Featured Blog Posts (352)

Screen scraping is defined in Wikipedia as "a computer software technique of extracting information from websites. Usually, such software programs simulate human exploration of the World Wide Web by either implementing low-level Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), or embedding a fully-fledged web browser, such as…

We enter the new year with over 3,000 members, a full event schedule, a newly reinvigorated blog, active job boards and plenty of great discussion about everything from…

Remote debugging is the process of viewing & editing the code behind a website on your own computer, but from a separate device. As mobile devices and mobile browsing continues to see exponential growth, it's becoming increasingly important to test and debug your web apps via remote debugging, since there's no way to  inspect a webpage's resources on a physical mobile device. Here are a few techniques I use for testing & debugging web apps on mobile devices today.

Remote…

Interruptions are the annoying, disruptive, beeping, booping constant of our lives -- phones ringing; notifications buzzing; bosses, coworkers, spouses and kids clamoring for our attention. How we react to them -- and the toll it takes on our productivity and concentration -- is a well-studied subject (see Wikipedia on…

With the new year come new resolutions to become a better person. If you're into software development (or looking to get into it), you may be looking to learn something new. I do believe that one of the most important things we can do as software engineers is to explore other technologies and programming languages. Seeing other approaches gives you additional perspective when trying to approach a problem. In the past, this typically meant picking up a book and spending a few days going…

Most rails applications have some sort of "user" to represent either customers who are consuming the service or administrators that are publishing content to the web application.  It's important that these users are authenticated (ensuring that they are who they say they are).  For user authentication in a Ruby on Rails application, Devise is one of the best solutions out there.  It has a very active community and wide…

Today Canonical officially announced Ubuntu for phones http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/phone.  Usually a new phone OS announcement is not much to get excited about, but Ubuntu’s entry has been anticipated for years.  I am interested in this because Canonical’s Ubuntu is the most widely adopted and supported Linux distribution and they are promising a level of convergence never seen before.  Eventually Ubuntu will be able to run the same OS on…

This article was in Bloomberg: U.S. Internet Users Pay More for Slower Service.  I've read many pieces like this, but can't help myself.  The problem is familiar.  But each time, I hope to read that a solution is brewing somewhere.  After having lived and traveled in Asia, it was disheartening to see the state of broadband here.  Discovered that my Internet in Hawaii was…

After my blog a couple of months ago about trading Microsoft, I couldn't help but wonder the same about Apple Inc. Once again, the same disclaimer applies: please do not consider this investment advice, just one commentary that may or may not be useful in your overall decision-making process.…

I recently read a lifehacking story circulating around facebook that definitely impacted me more than any tech blog or news article all year. You may have read about it; it’s about a philosophy professor and his lecture on the jar of life. There are many versions of it out there, so here is my mashed up version of it:

The…

Looking into the future is a time honored tradition for us all especially at the end of the year. The debate about the future of broadband in Hawaii has been raging for a while and in relation to that we are doing a research project at University of Hawaii that needs your input.

Participate in the Future of Broadband in Hawaii…

Due to the Big Data Movement in recent years, lately I’ve been exploring statistical analysis and machine learning through books, online courses and online tutorials.  One book I found intriguing is “Exploring …

Following on from the November election there has been renewed talk about visa reform, and three parts of the discussion are relevant to our tech community here in Hawaii.  Proposed actions include easing visa requirements for international graduates in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) fields, creating a new “Start-Up Visa” for entrepreneurs, and raising the quota for H-1B…

UH Information Technology Services (ITS) is once again hosting the "Techs in Paradise" (TIP) series of technical networking workshops & meetings in January 2013 at the East West Center.  TIP 2013 brings together hundreds of participants from both the Internet2 and Asia Pacific Advanced Networking (APAN) communities, along with ESNet.  This is the only time these groups from East and West meet together; UH hosted previous TIP events in 2001, 2004 & 2008.  …

Should US and EU regulators step in to curb the search giant's influence? 

In one of the worst editorials on CNN this year…

Contrary to what the title may lead you to believe about me, I'm not against the process of wireframing. I think it can be a very valuable tool in the designers kit when used properly. However, with more and more clients requesting increasingly complex functionality from their sites and apps, wireframes simply fall short in conveying the most important part of an interface design: how it will behave.

This really…

Henk Rogers has launched a new Hawaii-based venture accelerator called Blue Startups focusing on capital-efficient and scalable-technology companies, including Internet, software, mobile, gaming and e-commerce. They are also interested in tech companies selling into Asian markets.

I'm excited to see Henk and friends making this sort of investment in our…

Christmas is coming, and nobody needs to tell you that malls are about to get crazy. The last thing you want to endure is long checkout lines – especially when you have a loooong gift list to get through.

Retailers don’t want you to wait either, because they’re afraid you may want to change your mind…

Recently I was asked if Microsoft constitutes a good investment today. Talk about a loaded question! First of all, please consider the commentary here as just a small piece of what you will consider when making your decision. Investments in general involve the much bigger picture of your risk tolerance, risk profile, financial goals, and existing assets. Having said that, what…

I've been meaning to follow up on Chris Sass' excellent post on growing pains.  A related side effect of code that has grown too complicated is unit tests that are impossible to decipher.  As your ActiveRecord model becomes bloated, the tests written for it have to mock out too many things.  This makes it nearly impossible to know why the test was created and what, exactly, is supposed…