About Us

Bulletpoint StarImulus® is a technology focused design + interactive agency.

In addition to our client services we also have a few products in the works. Our office is always filled with chatter and this blog is an outlet for our creative energy, rants and ideas.

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Support DetailsSupport Details
Find the real cause of client browser issues and get the lowdown on what your client's are using to see your site.
Support Details by Imulus

Featured Project

Jun6

How to set up a sexy jQuery TextMate bundle

Here at Imulus we’re massive fans of jQuery. We use it on a lot of our projects. We’re also fans of TextMate, an awesome text editor produced by the folks at MacroMates. Over the last few years we’ve refined our TextMate bundles (code highlighting and language recognition packages) to work ideally within the Imulus process.

So, during my recent love affair with jQuery I’ve heavily relied on their documentation section to look up specific functions and commands. And while their documentation is awesome, it’s still a slow process. Luckily, an awesome guy named Karl Swedberg has put together a beautiful jQuery bundle for TextMate that has tons of snippets for common jQuery tasks. And, it’s free!

Installation

Head over to GitHub and grab the lastest version of the bundle. When you download it you’ll get a weird filename like this:

kswedberg-jquery-tmbundle-b0622e4f889112c37e03400a6a3e63241ab29c31.zip

Unzip the file and change the folder name (which is the same as above) to:

jquery.tmbundle

Open up TextMate and then double click the jQuery bundle file you’ve just created. Boom! The bundle is installed.

Making it work within HTML documents

By default the jQuery bundle is set to only work within .js files. However, if you’re planning on using it within HTML pages you’ll need to do another few steps of work. First, copy the following code to your clipboard:

{    name = 'source.js.jquery.embedded.html';
            begin = '(?:^\s+)?(<)((?i:script))\b(?![^>]*/>)';
            end = '(?<=</(script|SCRIPT))(>)(?:\s*\n)?';
            beginCaptures = {
                1 = { name = 'punctuation.definition.tag.html'; };
                2 = { name = 'entity.name.tag.script.html'; };
            };
            endCaptures = { 2 = { name = 'punctuation.definition.tag.html'; }; };
            patterns = (
                {    include = '#tag-stuff'; },
                {    begin = '(?<!</(?:script|SCRIPT))(>)';
                    end = '(</)((?i:script))';
                    captures = {
                        1 = { name = 'punctuation.definition.tag.html'; };
                        2 = { name = 'entity.name.tag.script.html'; };
                    };
                    patterns = (
                        {    name = 'comment.line.double-slash.js';
                            match = '(//).*?((?=</script)|$\n?)';
                            captures = { 1 = { name = 'punctuation.definition.comment.js'; }; };
                        },
                        {    name = 'comment.block.js';
                            begin = '/\*';
                            end = '\*/|(?=</script)';
                            captures = { 0 = { name = 'punctuation.definition.comment.js'; }; };
                        },
                        {    include = '#php'; },
                        {    include = 'source.js'; },
                    );
                },
            );
        },

Then open up the TextMate bundle editor and drop down the HTML arrow.

html-selection

You should now see a huge list of snippets, commands, and preferences. Located in this list is an HTML language icon, it looks like this html-icon. Once this is selected you should see a large amount of code to the right. Past the above code directly in the following position after patterns = (

patterns-paste

That’s it, you’re done. How you can access tons of jQuery snippets and code examples directly inside TextMate.

Jun5

Frack You

If you live in Colorado odds are you’ve heard the term “fracking” on the news at least once in the last 7 years. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing is the technique used to force oil & gas out of the ground by injecting water, sand and chemicals deep into the bedrock. Industry officials claim the the technique is environmentally safe and doesn’t effect drinking water. Yet, in 2005 Dick Cheney and colleagues exempt the practice of fracking from the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Fortunately, producer Josh Fox has created a documentary about fracking and he’s hoping it will help increase mainstream awareness of the practice. Especially before oil & gas companies start drilling in the Delaware River Basin and contaminating the water supplies to Philadelphia, Baltimore an D.C.

Spread the awareness!

RAGE OF NATURE TRAILER from JOSHFOX on Vimeo.

