Christopher Francia Recent content on Christopher Francia Hugo -- en Wed, 10 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Apps Every Startup Should Use (updated) Wed, 10 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000 1. Wave Accounting Keeping your books in order and having a reliable and easy to use invoicing system is crucial to the smooth operation of your startup. Wave is all that and more. It ingests bank transactions in real time, auto reminds on invoices and can even accept credit card payments for invoices. Best of all it can do all of this for free! I have used Wave for personal and business affairs and it has never let me down. Polyglot Language Wed, 10 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Okay the title is technically a lie, since there is no magic language that is good for every task. If you think there is, then you probably use Javascript, and are still wrong. What this is really about is your base language, the language that will power the core of whatever application or system you are designing. More specifically it is dealing with languages that are good for a large swatch of application purposes and will not cover extremely niche languages. Right Candidate, Wrong Education Wed, 14 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Most hiring processes are very inefficient, with numerous methodologies being employed and a lot of money spent to determine whether or not a person will succeed in the role. Yet despite all this effort, time, and cost, most companies still struggle to find and hire the right people. The first big issue is the company gatekeepers. These are typically recruiting or placement firms if the company outsources, or human resources if they do it in house, both of which are problematic in the same way. Chromebooks: A Modern Miracle Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Despite all the capabilities a modern digital device provides people still use them only for basic tasks. Take your smartphone for instance, despite the fact it has enough power to solve complex equations or can film, edit, and distribute your own high definition movie, most individuals use it to check email, send messages, take photos and browse the internet. Laptops are the same story, yet people continually buy machines that are far more powerful than their needs require. How To: Deathly Hallows Lamp Shade Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Items Needed Black Cardstock or Construction Paper Lamp with Cloth Shade Exacto Knife Printer with Black Ink Gluestick or Rubber Cement Template Designs Found Below Step 1: Purchase an ordinary floor lamp with a cloth shade, I recommend this one as the square shape makes it much easier to place the cutouts on it. Step 2: Purchase Black paper online or from your nearest office supply store. I used construction paper, but black cardstock would be just as good if not better. Leap, Just Have a Parachute Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Many people want to be their own boss, and they feel running their own startup is a way to do it. However, being an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. Startups are all about risk, but how much risk is too much? Is it necessary to put it all on the line? Honestly I don’t think so. I know there are plenty of stories of founders who put their house up or personally guaranteed loans they couldn’t afford, so on and so forth. Micro vs Macro Management Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Micromanagers are the bane of any field that requires creativity. If you haven’t experienced one then consider yourself blessed, and to everyone else, I understand your pain. I worked for one particularly awful micromanager who had a need to control every aspect of our project. We were developing a web application and had a handful of developers on the project plus a frontend designer. The manager in question had zero experience in any of these fields but had worked for a bank and believed the way they were managed there was the best way to manage everything. Product, Timing, Message Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 The startup environment is like playing the slots: exciting, nervous, disappointing and exciting again. A cycle that only ends if you hit it big or run out of money, and too often it is the latter. Startups fail, large or small, and the majority of them fail. After a lot of late night thoughts reminiscing on my own startup experiences, a light bulb went off. Startups fail when they do not possess three crucial factors. Installing Go on Ubuntu 16.04 Sun, 07 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Installing Go on Ubuntu 16.04 Download the latest version of Go from Extract package to /usr/local Substitute $VERSION.$OS-$ARCH with the equivalent values provided in the file you downloaded. tar -C /usr/local -xzf go$VERSION.$OS-$ARCH.tar.gz Set your Path variable for Go by adding the following line to /etc/profile export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin Logout and Log back into Ubuntu for the change to take effect, or enter the command above directly into terminal after adding it to the system profile.