Silos in Tech
What is siloing?
In order to better discuss how engineers and teams become siloed, as well as the positive and negative effects it can have on a team, I should define what I mean when I refer to…
By James Simshaw, Senior Software Engineer
October 29, 2018
When to Refactor: A Case for Quality
Software, like all things in life, decays, mutates, and grows old. Much like the barnacles that sprout across the belly of a ship, the slow creep of destructive rust on a tractor, the corrosion of…
By Matt Thogerson, Product Manager
October 8, 2018
Three Lessons Learned from Working in IoT
Prior to coming to Metal Toad, I worked as a .NET engineer at an Internet of Things (IoT) startup. My job was to stabilize and expand an existing cloud-based infrastructure that served as a central…
By Kalina Wilson, Software Engineer
October 2, 2018
Missing a Development Tool? Make Your Own!
Do you ever wish you had a certain tool, but you don’t have the budget for it, or it doesn’t even exist? I’m here to tell you: you can build it!
And as I discovered, the build can give you more than…
By Robin Law, Senior Software Engineer
September 28, 2018
Angular API Calls with Django, Part 2: Building the Micro-Blog A…
This is the second part of a two-part series exploring the use of the Angular 6 HttpClient to make API calls against a Django back-end using Django Rest Framework. In the first part, we learned how…
By Keith Dechant, Software Architect
September 9, 2018
Devopsing a Legacy World
Devops has been picking up steam since around the year 2009. ( It could be argued it was around in other forms longer but for argument's sake let's go with 2009) Today it is mainstream and there…
By Nathan Wilkerson, Cloud Operations Manager
September 7, 2018
Evaluating and Choosing A/B Testing Services
One of the first documented A/B tests was run by Google nearly 18 years ago as a spearpoint test into the world of web performance optimization. The test ultimately glitched due to slow load times. (…
By Matt Thogerson, Product Manager
September 5, 2018
"Hack the Plants" — Five Lessons Learned from an IoT Adventure…
Do a search on “IoT projects” and you’ll turn up endless pages of fantastic Internet of Things ideas and examples. Roll-your-own home security system! Track your cat’s movement! Build your own droid…
By Kalina Wilson, Software Engineer
August 21, 2018
Hackathon 2018: Four Guys in a Garage. On Laptops. In a Minivan.
This year’s hackathon was all about the Internet of Things (IoT)—pulling data from the real world and sending it to the cloud, then finding ways to analyze and manipulate that data for insights.
I…
By Nathan Wilkerson, Cloud Operations Manager
August 21, 2018
Hacking Happiness: Team Mood Meter at Hackathon 2018
This year’s hackathon challenge was to explore the Internet of Things (IoT) using cloud technology. As a Scrum Master, I have a longstanding interest in supporting the emotional wellbeing of teams,…
By Ori Applebaum, Lead Project Manager
August 21, 2018
Freedom to Fumble: Learnings From Hackathon 2018
I spend all my time at work dealing with software. So going into this year’s hackathon, I was excited to get hands-on (and in over my head) with hardware. Having never even touched a Raspberry Pi…
By Brad Kouchi, Software Engineer
August 21, 2018
Hackathon 2018: Kegerator 2—Revenge of the Flowmeter
If you’re going to spend two long days frying a Raspberry Pi and fiddling with (very) finicky electronics, is there any better way to do it than surrounded by beer? I'm sure some of you would answer…
By Morgan Senkal, Software Architect
August 1, 2018
IoT and Employee Satisfaction
The very concept of automation leads to a moral and ethical dilemma regarding the workforce. People need to work to support their families, but there are tasks that could be done better, faster, and…
By Sasha Friedman, Lead Product Manager
July 27, 2018
Does your IoT device need an antenna upgrade?
I've long been curious about the effectiveness of the built-in antennas that are attached to common WiFi modules. Can that tiny, serpentine PCB track really match the performance of a "real" antenna…
By Dylan Tack, Principal Engineer
July 6, 2018
IoT Business Value: Reducing Time Spent Monitoring
Like anything else in its early lifecycle, the Internet of Things (IoT) has a ton of hype but there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to the actual business value. Maybe you heard C3 IoT…
By Sasha Friedman, Lead Product Manager
July 5, 2018