Other on Rietta Cybersecurity

Restoring Old Software for Child Learning Safety

Wed, 08 May 2024 10:00:00 -0500

We live in a day where web applications and apps have become the mainstream. These bring many conveniences, such as inter-connectivity with multiple devices, and backups of personal data. It also brings many issues like risk of data theft, loss of software access when the publisher ceases operations, and the risks of cyber-bullying for school-aged children. There are more issues to consider, but these will suffice to set the scene.

Why Rietta Appreciates Diversity

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 18:30:00 -0500

As a company, Rietta likes ideas, products, services, procedures and practices that have been shown to be effective at making us better at security, stronger developers, and more efficient at delivering quality services. We like industry best-practices. We have an appreciation of evidence-based peer-reviewed studies, and like many organizations, we allow quality studies and information inform our policies and procedures. This helps us to serve our clients’ needs with excellence, and to help us to continually improve and evolve.

Brad Cox has died

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 10:50:00 -0500

Dr. Brad J. Cox Ph.D., influential computer scientist has died. Among his many accomplishments was the co-invention of the Objective C programming language with Tom Love. This was one of the early object oriented programming languages. Objective-C was a groundbreaking mainstream object oriented programming language that was influenced by Smalltalk. His work paved the way for concepts and languages that have become mainstream, including in programming languages Ruby, Java, and Swift.

Leading a Distributed Team with Productive

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 11:00:00 -0500

As a distributed agency, we’ve had to innovate ways to make sure everyone is working on the highest priority tasks, and budgeted each client’s priorities separately across more applications than we have people. This is not easy to do with traditional time tracking/invoicing and Agile project board tooling. The best tool we’ve found so far is productive.io. We’ve been using them for three years and watched first hand as the platform has matured.

Harvest vs. Productive.io

Fri, 15 Jun 2018 22:00:00 -0500

Choosing a time tracking and invoicing solution can be tricky. There are a lot of different options and the best solution for your company might differ from other companies. This article compares and contrasts Harvest and Productive as of June 2018.

Southeast Ruby Conference Recap

Sat, 07 Oct 2017 14:00:00 -0500

On the behalf of the entire Rietta team, I would like to give a huge shout out to Jason Charnes (@jmcharnes) for hosting the South East Ruby Conf in Nashville, TN this week. I was pleased to meet many members of the Ruby On Rails Link Slack Group.

Each and every talk was fantastic, I’d like to go into depth with a few highlights for anybody that was unable to participate in this conference.

The first real investor meeting post investment

Wed, 17 Jun 2015 09:44:43 -0400

A client recently shared Gordon Daugherty’s article on Your First Board Meeting. The gist is that when you first start your C Corporation with the intention of raising investment, the first board meetings are not really meetings at all. Just the co-founders signing some paperwork. But once investment is brought on, the lead investor is going to have a board seat and things become formal. It is sound advice to keep in mind if you see yourself raising capital for your startup company.

Issue #6: February, 2014, Web Application Topics Newsletter

Tue, 18 Feb 2014 07:31:00 -0500

In this issue

Get and compare the current Git branch in BASH
New book of the month
- Don’t Make Me Think, 3rd Edition
In the news
- PaperClip (Ruby on Rails) Insecure Defaults
- Yahoo user accounts compromised through third party database breach
- Buffer database compromised through compromise of MongoHQ support credentials

We Won a Hackathon with Scriptive! The Programmers' Perspective.

Thu, 14 Nov 2013 19:38:00 -0400

Brandon Dees and I travelled to Austin, Texas, to compete in the Code for the Kingdom Hackathon, a Christian-ministry related event that was held at the Acton School of Business. We joined the super talented Charles Roach, the founder of Scriptive, a non-profit organization, to compete in the 48 hour startup/programming competition. Our mission was to code something that will impact the Kingdom for Christ through new technology. Brandon has agreed to help co-author this post so that you can read both his and my perspective on what it was like to be a developer at the hackathon.

What is a Maintained Post?

Fri, 27 Sep 2013 13:49:00 +0000

Last Updated on October 6, 2013, to add that for a listing of all currently maintained posts, please see the list of maintained posts. I just updated the Best Data Types for Currency/Money in MySQL post, which first appeared on this blog on March 3, 2013. You may wonder why I would update a blog post that has already been published. It’s because every single blog post is a landing page.

The Dvorak Keyboard with the Mouse on the Left-hand side

Thu, 26 Sep 2013 18:41:00 +0000

I’m nearly a month into my transition to the Dvorak keyboard layout. I am typing at a very sustainable speed so this has not slowed down my work. For me, it is significantly more comfortable than typing QWERTY for 8-12 hours per day. One of the interesting aspects of this keyboard layout is that the Z, C, and V have moved from the left to the right-hand side of the keyboard.

Seth Godin shared that the way to success is trust on Dave Ramsey's podcast

Wed, 25 Sep 2013 22:32:00 +0000

While driving to a friend’s birthday party and back tonight, I discovered that Seth Godin had recently appeared on Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership podcast (XML Podcast Feed). The EntreLeadership podcast is an excellent show that is on small list of shows that I follow on a regular basis. The interview was a lot of fun. If you are a software startup owner, or thinking about being one someday, go listen to it now to the September 10th, 2013, Interview with Seth Godin by Dave Ramsey.

Is the Colemak or Dvorak keyboard layout best for you?

