We want some (seriously elite) PHP / MySQL hackers to join our team in San Francisco.

If you think that making the Internet better and developing real technology (meaning we’re not building AJAX’d out social-networking services over IM) meshes well with you, and you have the PHP / MySQL skills to contribute, then let us know.

Below is a brief rundown of what we’re looking for but you’ll find a more detailed list on our Craigslist posting. Note, the Craigslist posting is for someone more senior but we’re also hiring for a junior PHP / MySQL programming position.

Requirements:

• Knowledge of Computer Science and fundamental algorithms, ability to write well structured and readable code
• Extensive knowledge of PHP, including PHP 5
• Strong knowledge of MySQL with an understanding of the impacts of indexing and schema design along with query analysis and optimization.
• Knowledge of HTML and CSS, ability to develop web pages by writing HTML directly; knowledge of XML extremely helpful.
• Linux knowledge, understanding of how Apache works, and a good familiarity with the shell environment.
• Prior C experience

Bonus Points:

• Serious knowledge of MySQL including but not limited to complex joins, subqueries, stored procedures, etc.
• Experience developing php extensions (PECL modules) in C
• Ability to write and understand JavaScript.
• Previous use of CVS or Subversion for code management and versioning.
• Familiarity with DNS.
• Involvement in any Free or Open Source software projects.

You can send resumes to team (at) opendns _dot_ com.

ps: If you just got out of college with your freshly minted CS degree but don’t have a lot of experience you should still send us an email. You’ll learn more at OpenDNS about software and global deployments than you will ever learn at that boat anchor in Redmond.

Earlier today, Cameroon (or the company acting on their behalf) turned off the wildcarding of non-registered domains within the .cm ccTLD. We’re still learning what’s going on, but at least for the moment, .cm domains resolve as they did before last Friday, August 4, 2006.

The OpenDNS preference introduced yesterday for filtering the .cm wildcarding still works, and will not disrupt any valid domain, whether or not wildcarding is active.

Cameroon, a country on the western coast of Africa recently decided to put a wildcard entry in .cm, their IANA assigned Country-Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD). CNET has a pretty good article covering what they did.

Around the blogosphere people have asked us what we could do to fix it for them. I'm annoyed we have to deal with this, but happy that users are starting to realize that they need the ability to manage their DNS as a part of managing their network. The Cameroonian ccTLD operators (or the business they've outsourced this service to) makes the argument that they are "helping you" find what you're looking for. If they wanted to help you they'd just correct .cm to .com for all domains that didn't exist in the .cm namespace, or do nothing at all.

Some users have asked us how many .cm domains there are and what they might be. We have published a complete list (as of yesterday) of all .cm domains. We've gone through and shown that for such a small ccTLD they've already had quite a few parked domains in their zone. This list is at the bottom of this post. (This data is all public information, don't worry.)

How to act

Decide for yourself how you want .cm to work. With OpenDNS, you have a choice.

• Already using OpenDNS? Head to the Account page.
• Not yet using OpenDNS? Take two minutes and Get Started today.

Mini FAQ

Are you going to show me ads just like the .cm operator does?

No! We're doing this because you shouldn't be punished or distracted because you forgot to type an 'o' when surfing the net. We will seamlessly correct the full URL for you with no ads, popups, or page in the middle. By enabling the feature you know exactly what's going to happen: google.cm is going to take you to google.com.

Will I still get to real .cm domains if I turn on .cm wildcard filtering?

Yes! We will not filter real .cm domains such as www.airfrance.cm and others. It should also be noted we've never filtered any real domains, even with typo correction. The only exception is phishing sites that you've asked us to block.

Will you do this for other wildcarded ccTLDs like .ws, .ph and .cd?

You tell us. We are offering the fix for .cm because our users appreciate that we transparently correct mistyped domains like google.cm to google.com. For other wildcarded ccTLDs, we'll be listening to our users and offering useful choices based on those requests.

What if there are new valid .cm domains? Will those work?

Of course!

