May 2013
2 posts
Obscure C →
For those low-level-loving developers out there, here is a look at some programming oddities, unconventional coding, and unexpected behavior in snippets of C code. All these examples are perfectly readable bits of code that upset compilers or produce unexpected output.
In a job filled with comfortable C#, JavaScript, and T-SQL, the low-level landscape of C and C++ feels dangerous - but it is...
Baker Framework 4 Newsstand Subscriptions
Baker Framework is a fantastic platform for building HTML-based iOS apps. While its “standalone” mode is useful for building single-use, content-driven applications, the addition of iOS Newsstand support in version 4.0 plays to Baker’s strengths as a simple platform for periodicals.
In order to fully support all of Newsstand’s features, however, a critical server component...
April 2013
4 posts
I Was an iPad Skeptic →
The iPad was released in 2010 to just about every possible reaction: excitement, exhilaration, confusion, and mockery. Nearly three years into the “tablet revolution,” Ars Technica takes a look back at how the iPad has changed lives, affected workflows, and become the go-to device for all sorts of casual computing and light work.
Computol is a company filled with iPads, and we most...
Framework Benchmarks →
Is your favorite framework on this graph? How does it rank? Some interesting results are found between the realms of JavaScript, PHP, and Ruby.
Also, LOL CakePHP.
// Brandon
We are hiring a Network Engineer →
We are looking for a hard working Network Engineer to join our Networking/Server Administration group. Apply through Monster or just email your resume to jeffhamons@computol.com.
CSS Fun for April Fools →
April 1, 2013 is upon us, and that means pranks and practical jokes are inevitable across American offices today.
For some subtle fun with your co-workers, check out these WebKit-based CSS tweaks. Once set up in Chrome’s “Custom.css” file, all websites or elements can be skewed, rotated, blurred, or flipped. Find your favorite effects and have at it!
// Brandon
PS: I took...
March 2013
6 posts
Designing a Responsive, Retina-Friendly Site →
The “Retina Revolution” is just about here. While the web has been transitioning over to mobile-first development strategies for a few years (championed by responsive web design, of course), the next major shift will come from high-resolution displays.
We are already seeing this thanks to a trend kicked off by the iPhone 4’s “Retina” high-DPI screen (326 pixels per...
Reducing bad signup emails with mailcheck.js →
Ever have a user enter their email address into a web form and miss a few important characters (think “.co” instead of “.com”)?
mailcheck.js helps address these and other common email formatting mistakes. Using a little jQuery, mailcheck.js is easy to set up and integrate into your site as a fast and effective means of guarding against simple email typos.
// Brandon
Amazon's Mega Dropdown →
Amazon’s homepage features what I would typically call a design failure: a monstrously huge and complex nested navigation menu. One button, many options, and layered categories.
This should be a user experience nightmare, especially from a usability standpoint: navigating through a CSS-driven menu with a mouse can easily become frustrating. Using progressive enhancement and some intelligent...
Why You Should Build A Sitemap Before Designing... →
When building a website, how can a sitemap help the design process? As it turns out, a lot. Clarifying goals, avoiding duplicated content, and keeping everyone (developers, managers, and clients) on the same page are just some of the obvious-but-important benefits.
At Computol, one of the first steps in building a website involves building a content tree with the client: we want to understand all...
Almost Flat Design →
Microsoft’s Metro Modern UI design language introduced with Windows Phone 7 has made flat design popular. Solid colors, font-driven design, and responsive layouts are the new rage in 2013. This is a far cry from Apple’s skeuomorphic textures popularized by iOS, still the gold-standard in usability. Given this huge rift in design theories, what challenges await flat design? How can...
The Umbraco 4.10, 4.11 Publishing Bug
Umbraco, the open-source .NET CMS platform, had been giving me grief on a project for the last month. I ran into a relatively major publishing bug that would cause a YSOD (Yellow Screen of Death, of course) for all end users.
