This post is one in a series where I slowly assemble a Maven workflow for large javascript projects. If you came here via google, I recommend starting at the beginning: Designing a Javascript Maven Plugin. Alternatively, you can just go…
This post is one in a series where I slowly assemble a Maven workflow for large javascript projects. If you came here via google, I recommend starting at the beginning: Designing a Javascript Maven Plugin. Alternatively, you can just go…
As mentioned in my previous post, I believe that the tooling for enterprise grade javascript applications is simply not there yet. What is needed is a set of tools, preferably open source, that are framework agnostic and that fit into…
This post will show you how to update your SQLite application when you release a new version of your AIR application (Android or otherwise). For those of you who are impatient, just copy the two classes provided and use them…
This post is rather more nerdy than my other ones, and goes to describe how to create a Facebook authentication adapter for the Zend Framework, using the new Facebook Graph API. I do not intend to support this code explicitly,…
I’ve recently been involved in a discussion about what makes a rockstar developer for a startup. This has always surprised me- the reality of the matter is that there are no rockstars, only people who think of themselves as rockstars,…
If you’re in an agency and/or have been paying attention to Business Week and the Wall Street Journal recently, you’ll know that my former employer Resource Interactive recently released a service offering called “Off The Wall“, which in short is…
There is a $128 billion dollar untapped demand for student debt assistance, if you can find a way to meet it. The conditions of the environment in which this demand exists may even contribute to an increase in the demand as you provide a debt-assistance service.
Main Street and Wall Street have become polarizing catchphrases to describe the ongoing argument between top down and bottom up economics. The politicization of these terms has become so rampant that we each take sides, completely disregarding the fact that it is the environment that defines the strategy, not the other way around. In both boom times and lean times it behooves us to carefully consider all the present influencing factors, and choose the appropriate strategy based on that regardless of political leanings. Top down and bottom up approaches have their place, but you have to be smart about choosing which to use.
If you’ve ever done any form of web development, you’ve probably learned to hate Internet Explorer 6. It’s not that it’s not used- IE6 once enjoyed the status of being the foremost browser on the web, and as a result…
As economic realities trickle down through the manufacturing and service supply chains, I’m starting to hear distressing news from my colleagues at other agencies. Work is beginning to dry up, either because clients realize that it’s more cost effective to bring the larger projects in-house, or because their budgets are getting cut as a result of reduced consumer spending. Everyone seems to be fairly certain that things are going to get worse before they get better, and as a result everyone is battening down their hatches to weather the expected storm.
Bad news like that is almost inevitably followed up by commiseration about how many hours they’ve had to work recently, how they’re constantly under pressure to put in more, or how their coworkers have had enough and have left for greener… or at least less stressful pastures. This in and of itself isn’t necessarily bad- we all understand the pressures of marketing and agency work, and a certain amount of dedication to the project deliverables are par for the course. Yet when weekly hours exceed 50 on a regular basis, you’re buying short term productivity by draining both current and future creativity of your talent. Speaking from experience, gradual burnout is still burnout, leaving long-term scars, and the tightening of client budgets and inevitable cannibalization of the RFP bid has resulted in even more frightening stories: Talented designers and developers are going on antidepressants because of their work load (True story, source withheld).
