http://techblog.rga.comHistorical articles recovered from Internet Archive; no new posts.http://techblog.rga.com/sxsw-2016-voting-is-open/The 2016 SXSW PanelPicker is now open for public voting, and multiple R/GAers have submitted their ideas which showcase their expertise. Check out this year’s topics and let the voting commence! *Please note that you will need to create an account in order to vote, but it only takes a second. Kate Rush Sheehy (R/GA […]http://techblog.rga.com/sxsw-2016-voting-is-open/http://techblog.rga.com/the-cap-theorem-in-real-life/The CAP theorem, also known as Brewer’s theorem, states that it is impossible for a distributed computer system to simultaneously provide all three of the following guarantees: Consistency Availability Partition tolerance Consistency means that all nodes see the same information at the same time, which implies that when a piece of information is written to […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-cap-theorem-in-real-life/http://techblog.rga.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-smoke-testing/Every project is unique. However, many projects share common features such as: page loads, some type of content, functionality, URL redirect, frequent use, etc. This familiar structure makes it relatively easy to design a Smoke suite, which includes test cases addressing the most critical functionality. A basic Smoke suite, applied to any project, can include: […]http://techblog.rga.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-smoke-testing/http://techblog.rga.com/3-secrets-to-building-billion-dollar-apps/1. When it comes to developing mobile applications, no design method is easier or more cost-effective than paper-based prototyping. When you’re working with paper, you’re free to make conceptual modifications to your design without suffering the economic burden traditionally associated with app development. Paper-based prototyping lends you the economic flexibility to pivot, or change directions, […]http://techblog.rga.com/3-secrets-to-building-billion-dollar-apps/http://techblog.rga.com/quality-assurance-fails-when-coca-cola-tweets-excerpt-from-mein-kampf/Coke received a lot of flack when their #MakeItHappy Campaign inadvertently tweeted an excerpt from Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” Coke ultimately terminated the campaign, but not before Gawker cashed in on the prank. As Quality Assurance at R/GA, we challenge ourselves through out-of-the-box thinking to learn from mistakes, even when they are not our own. If […]http://techblog.rga.com/quality-assurance-fails-when-coca-cola-tweets-excerpt-from-mein-kampf/http://techblog.rga.com/2015-is-the-year-beacons-breaththrough/2015 is predicted to be a big year for beacons, with some analysts suggesting that beacons could influence up to 7% of sales at US retail stores operated by the top 100 retailers this year. The Apple-owned iBeacon standard is the current market leader, with beacon suppliers like Estimote now established as approved hardware manufacturers, and […]http://techblog.rga.com/2015-is-the-year-beacons-breaththrough/http://techblog.rga.com/rga-sxsw-2015/SXSW is quickly approaching and we’re pleased to announce a host of panels and workshops featuring R/GA employees. Mark your calendars and come check out our sessions – we’d love to see you there!   Saturday, March 14 Title: Adv. Brand and Marketing for Early Stage Companies Who: Paul Dery, Executive Creative Director (R/GA Austin) […]http://techblog.rga.com/rga-sxsw-2015/http://techblog.rga.com/iotbue-workshop/Recently the Buenos Aires Internet of Things (IoTBue) Meetup held a workshop to train developers on IoT development from scratch.  This workshop was hosted by developers from R/GA, Patagonia Technology and Cran.io. The goal was simple: build a Nest thermostat clone in 6 hours.  We split the exercise into 3 phases.  We established communications with the sensors, then added a […]http://techblog.rga.com/iotbue-workshop/http://techblog.rga.com/google-outside-a-story-telling-platform/We recently launched the second iteration of the Google Outside DOOH Campaign in London, showcasing the best of Google’s Search App (GSA) mobile application. Our challenge was to bring contextually-aware stories to hundreds of digital screens around the city, and provide a unique and relevant experience to each and every location. This had never been […]http://techblog.rga.com/google-outside-a-story-telling-platform/http://techblog.rga.com/building-heinekens-open-your-city-platform/R/GA London recently launched @wherenext (http://openyourcity.heineken.com), aimed at providing venue recommendations based on social media activity, via a tweet response and web app.  The app shows the five hottest venues and a heat-map of activity in the user’s vicinity.  During the discovery phase, we were surprised to find that nobody was successfully cross-referencing genuinely real-time […]http://techblog.rga.com/building-heinekens-open-your-city-platform/http://techblog.rga.com/hacking-lumi-deco-nails/On my last trip to Tokyo, I picked up a set of tiny nail stickers called Lumi Deco Nails, released by a Japanese toy company called Takara Tomy Arts in April of 2014. They’re touted as the world’s first nail stickers with embedded LEDs that glow near NFC enabled mobile devices.  Best part – no batteries required. […]http://techblog.rga.com/hacking-lumi-deco-nails/http://techblog.rga.com/lets-ship-a-speculative-lesson-learned-from-the-ios-8-01-launch/iOS 8.0.1 was not a big success. It was released about a week after iOS 8.0 officially launched. The build’s goal was to fix a few bugs, but instead, 8.0.1 turned into a debacle that will cost Apple time and money.  Worse yet, it’s bound to lower people’s lofty perception of Apple’s commitment to quality. […]http://techblog.rga.com/lets-ship-a-speculative-lesson-learned-from-the-ios-8-01-launch/http://techblog.rga.com/data-driven-automated-testing/There are times in software testing when you have a lot scenarios or features to validate but not a lot of time for testing.  This may also involve running the same tests repeatedly over a period of time.  In cases like this, I recommend using a method of test automation known as data driven testing. For example, […]http://techblog.rga.com/data-driven-automated-testing/http://techblog.rga.com/building-the-nike-10k-registration-for-scale/A few months ago we launched a registration site for the Nike 10k race in Buenos Aires.  Keeping the site performing while under load was a major concern for the client, so we carefully considered the site’s architecture. Ultimately we mixed and matched best-of-breed tools to create a solid infrastructure.  Our backend consisted of: AWS, with a Elastic […]http://techblog.rga.com/building-the-nike-10k-registration-for-scale/http://techblog.rga.com/tech-journalism-hackhackers-media-party-buenos-aires/We recently took part in the 3rd annual HackHackers Media Party in Buenos Aires, an event that combines Technology with journalists from all around the world. The goal was to share, learn, and create new ways to consume and produce media.  We were mesmerized by some of the trends in this space, from how to […]http://techblog.rga.com/tech-journalism-hackhackers-media-party-buenos-aires/http://techblog.rga.com/the-rebirth-of-webcam-apps/The release of the first commercial webcam in the mid ’90s (the Logitech QuickCam) sparked a flurry of interactive webcam applications that continues to this day.  Apps have ranged from mini-games to creative visual filters to video recording to rudimentary motion tracking. Over the last decade the webcam went from being a specialized peripheral to a […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-rebirth-of-webcam-apps/http://techblog.rga.com/determining-indoor-position-using-ibeacon/iBeacon provides a convenient solution for indoor proximity detection. Integrated within Apple’s Core Location framework, it supports the following modes: Monitoring – detects if the user is inside predefined region, covered by one or multiple beacons with the same identifier. Ranging – determines how far the user is from a beacon, providing output such as proximity (e.g. […]http://techblog.rga.com/determining-indoor-position-using-ibeacon/http://techblog.rga.com/7-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-ibeacons/Last year Apple announced iBeacons at the WWDC conference in June, and while most people know what it is, most have the wrong idea of what iBeacons can really do. You can also read the two earlier posts about iBeacons: part 1 and part 2 to learn more. My team and I decided to build […]http://techblog.rga.com/7-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-ibeacons/http://techblog.rga.com/cast-your-vote-for-rga-panels-at-sxsw-2/The 2015 SXSW PanelPicker is now open for public voting, and multiple R/GAers have submitted presentation proposals. We’ve compiled a list of the proposals below. We hope you will be inspired to vote! Click through the links to find out more information about each topic: Sue Davidson & Piedad Rodriguez – Don’t Let Your Great […]http://techblog.rga.com/cast-your-vote-for-rga-panels-at-sxsw-2/http://techblog.rga.com/three-tips-for-choosing-the-right-saas-to-build-on/Recently Springpad, a well-adopted service that provided a visual way to clip, save, and organize content and lists online shut down. It was quite sudden, quite disappointing, but also quite confusing. Springpad started in 2008, raised over $7MM in funding, had some great reviews and loyal users, was rich with relevant features, and had so much […]http://techblog.rga.com/three-tips-for-choosing-the-right-saas-to-build-on/http://techblog.rga.com/math-driven-css/As recently as a few years ago front-end developers had to rely solely on images, JavaScript, or Flash when trying to build complex layout components and animations. Fortunately things have changed.  The W3C’s new standard was thankfully broadly adopted, leading to a big step in a front-end developer’s capabilities. Difficult problems we once faced can now […]http://techblog.rga.com/math-driven-css/http://techblog.rga.com/tips-for-selenium-testing-newbies/I recently became very interested in test automation. I had worked with some tools like Selenium IDE (Firefox) or JMeter previously, but not extensively.  