Talentopoly Podcast

Episode 45 - How and Why to Start a Meetup                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Miles Sterrett joined us to discuss how he got roped into hosting a Ruby meetup and why he does it. If you’ve been considering starting a meetup or wonder what’s involved give this a listen. Show notes Why?:  You’re selfish. You want to lean on others to get better at your craft. You’re unselfish. You want to help others, maybe the whole community, get better at your craft. Both! Ideally, you want to get better, and you want others to get better. How? Get the Word Out (Meetup.com, IndyHackers, Twitter) Make it fun Find a Business Looking to Hire Meeting Attendees (if you need sponsorship) Talentopoly links - Noteworthy links posted on Talentopoly in the last two weeks The Golden Ratio: a designer’s guide Responsive Carousel Project: Now Open Source draper - Decorators/View-Models for Rails Applications Raspberry Pi Gets Own App Store: … Make It Even Easier For Kids To Get Coding And Earn From Apps

Episode 44 - How to Roll Your Own Cloud Services For Maximum Privacy                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Edward Rudd calls in and Jacob West stops by our studios to discuss alternatives to popular cloud-based services like Dropbox. Listen to us discuss the pros and cons to doing it yourself. We list some of the software that’s out there that will allow you to setup your very own service for personal use. Show notes Why roll your own? Privacy Storage Total control http://zenhabits.net/google-free/ Pros/cons of “Rolling your own {INSERT SERVICE HERE}”? Good option for young kids Cons 1. A dedicated server just for Zimbra with Domain Keys installed 2. A block of 24-32 ip numbers. (49 ip numbers would be ideal, but it’s harder to buy odd blocks like that.) Put your mail server as close to the middle of that range as possible. It sounds like a lot, but most collocation facilities can hook you up with this for 300-500 usd a month. 3. Proactive attention to getting your ip block removed from all spam lists (especially Barracuda, their list is the most annoying for the high number of false positives) before the fact. Just let them know you exist. 4. Pray that all of the hundreds of moving pieces you’ve just put in place don’t break, that bad hackers don’t brute force their way into your server. Strong passwords don’t really help as much as people tell you they do either. That’s now something you have to worry about too. Where to host? Linode Slicehost “Your house” (Business grade internet options) Dropbox Alternatives Owncloud (http://owncloud.org) - Dropbox Alternative + Calendar + Contacts + plugins AeroFS - http://aerofs.com - Dropbox Alternative without a central server Rsync SparkleShare - http://sparkleshare.org/ - just clients and uses git on the server GMail Alternatives qmail, Postfix, Sendmail Horde, IMP, Squirrel Mail, Roundcube http://www.turnkeylinux.org/zimbra Spam filter? Amavisd (runs spamassassin + virus scanning as a pluggable mail filter) hosted service http://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/08/07/1533224/ask-slashdot-self-hosted-gmail-alternatives Google Docs Alternatives http://www.fengoffice.com/web/pricing.php http://etherpad.org/ http://onedrum.com/ Bought by Yammer and integrated with it now ANY Self-hosted WIKI !!! Flickr Alternatives http://www.zenphoto.org/ http://gallery.menalto.com/ YouTube Alternatives Google Voice Alternatives http://www.twilio.com/api/openvbx http://pbxinaflash.net/ Full Backup Solutions? Backblaze Carbonite rsync.net LOCAL BACKUP DEVICE! and the Shoe leather express to a remote location!! Security? selinux, disable password login on SSH Talentopoly links - Noteworthy links posted on Talentopoly in the last two weeks Changing times for web developers – 6 Tips You Should Read to survive Workless gem, dynamically scale your Heroku worker dynos Your team should work like an open source project

Episode 43 - Creating a Repeatable Sales Process                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Alex Lopes swung by our virtual recording studio to tell us about why marketing and sales gets him out of the bed in the morning. We focus on the science of creating a repeatable sales process in our discussion. Listen to how Alex suggests you approach adapting to the dynamics of your industry and customers. Show notes If it’s not predictable, it’s not repeatable. Lacking traction: You’re not solving the right problem You’re do not have the right solution You’re not being found and evaluated correctly Customer’s buy pain killers, not vitamins “The pressure point of the opportunity changes over time” ~ Brad Feld Focus on metrics that matter Books to read: Nail It Then Scale It ~ Nathan Furr and Paul Ahlstrom Mastering the Complex Sale ~ Jeff Thull Talentopoly links - Noteworthy links posted on Talentopoly in the last two weeks SpriteMe - a service to make image sprites Responsive Navigation: Optimizing for Touch Across Devices TryMyUI - Website Usability Testing A simple guide to responsive typography

