All Blog Posts
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Hungry? Try GrubHub
October 13th, 2009
Being from a city that is known for its pizza and hot dogs, it should come as no surprise that I like to eat. I’m also used to working long hours, skipping lunch breaks and avoiding long lines. Then I was introduced to GrubHub.com. GrubHub allows you to discover who delivers in your area and order your food online (or by phone.)
YAJ: Yet Another Javascript?
October 12th, 2009
The exponential growth and popularization of “the internet” was helpfully fueled by a flawed ‘language’ – the HyperText Markup Language. HTML is a subset of SGML – the ‘Standard Generalized Markup Language’ standards for structuring and processing documents. HyperText are navigable references to other ‘text’ (images, video, tabular data, stock quotes, etc). We ‘click’ hypertext ‘links’ to navigate from website to website.
A Small Victory
October 6th, 2009
Fun Fact: I’m moving to Los Angeles in less than a month.
Not So Fun Fact: Apartment hunting is both killing my sanity and inbox.
Javascript dependency management made easy like Sunday morning
October 5th, 2009
Javascript does not have any kind of dependency management built into the language; rather you have to use external tools to do the management for you. We have a rather large Javascript code base, and Rake is our build management tool, so the natural choice for me was to investigate available Ruby solutions; unfortunately, none of them worked well for me.
The One With The Word Ninjas
September 29th, 2009
I woke up this morning two hours before my alarm and started writing this blog post in my head. I was talking about community management, the advantages of social media, yada, yada. I even had a cute acronym for community management. But none of that will appear in this post today. I’m sorry.
What to do with all the heat?
September 28th, 2009
When I started with Border Stylo one of my first questions was “Where is/are our server/servers for the office?” “Well….we have a time capsule.”
We needed to change that quickly. Even for simple things like DHCP and control of our internal DNS not to mention centralized resources such control of our own wiki, etc.
Customer Support Scoreboard
September 22nd, 2009
I admit it. I’m a bit of a customer service snob. If I’m paying for a product I expect to receive good service in return. If the service isn’t up to par, I will question my future with said service. I hate to admit that AT&T is an exception, but I’m a slave to the iPhone. Don’t judge me. A wise man once said that customer support is the engine that makes the company go.
Pack a Parka
September 17th, 2009
I like the internet. I love all the stuff on it and how it is constantly changing.
I RSS, I follow, I friend, and I surf.
But I have to wonder, why is it still called surfing? I’m done being pushed back to shore. I’m going to call it Sherpa-ing cause it seems to me that we’re all looking for a way up the internet mountain. I want to know the best line to take. Where are the best blogs and the most entertaining videos? And how can I avoid the angry yetis of the internet?
PAX: More Than Just Long Lines & Video Games
September 15th, 2009
Recently I attended the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) with another Border Stylo team member, Lindsey. I’ve been to conferences before, but never something gaming related. And never as part of my job. Most of the conferences I’ve attended have been blogging related and I was there mostly to catch up and meet other bloggers, not necessarily for the topic/content provided.
Team Building 2.0
September 10th, 2009
With companies hopping on the “Web 2.0*” train these days for the marketing, recruiting and customer service needs, you’d think they’d apply that knowledge to their team building strategies.
Pair Programming Remotely
September 7th, 2009
I created this screencast about pair programming remotely.
It’s a way for developers to work together when they are not at the same office. We plan to use it when a team member works from home.
Spelling Bees and Street Lights
September 3rd, 2009
After I turned in a decent performance in my grade school spelling bee, my mom had the dubious, gas-guzzling honor of driving my brother, sister, and me an hour and a half so I could compete in the bee the next rung up the illustrious competitive spelling ladder.
I was prepared. I was a word wizard. I was eliminated in the first round.
Gen-Y: Underrepresented?
September 1st, 2009
After attending a number of blogger-related conferences, I noticed a lack of twenty-something representation or even acknowledgment. Why are we still under-represented in these blogger and social media circles? Our generation wields $150 billion in buying power (Info from 20SB blog). And let’s not forget peer influence.
The Many Flavors of Curry
August 31st, 2009
Many functional languages have this nifty feature called ‘currying’ or ‘curried functions’. The name comes from the logician Haskell Curry (son of Samuel Silas Curry — someone please hook me up with wherever they are getting these names!), for whom the Haskell programming language is also named. Currying is a technique for making partial applications of functions first class objects in an intuitive way.
Surreal Comfort: What’s in a name?
August 27th, 2009
Border Stylo. That is the company’s name.
Geez, were all the good names taken? Some wonder…
First of all, it is pronounced Border Steeeelo. As the FAQs say, it is supposed “represent our heritage.”
Pet Peeve: Being On vs. Being Active
August 25th, 2009
A few minutes ago I received an email from an organization I am a part of. After reading the preview on Gmail, I decided that I wasn’t going to open it. Not because it was spam or because I’m lazy, but because instead of writing “Dear Jennifer,” they went with the ever personal “Dear Full_Name.” Companies, if you’re going to use a form letter, make sure to write in the correct name. I realize that using form letters save time, but I hate that so many people use it as an excuse to be lazy.
Types and Type Theory (part 2)
August 24th, 2009
In my previous post I mentioned different ways in which programming languages (and programmers) make use of types and type theory. In my next post I would like to describe the formal system which underlies almost all typed programming languages, the “simply-typed lambda calculus.” But before I get to that, I need to explain the (untyped) lambda calculus, its history, motivation, and functionality.
This is Part 2 in a multi-part series on the subject of Types and Type Theory.
If You Offer Cupcakes, They Will Come
August 20th, 2009
Last week the Border Stylo team said goodbye to Laura, who was helping with our College Outreach Coordination. She’s off to Germany to study abroad and send us postcards. We made sure to give her a proper send-off.
Gems in Scheme (part 2)
August 17th, 2009
In my last post I described some of the use of call-with-current continuation for non-local or other sorts of dynamic exits. These uses of call/cc are similar to exceptions in many other languages, or a catch/throw mechanism.
This is part 2 in our Gems in Scheme series.
Customer Support: The Engine That Makes The Company Go
August 13th, 2009
What’s the engine that makes the company go? Is it the initial investors and their capital? Is it the engineers who design the product? Is it the team that promotes the product here and wide? The iPod is a magnificent bit of synergy, on these fronts: the money was invested by Apple, the people who designed it came up with a novel- yet intuitive- interface, and the marketing team came up with a brilliantly a-la-Thunderball promotional environment. But think a bit- have you ever seen a product with all of these factors in play that went nowhere? Sure you have. Why, then?
Introducing Cucumber
August 10th, 2009
Most people write about the goodness of Behavior Driven Design from a pure tech perspective, but convincing your company involves a lot more. This blog article tries to bring it all home for everyone.
“…At first your designers will cry about actually having to think through their design. Then they will find it extremely useful to their process and never let it go…”