July 2014 Summaries

Zapier's company culture emphasizes customer support and internal use of its own product, fostering innovative solutions for business processes. A Zapier data scientist, inspired by a customer's use of the platform to automate database queries, developed a method to track and share daily signup conversion rates with the team. By connecting Zapier with a PostgreSQL data warehouse and Slack, the team receives daily updates on conversion rates without additional effort, utilizing a query that filters results based on specific time criteria. This process enables the team to remain informed about important metrics in an unobtrusive and automated manner.

Twitter is a great network for sales due to its ability to connect with anyone without waiting for a follow, friend request, or like. Real estate agents can utilize Twitter to connect with more clients and customers by optimizing their profile and tweets. Key areas to focus on include filling out the bio, linking to a landing page, adding location, using header photos, including photos and videos in tweets, pinning best tweets, engaging with others, searching for people who need help, tweeting about clients' interests, generating leads, and utilizing Twitter advertising to promote these strategies. By implementing these tactics, real estate agents can turn Twitter into a new source for sales.

In the development of Zapier's new Developer Platform, the transition to a RESTful API using Backbone.js highlighted both the strengths and challenges of resource-oriented architecture. Initially, the API design was intuitive, with clear URL structures and HTTP verb mappings, but complications arose when handling interactions that required multiple data requests, leading to compromises such as returning complete data trees for performance. The project also tackled unique challenges like integrating non-database data sources and transforming complex processes, like app activation, into resource-oriented operations. Despite not achieving full RESTfulness, the resulting API successfully facilitated communication between the frontend and backend, proving maintainable and adaptable through subsequent updates. The experience underscored the balance between adhering to REST principles and practical implementation needs, particularly when an internally consumed API requires specific functionality over strict REST compliance.

Preview is a powerful and versatile app that offers a range of hidden features, including digitally signing documents, removing backgrounds from images, adding annotations to PDFs, merging multiple PDFs into one, annotating screenshots, deleting or rearranging pages in PDFs, cropping and resizing images, adjusting image color, opening multiple images at once, reverting to old versions, converting files, reducing file size, and taking screenshots. These features make Preview a convenient tool for editing and manipulating various types of files, without the need for additional software.

To improve reading habits, individuals can try various strategies such as speed reading apps like ReadQuick or Velocity that display content one word at a time, but may reduce comprehension. Alternatively, they can use apps like Instapaper, Readability, or Pocket to save articles for later and track progress with tools like Goodreads or BookBuddy. To retain information, readers can highlight and note important quotes or ideas from books and articles, or summarize them in their own words. Finding new content to read can be done through resources like BestIntroBook.com, Feedly, or Flipboard, which offer book recommendations and article suggestions tailored to individual interests. By implementing these strategies, individuals can enhance their reading experience and make the most of their time.