Although automation requires some programming experience, I didn’t let myself become intimidated by the challenge. When my first opportunity to automate testing presented itself I first had to select the right tool […]http://techblog.rga.com/tips-for-selenium-testing-newbies/http://techblog.rga.com/combining-btle-and-spritekit-for-alvios-ipad-game/Alvio by Qol Devices is one of 10 companies from the first R/GA Connected Devices Accelerator. Their breathing training system combines an iPad with a breath-powered Bluetooth controller to help kids with respiratory challenges such as asthma.  This platform makes breathing therapy fun for kids by gamifying what was previously a tiresome process for both parent and child. A myriad of […]http://techblog.rga.com/combining-btle-and-spritekit-for-alvios-ipad-game/http://techblog.rga.com/dr-wolframs-magic-language/I got my first PC somewhere around 1985. It was a Tandy 1000. Almost immediately, my father taught me the basics of DOS batch scripting. One of the first things he said to me was: “If the computer doesn’t do what you expect, it’s your fault. It can only do exactly what you tell it […]http://techblog.rga.com/dr-wolframs-magic-language/http://techblog.rga.com/5-tips-for-getting-the-most-out-of-your-baas/I recently launched an iOS app called 2by2.  The app allows users to combine digital artwork to create new “double exposure” art, which users can share or combine again. I decided to use Parse for the backend since it provides time-savers like social login, push notifications and data storage out of the box.  The infrastructure handles security and scaling […]http://techblog.rga.com/5-tips-for-getting-the-most-out-of-your-baas/http://techblog.rga.com/in-hindsight-swift-was-obvious/“It is easy to be wise after the event.” ― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes The announcement of Swift at Apple’s WWDC 2014 conference with met with enthusiasm but also surprise, as despite the no doubt lengthy gestation period the language had remained a secret until the announcement. While it might seems strange (and even exasperating) […]http://techblog.rga.com/in-hindsight-swift-was-obvious/http://techblog.rga.com/ba-hackathon-2014-looking-at-the-big-picture/Revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new technologies – it happens when society adopts new behaviors. Clay Shirky As part of a campaign promoting open government and innovation, Buenos Aires City Hall hosts an annual hackathon bringing together tech, design, and government in search of real solutions to real problems. Last year R/GA Buenos Aires participated […]http://techblog.rga.com/ba-hackathon-2014-looking-at-the-big-picture/http://techblog.rga.com/quality-cant-be-emulated-imitated-or-simulated/Testers find bugs. Finding bugs is one of the main goals for someone in QA. We strive to achieve a high quality product by finding bugs and issues before launch. It’s not exactly how W. Edwards Deming described it, but it is the way that software development works for the most part in fast paced […]http://techblog.rga.com/quality-cant-be-emulated-imitated-or-simulated/http://techblog.rga.com/mesh-networks-in-ios7/One of the more interesting features to be released as a part of iOS7 was the Multipeer Connectivity framework. The framework allows for the creation of mesh networks through communication between multiple devices in close proximity without having to be connected via traditional wifi. The framework supports connectivity using Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), infrastructure wifi […]http://techblog.rga.com/mesh-networks-in-ios7/http://techblog.rga.com/three-tips-for-successful-retail-installations/During my short thirteen years at R/GA, I have been a part of numerous projects in retail, events and branded spaces. In addition to software testing, these projects often include hardware, OS and networking configurations specific to the space. From a development and testing perspective, there are three important requisites for a successful retail project: […]http://techblog.rga.com/three-tips-for-successful-retail-installations/http://techblog.rga.com/six-questions-to-ask-a-product-development-team-in-trouble/We’ve all been a part of it.  A disorganized project with unrealistic deadlines and an indecisive client.  How can we turn this situation into a positive outcome that enables us to move forward? To get the conversation started, get the internal team in a room and start with these six questions: 1. What has been […]http://techblog.rga.com/six-questions-to-ask-a-product-development-team-in-trouble/http://techblog.rga.com/can-qa-defy-the-law-of-the-iron-triangle/The standard project management iron triangle consists of three points: “on time” (fast), “on budget” (cost-effective) and “of high quality” (functions as expected).  Conventional wisdom says that you can pick two but cannot have all three. In reality, for a project to succeed, the three points need to be balanced. This high wire act is one of the […]http://techblog.rga.com/can-qa-defy-the-law-of-the-iron-triangle/http://techblog.rga.com/the-automation-misconception-should-you-really-automate-your-testing/“Let’s automate!”  is a newly popular rallying cry from technology companies.  “Looking for a QA manager who will transform our manual process into a 95% automated process!” teases a job listing for a role at a technology company. Many companies see automation as a “quick fix” for testing.  Not so fast. These statements imply manual and automated testing are […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-automation-misconception-should-you-really-automate-your-testing/http://techblog.rga.com/the-new-breed-of-qa/During a recent meeting an R/GA Technical Director referred to one of our senior testers as part of “a new breed of QA.”  I found it  interesting given that this particular tester had been at R/GA for almost ten years.  This immediately introduced the possibility that the new breed is actually a rare mutation and […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-new-breed-of-qa/http://techblog.rga.com/three-tips-for-improved-online-account-security/The recent meltdown of Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox and the potential threat of leaked personal information motivated me to update security settings for my key online accounts.  Throw in some free credit monitoring thanks to Target’s recent security breach, and I feel like I have a fighting chance to stay solvent this year.  Identity […]http://techblog.rga.com/three-tips-for-improved-online-account-security/http://techblog.rga.com/high-schoolers-coding-in-nycs-afse/Over the course of the past 3 months I’ve had the opportunity to visit NYC’s Academy for Software Engineering a few times. AFSE is a “high school for the design and development of software and applications”. The school’s curriculum is largely comprised of the standard high school courses. But AFSE differs in one major way – […]http://techblog.rga.com/high-schoolers-coding-in-nycs-afse/http://techblog.rga.com/getting-real-with-connected-devices/In early February, IxDa, the world’s leading UX conference, took place in Amsterdam. R/GA conducted a workshop on physical prototyping which was lead by myself, Ilia Uvarov and Stuart Taylor. This main initiative was for R/GA to build a presence at the conference and spot potential talent. The workshop illustrated how UX and tech can […]http://techblog.rga.com/getting-real-with-connected-devices/http://techblog.rga.com/wordpress-tips-i-wish-someone-had-told-me/Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to work on several internal and external WordPress-based R/GA websites. My experience and knowledge of the WordPress CMS has grown with each new project, and here are the tips and tricks that I’ve used most often.http://techblog.rga.com/wordpress-tips-i-wish-someone-had-told-me/http://techblog.rga.com/google-data-driven-design-lessons/A recent Guardian article (http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/05/why-google-engineers-designers) describes Google’s successful use of data to determine the right shade of blue for hyperlinks in the Gmail product, resulting in a $200M in additional revenue per year. According to Dan Cobley: In the world of the hippo (highest paid person’s opinion), you ask the chief designer or the marketing […]http://techblog.rga.com/google-data-driven-design-lessons/http://techblog.rga.com/ibeacon-primer-part-ii-ibeacon-vs-geofencing/In Part I of our iBeacon series my colleague Andy Hawkes introduced the concept of iBeacons.  My team and I have also been playing around with the creative possibilities of this new technology and testing its technical limitations. On our floor we’ve configured a Raspberry Pi as an iBeacon and have been working with at least one […]http://techblog.rga.com/ibeacon-primer-part-ii-ibeacon-vs-geofencing/http://techblog.rga.com/ibeacon-primer-part-i-mythbusting/Since Apple stealthily announced the inclusion of iBeacons as a part of iOS7 at WWDC in June 2013 there has been a lot of journalistic hyperbole about iBeacons revolutionising physical retail by sending offers and customised information direct to your phone. The truth is that iBeacons don’t actually transmit content – they transmit a location, enabling […]http://techblog.rga.com/ibeacon-primer-part-i-mythbusting/http://techblog.rga.com/combinations-in-weather-forecasting/Combinations are a big part of how we get things done at R/GA. From the Nike+ FuelBand to Google Wallet to McCormick Flavorprint, our greatest successes have come from interesting combinations of diverse people with varying skills. Combinations of ad tech and creative intuition. Combinations of ideas that create tension and, ultimately, breakthroughs that propel […]http://techblog.rga.com/combinations-in-weather-forecasting/http://techblog.rga.com/its-puzzle-time/Welcome to the inaugural R/GA Techblog Crossword Puzzle! Coincidentally, this is also the first crossword puzzle I’ve ever constructed. I’ve been an avid puzzler for over 20 years and I’ve followed the blogs by a number of constructors, but until recently I’ve never taken a stab at it myself. The general theme of this […]http://techblog.rga.com/its-puzzle-time/http://techblog.rga.com/rga-sxsw-2014/SXSW is quickly approaching and we’re pleased to announce a host of panels and workshops featuring R/GA employees. Mark your calendars and come check out our sessions – we’d love to see you there!   