When I first saw HAML, I got very excited. I was just learning to code in Rails and the idea of being able to write short-form commands was powerful. It saved time on typing, but more importantly, it simplified the code. I was able to write Ruby and HTML virtually…
There is a huge problem with the internet in 2014. Thanks to the advancements in technology, primarily by Facebook, everyone expects the web to work in real time. If your page loads in under 300ms, that's average. Everything past that is already perceived as slow. In my view, this is…
A lot has been said about finding the best designer for your project, but how do you find the best client, if you are a freelancer? Clients can be absolutely amazing, or complete and utter assholes, and anything in between. What do you do to pick the right one? Many…
I just read the latest issue of the OffScreen Magazine, and every time I pick up the new issue, it amazes me that the new one is better than the one before. But, one thought came to mind. Every issue, in this magazine, or elsewhere, when I read about a…
Within a few short years we’ve gone through browsing on the desktop to spending countless hours on our phones. Despite all the negativity of spending too much time with a mobile device, I don’t mind it. I’d argue that having a phone made us more social, and…
Nowhere on Earth are there so many investors, companies, money and hustle per square foot as there are in the Silicon Valley. But does it mean you have to run your company in the Valley? Having gone through YCombinator and have spent time around founders from New York, Seattle, Toronto…
In the last few months I've been getting a lot of friend requests on LinkedIn from people that I do not recal meeting, and most of those request came in empty, with a generic "please add me..." request. For the longest time that perplexed and annoyed me - if you…
I've been a big fan of Pixxel's newsletter and for the longest time wanted to do something similar. I already collect a lot of interesting links online, blog in various places, and tweet like it is my business. Running a newsletter has always seemed difficult. Available applications like MailChimp are…
My friends from @Kiddology have a really cute mascot for their iPad application. It wasn't always that way. Designing the mascot was a challenging and intriguing process. Jay Kapadia tells a story of how it all went down. Click here to read more → https://scoutzie.com/blog/branding-cute-lovalable-app-mascot…
Because sometimes the internet does wonders. …
All too often I hear people who want to start a new company, but they don't because "other people have more training and more experience". Does experience matter? → To read the rest of this post on Kirill.io, click here.…
→ Social media is not a machine that spits out tweets, but rather a medium to start a conversation between people and brands. Followers want to see your human side and nobody wants to be friends with a jerk. To read the rest of this post on Medium, click here.…
While working on Scoutzie.com, I noticed that in cases when clients and designers get upset at each other, often that is a direct result of them not understanding each other's goals. Clients want to showcase their businesses as best as they know, while designers want to create the most…
So, you got an interview at YC. You are scheduling meetings with YC alumni, researching Quora to find out what PG might ask, and in general doing everything to increase your chances. Aren't you? Well, don't worry. YC is very selective, the acceptance rate is about 2%. Say they have…
If you live in the Bay area and often commute to San Francisco, Caltrain is probably your best friend, but the friend has a powerful enemy, the Clipper card! Designed as a "sophisticated" solution that lets you pay for the train without actually buying a ticket, Clipper has a way…
Nspire.org is a Canadian non-profit student-run organization focused on encouraging entrepreneurship, leadership and innovation. As an alumni, I had a pleasure of sharing a few quick thoughts in their monthly newsletter. Originally the article wasn't supposed to go beyond a few hundred subscribers, but a few folks liked it…
A couple of day ago I was setting my mom with a new Dropbox account. She is not great with technology so we were screen-sharing while my mom was going through the install process. All-in-all, the setup was straight-forward. If you don't have Dropbox yet, go ahead and install, you…
This is a followup to a post from GeekWire, entitled "How do we make the Seattle startup ecosystem stronger?" First, let me tell you why I care. I moved to Seattle about 10 months ago to work on my own startup. No, I didn't just quit Microsoft and I didn't…
John is the owner of the Canal Street Coffee. He is sixty-six years old, and he spent most of his life being an employee. After years of working in blue collar jobs, John finally opened this cafe 5 years ago. First time in his life he was at the top…
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about Education. Some people say it good, some say it's bad, and neither side is right or wrong. At the end of the day it is obvious that education is a good thing overall, but the way it is done now might…