Originally published at A Couple of Robots. You can comment here or there.

I need an assistant for my business.

Job duties:

1. Receive packages with electronics
2. Unpack and test contents
3. Put contents on sale on eBay and my website
4. Answer questions from buyers
5. Pack and ship sold items

Salary:
You will be getting $8-$70 per processed item, depending on the profit made. On average, about $15. At first there will be about 1-2 packages arriving every day, and it would take (again, on average) about an hour to process one item. So it’ll end up being about $15/hour for a couple hours a day. There is an opportunity for expansion and the number of packages per day will grow.

Requirements, in order of importance:

1. You must be located at an address where you can receive packages during the business hours. If you miss a package you may need to go to a shipping center/post office to pick it up.
2. Transportation. You will need to go to a post office to ship the items. You will sometimes have to carry several boxes at once. Having a car or living right next to USPS is preferred.
3. You’ve got to be dependable. After you receive a package you must put it on sale within 4 days. After it’s sold you must ship it within 2 business days (sometimes, 1 business day). Even during exam times.
4. Trustworthy. You will have access to my eBay account and limited access to my PayPal account. It’s better if I know you in person; either way I have to be able to trust you with significant amounts of money.
5. Attention to detail. You will sometimes need to describe items in great detail, making sure to correctly list all the selling points and deficiencies.
6. Ability to take criticism. I will frequently correct your listings after you. You must not take it personally.
7. It’s nice if you are in Provo/Orem. It’s likely that I will have to drop by from time to time.
8. It’s nice if you are often online on instant messaging. That’s my preferred method of communication.
9. It’s nice if you know something about digital cameras, tablets, cell phones, laptops, and other electronics, but it’s not required. Same for eBay experience.
10. You’ve got to be able to lift fairly heavy boxes.

Good stuff:
You get to work from your own place on your own time. In time you will become a guru with all kinds of electronics and eBay trading.

Comment or email me at iraykhel@gmail.com if interested.

Originally published at A Couple of Robots. You can comment here or there.

My eBay application has passed the compatible application check! “What does it mean?”, the imaginary you would ask.

Well, let me tell the imaginary you.

The eBay application is the primary and most important component of my laptop reselling business, and it’s also my master’s thesis. Anybody can register to be an eBay developer and use their APIs (the thingamajig that lets a program get information from eBay and put stuff on sale there, without the programmer ever actually going to eBay website). The API allows for 5000 calls a day — that means that my program can get information from eBay 5000 times every day.

Looks like a lot? Well, guess what, it’s NOT. Not for my purposes anyway. My application sends dozens of requests every minute, and it adds up to about 9000 a day. So actually I use two applications. Actually actually, I use 4 applications cause it makes their duties easier to separate. This is however, quite annoying, possibly against eBay policy, and if I ever want to expand I need to make more applications using a bunch of fake names and emails.

But lo! There is a way to make it all simpler. It’s called “EBay compatible applications check” and I JUST PASSED IT. WOOT. Basically, eBay looks over your applications and says that it’s OK. I had to jump through a couple of hoops to pass it, but it wasn’t so bad. And now instead of 5000 calls a day I can make 1500000 calls a day. That should be enough for awhile

And now I can expand beyond laptops! What should I sell?

Originally published at A Couple of Robots. You can comment here or there.

We are often asked what is steampunk. Well, it is a little hard to define. This video might be helpful:

Originally published at A Couple of Robots. You can comment here or there.

On Thanksgiving, google.com unsurprisingly has a Thanksgiving doodle: https://www.google.com/ It’s cute, you can change parts of the turkey.

Google.de, google.pl, google.ru, google.fr, google.by have a different doodle: http://www.google.fr/  This is an interactive game reminiscent of Stanislaw Lem novels, and probably the most complex Google doodle to date. It commemorates 60 years of his first book. Article about the doodle:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/stanislaw-lem-google-doodle-the-best-interactive-cartoon-animation-ever-rendered-by-google-seriously/2011/11/23/gIQAYrzfoN_blog.html

The doodle even has a bunch of Easter eggs: https://plus.google.com/101765089097091765365/posts/1MaYwxJz62X

Originally published at A Couple of Robots. You can comment here or there.

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This stuff is inserted into every post

Originally published at A Couple of Robots. You can comment here or there.

Originally published at A Couple of Robots. You can comment here or there.

Changing innerHTML property of a form resets that form’s elements.

(For example, if you want to append a new element to a form before submitting it. If you do it using innerHTML += newElement, it will clear all the other elements in the form).

Use document.createElement+ element.setAttribute + element.appendChild instead.

Originally published at A Couple of Robots. You can comment here or there.

Russian dumplings (пельмени) = Gyoza in Japanese restaurants or steamed dumplings in Chinese.

Blintzes (блины) = Crepes in Village Inn

Shashlyk (шашлык) = Outback Steakhouse teriyaki filet medallions

In general, it seems that Peruvian food is similar in methods of cookings and flavor to Russian food. Especially Peruvian fries and meat.