For a long time here at Imulus we had trouble keeping track of internal company information. Client datasheets, software licenses, Imulus specific programming tips, bug tracking, email setup documentation, employee calendar links, etc. This problem was not something isolated to just us, every work environment I’ve been a part of has struggled with documenting and finding information. Generally the solution ends up being a massive repository of excel documents or a shared hard drive full of text files and snippets. Neither of these solutions are practical or scalable.

Our answer to this problem was an internal company wiki. Our goal was to have a central resource that was easy to update and easy to get information out of. It needed to be searchable, easy to edit, and secure. Being a .NET shop we decided to go with ScrewTurn a free open source wiki for .NET environments. A few other alternatives are: Wordpress plugins and hosted solutions such as pbwiki.

We’ve been using this solution since last August and it has been a huge time saver. Our project manager no longer gets flooded with requests for, “that spec requirement the client sent over,” and our programmer’s no longer have to use local text files to keep track of bugs in their code.

Google’s blog hosted a pretty fiery critique of the proposed Microsoft buyout of Yahoo. Particularly focusing on MS’s history with building and promoting proprietary systems in the PC and OS market.

Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies…

In essence, Google is concerned that MS’s monopolistic tendencies and proprietary history will lead them to stifle innovation on the internet. Potentially suffocating the openness of today’s web and in the process hurting users.

However, I feel that a number of Google’s concerns aren’t completely valid. First off, Microsoft has shown a somewhat surprising trend towards standards in recent history. The passing of the Acid test for IE8 is just one example. Another is their documentation and developer support, the MSDN is surprisingly full of information for people looking to work with Microsoft applications. In fact, Imulus’ web development is primarily based around the .NET framework, even though every person in the office owns a Mac.

The truth is Google actually has a pretty big monopoly in certain areas of the web (advertising). And they are constantly making acquisitions (jaiku, you tube, double click, android) that give them a stronger fist. And while Google does seem, for the most part, to be committed to their “don’t be evil” slogan they are by no means a white light in the sky.

Now, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a huge fan of Google, I am. In fact, I use almost every service they offer and I respect their dedication to multiple platforms and browsers. Not to mention their documentation and support for google product API’s.

Still, I think their bold criticism of the Microsoft/Yahoo bid is a bit out of line. Especially considering how different Yahoo’s culture is from Microsoft’s. If anything, MS being interested in purchasing a company that runs on open source programming (mainly PHP) and hosting (RedHat linux) is a refreshing thought. I mean, if MS did acquire Yahoo are they really going to reprogram every app to be in .NET? Doubtful. If anything it seems that MS would have to embrace an even more open culture than they already do.

I haven’t quite made up my mind on whether I’m a fan of a MS/Yahoo deal or not, but I definitely think it deserves a fairer shake than Google is giving it.

Here at Imulus we recently set a goal to streamline our design and development process by creating templates for starting a new project. As a first step in this process I coded out a simple HTML / CSS example page that offers information on basic HTML elements and what CSS can do to them.

It contains visual examples for the following:

• font rendering (PC and Mac)
• link styling
• heading styling
• list styling
• border style options
• and table styling

You can download this cheat sheet in zip format or view it online. Enjoy!

Recently at Imulus we started utilizing a new DNS service by the name of OpenDNS. It’s an alternative to the DNS servers provided by our internet service provider. The key to OpenDNS is that it’s a project supported by people who embrace an open source mentality. In essence, people who believe that a fast and reliable DNS server should be a public good.

Here’s the jist — when a computer connects to the internet it talks to a Domain Name Server in order to find locations of websites and then communicate with them. Therefore the speed of a domain server can drastically effect how quickly a page is loaded on a user’s system. OpenDNS provides a huge cache of sites, meaning that a connection to a site doesn’t have to make as many jumps to bring in the content. Further, OpenDNS is smart, it takes a misspelled address like www.google.cmo and turns it into www.google.com automatically. Last, OpenDNS has phishing protection for sites that attempt to spam or steal personal information.

All these factors have lead us to use OpenDNS, and we strongly suggest you give it a gander.

For the longest time I’ve been trying to find an web-based answer to managing my 10,000 + photo collection. I’ve had very specific criteria in mind for the ultimate photo management solution:

• It must auto-generate thumbnails, mid-sized images and link to the full resolution version
• The application should be easy to manage and update.
• The management must allow me to upload pictures from several computers, rather then just one machine, al la iPhoto / .Mac.
• Storage cannot be a limitation.

My search led me to several programs before finally selecting Gallery. First off, it’s Free, which is always a good thing. After installing MySQL and PHP5 on my OSX machine, I had Gallery up and running in no time. The install process is very friendly and if you have a rudimentary understanding of Apache you should be good to go.

The next step is to integrate it with Drupal and turn this puppy live.