If you’re building an application that needs to reach the widest possible range of mobile phone users – no app required to send or receive messages, and it works even those on plain old “feature phones” – you should take a look at SMSified. They make integrating SMS into your software or service as simple as an API call, freeing you to work on what sets you application apart.
SMSified + Shopify
Shopify is a service developed in the same spirit (and company name and colour scheme!) as SMSified: we take care of the tedious parts of setting up an online store so you can concentrate on what sets you apart. Also, like SMSified, we also provide an API that lets you build applications to enhance your online store or the behind-the-scenes business of running that store (we even have a place for you to sell your apps to Shopify merchants).
There are all sorts of ways you can use SMS with a Shopify store:
Notifying customers of a special limited-time deal or if their order has shipped
As another way for customers to reach customer support or for repeat customers to place a quick order
Pinging you, the store owner, when some major happens, such as a customer making a king-size order or requiring special attention
Mark Headd of SMSified put together this video showing how you can put SMSified to work in your Shopify store. In this example application, all customers with a known mobile number are sent a simple text message about an upcoming sale:
You can find out more about Shopify/SMSified integration in Mark’s post on the SMSified blog. Check it out and see how you can integrate SMS message with your Shopify store!
This article also appears in the Shopify Technology Blog.
If you’re a techie, creative or business in the Ottawa area and you’re looking to do something fun in the ByWard Market area (the home of Shopify — we believe that great companies belong in great locations) next Tuesday night, we’d like to invite you to our upcoming Shopify Pub Night! It’s a chance for you to get to know us, meet some new people, have a nice dinner and enjoy the vibe of the Market on what’s shaping up to be a lovely summer.
Shopify Pub Night will take place next Tuesday, June 14th at the Heart and Crown pub in ByWard Market (67 Clarence Street) from 6:00 p.m. until about 10:00, later if warranted. It’s an informal affair, and while we’re always ready to talk about ecommerce, software and design, you don’t have to be a geek, ponytail or suit to come, because this event’s about getting to know you and for you to get to know us. Come on down and join us for good conversation, good food and drink and hopefully, good weather!
The book’s been a work in progress since 2008 and it looks as though Bibeault was added as an author to get the thing done by the August 2011 target release date. There’s no shame in this; Resig’s a busy guy, and while I’d love to see this book finished, given the choice between a finished jQuery book and continued work on jQuery and all the related projects, I’d always rather have the latter. As of this writing, 14 out of the 17 chapters are done and my guess is that the book looks to be on track for an on-time release.
Although currently incomplete, the drafts of the book have served me well over the past three years. The book starts where few do, with a chapter on testing, covering both the general principles of unit testing as well as an overview of some of the more popular test suites. From there, the book covers the functional programming aspects of JavaScript with chapters on functions and closures and then the object-oriented aspects with a chapter on function prototypes. There’s a block of chapters that cover misunderstood aspects of JavaScript: timers, regular expressions, the with statement, the eval statement and writing code that works across browsers. And finally, there are the chapters that deal with web pages: CSS selectors, the dreaded DOM, attributes and CSS and event handling. All these chapters are chock-full of good code examples.
JS had to “look like Java” only less so, be Java’s dumb kid brother or boy-hostage sidekick. Plus, I had to be done in ten days or something worse than JS would have happened.
I consider JavaScript: The Good Parts to be the first of the really good JavaScript books, and its chapters on objects and functions are still required reading. However, with the recent release of Eloquent JavaScript and upcoming release of Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja, it’s no longer the first book I’d recommend (it’s still one of the better ones, though).
DailyJS
DailyJS is the most regularly updated blog on JavaScript out there. As its name suggests, it’s a blog that features a new story about JavaScript or a JavaScript framework or library every day (or almost every day, anyway). There’s a lot going on here: a tutorial series called Let’s Make a Framework (where you do just that), another series called Code Review in which they examine the code of many popular JavaScript frameworks and libraries to see what makes them tick and see how the established projects are written, and various articles on all things JavaScript. If you’re developing in JavaScript, you should bookmark this site.
