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SSi Micro is hiring great hackers. Know C pretty well, be great at one high-level language (Python, PHP, whatever), be a quick learner (and we mean quick), and

SSi Micro is hiring great hackers. Know C pretty well, be great at one high-level language (Python, PHP, whatever), be a quick learner (and we mean quick), and then come and be a propellerhead at our awesome, small company. www.ssimicro.com/jobs We're a little company based in Yellowknife, the capital city of the Northwest Territories. We deliver broadband satellite internet to 61 of the most remote communities on earth, and now that our network's up and running (although we're investing heavily in upgrading it), we're busy building great software for our customers, optimized specifically for our unique network. Right now, we're building a file sharing webapp. Why not just use dropbox, you ask? Well, our network is pretty unique: all our traffic is bounced off a satellite, and round-trip latency of ~600ms (which is because of the horrible limitation of the speed of light, which we are constantly working to exceed) means that we have to do things a little differently. SSi is so cool that when we won a government contract to do "time-shifted file transfers", we decided that we /could/ meet our contractual obligations with a few weeks of work/testing, but instead we're building a wicked webapp that brings the functionality to everyone on our network, not just big clients with IT departments. Yellowknife's not as cold as you think, and the 24-hours-of-daylight summers are not to be missed. If you're interested and game, we'll make an offer really easy to accept: We'll get and pay for your apartment, a car if you need it, and pay you atop that. We'll do all that for up to three months while you evaluate us and the north, so that it's risk- and hassle-free for you to come to a really great, unique company in an awesome little city. Email: stephenw@ssimicro.com

davidw 16y ago
Wow, that's really remote. To drive there, you apparently have to take a fairly small ferry boat: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Yellowknife,+Northwest+Territories,+Canada&sll=45.396641,11.829498&sspn=0.012099,0.033023&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Yellowknife,+Fort+Smith+Region,+Northwest+Territories,+Canada&ll=61.258968,-117.528254&spn=0.001041,0.004128&z=19&layer=c&cbll=61.258967,-117.528255&panoid=kDs5LTUO4G8ri6jB1BTrqQ&cbp=12,6.78,,0,4.36 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&#38... Looks like they're building a bridge, though. By "not as cold as you think", you mean that the spit hits the ground before it freezes?
- sjwalter 16y ago
  Today it's a balmy 9 Celsius. Sure, the winter brings a couple weeks of -35 C and below, but with a solid parka and the same resolve we're looking for in our hackers, you can hack it. :) And that bridge... What a nightmare. It's been in the works for years, tens of millions over budget, and it's become a local joke. "Yea, we'll finish that once the bridge is finished." Also, you only have to take the ferry in the warm months--from January to mid-April you get to drive on the ice road. There's a show about it on Discovery called Ice Road Truckers (oddly, everybody here loathes the show, despite some of our locals being on it). It's pretty fun to be cruising down a shoveled track of ice on a huge frozen lake, radio blaring. Yes, there are roadsigns on the ice road. :)
  - davidw 16y ago
    Here in Padova, the flowers are blooming, everything is breaking out in green, it is 25C, and I went for a drink in the piazza with nothing but a short-sleeved shirt this evening. Yellowknife like a fascinating place, but one I'd rather read about or, at most, visit, rather than live in. Good luck though:-)
    - sjwalter 16y ago
      Thanks! For sure, the weather isn't for everyone. We /do/ get great summer weather (it'll be over 20C before the end of May), but it's a short season. Padova sounds gorgeous! (Just a Manly-Man-o'-the-North note: I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt today. We bust out the summer clothes at anything above 5C.) :)
      - eru 16y ago
        I could stand the cold, but the winter darkness would get me. Or do you adapt fast?
        sjwalter 16y ago
        It took me some getting used to. I've been here 14 months now, and I did get a little lethargic at the beginning of the dark, dark winter months. And slightly manic in the all-sun summer light. But I adapted pretty quickly.

davidw 16y ago

Wow, that's really remote. To drive there, you apparently have to take a fairly small ferry boat: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Yellowknife,+Northwest+Territories,+Canada&sll=45.396641,11.829498&sspn=0.012099,0.033023&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Yellowknife,+Fort+Smith+Region,+Northwest+Territories,+Canada&ll=61.258968,-117.528254&spn=0.001041,0.004128&z=19&layer=c&cbll=61.258967,-117.528255&panoid=kDs5LTUO4G8ri6jB1BTrqQ&cbp=12,6.78,,0,4.36 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&#38... Looks like they're building a bridge, though. By "not as cold as you think", you mean that the spit hits the ground before it freezes?

sjwalter 16y ago
Today it's a balmy 9 Celsius. Sure, the winter brings a couple weeks of -35 C and below, but with a solid parka and the same resolve we're looking for in our hackers, you can hack it. :) And that bridge... What a nightmare. It's been in the works for years, tens of millions over budget, and it's become a local joke. "Yea, we'll finish that once the bridge is finished." Also, you only have to take the ferry in the warm months--from January to mid-April you get to drive on the ice road. There's a show about it on Discovery called Ice Road Truckers (oddly, everybody here loathes the show, despite some of our locals being on it). It's pretty fun to be cruising down a shoveled track of ice on a huge frozen lake, radio blaring. Yes, there are roadsigns on the ice road. :)
- davidw 16y ago
  Here in Padova, the flowers are blooming, everything is breaking out in green, it is 25C, and I went for a drink in the piazza with nothing but a short-sleeved shirt this evening. Yellowknife like a fascinating place, but one I'd rather read about or, at most, visit, rather than live in. Good luck though:-)
  - sjwalter 16y ago
    Thanks! For sure, the weather isn't for everyone. We /do/ get great summer weather (it'll be over 20C before the end of May), but it's a short season. Padova sounds gorgeous! (Just a Manly-Man-o'-the-North note: I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt today. We bust out the summer clothes at anything above 5C.) :)
    - eru 16y ago
      I could stand the cold, but the winter darkness would get me. Or do you adapt fast?
      - sjwalter 16y ago
        It took me some getting used to. I've been here 14 months now, and I did get a little lethargic at the beginning of the dark, dark winter months. And slightly manic in the all-sun summer light. But I adapted pretty quickly.