Squad Blog

Stuff White People Like

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Last week I came across a very funny and interesting satire blog stuffwhitepeoplelike.com. Here is a complete list of topics already covered, such as Indie Music, Frisbee Sports, Shorts, Bottles of Water and Recycling (My personal favorite). The author of the site published a book on this subject already.

Check it out and have a laugh

UW Extension: APPROVED!

Phil Tapia — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

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Just today Jordan and I learned we have been accepted into the Ruby Programming Certificate program at the University of Washington! After previously being denied our applications were reviewed again and the instructor chose to admit us based on our technical background and experience.

So excited for this!

Tapping Into The Awesomeness

SoAwesomeMan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

In fact, I’m that’s what I’m naming my next Yacht (once the Awesomeville™ marketing deal goes through, or when I get back to Planet Awesome):

Espresso. Mac web development, now more productive than caffeine … Your cup of coffee has been the thing that gets you out of bed, the smell of creativity, the taste that makes your day. Soon, Espresso will deliver something better than a caffeine boost. Coming soon to a Mac near you! —MacRabbit.com

Even though I’ve been cutting down on my GUI intake, trying to get to slim enough for the party on the metal (the bottom layers of the TCP/IP stack where the action is), I still use CSSEdit frequently, because it saves me a lot of time when I step out of Vim back into the GUI-candyland called Leopard for design work.

Because this is an app coming from the creator of CSSEdit, MacRabbit, I have to buy it and try it on GP, plus I’m very impressed with MacRabbit’s awesome swagger. Have a look at their catch phrases, and you’ll see why I’m going to issue them an Awesome Certificate™: macrabbit.com/espresso I’ve highlighted my new favorite catch-phrase on a screenshot I uploaded to my flickr awesome-stream:

UW Extension: DENIED!

Phil Tapia — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

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Towards the end of August Jordan and I applied for the Ruby Programming Certificate program at the University of Washington.

Unfortunately this week we learned that we were not going to be accepted into the program. The reason was because we didn’t have proficiency in an object oriented programming language. They don’t count scripting languages.. we were told they are looking for experience in a high level programming language such as C++ or Java.

We’ve been communicating with the program director and hope to still be admitted into the program. If this doesn’t work out, I’m planning on doing the Free Online Ruby on Rails Course offered by BuildingWebApps.com

I’ll let you know if we end up getting in.. I sure hope we do!

$100 Box Spring

Andrew Kelly — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Last weekend, I took a trip with my brother and some friends to Portland where I shot this polaroid of my brother outside a mattress shop. I just got my hands on some Spectra film and have had really good results which is bittersweet since polaroid has discontinued its film. I don’t like the flash on this camera and have had the best results without it. Also, I’ve heard some spectra cameras can make multiple exposures which I’m anxious to try.

Viral Marketing

Brandon Herbel — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve noticed over the last few years that a lot of record labels have started to use the internet for viral marketing as a way to promote their artists. In an era where music can be downloaded at the push of a button this seems to be a great way to keep fans interested and coming back for more.

Fall Out Boy have done a perfect example of this by creating buzz around something called Citizens for Our Betterment that later turned out to be a very thought out scavenger hunt for fans as a way to promote their new album “Folie A Deux”.

Copeland is another band that recently used this strategy by making websites that looked similar to commonly visited sites like Absolutepunk.net but were actually a website promoting their new album.

I’m excited to see where record labels and other companies take this form of promotion in the coming years. Check out what happens when you type in myspace.com wrong.

New to Glue? Here's some help.

Jordan Dobson — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:59:00 +0000

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We release about 50 new accounts weekly on Glue, our simple web & mobile content publishing tool and while we’ve strived to make Glue simple, there’s always a learning curve with new tools.

Here’s some topics to help you get started!

Glue Help Blog Topics

I’ll add to the list over time, so keep checking back. You can also ask questions on our forum and follow us on Twitter for status updates and more.

Have a request for a detailed help topic? I’d gladly put it together for you, just email me at info@gluenow.com with your request.

Tell It To The Volcano

Aaron Bellone — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Be prepared for the latest MerchSquad store. The band Miniature Tigers just signed up and the store launches next week!

The sound coming from this trio has been described as a mix of Pinkerton-era Weezer, Ben Kweller, and the Beach Boys. There’s a ton of good reviews on these guys so check them out! The store launches with a Limited Edition CD of their debut full length, Tell it to the Volcano. The Limited edition of 1000 copies, each individually number-stamped comes boxed in an Arigato-Pak, printed on a 150-year-old letterpress!

How to setup svnX and use Subversion in OS X

Brian Harper — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Steps

Install a Subversion client. I used the compiled DMG from Martin Ott.
Install svnX
Start svnX and you should see two windows, Working Copies and Repositories. Enter you login information and location for your Subversion server under the repositories window and double click it in the list to launch.
Once it has opened, click on the main directory for the files you wish to edit and click the svn checkout button on top.
This will bring up a window where you can select the place to export the latest repository.
Now in your Working copies add in the location of that latest repository on your computer and open it.
A window should open a working copy of the latest repository, I turn off “Flat Mode” & “Smart Mode” when I am working.
You should be able to do all the normal SVN functions from here.

Guess-the-google

Brian Harper — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I found an entertaining game that everyone should check out. Guess-the-google is a simple flash game that reads in photos from images.google.com based on a search term you have to guess. What I like about this game is how it shows how user friendly companies can get free advertising. With Google’s attitude of allowing people to use their backends (APIs) to build other web applications. They not only created a following of supporters but a group of people that are basically performing free advertisements all over the internet, like this game.