Questions to ask at a startup interview

Considering a role as an employee or co-founder at a young company? Here are some questions to help you size it up. Some may be more appropriate for the leadership, others may be better for employees. Comments or additions welcome. Business What problem does it solve, and what is the value that it seeks to add? What would that be […]

Read

Changing keyboard shortcuts for OS X apps

Have you ever been using an app with keyboard shortcuts that didn’t make sense? And the app didn’t allow you to change the keyboard shortcut to something more reasonable? Well, it turns out that Mac OS X allows you to override app keyboard shortcuts and create your own. Here’s an example. The hotkey for cycling conversations in Skype troubles me. […]

Read

Delaying the $digest() cycle in AngularJS

When scaling an AngularJS app, large data sets can cause the $digest() cycle to run slowly. There are a number of performance optimizations you can make, such as being careful with $watch() and $filter(), using one-time binding, or hunting down expensive operations with Batarang. But sometimes, even with these improvements, an app with a lot of data can feel sluggish due to […]

Read

TomDoc for JavaScript?

I love code documentation. Here are some reasons: 1. It reduces cognitive load when maintaining legacy code (helps you figure out which button to press faster). Docs communicate how the code should be working at a specific point in time, and this can reduce debugging time when tracking down a bug. 2. It communicates intent. This helps future developers to respect […]

Read

Shopify vs. WooCommerce

Wondering which one wins when it comes to eCommerce? Here’s a chart to help you size them up.   Shopify WooCommerce Model Commercial, hosted, all-in-one solution Free open source plugin Site www.shopify.com www.woothemes.com/woocommerce Speed to set up prototype Few hours Couple days Out of the box functionality High Medium Customization via Plugins Low High Shipping Flexibility Excellent – charge by […]

Read

A brief history of web browsers

Money is a powerful motivator. To acquire it, Americans worked around 257,000,000,000 hours last year. In the short history of web browsers, a number of unethical things have happened, largely motivated by money. These include: businesses pursuing profit by means of monopolistic bullying, the use of closed source software to obstruct technological progress, profit at the expense of those you claim […]

Read

How to show employees that you care

Find a sustainable pace and keep people in tempo with it. Your job as a leader is to protect your people so that they can keep doing their job day-in and day-out. And this means finding a sustainable pace, setting that pace as the leader, and then keeping your people accountable to not run too fast or too slow. Leaders who […]

Read

Three.js tutorial – building an atom

Three.js is a powerful open-source library for 3D modeling and animation using pure JavaScript. This tutorial will cover the basics of working with three.js, and we’ll build an animated atom in the process. Here’s what our end product will look like: For the purposes of keeping this tutorial as simple as possible, we’ll use inline JavaScript in a single HTML […]

Read

Internet Marketing Checklist

Want to do Web Marketing? Here’s how I do it. (I started this list in 2009, and I try to keep it up-to-date. If you spot outdated info, please let me know.) Most recent update: Sept. 4, 2020 Website Whether you know how to code or not, a Content Management System like WordPress can come in handy. Are you a […]

Read