Jun2

Introducing Support Details

support-detailsWe’re happy to formally announce the launch of Support Details, our first planned public product. This is one of those ideas which was in the works here at Imulus far longer then need be. In fact the idea was discussed in ’03 and sadly it fell off the radar until this year. Support Details is an attempt to add clarification to browser related issues between non-technical web visitors and their clients & customers.

This idea started as way to save time. To solve odd browser issues our team was always asking the clients questions like:

What browser are you using?”, “Which version of Flash is installed?”,”Do you have cookies enabled?” “What is your screen size?”

You get the point.

We simply were losing too much time to explaining the “how to” aspect; hence Support Details.

To be useful the product had to determine what browser a customer was using, along with any other configuration data which could be detected. Then, it needed a reliable way for capturing and sending the data over to the person who was working on the problem.

support-details-detail

The concept is simple. That is part of the reason we believe it works so well. Yet, we’re always open to good suggestions for improvement and we’re eager to hear your feedback.

May31

Putting Perspective on Success

merc100_bcbrLast week we were recognized as the 20th Fastest Growing Small Business (sub $2 mil in revenue) by the Mercury 100 for Boulder & Broomfield Counties here in Colorado. On the surface this might seem like a great accomplishment, however it’s a false measure of success, and I’ll tell you why.

  • The Mercury 100 just looks at Boulder / Broomfield County. Not Denver or the rest of the state. Colorado is loaded with great startup companies. Sure, Boulder & Broomfield are a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity, yet sizing yourself up against a small group isn’t a true validation of efforts.
  • You have to apply to be in the Mercury 100. Who knows for certain how many small business out there have not submitted their information. Clearly if you’ve found wild success in a business model why, other then selling the business or gaining investor dollars, would you feel the need to tell others?
  • The growth is skewed as a startup. It’s not difficult to show 500% growth when your first year consisted of the 3 months in ‘06 followed by a ramp up in ‘07 and sustained business in ‘08.
  • Revenue growth doesn’t equal profitability. While our revenue has grown over the last few years our most profitable year was ‘06. Arguably we’ve become less efficient as a business, and that is certainly not a measure of success.

So why are we rewarding pure revenue growth?

Don’t get me wrong, I like the recognition we receive for things like this. I just want to stress to other business owners that measuring success by pure revenue growth clearly isn’t the best option.

May13

Eating Well and Working Out Imulus Style

pump-up-the-jamI read an article a while back about how your spouse or significant other can drastically affect your good and bad habits. Makes sense, right? If your sweetie is going to the gym, you’re more likely to tag along. On the flip side to that, if your darling honey bear likes to eat out and eat often, you are more likely to follow suit.

So what about the people that you spend 40 hours a week or more with? How much influence do they have on your habits? Here at Imulus, we have 10 employees. So, needless to say, we’re a pretty tight knit group. We all go out to eat together on Fridays, and some of us go out to eat every day.

It’s especially difficult to refuse the lunch invite considering the fact that most of us exercise the use of peer pressure. I can’t count how many times someone has brought their lunch and has been talked out of eating it. This is, of course, a compliment to the victim of said peer pressure. We like spending time with each other and taking an hour out of our day to relax and shoot the shit.

This could present a problem. Especially if the choice of Big City Burrito arises. However, as aforementioned, this can also cause a positive impact on your co-workers when so many of them are advocates for health and fitness.

When you are surrounded by people who are often talking about which foods are good for you, (our accountant used to be a nutritionist for goodness sake!) you can’t help but let it seep into your brain - try as you might. Not only that, but Imulus provides breakfast foods every Monday morning which usually lasts us the whole week. Instead of the breakfast burritos or the bagels with cream cheese, we now have fruits and bread. This sets the tone for the rest of the day by eating a piece of toast and an apple.

Not only that, but just by working in Boulder, Colorado I feel the influence of being a healthier individual. Boulder has such a variety of different healthy restaurants, eating healthy even when you’re eating out is much easier.

Plus, every (that’s right, every) employee of Imulus is active. When your boss always uses his lunch break to go work out, it’s hard not to be influenced.

Moral of the story? Not sure. I guess what you can take away from this is try to ignore those bad habits of your employees. Maybe you’ll break the mold and be a good influence on them. If not, at least you’ll look hot.