Mobile
U.S. Devs are Sleeping on Flutter
Flutter is the future of cross platform mobile development. Developers in the US are going to be late to the party at the current pace.
tech
Thoughts on technologies, code, and how to improve
tech
Scaling to Millions of Users
Companies are like boats. The small ones are quick and agile. They move fast and pivot on a dime. But that agility comes at a cost: they are notoriously unstable. The rough seas of the market define what they can and cannot do. Make a bad turn and they risk
tech
A/B Testing Features by Segmenting Users
"A/B test everything." Those of us in the startup world hear it routinely. But it is a useless statement. Ask "how" and you will be met with the shifting eyes of the ignorant. Indeed, A/B testing is powerful but tricky. Whole companies have been
tech
The Internet is Fundamentally Flawed
Why has the internet been so transformative in the last 20 years? I would argue any complete answer to that question would need to speak to 4 major points: * Anonymity * Interconnectivity * Information sharing * Equal platform for individuals and companies But these aspects are the drivers for the internet's
tech
Choosing a Stack for Your Side Project
Selecting a stack is the first technology decision in a side project. Unfortunately, it is also one of the biggest factors in determining whether or not your project launches. This is not because there are right or wrong technology choices. All widely adopted technologies are different flavors of good. The
security
Hosting Multiple HTTPS Domains from the Same Server with Let's Encrypt and Nginx
This post is a continuation of my original, How to Set Up HTTPS with Let's Encrypt and Nginx. If you have not read that post, i suggest starting there. HTTPS is increasingly required for websites, as it should be. Chrome now explicitly marks HTTP sites with password or
tech
User.pronoun() is a Time Saver
Usability is all about the little things. Small changes in how your copy reads can have big effects in how your users react to things. This is one reason why designers love to use gender-specific language in copy. For example: "Hey Ben, [first name] just sent you a gift!
tech
Programmatically Capturing Spam with Detextion.io
There is a [modified] adage about attracting users to web apps. "Build it and spammers will come." The fact is that if your users can enter text others will see, your app is going to be a target for spammers. This means comments, profiles, messages, feeds and even
growth
Software Engineering Lessons Worth Learning Early
College didn't teach me what i needed to know. It taught me how to learn what i needed to know. I read this quote on a pamphlet in RIT's Software Engineering office one day. I didn't understand it at the time, but it has
tech
Iterative Architectures
One of the common themes i see teams struggle with is their architecture. In the technology world, needs and opinions change over time. Because of this, no architecture is truly future-proof. They inevitably need to be changed. The problem is that for architectural updates, "change" tends to mean
ruby
Deep Image Analysis with Ruby and Google Cloud Vision
How would your app change if you could know the contents of your user's photos as they uploaded them? Would you sort products based on the activities in their photos? Match users based on common locations? Suggest travel destinations? But of course this has been a pipe dream.
tech
Use Generic Names for 3rd Party Services
One of the easiest traps for coders to fall into is naming 3rd party integrations too specifically. It comes naturally, of course. We train ourselves to adopt concise and explicit naming patterns. So what do i mean by overly explicit names? Let's look at a couple of basic