Collective Detective Blog Archives

Want to Work on Collectivus?

As you know, we’re a lean micro-business building Collectivus on the nights and weekends. Excitedly, we are closing in on the first release. However, we’ve assessed we need more people to help finish out release one as well as help gear-up for what comes next.

Looking for a fun side-project? If you’re interested, have any combination of the skills we need and can commit a minimum amount of time per week through the end of the year to help out with some short-term stuff, we’d love to hear from you. Yes, you will get paid, but be warned, it’ll likely be a sad and pathetic amount. We’re also hoping to find people who want to continue to work with us on the next part of the roadmap. Those gigs will resemble more of a normal paying type. We’re flexible; let’s talk.

The Business Stuff

Business Planning and Development

Work with us to refine the business plan.

Help us develop and execute a scaled funding strategy and revenue plan.

Help us develop and package proposals and presentations and correctly file paperwork in triplicate.

The Visual Stuff

User-Experience Design / User Interface

Review and revise the existing user-interface.

Color-palette and accessibility improvements.

Help resolve a specific work-flow issue around search and results.

Graphic Design

Punch up art assets used in UI.

Creation of a few icons and other graphics.

The Code Stuff

Client-side Development

Use your expert HTML, CSS, and JavaScript/jQuery skills to help code, tweak, and revise features.

Ability to integrate and work with third-party APIs and web services.

Python / Django / PostgreSQL Development

Solid skills or background in related framework and want to move into the awesomeness of Python in order to hook-up some features and build new ones.

Ability to integrate and work with third-party APIs and web services.

Experience with authentication systems.

Linux Server Administration / Infrastructure Operations

Code review of infrastructure and security

Scripts and processes for automated back-up, deployment, and maintenance jobs.

At a minimum, you’ll be one of the first to get more insight into what the hell we’ve been building all this time. It’s also an opportunity to be a part of something we’re very excited about and think people will have a lot of fun with. Please contact us via the Contact Page, email, Direct Message on Twitter or reach out on Facebook if you’re interested and want to hear more.

Thanks!

Freedom from IE6: We Have It, So Should You

Now having spent over 11 years building web applications both small and large, I’ve spent a good percentage of that fighting the good fight to get Internet Explorer, Version 6 to work and render my code properly. This is a fight I, alongside a number of my developer colleagues, have fought against the mighty Microsoft empire. To this day, we still carry the emotional burden of the horrible hacks, exploits and browser detection methods we were forced to employ during our service to the web.

Today I’m here to tell you: “No more!” In an era where other browsers follow web standards and Microsoft’s grip on browser usage has weakened, web applications push forward into a new era, saying no to IE6 and yes to the future of the web.

Collectivus will be among them.

As a new web application, Collectivus will enjoy the sweet freedom of modern web standards. The site will enjoy that new specification smell of HTML5 and CSS3. Collectivus will also enjoy other modern conveniences like Microformats and JavaScript that doesn’t make developers weep openly.

We are not alone. Campaigns all over are taking up arms against IE6. Major sites like Digg, Facebook and YouTube are beginning to show IE6 the door. Some are more aggressive in their approach than others.

What does this mean for you as a user? A faster performing site with more features that’s more stable. It means we’ll spend more time building things for you to enjoy instead of trying to duct tape and chicken wire code together to get old browsers to work.

To those still suffering from the tyranny of IE6: Keep up the good fight. Write your local system administrator and let them know that an eight-year-old, crappy browser is unacceptable as a default web browser. It’s unsafe; it’s full of security issues. It’s a Microsoft product! At least IE8 is trying… a little.

While you wait for Collectivus to arrive, now might be a good time to upgrade and/or switch to one of these supported browsers for the best experience:

• Safari / Webkit
• Firefox
• Chrome
• Internet Explorer 8