I am most curious about the "no technical interview" part and "my work speaks for my skills" while OP's GitHub is just forks.
This all really reads in an uncomfortable way and I would never risk investing into somebody by guessing if whatever I need done, as a business, will be interesting enough for this person to put genuine effort into.
I feel like OP needs hobbies to get the fun/interesting itch scratched and then go back to being a "code monkey" like the rest of us, doing "boring" stuff to pay the bills.
I've been there myself before and the most valuable lesson I've learned is that motivation != discipline. Motivation comes and goes and if you base your productivity solely on that you will burn out. Being disciplined though allows to get the "boring" out of the way first, leaving lots of time to explore other interests.
> I am most curious about the "no technical interview" part and "my work speaks for my skills" while OP's GitHub is just forks.
On Github you have to fork a project first if you want to create a pull request. I randomly opened three of the forks and saw that he'd made pull requests for two of them.
I fully understand the way forks work - what I found troubling is that for somebody who is dying to do something interesting, for close to no pay, there seems to be little indication of them doing things out of pure passion/interest as is. For somebody expecting me to hand pick things that are super fun to work on there is not enough incentive/conviction for me to trust this person and/or invest any time into onboarding/managing them. That's literally why you get paid "the big bucks" - the employer can demand specific things without having to depend on your mood and attitude towards task A.
The only thing I can suggest to the author is what others have already said - go in to academia/research and volunteer your time to selected interests.
One scenario in which the author's attitude and desires could work is if he starts his own business and focuses on the fun things while paying others to do the boring stuff. But then again - building a successful business to achieve the luxury of total choice takes a lot of "boring" work beforehand.
I confess that I have trouble seeing the logic in wanting to work for someone for free. Maybe as a short-term learning thing if a temporary position can be structured that way legally.
But, by and large, if you don't care about being paid, why not just work on your own project. Because there's pretty much no such thing as a 100% no-BS position anywhere.
There is a UI problem on GH with forks. (From my limited experience) most profiles that are full of forks the person just uses forks like they would stars. No branches or PRs made. I'd guess, cynically, this is to fill out their profile.
On the other hand a profile of meaningful contributions looks the same on the surface.
I've made a habit of deleting my forks after the PR has been merged upstream to the main repo.
So I'm actually in the position where I do have meaningful contributions to open source projects, but my Github profile doesn't show it (unless you look at my contribution activity).
During my University days I've found out that I feel rested when sleeping for a number of hours divisible by 1.5, or to put it simply, only multiples of 1.5h. So, if I had to take a nap or work super late a 3h "nap" would've left me fresh and ready to work while a 3.5h or 4h nap would turn me into a zombie. I haven't thought of this in a while since it became a habit for me but seeing the 7.5h you mention along with small time changes making big difference it all came back.
People sleep in cycles. Everyone’s timing of a cycle is different. But the average is around 90 minutes. You’ll feel dramatically better keeping your sleep to obey the boundaries of those 90 minute cycles.
Also REM occurs in the last cycles of sleep. So sleeping 4 hours with little REM and sleeping 6.5 hours with REM is like night and day.
I thought they always required a professionally taken photo? In Canada you need to go to a photographer (lots of malls and general stores have one) to take your photos and then stamp and sign them at the back making them eligible for passport submission.
How does this make any sense as a security measure? Real criminals will always find a photographer who would produce whatever a picture they want and stamp it.
Presumably there is some level of traceability to this. If a falsified photo is found on a document used to commit fraud or other crimes, the photographer who enabled it would be banned, blacklisted, and possibly held criminally liable.
What prevents me from stamping "Walmart at 123 Example Avenue" then scrawling an incomprehensible signature on any photo I want? The stamps the shops use don't have any security features to them.
Unlike the old "guarantor" system where a licensed professional or public official (judge, lawyer, doctor, etc.) had to sign your application - basically, people who the government could verify the existence of and hold accountable - there's not very much traceability to the photo system.
Canada's guarantor system is still in place, although the guarantor currently doesn't have to be a licensed professional.
As an American immigrant to Canada, I don't see the point - the US has never in my lifetime had either a professional photo requirement or a guarantor requirement for its passports, nor even a digital requirement.