What happens if I turn off typo-correction and turn on .cm wildcard filtering?

If you turn off typo correction and turn on .cm wildcard filtering you will get an RCODE=3 DNS response (commonly called NXDOMAIN) as if the wildcard didn't exist. In your browser you'd get the default behavior which is probably either an MSN search page on IE, or a "host not found" page with Firefox.

Again, if you are already using OpenDNS just head to the Account page or take two minutes and Get Started today.

A listing of all .cm domains

Legend

All domains in the Cameroon ccTLD “.cm”

(List accurate as of Tuesday, August 8, 2006)

We’re big fans of telling our story here on the company website and blog. But sometimes it’s useful to spread the word beyond our own boundaries. Below is our first press release, which went over the wires ~8am ET / 5am PT today. I’ve taken the liberty of adding a few links which are not in the wire service version as it appears on Yahoo Finance and Google, among others.

OpenDNS Answers Over One Billion Questions in First Month

Users Choose New DNS Platform for a Safer, Faster, Reliable Internet Experience

August 8, 2006 — OpenDNS, launched in July 2006, has announced that it has answered over one billion requests for its domain name lookup services. The company provides a free platform of reliable DNS (Domain Name System) service via its distributed network, with additional features that increase the speed and security of DNS. DNS is a fundamental piece of the Internet architecture which maps names to IP addresses. Provided as an alternative to the DNS services offered by ISPs, OpenDNS puts control of the DNS in the user’s hands by providing features that include phishing protection and typo correction for websites. The OpenDNS service automatically knows that the user who typed craigslist.og really meant to go to craigslist.org and directs them to the correct site. OpenDNS is also engineered to help prevent phishing, alerting the end-user when a site is known to be malicious.

“I started OpenDNS with the goal of building a company that would develop products that make the Internet a better place,” said David Ulevitch, founder and CEO of OpenDNS. “As an active and extremely dedicated member of the Internet and DNS community, I came to realize that many of the problems on the Internet exploit weaknesses of the DNS. We have figured out how to work with the current DNS to provide a solution that makes the Internet experience safer, faster and smarter. We are proud to be the first service in this category that puts choice in the hands of the user.”

Before OpenDNS, DNS was not an individual choice — it was either on or off, with no customization available. OpenDNS delivers a service which gives the user control through intelligence added to the DNS. And it’s available, by choice, in two minutes following brief step-by-step instructions. “OpenDNS is a great idea, well-executed,” said Matt Mullenweg, lead developer of WordPress, the popular blogging platform. “They took something basic and ubiquitous, DNS, and improved it by adding spell-checking and phishing protection (usability enhancements).” [full post]

About OpenDNS
OpenDNS — www.opendns.com — was founded in San Francisco by David Ulevitch in 2005 to deliver a vastly improved Internet experience through a new DNS (Domain Name System) service that provides all Internet users with increased security, reliability and performance. In 2005, the company received funding from Minor Ventures, the fund created by Halsey Minor, founder of CNET, for start-ups delivering the on-demand software model pioneered by Salesforce.com. Open DNS is a free service, with revenues coming from the advertising-driven model developed by Yahoo! and Google. For expert opinions on DNS and the Internet infrastructure, as well as company news, read the OpenDNS blog at blog.opendns.com.

###

Also, two links which don’t fit in the release, but are of interest:

• Stats (yes, we’re over 1.2 Billion already; hit 1 Billion last Thursday, San Francisco time)
• System Status (we put the link at the top right a while ago, but haven’t mentioned it here; part of being reliable is letting you see for yourself)

David Ulevitch will be presenting OpenDNS as part of STIRR 1.5 on Wednesday, August 9. He has 60 seconds to describe what we do. If there’s a recording/podcast, we’ll link to it.

Sorry… the event is invitation only, in Palo Alto, California, USA. But if you want to attend, drop us a note and we’ll see what we can do about an intro to the STIRR folks.

Update: Here’s a short (four minute) interview with David from HotFromSiliconValley.com, recorded after the presentation.