Atomic Spin

Ruby on Rails • Oct 24, 2011

Integrating Paypal Express with Rails 3.1, Part 1

How to integrate Paypal with Ruby on Rails 3.1. A step-by-step tutorial.

Designing for Users • Oct 21, 2011

Designing Complex Applications: Before Asking “Is it useable?”, Ask “Is it useful?”

Usability testing assess the ease of completing a task—usefulness testing addresses if the task is valuable or a better alternative to what exists.

Development Practices • Oct 19, 2011

Builder Syntax: A Timeless Way of Building

What is Builder Syntax and how do recent implementations compare to those of Groovy and Ruby?

Development Practices • Oct 15, 2011

Code Parsimony and the Perils of Over Abstraction

... the more I think that simplicity is one of the most critical aspects of quality software. All things being equal, simplicity outweighs abstraction.

Embedded Systems • Oct 15, 2011

Taking the Training Wheels off the Arduino

The Arduino C Scaffold is a project environment for stepping outside the Arduino IDE and into the land of embedded C programming.

Ruby on Rails • Oct 13, 2011

Testing wrap_parameters in a Rails Controller

Currently, in Rails 3.1 the @wrap_parameters@ controller method works great, but is untestable. Here's how I've worked to resolve this issue.

Objective-C • Oct 13, 2011

GCD Dispatcher: A Small Objective-C Wrapper around GCD

Objective-C • Oct 04, 2011

Instance Variables in Objective-C

How Objective-C stores instance variables, and how the new runtime has improved this.

Business Practices • Oct 04, 2011

Interns and Apprentices at Atomic Object

A post about the internship and apprenticeship programs at Atomic Object, their history, and some fun statistics.

Web Apps • Oct 03, 2011

Rails Routes in Javascript with js-routes

Workplace • Sep 29, 2011

Workplaces: Designing for Interaction

According to research discussed in a recent hbr.org article, "a space may or may not encourage interaction depending on how it balances three dimensions, or “affordances,” that hav

Project & Team Management • Sep 28, 2011

Agile at Scale – The Small Scale

At first glance, it may seem like projects that have a team of one (or less) don't warrant or benefit from Agile techniques. However, it is still valuable.