Michael Bianco

NetSuite Global Search Shortcuts for Alfred.app

I’ve done a lot of NetSuite development in ruby over the last couple years. It’s very challenging to integrate NetSuite with external applications. During the process of completing several NetSuite integration projects I’ve developed a set of tools and shortcuts to speed up the NetSuite development workflow. One key tool is search shortcuts for Alfred.app. I have a production and sandbox search shortcut which drops my search query directly in the NetSuite global search bar. This search shortcut allows me to just type in NetSuite customer number, sales order number etc and jump right to the record in the NetSuite environment. Many times if you go to the NetSuite homepage directly you are required to login again…

What I’m Looking for From Platform Conference 2014

I have the amazing opportunity to attend Michael Hyatt’s platform conference. I’ve followed Michael Hyatt for many years ago – I’ve read his books, blog posts, and religiously listened to his podcast. I’m a big fan. Although in a web application and website developer by trade, I love marketing. I’ve made learning marketing a priority over the last year and I’m excited to dive into a full two day conference dedicated to building an online platform and an online business. Here’s what I’m looking for from the conference. Copywriting I’m a horrible speller. I got a 10% on the state spelling exam in high school. However, I love the craft of communicating ideas and grabbing someone’s attention. How to effectively test multiple headlines?..

Configuring Polycom 321 IP Phones With a Plantronics CS510 Wireless Headset

98% of my work is software engineering and web development but sometimes I get pulled into troubleshooting random internal IT issues. One of these was building a small business phone system. Recently it was setting up a wireless headset for the Polycom 321 IP phones. Sounds easy, right? Nope. VOIP systems are not well documented and seem to suffering the same fate as router hardware. All the innovation in the VOIP is in the cloud, on the hardware side there is a lot of progress to be made. So, for all those who just need to get their wireless headset to work: Hardware CS510 – The wireless headset EHS APP-51 – The adaptor Plantronics adaptor for the Polycom phone…

Don’t Wait for Change. Attack Yourself.

Change is hard. Challenging the status quo is scary. Hurting “the existing business” is a real concern that has short term consequences. If you don’t attack your own business – whether you’re a consultant, small business, or large corporation – someone else will. Someone else who has the pressure of a smaller budget, the focus of not being distracted by less important projects, or the freedom from red-tape, will make a game changing move. You have to be flexible and bold enough to to replace your legacy business, to create a product or service that will change or possibly destroy your current business model. As the marketing classic The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing states, you have to attack yourself.

Don’t Sell Inputs. Sell Results.

Work is often valued on the number of hours you put in. It’s complex to price work on a per-project basis. It’s easy to set an hourly rate as opposed to pricing on a per-project basis. However, there is a hard limit to return when working on an hourly basis. I was recently challenged to change the way I value and price my work, this quick comment has triggered a significant paradigm shift over the last week: You have to move to be outcome driven. Stop concentrating on inputs. All that matters is the outcome. Most of the time it doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as the goals are met (hopefully surpassed!), timelines hit, and executed within budget constraints…

Cloud Based DID With a POTS Based Asterisk System

A while back I wrote about my experience setting up a business phone system with Asterisk, Polycom, and POTS. This system has been working fine over the last year, I’ve only had to dive in once or twice to fix a couple issues (which I’ll detail in a future post). However, recently someone using the phone system needed a Direct Inward Dial (DID) to their phone. I couldn’t find any concise walkthrough about how to set this up, so I’ve written down my processing in figuring this out. I knew Asterisk supported DID, and I found a guide that walked you through setting one up. If you using POTS for your calls and not a SIP trunk, DID gets tricky really fast…

Billings Pro Touch Server & Client Syncing Issues

Quick tip for anyone having issues with getting their iPhone’s Billings Pro app to sync with a local Billings Pro server: I recently grabbed a Asus RT-N16 and flashed it with DD-WRT. It was working great until I was fiddling with some of the wireless settings and accidentally reset the router. After reconfiguring the router, my iPhone with Billings Pro Touch would not sync with the local Billings Pro Server. For some reason it seemed that the network tab on the server admin GUI wasn’t picking up my lastest public IP and/or reporting it to the switchboard service correctly. To fix your reported public IP: log out of the switchboard, click advanced, manually set your public IP, and login to switchboard again…

MacRuby 0.12, RVM, and Gem Installation Problems

I recently jumped back into a MacRuby project that I haven’t touched in a while. I upgraded to the latest MacRuby 0.12, installed the necessary gems via macgem install, and was presented with this error:[code]Segmentation fault: 11[/code] Since I started this project my ruby setup had drastically changed: RVM, custom irbrc, and lots of other tools that I’ve found essential for productive rails development had been installed. I noticed that macgem list –local returned the list of gems needed for my rails project. Running env from the command line revealed that GEM_HOME and GEM_PATH were set explicitly in my bash env, a result of having RVM installed and a non-system ruby set as default…

Cocoa User Interface Buttons: Previous and Next

I created these years ago, but forgot to post them until now: back forward icons for a Cocoa / Objective-C application. PSD + TIFF files included. They were designed during the snow leopard (possibly the leopard) era, but they still look decent. Should be a good starting point for anyone looking to design a custom previous and next button set for their Mac application. Download Cocoa UI Previous and Next Images

Social Norms vs Market Valuation

I’m reading Predictably Irrational a really fascinating book, especially for those who have any interest in economics. One of the chapters that I’ve just finished discusses the ‘two worlds’ of valuation and exchange: one which is ruled by ‘social norms’ and the other by cold rational market analysis. The interesting psychological element to these two ‘worlds’ is that once you cross the threshold into the world of market analysis, you can’t go back. The author cites an example of a day care center which created a new rule which attached a monetary file to arriving late to pick up your child. Once the fine was implemented, more parents arrived later to pick up their children…

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