Talentopoly Podcast

Episode 35 - How Developers Can Learn to Design                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Justin Belcher drank a beer with us on the podcast and talked about how developers can learn to design. Design can be intimidating and many developers feel like they aren’t capable of creating good looking sites or graphics. But in this episode we talk about how designers approach their field and how they go about their craft. We also shed some light on ways to get started and use some techniques and tools that designers use so you can get better. What constitutes design? (i.e. How are we defining design?) Design and its parallels with development Honing taste and a detailed eye Improving your output Is design an art or can I learn it scientifically? Can I develop an aesthetic sense? What’s the best way to start learning design? What programs should I learn first? How can I get better at choosing good color palettes? What tips do you have for first time designers to help improve their chances of making good designs? What sites do you use to learn more about design? Some great Talentopoly posts from the past 2 weeks Software Inventory Test iPhone / iPad apps on Windows Stephen Hay presents Responsive Design Workflow Set Text on a Circle Moqups - Vectorial Mockups

Episode 34 - How Not to Hire a Developer                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Mikel Berger from Delmar Information Technologies joins us on the podcast to discuss how not to approach a developer. We discuss the various types of clients and how to handle them. You’ll be laughing out loud when you hear what we have to say becuase you have no doubt run into a few of these clients. The “I have an idea and if you write all the code and do everything I’ll split 50% of the revenue with you” guy The “do you know a good student” guy The “I’m sure this is simple for someone like you” guy The “we must use X technology” guy (where X is the totally wrong technology but his distant relative suggested it) The “the first version must every possible feature and scale for a million users” guy The “let’s not discuss my budget” guy The “you must sign my NDA before we talk” guy The “I need this 6 month project done in 2 months” guy The “you need to make my crappy software less crappy” guy Some great Talentopoly posts from the past 2 weeks MVC is dead, it’s time to MOVE on. The Pastry Box Project TinyPNG – Compress PNG images while preserving alpha transparency 2012 — Node.js Knockout Action.IO

Episode 33 - Managing Yourself as a Freelancer                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Edward Rudd on the podcast to discuss how he manages himself as a freelancer. He goes over his experiences with time management, the pros and cons of being a freelancer and which tools are key. Tools such as Billings and OmniFocus are mentioned. Interestingly Ed and Brandon offer different strategies for getting your initial clients and how to track your tasks. Some great Talentopoly posts from the past 2 weeks Google Chrome Speeds Up Fancy CSS Filter Effects Pocket’s Tips for Aspiring Android Developers: It’s Not Really Terrifying… BetaBait - Find Beta Users and Testers Why Do Some Programming Languages Live and Others Die? The Antivirus Era Is Over Benchmark.js Pictos 4 Released

Episode 32 - Bootstrapping a Business                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Aaron Lerch comes on to the podcast to discuss what he’s learned from bootstrapping businesses in his spare time. We talk about the legal factors you need to consider, how to file your business, keeping costs low and a lot more. Read about Aaron’s latest endeavor on his blog. Some great Talentopoly posts from the past 2 weeks GitHub for Windows Released Kern and Burn | A Publication About Design Entrepreneurship The commuting coder - How to stay sharp on the go Building an iOS Photo-sharing and Geolocation Mobile Client and API Mobile Apps Must Die The Verdict Is In: Google Did Not Infringe On Oracle’s Patents

Episode 31 - How to Start Programming                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Brandon and I discuss learning how to program with Zach Silveira. Zach is 17 and started programming when he was 14. He has worked on about half a dozen projects and uses PHP primarily. He talks with us about why he started programming and what resources he uses to learn. Noteworthy links Grape - An opinionated micro-framework for building RESTful API apps on Ruby HTML9 Responsive Boilerstrap JS Linus Torvalds Invented Git, But He Pulls No Patches With GitHub Fixie: filler content for HTML documents Goodbye, CouchDB On why I am not buying RubyMotion Between a rock and a hard place – our decision to abandon the Mac App Store