JavaScript, a.k.a. ECMAScript, but originally named Mocha, then LiveScript, is many things at once, making it a confusing, messy beast. It’s ubiquitous, useful, powerful and even after all this time, has some goodies in its bag of tricks that will surprise you. It’s also clunky and confusing; and to make matters worse, misinformation in the form of dead-wrong documentation and bad JavaScript code examples abound. I’m going to borrow a backhanded compliment from my friend and former co-worker Adam “Adam Bomb” Carter and call JavaScript a “hot mess”. And I do mean it in the nicest sense of the phrase.
One of the attempts to help alleviate the confusion is JavaScript Garden, a site created by Ivo Wetzel and Zhang Yi Jiang. Written for the benefit of both new JavaScript developers who want to get it right the first time as well as long-time JavaScripters who are wondering if there are better ways to do things.
…it covers common misconceptions and bugs related to objects, prototypes, functions, this, closures, the arguments object, scoping, equality and comparisons, typeof and instanceof, and much more. The site is very nicely written and designed, and I recommend that you check it out!
…
It’s awesome to have great JavaScript documentation, and to have a community that takes the time to write it. If you are interested in contributing, or you find errors, JS Garden is hosted on Github, so just file issues and send them pull requests to help make this resource even better.
JavaScript is the most important programming language today, and JavaScript Garden is one of the most important JavaScript sites today. Make sure it’s in your bookmarks!
W3Fools: A W3Schools Intervention
When searching for information about HTML, CSS and JavaScript, W3Schools (no link, let’s not give them any more search engine juice) often shows up in the results, thanks to its longevity and some good hard SEO work on their part. The problem is that the site is all kinds of wrong, from its inaccurate and out-of-date information, to its name that falsely implies an association with the W3C to the certifications of dubious value that they offer. Among the erroneous or outdated info on this site is their JavaScript reference material.
W3Fools, a site created by “members of the front-end dev community”, explains why W3Schools is best avoided. Give it a read, and after that, you’ll know why you should generally avoid W3Schools.
Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) is a worldwide weekend-long marathon where computer programmers, humanitarian aid experts and general do-gooders get together to build prototypes of software to provide aid to people in need. This weekend, there are 18 such marathons taking place across the globe, and Toronto is holding one of them, thanks to my friend Heather Leson, the prime mover being RHoK Toronto.
This is the third RHoK to be held in Toronto, and here are the project that the teams are working on:
I attended RHoK 2 in December as an interested party as well as a Microsoft representative, and I wrote up the event in an article titled Hacking for Good Causes.
I’d like to send my regards to everyone at RHoK Toronto as well as all the RHoKs around the world. Keep on hacking the good hack!
Teams at Random Hacks of Kindness Toronto “hackathon” create new mobile and online tools
WHAT:
Hackathon to solve humanitarian problems & pitch competition
WHEN:
Pitch competition & judging: Sun., June 5 from 3 to 5 p.m.
Hackathon: Ends Sun., June 5 at 3 p.m.
WHERE:
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), 5th floor, 252 Bloor St. W., Toronto
WHO:
Experts in climate, disaster, crisis; software, design, Internet, media, more (see below).
TORONTO, June 5, 2011 /CNW/ – Disaster professionals working with volunteer software makers in Toronto yesterday began building a set of mobile and online emergency aid tools whose prototypes they aim to complete today. This evening, competing teams will vie for prizes in a pitch competition judged by a panel of experts.
The teams at Random Hacks of Kindness Toronto (RHoK Toronto) are among some 1,000 people in 18 cities across 6 continents participating in a global weekend-long hacking marathon, or “hackathon,” that unites technologists and humanitarian experts in an effort to solve pressing problems.
