Social Media, Staff Picks

Crowdsourced: Apps You Should Know About

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 question:
 1. What is your favorite app and why?
 
The answers:

David, CEO

Evernote – Best practical app. Couldn’t live without it now.

pwSafe – Keeps hundreds of passwords secure and syncs with PC version.

Atomic Web – Truly private browsing. Most googling done here now. (Bing is default on Safari.)

Leafsnap – Identifies and geotags tree species by taking a picture of a leaf.

LiveATC – Allows you to listen to ATC around in the world in real time. Nerdy pilot stuff. Continue reading Crowdsourced: Apps You Should Know About →

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News Releases, OfficeWriter

What’s New in OfficeWriter 8.2

[cross-posted from www.officewriter.com/blog]

We kicked off 2012 with our first maintenance release of OfficeWriter 8 back in March. Now we’re continuing the trend with our next release, OfficeWriter 8.2, just in time for the end of Q2. Let’s take a quick spin around what we’re introducing:

Support for SQL Server Reporting Services 2012

We are proud to announce that the OfficeWriter Reporting Services Integration now supports SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2012, which was released earlier this year.

You may have heard that SSRS 2012 has added some functionality to their default Excel export option, but OfficeWriter can give those rich Excel and Word features that you can’t do without. Our very own Ozgur breaks down what keeps OfficeWriter ahead of the pack. Continue reading What’s New in OfficeWriter 8.2 →

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Uncategorized

Meet the Team: Scott

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.

Meet Scott, a software engineer with a soft spot for sea shanties, strawberries, and sunny days.

1. What do you do?

I write code that does stuff.

2. What are you listening to right now?

Xavier Rudd’s new album: Spirit Bird

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

6 Continue reading Meet the Team: Scott →

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Uncategorized

An Event Apart: For People Who Make Websites

Graphic Designer, Christiana, spent some time at An Event Apart last week to pick up a few tips and tricks…and retro swag. She provides a quick recap and takeaways from the speakers. Conclusion: worthwhile event for designers and developers alike.

An Event Apart: The Design Conference for People Who Make Websites came to Boston last week Monday – Wednesday.  I was excited to see what this conference had to offer seeing as this was the first one I attended that had a combined designer/developer track which was not shuffling you off in separate directions. I arrived to a sea of eager people waiting to soak up some creative knowledge, as well as some pretty cool welcome swag. Lunch boxes for all. Continue reading An Event Apart: For People Who Make Websites →

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Meet the Team, Office Life

Meet the Team: Kate

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.

Meet Kate, SoftArtisans’ technical support guru by day, poetry slam artisan by night.

1. What do you do?
Technical support and web app consulting. I fix things. Then I make other things. This requires learning a lot of new technologies constantly. If you name a technology, I can tell you what mistakes I’ve made with it!

2. What are you listening to right now?
“Commando” by the Ramones. Over and over again. Because it’s so awesome.

3. If you could build any app, what would it be and why?

I’ve been working on this stupid thing off and on. It generates random free-form poetry and (almost, the algorithm is still a little off) sonnets. It uses a custom CFG that I’ll never be satisfied with.  I’m a performance poet in my spare time and it’s super fun to pull out my phone and tell the audience I’m quite literally writing the poem at that moment. When it works.

4. When you were 5 what did you want to be and why?
A ninja that tamed lions. True story. I was going to learn ninja skills, get some lions together, and be a superhero. I don’t think I need to explain why.

5. If you were a beer what would you be and why?
Continue reading Meet the Team: Kate →

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Events, SQL Server, Uncategorized

Microsoft’s TechEd North America 2012 Keynote Recap

The 20th anniversary of Microsoft’s TechEd North America kicked off with a keynote showcasing Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure, Visual Studio 2012, and SQL Server 2012.  They should have renamed it the Windows Azure hour, though.

A cloud-based infrastructure back end was included in 90% of the demos. These demos included:

  • System Center 2012 migrating virtual machines seamlessly from a local data center to 3rd party service provider
  • The process of creating virtual machines in Windows Azure
  • The act of deploying web and mobile applications to Windows Azure directly from VS 2012 with one click
  • Using SQL Server 2012’s Powerview to break down 140,000 movie tweets (I believe stored in a Hadoop cluster on Windows Azure though the presenter was unclear) into useful information for a movie theater owner looking to maximize revenue.

