Featured, UX, Windows Server

Windows 8 in Review: The Good, the Bad, and What You Need to Know

Windows 8 TabletI’ve been using the RTM enterprise version Windows 8 on my work laptop and workstation for about a week now and these are some of my initial impressions of it.

The Good

Some of my better experiences…

It’s fast. It’s as fast, if not faster, than Windows 7. On a Dell Precision T3400 and ThinkPad x220, the experience is snappy.

It’s beautiful. Minimalist metro style, live titles, square edges in metro and desktop mode, and sleek background artwork will really catch your eye.

Keyboard shortcuts. There is basically a Winkey shortcut for almost everything. The Windows 8 secrets book has a full list in the appendix or you can visit Paul Thurrott’s Super Site for Windows for a quick guide on Windows key shortcuts.

Search. Press the Winkey and start typing. Find stuff. Enough said.

My kids could use it. I spent about 30 minutes last night reviewing metro interface with my 9-year-old. After explaining the screen gestures, she was able to download and play a couple of free metro games.

 

The Bad

These may be nit-picky, but I demand perfection…

No search with the Windows store.  You have to use Start Search and filter on the store to see results. This is kind of annoying.

No Hyper-V client support for my workstation. You need SLAT or second level address translation support on your processor for client side Hyper-V. This is an optional requirement for server so why not on the client. I will gladly forgo VM memory optimizations to ditch VMware workstation.  You can check if your processor is SLAT compatible by following this helpful blog post on How-to Geek.

Metro is designed for a touch experience. Not an earth shattering realization, but Continue reading Windows 8 in Review: The Good, the Bad, and What You Need to Know →

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Events, Office Life

Google + Hangout with 2 Red Chairs Recap: Soundbites & Such

Thanks for tuning in to our live chat on G+ Hangout last week with Ben Wilkoff and Dave Workman from Two Red Chairs. In case you missed it, you can catch a recorded version on Youtube. In the hangout, we touched on B2B marketing, challenges we’ve faced as a startup and beginning a new venture (Riparian Data), along with ways we’ve found to overcome those hurdles. For the full discussion, click on the picture above or visit the Youtube channel to see if any of our personal experiences and observations resonate with your company’s own personal challenges.

Admittedly, on-the-spot discussions always leave me thinking about what I wish I would have said or added to the discussion. Don’t you hate when you have that feeling of “Oh, that would have been great to bring up,” or “Oh, that would have made me sound much more intelligent.” Well, thanks to the power of blogging and technology I now have that chance. Here are 3 takeaways and soundbites from our Hangout.

1) Move from a B2B and B2C market to a B2D market: In the words of TechCrunch, the B2D market includes “software and hardware startups that cater specifically to developers.” Dave brought this up toward the end of the discussion as a trend to watch. I’ll admit this trend wasn’t at the forefront of my mind, but it’s definitely on my radar now. Basically the idea is Continue reading Google + Hangout with 2 Red Chairs Recap: Soundbites & Such →

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Featured, Office Life, Staff Picks

Staff Picks: This Week’s News

Once a week I snoop around the office, bothering my coworkers with questions on what they’re reading, listening to, consuming, or any other random inquiries I’d like to subject them to. Sometimes they even respond.

The questions:
  1. What was one thing you read/watched this week?
  2. What do you wish you would have read/watched this week?

The answers:

David, CEO of Riparian Data
1. Watched the debates and fell asleep, woke up an hour later and don’t think I missed much of substance since I saw Romney firing Jim Lehrer and Big Bird. Watched The Avengers on blu-ray and did not fall asleep.
2. “Git from the bottom up” and J.K. Rowling’s new book, “The Casual Vacancy”

Kristen, Sales Rep
1. Watched the debate
2. Missed watching The Voice this week

Claire, Marketing & Development Manager
1. I watched the debate until I got too annoyed, and then I read John Cassidy’s level-headed response and felt a bit better.
2. What I want to read: The Writing Revolution, about one formerly failing highschool’s successful revamp of its writing program.  Continue reading Staff Picks: This Week’s News →

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Agile, Enterprise Software, Office Life, Programming

Agile Development: 5 Lessons Learned

Working in software development can be challenging and tricky without the right plan in place, especially without a plan that caters to your employees’ work styles. Here at SoftArtisans our development team follows the agile dogma and we’ve discovered several lessons along the way. Wondering if agile development is right for your team? See below for 5 things to keep in mind when implementing this work style.