“It’s unbelievable that the teams are able to create these mobile apps and online tools in less than 48 hours,” said Heather Leson, lead organizer of RHoK Toronto. “By dinner time last night, one team here had already programmed a working prototype!”
Projects
Competitors at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in downtown Toronto are working on six projects:
A mobile app that can use Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and other notification services to deliver emergency messages even when cellular phone networks have stopped working, and can alert rescue workers when someone is alive under a collapsed building
A telemedicine tool that would help people in remote or disaster-stricken areas to visually diagnose life-threatening wounds and help them seek treatment
An alerts tool that harnesses the emergency response capabilities of the worldwide ham radio community to bridge the digital divide with Internet-based first-responders
An app that helps people find and identify food growing in their immediate vicinity
A tool that helps relief workers track and manage emergency medical kit inventory in the field
A tool that enables people to avoid adverse drug reactions and helps them create a personal digital medical history.
The Random Hacks of Kindness volunteer community — founded in 2009 by Google, Microsoft, NASA, Yahoo and the World Bank — has produced mobile and online software tools that were deployed after disasters in Chile, Haiti and Japan.
Pitch competition Sunday afternoon
“This afternoon’s pitch competition will let the teams in Toronto show off their work — and give the most innovative ones bragging rights,” said RHoK Toronto manager Melanie Gorka. “The best pitches will also win prizes that include a private lunch with leaders at Mozilla, which makes the Firefox Web browser; high speed computer networking equipment from Linksys by Cisco, security software from Symantec, and more.”
The Toronto teams will also be able to receive coaching to develop and enhance their pitch and presentation skills, and consult with special guests who are experts in crisis and emergency aid, before they showcase their projects in front of the pitch competition judges:
Jesse Brown, host of TVO.org Search Engine podcast; writer for Macleans.ca, Toronto Life.
Paul Osman, Mozilla Foundation. Open Web team manager.
Karen Snider, Canadian Red Cross national media manager and social media strategist.
Julia Stowell, Microsoft Canada open source community and marketing manager.
Special guests:
Sara Farmer, United Nations Global Pulse chief platform architect.
Kate Chapman, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team. Open global map for aid efforts.
Aaron Huslage, SafeCast. Crowdsourced open tracking of reactor-leak radiation in Japan.
“The best part of Random Hacks of Kindness is that no matter which teams win Toronto’s pitch competition, all the participants learn, mentor and share in their world. Plus, some projects will continue and maybe become fully built,” Heather Leson said.
ABOUT RANDOM HACKS OF KINDNESS TORONTO:
RHoK Toronto is an ad hoc committee of civic-minded citizens with professional expertise across a broad range of industry sectors. The first Random Hacks of Kindness hackathon in Toronto was held inDecember 2010.
Community partners new and old have donated space, food, funds, prizes, services and tools to help make the event a success. Donations may be made through the RHoK.org Toronto site or by contacting the organizers. Current sponsors include: Camaraderie, Centre for Social Innovation, CIRA, Cisco, GlobalNews.ca, Jonah Group, Lady Atelier, Marketcrashers, MaRS Discovery District, Aaron McGowan, Microsoft Canada, Net Change Week, Nitido Inc., Rightsleeve, Symantec, Syncapse, Tropo, University of Toronto and Yahoo Canada.
Random Hacks of Kindness was founded in 2009 by Google, Microsoft, NASA, Yahoo and the World Bank. The worldwide innovation community has seen thousands of volunteers work on 120 open source software projects, including tools used in the Haiti and Chile earthquakes in 2010, the recent Japan quake and tsunami, and landslide-prone parts of the Caribbean. “Open source” means the computer code is available for anyone to use and build upon.
Global Random Hacks of Kindness community: www.rhok.org
Unfortunately, the poster’s not in plain sight at the Stores, and whoever designed it focused more on being arty than being readable. No worries: I got my paws on the text, formatted and annotated it a little, and present it to you below – enjoy!
