August 2011
2 posts
Skype Enables Video on More Android Smartphones
IDG News Service — Skype has released version 2.1 of its application for Android, which allows more smartphones and tablets based on Google’s (GOOG) operating system to use its video calling feature, it said in a blog post on Thursday.
The company published a list of 17 devices that can now make video calls, including the HTC Desire, HTC Thunderbolt, Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Galaxy Tab...
July 2011
10 posts
How to Track a QR Code in Google Analytics
This post is for those that are already familiar with what QR codes are. However, to quickly touch on the exactly what it is… it’s a two-dimensional bar code. QR means “Quick Response”. The code allows its contents to be decoded by devices like mobile phones that can scan and then quickly open website links right on the phone automatically.
So… You have created your QR code, but you don’t...
The Critical Importance of Web Usability Before,...
In the past two years, Eye Street has had the opportunity to conduct user research with disaster survivors in Galveston, Atlanta, Nashville, Chicago and Raleigh. We’ve conducted user research with disaster managers at conferences in Orlando, San Antonio, Toronto and also with those interested in disaster preparedness through multiple studies in the Washington DC area.
Eye Street will recreate...
Evangelizing Usability: Training Those Who Create...
Back in 2009, a government client asked Eye Street for a series of “lunch and learn” sessions for those who create disaster-related Web sites for survivors, disaster managers and the general public. She proposed that we come up with a number of short usability-oriented topics, and perhaps offer one per month. This smaller idea snowballed into a total of eight topics centered around usability that...
ShortSwitch ~ Your URL shrinky generator...
Why ShortSwitch?
Brand Your Short URLs With Our White Label Service
We are a custom URL shortening service that allows you to use your own domain or subdomain . Your users will know they are clicking on trustworthy links because it’s your domain. Only your authorized users can create links on your short URL service. Your domain will show up in the tweets rather than someone elses...
Google+ iPhone App: 5 Things You Need to Know
CIO — Almost a month after Google (GOOG) announced its new social network, the Google+ iPhone app is finally available in the iTunes App Store. Those who downloaded the app Tuesday when it first went live complained of a litany of bugs. Google has since released an update, fixing many of the errors.
“Rodeo is a new tool for building websites into apps. Similar to something like...”
– Minimal Mac: Rodeo App Maker - Capture Your Web Workflow in an App You Can Share!
solr + autotest = continuously running tests
You just implemented solr on your Rails app. You’re happy as a jaybird. Later you make some change that causes a test to fail. Autotest prints out the failed test and then…runs again? And again and again and again….
Just tell me how to fix it
Add “solr” to your .autotest file’s exceptions. Don’t have one? Here’s what it’ll look...
NIEM – A Practical Use Case
If you work with the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) as well as with other standards, you often run into issues related to how your overall work should incorporate (or not incorporate) NIEM. The rules for NIEM allow you to use recognized external standards independently. FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) does this with it implementation of the Common...
Plain Language and Respectable Web Writing
The Plain Writing Act of 2010 requires federal agencies to write, “Clear government communication that the public can understand and use.” This aligns perfectly with good web writing. With the upcoming July 13, 2011 deadline for the first round of improvements, it’s a good time to address my favorite federal web writing, “Bad Habit.”
First, let’s go through the Act.
The July 13...
:accepts_nested_attributes_for with Polymorphic...
Wheew… what a title… kinda dry, very geeky, but if you landed here, hopefully this will help. This blog documents some of the code wrangling that we did for a recent app, VRCompliance. I needed to have the ability to create multiple phone numbers when inputting either addresses or people in our system. It seemed like a great time to use models with with the :accepts_nested_attributes_for...
June 2011
1 post
Customer Service – the Art of Not Saying No
Eye Street Solutions has a strong commitment to customer service. Some people may think about customer service in terms of retail returns or IT help desk support, but it’s a key factor in content management, especially if the clients you serve aren’t web content professionals.
The team at Eye Street interacts with hundreds of different clients across a large federal agency. All are subject...
May 2011
1 post
SpeedTouch v1.2
speedtouchapp:
A new release of SpeedTouch is now available in the App Store.
What’s New in Version 1.2
Added ability to create FaceTime shortcuts.
Fixed issue with international numbers. Grazie Francesco!
Fixed issue with shortcut title.
Added high resolution shortcut icons.
April 2011
1 post
1 tag
Polishing Objective-C: Pulling Up into Categories
Objective-C with Cocoa does a lot for you, but if you are used to other languages and frameworks, you’ll quickly pine for the convenience methods that are missing. Lets say that you need to trim whitespace from strings. In Java, you can trim the whitespace from a String object like this:
String trimmedString = myString.trim();
No simple trim method exists in the Objective-C NSString...
March 2011
1 post
Veporter - Shoot. Splice. Style. Submit.
Introducing Veporter, an iPhone app that allows you to create a video to submit directly to your organization’s content management (ECM/WCM) system. Turn your users or employees into reporters! Users can import videos and photos from the iPhone’s cameras and albums, arrange them as desired with a simple crossfade, and upload the video to YouTube or a demonstration enterprise...
November 2010
2 posts
Internet Explorer Cookies Bug
As a white labeling URL shortener, ShortSwitch.com needs to be able to support logins from not only our own domain but a user’s account domain as well. One of our customers opened a ticket to inform us that some of his customers - namely those using Internet Explorer - were having problems logging in.
At the time we were setting the browser cookie to be .domain (e.g., .ab.cd, .abc.com) per...
ShortSwitch: New Features - Allow duplicate URLs,... →
We have had a flurry of recent activity on ShortSwitch. Check out some of the new features.
shortswitch:
We have recently rolled out a number of new features that we’re pretty excited about.
When ShortSwitch was originally released there was a desire to only allow a given long URL to be shortened once and any subsequent shortenings of that long URL would return the existing token. Our users...
September 2010
1 post
RetireHQ Status: Public Participation →
We’ve added a number of new features to RetireHQ/PayStubHQ over the past few weeks.
retirehq:
Tired of emailing your plan administrator to get your addressed fixed? Tired of receiving emails all day to fix the spelling of your participants’ son’s middle name? The PaystubHQ staff is very happy to tell all of you you will no longer have to do either of these. We have opened logins to...
August 2010
1 post
Additional Features To Maintain Your Brand
Here are some recent changes from our ShortSwitch product.
shortswitch:
We recently had a request to allow the root URL of your white-labeled domains to be redirected to another location, instead of the ShortSwitch homepage. Seemed like a great idea, so we added the feature. Now if someone sees your pithy short domain, and either strips the token or enters an invalid token, you can have them...
October 2009
1 post
An Irrational App Store Rejection: UPDATE!
UPDATE! (It’s IN)
After watching Steve Jobs’ iOS4/iPhone4 keynote from WWDC, I was moved to try once again. I sent an email to Apple, and received a timely and personal response from Phillip Shoemaker suggesting that I resubmit the application and keep him posted. We refined a few things and added a feature and a target (iPad), then resubmitted. It is now, happily, available in the App Store....