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Company and industry news, featured projects, open source code, tech tips, and more.

Project: New Relic Playbooks

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniFriday, December 1, 2023

Full-Stack Observability helps engineers plan, build, deploy, and run great software. Only New Relic has a unified data platform for all telemetry data—metrics, events, logs and traces—paired with analysis tools to find solutions fast. Move past the ‘what’ to uncover the ‘why’.

New Relic partnered with Fynydd to create a sales training platform. New Relic needed to train new sales personnel using the latest product information and real-world scenarios to ensure customers were given the best fit recommendations.

They had already approved a WordPress multi-tenant environment for these kinds of use cases so that's the content management system we used. Given the security track record of WordPress we normally don't recommend using it. Since the New Relic IT department was hosting at WPEngine and securing the platform, our concerns were not as serious as they would have been had the platform been on the public Internet.

With regard to security, we also had to integrate with their corporate Okta single sign-on (SSO) platform to restrict the LMS to authorized users in the sales department.

Some of the project highlights include:

  • WordPress Multisite, hosted at WP Engine
  • Responsive HTML5/CSS3 framework
  • Okta/SAML 2.0 SSO integration
  • Shared content and media
  • Multiple author workflows
  • Embedded media
Screenshots

Key technologies

Front-end

CSS3

HTML5

JavaScript

Sass/SCSS

Cloud back-end

Amazon Web Services

Github

MySQL

PHP

WordPress

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

Upgrade Windows 10 without a TPM chip

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniSunday, November 12, 2023

Microsoft (in)famously requires that your PC have a special security chip (TPM) in order to install Windows 11. But the requirement is wholly unnecessary to maintain a secure installation. And it requires many people to buy new PCs, arguing that this is likely the primary reason Microsoft implemented the requirement.

Patching the Windows install to allow it to run on existing hardware without a TPM chip has been a game of cat and mouse. And until now it had again been thwarted by Microsoft.

Recently Microsoft has patched the Windows 11 ‘product server’ trick for TPM check bypass, but the bypass still works with setupprep.exe. This bypass will upgrade Windows 10 clients to Windows 11 without requiring a TPM.

setupprep.exe /product server

Project: Saint-Gobain Living Laboratory

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniWednesday, November 1, 2023
Saint-Gobain North America Headquarters Saint-Gobain North America Headquarters

Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures and distributes materials and services for the construction and industrial markets. These solutions are found everywhere in our living places and our daily life: in buildings, transportation, infrastructure and in many industrial applications. They provide comfort, performance and sustainability while meeting the challenges of the decarbonization of the world of construction and industry, the preservation of resources and rapid urbanization.

Saint-Gobain partnered with Fynydd to create a marketing website for their Living Laboratory campus location in Malvern, PA. The campus was built to showcase their newest, cutting edge building materials and processes. It also happens to be their North America Headquarters.

One of the many futuristic office spaces in their Living Laboratory One of the many futuristic office spaces in their Living Laboratory

Saint-Gobain created a high-performance workplace that encourages employee productivity, collaboration, satisfaction and well-being. By installing more than 60 of their sustainable building materials, working together in a systems-based approach, they influenced occupant comfort and well-being.

The marketing website included a visitor signup flow and several interactive content units including photo gallery, infographics, news feed, social network updates, video library, and more.

Some highlights of the project include:

  • ASP.NET/C# technology stack
  • SASS/Compass for powerful layout control; fully responsive
  • JQuery.Validate, Lightgallery, slick carousel, reCAPTCHA, custom hero and animated page scrolling
  • Contact and tour forms
  • Kaltura video library
Screenshots

Key technologies

Front-end

CSS3

HTML5

JavaScript

Sass/SCSS

Cloud back-end

Amazon Web Services

ASP.NET

C#

Github

Microsoft Windows

SQL Server

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

Prioritizing software features

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniFriday, October 13, 2023

Being a pragmatist when it comes to software development, I generally prefer simple solutions whenever possible. So when clients are faced with the challenge of determining which features to add to their products, as a starting point I usually recommend looking at user value versus cost to implement.

Given a progressive value scale from a “cup of coffee” at the low end and a “house” at the high end, we can easily see where the best choices lie.

Looking at the first row in this example, if a user values a feature at “house” and your cost to implement is a “cup of coffee” this feature addition becomes a no-brainer.

