What is a Technical Co-Founder?

April 8, 2017 § Leave a comment

Most successful startups require both a technical “hacker” and a relational “hustler” to bring them to life.  One common pattern is that a “hustler” has access to ideas and potential funding and looks for a “technical co-founder” to join him or her,  through a process often compared to finding a spouse.

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TypeScript 2: Adding custom.d.ts Typings Files for Existing JavaScript Modules

March 22, 2017 § Leave a comment

If you are trying to import ordinary JavaScript modules into a TypeScript project, and those modules don’t already have an internal or external typings file, you may get an error like:

  • error TS2688: Cannot find type definition file for ‘lodash’
  • error TS7016: Could not find a declaration file for module ‘himalaya’

For some reason, the TypeScript documentation talks a lot about how to create typings files for modules that don’t have them, but not about how to add them to your project. And it is incredibly difficult to Google the correct answer.

The best answer I found is from: https://www.bennadel.com/blog/3169-adding-custom-typings-files-d-ts-in-an-angular-2-typescript-application.htm

The actual answer is quite simple: are only four steps:

 $ npm install -g --save typings # if you haven't already
 $ cat > custom.d.ts # type definition file for that module
 declare module 'custom';
 ^D
 $ typings install --global --save file:custom.d.ts

That’s it!

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Auto-launching Chrome to Debug Mocha Tests on Mac

March 22, 2017 § Leave a comment

Are you tired of cutting and pasting URLs from node –inspect to launch Chrome?

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Stark Realty #20: Redemption

March 27, 2016 § Leave a comment

[The following is the final installment of a science-fiction serial I started writing at Matterport, where I worked from May to December of 2015. Someday I will get the rights to publish the entire story, but for now, enjoy this little vignette.]

Stark Realty #20: Redemption

“He didn’t kill your mother, Tanya.” panted the newly-arrived Jane Hathaway. “I did.”

Tanya Bain stared at the petite, matronly woman in shocked disbelief. Tony Stark, his hands nailed to the concrete wall with Q-carbon spikes, screamed “Jane, no!”

The demolecularizing grenade Tanya had placed over her father’s arc reactor-powered heart dropped from suddenly nerveless fingers.  With a supreme effort, Tony levered himself against the spikes and drop-kicked the grenade against the far wall, where it harmlessly vaporized a quarter-inch of foamed concrete.

“Tanya,” he gasped.  “Please. Don’t believe her. It was all my fault.”

His estranged daughter stared at him blankly, sinking slowly to the ground.  She, with help from the anonymous cyber-dwarf Rumplestilskin, had put herself through hell to destroy Iron Man for killing her mother. Had her whole life been based on a lie?

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Third Millennium Values

March 18, 2016 § Leave a comment

I deeply appreciate and respect the new focus and push for 21st-century learning outcomes.  I just don’t think they go far enough.

Here are the four core character traits that I believe are foundational to creating those outcomes, as well as healthier individuals, communities, and society.

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Best Live Chat Widget for Startups: Jan 2016

January 20, 2016 § Leave a comment

Live chat support software is a great way to ensure visitors to your SaaS site are successful – or at least tell you what went wrong.  An in-page widget with a friendly human being on the other side is much more approachable than a link to anonymous forum!

Unfortunately, few startups are able to guarantee 24×7 coverage, which means you need a easy-to-use tool with a good fallback user experience for when nobody is available to chat. Here is what appear to be the best options as of January 2016.

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How to Build a Team

November 20, 2015 § Leave a comment

  1. Vision: What does success look like?
  2. Humanity: What do you need to succeed?

  3. Process: How do we ensure everyone gets what they need?