http://qwantify.com/blog/team/ en steve.alvarez@qwantify.com Copyright 2010 2010-02-24T18:19:52-06:00 http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/dd-wrt-thank-goodness-for-open-source/ http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/dd-wrt-thank-goodness-for-open-source/#When:19:19:52Z I recently took on a home project of connecting several electronic devices up to the Internet. Unfortunately, none of these devices had built-in wireless connectivity, and my home router was nowhere near these devices. While there are multiple solutions to connecting these devices online (wiring up home, networking over power lines, expensive wireless bridges, etc.), they were all costly, and I wanted to see if I could accomplish this for little to no money. Searching online brought to my attention something I hadn’t heard of before: DD-WRT. What is this you say? Well, it just happens to be free Linux firmware that can be run on many routers to enable them to act as a wireless bridge. I’ll avoid the whole topic here of “what a bridge is”, but I will say that this nifty piece of freeware allows you to use cheap and/or old routers to connect your wireless devices to an existing wireless network. A little bit of research and $20 later, I had installed DD-WRT onto a cheap router and successfully connected all my devices to my wireless network. I had never messed around with router reconfiguration before (well, besides the stock firmware), and reading some of the online posts made it seem like it was a bit risky, but ultimately, it was actually pretty easy and straightforward. While I have downloaded some freeware in the past, I’ve never really used it much or even got much benefit from any of those applications. However, that all changed once I dove into the world of DD-WRT. If you’re interested in finding out more about it, or have a similar dilemma at home of trying to connect Internet-ready devices to your wireless network, but you want to do it for little or no cost, take a look at the Wiki page that’s been created for this piece of freeware and see if it might help you too: DD-WRT Wiki 2010-02-24T19:19:52-06:00 http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/ywcas-circle-of-women-event/ http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/ywcas-circle-of-women-event/#When:20:48:52Z This years’ YWCA Circle of Women event, held February 18, 2010 at the Exhibition Hall at the Alliant Energy Center, celebrated the power of women’s philanthropy. The annual Circle of Women event is aimed at broadening the awareness of and support of the YWCA’s programs. QWANtify’s President/CEO, who had been involved with the Circle of Women Committee since July 2009, also served as a table captain – additionally responsible for filling a table with contributors for the event. QWANtify garnered support from female executives from Target Interiors, Full Compass, The Employer Group, M3 Insurance Solutions, Alliant Energy, Schwarz Insurance Agency, and Wealth and Wisdom of Wisconsin. Event guests heard from women whose lives have been changed by the YWCA Madison and discovered how their gift benefits women and their families in our community. Visit the YWCA website to learn more about the event and sponsors. 2010-02-19T20:48:52-06:00 http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/madison-metro-has-a-metro-commute-card-program./ http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/madison-metro-has-a-metro-commute-card-program./#When:19:31:04Z Madison Metro Coming Through with an Inexpensive Way to Travel GREEN Thanks to one of our team members, we just discovered Madison Metro has a Metro Commute Card Program. The program provides significant mass transit fare savings, using an unlimited ride pass saving riders more than 57% over the regular $2 fare. Participants are given a unique card that records usage. Employers are invoiced monthly for team member use. The program does not stipulate commute frequency, and payments are pre tax. This wonderful program is another way QWANtify hopes to contribute toward carbon footprint reduction while reducing transportation costs for our team. 2010-02-03T19:31:04-06:00 http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/QWANtify-supports-alternate-transportation/ http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/QWANtify-supports-alternate-transportation/#When:19:32:44Z QWANtify is participating in the new Madison Metro Commute Card Program that provides significant pre-tax savings on mass transit fares. With the use of the unlimited ride pass, riders can save over 57% off the cost of the $2 regular fare. The program is beneficial whether you use Metro to commute daily, once a week, or periodically for other activities and high volume events that may have limited parking availability. Madison Metro reports that recent studies show one of the most significant actions people can take to reduce their carbon footprint is to reduce their driving. The American Public Transportation Association reports that public transportation produces nearly 50% less carbon dioxide and nitrogen per passenger mile as private vehicles. Additionally, public transportation in the U.S. saves 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline, representing almost 4 million gallons of gas per day. QWANtify is happy to provide this alternative option to help promote a cleaner environment and reduce transportation costs for our team. See the City of Madison Metro Transit site for more information about the program. 