Likewise if a user values a feature at a “cup of coffee” but it will cost a “house” to build, it's certainly a feature to avoid implementing.

There may be some diamonds in the center blue area, but more information is usually required before we make those decisions.

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

Good user interface design is always subjective

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniSaturday, October 7, 2023

How to copy a Git repo to another location using rsync on macOS

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniWednesday, June 14, 2023

Here's a Mac pro tip: When copying a git repository directory to your network file server using rsync, try this:

rsync -brtlvP --chmod=Fu+w --delete-before Code/MyProject/ /Volumes/MyServer/Code/MyProject/

This will copy the files with timestamps but no other attributes, and will also give the file owner (you) full access rights. This ensures that you (or even Windows users with access rights) can overwrite the directory contents later because local read-only files (e.g. in the .git directory) won't be read-only on the server. You can also change the chmod option to customize the rights, like ensuring everyone has full control.

Install SQL Server 2022 with full-text search on Apple Silicon Macs

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniThursday, April 27, 2023

It looks like a recent change to Docker has allowed Macs with Apple Silicon to run a full installation of Microsoft SQL Server 2022 with full-text search in a Docker container.

How is this possible? Docker has a new feature that can use Rosetta 2 for x64 emulation. That means it supports creating an x64-based Linux image/container and installing the free but full version of SQL Server with FTS.

Step 0: Enable Rosetta in Docker

Enable this feature in the Docker settings as seen in the image below. Look in Settings => Features in development.

Step 1: Create the dockerfile

Take the content below and save it as a text file named Dockerfile. This configuration creates an Ubuntu 20.04 image, then installs the Microsoft package repositories, SQL Server 2022, FTS, and MS Tools.

# Docker image with msssql 2022 with full text search enabled;
# Based on work in: https://github.com/Microsoft/mssql-docker

# Base OS layer: Latest Ubuntu LTS
FROM --platform=linux/amd64 ubuntu:focal

# Install prerequistes since it is needed to get repo config for SQL server
RUN export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive && \
    apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -yq curl apt-transport-https gnupg && \
    # Get official Microsoft repository configuration
    curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | apt-key add - && \
    curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/20.04/packages-microsoft-prod.deb --output packages-microsoft-prod.deb && dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb && \
    curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/20.04/mssql-server-2022.list | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mssql-server.list && \
    apt-get update  && \
    # Install SQL Server from apt
    apt-get install -y mssql-server && \
    # Install optional packages
    apt-get install -y mssql-server-fts && \
    ACCEPT_EULA=Y apt-get install -y mssql-tools && \
    # Cleanup the Dockerfile
    apt-get clean && \
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists

# Run SQL Server process
CMD /opt/mssql/bin/sqlservr

Step 2: Build the dockerfile

This will build the Dockerfile and create a Docker image named sqlserver.

docker build -t "sqlserver:latest" .

Step 3: Run the container

This will create a container from the new image and run it. The sa user will have a password of P@ssw0rdz!, the EULA will be accepted, and port 1433 will be opened.

docker run -d --platform linux/amd64 --name sqlserver -e 'ACCEPT_EULA=Y' -e 'SA_PASSWORD=P@ssw0rdz!' -p 1433:1433 sqlserver:latest

At this point you should have SQL Server running! You can also have it start up with Docker by executing the command below:

docker update --restart=always sqlserver

The iOS-ification of macOS

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniTuesday, March 7, 2023

Apple's decision to make macOS look and feel more like iOS is aspirational, certainly. If users could seamlessly switch between operating systems and retain muscle memory it would be a big win. It's no wonder that Apple decided to do this with macOS 13 Ventura.

But in practice, Apple's zeal for consolidation has created some real problems for users. In many cases it feels like one step forward and two steps back. I can see how iOS power users may welcome most of the changes to macOS, but that position smacks of Stockholm Syndrome to me.

One of the best examples of this is the redesigned System Settings, which is a mess. I've given it months to “grow on me” and it has… like a fungal infection. The settings are (dis)organized into a single column of top-level categories in a seemingly random order. Devices running macOS have wide screens, so restricting the top-level categories to a single narrow column is an artificial limitation. And it can’t be remedied by resizing the System Settings window because only its height can be changed.

