Stephen.fm

React Native Troubleshooting Tips and Tricks

While building a React Native iOS and Android application, I've gone run into a number of difficult issues. Below is a process I've come up with, which has helped solve

devops

Installing fonts on Amazon Linux AMIs for PhantomJS proper rendering

PhantomJS is simultaneously a wonderful and terrible piece of software. I opted to use phantomjs over many other alternatives to create PDFs from HTML generated by a Rails 5.1

javascript

Use Polyfills to use JavaScript ES6 features with Phantom.js

I encountered some errors recently writing JavaScript tests in Phantom.js: ReferenceError: Can't find variable: Promise. This seemed like a strange error and ultimately it turns out that phantom.js is significantly lagging behind overall browser support of JavaScript ES6 features, like Promises. As

rails

Easy JavaScript Internationalization in Rails using the I18n-js gem

Ruby on Rails provides a well-documented and established Internationalization API for server-side localization. However, many projects I've seen forget to internationalize their front-end JavaScript framework and end up hard-coding text everywhere. For some people, this works, but for larger projects that require localization this

rails

A Happy RSpec, Capybara and DatabaseCleaner Setup

There have been a few times where I ran into problems with RSpec Capybara feature specs and DatabaseCleaner. Spec issues arise because most Capybara JavaScript drivers run your specs on

analytics

Removing Google Analytics Referral Spam

If you use Google Analytics, especially if you have a small site, you may notice referral traffic from weird domains with 1 pageview, 0 time on site, 0 conversions and 100% bounce rate. This is garbage traffic and it comes from domains like: buytraffic.

rails

Debugging Capybara Specs via Page Screenshots

Failing feature specs are difficult to debug, especially in CI. On an recent eCommerce project, our team opted to use Vue.js for several important app components and to made heavy use of feature specs to ensure everything worked as expected. Our testing stack

analytics

How to Create a Trackable link for Google Analytics

Trackable links (URLs) are critical to understanding return-on-investment for various digital marketing initiatives by providing additional information on how the visitor arrived to your site. Without trackable links, Google Analytics

training

Cycling: Wind Simulation Interval Workout

This is great interval workout for simulating windy conditions on an indoor training or when you're outside with little wind. Warning: this will a very enjoyable, easy, fun and not

performance

9 ways increasing page speed can help your business

Note: I originally wrote this for the Table XI blog. At the most basic level, a faster site will do two things: save money and increase revenue. Since those tend

training

Introduction to Tabata Workouts - Full Body HIT Training

If you're not familiar with "Tabatas", you're in for a treat. A "Tabata" is a form of high-intensity interval workouts and can be adapted to weight-lifting, cycling, rowing and other cardio-vascular exercises. The workouts are typically short, but are done

training

Long Cycling Interval Workout for Ironman Training

This is a good workout for building base cycling endurance. It uses long intervals so be honest with your pacing and try to stay consistent throughout each interval. Warm Up: 10 Minutes Main Set: 20 Minutes Olympic Pace 20 Minutes Ironman Pace 20 Minutes

development

Easy URL Forwarding to Localhost Using Ngrok

URL forwarding to your local dev server be incredibly helpful in several situations: Developing a 3rd Party integration that needs to point to your local server and test it prior to a stage deploy Quick and dirty demos of WIP features to get user

development

A Process for Upgrading Rails

This post walks through implementing an upgrade process rather than handling the specifics of any one or multiple version upgrades. It may seem simple but reduces risk during an upgrade.

analytics

Getting Started with Elasticsearch

Elasticsearch is a powerful, distributed search engine that companies like Github and Soundcloud use to power their search capabilities. This crash course is a high level overview and focuses on

startups

Key Takeaways from Mary Meeker's 2015 Internet Trends Report

Mary Meeker's Internet Trends Report was released earlier this week. It's a 175 slides and I've condensed them down into a five minute read. To view the original report, you can get a PDF here. Otherwise, read my TL;DR version. Highlights There mobile

travel

The Magic of Traveling

I spent the last twelve days backpacking through Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Palestine and numerous places along the way. This journey was one of the few moments in my life that

creativity

Hack Your Daily Routine to Solve Problems

Start your day off right with a simple process to focus your creative mind. The Process This process sets the stage for your subconscious to focus on the question you want answered. You should supplement any brainstorming or problem-solving activites you're already doing, aka

creativity

Understanding Problems and Questions

When problem solving, too often we jump right in without questioning if this is the right problem to solve or question to ask. Ask the wrong question, and you'll receive the wrong answer. Ask the right question and you'll often find the answer fairly

training

The Dice Workout

I learned early on that if you want to see continued athletic performance gains, you need to be constantly challenging or shocking your body with every opportunity. You need to constantly push yourself outside of your comfort zone otherwise your body rapidly adapts and

analytics

A Crash Course on A/B Testing

In 30 fast slides (and some notes), I walk through: what is A/B testing, what you can test, what to measure, how you can test and an example of why you should test everything. Presentation Notes Slide 4 - A/B testing allows

training

Ironman Florida Gear Checklist

Below is a triathlon gear checklist I've put together to keep organized for races and for my upcoming race in Florida. Feel free to use on your next race. Good

analytics

Universal Analytics with Turbolinks and Gon

<a href="https://github.com/rails/turbolinks", alt="Turoblinks - Github" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" >Turbolinks can boost your Rails 4 app performance but will cause unexpected behavior if you don't plan ahead. Client-side

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