduled for another phone interview (YES!!). Since that time, I feel that I have gained some very applicable knowledge directly pertaining to the type of positions I'm seeking. In addition, I've decided to take on some other projects. Among them are:

• Reading Pro .NET 2.0 Extreme Programming
• Learning basic operation of NAnt
• PSP Programming - just to get some more OOP experience from another perspective. I enjoy writing programs and debugging them myself.
• Re-reading The Art of Software Testing (which was recommended to me at my very first Microsoft interview, to prepare for the Redmond shindig)

I should have a firm grasp on (at least 2 or 3 of) these things by the end of this week. In addition, I'm going to read peoples' blog posts of their experiences dealing with the grueling SDET interview and what skills they chose to polish and highlight during the process. I have a couple of friends who work there too, so I'll try to get some of their input as well.

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me, but I'm determined!

Installing Windows 7 on Acer Aspire 4330

I am a self-proclaimed MOOS - Master of Operating Systems. I like to install, reinstall, uninstall, and break operating systems. Eventually, I would like to build my own OS, for some reason or another. . .

Anyway, recently (almost a year ago), my sister gave me her laptop to fix, because she had FUBAR'd it with viruses. I went through great pains (finding a USB FLOPPY drive to install SATA drivers) to put Windows XP back on it, but she preferred Vista, oddly. Vista never acted right, so she ended up giving it right back after I did that. Instead of fooling around with either of those, or torturing her with OSX86 or Linux, I just decided to wait on Windows 7 to become available.

I have my 100% legal copy of Windows 7 now (via MSDNAA!), and it has JUST finished burning. Now I can get to the install process. I'm going to go through a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate on a hard drive. Let's go!

Formatting the hard drive.

I have traditionally preferred using a separate disk editing tool than the one included in the Windows installer. For this task, I generally use GPartEd (Gnome Partition Editor) Live CD. Download it and burn it to a disk. I won't go over how to do that here. But here are the steps for using it.

1. Start up the laptop which you want to install Windows.
2. While booting, enter the BIOS. On the Acer Aspire, just press F2 when prompted during the boot process.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Once in the BIOS, move over to the "Boot" menu and ensure that your CD/ DVD drive has higher boot precedence than your hard drive. Otherwise, the system will try to boot from the hard drive first. If there is a current operating system on there, it will start that up. If the drive is blank, you will receive an error message. To change boot priority order, highlight the desired drive, and press the appropriate key to move it up or down in the list. In my BIOS, it is F6 to move up, and F5 to move down. Press F10 to Save and Exit.
  **Note - I like to keep my boot options where the computer boots from the CD/ DVD drive whenever a bootable disk is present. If you prefer, you can change it back to HDD first after the install is complete.
4. You can usually roll with the default settings with Linux Live CDs. If you're not familiar with terminals, don't be intimidated. Just read the prompts, Live CDs are generally pretty user-friendly.
5. Think. . . are there any files on there that you really want? There's no turning back after this; they're about to disappear forever.
   
6. Select any unwanted partitions and press "Delete." 
7. Think some more. There's still time before you send all your files into oblivion.
8. Hit "Apply" to make it official.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Double click "Exit" and press OK to restart the computer
10. Remove the GPartED disk when prompted.
    

Installing Windows

1. Your boot order should still be CD/ DVD drive first, so insert the Windows disk right after removing GPartED, but before restarting.
2. Press Enter to restart (as prompted by the GPartED live CD)
   
   
   
   
   
3. After the installer loads, select your Language, Time and currency format, and Keyboard format.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click "Install Now"
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Read and accept the software license. Check "I accept the license terms." Click Next
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Click "Custom (Advanced)" since we're installing a fresh copy of Windows, and not upgrading.
7. Select your hard drive or partition from the list.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   **I won't go into how to partition here. This guide is just for a single-partition, single-boot system.
   
   
   
   
8. (It looks a lot like Vista, but don't worry; it's definitely not. . . . I hope)
9. From this point on, it's pretty much auto-pilot, until it's time to fill in your user details.
10. After the system reboots, type in your user information.
11. Type in product key (this may be the last step for some of you posers out there heh heh heh)
12. Finish the rest of the options using your own preferences and common sense. I'm done here.

