Mode755 Consulting

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About Mode755

Mode755 offers technical leadership on world class digital projects.

Mode755 History

Mode755 was started in 2000, at the end of the dot com bubble. After working for stable companies for three years as a software developer, it suddenly became impossible to find full time employment, and Mode755 Consulting was born. Through the years, Mode755 has grown and shrunk according to the needs of various projects, but it will always be a small, personable digital consultancy, with Randy Weinstein as the primary consultant.

About the Name

In Unix systems, we use a command called “chmod” to change file permissions. Chmod is shorthand for “change mode”. Unix files have three classes of permissions. One for the user, one for the group of users such as administrators, and one for the rest of the users on the system. Permissions can be any combination of read access (r), write access (w), and execute (x). Execute permissions mean that you can run your code as a program.

In order to assign permissions to a file so that the owner (myself) and write the code, and everyone else can execute it as a program, you would want the file to have permissions of rwxr-xr-x, ie the owner has read, write and execute permissions (rwx), and the group and the world have permission to read and execute the code only (r-x).

Typing rwxr-xr-x would be cumbersome for a unix system administrator, so we more often use octal notation for these permissions. “rwx” is represented in binary as “111”, or “7” in octal. “r-w” is represented as “101” in binary, or octal “5”. Hence, chmod 755 means set “mode 755” permissions, and give the world permission to execute my code. We love our terse commands!

Of course, this is explanation often provokes blank stares from the non-initiated, so more often than not, I will just say that “mode” means fashion in french. Which it does.

For the curious, this documentation on chmod includes a cool octal permission calculator. https://ss64.com/bash/chmod.html.

About Randy

I started my digital journey at the age of 11, when my father brought home a DOS-based 286 IBM clone in 1986. He bought it as business tool for record keeping, but I soon expropriated it for more interesting purposes. I purchased a modem and tied up our land line for days on end connecting to BBSs and teaching myself everything there was to know about this amazing invention. By the time I was in grade 10, I was already employed in the nascent IT industry, building rudimentary databases and hypertext documents in the pre-dot com era.

As I progressed in my career, as a graphic designer, a web designer, a java programmer, a mobile developer and finally as a solutions architect, I have never lost my passion for technology, my preference for constant self-learning or my habit of moonlighting on pet projects.

When I am not immersed in technology, I have other hobbies to keep me grounded. I am currently working my way through culinary school at George Brown College, and I am a competitive swimmer. When I am not busy with work, chef school or swimming, I like to travel, and I can usually find a week in September for Europe, and a week in the winter to go trekking through the jungles of Central America. I also have a dog named Chloe. If you like pictures of travel, food and cute dogs, follow me on Instagram.