Posted by jason
The San Francisco Department of Elections certified the validity of at least 20 of my signatures were from registered Democrats in the 12th AD, and I am an official candidate for San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee(SFDCCC)! As an old friend of mine would say, yippers!
For those of you who don’t know, the SFDCCC is the governing body of the Democratic Party in San Francisco. They register new Democrats, mobilize campaigns, fundraise and more.
This is really, really exciting. More to come.
Posted by jason
i5labs started working with Helium Report at the beginning of this month. They are the premier guide to destination clubs, a luxury vacation home option for the well-to-do. We’ll be integrating Ruby on Rails into their website, from basic forms, to content management and e-commerce.
What’s interesting for me, is that this was the first time (to my knowledge) that I’ve been pitted against offshore firms. i5labs bid against a firm in Bangalore, and one in China. While we are the more expensive option, they were looking for immediacy, the ability to turn on a dime, and spending less time in the QA cycle. Additionally, I spent a lot of time on the ground with them doing pre-sales work, as opposed to being just a technical vendor, to help them understand the more technical aspects of web marketing, and bring them support from that angle.
Posted by jason
i5labs is looking for an experienced developer to
develop, maintain, and enhance software. We’re looking to take on new and exciting projects, and need to grow the team.
We are a strong development firm that utilizes Agile Development Methodologies, while also having great design and UI sense – we put together full, high-quality projects with both aesthetic and technical expertise.
The job will start part-time, and grow into a full-time position.
Position Information:
Software Engineer (Ruby on Rails) (Part-time to Full-time)
Requirements:
Ruby on Rails
Local to the Bay Area
Bonuses:
Open Source Projects
Agile Development Methodologies experience
ASP/.Net and/or Java
If you’d like to be a part of our team, email
jobs@i5labs.com.
Posted by jason
Check out the first Zubio chair massage kiosk (first of hundreds, hopefully) at the San Francisco Shopping Center, on 5th & Market. Schedule a 10 or 20 minute accrupressure massage on the touchscreen and swipe your credit card (it also takes gift and discount cards)!
This is i5labs’ first touchscreen project, and the first ever touchscreen on
Rails! We implement Rails wherever possible and it’s working out fantastically.
The code is base is tight (<2000 LOC) for the functionality we’re
providing, and issues are easy to diagnose.
As with design for the PSP, there are dimensions to creating touchscreen software that make this a different beast than the standard web application. We had to consider software maintenance and updates to multiple kiosks, plans in the event of an internet connection failure, use by non-technical employees, and more. The Zubio specialists need to focus on massages, not on hacking.
How do you keep the process running smoothly? Dummy-proof the system as much as possible. Our startup sequence boots up the computer, starts the server, database, and browser, and then kicks the machine into kiosk mode. All the specialist has to do is press a couple buttons!
A server resides at the kiosk location, which allows it to continue functioning if net access goes down. Software updates to all kiosks originate from a single location. Since remote access to this central server is available, on-site time is minimized.
The hardware for the setup is all off the shelf—making the technology
affordable and accessible. Dell or eMachines are around $300-$400; a USB
credit card reader is less than $50; and a touchscreen runs a few hundred (dependent upon vendor and volume). The most expensive portion of this project is the
expertise required to get the software online the first time. Subsequent
touchscreens setups can cost under $1,500. Cheap!
That’s it from our end about this project. If you’re in the neighborhood,
try a massage—it’s incredible! If you’ve done any similar projects, give me a
holler, I’d love to hear from you.
Posted by jason
Theming with
Typo is great! I should have done this sooo much earlier.
- Hop on over to Typo Garden.
- Download themes
- Unzip into Typos themes directory
- Log into Admin and select the theme you want to use
- Find replacement for gas mask image(if you chose bird flu... esp. if you have any involvement in politics :-))
