9.27.2011
SquareUp: Runaway Success or Soon to be Has Been?
At first I was completely blown away by SquareUp. I ordered one immediately, of course. I've since reconsidered. Once NFC becomes mainstream, SquareUp better be well poised to be the PayPal of mobile personal payments or they'll easily be passed over by integrated hardware services. Maybe not. Either way, pay up suckers!
Posted by Anonymous at 10:26 PM 170 comments
8.31.2011
Our Latest Launch - Tervis Smart Cup
Posted by Anonymous at 3:07 PM 175 comments
6.13.2011
Our Latest Launch - Children's Hospital Colorado Heart Institute
Posted by Anonymous at 6:07 PM 63 comments
5.27.2011
Google Image Search Virus Leads to AV Showdown
The last few months we have seen a huge spike in viruses coming from Google Image Search. Our current solution just was not cutting it, so I took a day to test out some of the better known anti-virus programs. Here are the results:
- Microsoft Security Essentials: doesn’t block any virus sites, lets installer install and infects computers. Doesn’t catch virus if it’s in a USB. System down – Boo.
- Kaspersky: blocks about 20% of the viruses sites, allows installer to run and infect computer. Doesn’t catch virus if it’s in a USB either. System down – Boo.
- ESET NOD32: blocks all sites and infected downloads. Scans USB sticks for virus, but takes a little bit. If it has a virus on the stick, it will delete it. I can force the virus install if I really try, but it actively removes parts of the virus that send data, etc. during install. No real system downtime, but still need to manually remove a file so it doesn’t give an error at start-up – Very good, but a little room for improvement.
- Symantec Endpoint Protection: not only blocks sites with infected viruses, but actually bans the IP from their computer as well for one day (can be adjusted). Blocks infected downloads and bans IP from that as well. It doesn’t remove infected files from USB sticks, but at the same time it won’t allow the install at all like NOD32 did. No effect on the system at all – Very good and less room for improvement than NOD32!
Of course the above was just testing against the Google Image Search virus that is running rampant. If we take into account all aspects (computer resources used, track record for stopping viruses, as little user interaction as possible) there was one clear winner: ESET NOD32.
Posted by Ty at 9:12 AM 37 comments
5.25.2011
Our Latest Launch - Calmacryingbaby.org
Posted by Anonymous at 9:08 AM 38 comments
4.21.2011
Favorite iPad App
Posted by Anonymous at 9:34 AM 23 comments
4.13.2011
Our Latest Launch - WaterPik Showers
Posted by Matt Laufer at 8:45 AM 59 comments
2.25.2011
Future of Gaming Arrives - OSN Shows Madden 12
The future of gaming is finally here! The Onion Sports Network gives us a glimpse into what EA has been developing for Madden 12.
Onion SportsDome
One of my life dreams was to be in the NFL. Looks like I finally can live that dream, without getting the nice paycheck...
Posted by Ty at 9:52 AM 62 comments
2.22.2011
The Problems with Application Development for Facebook
Over the last year we have really dug our heels into the world of Facebook application development. Like so much of the internet, it it very much a wild west in Facebook land. As everyone knows, Facebook often changes layouts, formats, designs, and functions without much warning. In the early days of Facebook one of my favorite functions was your personal friend timeline. When you added a friend you also indicated the time and context in which you befriended that person (in real life). Based on that data a timeline of your life was generated that showed your life's timeline and the people you met along the way. I loved this feature, and one day a few years ago, it was gone. Bummer. Facebook's most recent change is to a new layout for fan pages. We have an application running that we are scrambling to test and modify, and that's just the problem. Facebook really does not have a real development environment. Sure, they have a sandbox mode for developers, but we need more than that. Typically we have 3 environments in our workflow, dev, staging, and production. The absence of a staging environment can be a real challenge, especially when reviewing an iteration with a client while the application is still in development. Boo. Top all that off with poor and out of date documentation, and you have a mostly unfavorable development workflow. My last gripe is with platform stability. While Facebook does not suffer from the prevalence of the fail whale like Twitter (will they every get it right), their are often bugs and quirks with the platform that are beyond a developers controls. When an issue arises I absolutely hate telling someone "it's a Facebook problem, we are waiting for them to fix it." In the middle of a lengthy campaign last week the Facebook Page Insights went haywire, and the data became inaccurate. There was nothing we could do. Mark Zuckerberg, if you are listening, HELP!
Posted by Matt Laufer at 6:29 PM 34 comments
2.14.2011
Waston ties for first round of Jeopardy
Watson, the IBM super-computer designed to "understand the complexities of human language," had its debut on Jeopardy tonight facing off against the show's most successful players: Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. Thankfully, James Cameron's judgment day will have to wait a few more years, as Watson proved itself quite fallible; and although its answers were at times uncannily fast and accurate; it didn't seem quite devious enough to be planning a nuclear holocaust. Three more rounds will happen the next few nights. Now if only Darrell Hammond would show up as Sean Connery, this could turn into an epic event.
Posted by Ryan at 8:50 PM 20 comments
2.08.2011
1.30.2011
1.21.2011
Facebook Follows Suit with the Public Internet
Posted by Matt Laufer at 3:00 PM 29 comments