Friday, March 7 Title: Big Data Inverted: The Best Candy from Strangers? Who: Chris Colborn, EVP, Global Chief Experience Officer […]http://techblog.rga.com/rga-sxsw-2014/http://techblog.rga.com/hackatons-its-about-innovation/During the last six months members of R/GA’s Buenos Aires (BA) office have participated in a number of hackathons.  Hackathons are no longer the geeky playground of full time techies.  The best hackathons unite people from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds to focus participants on interesting, rewarding, and unique problems.  This has lead to […]http://techblog.rga.com/hackatons-its-about-innovation/http://techblog.rga.com/the-shadow-dom/For anyone who has worked on a large team to create a rich UI framework, the need for better encapsulation of the DOM is apparent. Style collisions and painful namespacing techniques lengthen development processes. Worse, the sometimes unavoidable need for complete encapsulation forces us to resort to the ugly and evil iframe. A better form […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-shadow-dom/http://techblog.rga.com/stay-away-from-the-light-java/A few years ago, Java was eschewed by hipster coders on fixie bikes who sneered at its verboseness and poured scorn on the sclerotic pace of Java development. Sadly, they were right. Java had taken a wrong turn by favoring container-based architectures like JEE, resulting in bloated application servers that doled out centralized services like […]http://techblog.rga.com/stay-away-from-the-light-java/http://techblog.rga.com/3-tips-for-effective-markup-from-zero-to-hero/Starting a new layout can sometimes seem intimidating. Translating a PSD into code can be a long process but don’t let it overwhelm you.  Just keep these 3 easy steps for organizing your work in mind and deliver a cleaner solution. Visualize your HTML structure with no CSS to ensure the structure makes sense without […]http://techblog.rga.com/3-tips-for-effective-markup-from-zero-to-hero/http://techblog.rga.com/bitcoin-libertarian-economic-dream-or-black-market-nightmare/Since its theoretical inception in 2008 courtesy of a pseudonymous developer known only as “Satoshi Nakamoto” Bitcoin has gained both interest and notoriety, but does it actually have the potential to become a usable long-term currency? Although Bitcoin is promoted as an “experimental digital currency,” many detractors have cited Bitcoin’s highly volatile exchange rate, inflexible supply, […]http://techblog.rga.com/bitcoin-libertarian-economic-dream-or-black-market-nightmare/http://techblog.rga.com/phonebloks-and-project-ara-motorolas-hail-mary/The announcement by Motorola last week of the previously undercover Project Ara and their partnership with the Phonebloks community is potentially huge news from a one-time giant, and arguably the creator of the entire cellphone industry. On 10 September 2013 Dave Hakkens posted a YouTube video and the Phonebloks website, calling for people to back his plan to create a revolutionary […]http://techblog.rga.com/phonebloks-and-project-ara-motorolas-hail-mary/http://techblog.rga.com/3-tips-for-rolling-your-own-sql-compare-tool-with-database-metadata/In most cases a database vendor’s default SQL Comparison tool will do the job, but every once in a while I need a little more (e.g. a tool embedded as part of a continuous deployment process).  Luckily I’ve found that it’s not difficult to build my own customized SQL comparison tool if I follow these […]http://techblog.rga.com/3-tips-for-rolling-your-own-sql-compare-tool-with-database-metadata/http://techblog.rga.com/hal-versus-the-swamp-of-pox/Everyone wants to build good REST APIs, but pure implementations are not always straightforward.  For instance, a standard representation of a resource that includes links to other resources still escapes many. The Richardson Maturity Model defines a 4-step journey from the “Swamp of POX” (plain old XML) to the “Glory of REST.” The first 2 […]http://techblog.rga.com/hal-versus-the-swamp-of-pox/http://techblog.rga.com/its-time-to-get-excited-about-out-of-store-shopping/Historians credit first century engineer Heron of Alexandria with the design for a machine that dispensed holy water with a coin; now, two thousand years later, global annual sales of products through vending machines is approaching $200 billion. While advanced merchandising and cashless payment are two key growth drivers, the rapid adoption of smart-phones and […]http://techblog.rga.com/its-time-to-get-excited-about-out-of-store-shopping/http://techblog.rga.com/my-experience-judging-el-hackathon/Recently I was part of the judging panel for “El Hackathon.”  Organized by Latism, the largest community of latinos in social media, this was not only the first hackathon with a focus on the Latino tech community, but also very likely the first one to take place at the Waldorf Astoria. Fellow judges included representatives […]http://techblog.rga.com/my-experience-judging-el-hackathon/http://techblog.rga.com/reflections-on-xoxo-fest-a-lesson-in-bravery/Portland, Oregon hosted the 2nd annual XOXO Fest from Sept. 19th to the 22th. XOXO was originally born from a successful Kickstarter project created by Andy Baio and Andy McMillan.  The conference is all about “independence” – shining a spotlight on independent creators and how they have turned traditional creation, business, and publishing models on their […]http://techblog.rga.com/reflections-on-xoxo-fest-a-lesson-in-bravery/http://techblog.rga.com/a-preliminary-review-of-google-web-designer/Google announced the launch of their new Web Designer tool this past Monday, which they describe as a “professional-quality design tool.”  I was intrigued to see what it could do and whether I was going to be out of work in a few weeks time. First, let me correct an initial misconception – Web Designer […]http://techblog.rga.com/a-preliminary-review-of-google-web-designer/http://techblog.rga.com/what-you-need-to-know-before-developing-for-google-glass/Recently R/GA’s Prototype Studio launched a bikeshare app for Google Glass as an internal project to explore and understand the Glass product and platform.  Along the way we learned that developing for Glass is not at all like developing for mobile. With Glass, Google released the Mirror API—currently the only Google-approved means to build apps for Glass. […]http://techblog.rga.com/what-you-need-to-know-before-developing-for-google-glass/http://techblog.rga.com/nyc-maker-faire-for-the-uninitiated/No longer the sole territory of basement hackers and tinkerers, Maker Faire – and maker culture – is becoming mainstream.  Nothing proves that more than the crowds of first-time visitors who, like me, were blown away by the outpouring of creative energy. The star was clearly 3D printing.  Many booths at least offered something that […]http://techblog.rga.com/nyc-maker-faire-for-the-uninitiated/http://techblog.rga.com/nys-hardware-revolution/This guest post is authored by Haytham Elhaway, R/GA Accelerator for Connected Devices mentor and founder of the NY hardware startup meetup. You may not think of NY as a hub for hardware or connected devices, but behind the noise generated by our finance, media, fashion, and software industries there’s a nascent but thriving hardware scene that […]http://techblog.rga.com/nys-hardware-revolution/http://techblog.rga.com/sweat-the-small-stuff-with-sass-at-cssconf/In May I was fortunate to speak at CSSConf, one of the first conferences completely devoted to the latest technologies, cutting edge techniques, and tools that front-end developers are using to build the world’s most engaging user interfaces. My talk, “Sweating the Small Stuff”, was about using Sass (a language that extends CSS) to bridge […]http://techblog.rga.com/sweat-the-small-stuff-with-sass-at-cssconf/http://techblog.rga.com/cast-your-vote-for-rga-panels-at-sxsw/The 2014 SXSW PanelPicker is now open for public voting, and several R/GAers and our partners have submitted presentation proposals. We’ve compiled a list of the proposals below. We hope you will be inspired to vote! Click through the links to find out more information about each topic: Allie Walker – Yo Dawg, Your Startup […]http://techblog.rga.com/cast-your-vote-for-rga-panels-at-sxsw/http://techblog.rga.com/rga-and-techstars-launch-connected-devices-accelerator/R/GA is pleased to announce the launch of the R/GA Connected Devices Accelerator program, powered by Techstars. This program will source and support 10 startups with innovative ideas that focus on connected devices. It is a three-month, immersive, mentor-driven program, and represents the first-ever accelerator program to bring together the startup community and the world-class […]http://techblog.rga.com/rga-and-techstars-launch-connected-devices-accelerator/http://techblog.rga.com/making-prescription-google-glass/After months of waiting, I got the coveted email inviting me to pick up my pair of Google Glasses.  After my appointment at Google HQ, my celebration was brief because I struggled with how to deal with Google Glass and my own prescription glasses.  I tried wearing both frames at once (disaster) and I tried […]http://techblog.rga.com/making-prescription-google-glass/http://techblog.rga.com/meet-the-first-ever-tweeting-cigarette/Update: This project was featured on FastCo, take a look at the article.  