1. You absolutely need backup from higher-ups.

Too often I have seen or heard of departments that were “going agile,” but management was not behind them. No matter how enthusiastic about it the developers were, their plans were ruined every time management expected something to be “like it used to.” Managers who don’t give things time to adjust create developers who don’t give things time to adjust, and then everything is doomed to fail.

2. Retros are vital.

One important thing about agile is that you can change things quickly when you need to. This applies to the direction the software is taking, but it also applies to the processes and mindsets of team members. This is what retrospectives are for. A good team will be able to be honest about what’s working and what isn’t and subsequently make changes for future sprints.
This whole process is much easier when…

3. Retros don’t include higher-ups.

Management usually wants to know what’s going on, and that’s great, but retros are not the place for it. Continue reading Agile Development: 5 Lessons Learned →

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Events, Office Life

Google + Hangout with 2 Red Chairs Monday, 10/1 at 1pm EST

Google + Hangout

We’re hanging out with 2 Red Chairs Monday, October 1, at 1 p.m. EST to talk about the challenges and accomplishments associated with being a small business. Plus, we’ll give you a deeper glimpse into the inner workings of SoftArtisans and our newly incubated company Riparian Data.

What: Google + Hangout with Two Red Chairs

The Topic: Breakthroughs and Barriers

When: Monday, October 1st, at 1 p.m. EST

Details: Link to join the discussion: http://artsn.in/OXI8Ub 

Who: 

SoftArtisans & Riparian Data
Claire Willett – Marketing and Development
Elise Kovi – Social Media and Content Manager

2 Red Chairs
David Workman – Owner at Northstar Knowledge, Inc
Ben Wilkoff – Learning Experience Designer

You

Who is 2 Red Chairs? 2RC is an Innovation and Learning company focused on working with growth-oriented businesses. You can find more information on their company and what they aim to do through their G+ account, Youtube channel, and Twitter.

**If you saw binary code when you looked at this date, then you definitely need to tune in. Even if you didn’t, we’d love to see you there.

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Programming

Dr Dre Or How I Decided to Stop Worrying and Learn the Hardware

Every so many months I look up “X number of things every programmer should know” and do my best to incorporate one of those principles into my coding. There are some standard concepts: modularity, short methods, avoid “spaghetti code, ” understand what your compiler is actually doing, the four years and tens of thousands of dollars you spent on an education is worth nothing. Nothing.

My most recent gem is here. I actually found this article sometime ago and tl;dr-ed it, throwing it into the “Read This” folder. I’m not proud of shelving an article due to its length, nor that I ended the last sentence with a preposition, but that’s just how things went.

In any case, after rediscovering it, two points caught my eye. First, #5: Beauty is in Simplicity. (I’ll save you the trouble of changing tabs.) This section is about writing simple code that‘s also easy to read. Most of my short code is pretty much impossible to understand (kind of like this). Maybe it’s because all my variable names are in Bantu, but still it would be worth learning how to write simple code that another person could understand. New principle identified! That was until I saw #10: Consider the Hardware. According to this, lots of small functions aren’t necessarily the best for machine efficiency. Oh, good. Do I go with small methods for modularity and readability, or giant methods for more efficient execution?

The two aren’t actually exclusive, but they sure seem that way. Continue reading Dr Dre Or How I Decided to Stop Worrying and Learn the Hardware →

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Meet the Team, Office Life

Meet the Team: Christiana

Hello and welcome to our Meet the Team series, in which we aim to give you deeper insight into the minds and personalities of those who make up this eclectic, close-knit group. We are developers, marketers, and technical support engineers, and at work we craft everything from Microsoft reporting APIs to mobile email applications. And outside of work? Let’s just say racing against the machine during hackathons, building architecturally sound beer towers during retros, and paddling down the Charles during the warmer months are simply the beginning.Christiana

Meet Christiana – our Illustrator pen-wielding, master of design, making things beautiful on the daily (see the recent website redesign) and bringing a lightness to the office with her sparkling wit.

1.What do you do?

I’m the graphic/web designer for the company.

2. What are you listening to right now?

The iTunes Festival

3. When you were 5 what did you want to be and why?

I probably wanted to be the only member of an adult Fisher-Price marching band, but who remembers 5? Sometime after 5 I wanted to be a news reporter, because I always loved when breaking news came on. And I’m not talking about being an anchorwoman. Nope, I wanted to be the live-on-scene person interrupting your TV shows. That was until the realizations hit that in no way did I want to be in front of a camera, I hated the idea of driving around in a van, and was highly opposed to writing any kind of reports. I reassessed.

