From the QWANtify Blogs
Today was QWANtify’s second annual Salvation Army Bell Ringing endeavor. As was the case last year, we rang the bell outside of JC Penney’s at West Towne Mall. Our team generously rang the bell from 10am through 8pm, splitting the time up into one or two-hour shifts. Some continued the giving tradition by bringing along their children.
Shoppers stopped by to empty purses and pockets of their change and many donated greenbacks as well. I found myself thinking if each adult shopper just gave $.50 or $1.00 the Salvation Army would have no problem filling their coffers. I think sometimes people think there is a need for a large donation, when in fact if everyone donated a nominal amount the goal would easily be met.
Once again our team came through with a wonderful effort setting an example for our peers and all companies when it comes to unselfishly giving and showing compassion to others.
Filed in: Company Insight
Well I just spent several hours chasing down a stupid Mac / Apache / SSL update issue.
[error] Server should beSSL-aware but has no certificate configured [Hint: SSLCertificateFile]
So after a lot of bashing my head into the wall saying, but I didn’t change anything, I noticed the version of Apache was update by the last Apple security update. Apache is now version 2.2.13 which changes howSSL configuration works and finally allows separate SSL Configuration per virtual host. This means you have to put your SSL configuration each virtual host too. So I copied the virtual host config section from my /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-ssl.conf into all of my other virtual hosts that use SSL (aka port 443) and now they all work.
-Kevin Runde
Filed in: Team Member Blog
Having recently worked in two very different development environments (one being very complex, and the other being very simple), I noticed something about myself that really surprised me. I prefer the complex environment. As much as I dislike always having to overcome a challenge in a complex environment when I’m in the thick of things, I have found that I thrive on that challenge and actually NEED it in order to feel successful. It’s true, that I’ve been much more productive in the traditional sense of the word during the time I’ve been working in the simple environment, but I come down more on the quality side of the quantity vs. quality debate. I tend to get much less done in a complex environment, but what does get done, is (IMHO) of a higher quality and I think it has to do with constantly having to be at the top of my ‘game’ in order to overcome the challenges present in a complex environment.
Filed in: Team Member Blog
Today we had our company United Way kick-off.
Filed in: Company Insight
QWANtify values our ability to use software and architecture tools that benefit our customers.
Filed in: Company Insight
Today I received an email from MSN telling me they now recommend using IE 8. I was shocked when I read that. IE 8 has been out since March 19, 2009 and MSN is finally recommending IE 8. It only took them about 6 months. That got a friend and I thinking about IE 6 and the many issues companies will have MS finally stops supporting IE 6. What do I mean? Many companies have internal “Web Applications” that work only with IE 6. I say “Web Applications” because they are not really a web application. Sure they use the browser, but most were written in ASP and rely on specific IE 6 “functionality” that does not work with other web browsers. A real web app is cross platform compatible in my opinion.
This is yet another perfect example of someone trying to take standards and add their own propriety extensions so you have to use their product rather than another standards compliant product (Vendor Lock In). The pragmatic in me hopes these companies will learn from their mistakes when they are finally forced to rewrite all of their IE 6 specific application, but the realist in my realizes they won’t. Worse yet Microsoft will cut support for IE 6 and all of their newer OSes will only support newer versions of IE so eventually companies will have to upgrade or move to a different OS. UnlikeCOBOL which IBM and others are perfectly willing to still sell you systems to run your legacy COBOL. So in my opinion IE 6 is not a COBOL-like Legacy situation. It is actually much worse.
-Kevin
Filed in: Team Member Blog
Social Media.
203 million hits in .26 seconds is what you’ll find when you Google Social Media. The first link that shows up is a link to Facebook, which has 250 million current users. Social Media is everywhere! Like it or not, my advice is to absorb it, learn about it and use it.
Filed in: Team Member Blog
September 27, 2009· by Kevin Runde
I was working on a new Ruby on Rails project and needed some standard JavaScript UI elements like modal windows, tabs, tooltips and such. Until recently I had never found any good library to add on to prototype that handles these. jQuery, EXT JS, YUI and others have these so why doesn’t prototype. Well recently I stumbled across LivePipe. This is exactly what I have been looking for. The documentation is just enough so you can figure things out. There needs to be a better newbie guide. Maybe I’ll start working on one after I have more experience.
So if you are using the Prototype JavaScript then take a look atLivePipe.
-Kevin Runde
Filed in: Team Member Blog