Art & Logic

Letter to a New Client

2010-03-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

Dear New Client --We're excited to be working on your project. Before we get started, I'd like to share a few lessons that we've learned over the years. Many of our clients come to us with an idea, but often little or no experience developing software, and there are common patterns and mistakes we've seen made. Keeping these things in mind can help us complete your project more successfully.Your

Programmer Done Syndrome

2009-12-08T14:06:00.000-08:00

If I were given the power to strike one word from the lexicon of software projects, it would be the word "DONE". Too often, clients and developers interpret the meaning of the word "DONE" differently and critical misunderstandings arise.In the most literal sense, software of any significant scope is never "done". There are always bugs. Even if they have not yet been discovered, they exist. There

The Art & Logic Programming Challenge

2009-10-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

Clients who are new to software development often have a hard time accepting the uncertainty that's inherent in the work. They frequently have experience in other industries where the work can be estimated and completed confidently within a narrow range. They expect the same from software projects and are frustrated when their expectations are not met. Past experience has taught them that a

A Simple World?

2009-07-30T12:39:00.000-07:00

by Paul Hershenson, PresidentIn a simple world, when a client hired a software developer, he would:know exactly what he wanted the developer to buildbe able to describe it preciselynever change his mindnot have new ideas once the project startedbe asking for software that doesn't do anything new or experimentalIn such a world, it would still be difficult to estimate projects, but at least it

Telecommuting: Reality and Myths

2009-07-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

by Tom Bajoras, co-founderThere's a huge amount of information online about the advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting. Type in "telecommuting advantages" or "telecommuting disadvantages" into Google, and you'll get over 1100 results. Casually browsing some of these articles, I get the sense that many of them are theoretical, written by people who have no real experience with telecommuting

How We Work

2009-06-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

by Brett Porter, Chief EngineerMany of the clients who we work with either have little experience with software development, or have experience with development, but not using an external custom development shop like Art & Logic. As a result, there can sometimes be misconceptions and confusion about what it's like to work with us on a project.Estimates and ProposalsThe first step in any project

Transparency

2009-04-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

by Paul Hershenson, President & Co-FounderI often hear clients complain that their projects with other development companies are behind schedule. That's normal enough. Most software projects take longer than anticipated. What surprises me is when they wonder if the developers are actually working on their projects. My first question in response is to ask if their contract with the development

Mobile App Development is Hot

2009-01-09T14:59:00.000-08:00

We may be in a recession, but the rush to develop applications for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Google Android is stronger than ever. Art & Logic is one of the worldwide leaders in mobile application development. More than a dozen companies have recently hired us to develop their mobile apps. One of them was nominated for the 2008 Best App Ever Awards. View the recent project stories & screenshots.

iPhone SDK Apps

2008-04-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

The iPhone SDK is one of the most highly anticipated new platforms in years. Our developers are *very* excited about iPhone development, and have been eagerly learning the details of this new environment through our partnership with Apple. Fortunately, iPhone programming isn't a very big stretch from Mac OS X programming, and we've been developing Mac apps for more than 17 years. That may help to

New Data Center

2008-01-23T14:32:00.000-08:00

We're not a hosting company, but many of our projects have hosting requirements of some kind. We currently manage more than 80 servers, including 25 physical machines. Until recently, all of these machines were located at the Art & Logic headquarters in Pasadena. With the company continuing to grow, we decided it was time for a better solution.On December 27, we began working with a co-location

iTunes Plugin for SRS Labs

2008-01-21T14:31:00.000-08:00

Art & Logic was hired by SRS Labs to develop an iTunes plug-in so they could bring their WowHd audio processing technology to Mac users. The plug-in (including a free trial version) is available here.

Fitness Website

2007-08-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

Today marks the 2nd anniversary of iTrain.com. In the two years that Art & Logic and iTrain have worked together on this site, it has grown to become the most popular website in the world for downloadable music for workouts. Art & Logic was responsible for all aspects of the project, including user interface design, layout, and construction; administrative tools, setting up e-commerce, testing,

Flash Application for Boat Control

2007-08-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

Maretron is shipping N2KView, a boat engine (and more) monitoring program. Of course it handles most any raw NMEA 2000 data in a boat’s backbone, including J1939 engines via Maretron’s gateway. But an extra neat feature is that N2KView is actually a server, able to deliver the goods to all sorts of Flash clients, including that WiFi enabled phone.Check out the N2KView screenshots (and maybe even

iPhone Application Development

2007-07-10T14:28:00.000-07:00

Art & Logic is currently developing a retail sales application for mobile web users. One of the targeted devices is Apple’s industry-changing iPhone.

We're Growing!

2007-07-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

Art & Logic is growing. We now have more than 50 developers in our virtual office, throughout the United States and Canada, in addition to a small support staff in our Pasadena office.

Flash Application for Home Entertainment System Design

2007-07-06T14:26:00.000-07:00

If you’ve bought a widescreen plasma TV, you know that installation is more complicated than it seems. No one wants a bunch of cables hanging down the wall. You can drill holes and run them inside the wall, but what happens when you buy a new component? And what if the new component increases the total load to beyond the capacity of your mount? You have to take everything down and start over.

Social Networking for Music

2007-06-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

Johnson-McCormick Technologies hired Art & Logic to develop the user interface and consult on the architecture of their rVibe music social networking/eCommerce system. The rVibe system brings together the best attributes of social networking systems (users can browse though the music collections of other users on the system, recommend tracks, albums, artists, or playlists to other users, and

Introducing John Palinski

2007-06-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

Art & Logic has hired John Palinski, an Oracle/SQL Server expert, to assist in tuning and optimizing database applications. John has an MBA, is an Oracle trainer, and is the author of Oracle9i Developer: Developing Web Applications with Forms Builder. He has also authored numerous articles available here.

Illustrator CS3 Plugin Development

2007-06-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

PublishASAP hired Art & Logic to create an Illustrator CS3 plugin that will automate processing of “jobs”, each of which consists of a series of Illustrator files. The plugin manages the job workflow and calls JavaScript to do the actual processing.

Parallels Between Cathedrals and Software

2007-05-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

Having just returned from vacation in Italy, I felt inspired to write about the parallels between cathedrals and software. Who knows; perhaps in the future people will look back on today’s custom software applications with the same admiration that I had for the Duomo in Florence. Here was a project that lasted hundreds of years, give or take a few dozen years if you count the gaps when funding

Looking for Software Testers

2007-03-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

Art & Logic is expanding its development team: We’re looking for software testers. But in typical A&L style, we’re not just looking for people with experience in QA or test engineering; in fact, we’re mostly focusing on musicians and other creative types who are already using some of the world’s most complex commercial software as they produce music and video in their home studios. We believe

Web-enabled Room Controller

2007-03-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

One of our clients, SP Controls, just shipped a new version of their PixiePro Networked Room Controller. The NRC is a web-enabled device that controls A/V equipment (screens, projectors, DVD players, etc.) over RS-232 and IR. We were hired to create the web interface, which required AJAX, Java, and some tricky cross-platform JavaScript.It’s always exciting to see a client’s product released to

Welcome!

2007-03-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Art & Logic blog!Old Art & Logic news can be found in the news archive.