E-Cigarettes have gained popularity as a safer alternative for nicotine-craving smokers. But no e-cigarettes have been connected to the Internet. Until now. Prompted by a recent New York Times article and a challenge issued by our CTO John Mayo-Smith, the R/GA Prototype Studio team […]http://techblog.rga.com/meet-the-first-ever-tweeting-cigarette/http://techblog.rga.com/8-things-to-consider-when-investigating-baas-providers/Parse visited the R/GA office in March and was  bought by Facebook in April. Since then, interest in Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) has continued to increase. BaaS or MBaas (Mobile-Backend-as-a-Service) saves time and money by simplifying the task of selecting, installing, and configuring your stack and making it easier to write, test and securely deploy backend code […]http://techblog.rga.com/8-things-to-consider-when-investigating-baas-providers/http://techblog.rga.com/the-suckiness-of-software-installation/You know what sucks? Having to set up a new computer with all your favourite software and settings. You know what sucks even more? Setting up a tech team with a consistent and reliable development environment. It’s painful, error-prone and time-consuming. Wouldn’t it be great if you could install everything you need with a single […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-suckiness-of-software-installation/http://techblog.rga.com/3-tips-for-keeping-your-brands-ecosystem-in-bloom/Managing large digital evergreen platforms for brands isn’t an easy task. Various needs and ideas come up over time and the platform must be nimble enough to respond to new insights and changes quickly. Furthermore, the trending concept of functional integration makes it necessary for the main project be supported by other campaigns with different […]http://techblog.rga.com/3-tips-for-keeping-your-brands-ecosystem-in-bloom/http://techblog.rga.com/rga-plan-b-at-sxsw/Who better than the R/GA Austin office to help guide the masses though the almost 1200 sessions and panels than veterans of the conference who also happen to live here.  The idea for Plan B was simple – help people find an alternative if the session they wanted to see was either sold out, or […]http://techblog.rga.com/rga-plan-b-at-sxsw/http://techblog.rga.com/making-the-abstract-concrete/Why prototype an application before building it? The common answer to this question is well known: to get more accurate requirements. But what’s behind this? Does a project that develops a prototype produce better requirements than one that doesn’t? It does. The reason is simple: prototypes make abstract ideas concrete. Here’s a non-prototyping scenario we’ve […]http://techblog.rga.com/making-the-abstract-concrete/http://techblog.rga.com/earth-day-combinations-at-the-whitehouse/Yesterday the President hosted successful young researchers and experimenters on the south lawn of the White House. From bio-fuel algae to nanotube early warning cancer marker tests, the student accomplishments are inspired.   A water purification system from high schoolers in Florida was particularly noteworthy because it combines commodity components in a surprising and useful […]http://techblog.rga.com/earth-day-combinations-at-the-whitehouse/http://techblog.rga.com/your-api-design-is-a-silent-killer/When building applications for mobile devices the first consideration is usually the screen size. This is very different from desktops but an equally critical distinction is how these mobile devices connect to the internet. Mobile internet connections tend to be unstable, have massive fluctuations in their latency and are frequently offline. We should be enabling our […]http://techblog.rga.com/your-api-design-is-a-silent-killer/http://techblog.rga.com/family-cto-the-new-batteries-not-included/The following is a fictional composite based on the real holiday experiences of many Family CTOs I have spoken with. After some serious conversation on the Inspirational PowerPoint Mob’s IRC channel, Gra@nny aka “G-Mom” is ready to drop some serious cash on high tech gift for Jimmy (10) and Junior (5). Armed with great […]http://techblog.rga.com/family-cto-the-new-batteries-not-included/http://techblog.rga.com/the-web-moves-forward-at-w3conf/Every year, the W3C holds a conference for web professionals where the latest on HTML, CSS, and everything else related to the open web platform is discussed and celebrated. This year I was fortunate enough to attend and it was thrilling to be around hundreds of other people that are as interested in the open […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-web-moves-forward-at-w3conf/http://techblog.rga.com/mwc-2013-back-from-bcn-unchanged/A strange thing didn’t happen in Barcelona this week. I arrived home, unchanged and I suspect 70,000 other folks had the same experience, or lack of it. The event was gigantic. The new exhibition space at Fira Gran Via was 94,000 square meters – that’s in the neighborhood of 10 American football fields. There were […]http://techblog.rga.com/mwc-2013-back-from-bcn-unchanged/http://techblog.rga.com/parse-rga/Last week Parse‘s CEO & Founder Ilya Sukhar visited the R/GA offices in New York to introduce our development teams to the Parse platform. Parse.com’s mission is to abstract backend functionality into one scalable and fully featured platform.  While it’s particularly powerful for mobile apps, there’s no limit to how developers can integrate it into their […]http://techblog.rga.com/parse-rga/http://techblog.rga.com/brainstorming-technology-first-sxsw/This year at SXSW, I’m talking about an ongoing experiment I’ve been doing here at R/GA for the past year. It’s not an experiment about software or hardware, nor does it involve social networks or mobile apps, it’s an experiment with the brainstorming process. Specifically, I wanted to see if there was a way we could improve blank canvas brainstorming to take into account the unique nature of digital products and services.http://techblog.rga.com/brainstorming-technology-first-sxsw/http://techblog.rga.com/our-100th-post/Today R/GA’s Techblog reached our hundreth post! Thanks to our readers, writers, editors, illustrators and all the people who helped achieve this modest but historic milestone. When we launched Techblog twenty one months ago, we never imagined the blog would become the phenomenon it has, or that we would scoop the mainstream media with posts […]http://techblog.rga.com/our-100th-post/http://techblog.rga.com/rga-sxsw-2013/R/GA is going to be at SXSW this year, are you? Come check out any of our sessions.http://techblog.rga.com/rga-sxsw-2013/http://techblog.rga.com/nick-law-innovation-is-not-a-big-idea/In a recent opinion piece for Australia’s B&T magazine, Nick Law, R/GA’s EVP, Global Chief Creative Officer discussed innovation. Not innovation as a big idea, but as a different way of working. A way of working that’s difficult to do if you’re set in your ways. As Nick says, “When we talk about the transition […]http://techblog.rga.com/nick-law-innovation-is-not-a-big-idea/http://techblog.rga.com/three-tips-for-developers-at-the-start-of-projects/Here in Brazil we just launched two major projects.  If I had to start them over again, here are three tips I would take with me. Tip #1 Automate. People underestimate the amount of time it takes to perform routine tasks like deployment. Automation doesn’t just save time it keeps teams motivated. Automate any routines […]http://techblog.rga.com/three-tips-for-developers-at-the-start-of-projects/http://techblog.rga.com/programming-a-flying-bull-with-node-js-coffeescript-and-parrot-ar-2-0-drone/When I was very young, my father used to take me to an airfield where hobbyists would gather to show off their model planes. I think that memory forced my hand into buying a Parrot A.R. Drone 2 a month ago. The Parrot AR 2.0 Drone is now widely available with a 1GHZ ARM Cortex […]http://techblog.rga.com/programming-a-flying-bull-with-node-js-coffeescript-and-parrot-ar-2-0-drone/http://techblog.rga.com/rga-london-pick-5-hot-technologies-for-2013/At the end of 2012, Web Designer magazine asked the R/GA London technology team for our opinion on what would be “hot” for web design in 2013. After a bit of group discussion we put forward 5 things, which ended up being published over a frighteningly large photograph of my head! Those 5 things were […]http://techblog.rga.com/rga-london-pick-5-hot-technologies-for-2013/http://techblog.rga.com/three-tips-to-improve-your-xcode4-skills/Help Xcode 4 help you! Work more efficiently with these tips, focusing more on the code and less on the IDE. Tip #1 Use separate tabs for different tasks (editing source, editing nibs, debugging, building, etc). Cmd+T opens a new tab. Each tab will remember its layout, so you can configure it to fit a […]http://techblog.rga.com/three-tips-to-improve-your-xcode4-skills/http://techblog.rga.com/training-and-using-your-brain-at-ces-2013/After re-acclimating to the unique mixture of highly oxygenated air and cigarette smoke found only in Las Vegas, I joined the melee at the convention center for CES, the largest consumer electronics show on earth. Last year at CES R/GA scouted would-be FuelBand competitors such as the MotoACTV and the Basis health tracker. This year […]http://techblog.rga.com/training-and-using-your-brain-at-ces-2013/http://techblog.rga.com/connected-devices-node-js-arduino-responsive-and-nosql-in-a-box/Some experts think connected-devices will increase productivity by several trillion dollars in the coming years. From jet turbines to industrial food processing machines, there are over three million different types of machines that can be controlled and maintained more efficiently with help from the internet. Hoping to learn more, I found time over  the vacation to […]http://techblog.rga.com/connected-devices-node-js-arduino-responsive-and-nosql-in-a-box/http://techblog.rga.com/the-best-hackathon-teams-combine-technology-creativity-and-strategy/I spent this weekend at Hack // Meat, a hackathon focused on bringing change and innovation to the way meat is currently produced, processed, distributed, sold and consumed. The event brought together over 100 people from almost 10 states, and the 15+ teams worked on a wide range of hacks from scheduling systems to marketing […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-best-hackathon-teams-combine-technology-creativity-and-strategy/http://techblog.rga.com/the-family-cto/In the fall of 1987, by advising my father on the purchase of an IBM-compatible machine from PCs Limited, I had unwittingly accepted a lifelong shadow career. From that moment on, I was the Family CTO. Some 25 years later, I now manage a complex infrastructure in five locations. The devices supported went from a […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-family-cto/http://techblog.rga.com/when-navy-master-clocks-fail/“A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.”