The Full Text of the Poster
In the last 10 years, we’ve learned a lot.
We’ve learned to treat every day with the same enthusiasm we had on the first day. We’ve learned the importance of giving our customers just as much attention as they give us. And we’ve learned the art of hiring the right people for the right positions. We’ve learned it’s better to adapt to the neighborhood rather than expecting the neighborhood to adapt to us. Which is why we spend so much time and energy building stores the way we do.
Our first store, in Tysons Corner, taught us our first lesson within the first 30 minutes. We had just opened the doors when we noticed the steel already needed polishing. With a special polishing solution. And a special polishing tool. That’s when we learned that blasting steel with virgin sand makes it less prone to scuff marks.
The Midtown Manhattan Store. Creative Commons photo by Brad Greenlee.
We’ve also learned more than a few things about stone. Like how to reveal granite’s true color with a blowtorch. And that sometimes granite has veins of color that have to be matched.
We’ve also learned that getting these details perfect can feel like trying to move a mountain. Sometimes two. But in the end, the effort is worth it. Because steel, glass, and stone can combine to create truly unique and inspiring spaces.
The Paris Opera Store.
We also understand that finding the right design for our stores is critical. We even built a full-scale facade of the Regent Street store in a Cupertino parking lot to be sure the design was right. Which taught us the value of seeing things full size. We once had a notion that ministores would offer the ultimate in convenience. Then we built one. Which showed us that bigger can actually be better. And we’ve learned that even when our stores are big, no detail is too small. This is something we learned all over again when we restored the Paris Opera store down to the last of its more than 500,000 tiles.
We’ve also learned that our customers like open spaces, glass staircases, and handcrafted oak tables. And that those spaces don’t need to smell like pine trees or tomatoes to make them inviting. We’re constantly working to make our stores more artful, more iconic, and more innovative. And we’re awfully proud of every single one. We’re proud of our stores not just because they’re successful, but because of everything they’ve taught us. All the ways Apple Stores have made Apple stronger as a company.
Over the past 10 years, we’ve learned that our stores are the embodiment of the Apple brand for our customers. Now, our customers just happen to be the entire reason we’re here, so let’s dedicate a few words to them. Around the time we opened the store in Tysons Corner, in 2001, everyone else was trying to talk to their customers less. Which made us think that maybe we should talk to them more. Face-to-face if possible. So we’ve found ways to strike up a conversation at every possible opportunity. We talk while they play with the products on the tables. And when they join us for a workshop. These conversations have taught us that customers love our products, but what they really want is to make a scrapbook out of family photos. They want to make a movie about their kid. Or a website about traveling across the country.
Which has taught us that Apple Stores can and should be centers for creativity. And we’ve figured out through programs like Apple Camp and Youth Workshops that creativity doesn’t care about age. The movies and slideshows we’ve seen kids make are proof that all you need are the right tools and an idea. And we must be doing something right, because the kids’ smiles are just as big as ours. We’ve also learned that musicians can record an album in our stores that goes to the top of the charts. And that award-winning film directors are interested no just in our computers but in our workshops.
We’ve learned a lot about having fun. And we’ve learned our customers like to use our products for business too. Experience has taught us that having one Pro Day per week dedicated to business customers isn’t enough. That we need to be open for business very day. And have space devoted to business training sessions, workshops, and events. We’ve learned that every staff member should be just as fluent in the needs of a business customer as the needs of any other customer.
Our millions of conversations with customers of every stripe have taught us it’s not about making people feel like a computer or phone loves them. That’s impossible. Instead, it’s about giving people the tools to do what they love. And we’ve learned how to create amazing programs like One to One and Personal Setup to give people those tools. We created programs like these to replace fear with confidence. Because our customers have shown us that the ownership experience is even more important than the sale. We learned all this by asking questions. And genuinely listening to the answers. And to be sure we’re hearing everything, we’ve learned to converse in 36 languages, and a few of the local dialects as well. We’ve even learned a few cultural things. The proper use of the word y’all, for example. And our Japanese customers one taught us that their superheroes don’t wear capes. Which also taught us to see feedback as a gift.
