Company News
It's A Trap (For Us All)
This morning in our
team meeting, I spoke about a common struggle we face as people interpersonally. It affects our personal and professional lives equally and can have repercussions further than we can imagine. It's the topic of "offenses." The topic of conflict resolution is never out-of-date because it is a timeless struggle for business leaders.
The Excellent Employee
I'm very fortunate here at Centresource to manage a team of excellent employees. Recently one of them sent me an article published by Inc. Magazine that listed the top eight characteristics of a remarkable employee. I'm thrilled to say our team could be the poster children for this model. The top items on their list where:
- Ignore job descriptions - They adapt quickly to shifting priorities by doing what it takes, regardless of their job role.
- Eccentric - They stand out and are comfortable enough in their own skin to be confident
Who Speaks Digital Archive
This week Vanderbilt in conjunction with CentreSource launched a site dedicated to the timeless work of Robert Penn Warren. We are so excited! This was a major undertaking for both our staff and the Robert Penn Warren team at Vanderbilt.
In 1965, Random House published Robert Penn Warren’s book titled Who Speaks for the Negro? In preparation for writing the volume, Warren traveled throughout the United States in early 1964 and spoke with large numbers of men and women who were involved in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. He interviewed nationally-known figures as well as people working in the trenches of the movement whose names might otherwise be lost to history. In each case, he recorded their conversations on a reel-to-reel tape recorder.
Tennessean: Mobile application market heating up
This past Sunday, the Tennessean published an article around the recent surge in mobile application development in Nashville. One of those interviewed was one of our most recent clients, PureSweat. PureSweat offers specialized basketball training and development programs to top high school, college and NBA players. Their program enhances player's skills and fundamentals, which allow them to be successful at any level. PureSweat's owner, Drew Hanlen is currently finishing up his senior year at Belmont University. We wish Drew and the rest of the Belmont team huge success during the March Madness season. We are very excited to have the opportunity to work on such an amazing product and driven entrepreneur.
A Year of ROWEing
The beginning of 2012 means that it’s been a full year since the leadership team of Centresource took an enormous leap of faith and did away with start and end times for the workday, and allowed employees to work from any location desired. Around the halls of Centresource, you’ll hear it referred to as the ROWE system or “going ROWE,” referring to the Results-Only Work Environment philosophy.
February Mixer!
It's that time again: the FIRST #CSMixer of 2012! Come on out to catch up, network and generally geek out! We'll have great finger foods and beer graciously provided by our friends at Blackstone.
So be sure you RSVP, and we'll see you all on Thursday!
Freakin' asymptotic notation: How does that work?
OK, I'll be the first to admit it - math is my favorite subject. I know that makes me weird - even among fellow working software engineers - but it's the truth. It's also the truth that while they may be boring to many, knowing even a little bit about the numbers of computer science can help make you a better software engineer. Today, we're going to look at a little piece of applied discrete math - the analysis of algorithms - and how we can empirically describe the performance of one algorithm with respect to another using something called "asymptotic notation". If you already know what this is and how to read the various sub-notations, skip the rest of this post: it's old news. If you do not know what this is, and would like to, read on! If you do not know what this is and don't care, read on anyway - I promise you it'll be worth it.
SOPA and PIPA
Today the internet is taking a stand against the Stop Online Piracy Act & the Protect IP Act, commonly referred to as SOPA and PIPA, respectively. You've probably seen these protests take shape in various creative, stark forms. Our favorite – you guessed it – comes from Tumblr, who blacked out actual posts from their users, across every single Tumblr Dashboard. That's millions of words and thousands of posts, hidden from view:
Similarly, Wikipedia has boldly pulled their whole site down for the entire day, letting users understand first-hand what's at stake.
What the FONT?!?
Web designers have many challenges when it comes to designing a website. Some may include timelines, budgets, client changes, scope-creep, etc. But one of our biggest challenges are fonts. Fonts? Yes. Fonts.
The web was created back in 1945 (not kidding: http://www.w3.org/History.html). It took almost 50 years for them to create the "W3 Organization". The W3 is an organization that makes up the rules for the web. Including what fonts are considered "Standard" and "Web Safe". They had to make rules for what fonts we as web designers can use. This very short list included: Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, Impact and everyone's favorite...Comic Sans.
Toy Madness! The Salvation Army Angel Tree Program
Last week several folks from Centresource crossed the river to the East Side to help out with the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program. This gift-giving bonanza has been around since the 70s and spread throughout the US and many other countries. The idea is to match kids in need with Angels; people who will shop specifically for that child so they can have something to open on Christmas.
If you've never been in a sketchy warehouse 'down by the river' for a good cause, I can't recommend it enough. Our job was to help sort through the thousands of items still not placed with a kid. Imagine two football fields full of miscellaneous toys and clothing and you get the picture. It was overwhelming at first. But the Salvation Army is very well organized and right away they had us trained and sorting like pros. The most entertaining part of the work was getting to review the popular toys this season, and my mind was blown. Star Wars Transformers. Did you know that was a thing? Star Wars space ships that turn into galactic sword-wielding robots. To be a kid again.