— Segal’s Law (Source: US Naval Observatory Website) R/GA wrote the software that synchronizes the playback of more than a dozen mega-signs in Times Square. Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a big part of what keeps the signs operating in […]http://techblog.rga.com/when-navy-master-clocks-fail/http://techblog.rga.com/abc-news-realtime-election-results-in-times-square/Today, ABC News special “Your Voice, Your Vote 2012” election coverage originates live from election headquarters at the Crossroads of the World. The Pomegranate API, developed in partnership with the R/GA technology group, is being utilized to synchronize and coordinate the enormous digital facade of NASDAQ and the 23 story high Thomson-Reuters sign with live ABC […]http://techblog.rga.com/abc-news-realtime-election-results-in-times-square/http://techblog.rga.com/5-pro-mongodb-data-modeling-tips/We recently challenged ourselves by choosing mongodb for a client project.  After a lot of prototypes, tests, wrong approaches, right approaches, lively discussions, and theorizing about the role of NoSQL databases, we decided to move on and face – with responsibility – the challenge. From this amazing experience we developed 5 pro tips that kept […]http://techblog.rga.com/5-pro-mongodb-data-modeling-tips/http://techblog.rga.com/99-726-uptime/Yesterday, for the second time in two years Techblog was offline most of the day due to an Amazon AWS service outage. That’s effectively, for business purposes, 364/365 = 99.726% uptime. 99.726 percent uptime isn’t a statistic we hear about (returns zero results on Google) because cloud hosting providers shine up the numbers the same way […]http://techblog.rga.com/99-726-uptime/http://techblog.rga.com/amd-commonsjs-modules-for-the-browser/The Asynchronous Module Definition API (AMD) brings modular JavaScript to the browser similar to the CommonsJS Modules API. The difference with CommonsJS modules is that AMD enables modules to be loaded asynchronously on demand, reducing browser footprint. As with CommonsJS modules, AMD modules do not add variables to the global namespace, helping to avoid clashes between […]http://techblog.rga.com/amd-commonsjs-modules-for-the-browser/http://techblog.rga.com/an-insiders-account-of-nerdy-derby-at-makerfair-2012/At the 2012 World Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science in Queens, makers of all walks once again converged to share their passion, see interesting and/or odd projects and to participate in this burgeoning movement. One of the exhibits which captured all of these aspects was the Nerdy Derby. Nerdy Derby is […]http://techblog.rga.com/an-insiders-account-of-nerdy-derby-at-makerfair-2012/http://techblog.rga.com/commons-js-improving-server-side-js-improves-client-side-js/Although CommonsJS is a set of standard APIs targeted at server-side JavaScript, it is adding value to client-side JavaScript by addressing low-level weaknesses in the language that have not yet been included in the ECMAScript standard. For example, JavaScript has no mechanism for defining modules, which has led to library developers exposing APIs through variables […]http://techblog.rga.com/commons-js-improving-server-side-js-improves-client-side-js/http://techblog.rga.com/the-xoxo-festival/This past weekend, I spent four days in Portland, OR at the XOXO Festival. Billed as “an arts and technology festival celebrating disruptive creativity,” it brought together 400 minds in one space to share and discuss our work. The conference talks and themes have been thoroughly and thoughtfully covered by Anil Dash, the NYTimes, BoingBoing […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-xoxo-festival/http://techblog.rga.com/its-time-we-got-excited-for-the-self-driving-car/It’s hard to think of an imminent technology that will have more of an effect on our lives than the self driving car. The world we live in is built around the idea that we drive somewhere, leave the car in a parking spot, do something, then get in the same car and drive home.  We take […]http://techblog.rga.com/its-time-we-got-excited-for-the-self-driving-car/http://techblog.rga.com/progress-for-prosthetic-knees/The elevator door opens and a squat Latino man almost kicks my head off.   Odd as it may sound, this is a pleasant greeting at the office where I have come to obtain a new prosthetic leg.   Martin is a single leg below-the-knee amputee with a black belt in Karate, and his feisty roundhouse kick […]http://techblog.rga.com/progress-for-prosthetic-knees/http://techblog.rga.com/introducing-this-is-responsive/In the fast-paced world of responsive web design, one of the most frequent questions that we at R/GA get asked is “Where do I go to learn about this stuff?”. We’ve been tracking this information internally for a while now, and this month we made this resource publicly available for everyone at This Is Responsive, […]http://techblog.rga.com/introducing-this-is-responsive/http://techblog.rga.com/the-turing-test-of-feature-assessment/If the results of an advanced system are indistinguishable from fake results, is it worth investing in the system in the first place?  It’s my observation the brightest marketing minds struggle with this question every day. From cross-selling strategies to data-visualization, inspired creative and technical teams waste precious resources devising complex systems that perform no […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-turing-test-of-feature-assessment/http://techblog.rga.com/rga-wins-best-mobile-app-at-facebook-worldhack-austin/Yesterday, two of us from R/GA attended the Facebook World Hack in Austin, a day long event where developers come together to spend an entire day hacking and building projects using the latest Facebook technology. Facebook is doing these hacks in 12 cities around the world, and Austin is the only hack happening in the […]http://techblog.rga.com/rga-wins-best-mobile-app-at-facebook-worldhack-austin/http://techblog.rga.com/rgas-sxsw-panel-proposals/Is it 2013 yet? No, but the 2013 SXSW PanelPicker is now open for public voting, and several R/GAers are in the running. By clicking through to the proposals below, we’re hoping that you are inspired to vote and help make the presentation ideas a reality in 2013. Enjoy and thanks! Richard Goldsmith – Requiem for a Brony: Keep Social Media Weird! Brad Frost – […]http://techblog.rga.com/rgas-sxsw-panel-proposals/http://techblog.rga.com/8-pro-tips-for-effective-prototyping/We’ve talked about how prototyping plays a part in our creative and development processes. Recently we’ve seen an uptick in interest among clients and momentum building, which is very exciting for us here at R/GA. With one of our major clients we’re now hearing the rallying cry internally, “Powerpoints don’t win customers!”. The benefits of […]http://techblog.rga.com/8-pro-tips-for-effective-prototyping/http://techblog.rga.com/twitter-tea-time-whats-happening-at-twitter/Over the last couple of months Twitter has been hosting a series of events for developers in their San Francisco HQ. However, because they felt they were excluding a lot of developers that work with their platform they started to sponsor Developer Teatime to share insight with the community and help spread more knowledge of […]http://techblog.rga.com/twitter-tea-time-whats-happening-at-twitter/http://techblog.rga.com/mike-scoops-the-popular-press/Six months ago we published: “Comparing Food Trucks and Software Development” http://techblog.rga.com/software-as-a-food-truck   And today InformationWeek publishes “What Food Trucks Can Teach IT Pros” http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/240003234   Stay tuned for Mike’s stock market predictions…http://techblog.rga.com/mike-scoops-the-popular-press/http://techblog.rga.com/browserless-javascript-testing/As users expect more sophisticated AJAX, animation and event functionality, the amount, and complexity of Javascript code is increasing. Even small sites and RIAs can contain 100’s of lines of Javascript code. With the increase in complexity comes the potential for bugs.  Writing clean code matched with lots of testing is what’s required to keep projects […]http://techblog.rga.com/browserless-javascript-testing/http://techblog.rga.com/nexus-q-high-voltage-plasma-arc/All music in this video captured live and emanating from the audio modulated plasma arc situated at the upper rudder of the metal toy. “Yellow submarine playing yellow submarine.” Happy 4th of July everyone!http://techblog.rga.com/nexus-q-high-voltage-plasma-arc/http://techblog.rga.com/google-io/“Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch.” – Ivern Ball A handful of R/GA attendees were the lucky ones who got a place to sit at the filled-to-capactity Android sessions; we were also thrilled to be part of the keynote audience while athletes descended in wingsuits overhead. However, in my opinion, so far, the most inspiring […]http://techblog.rga.com/google-io/http://techblog.rga.com/10-tips-for-avoiding-frontend-single-points-of-failure/Last week I had the pleasure of attending an eye opening chat by Google’s Steve Souders at Etsy’s Code as Craft Technology Talk. He focused on Front End Single Points of Failure. Steve made the point that redundancy is not just for hardware.  It’s important that our code gracefully recover from failed dependencies.  