Creative Commons photo by Randy Lemoine.
We’ve learned that a visit to the Genius Bar can fix more than just computers. It can also restore a customer’s relationship with Apple. And that we don’t need a minifridge stocked with free water to get people to talk to a Genius. Knowing they can get exactly the right answer when something isn’t working is enough. We even figured out how to shorten the time an in-store repair takes from seven days to one day.
Our customers hold us to exceptionally high standards. So we’ve learned how to raise ours even higher. 325 store openings have taught us that a grandopeningcreatesblocksandblocksofexcitement. That people will stand in line for hours, even days, just to be among the first to walk through the front door. And to get a free T-shirt. Speaking of T-shirts, we’ve learned more than you can imagine about our own. We’ve found that when we wear black T-shirts, we blend in. And when we wear too many colors it’s confusing. But blue shirts are just right. We’ve also learned that it takes precisely 4,253 stitches to embroider the Apple logo on those blue shirts. And we even figured out which direction the stitches should go in.
When it comes to product launches, we’ve learned we have to work hard to ensure supply meets demand. If not on the first day, then soon thereafter. And we’ve learned how to put our own products to use in innovative ways in our stores. We’ve created entirely new systems like EasyPay to help our customers as efficiently as possible. We’ve replaced the red phone behind the Genius Bar with more expertise right in our stores.
All of these experiences have made us smarter. And at the very center of all we’ve accomplished, all we’ve learned over the past 10 years, are our people. People who understand how important art is to technology. People who match, and often exceed, the excitement of our customers on days we release new products. The more than 30,000 smart, dedicated employees who work so hard to create lasting relationships with the millions who walk through our doors. Whether the task at hand is fixing computers, teaching workshops, organizing inventory, designing iconic structures, inventing proprietary technology, negotiating deals, sweating the details of signage, or doing countless other things, we’ve learned to hire the best in every discipline.
We now see that it’s our job to train our people and then learn from them. And we recruit employees with such different backgrounds–teachers, musicians, artists, engineers–that there’s a lot they can teach us. We’ve learned how to value a magnetic personality just as much as proficiency. How to look for intelligence but give just as much weight to kindness. How to find people who want a career, not a job. And we’ve found that when we hire the right people, we can lead rather than manage. We can give each person their own piece of the garden to transform. We’ve learned our best people often provide the best training for the next generation. And that it’s important for every member of our staff to not only feel a connection to their store, but to the teams in Cupertino and to the stores around the world. Because the best ways of doing things usually translate, regardless of language or country.
We’ve also learned that due to the exceptional quality of our applicants, it can be harder to be hired at the Apple Store than in Cupertino. It can sometimes take two to three years to bring someone in. Not because they aren’t right for Apple. But because we want to be sure the opportunity we have to offer is right for them. Why have we learned to be so selective? So careful? Because our people are the soul of the Apple Stores. And together, our team is the strongest ever seen in retail. As beautiful and iconic as our stores may be, the people who create and staff those stores are what matters most.
So on this 3,652nd day, we say thank you to every single one of you. We say thank you to those who were there on the first day, and to those whose first day is today. The past 10 years of the Apple Store have changed Apple as a company. Our experiences, our successes, even our occasional missteps, have made us better. They’ve made Apple better. And it’s because of those experiences, and the ways they’ve changed us, that we can’t wait to see what we’ll learn next. It’s been 10 years. What an amazing first step.
Shopify is a service developed in the same spirit (and company name and colour scheme!) as SMSified: we take care of the tedious parts of setting up an online store so you can concentrate on what sets you apart. Also, like SMSified, we also provide an API that lets you build applications to enhance your online store or the behind-the-scenes business of running that store (we even have a place for you to sell your apps to Shopify merchants).
