winning your first it project
Posted on Become a Better Developer

Winning Your First IT Consulting Project

The hardest part of IT consulting arguably is landing that first customer and project.  This is obviously one of the important steps in a successful career. Unfortunately, it often is where dreams of consulting die.  The world has gotten smaller and it is easier to connect with potential customers.  However, this makes competition more likely as well.  Over the years I have found a number of attributes of strong contenders.  Here are some things you can do without have a long resume or vast portfolio. Find a Prospect There are many ways to find opportunities these days.  Advertising your services and direct mail are ok.  However, sites like Upwork.com and Guru.com will provide better results and qualified leads.  The proposals... Read more

Chalkboard of words like training and development
Posted on Become a Better Developer

Incorporating User Experience Into Your Solution From The Start

In this third episode of the Creating a Software Solution series we look at the user experience.  The key to a software solution is solving a problem that needs to be addressed.  However, a solution that is not usable will likely fail.  That leads us to a focus on the user experience from the beginning of the project.  We will discuss building a foundation for the solution that will make the customers happy. There are Many Considerations for User Experience One of the problems most software solutions run into is a lack of detail for the user experience.  We tend to skip a lot of “common sense” areas of an application that cause us headaches when we move to testing and... Read more

appstream
Posted on AWS Tour

Amazon App Stream – Run Your Applications Anywhere

In the list of AWS resources,  I think AppStream (2.0) is one of the most powerful and innovative. What is AppStream? This service is another bundle of features that add up to a solution to a common problem.  The problem is providing access to a Windows application across the Internet.  There are a lot of legacy applications built for companies that require access from more than a desktop.  Remote workers are becoming more common, and that means that we need to give them access to the same tools they have in the office. Complex Infrastructure, Quickly The Appstream solution is not new or unknown.  A lot of companies provide remote connectivity into their network and virtual machines that can run applications.... Read more

chime
Posted on AWS Tour

Amazon Chime – Keep In Touch

The Chime application from Amazon has a very limited free tier option (limited to two people) but does have a thirty-day trial.  Better yet, the trial does not require a credit card and simply drops to the free tier after thirty days have passed. Conference Application You may have lived in a hole or work in a low tech business.  In either case, you might not know what Go To Meeting is.  This is a tool for creating virtual meetings.  A virtual meeting is held online and allows members to share screens while talking on a conference call.  Many of these tools allow for recording and either a call-in number or use of you laptop microphone and speakers.  These meetings can be... Read more

athena
Posted on AWS Tour

Amazon Athena – Spreadsheet to Database Conversion

The tour of Amazon AWS services moves to Athena this week.  This service is a utility on top of S3 that allows you do queries of data files stored there.  Thus, it is a great tool for digging into your log, spreadsheet, or other data without the need of a DBA. An Athena Overview This tool is as easy to use as it is powerful.  All one has to do is upload a file to S3, link to it in Athena, and map some columns.  Once these steps are done then, queries can be run against the data much like any database provides.  The service also provides some built-in parsers to categorize the file data.  Thus, CSV, Apache log files, and... Read more

workspaces
Posted on AWS Tour

Amazon WorkSpaces – The True Road Warrior Solution

The next stop on our AWS tour is Amazon Workspaces.  This service allows you to launch a virtual desktop you can access anywhere quickly.  Thus, no more lugging around a laptop.  Now you can connect to your desktop from anywhere.  Even better, you can get to work with only an Internet connection. Virtual Windows Workspaces There are some options available via Amazon workspaces.  However, the Microsoft Windows options have the largest appeal.  They offer an opportunity to bring your license for a lower cost or to use one from Amazon.  If you have a few Windows licenses floating around (maybe from old, unused laptops or desktops), then this is an opportunity to make use of them.  The versions include prior Windows... Read more