Episode 30 - Managing a software project                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Intro Welcome to Episode 30 of the Talentopoly Podcast. Managing a software project hosts Jared Brown Brandon Corbin guest David Christiansen Beverage Introductions Warm-up Discussion Podcast network Topic Pivotal Tracker UserVoice, ZenDesk, GetExceptional, Airbrake.io, Intercom, Mister Smith HipChat, Campfire, Basecamp, Grove.io (IRC) Google Docs Github Harvest, Billings Noteworthy links Delight.io - Record and replay your iOS app’s user sessions Mailchimp Email Blueprints Bootbox.js - alert, confirm and flexible dialogs for Twitter’s bootstrap framework Android Ported to C# by Xamarin Sketch - A vector graphics app with a beautiful interface Filepicker.io - A better file uploader crud-bones - Boilerplate template for Node.js projects The design of a signage typeface AWS Marketplace: Server Software for Amazon Web Services Firefox no longer displays favicons in address bar

Episode 29 - Bootstrapping Your Front-end                    Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Talentopoly Podcast - Ep 29 April 11th Intro Welcome to Episode 29 of the Talentopoly podcast. Bootstrapping Your Front-end hosted by Jared Brown Brandon Corbin Beverage Introductions Warm-up Discussion New look for post listings Discussion Twitter bootstrap Overview CDNs hosting it Zurb jQuery Icon fonts - Pictos http://designshack.net/articles/freebies/freeiconfonts/ Pattern sites http://subtlepatterns.com/ ThemeForest CloudFlare RailsThemes Wrapping Up Tease next episode Honestly don’t know yet Thanks for listening

Episode 28 - Scaling Your Backend                                      Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Show notes hosted by Jared Brown Brandon Corbin joined by Chris Z Questions: What were the challenges scaling Words with Friends? What makes working at scale fun? What makes InstrumentalApp scale? Is load testing worthwhile? Why avoid novel solutions? What is scaling by attrition? What are some good tools for forming evidence based decisions?

Episode 27 - Designing with the iPad                    Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Show notes Talentopoly Podcast - Ep 27 March 14th Intro Welcome to Episode 27 of the Talentopoly podcast. Designing with your iPad hosted by Jared Brown Brandon Corbin joined by Patrick Dow Beverage Introductions Warm-up Discussion Talk with Patrick Discussion New iPad just came out Lots of discussion around how to design for the iPad Let’s talk about designing with the iPad Review Photoshop Touch - $10 Layer editing is not up to par with desktop version Using your iPad as a secondary display with AirDisplay - $20 + $10 Preview mobile artwork easily Illustrate with a stylus Wacom tabletss support pressure sensitivity Turning this on in the iPad Discuss iPhoto for iPad - $5 Illustration / sketching Autodesk SketchBook Pro Adobe Ideas Styli Wacom Bamboo stylus - $30 Sketch Plus - $15 Cosmonaut - $25 iPen - $89 Great for precision hand writing Requires apps to use SDK Con - Drawing lag on iPad 5 Collaborative drawing apps Another sync app - SyncPad Mock ups / wireframing apps 5 apps for wireframing Adobe Proto Adobe Debut for iPad - $10 Recap Image editing Illustration / sketching Mock ups Present designs to clients Recommendations AirDisplay for mobile developers Collaborative drawing app - SyncSpace Wrapping Up Tease next episode Scaling your back end - Our next guest has scaled an iOS game that you have surely heard of and have probably even played. Thanks for listening

