The year was 2005 & I had had some excellent results predicting future news stories, trends, etc… & monetizing them. Of course being a programmer I did this programmatically. Microsoft, Google, & Yahoo were all paying me. Paying me to pollute the internet. It would be many years before they’d assert more control & frankly […]
Three hour tour
Hi gurus, if you haven’t read The Phoenix Project yet I hope this tips you over the top. This book makes a tremendous contribution to the Agile/Lean/DevOps movements & articulates most of the challenges we’ve experienced in the world of technology. You may have to Google “Gilligan’s Island” to understand the context of this, but […]
When Agile doesn’t work
Virtually anyone with even a casual interest in sports of any sort realize that success is about skill. Or as I like to say, skillz! Yet, again and again we see technical write-ups about the benefits of some project management formula. As though a philosophy is what creates a “killer app.” How many lines of […]
2015, Marty McFly, and Programming.
Lots of internet posts, memes, and even videos have appeared to lament the missed predictions for 2015 from Back to the Future. However, one thing is for certain, we’ve seen a lot of other predictions come true. We may not have a hover-board that will allow us to cruise across ponds, but we’ve got some […]
Perhaps the Most Valuable Rare Commodity
If you arrived here looking for a sure bet investment, read on. If you are here looking for insight into software development, read on. If you know nothing about the software development sector then I don’t know how/why you are here but feel free to read on also. re·fine riˈfīn/ verb remove impurities or unwanted […]
Yet Another Use for PHP
A recent project found us integrating an online SaaS with a MSSQL Order Entry system. The SaaS system used the hideous SOAP protocol, but PHP’s SoapClient class made quick work of that. “Unless you have a definitive reason to use SOAP use REST.” The order entry system followed Microsoft’s version of the development bible and […]
An Expensive Downgrade.
What percentage of development shops are pigeonholing their clients by their loyal adherence to their prescribed stack? Far too many. At V-Tek, we’ve found that .NET often fits quite nicely into our mostly open-source toolbox. Especially when our client already has an MS oriented product. Everything from raw library-less JavaScript, to RoR coding by convention, […]
Google no longer a porn site!
It has been a busy quarter around here. Overwhelmed with projects, especially the pet kind. One pet project we’ve been working on for over a year is convincing Wikipedia to stop being a porn site (from within the editor community). While we cannot take credit for the changes that seem to have finally gone live […]
Are you a Monoglot?
Technology is like a religion for some. If it ain’t in their language it must “suck”. We may be able to thank headhunters and job descriptions for this unnecessary level of specialization. Jobs often come with a laundry list of specific required skills and those specific skills are either the result of a monoglot project […]
iSad? The passing of Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs passed away this week. It was surprisingly difficult to come to grips with our feelings on this matter. We do not hide the fact that we are not Apple fans, however there were admirable qualities to Steve Jobs that we cannot deny. We broke our thoughts down to a few main characteristics of […]