mrc's Cup of Joe Blog

Join us in exploring the world of modern development, evolving technologies, and the art of future-proof software

Author name: Joe Stangarone

Joe Stangarone is a 40+ year veteran of the IT industry and president of mrc—the software company behind the award winning development platform, m-Power. Joe shares his leadership and technology insights through the Cup of Joe Blog, focusing primarily on ways businesses can save time, money, and increase productivity using technology.

Thanksgiving Football: Fun facts and mobile apps!

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In honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, we decided to celebrate in true m-Power fashion: We made a mobile app! But not just any mobile app. This mobile app is all about the long-standing tradition of Thanksgiving football! It answers the big questions like:

  • What is my team’s record on Thanksgiving Day?
  • When was the first Thanksgiving day NFL game played?
  • Who won last year (or any year, for that matter)?

Sounds exciting, right? The application works on all devices (PC/Tablet/Smartphone), and you can find the it right here.

One thing to note: The application adapts to the device on which it is viewed. So, if you access it on a PC, it will look like a PC app. But, if you access it on a smartphone or tablet, it will look like a smartphone or tablet app. Go ahead and try it to see for yourself. If all of that sounds confusing, this page explains m-Power’s approach to mobile in greater detail.

But wait…there’s more!

While we were building the mobile app, we ran across some great facts about the Thanksgiving Day football games. So, we’ve pulled some of the more interesting “fun facts” and listed them below. Enjoy! …

Thanksgiving Football: Fun facts and mobile apps!Read More »

Help us stop Copyright trolls: Sign the petition

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“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”
Edmund Burke

We are asking for your help to end the predatory practices of Copyright trolls.

Copyright trolls are companies who misuse copyright laws as a way to make money through litigation. They prey on ignorance and misuse the law for their own personal gain. In fact, many of these Copyright trolls use litigation as their primary business model.

Why should you care?

1. It’s morally wrong: These Copyright trolls are misusing the law to attack individuals and companies who unwittingly infringe on copyrights. They make it easy for their victims to unknowingly infringe on their copyrights, and then spring into legal action once their victim falls for the bait. While technically legal, this practice is morally wrong.

2. It hurts the economy: These Copyright trolls are attacking small businesses, claiming damages up to $150,000 per infringement. Any money paid to copyright trolls is money that can’t be used creating new jobs, or purchasing products/services from other companies.

3. It could affect you: Have you created a web site or web application? Have you ever published anything online? If so, have you ever used an image that you didn’t pay for? Maybe you just grabbed an image from Google images for use in a blog post. Maybe you used a seemingly free image that came bundled with your design software. If so, you can expect a letter demanding a hefty settlement for copyright infringement. Here’s a real-life story of one blogger’s experience.

We want to put an end to this predatory practice, but we need your help. What can you do?

Here are two ways to help

1. Sign the petition: We’ve created a petition with the government to reform Copyright law. I would greatly appreciate it if you took the time to sign this petition.

2. Tell your friends: Make others aware of this growing problem. Tell them about this article and the petition. Spread the word. We need to fix this problem before it spirals even farther out of hand than it already has.

That’s it. If you could do those two small things, you would help make America a better place. Also, I would be eternally grateful.

Thanks!

Weekly recap: HTML5 features you didn’t know existed, BI adoption, and more…

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EducationEvery week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on HTML5 features, BI adoption, and more. I hope you find them useful:

How well do you know your ide/development tool
Some developers worry that if they start using a tool or an IDE, they’ll become dependent on that tool and turn into a worthless developer. This article explains why you should stop worrying, and love your development tools. …

Weekly recap: HTML5 features you didn’t know existed, BI adoption, and more…Read More »

The big tech trend that you can’t ignore

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EducationWhat’s the most important tech trend going into 2013? Some say mobile. Others say cloud computing. There’s also lots of buzz surrounding areas like BYOD, consumerization, shadow IT, and business analytics.

They’re all wrong. There’s one trend that’s more important than all of those trends combined, yet is widely ignored. It’s a trend that determines a company’s ability to take advantage of many of those new “hot trends” (mobile, cloud computing. etc…) that everyone is talking about.

What is that trend? This important, yet widely ignored trend is the shift towards modern application architecture. Yes, I know it sounds boring. Who wants to talk about architecture when they can talk about exciting trends like mobile apps, cloud computing, and analytics? You might…once you see what good architecture lets you accomplish.