Episode 26 - JavaScript UI Widget Libraries                    Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe to RSS Download MP3 Show notes hosted by Jared Brown Brandon Corbin joined by Edward Rudd JS Widget Libs for Desktop and then Mobile Questions: What do people look for in each lib? How do you choose one over another? Desktop: Great for Intranet software, enterprise, engineering and scientific web apps Mobile: Progressive (mobile site) vs native-feeling app (typically wrapped in something like PhoneGap)? Actively developed or stale? JS Widget LibrariesLarge screenjQuery UIGrid coming to v2.1 Movement to clean up the API Lots of dev momentum lately Kendo UI by TelerikUses jQuery Recently out of beta Free for GPL Compatible open source projects $399 per developer (sounds like M$ style licensing.. inherited from the “.NET” background) Mention DataViz and Mobile Has custom theme builder for it’s widgets (not jquery UI’s builder) Doesn’t support IE6 Native UI on each device wijmoBased on jQuery UI (in fact, some of the team works on jQuery UI) Uses jQuery UI themes native has a cdn for access. Free version includes 18 OpenSource widgets Commercial versionIncludes 40+ widgets $299+ (per developer) (or $499 w/ support) Ext JSby SenchaMention Sencha Touch (free) $329 - one developer license (no support) MobilejQuery Mobile - jQuery70 kb http://codiqa.com/ (web GUI prototyping tool) Open source Broad device support Degrades Gracefully (progressive?) yes Has a theme builder (jQuery UI style) Kendo Mobile - TelerikNo pricing yet (in beta) Ready for PhoneGap Sencha Touch - SenchaHow is it diff from jQTouch?Much more programmatic to work with jQTouch is more web dev friendly Support for tables while jQTouch doesn’t http://9-bits.com/post/723711597/jqtouch-and-sencha-touch Free for non-OEMs Touch charts Looks like Android & iOS styling is a more manual thing to do jQTouch(problems with Android?) - SenchaWorks with Zepto or jQueryZepto is a minimal, jQuery syntax compatible lib SASS-based theming In beta Progressive Free ~20 kb Others to consider (both free, open source)JoNot easy to see which UI widgets it offers Looks to have less popularity GWT MobileFrom Google (but code is on GitHub) PhoneGap wrapper Great for pure client-side Java devs PhoneGap + XUI.jsOpen source Zirb Twitter Bootstrap Notes: Kendo UI Licensing. Kendo is dual-licensed under GPLv3/commercial license, jQuery UI is MIT/GPLv2. Support. Purchasing a Kendo commercial license entitles you to support (options here). Professional jQuery UI support is offered by appendTo and the filament group. Feature set. Kendo has some components that are missing in jQuery UI (Grid, Chart, TreeView, Upload, Templates, and soon - MVVM). You might need to stitch plug-ins by different authors if you want to use such functionality alongside jQuery UI. Roadmap. Kendo has a fixed release cycle (3 releases per year), with a fixed roadmap for the next release. The jQuery roadmap does not guarantee when the features will be included. Openness. You can browse the latest jQuery UI source at all times. With Kendo, you get only the source code for major releases when you don’t have a commercial license. If you purchase one, you get all the latest source code. http://jqueryuivskendoui.com/  Discuss comparison table Sencha Touch Aaron Weyenberg on Quora - “Sencha Touch takes much much longer to learn and become comfortable with, but it’s more robust. Sencha Touch documentation and examples, however, are quite unrefined in my opinion. There’s almost no MVC architecture support docs, so be prepared to do a lot of reverse engineering. jQuery Mobile can get you up and running in a day, but it’s not as feature rich, and seems not quite as smooth in terms of transitions and effects.” http://www.quora.com/Were-deciding-between-jQuery-Mobile-and-Sencha-Touch-What-are-the-pros-and-cons-for-each  James Pearce, Developer Relations @ Sencha Inc Of course it very much depends on the use-case, your skill set and your desired architecture. If you want an easy, declarative, markup-configured mobile site, then jQuery Mobile’s progressive enhancements is an obvious option. If you want a richer, more standalone (say, MVC) app, built using a  programmatic, RIA philosophy, then the Sencha Touch route would probably be better. It’s more likely that you’d take this approach if you were keen to wrap the app up in PhoneGap to deploy in an app store, for example. jQTouch Sencha touch is a little more complicated for those used to web design to use, in that it is almost a purely programmatic model (you don’t design pages in html, you programmatically add elements to a page). It does, however, have a much richer widget model and is a lot more fleshed out than jQTouch (it is also a lot bigger)… http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3446186/sencha-touch-vs-jqtouch  Recommendations DEPENDS ON THE USE CASE Desktop jQuery UI Mobile jQuery Mobile