2010-02-01T19:32:44-06:00 http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/Lets-make-it-modular/ http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/Lets-make-it-modular/#When:12:36:12Z “Lets make it modular” has become one of my new most hated phrases. 1) Non-technical people say it to mean do what I want it to do in the future with out me knowing what that is now. 2) Genericises the design which often leads to solutions that don’t fit the problem. 3) Creates lots of unneeded code and tests. (You do test right)     * Overly complex design (more layers)     * More code to learn, understand, and test     * More test cases     * LOT more places for things to go wrong     * Each layer ends up having it’s own DTOs (also known as VOs, DAO, etc) to call it which creates more code and tests 2010-01-31T12:36:12-06:00 http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/ywca-circle-of-women1/ http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/ywca-circle-of-women1/#When:14:57:08Z For the past six months I’ve been a part of the February 18, 2010 YWCA Circle of Women Committee. As the largest fundraiser for the UWCA Madison, the Circle of Women is aimed at broadening the awareness of and support of the YWCA’s programs. Ours, I believe, is a very important role. We’re helping advance the YWCA’s diverse programs developed for women and their families. In addition to being a committee member, I am excited to be a first-time Table Captain. Table Captains are responsible for filling a table with ten contributors for event. Our table is composed of executives from Target Interiors, Full Compass, The Employer Group, M3 Insurance Solutions, Alliant Energy, Schwarz Insurance Agency and Wealth and Wisdom of Wisconsin. I’m looking forward to sharing the event with a wonderful group of women! 2010-01-04T14:57:08-06:00 http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/Learning-new-skills/ http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/Learning-new-skills/#When:16:26:39Z Learning new things One of the topics I have always found interesting is how people learn. I’ve read several books on the subject and really like what the Pragmatic Programmers says about learning. Their book Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware does a great job of explaining this. I highly recommend reading that book and doing the exercises in it. While the book is writen by programmers, anyone can read it and get it. There are a few jokes and references that non programmers may not get, but those do not get in the way. My wife read the book and she loved it. I am always surprised that schools don’t teach kids how to learn. They just cram information into kids and expect them to figure out how to learn. I know I struggled in school until I read my first book on learning. I guess learning skills are not on a standardized test some where. Thus are not taught. Still that doesn’t seem right to me. How do you learn? 2009-12-17T16:26:39-06:00 http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/on-the-fly-image-generation/ http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/on-the-fly-image-generation/#When:14:35:06Z While working at my current client, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a dynamic image generation tool from Adobe called Scene7. We had a need to put togther different elements of an image dynamically based on user input and render a final image to the user’s browser. I can’t believe how well and how fast the Scene7 software accomplishes this task. Granted, I have no prior experience with image generation software so I have no baseline with which to compare, but it seems really fast and easy to me. In order to make it all work, all the pieces used to generate the final image are uploaded to the Scene7 server ahead of time and processed (this is where the magic must happen). This processing takes a very long time, but it’s only done once, and it’s done ahead of time so the end user feels none of the pain. To have the Scene7 software generate the final image, we simply construct a URL with a number of parameters telling the system which pieces to pull together and how to put them together. The result is a final image file which is generated in a fraction of a second. As a bonus, it just works and when we’ve had some confusion about how it works, Adobe techincal support has been Johhny-on-the-spot with help. Is it open source? No. Is it expensive? Most likely yes. But it just might be worth the expense if you need the services it offers because it works damn well. P.S. Just in case the FTC comes asking, I was in no way compensated for this article. 2009-12-11T14:35:06-06:00 http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/QWANtify-team-back-to-the-bells-for-the-salvation-army/ http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/QWANtify-team-back-to-the-bells-for-the-salvation-army/#When:20:29:19Z On Saturday, November 21st, the QWANtify team once again manned a red kettle and rang the bells for the Salvation Army at JC Penney’s in West Towne Mall. From just one day of ringing, the QWANtify kettle raised $761. Despite the economic downturn, donations increased 29% from the amount raised with the QWANtify kettle in 2009. See the Red Kettle Newsletter for more information about this holiday tradition. 2009-12-01T20:29:19-06:00 http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/salvation-army-bell-ringing-take-two/ http://qwantify.com/blog/entry/salvation-army-bell-ringing-take-two/#When:14:10:15Z 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. 2009-11-21T14:10:15-06:00