Content can be published in Umbraco two ways by end users: using a right-click context menu in the content tree and by a “Save + Publish” button in the content...
February 2013
5 posts
The 30 CSS Selectors You Must Memorize →
In case you missed it, CSS has a couple of neat selectors available. Stuff like “ul li” and “a > .external” are simple enough, but try some of the other 28 selectors available in this awesome list. While not every one may be useful on a daily basis, they may help solve some of the more difficult styling issues that you may come across.
// Brandon
Responsive Typography With Your Webcam →
Here is a neat demo that blends headtracking with concepts of responsive design.
Using a JavaScript headtracking library, this demo by Marko Dugonjic uses your webcam to track the distance of your head from your monitor. Typography and text on the webpage is then adjusted in a responsive manner: more distance from the camera scales text larger, while being closer to the camera scales text to...
The 2600Hz Kazoo API: Timestamps and Gregorian...
We have recently begun integrating with the fantastic 2600Hz VOIP platform Kazoo. Kazoo provides a very clean and simple RESTful API for interacting with almost every facet of the platform. This will allow our team to write great applications for both us and our customers.
One interesting detail struck us pretty early on. Timestamps in our datasets looked a little like this: 63492595200. Being...
Subtle Patterns On the Go →
Computol has a particular fondness for SubtlePatterns.com. This simple resource is a handy provider of simple, well-organized, and subtle tiled patterns well-suited to provided background textures in web designs.
This Subtle Patterns Bookmarklet is a great tool to preview the Subtle Patterns catalog in a live environment. Install the bookmarklet, navigate to a page, and click-and-preview away.
...
The Six Inch Gap →
The “Six Inch Gap” is closing the space between phones (3” - 5”) and tablets (7” - 10”). With 5.8” and 6.3” phones on the horizon, we are looking at a device landscape that covers every possible size: from 3.5” mobile devices to 100”+ projection displays.
I can’t think of a better reason to implement responsive interfaces in...
January 2013
3 posts
CodeMash 2013
The Computol team hit the ground running in 2013, and we have kept very busy at work. We were fortunate, then, to get away from the office for a couple of days in early January and spend time at CodeMash 2013 at Kalahari Resort. The Sandusky, Ohio resort is typically surrounded by cold January winds, but this year was an exception: a mild warm-up melted our biggest snowfall of the year and made...
Computol @ CodeMash
This week will see the Computol development team scooting off to the hazy warmth of the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio for CodeMash 2013. Organized and run by a fantastic group of volunteers, CodeMash is one of Computol’s favorite developer and technology conferences.
Although .NET and its surrounding technologies are typically a heavy focus at the conference, there is always more than...
Starting Anew (Your Web Project) In 2013 →
As we kick off the new year, Chris Coyier over on CSS-Tricks provides some useful and practical advice on starting a new web project. His first bit of advice: consider mobile - your new site will need it. We couldn’t agree more.
Computol is starting the new year with a new client website, so Chris’ advice comes at a great time.
// Brandon
December 2012
5 posts
Happy Holidays From Computol
From our families to yours, we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!
We are taking some time off from blogging to enjoy the holidays and all they have to offer (read: cookies). We will resume our normal blogging schedule after the new year.
With CodeMash 2013 just around the corner, we will begin 2013 with our “Computol at CodeMash” coverage, so stay tuned for some awesome content...
JavaScript Callback Hell →
One particular feature that can be a pain for JavaScript developers to manage: asynchronous callbacks.
It is far too easy to get lost in writing one nested callback after another. Convenient for the original programmer, but hell for the maintenance developer. Callbackhell.com takes a look at some of the easiest ways to avoid the clutter of JavaScript callbacks.
//Brandon
How Do You Choose Your Clients? →
Independent developers, contractors, and small businesses: How do you choose your clients? While it can be thrilling to land a client with a fat wallet and great ambitions, there is plenty of factors to balance. Available time, energy, potential expense, party interests - the list goes on and on.
Here is a look at how several independent developers, designers, and small businesses choose their...