Of all the demos,  Continue reading Microsoft’s TechEd North America 2012 Keynote Recap →

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Meet the Team, Office Life

SoftArtisans Poetry Slam: D&D&T&A by Kate Mogel

SoftArtisans’ technical support guru by day, poetry slam extraordinaire by night, Kate Mogel combines these two areas of her life into one engaging poem. I first heard Kate unleash her talent at the company retreat open mic night and after some prodding convinced her to share her talents with you. Listen to the audio above and follow along with the lyrics below as Kate takes you through the ups and downs of being a self-proclaimed “nerdy girl.”

D&D&T&A

by Kate Mogel

I’ll take the automated infrastructure.
I’ll take the prerecorded voices.
I would love to follow a convoluted maze of customer service concepts, taking a few steps forward by pressing 7.
Taking a few steps back by going forward.
I would not like to talk to an operator.
Because I have a girl voice.
I would not like to talk to a person.
Because I have a girl voice.
Tech support treats me like an idiot.
Because I have a girl voice.
“Okay, hun, there should be a wire that looks like a big phone cord…”
Ethernet cable? Reboot the modem? Release and renew the IP? Seriously?
Continue reading SoftArtisans Poetry Slam: D&D&T&A by Kate Mogel →
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Events, Social Media

Ad Club EDGE 2012 Conference Recap

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Monday the AdClub EDGE Conference rolled into town and consumed (see what I did there) the Institute of Contemporary Art. When I walked into the auditorium, The Ad Club’s Big Orange Couch was front-and-center, though it remained mostly untouched by the speakers, who elected to stand while presenting. (Sidenote: My coworker Paula pointed out the couch reminded her of our famous nap room couch here at SoftArtisans.)

Eleven speakers in rapid succession made for an engaging conference and a ton of fascinating insights surrounding the advertising realm including issues of privacy and big data. While the majority of the speakers focused on B2C marketing as opposed to B2B, (which is what we focus on with OfficeWriter) the insights proved to be extremely valuable. I wish I could cover it all, but in the interest of (your) time, I’ll just leave you with the key takeaways I gleaned from each speaker. As a bonus though I’ve also rounded up a few of the most interesting tweets from the conference to give an inside look at the conversations it sparked.

The Topic: Consumed (although the power of storytelling snuck in on more than one occasion)

The Gist: To steal the words of @SchneiderMike – Exploring “how brands and marketers are approaching this collision of media and data to better understand how their audience consumes content and what consumes them.”

Cue Rihanna’s bouncy “We Found Love” for walkout music as Kathy Kiely (@MadamePrez), President of The Ad Club kicked off the event. Continue reading Ad Club EDGE 2012 Conference Recap →

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Events, Office Life, Uncategorized

WorkIT: Careers @ Bostinno Launch

It was such a great night to be out in Kendall Square!  When I heard the news about the launch of “Careers on BostInno”, my first thought was: please not yet another useless job board that produces zero quality for start-ups looking to connect with potential candidates.  On the flip- (insert: positive or any other politically correct segue) side, consider the source: in under four years, BostInno has gone from a niche blog to the nexus of all things groundbreaking in Boston. As stated on their website:

“BostInno’s foundation is innovation – …. our platform connects and informs people in a way that drives innovation at a time in which we believe our economy and society desperately need change for the better.”

In this market, I highly doubt that one source can be the answer to creating the ultimate pipeline for top tech talent.  What is exciting about this launch is that you have a creditable source in the Boston start-up community that is serving as a “connector” between the small start-up and the job seeker.

Overall the event was a great opportunity to get out, mingle, and meet new faces!  Since this was the first time that BostInno crossed the river, I hope that everyone had a great time and they continue to explore new places. (I hear things are booming in Watertown!)

As to the product, we are looking forward to trying it out!  One just never knows when, where, or how you will meet the next person to join our small community.  My search continues…

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Meet the Team, Office Life

Meet the Team: Tamar

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.

Meet Tamar, a software engineer who beams for Boba, screams at BlackBerries, and doth protest too much her ninjahood. 

1. What do you do?

I’m a software engineer working on Gander for Riparian Data.

2. What are you listening to right now?

Paranoid Android by Radiohead, a bit of an oldie but I guess I am too.

 

3. Fill in the blank. Contrary to popular belief I  ________.

Am not a ninja.

Continue reading Meet the Team: Tamar →

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