Episode 42 - Hosting Your Own Developer Conference                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Tony Dewan stopped by the studio to talk to us about what it’s like to organize a conference. His re:build conference has had some of the top designers and developers in the industry come speak. He shares his tips, opinions and experience so that anyone interested in organizing their own conference can understand what is involved. re:build - A conference for developers & designers rebuildconf.com 2011.rebuildconf.com tagboard.com/rebuild2012 Show notes You live and die by your speakers! Choosing/finding/signing speakers Have an opinion and stick to it Picking/working with venues Clever ideas to limit costs sweat the details - badges, speakers needs, etc sponsorships are hard don’t do it alone understand your target audience - speakers, ticket price, sponsors it’s a labor of love - you won’t make much money Other awesome, inspirational events: Brooklyn Beta Talentopoly links - Noteworthy links posted on Talentopoly in the last two weeks FuelUX - A lightweight library that extends Twitter Bootstrap Manymo - A Better Android Emulator The Top 10 Alternatives to Google Adwords CSS3 Microsoft Modern Buttons Better TDD Workflow via Exclusive Tests in Jasmine and Mocha

Episode 41 - Creating Your First Typeface                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Abelardo Gonzalez joins us to discuss how he created his first typeface, open-dyslexic. His font is already getting strong traction among apps like Instapaper and large institutions. He talks about which apps he used along the way, how much he spent and what issues he ran into. Apps used started with app demos and fontforge fontforge requires more time than I had.  fontcreator was cool, cheap, but a little buggy. Messed up font smoothing. FontLab is expensive, buggy, slow iteration, didn’t look like they offered any help. switched to Glyphsapp better workflow. Nicer. Learning materials great source of info was Google’s submission requirements for web fonts exploring FontLab and reading the help file showed me things I should have been doing to maintain compatibility.  Playing with other fonts as examples Just doing it and figuring it out later. Glyphsapp probably has the best tutorials out there Adobe’s website http://www.adobe.com/devnet/opentype.html I’m still not perfect. Fixing spacing issues and kerning. https://talentopoly.com/posts/5383-kerning_in_practice_beware_odd_letter_spacing https://talentopoly.com/posts/2843-kern_type_the_kerning_game Talentopoly links - Noteworthy links posted on Talentopoly in the last two weeks Understanding Postgres Performance Base 2 - A SQLite 3 GUI Announcing the First Beta Release of Persona Ego Driven Development GitHub Collaborative Coding Training

Episode 40 - Lessons Learned Building RailsThemes.com                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Anthony Panozzo sits in on this episode to discuss what he’s learned building RailsThemes.com. He shares his insights into why you should have a co-founder, what it’s like to build a startup as a part-time job and why you should start charging from day one. He also gets into some of the technical challenges of building gems and how he used Sprint.ly to do their project management. We finish the discussion by tackling the ever-important topic of how to stay motivated and maintain momentum. Talentopoly links - Noteworthy links posted on Talentopoly in the last two weeks How Vimeo Saves 50% on EC2 by Playing a Smarter Game Web Design is 95% Typography Tape - A collection of queue-related classes for Android and Java by Square VersionEye - Search Engine for Software Libraries prefixfree - Break free from CSS prefix hell

Episode 39 - How to Approach Front-end Development                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Melanie Archer joined us on this episode to enlighten us about how to approach front-end development. She breaks it down into easier steps and principles that anybody can follow to get a good front-end built in little time. She packs years worth of experience into her recommendations. This is a must listen! Note: There is some background white noise from Melanie’s mic, which we tried to minizmize. Show notes You’re an experienced backend developer suddenly given front-end tasks–where to start? Understand basic user interface principles;  "common concepts" of how user perceive the interface subconsciously. Consistency over “pretty.” Keep to standards users are accustomed to–familiar labels and placement of elements. Find help at the Yahoo! design pattern library: https://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/ or PatternTap: http://patterntap.com Learn the basics of information architecture. Read primers like The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett (http://jjg.net/elements/) How to start building an interface from scratch How to start building an interface from Photoshop or designer’s comp The role of HTML/CSS frameworks like the HTM5 Boilerplate or Twitter Bootstrap How to organize CSS How to improve. One hint–look at prospective interview questions for front-end developers:  https://github.com/darcyclarke/Front-end-Developer-Interview-Questions#readme Talentopoly links - Noteworthy links posted on Talentopoly in the last two weeks Sticky Menus Are Quicker To Navigate Introducing: CSSValues.com Pagoda Box Is Easier Than Amazon Web Services, But More Customizable Than Heroku Bootsnipp - Gallery of free HTML snippets for Twitter Bootstrap