P.S - I recommend antivirus software. Avast is wonderful, and I don't just say that because it's free. . . . OK yes I do. No, it's really wonderful. I use it every time someone asks me to "fix their computer" cuz they downloaded a virus. Home version is 100% free. Professional is a free trial. Home is perfectly good, even if you're a professional.

Hacking into my Zune. . . . literally

OK, so over the past couple of years, my Zune 80 and I have had a love/hate/hate/hate/hate/love/hate/hate relationship. No matter how that may look in WRITING, the good truly has outweighed the bad. So when it zonked out on me this final time, I felt a moral obligation to try to save her (yes, "her". . . I actually named her Zoey). And since Zoey was [literally 2 days] outta warranty when I first started having this problem and Microsoft wanted $159 for service, I decided I had nothing to lose by finding a T4 screwdriver and trying to fix the problem myself.

The problem: I couldn't seem to turn her on anymore, no matter what buttons I pressed (heh heh). When I pressed the "Play" button, I got the "low battery" indicator image. While plugged up (AC or USB), the "charging" graphic flashed, but the OS would never load.

~~~...::flashback::...~~~

This had happened before, and I had simply given up on my baby. I just put her away in the box and used my PSP for a music player. I was sad, but it did the job. After leaving Zoey in the box for like 2 months, I came back, just to see what would happen, pressed the play button, and VIOLA!* She came right on for me.

~~~...::/end flashback::...~~~

*I know it's really voilà. . . just more fun this way

 ::siiiigh:: Back to reality. This time, I tried that and no luck. After exhausting all software options, my logic was that there must be something wrong with the battery. Maybe if I disconnected and reconnected it, then it would function again.If that didn't work I would go ahead and buy a replacement battery. Sooooooo, after a little deliberation, and a bit of mental preparation, I went ahead and got started.

Note: Though it'll go without saying, I didn't have a camera while actually taking it apart. This is more of a journal entry than a tutorial.

Procedure:

I got an idea of how to do this from Rapid Repair's Zune disassembly guide. I improvised some of it as well, as you'll soon see.

1. Since the plastic cover at the top had already been lost, I didn't have to remove that. I just started by removing two T4 screws at the top of the unit.
 
2. Now, this part was pretty tricky - removing the aluminum back. I suppose there should be an intermediate step describing how to loosen the backing first. So maybe I wouldn't have CRACKED MY SCREEN!
 
3. To loosen the casing, I took a very slim flat-head screwdriver, inserted it between the front and back casings and twisted slightly. There are clips holding the external case together. Twisting the screwdriver essentially gently unclipped them, and methodically pried the case open. . . too bad I discovered this procedure AFTER I had already CRACKED MY SCREEN!
 
4. Now, once the casing was open, there was a lot of tape everywhere. Instead of just going on a tape-removing rampage, I drew a picture of what I had, just in case some wire or ribbon cable got disconnected in the process (which, inevitably, it did).

I took this picture after I got it apart (obviously). Although it's pretty crappy quality, you can see I flipped the hard drive over to have a better look at the battery connections.

It was here, when I saw one of the four wires (black, blue, red, white) leading from the battery to solder points on the board had come disconnected. I'm not sure if this happened with handling or if it was the cause of my problem. If it had come apart after I opened the Zune, then I still had accomplished my goal of disconnecting the battery. If it was already apart, then I had found a problem. Whatever the case, I knew it needed to be soldered back on.

It was a relatively simple solder job. I used some fingernail clippers to strip the blue wire back some, then heated the solder joint and set it in place. Turned it over, and saw the beloved Zune boot logo!

YIPPEEE!!!!

But that's not the end. . . after I got Zoey all buttoned up again, I noticed a new issue - the little "Hold" icon in the bottom of the screen was lit, and no button presses registered. Great. I pressed the Zune in a certain spot, and noticed while applying pressure directly over this particular place, the icon disappeared. So I took it apart again.