This would […]http://techblog.rga.com/10-tips-for-avoiding-frontend-single-points-of-failure/http://techblog.rga.com/richard-ting-on-cannes-of-the-future/Richard Ting reports having a great time at the Cannes Google+ Hangout working with luminaries and Lion award-winning impresarios. “One of the first panels that I participated on in a virtual plus hangout. Very cool to be a part of a Cannes event while situated in Hell’s kitchen, NYC. It’s Just like Cannes (without the […]http://techblog.rga.com/richard-ting-on-cannes-of-the-future/http://techblog.rga.com/rga-at-cannes/The following post was written by Nick Law, Chief Creative Officer from Cannes:   In some of its ads, Nike claims to give athletes an “Unfair Advantage”. This week at Cannes I felt as though it was R/GA that had an unfair advantage. We had our best week on our industry’s biggest stage, thanks to […]http://techblog.rga.com/rga-at-cannes/http://techblog.rga.com/using-data-to-create-a-global-browser-and-device-matrix/In an ideal world, any technology project would be able to support all browser and device combinations. The reality is that there are always going to be some users who have ‘the wrong browser’. Clients want to reach as many people as possible, but especially for global brands who operate in a large number of […]http://techblog.rga.com/using-data-to-create-a-global-browser-and-device-matrix/http://techblog.rga.com/six-tips-for-forging-a-strong-cmo-cio-partnership/This article was originally published in Forbes. Much has been made of analyst predictions that chief marketing officers will soon outspend chief information officers on technology. Technically minded CMOs are already major buyers of marketing-related technology, and there’s lots of evidence that forward-thinking brands recognize the overlap in accountability and the need to sync the […]http://techblog.rga.com/six-tips-for-forging-a-strong-cmo-cio-partnership/http://techblog.rga.com/linkedin-and-eharmony-lesson-salt-or-die/Adding random bits to create a unique input to a one way function would have most certainly prevented the LinkedIn and eHarmony password fiasco last week. If this sounds complicated and expensive, it isn’t;  I explained it right here on Techblog  last year. It’s called “salting,” it’s been around for decades and it’s practically free […]http://techblog.rga.com/linkedin-and-eharmony-lesson-salt-or-die/http://techblog.rga.com/quantifying-quality/A Quality Assurance professional faces one of the most burdensome questions of all specialties in digital media: Go or no-go? In theory a QA professional could be excused for saying “no-go” more than “go“.  For one, it is highly unlikely that all defects are fixed or addressed (has that ever happened, really?). In addition, we […]http://techblog.rga.com/quantifying-quality/http://techblog.rga.com/rapid-development-with-paas-providers/As an end-to-end hacker, I frequently need to quickly stand up a server up for quick demos, POCs, micro campaigns, or to host some services for my mobile apps.  The need for a flexible, quick-to-market, pay as you go platform with tons of development choices  has prompted me to explore the PaaS market, which is […]http://techblog.rga.com/rapid-development-with-paas-providers/http://techblog.rga.com/4-ways-to-keep-your-brand-site-relevant/Co-authored by Ken Erke and Matt Marcus The dot-com as a quarterly updated, rigidly templated content dumping ground is a relic. Consumers expect more from a brand website than the “digital brochures” of the past. In the age of social, the dot-com must be a vital component of the new media landscape–socially integrated, device agnostic, and […]http://techblog.rga.com/4-ways-to-keep-your-brand-site-relevant/http://techblog.rga.com/creative-destruction-is-harder-than-it-looks/In “The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future” Alexis Madrigal criticizes today’s technology start-ups for a lack of innovation. He accuses modern start-ups of tinkering within a narrow mobile/social “paradigm” and thereby failing to break through with the genuine radical innovations of their predecessors (Facebook, Twitter). This criticism […]http://techblog.rga.com/creative-destruction-is-harder-than-it-looks/http://techblog.rga.com/the-5-pillars-of-remote-collaboration/When working remotely, context becomes your worst enemy.  Teams working together incrementally build-up a wealth of context about what and why and how things are the certain way. These are vital details that are not easily conveyed to those across a continent or ocean (or both).  Here are some tips to get over some of […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-5-pillars-of-remote-collaboration/http://techblog.rga.com/women-in-technology/Meet Computer Engineer Barbie. Originally a gag gift, she sits on my desk and reminds me that I am a female in technology. I laugh and roll my eyes at her for her sparkly leggings, bluetooth headset, and pink laptop. I embrace her for her attempt to encourage girls to pursue technology-related fields. And I […]http://techblog.rga.com/women-in-technology/http://techblog.rga.com/take-your-kid-to-work-day-2012-at-rga/On Friday, March 4th, 2012, I participated in my first Take Your Kid(s) to Work Day at R/GA.  On this day, I had the pleasure to take part in Web Workshop, an introduction class that teaches kids 9-14 years old the basics of web development.  The web is the heart of R/GA, and we couldn’t […]http://techblog.rga.com/take-your-kid-to-work-day-2012-at-rga/http://techblog.rga.com/prototype-it-first/To create innovative brand experiences we typically have to think outside existing paradigms.  Understanding a user’s reaction to the paradigm shift is critical but not always easy.  Luckily we have tools to anticipate a user’s reaction.  Prototyping the idea first can save time and lead to a better end product. Prototypes It’s common to see […]http://techblog.rga.com/prototype-it-first/http://techblog.rga.com/using-pusher-to-enable-the-real-time-web/At the R/GA London Make Day , the London office split into small teams to try and create, well, anything. Whilst some people were more existential, my team aimed to gamify the “Tea Round”, an important part of the London office routine. A key concept of the game was that all users would be kept in sync ‘real-time’. As with any hack day event, development […]http://techblog.rga.com/using-pusher-to-enable-the-real-time-web/http://techblog.rga.com/excessive-enhancement/As a web developer and advocate of open standards, I give much thought to the potential dangers of blindly employing emerging web technologies. I am regularly wowed by exciting new snazzy tricks and techniques , but I care deeply about the web and have seen some bad practices from the past re-emerging. This March, I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to speak about […]http://techblog.rga.com/excessive-enhancement/http://techblog.rga.com/html5-and-gaming-devup-barcelona/Last week, I was lucky enough to give a talk at Devup , the HTML5 developer conference in Barcelona. Devup attracts a variety of developers and this year had a focus on using HTML5 (and friends) to develop rich experiences and in particular, games in the browser. Being primarily a Web guy, I’m not experienced at game design or game development and so it was […]http://techblog.rga.com/html5-and-gaming-devup-barcelona/http://techblog.rga.com/the-future-of-the-mobile-web-a-view-from-bdconf/I just got back from the Breaking Development Conference that was held in Orlando, Florida. It was a gathering of some of the best minds working in the mobile web right now, and every session was brimming with insight into how to think and create for the web in this increasingly diverse landscape. Some themes emerged over the course of the conference. The first is […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-future-of-the-mobile-web-a-view-from-bdconf/http://techblog.rga.com/facebook-preferred-marketing-developer-program/R/GA attended last week’s summit where Facebook announced the re-launch of their developer network, now called the Preferred Marketing Developer Program (PMD). Building social applications and managing pages on Facebook is a rather complex process. There is a good deal of knowledge overhead involved in the simplest of platform integrations that it makes sense for Facebook to provide a guide to those who are known […]http://techblog.rga.com/facebook-preferred-marketing-developer-program/http://techblog.rga.com/amazon-aws-summit-in-nyc/Amazon hosted an AWS Summit at the Jacob Javits Center in NY today. If you weren’t able to attend or watch along, I highly recommend keeping an eye out for video of the conference, which I imagine they will make available in the coming days. The official site is here . If you haven’t taken the time to catch up on recent developments in the […]http://techblog.rga.com/amazon-aws-summit-in-nyc/http://techblog.rga.com/programmers-are-creatives-not-just-creative/There’s a debate simmering between Synergists who believe in the power of combining art and science, and Unbundlers who believe in decoupling programming under the banner of efficiency. At the heart of the deliberation is whether programming is a creative endeavor similar to copywriting and art-direction, or an industrial process like printing, fulfillment and assembly. Increasingly, agencies and brands are partnering — sometimes competing — […]http://techblog.rga.com/programmers-are-creatives-not-just-creative/http://techblog.rga.com/interoperability-and-the-programmable-os/Consumer operating systems have come a long way in my lifetime. Advances in user design and feature improvements have made many things that were once impossible commonplace. But that’s not to imply there aren’t opportunities for improvement. For instance, I am consistently disappointed that consumers have settled for the status quo in application interoperability. Currently, interoperability between applications means one of two things: Cut to […]http://techblog.rga.com/interoperability-and-the-programmable-os/http://techblog.rga.com/rga-jsconf-2012/R/GA had a great presence this year at JSConf 2012 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mojitos were flowing and mechanical bulls were bucking. The roughly 250 JavaScript devs in attendance were pretty psyched when they were each given a Nexus S running Mozilla’s open source OS, B2G . Excitement continued with two days of inspiring talks and demos given by some of the industry’s best and brightest. […]http://techblog.rga.com/rga-jsconf-2012/http://techblog.rga.com/the-fifth-screen/A few years ago everyone was talking about the 3rd screen. This was the smartphone; the third screen after the TV and the computer. Then the tablet emerged – the fourth screen. Now there is a new screen – the fifth screen. What is the fifth screen? It’s easiest to say what it is not. It’s not a TV (although it meant for information delivery […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-fifth-screen/http://techblog.rga.com/qa-is-not-a-verb/You’re in the middle of regressing defects and a small notification flashes in the bottom portion of your screen. Instant message. You open the window and read a string of words than invariably end with: “. . . and please let me know when you’re done QA’ing it.” Perhaps it’s commonplace now, and you gloss […]http://techblog.rga.com/qa-is-not-a-verb/http://techblog.rga.com/the-web-is-a-village-at-scale/Some time ago, I spent a month in the Himilayas. There were no roads or cars, only footpaths connecting small villages where people lived without most modern conveniences. Inside these tight-knit mountain communities, everyone appeared to have a natural sense of each others’ well-being. In contrast, it is well documented that technical societies tend to […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-web-is-a-village-at-scale/http://techblog.rga.com/rga-sxsw-2012/R/GA is going to be at SXSW this year, are you? Come check out any of our eight sessions. Enjoy: R/GA Sessions: March 9   Will Turnage My Robotic Kitchen Planned this Dinner Party 3:30-4:30 PM Hilton Austin Downtown – Salon K March 10 Kyle Bunch / Rich Ting The […]http://techblog.rga.com/rga-sxsw-2012/http://techblog.rga.com/can-you-write-this-better/Yesterday, I decided to write a bit of JavaScript code to evaluate classes. The first version of my code looked like this. function hasClass(el, className) { var r; r = new RegExp('(^| )' + className + '( |$)'); return r.test(el.className); } function addClass(el, className) { if (hasClass(el, className)) { return false; } el.className += ' […]http://techblog.rga.com/can-you-write-this-better/http://techblog.rga.com/who-will-pay-for-it/Despite best efforts, development teams always leave a trace of hacky approaches in their code. All of these inefficiencies in the code are called tech debt. Just like a  financial debt, it incurs interest. Our accrued interest would be: bugs that require extra effort and introduces more development delays, as well as complicating  future updates […]http://techblog.rga.com/who-will-pay-for-it/http://techblog.rga.com/four-developer-tips-for-winning-hackathons/Recently, we participated in a 24-hour hackathon and created 2012 Matters, a Facebook app that encourages you to share what matters most in the 2012 election. People are quick to talk about the advantages of building a product quickly, but there’s much less talk about what it takes for a team to build a successful demo in a very short time. Here are four things that successful teams do to create working software in 24 hours.http://techblog.rga.com/four-developer-tips-for-winning-hackathons/http://techblog.rga.com/software-as-a-food-truck/Over the summer R/GA had a bout of what doctors call “Food Truck Fever”. Every day a new food truck showed up in front of our building on 39th street serving everything from Koren BBQ, homemade Chinese dumplings and artisan ice cream. Every day the trucks were greeted with a long line of hungry R/GA’ers […]http://techblog.rga.com/software-as-a-food-truck/http://techblog.rga.com/video-response-the-future-of-browsers/Last week on R/GA’s Facebook page we asked our fans to vote for which browser they felt had the brightest future.   This week you can enjoy some of R/GA’s foremost browser experts share their thoughts in the first of a series of video responses to our Facebook polls. Spoiler alert: no one chose Netscape.http://techblog.rga.com/video-response-the-future-of-browsers/http://techblog.rga.com/internet-of-things-iot/The Centre for Creative Collaboration in London hosted a meetup event about Internet of Things (IoT) and here are a couple talks which I think stood out from the rest. Neul – http://www.neul.com/ These folks are basically developing hardware and infrastructure in order to connect Machine-to-Machine (M2M) by using the free TV white space spectrum. They […]http://techblog.rga.com/internet-of-things-iot/http://techblog.rga.com/imitation-crab-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery/Like logos and taglines, code is a powerful way to reinforce brand identity and attract customers; in many respects, code is similar to a branded typeface. Just as appropriating choice copy and visual assets is a sly way to bootstrap a company’s brand, swiping code can give a lift too. For example, shortly after we launched a […]http://techblog.rga.com/imitation-crab-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery/http://techblog.rga.com/yet-another-language-of-tomorrow/The opening keynote at this year’s GotoCon in Denmark gave us our first view of Dart, Google’s new programming language. This post is about the findings and discussions that were circling at the conference, starting with why this has come about in the first place. Javascript has had a colourful history. It hasn’t always been […]http://techblog.rga.com/yet-another-language-of-tomorrow/http://techblog.rga.com/10gen-presents-mongodb-for-developers-at-rga-u/If there’s one thing we’ve come to expect from our clients it’s that they will come to us with interesting problems that require creative solutions.  Sometimes these solutions take us into uncharted territory.  For that reason, it’s essential we stay on top of the latest industry trends. A few years ago R/GA University was established […]http://techblog.rga.com/10gen-presents-mongodb-for-developers-at-rga-u/http://techblog.rga.com/maker-faire-visits-nyc-rga-visits-maker-faire/This past weeked the Maker Faire visited NYC. Landing at the Hall of Science in Queens – an attraction that’s worth visiting the other 51 weekends of the year – this sprawling celebration of makers and the things they make filled my heart with geeky joy. Looking for a giant iron fire breathing dragon that […]http://techblog.rga.com/maker-faire-visits-nyc-rga-visits-maker-faire/http://techblog.rga.com/anatomy-of-an-opportunity-or-what-do-you-feed-250-million-machines/At the BUILD conference this week, Microsoft unveiled the closely guarded secret that is Windows 8. Understanding that the landscape of computer-mediated devices and services is evolving rapidly, Microsoft has taken a new tack while remaining on the course of offering backward compatibility. They say that any computer problem can be solved by adding another […]http://techblog.rga.com/anatomy-of-an-opportunity-or-what-do-you-feed-250-million-machines/http://techblog.rga.com/lessons-learned-with-a-global-team-using-agile/A global, multi-vendor project using the agile methodology –  6 different teams in 4 different time zones – and though there were many opportunities for the process to falter, it ended up being one of the most inspiring, collaborative and successful projects I’ve been a part of.  It was successful not in that it was […]http://techblog.rga.com/lessons-learned-with-a-global-team-using-agile/http://techblog.rga.com/upcoming-rga-talks/In the coming weeks, members of the R/GA Technology team will be appearing at several conferences. Join us live if you can and keep a lookout for commentary and pieces of their presentations appearing on the Tech Blog. UPDATE: We’ve added slides for “Selling the Mobile Web.”   Breaking Development – September 12-14, Nashville, TN […]http://techblog.rga.com/upcoming-rga-talks/http://techblog.rga.com/an-epic-twitter-hack/The NBA is synonymous with players having clutch moments and being the talk of everyone, especially on Twitter. With many talented athletes on NikeBasketball’s roster, EPIC visualizes those moments in real-time by ranking the NBA players according to each one’s tweets per hour calculation. Coming up with an accurate tweets per hour calculation for each […]http://techblog.rga.com/an-epic-twitter-hack/http://techblog.rga.com/fail-tales-1-the-highlander-constraint-designing-for-65-availability/In this installment of Fail Tales, we’ll take a look at the business, user experience and  technology design implications of the Highlander Constraint and a few fundamental mitigation tactics. For those unfamiliar with the Highlander tale of film and television, the worlds fortune rests on one person who, by virtue of competitive mortal combat, wins […]http://techblog.rga.com/fail-tales-1-the-highlander-constraint-designing-for-65-availability/http://techblog.rga.com/build-apps-linked-to-times-square/Now, for the first time, your app can link directly to 19,000 square feet of LED screens in Times Square with one AJAX call. What makes this possible is a new API created by R/GA in collaboration with TS2 the Thomson-Reuters/NASDAQ alliance. This simple collection of methods (code named Pomegranate) enables apps to push text and images to fourteen […]http://techblog.rga.com/build-apps-linked-to-times-square/http://techblog.rga.com/the-home-automation-of-tomorrow-today/With the release of Android @Home, it’s increasingly obvious that big companies are finally getting behind home automation.  But what if you want to control your appliances from anywhere in the world and not just from within your home with your phone?  