2016 Archives

Now that you know what your mobile application will do and look like, it’s time to get your various environments set up. Here’s our list of things we check off at Collective Idea for creating an Android app.

With the inclusion of Action Cable in Rails 5, we can easily add WebSockets to our Rails applications. This post walks through how to set up Action Cable as a response to an action on an Active Record model.

Now that you know what your mobile application will do and look like, it’s time to get your various environments set up. Here’s our list of things we check off at Collective Idea for creating an iOS app.

I thought it would be awesome to start speaking at conferences, but I wasn’t sure where to start. Here’s how I prepared for my first time at the podium.

When attending RubyConf 2016, I learned more than just additional gems about Ruby. I learned about continuing education and why it matters.

Hiring remote developers who are not yet senior requires looking for certain critical characteristics. Learn what those are and what you should consider if you are hiring or looking for a remote position.

Developing a mobile application that works on both iOS and Android takes a bit of work. Here are some best practices to get you going.

After Apple’s October 27 Mac event, many people were left to wonder, “Should I think about a macOS alternative? What else is out there?”

The art of dancing and the act of programming are quite similar. How so? It’s the way both dancers and programmers respond to feedback.

This past weekend we shared our coding knowledge with some eager 7th and 8th-grade girls ready to create their own websites with BitCampGR.

We are very excited to be hosting our very first BitCamp GR event this weekend in conjunction with Hope College Computer Science Department.

During the third and final Presidential Debate, the hashtag #TrumpBookReport was trending on Twitter. Turns out, I created this hashtag sensation, and I can teach you my tricks.

You don’t need an IdlingResource, and sleep() is fickle. Make Espresso wait for your observables running on background schedulers with this one cool trick!

An easy way to make your Android app’s main action more accessible for people using screen readers.

While working on a project, I discovered a major security vulnerability that affects all stable versions of Bundler.

Networking is taking place both online and offline at conferences big and small. Here are a few tips to help you out with virtual networking.

When using Ruby on Rails Form Helpers, it could be useful to add an autocomplete feature to fields where users might reuse data. One way to do that is to use Selectize.js to create a dropdown and populate it with data from the user model.

Starting today, Heroku has a new free SSL offering. Use it with Let’s Encrypt for a fully free SSL system.

Collective Idea’s been bit by the Elixir bug recently. And in my research to configure its Alchemist tools, I’ve discovered an interesting text editor: Spacemacs. Spacemacs is an easy-to-install set of defaults for Emacs. And I love it! But, I’m a diehard Vim fanatic. How could I say something that sacrilegious!?

Looking back, I now know there are a lot of that can’t be learned from a book or tutorial. Through working with others, I was able to build on my skills in a way I wouldn’t have been able to do in isolation.

I’ve been using and teaching Ruby for many years now, but I recently had an epiphany about private methods.

Have you heard the buzz about Elixir? Look no further to see what all the commotion is about!

Stop saying sorry all the time. Especially when there is no reason for it. Just say what you need to say.

In the last part of our four-part series, we look at a variety of roles one can take on during a pair programming session. Are you the researcher, tester, sounding board, or something else?

Pair programming isn’t always just about working with another person. Sometimes, partnering up on a project requires you to know more about how YOU work within the partnership.

We’re very excited to welcome Victoria Gonda to the Collective Idea family.

The Rails 5 upgrade has a few changes that may cause confusion. We look at how to get around the disabling of autoloading and look at the new deprecation warnings.

So what can you, as a well-meaning professional developer do to contribute more to your team? We have several suggestions for reaching your pair programming potential.

Months can be difficult to work with when they have a differing number of days. Rails helps out with #month, but you still need to use caution.

Collective Idea encourages everyone to work where they are most productive; whether that means at home, a coffee shop, the office, co-working space, or train.

Good practice tips for those who are new to programming and have limited time to complete ideas.

This past year we expanded our office space and our team. We held a Grand Opening party to celebrate.

If you’re working with PostgreSQL and you’ve recently gotten a UniqueViolation error, you may just need to correct an out-of-synce database pointer.

West Michigan is home to the Seamless Accelerator, an initiative that aims to bring IoT startup ideas to market. Once component to the accelerator is resource partners like Collective Idea.

Out of all the places in the world we can set up shop to do software development, we’re in Holland, Michigan and thriving.

If you’ve ever needed to share a password before, don’t share them over email. Instead, here are a few options to check out.

As software developers, we like to work smarter, not harder. If you’re looking for a smarter way to generate RSpec tests, check out Wyatt.

A 3D printer can do more than just create fun objects. They can be programmed to solve every day problems.

Middleman was built by Thomas Reynolds over eight years ago as a way to build static sites with easy-to-use framework. I talk with Mr. Reynolds about a few new features for Version 4 of the tool.

I want to use the new hotness, but Internet Explorer/Edge doesn’t support it yet.

Volunteering at BitCamp GR, by Software GR, is an amazing day-long event to teach young girls software development.

Our space is a bit different than many offices, but is a reflection of how we work.

There are a number of things an employer can do to create and foster a happy and healthy workforce.

Air pollution is a problem that affects everyone. So to help combat the problem, we tried green commuting for a week. Here are our top tips!

GitHub is changing their prices for organizations. Here’s why you should stop worrying.

What seemed like a simple-reskinning turned into a much more involved project. It’s codebase that’s sat dormant for a few years, and that posed difficulty finishing tasks in the time we originally thought it would.

The following covers a few of the lessons we learned. That way you can be aware of pitfalls the next time you have to update a legacy iOS application.

We’re in the middle of expanding our office in located in Downtown Holland. Before we unveil the office it its entirety, check out our previous [i] space in 3D!

We held hosted a screening of CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap in Graves Hall on the Hope College campus, and are happy with the conversations it started about the lack of women and minorities in the computing industry. The film, and the discussion that followed emphasized two important efforts when approaching this issue: exposure and support.

Collective Idea and the Hope College Computer Science Department are working together to host a screening of CODE: Debugging The Gender Gap in Holland, MI. You are invited to gather with us to watch this film in Winants Auditorium in Graves Hall on April 18th at 7:00 pm.

The TSA paid $1.4 million for a Randomizer app that chooses left or right We can build it better.

At Collective Idea, we use Git all the time. Right now, I have 50 Git repositories cloned on my computer and they fall into a few categories. My problem is that I need to commit from a different email address depending on which type of project I’m working on. I explored three ways to do this, looking for the least intrusive.

I used to think Google’s plan to give the world Internet via balloon was kind of looney. Then I moved to Texas and started a small hobby wireless ISP (WISP). Here are some things I learned about why American broadband is a fiasco, a fiasco that’s about to get way worse.

I needed to renew an SSL certificate today, so I used it as an excuse to try Let’s Encrypt for a free certificate for a Rails app hosted on Heroku.

PostgreSQL 9.5 was released yesterday and has a lot of cool new features. If you’re on Mac OS X and using Homebrew, you can upgrade with the steps below.