What’s driving this trend? Companies are slowly realizing that their outdated application architecture is holding them back. They’re realizing that without modern architecture, they’re not even ready to think about the other new trends of the day.

So, the big questions are: How does outdated architecture hold you back from new trends? How does modern application architecture help your company adapt to current trends? To answer these questions, let’s take a look at the impact application architecture has on a few of the current tech trends. …

The big tech trend that you can’t ignoreRead More »

3-Language, cross-platform mobile apps in 3 days

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ProductivityMobile apps have dominated the news for the last year, with seemingly every development software vendor adding mobile capabilities. With so many vendors offering mobile apps, how can any company know which option to choose?

The organizers of the annual IBM International Power event in the UK decided to help companies with this problem. They recently organized a “Data Challenge”, giving mobile app software vendors a chance to put their money where their mouth is.

The rules were simple: Participating vendors had one week to build a mobile application over the same sample database. At the end of the time, each vendor presented their mobile app to the event’s attendees. …

3-Language, cross-platform mobile apps in 3 daysRead More »

Weekly recap: 4 possible futures for IT, HTML5 is growing, and more…

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EducationEvery week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on four possible futures for IT, HTML5, and more. I hope you find them useful:

HTML5 use is real: Majority of developers find it important for their job in next 12 months
If your company is considering mobile apps, you’ll face one big question: Should we build mobile web apps or native apps? While native has been popular among consumer recently, a recent survey indicates that developers think that HTML5 importance (particularly with mobile web apps) is growing. …

Weekly recap: 4 possible futures for IT, HTML5 is growing, and more…Read More »

Top 7 mobile app mistakes to avoid

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What do television, personal computers, the radio, electricity, and the internet have in common? A couple of things actually: First, each one represents a major technology shift. Second, each one was adopted at a slower pace than smartphones have been adopted in the U.S.

That’s right. According to these statistics, smartphone adoption is faster than any other major technology shift in the U.S.

Now you see what all the mobile app fuss is about.

Businesses aren’t just rushing towards the latest trend, they’re rushing to take advantage of the fastest growing technology shift in history. But, be careful. Mobile app development isn’t something you should approach blindly. Understand your options and the pros and cons of each approach before you begin, and you’ll avoid a heap of problems.

What kind of problems? Mobile app mistakes could leave you with expensive maintenance, security breaches, user adoption issues, and more. How can you avoid these problems? If your company is considering mobile apps, here are 7 big mistakes to avoid: …

Top 7 mobile app mistakes to avoidRead More »

Weekly recap: Develop applications that empower users, BYOD acceptance, and more…

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EducationEvery week, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles focus on the importance of developing applications that empower users, cloud architecture, and more. I hope you find them useful:

Can business embed IT
Like it or not, IT departments are changing. We’re seeing a shift towards the integration of IT and the business. Technology shouldn’t be confined to one department. It must permeate the entire business. …

Weekly recap: Develop applications that empower users, BYOD acceptance, and more…Read More »

5 most common IT money-wasters

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Save MoneyTell me, is your IT department wasting your company’s money? That’s a tricky question to answer. Nobody wants to waste money, yet despite best efforts to the contrary, many IT departments unwittingly waste money every day.

How so? While I couldn’t possibly cover every way in one blog post, I’ve put together a list of some of the most common ways that IT departments waste money. If you’re looking for ways your company can save money, start by investigating these 5 areas: …

5 most common IT money-wastersRead More »

Getty Images Demands Big Money from Website Owners

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Save Money** This guest post was written by Ryan Healy. Learn more about Ryan in the author bio at the end of this post. **

Have you ever used a picture on your web applications or website? And if so, have you taken the time to verify that you have the proper copyright to use that image?

If not, you could soon be the unhappy recipient of a settlement demand letter (AKA “extortion letter”) that asks for a large sum of money to pay for “damages.”

In recent years, companies like Getty Images, iStockphoto, Masterfile, Corbis, Jupiter Images, and others have become aggressive in pursuing people who infringe on an image’s copyright.

It doesn’t matter whether you use an unlicensed image accidentally or intentionally — the consequences are the same. …

Getty Images Demands Big Money from Website OwnersRead More »