Here is system that I developed to allow you to do just that. […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-home-automation-of-tomorrow-today/http://techblog.rga.com/cap-theorem-applied-to-organizations/It’s well understood today that as you scale out internet platforms you can’t have perfect data consistency and high availability at the same time. Like system architects that are now forced to adopt alternative eventually-consistent data stores, big organizations are facing a similar dilemma as the demands for information consistency, speed and scale square off. Increasingly, organizations […]http://techblog.rga.com/cap-theorem-applied-to-organizations/http://techblog.rga.com/automation-with-open-standards/In the past, my development tool-chain relied heavily on an IDE and build tools to provide automation services, Eclipes/Java/Ant, C#/Visual Studio/nAnt, and ActionScript /Eclipse/FDT/Ant. Moving to open standard development projects, the road to automation was not so clear. But with research and perseverance I have been able to find a solution. While it presently contains […]http://techblog.rga.com/automation-with-open-standards/http://techblog.rga.com/uk-users-like-polished-chrome/This week has seen the news that in the UK, Google Chrome has overtaken Mozilla FireFox to become the second most popular browser. According to data aggregated by StatCounter (a provider of website tracking software), Chrome now has 22.1% of the UK browser market, pushing it past FireFox’s 22.0% market share. Internet Explorer continues to dominate […]http://techblog.rga.com/uk-users-like-polished-chrome/http://techblog.rga.com/the-pickles-solution/The Pickles solution is – discovering the solution to a problem through the act of explaining the problem to somebody else. This is very common in programming where a developer spends a lot of time on his own trying to fix a problem to no avail. He calls over another developer and starts explaining the […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-pickles-solution/http://techblog.rga.com/native-vs-web-is-total-malarkey/The web is dead. HTML5 is the be-all end-all of the future. Users are spending more time on apps and less time on the web. You can do anything on the web that you can in a native app. Yawn. Here’s how I feel whenever I hear/read anything about the overplayed “Native Versus Web” argument: […]http://techblog.rga.com/native-vs-web-is-total-malarkey/http://techblog.rga.com/improving-ios-code-with-blocks-and-block-programming/Programming languages are like people. Some are better at some things than others; some can do things other’s can’t. If they’re taken care of they get better over time. While I could look at a number of languages and frameworks for demonstration I’m particularly inspired by the relatively recent improvement of iOS development due to […]http://techblog.rga.com/improving-ios-code-with-blocks-and-block-programming/http://techblog.rga.com/techniques-for-programming-real-time-updates/The history of internet and web development always fought against stateless connections between web browsers and servers. Programmers keep trying to create a more realistic experience in order to hide some of the protocol’s limitations. In order to give the user the feeling of live responses, we can go through several paths. There are a lot of […]http://techblog.rga.com/techniques-for-programming-real-time-updates/http://techblog.rga.com/bookmarklets-and-javascript-a-powerful-combination/Do me a favor: copy the line of text below and paste it into your browser’s address bar and press Enter. javascript:alert(“Holy Moly! I can run code in this thing!”);   Whoa! What just happened? Javascript. That’s what. And that’s all it takes to make those magical things called bookmarklets give you an awesome (and […]http://techblog.rga.com/bookmarklets-and-javascript-a-powerful-combination/http://techblog.rga.com/8-lines-of-code-redux-bitcoin-and-mt-gox/You don’t have to move mountains to have great password security. As suggested in a previous post, it can start with as little as 8 lines of code. This week, a Bitcoin exchange site called Mt. Gox suffered a data breach.  How this happened is still the subject of intense debate, but we’ve already learned […]http://techblog.rga.com/8-lines-of-code-redux-bitcoin-and-mt-gox/http://techblog.rga.com/seize-the-space-why-technology-is-creative/If you happened to be in a certain conference room in midtown Manhattan last April, you would have witnessed something seemingly normal: two executive creative directors (ECDs) reviewing campaign work and debating brand attributes, customer aspirations, and engagement. What made this meeting extraordinary is the fact that one of the ECDs was a gifted programmer […]http://techblog.rga.com/seize-the-space-why-technology-is-creative/http://techblog.rga.com/google-io-highlights/Matias Pan and Carlos Sessa, two mobile developers from the R/GA Buenos Aires offices traveled to San Francisco and attended Google IO, Google’s annual developer conference. We would like to introduce you to some of the ideas and concepts we listened to at Google IO, so let’s get started. Android Momentum The main keynote started […]http://techblog.rga.com/google-io-highlights/http://techblog.rga.com/superhappydevhouse-singapore/Hackathon. Barcamp. Hack Day. Lightning Talks. Developer meetups. If any of these makes sense to you, you will not be a stranger to SuperHappyDevHouse (SHDH). SuperHappyDevHouse is an international series of non-exclusive events targeted at developers, the “hacker” community and basically anyone who’s passionate about technology. At the heart of it, SHDH is a […]http://techblog.rga.com/superhappydevhouse-singapore/http://techblog.rga.com/shell-scripts-a-fundamental-skill-for-developers/There’s something of an inside joke among sportscasters who, seeking to say something nice about an otherwise unremarkable player in a top-plays-of-the-day clip, will refer to him as “fundamentally sound”.  It’s the athletic variant of the timeless caveat that your blind date has a “nice personality.” As developers, we should be proud to say we’re […]http://techblog.rga.com/shell-scripts-a-fundamental-skill-for-developers/http://techblog.rga.com/syncing-data-with-mobile-couchbase/As anyone who’s used one of Amazon’s Kindle apps knows, synchronization without user interaction is a priceless feature.  As any programmer who’s built an app that persists data across multiple devices knows, synchronization takes a lot of work. A todo list for accomplishing this task might look something like this: Ensure the device has connectivity […]http://techblog.rga.com/syncing-data-with-mobile-couchbase/http://techblog.rga.com/cross-country-coding/Recently I’ve flown cross-country a few times, and while the flights are long what I love about them is the opportunity to sit and code in a focused environment with no distractions. On a recent trip to San Francisco, I challenged myself to see if I could build a product over the course of a […]http://techblog.rga.com/cross-country-coding/http://techblog.rga.com/43831-devin-shafraon-drive/Like a magician making a card miraculously appear in your shirt pocket, cloud providers create the illusion your applications and data are everywhere and all it takes is a browser or web service to make them reappear anytime on any device. This week the illusion was spoiled by an Amazon network event, and for 36 […]http://techblog.rga.com/43831-devin-shafraon-drive/http://techblog.rga.com/virtuous-cycles-how-complex-systems-build-themselves/Some of the best views of the New York City skyline are from the BQE near the Kosciuszko bridge. It confounds me how a population of hominids built this wonderfully intricate metropolis. Layers upon layers of tunnels, pipes, electronics, the diverse topography of buildings and bridges. It’s awe-inspiring. Our ingenuity as a species is impressive, […]http://techblog.rga.com/virtuous-cycles-how-complex-systems-build-themselves/http://techblog.rga.com/using-code-and-working-software-to-inspire-others/Successful programmers and technical architects are well known for their ability to deliver rock solid applications, however, it’s their ability to inspire that’s most prized at R/GA. Good programmers execute, while great programmers inspire. In his book, Sketching User Experience, Bill Buxton highlights the importance of sketching as a technique for putting “experience front and […]http://techblog.rga.com/using-code-and-working-software-to-inspire-others/http://techblog.rga.com/learning-more-from-your-qr-codes/At R/GA we’ve been using and promoting QR codes for years, and it’s nice to see them gaining traction in the mainstream marketplace. You’re seeing them more and more in print advertising, on packaging and on outdoor signs and you’re also seeing increased reports of QR Code usage. When a consumer sees a QR code, […]http://techblog.rga.com/learning-more-from-your-qr-codes/http://techblog.rga.com/software-seedlings/It’s spring in New York and my windowsill is covered with young seedlings.  It’s not easy to tell the difference between the arugula and the brussels sprouts because seedlings are not simply smaller versions of mature plants.  Instead, they have generic looking “seed leaves” that pop out like an umbrella and jump start the growing […]http://techblog.rga.com/software-seedlings/http://techblog.rga.com/postcards-from-the-edge/On April 28, Will Turnage will be hosting the closing keynote at AppNation SF called “Postcards From The Edge.” In this session we’ll be talking about the future of mobile products, and you’ll get to see me wearing a light up, Android powered Arduino skull shirt/. Visit the AppNation SF website for more information about […]http://techblog.rga.com/postcards-from-the-edge/http://techblog.rga.com/8-lines-of-code/I’ve been driving for about 20 years and I’m ashamed to say that I still have only a rudimentary knowledge of the internal workings of a car. I’ve compiled a mental list of important considerations, though — just the simple stuff that prevents real harm. For instance, I know that when jump-starting a car you […]http://techblog.rga.com/8-lines-of-code/http://techblog.rga.com/welcome-to-rga-tech-blog/More than thirty years ago agency founders Bob and Richard experimented with Academy Award-winning optical printing techniques. Today R/GA programmers continue the legacy of using technology to experiment and inspire. Tech Blog is the most recent account of this evolutionary process.http://techblog.rga.com/welcome-to-rga-tech-blog/http://techblog.rga.com/over-engineering-is-like-snoring/A lot of developer cycles are spent discussing the benefits of YAGNI and KISS. On the surface it would seem that there is an army of righteous developers fighting against the demons of over-engineering and maximum complexity. And despite our valiant battles, despite all the books and blog posts and rallying calls from respected technology […]http://techblog.rga.com/over-engineering-is-like-snoring/http://techblog.rga.com/the-great-divide/Smart brands realize that to succeed they need to bridge the gap between marketing and IT. North of the Arctic Circle, a top priority for fishermen is to catch and dry enough char to last the winter. Fishermen near the equator race to market before insects and bacteria spoil their catch. Climate is the driving […]http://techblog.rga.com/the-great-divide/