Fri, 20 Sep 2013 10:16:00 +0000

Are you holding yourself back or possibly harming your health by typing on the QWERTY keyboard? In many ways, it is a standard just because it was used by our parents and their parents before them. In fact, QWERTY has not changed in the 140 years since 1873! If you want to know where you personally stand, head over to the Keyboard Layout Analyzer and paste a sample of the content that you write on a regular basis.

Happy Father's Day

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I want to wish a happy fathers day to all of you dads out there! And for those of you doing startups, I just want to share a video by Steve Blank, the father of the Lean Startup Movement, on how to make startups fail less.

Atlanta Code Retreat on July 28th

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Jonathan Wallace with Highgroove Studios just announced the Atlanta Code Retreat on July 28th from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM (that's a Saturday). Learn more here: http://coderetreat.org/aboutSign up here: http://atlantacoderetreat-20120728.eventbrite.com/ Spaces are limited so sign up sooner than later. Registration is $10, but you are refunded after you actually show up for the retreat. It will be held at the wonderful new office space for Highgroove Studios at: 112 Krog St NE

Startup Riot 2012 is done; congratulations to the winners

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Startup Riot 2012 at the Tabernacle in Atlanta was enjoyable and informative. Anytime you get that many entrepreneurs and investors together in one place, good things will happen. The conversations alone are well worth the price of admission. Congratulations to the winners: ViaCycleSalesLoftDriver.lyThree minute pitches in front of a live audience and a panel of celebrity judges are tough. You all stuck your necks out in a big way and came home with the prize.

iPhone + Mobile Camp Birmingham

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The iPhone + Mobile Camp Birmingham on December 12 was a lot of fun. Brian and Andria of Appsolute Genius did a great job putting together the event. There were good sessions on both the technical and business aspects of building apps. Brian and I lead a discussion about some of the business and legal considerations of working with the iTunes App Store.

Basics of iPhone Development @ SIEGE 2009

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I am really looking forward to SIEGE 2009 in Atlanta. I will be participating in the panel session on the Basics of iPhone Development on Friday, October 2.

Authentication Without Encryption for Ham Radio

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In April 2004, I gave a talk for the Atlanta Radio Club about the possibilities for authenticated digital communication for amateur radio applications. I published the document on my Georgia Tech website at that time. Since I no longer have an account at Georgia Tech, I am re-posting the document here. Authenticating on a Ham Internet The FCC regulations for amateur radio, part 97, rule that encryption cannot be used to obscure the meaning of communications.

Startup Professionals Musings: Startups: Top 10 Funding Sources

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Martin Zwilling posted a summary of the Top 10 Funding Sources for startup companies. I personally funded my current company with the proceeds of the sale of a previous business and lots and lots of sweat equity. While Mr. Zwilling mentions bartering services for equity, it is also quite possible to barter services for a profit sharing arrangement with the people who help with a particular project. This way the company equity remains with the founders and yet those who take the risk to invest in one or more projects can be rewarded for their time investment once that project takes off in the marketplace.

Software Marketing Metrics

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

In software marketing, it is important to change one thing at a time and measure the results. Continual iterative improvement is the best way to achieve long term, measurable, results. So what are conversion ratios? Conversion ratios are simply tools to measure how effectively your product is being sold. They can often be easily computed directly from your web logs. The Overall Conversion Ratio, the Download Conversion Ratio, and the Trial Conversion Ratio are particularly useful, and easy to calculate, for those selling software on the internet.

Happy Copyright Notice Update Day!

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Today, New Year’s Day, is the first day on the Gregorian calendar. It is also the perfect opportunity to update those various copyright notices. Therefore, I like to call today Copyright Notice Update Day. Comments< Jimmy M. Espana Pretty funny Frank ;) Take care, JME

Support Does Not Scale. Customer Service Does.

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Patrick McKenzie posted a fabulous article on how customer service scales. It is an excellent article to help small business owners think about how small things are important in customer service communications. On a slightly unrelated note, it is a big mistake for most companies to outsource customer service. Customer facing processes, particularly customer service, are sources of business intelligence on customers’ needs and frustrations. Great pause must be taken when considering outsourcing or ignoring vital customer processes.

Extend Firefox: Your Guide to Writing Firefox Extensions

Wed, 09 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

After three weeks of work, the first draft of Extend Firefox is complete and available on this website. This document explores the process for creating an extension for Firefox 1.5. The topics covered include adding a button to the status bar, adding a menu item, adding a preference pane. The tutorial goes in depth, with copious code samples, how to actually do something with the buttons once they are added. The sample code is all from program called Home Page Scheduler that was developed for this tutorial.

WinZIP sold and needs technical improvements.

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Henk on sharewareblogs.com is reporting that WinZIP has been sold to Vector Capital, which is the company that owns Corel, JASC, and Real Networks. I hope Nico Mak and company received the appropriate compensation for their years of work. Only time will tell if the new owners do more than just change some icons and increase the price for the WinZIP software. I hope they improve the performance on B2ZIP and GZIP compressed TAR files so that decompression can go on-the-fly.

Re: David Bartosik: Why Robots.txt by Matt Benya

Sat, 07 May 2005 10:00:00 -0500

I came across a blog article, David Bartosik: Why Robots.txt by Matt Benya (Archive.org Link), which happens to mention RoboGen, a program for editing robots.txt files that I wrote nearly six years ago! I do enjoy finding references to my previous work. Mr. Benya’s explanation on of the robots.txt file reminds me of a situation I came across a few weeks ago. I had logged into one of the web servers and noticed the system was not responding as snappily as usual.