The Complete Software & Web Solution
I previously took a look into some of Computol’s IT services and solutions. Today I want to dive into the other half of our amazing little company: software and web services.
The software engineering team works on a variety of projects, possesses a wide range of skills, and offers many services that fit businesses both large and small. What follows is a look at some of our development...
Stack Overflow: Strange Coding Standards →
For all you developers out there, here is a hilarious and insightful look into some of the worst coding practices forced onto various programmers. Worth a read if you have ever asked yourself “why do we have to do it that way?”
I promise you never had it as bad as some of these stories.
//Brandon
November 2012
5 posts
A Few New Things Coming to JavaScript →
The ECMAScript 6 specification is still in the pipeline (ECMAScript 5 is barely off the ground as it is), but it will bring some exciting new features to languages such as JavaScript.
This article takes a brief look at modules, classes, Object.observe(), block scoping, and much more. For those who live and breath their coding lives on the client, this is a great read.
//Brandon
What The Highest Converting Websites Do... →
Converting business prospects into customers is never easy.
When targeting consumers, casual visitors to your website can be the hardest to convert. How do you grab their attention and keep it through a sales process? What can you do as a website developer, marketing director, or media designer to ensure your website pops in a way that helps turn traffic into business? This article takes a look...
Brad Frost: Responsive vs Separate Sites
November’s Chrome Mobile Monthly featured an hour-long presentation by mobile web strategist and designer Brad Frost. Brad used the recent presidential candidates’ mobile websites to compare the differing strategies of mobile-specific sites versus responsive design. As you might expect, there are pros and cons to each, and Brad covers these very well.
The talk is full of interesting...
The Complete IT Solution
“Solutions provider,” “development shop,” “technology support,” “some kind of awesome” - call us what you want, but we like to think of Computol as your complete IT solution. We handle all sorts of needs: hardware, networking, software, and web development. We achieve this spread of services with two distinct teams - one for IT management, another...
5 Really Useful Responsive Web Design Patterns →
There is more to responsive web design than just arranging content to be convenient for multiple screen sizes and shapes. There is that “design” word in there, and in late 2012 I have definitely seen a shifting trend in web designs that truly focus on mobile-first ideals. I see less focus on resizing content and more focus on reshaping content in tandem with complex designs that help...
October 2012
6 posts
Which responsive images solution should you use? →
Responsive images are a big deal when developing a responsive web design. Until the <picture> element is finalized and widely deployed, images will continue to be a big deal.
Should you serve desktop-class images to a mobile device with limited bandwidth and a smaller screen? How should images be served to high-DPI screens? There are no easy answers to questions like these, but there are...
jQuery Knob →
The Networking Team at Computol will soon be invading the blog, but before then we will squeeze out a few more web design gems, including this awesome jQuery plug-in for rendering highly-usable and downright fun knobs in your design.
//Brandon
Trello at Computol
Trello is a fantastic tool that organizes information into boards, cards, tasks, checklists, summaries, and timeline views. Like all tools, Trello is less about what it does than what it enables when used properly. While there are many uses for Trello, our team at Computol primarily use it as a project management tool hand-in-hand with a daily scrum.
There is no right way to use Trello, but there...
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Building... →
As a follow up to our own look at user password security, let Troy Hunt shine some light on how to properly manage user passwords when a reset is necessary.
The Story of the New Microsoft →
The recently-updated Microsoft.com website features a clean, responsive design that doesn’t suffer any major performance pitfalls. Even better, the design is mobile-first, enabling optimized content at any resolution.
This is the story of how the new Microsoft.com came together as told by Nishant Kothary, a Web Strategist at Microsoft.
Web Designers: 8 Resources For Interface Icons →
Web resources such as stock images, fonts, and icons are not always free or easy to acquire. This round-up of 8 great source for icons features the simple, complex, the free, and the expensive - but in all cases, the galleries are easy to browse and pick from.
