All posts by elisek

Truth in Tech

Truth in Tech Ep 23: The Quantified Self – Everything in Measuration

This week on Truth in Tech we roped in Mark Moschel and Eugene Granovsky, co-organizers of the Chicago Quantified Self Meetup group and owners of AskMeEvery. As featured in Mashable, LifeHacker and The Next Web, AskMeEvery is a way to track your activities and behaviors over time through daily questions, making you more mindful of the ways in which you spend your time. Listen as Mark and Eugene give us the scoop on translating your life into numbers. Where did it come from? What apps/devices are at the forefront? What are the types of people who track? Should we really be measuring everything?

truthintech23

Big Data

Quantify Me: The Rise of Self-Tracking

Credit: Syncstrength.com

“Have you heard of the quantified self?” my coworker asked me.  After a puzzled stare and a furrowed brow I assured her I hadn’t. So of course I immediately clicked over to a new tab and typed “quantified self” in the browser. Turns out I had heard of this concept, I’d just never put a name to it. In fact, I’d been partaking in this movement for years – tracking my whereabouts with Foursquare, logging my calorie intake with MyFitnessPal and recording my workouts with RunKeeper. I even had a stint with Saga, the app that tracked your every single move without you having to do anything! Just install the app and let ‘er rip.

There are a ton of apps and wearable devices dedicated solely to this purpose of tracking and quantifying oneself, all with the ideal goal of finding correlations and being able to improve upon your productivity, fitness, and overall well-being. The Zeo monitor straps to your head, monitors your sleep cycles, and comes equipped with a programmable alarm clock that wakes you at the optimal phase of sleep. Adidas has a chip called miCoach you place in your shoe and it will record your speed, subsequently breaking down your recorded data graphically on their website. Samsung hopped on this trend and partnered with Foursquare to visually capture your whereabouts with their Foursquare Time Machine. Of course curiosity got the better of me and I gladly gave them access to my Foursquare check-ins. Take all of my data, Samsung! Link all of my accounts? Suuure. The more the merrier. Just remember to spit back a cool interactive image so I can see all of my data.

I’m not alone in my curiosity. It was reported last year that wearable monitoring devices raked in an estimated $800 million in sales. And it doesn’t stop there. IMS Research projects that the wearable technology market will exceed $6 billion by 2016. People are buying into this self-tracking movement. So why the obsession?

Continue reading Quantify Me: The Rise of Self-Tracking →

Office Life, The Intern Diaries

The Intern Diaries: Shane – I’ve Made a Huge Mistake

When I chose Riparian Data, I had no idea what I was getting into. I showed up to my first day excited to organize filing cabinets and get print outs. I can get a mean cup of coffee or drop something off at the post office in under 2 minutes. Much to my dismay, there were no filing cabinets, and developers got their own coffee. I didn’t even realize we had a printer for the first four weeks. Instead the team expected me to write code. Not just any code, though, they wanted me to write actual code for the app. I realized they were a little confused and tried to explain to them that I was an intern. They just didn’t get it and kept trying to give me real work, as if they actually expected me to provide productive contributions.

After talking to a few friends, I realized how unlucky I was. One has to play with the company’s app all day everyday without ever seeing the code. Another does have to work on code, but, not to worry, it will never actually touch his company’s product (phew!). I need to acknowledge, though, that it could be so much worse. One friend has been tasked with creating an entire web application for his company. Not only must he code, but he must design and plan an application for actual use. Dreadful, I know.

Really, though, internships are pretty sweet. I get 2 months to check out a company and work with their full time devs on a real product. I’m expected to jump right in and learn as I go. I came in with zero iOS experience and was supposed to spend my first few days simply learning Objective C and Xcode (the IDE for Apple Apps). Over the past month, I’ve worked on everything from finding the best way of connecting the server to our database to localizing our app so it could potentially be translated into other languages.

For college kids like me, internships are like the 90-Day Money Back Guarantees of the working world. We get the chance to jump into a company and see it from the inside. It is about more than just getting to do “real world” code. It also gives us a glimpse into how companies really function and what type of company matches our personality. Some of my friends loved the idea of working at a huge company with products that play a part of our everyday life, so they went to Facebook or Google. A few others were interested in the startup culture, so they found tiny startups to work for.

With my friends working all over the place, I’ve been asking them about their experiences and teams. For this post, I decided to send out a little survey to get a little bit of a bigger picture on my friend’s internships. I received about 60 responses, mostly from Olin students. Here are the questions along with the most common answer:

  • What type of internship is it? Computer Engineering/Software
  • Given the chance, would you return to this company? Yes
  • On a scale from 1-10, how much responsibility are you given compared to a full-time employee? 7.317
  • Was this internship your first choice? Yes
  • What class are you in? 2015
  • How large is the company? 15-50 People or 1000+ People

I found a few interesting stats when I started to punch the numbers.

Continue reading The Intern Diaries: Shane – I’ve Made a Huge Mistake →

Office Life, The Intern Diaries

The Intern Diaries: Alex

interns_alexThis is the first installment of our Intern Diaries series, wherein each week our lovely interns give you the inside scoop on what being a programming intern at a high-tech startup is really like. This week Alex walks you through first impressions of his internship.

Hello, my name is Alex, and I am a sophomore at Oberlin College. I have been interning at SoftArtisans for a little over a month and am happy to report that my expectations have already been exceeded. I do real work, get to code, and have learned about the different parts of a software company.

