Web Designers and Developers: Are We Too Sedentary?

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A recent study by James Levine, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., has uncovered some fascinating facts about how severely inactivity affects us. As it turns out, going to the gym, and exercising in general, may not be enough to overcome sitting in front of a monitor all day. From the New […]

Creating a Fun Place to Work (and Play)

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We’ve all been there. Stuck in a job we hate. Listening to the minutes tick by like days while we stare out the window. Wishing we were anywhere but here. A bad work experience can be demoralizing and dehumanizing. It can turn the most ambitious of us into a withered trunk of a person. So […]

Web-based Application Database Design and Infrastructure

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In my experience as a web developer at Pelago I’ve helped develop several web-based applications that required more than just an out-of-the box database configuration. While 99% of the online apps we’ve built can get by on a MySQL or PostgreSQL database with little to no configuration, the few that do require optimizations will certainly […]

Time Tracking at “Terminal” Velocity Using Node.js

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Take a look at what one of our customers was able to cook up using node.js and the Intervals time tracking API. It’s a command line interface to time tracking. For those of us who spend a lot of their time in terminal clients, a command line method for adding time to our Intervals account […]

Netbook Linux Distros for Web Designers and Developers

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A review of various Linux distros running on the Asus 901 eeePC. Us web designers and developers have grown accustomed to working with Linux on development and production servers. Most of the web sites and web-based applications we build run on some flavor of Linux. Whether it’s PHP, Python, or Rails, Linux is serving it […]

Facebook is Going to Snuff Out Your Social Network

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I’m an old school web designer and developer. I’ve been trolling around on the Internet since my freshman year of college in 1993. Back then, it was all dial-up and text-based interfaces (Gopher, IRC, Lynx). As we all know, the Internet exploded from there. And although I still consider myself old school, I do keep […]

SXSW Interactive 2011 Highlights

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We’re back from another week of SXSW Interactive. Another week of non stop panels, eating our meals from food trucks, street vendors and overcrowded restaurants, and what little sleep we could grab back at the hotel. The festival itself was an opportunity to hear the latest on everything from web design and development to technology […]

Cycloc Bike Rack Design for the Cycling Designer

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Let’s face it, bikes are pretty cool right now. Fixed gear bicycles can be spotted on every street corner and city commuter style bikes are hot sellers at any local bike shop. And it’s not just the rise in gas prices driving sales. Bike companies, like Linus, Civia, and Jamis, are designing some sweet looking […]