Episode 38 - How to Work in a Team                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Stephen Williams joins us to discuss his trials and tribulations working in software teams. We delve into what tools the team can utilize to communicate and coordinate efficiently. We talk about why you should be using tools like HipChat and Campfire if you’re not already. The episode also touches on important subjects like how to deal with technical disputes, if project managers are necessary, lazy team members and ways that you can put the team first. Show notes Dividing work within the team Tools you use to coordinate or communicate with the team (HipChat, Flowdock, Campfire, IRC, IM, Email) How to deal with a lazy or slacker team member How to handle a technical disagreement Personal philosophy for promoting team over self Know when you are overwhelmed Talentopoly links - Noteworthy links posted on Talentopoly in the last two weeks Under the hood: Rebuilding Facebook for iOS Bariol - Font - pick your price JavaScript Programming Patterns Is There a Landmine Hidden in Amazon’s Glacier? OpenHallway - Simple usability testing

Episode 37 - Scalable Marketing Techniques and Tactics                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 David Nevogt joins us to talk about his strategies as an Internet marketer. We discuss the importance of content and links in the eyes of search engines, building out a network of secondary sites and how to send “warm” traffic to your primary site. But most importantly David shares tips and techniques for scaling your content creation and link building strategies so that you don’t have to spend 10 hours a day working on this. Show notes Goals of what you are trying to do important to realize that with all of this stuff you are not trying to create content for your own site that is really going to convert user to your brand from a competitor or whatever. You ARE trying to get leads and send them to your converting site… you can do this through exact match domains (search traffic) a youtube channel an automated twitter account etc… The idea is to introduce people to your brand and your product - you want to have tentacles everywhere… Content Generation What you need long text unique content - 1000 words plus (this is what is ranking well now) short content for blog posts video images. How can I scale this? buying cheap (video and text)  text - spinning 85+ % unique - needs to be done very well in order to be effective.  start with a very good base and get good syntax - do individual word spins copyscape API or dupecop.com image flipping - imagur account and converthub - google sees as unique and gives credit fivver for video or odesk - or animoto api Links to promote the content and boost it linking to deep pages for safety set up this content deep into your site.  site.com/topic link to this page instead of your homepage - latest algorithm is page based this means if you are linking to homepage and you get penalized you are screwed - but if one page of your site (deep) - you are def not screwed. diversity is key diversity in anchor text not over 20% for any specific anchor text use branded phrases and generic diversity in the type of links you are obtaining social video high PR authority blog comments web 2.0 props edu properties scaling it odesk - most people on there dont know what they are doing and it ends up being a waste of time for linkbuilding have an exact blueprinted plan of what you expect them to do on a daily basis.  Should be able to get someone for about 4$ an hour that is good. linkvana.com does pretty much everything very fast multiple accounts that you manage Talentopoly links - Interesting links posted in the last two weeks jQuery 1.8 Released Bootswatch: Free themes for Twitter Bootstrap DMD Panorama Opens API To Power Panoramic Photos In Any App Github’s CSS Styleguide Things I didn’t know about the WebKit inspector

Episode 36 - How to Get Traction for Your Projects                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 We have a chat with James Paden from Compendium Blogware and Emailium to discuss how to drive traffic to new projects. Every developer at one point or another has fallen prey to the “if you build they will come” myth. What is it that we failed to do for our projects that didn’t get any traffic? That’s what we try to find out in this episode of the podcast. Learn about how to use conferences, Twitter, email, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and more to help your software businesses get traction. Profanity disclaimer: Brandon attempts to clean up his language, unsuccessfully. It’s a work in progress. So for the time being don’t listen to this podcast around sensitive ears. During this topic I want to better understand what it takes to get traction for a project. What are some of the common mistakes you made early on? Why is it not as simple as if you build they will come? What funnels do you setup? Where do you spend your time pre and post launch? What are some tricks you’ve used that worked well? Talentopoly Links - Interesting links posted in the last two weeks Understanding Backbone.js - Step by step from jQuery to Backbone kuler - Create a color scheme from an image Ninja power: open-source HTML5 toolset aims to enable richer Web apps I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here’s Why. Axutopia - A huge collection of UI widgets for mocking up anything