Before arriving at SoftArtisans I didn’t have any warm and fuzzy feelings associated with offices. My dad works at a big law firm in Boston and over the years, my visits have shaped my perception of the work world. His office is a sterile and quiet place. The walls are white and the floors are so clean that I almost feel funny walking in with my sneakers on. However, after entering and sensing the atmosphere, it is evident shoes are not to be removed.

This leads me to why I love being at SoftArtisans. Sure it’s great to walk around barefoot and wear casual clothing, but more than that, it is all the other reasons that I feel comfortable at work.

I am a technical support intern and every day the Technical Services (TS) department does something called Stand-Up. During Stand-Up the team circles up and takes turns saying what they are working on. In addition to keeping the team organized, Stand-Up is a great opportunity to voice any concerns or ask for help.

In one of my first Stand-Ups, Continue reading The Intern Diaries: Alex →

Office Life, The Intern Diaries

Summer 2013 Interns

Our favorite time of year is upon us. It’s summertime, and that means kayaking down the Charles, BBQ’s in the parking lot, and best of all summer interns. We’re handing over the blogging reins to this talented crew. Each week follow along as they give you an inside look at SoftArtisans and Riparian Data, life as an intern at a start up, and any other random musings that pop into their heads. They’ve already taken over with their podcast. Listen in on itunes!

Summer 2013 Interns

(Top row: Kyle, Justin, Daniel, Front row: Madalyn, Alex, Shane)

The questions:
1. Where do you go to school?
2. What do you study?
3. Give us a unique/random fact of your choosing.

The answers:

Kyle:

1. Olin College of Engineering.
2. Software Engineering and Applied Mathematics.
3. A random fact about me is that I am the music director of Olin’s premier a cappella group, the PowerChords.

Justin:

1. Rochester Institute of Technology
2. Game Design
3. The average color of the universe is known as Cosmic Latte.  (If it was actually supposed to be about me, then… uh… on good days, I could see Canada from the house where I grew up?)

Daniel:

1. Gann Academy

Madalyn:

1. I go to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)
2. I study Computer Science and Digital Art.
3. The longest (documented) that a person has ever lived was to the age of 124 years.

Shane: 

1. Olin College of Engineering Continue reading Summer 2013 Interns →

Events, Featured, OfficeWriter, Reporting Services, SQL Server, SSRS, Webinars

[Webinar] Grand Slam Your SSRS Reports

June Webinar

Tune in next week Friday, June 28, 2013 at 1 P.M. for our June webinar as we give you another inside look at how OfficeWriter enhances SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), making your reports a home run. Senior Sales Engineer, Chad Evans, will walk you through using both single and multi-value parameters and formulas in SSRS. Using baseball data on players’ batting averages and salaries, this webinar is sure to impress. Don’t miss out! Seating is limited.


*Can’t attend? Register anyway, and we’ll send a copy of the slides and recording following the webinar.

Office Life, The Intern Diaries, Truth in Tech

Truth in Tech Ep. 20: The Internship

So you want to be a programming intern? Take it from these all-star students who’ve maneuvered the tech waters to land hands-on programming internships. They give you the inside scoop on where to look, secret interview questions, and what it’s really like at a summer internship. Listen in on itunes.

Truth in Tech E20: The InternshipTech internships have been getting a lot of play in the news and pop culture lately, but what are they actually like? Our summer interns spill the deets.

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[Press Release] SoftArtisans Receives 2013 Best of Watertown Award

Best of Watertown 2013

We are so honored (not to mention pumped) to be recognized in the Watertown Award Program this year. Thank you!

“The Watertown Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses that serve their local market. Each year, we identify companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.“

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Software Artisans Receives 2013 Best of Watertown Award

Watertown Award Program Honors the Achievement

WATERTOWN June 6, 2013 — Software Artisans has been selected for the 2013 Best of Watertown Award in the Retail Computer Software category by the Watertown Award Program.

Each year, the Watertown Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Watertown area a great place to live, work and play.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2013 Watertown Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Watertown Award Program and data provided by third parties.

About Watertown Award Program Continue reading [Press Release] SoftArtisans Receives 2013 Best of Watertown Award →

Big Data

Welcome Back, Privacy Concerns: Big Data, Healthcare, and PRISM

Photo Credit: Mashable.com

I suppose I shouldn’t say, “Welcome back, privacy concerns,” as I’m sure they never left, just quietly assumed their position humming in the background and shadows of the internet noise. This week, however, they took center stage both in the healthcare space and in government news.

This week, The New York Times published an article on a significant announcement for the healthcare industry. A group of global partners spanning 41 countries and including 70 medical, research and advocacy organizations agreed to share a heap of genetic data. “Their aim is to put the vast and growing trove of data on genetic variations and health into databases that would open to researchers and doctors all over the world, not just to those who created them,” The New York Times wrote. Currently, research labs and facilities are very much siloed. Each institution has their own research within their own walls and with their own records and system of operations. There is no universal method for representing and sharing genetic data, which could lead to advanced findings in cures and other health-related research.

One reason for the lack of a central system is the sheer volume of data. There is just too much information being produced by the minute. Not only that, but it is often unstructured and not of quality (meaning information was entered or gathered incorrectly/differently, such as January being entered in as Jan, 1, 01, or January, making it difficult to analyze). While volume and quality of data is an issue, the overarching problem, or rather challenge, healthcare professionals face lies mostly in the security space. With all of that sensitive patient data, there need to be strict, infallible measures to protect that information. Along those same lines is the question of who will have access to that information.

This is especially significant as it comes at the same time of privacy concerns regarding the NSA’s reported access to granular consumer data. Continue reading Welcome Back, Privacy Concerns: Big Data, Healthcare, and PRISM →