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January 6, 2014

4 Tips to Help You Choose a Software Development Partner

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As we all know, technology moves at lightning speed, as soon as you think you’re caught up, the next new i-something has launched. Unless you’re constantly keeping yourself privy of the latest and greatest web, mobile and design technologies, hiring a development firm could be a great alternative to help guide you and your project. Whether you’re working in a startup atmosphere or part of a seasoned corporation, these day’s it’s alway nice to know some software experts just in case. Which brings me to my 4 tips to help you find a great engineering partner.

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December 16, 2013

Whobert Needs Your Help

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Here's Whobert!

Who Am I?It seems Whobert has a bit of a problem; he can’t remember a thing.

Okay, so he’s a wizard.  That much is clear: hat, beard, robe… we’ve got that part.  But there are so many questions!  Where did he come from?  How does he know magic?  Why is there an owl on his head?  Nobody knows. And Whobert can’t remember!

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December 11, 2013

From Interior Design to UI/UX Design: How and What?

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Design is complex in its subjectivity and individual expression, perception and interpretation. However, what many non-designers don’t know is there are fundamental principles that trained designers must perfect before running wild with paint brush in hand… or stylus

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December 3, 2013

Memory Management for Unity iOS

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Developing a game intended for multiple end platforms can present some unique challenges to consider.  For one, the differing pixel resolutions on apple devices over the years necessitate at least some different background images and layouts to accommodate the different aspect ratios.  My initial technique to deal with this problem was to include a copy of each background for each device present in its scene, with its rendering switched off. 

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November 22, 2013

Embracing Technology 101

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On December 01, 2013 I’ll be celebrating my one-year anniversary at Grio as their HR Administrator. I’d like to share some of my story with you. It’s a tale of a technology trailer turned technical achiever; that’s me!

Perspective: I’m 58 years young, my most recent experience prior to Grio was in the non-profit sector where the PC is king and paper pushing is commonplace.

Contrast: Grio is a software consultancy firm catering to a wide spectrum of clients spanning across industries. Grio is a gun for hire with respect to mobile apps and web development.

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November 12, 2013

A quick look at Android 4.4 – KitKat

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On Thursday, October 31st Google announced their new flagship phone, the Nexus 5. Along with their newest device they announced it would ship with Android 4.4, codenamed “KitKat” (much to the surprise of the entire Android community that was expecting “Key Lime Pie”.)

I received my Nexus 5 on November 7th, and have had some time to get used to KitKat as well as the device itself. Originally this post was going to review the device and the new Android version, but instead I want to discuss several of the key changes that have been introduced with 4.4 and my thoughts on them.

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October 29, 2013

Tip and tricks for learning a new code base

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As a consultant, approaching new code bases is something that happens every day. As exciting as it sounds however, working on many different projects can be really tough. This is because in many occasions we are not provided with all the details that we need, but we just requested to fix something that is broken.

What makes these tasks difficult is that the data and code structures can be very large and not very intuitive. Also, it might not be clear who holds the knowledge on them, or in some cases the knowledge can be even lost; for example being held by people who left the company.

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October 22, 2013

Android Studio: Not Ready For Prime Time

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As one would expect with a fine product, it would work best right out of the box. In the case of Android Studio, some assembly is required. The issue I found was that a newly created project with default settings wouldn’t compile. I thought that this bug might have been specific to my setup, but after reproducing it on 3 different computers and finding several outstanding questions as well as a few open bugs with Google concerning the issue, I decided that a fix would be a fine thing to write up, hoping it enables other people to develop as painlessly as possible.

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October 17, 2013

Is iOS Dying?

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ios7 logo

Apple and Steve Jobs started the smart phone revolution. Just 7 short years ago we had the first iPhone, a technical marvel in its day. The craftsmanship of not only the device but also the iOS operating system was a thing to behold. Apple continued with its excellence in both hardware and software design for years. Unfortunately, the wild ride has ended, at least for the moment. While the hardware has kept up relatively well (although there is not a heck of a lot of innovation), the iOS operating system has, sadly, regressed.

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