And the organization? macOS has a much deeper and more broad collection of settings than iOS. So as difficult as specific iOS settings can be to find on an iPhone, it’s near impossible on a Mac. And making it worse is the fact that some settings have been organized out of existence, spread out into disparate, counterintuitive categories. Want to tune all your power and sleep settings? You may have to explore a dozen settings categories to find them when they could have been put into an “Energy” category or something similar. Luckily there is a search feature. Without it I’m sure users would be surrounding the Apple Campus with pitchforks and torches.

Also part of this convergence initiative is the Apple decision to make physical keyboards work more like the iOS virtual keyboard, which changes contextually. The difference is that the iOS keyboard changes in appearance so you can infer what's expected. This means that, for example, sometimes you can use the delete key to remove characters to the right of your cursor, and sometimes you can't. It's like an infuriating game. And now when you press and hold an alphanumeric key it no longer repeats, in favor of a popup with extended characters (e.g. foreign characters with accents and ligatures). I suppose that’s handy for people who write in a foreign language. But you would assume that it would be an option, not a change to the original default key behavior. Your keyboard isn’t broken. Apple made it better YOU'RE WELCOME.

Use CSS to style elements adjacent to an input based on it being empty or filled

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniWednesday, December 21, 2022

Here's an interesting method for styling an adjacent element based on whether an <input> is empty or not.

The traditional method for accomplishing this is to use JavaScript, which involves more complex code that is difficult to write and manage. It would require using a selector to find both elements, determining if the input is empty or not, and altering the styles or class names of the adjacent element.

The method below only requires CSS.

input[type="search"]:placeholder-shown + i {
    /* input is empty */
    display: none;
}

input[type="search"]:not(:placeholder-shown) + i {
    /* input is not empty */
    display: inline-block;
}

In this case I'm hiding and showing a clickable icon that clears the search text if there is any. No JavaScript needed other than the click event 😃.

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

Software development is not coding

Michael Argentini Avatar
Michael ArgentiniWednesday, June 22, 2022

When asked, most people think that software development is coding; the physical act of programming apps and platforms for servers, computers, and mobile devices. This is not the case.

Software development is the process of solving problems through software. It's a creative process that is centered on discovery and adaptation which uses tactics like programming (coding) to accomplish its ends. Likewise, software development is not the act of reusing existing software for a new purpose. That's just copying bits.

So it is important for those involved in the software development process to understand and acknowledge the following key aspects.

Discovery and adaptation is the focus.

Understanding the problem domain is the key to a successful software development process. And we know the least about a problem domain at the outset. So it doesn't make sense to plan everything out at the beginning. Software development is an exercise in learning. We learn more and more about the problem to be solved as we move through the process. And as the problem domain comes into focus we should be refining or redefining what we should be building as we learn.

Mistakes will be made.

Mistakes help us solve problems and are one way in which we learn. Embrace them. Plan for them.

We cannot predict the future.

Perfect plans are usually perfectly wrong. It is impossible to perfectly know the steps, mistakes, discoveries, interruptions, and goals for a project, nor the time impact of each, all in advance.

Estimates are guesses about the future.

Great software doesn't just manifest in one go. It springs forth in a deficient state and evolves over time. This makes guessing about its future state with any accuracy a fools errand. It also means that creating precise specifications for those guesses can be a waste of time.

Accuracy and precision are not the same. Something can be very precise but horribly wrong. This has been shown by various studies, including those in the Microsoft Press book Rapid Development by Steve McConnell. According to the book it doesn't matter how diligent or thorough an estimate may be. The data shows that when compared to a more broad, high-level, or piecemeal approach based on past experience, the error bounds are largely the same.

Right-fit planning works.

We must understand the level of precision that makes sense. For example, it doesn't make sense to plan an entire project with the same precision as planning next week's work. Likewise, planning specific deliverables for dates far out into the future is also problematic. Small time horizons increase the accuracy of our guesses.

Release often.

By deploying changes frequently, we allow the entire team to steer the direction of the project early and often. This agile approach will ensure that the final product performs as it should for its users.

Want to know more?

There's usually more to the story so if you have questions or comments about this post let us know!

Do you need a new software development partner for an upcoming project? We would love to work with you! From websites and mobile apps to cloud services and custom software, we can help!

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