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Category: Technology
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Learning to Talk Tech
In college I took a Computer Science 101 class. For the first assignment, the professor asked us to write step-by-step instructions on how to tie a shoelace. (Stick with me here.) I thought, “No problem. Just make the bunny and run around and go through the hole. Boom.” The next day he asked for volunteers. He…
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Why Contextual Observation Is So Valuable
Understanding user needs is critical to the success of any product, and usability testing is one important tool that helps us build websites, programs, and apps that users love. But not all usability tests are created equal. I recently had the opportunity to conduct a contextual usability test with Wits, a Minnesota Public Radio show, and…
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Building Loyalty in a Card-free World
Recent articles in Inc.com and Slate have made the case against card-based loyalty programs, arguing that they are bad for business and that companies should focus their energy on creating a superior experience. They’re right that following a cookie-cutter or “me too” approach to loyalty will likely not pay off, but that doesn’t mean loyalty is dead. It just…
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What is Direct Traffic?
So you’ve got a website and you’ve installed Google Analytics. That’s a great start, but don’t stop there! With a bit of time and attention, Google Analytics (GA) can provide valuable information regarding conversions. Conversions are those key moments when visitors do something interactional or transactional on your site, e.g. complete a sale or donation, sign up for…
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When Powerball Attacks
Clockwork websites live on a cluster of redundant, load-balanced servers. On any given day, this cluster handles hundreds of requests per second, or millions per day. This is boring; it’s what we do all day, every day. I want to talk about a different kind of day. What Happens One of our clients is the Minnesota…
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The real solution to the “Work From Home” debate
Sparking the debate Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer, caused a pretty significant wave across corporate America yesterday with her sweeping mandate requiring all employees to report back to the office for active duty. In other words – Mayer is eliminating a work from home policy – the kind of policy that Internet companies made famous in…
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Fixing the font mess in your CSS: @font-face and the font-family / font-weight saga
Web fonts are a great way to give your website a unique design, but embedding all of the necessary font-files can create quite the mess in your CSS. Unfortunately, many of the online tutorials and font-face kit generators give incorrect examples (and are just plain doing it wrong). So, to save you time and fonts-face-related…
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SSH Agent Hijacking
When ForwardAgent Can’t Be Trusted SSH without passwords makes life with Unix-like operating systems much easier. If your network requires chained ssh sessions (to access a restricted network, for example), agent forwarding becomes extremely helpful. With agent forwarding it’s possible for me to connect from my laptop to my dev server and from there run…