4.What is your favorite tech blog and why?

Smashing Magazine. They have so many design and code-related tips, tricks, and inspirational goodies.

5. What is your worst nightmare?

Web-weaving terrorists tethering down and air-bombing me as I sleep….Spiders.

Continue reading Meet the Team: Christiana →

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Featured, Programming

The Programmer’s Guide to Choosing a Drink

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Photo Credit: www.89thandbroke.com

To celebrate the commencement of Oktoberfest  festivities in Munich this weekend (and because it’s always fun to think about alcohol), we’re bringing you a handy-dandy guide to see how your programming languages match up to your favorite drinks. It’s important to be prepared –  If all the programming languages were to suddenly turn into drinks, we should know what sort of world we’d be getting (besides a very drunk one)!

C – Tequila.  It gets the job done quickly, but using it isn’t usually that great of an experience.  Everybody uses it at some point, but not too many stick with it unless there’s no other choice, or they need it to do its thing fast.  And if you don’t use it exactly right, chances are things are going to go horribly wrong.

Ruby – Scotch.  You can use it for years, and still discover strange new undertones you hadn’t noticed before.  And then you add a dash of water and discover everything is changed.  But it’s easy to ruin the magic if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Python – Irish Whiskey.  When first starting, you have two main options – Bushmills or Jameson?  Python 2 or 3?  But once you choose one and go with it, it’s remarkably smooth.  There’s not a huge amount of subtlety, but it’s pretty easy to get into and use.

Java – Vodka.  It’s everywhere.  It can be used in pretty much any situation, and most people are willing to use it when it’s the most convenient thing on hand.  But excluding a group of really dedicated fans, it’s not generally people’s first choice.  It just doesn’t have the same elegance as some of the alternatives.  But it can be mixed with other things pretty easily, for those who can’t stand using it straight.

Continue reading The Programmer’s Guide to Choosing a Drink →

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Events

Oct 3rd: Game Night at SoftArtisans

Board Games and Beer

BOARD GAMES AND BEER

Our first community game night was such a hit that we’re doing it all over again! Join us Wednesday, Oct. 3rd for FREE pizza and beer as we open our doors to the community (that means you).

Come meet the team, collaborate to save mankind by eradicating worldwide disease, and block a secret sect of spies from forming a coup (or scheme to overthrow the government if you’re part of the revolution) – all in a night’s work. Plus, enjoy food and drinks on us. We can arrange transportation if needed – just drop me a line at the email address below.

The Details:
When: 
Wednesday, Oct. 3rd, 6 p.m.
Where:
SoftArtisans
3 Brook Street
Watertown, MA 02472
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UX

Beneath the Surface: Why Windows 8 Isn’t Completely Doomed

http://www.extremetech.com/
Photo Credit: ExtremeTech.com

Now that you’ve all groaned over my “punny” choice of title for this post, let’s get down to it!

In my post on why I think Windows 8 is like the Water Bear, I voiced some concerns over adopting Windows 8 for desktop PCs and how that would impact my ability to perform my current job.  Here’s a quick rebuttal to why I think Windows 8 isn’t completely doomed, especially when paired with the Surface tablet:

Sharing and Consuming is easy on Windows 8

After I finally relented and got a tablet (a Nook – before I was running out of shelf space for my books), I realized that I spent most of my content consumption time on my tablet. It was easy enough to watch a video, look out for e-mail notifications, or Facebook updates while reading a book. The Windows 8 Metro mode is better for sharing content or getting quick glance updates. This is perfect for when I don’t want to go to my laptop or use my tiny phone screen.

The Surface has a keyboard, for those of us who survive on haptic feedback.

The most prominent complaint I had with modern tablets was the lack of a keyboard.  As a touch-typist, it is literally impossible for me to type with a touch-screen. If I can’t generate written content, this takes away half of the usefulness of a tablet.

Luckily, the Surface has a keyboard that easily stores away when you’re not using it.  It’s also not a detached accessory, so it (hopefully) has the same stability that a laptop has, with all the bonuses of a touch-tablet.

Continue reading Beneath the Surface: Why Windows 8 Isn’t Completely Doomed →

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