Here's the drawing I made:

 

At this point, I noticed that the ribbon cable which controlled the hold functionality was not being snugly held in place. I pressed down on the ribbon cable connection to the board, then toggled the hold switch, and it worked fine. I replaced the tape, put the zune back together, and all is well again. . . . . except for the cracked screen.

How to Jailbreak an iPhone 3G

OK, so this being my first post, I'll start with something simple. Something which I've had to do many times over the past 9 months - jailbreaking my iPhone.

Let's start with defining "jailbreak." Well, in my own words, Apple has put stupid limitations on this wonderful piece of phonery, and jailbreaking is removing those limitations. A factory iPhone is like having a Lamborghini Murcielago with a governor at 15 mph. For example, Apple says that the iPhone 3g doesn't do video. The correct statement is, "Apple doesn't ENABLE the iPhone 3g to do video." Jailbreaking does. . . . among with a host of other things.

***Theoretically, jailbreaking DOES void your warranty, but if you have a problem, just restore your original software before taking it to the Apple store. It's the equivalent to GM saying your warranty is void because your car is dirty - just wash it before you take it in. Problem solved. Amen.

Anyway, enough blabber. Let's get to the biz.

This guide will go through jailbreaking NOT UNLOCKING the iPhone 3G for use with AT&T service. Unlocking allows you to use the iPhone with any GSM service provider (in the US, there are only 2: T-Mobile and AT&T). There are similar, but different, procedures for the first-generation iPhone, iPhone 3GS, and iPod Touch.


Things you'll need:

1. An iPhone 3G (duh)
2. The proper .ipsw (iPhone software file (which you can find relatively easily by Googling). . . . or better yet, here) This tutorial is stricly for 3.0 **(or 3.01. . . .so I guess that's not strictly. I suppose the more accurate way of saying it is, it's not for 3.1. Although I haven't tried jailbreaking 3.1 yet, I've just read bad things about it.)
   
3. A jailbreak application. redsn0w is cute, but I like PwnageTool better. It's easy, and has more configuration options.

Procedure: 

1. If you have your iPhone set up already, you may wanna back it up before proceeding. It'll preserve your texts, contacts, calendars, settings, etc. I recommend even doing a full back-up as opposed to just syncing. In iTunes, right-click (Ctrl+Click on Mac) your iPhone and select "Back Up." Let it do its thing
   
2. Open PwnageTool and select iPhone 3G. Click Next arrow
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Browse to the correct .ipsw file "iphone1,2_3.0_7a341_restore.ipsw" and continue
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Select "General," then press Next arrow. (At this screen, you can customize your applications. I'm skipping that, because I've had trouble when I pre-install certain jailbroken apps. I haven't narrowed it down to which one(s) yet though. So just to be safe, don't mess with any more of these options unless you know what you're looking for).
   
   
   
   
   
5. Deselect the Options "Activate the phone" and "Enable baseband update" and make the Root partition size 700 Mb. This is a safe number, maybe too big, but so what.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Click the Back arrow to return to the options menu
7. Click "Build" and then the Next arrow
8. Choose a location for your jailbreak file. It will be named something like "iphone1,2_3.0_7a341_custom_restore.ipsw" 
9. At some point in the building process, it will prompt you for your system password. Enter it.
10. After the file builds, PwnageTool will guide you into putting the iPhone into DFU mode. 
 
Entering Device Firmware Update mode 
• Although the application will guide you through this, I'll still cover it here.
• Turn off the iPhone 3G
• Hold Home and Power button for 10 seconds
• Release Power button, but continue holding Home button for additional 10 seconds
• If this procedure completes correctly, PwnageTool will tell you. 
   
11. After entering DFU mode, open iTunes. You should get a pop-up saying iTunes has found an iPhone in recovery mode. You must restore this iPhone before it can be used with iTunes"
12. Hold Shift (Option on Mac) while clicking "Restore" in iTunes. This will allow you to navigate to your custom restore file. 
13. Select the custom restore file, and you're off!
14. If the restore fails, restart your computer and try again. That usually fixes it.
    
15. After iTunes finishes the restore, it will ask you to set up your iPhone. Sync from the latest version that you saved in the Preparation section of this tutorial.

Screenshots from PwnageTool by iPhone Dev Team