Certainly, paying someone like a pharmacy for passport photos is not rare in the US to reduce the risk of out-of-spec photos leading to a rejection. But that's just a common personal choice and not obligatory.
I suspect Canada's guarantor system is inspired by the UK's, though I don't actually know.
In New Zealand you can take them yourself and submit them digitally when you apply for renewal online. I did it with my DSLR on its timer, then cropped and converted to JPEG with Krita or Gimp. I believe the new photo is compared to the old one by a person. Maybe our passport office is being a bit naive? It used to require more hoop-jumping though.
I think it's less naive, I trust they're aware of the risks, and more that passport fraud of that sort just doesn't happen on a regular enough basis to require better security. Occasionally a Member of Parliament [0] or foreign intelligence agency [1] has a go, but passport fraud is overall low.
I'm sure they also have automated tools for detecting photo manipulation.
The whole process for getting an NZ passport is an order of magnitude easier than a European passport. Here in Australia I was able complete the entire process online, and they couriered my passport to me from the Sydney consulate. I also have a passport for a European country, and last time I renewed it, I had to make an overnight trip to the consulate and spend half a day getting my passport renewed. I needed to get my photo done by an approved photographer, and they also scanned my fingerprints to store in the passport's chip (they don't store fingerprints for NZ passports).
Well it ain't for nothing that New Zealand is Mossad's favourite fake passport when assassinating Palestinians in foreign countries. Probably other factors as well tho.
Same. I had some taken at a local store, and thought they came out terribly. Not worth the money at all. Set up my DSLR in the kitchen on a tripod, digitally placed 2 right-sized copies on a 4x6, and printed them at the drugstore for less than a quarter. I used decent equipment, but a modern phone these days will take an acceptable photo. (In fact, I just searched the iOS App Store at there’s at least a few apps that claim to make acceptable photos.)
Same here, as long as you have white backdrop (large poster board from an old school project) and are able to crop/print it to the correct dimensions there is no need to get a professional picture. When planning the family vacation, were looking for any ways to cut costs a bit
German passport photos (until now) could be taken by those photo machines that are all over the place. Australia requires a printed photo that’s most easily taken at a shop but doesn’t have to be.
Disclaimers: it’s been 6 years and 2 years since I’ve had to do this.
Weird indeed. This is my second reminder today that technology does not spread equally around the globe. The other was hearing my wife ask the IT-guy in her company if they had a fax number for a form from the Italian government.
After having my photo taken at the police office for at least my two latest passports it's somewhat surprising to hear about so many countries still using "the old way". There are such obvious advantages both in security and convenience by having the passport issuer take the photo and the technology is obviously available.
Same in Switzerland, alas it's the designated passport office and not a police station.
They have a specially kited photo booth, where you also leave two fingerprints for additional biometric verification.
In order to renew your passport you need to schedule an appointment withyour local passport office.
Last time I renewed, 2013, it took 7 weeks until the earliest available appointment, which was a bit surprising. I'm sure, though, there's an emergency shortcut for a price.
By the police I do mean the Police, ie not just an individual police person or civilian working for the police. I'm sure they have both automatic testing AND human control.
You don't even need to register as a photographer (to submit other people's photos). You can do it as an individual just fine, as the submission page directly mentions.
In Australia, the photo has to be signed by a guarantor [1] stating it's an accurate photo. However the guarantor can be any Australian passport holder who's known you for over a year and isn't an immediate relation/partner etc, so it's not particularly fraud proof.
The other part of that is that the original article mentions that often the morphing is not visible to humans, so its possible you can get a morphed image guaranteed just like any other.
Every time I've done this my guarantor hasn't scrutinized the photo, just glanced at it. And ditto when I've been a guarantor: "Hey al you sure you don't want to get a haircut before getting your passport?"
I wondered about that. Hard to imagine any other useful (because lack of quality) use for these. Will they sue, or embed some new firmware with EURION and wireless whatever uplink?
Quite a few Korea & Chinatown will beautify your photos and submit them. The ones I been to will do so without even asking. They've been around for a while.