//Brandon
September 2012
7 posts
Is It Time For Password-less Login? →
The feasibility of cracking passwords increases with each generation of ever-faster computer hardware. In order to keep users safe, many services are requiring users to use longer and more complex password schemes. An example:
Eight characters minimum, alpha-numeric, one capital letter, and two special symbols that are not back to back.
Is this a password that the average human is supposed to...
Computol + 1
Computol is extremely thrilled to announce the addition of Steve Flowers to our team as a Network Engineer.
Steve brings his Linux, Cisco router, and Android experience to the networking team. His relaxed, easy-going, and customer-first attitude makes him a perfect fit for our company. He kicked off his first week here by becoming a LabTech Certified Professional, which makes him a leader on...
A Few Tips for Better Web Accessibility
A good responsive web design will allow your website to be accessible to a wide range of devices. Ideally the same content can be discovered and consumed on a small 3.5-inch phone screen as readily as on a 42-inch television.
A great developer will consider the performance implications of displaying your website all these different devices. A mobile phone may not be able to handle the same...
10 Lessons for Uncultured Developers →
How should the international context of browser market share affect design decisions on your website? Why does text encoding matter? What date format should you be using to effectively communicate with your users?
This brief article by Troy Hunt looks at several issues that both developers and businesses should consider when deploying a website or project that will span international markets.
...
GitHub for Windows →
GitHub is hot in 2012, and if you’re a Windows user who has ever wondered what “Social Coding” is all about, this brief overview of the GitHub for Windows application will bring you up to speed.
//Brandon
@font-face and The Fantastic Font Squirrel
Believe it or not, web fonts go beyond Microsoft’s Core Fonts for the Web. Even more incredible, custom CSS web fonts have been available for over ten years, dating back to Internet Explorer 5.5, which partially supported the CSS @font-face property in the same way all major browsers do today.
Although support for @font-face is widespread, the implementations in each browser is not...
August 2012
9 posts
ZURB's Responsive Tables →
HTML tables have been around for a long time (formalized in HTML 4 but available in some form since HTML 3.2), and while they are very useful and relevant for displaying certain types of data, they present a huge problem for responsive web designs.
How can tabular data be shrunk to be displayed properly on mobile devices? How can data keep its relevancy if it has to be rearranged to fit in a...
Things I Didn't Know About the Webkit Inspector →
When developing modern responsive websites, Webkit is the go-to platform for development. The vast majority of mobile browsers are based on Webkit (Chrome, Android, Mobile Safari), so even if desktop browsers are not predominately Webkit yet, today’s growing mobile audience is already there.
Designers, coders, and developers alike will find something in these tips that makes their job in...
Responsive Web Design and the IE8 Problem
Responsive web design is still a young concept and presents many technical challenges that are unique to this early learning period (read: The Responsive Dip). Responsive design is heavily based on CSS3 media queries, and older browsers may not support this fundamental feature. Because we are in a world still migrating from Windows XP, the elephant in the room should be obvious: Internet Explorer...
Create a great mobile experience for your website... →
While Computol believes that responsive web design should come standard for content-driven websites, it may not always be the best solution for your website (or webapp).
Mobile should not be ignored, however. Scott Hanselman pleads this case with a few options for mobilizing your content:
Do nothing.
Go responsive.
Emulate a native app (with mobile frameworks).
Write a native app.
Read all...
Brand Colors For All →
Have you ever wanted to emulate the look of a favorite website or wondered what the exact color of a company’s logo boils down to in a web browser?
You could open a web inspector or Photoshop and start poking at various pieces of a logo, or you could use this handy tool to get the exact hex values for dozens of popular brands.
//Brandon
4 tags
Sitecore Web Forms for Marketers: Migrating From...
One of our Sitecore clients uses the Web Forms for Marketers plugin, a package-based module for Sitecore that provides a form editor and data collection to Sitecore websites. We initially used this package’s default SQLite data store, but during a recent upgrade decided to switch to SQL Server since all of that client’s data was already there.
As it turns out, the database structure...
