Feb 23 2012

An Introduction to RSpec

Category: My Web Log,Tech — Admin @ 15:12

By Guest Blogger: Max Woghiren, Google

RSpec is a testing framework for Ruby based on the notion of behavior-driven development. It’s designed to allow unit tests to be easily written in terms of behavior, and provides simple, intuitive documentation for the entities being tested. It’s a valuable tool that makes test- and behavior-driven development enjoyable and straightforward. Let’s check it out.

Reverse Polish Notation

Suppose we want to write a calculator. The calculator will operate using Reverse Polish notation. In Reverse Polish notation, operations come after operands; for example, 3 + 4 becomes 3 4 +. A calculator using this notation maintains a stack of numbers, and whenever an operation is entered, we pop the top two numbers from the stack, perform the operation, and push the result back onto the stack….

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Feb 11 2012

Crowd-Sourced Libel

Category: My Web Log,Tech — Admin @ 00:20

When I first heard about OpenLabel’s idea for an app, I initially thought out loud in solitude, “Not another soon-to-be-defunct barcode scanning app!” But as I read more, I realized that OpenLabel’s new app was a crowd-sourced solution designed to provide more transparency on products and brands. For example, not only would a barcode contain price information, but it would contain other data such as the environmental impact of the product and whatever other information that consumers wanted to share with society.

The idea isn’t original but the timing seems to be right as crowd-sourcing is becoming more commonplace. However, since OpenLabel will not be monitoring any of the user input, the potential defamation of brands is increased and could result in lawsuits against both the start-up and its user base. In addition, even if this app becomes successful and profitable, I do not think brand loyalty would succumb to its effects.