Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben Orenstein is joined by Dennis Najjar CPA from AccountingDepartment.com. They discuss international companies operating in the United States, the tools of his trade, how AccountingDepartment.com is set up and what their different clients look like, and why it makes sense to outsource your bookkeeping and accounting. They also explore the checks and balances you should have in bookkeeping and accounting, the accounting departments role in an organization and 1099s their purpose, and what to do if you don't get one. AccountingDepartment.com Follow @thoughtbot and @r00k on twitter.Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

In this week's episode, Ben Orenstein is joined by Steve Snyder, Entrepreneur in Residence at the law firm, Gesmer Updegrove LLP. Ben and Steve discuss Steve's history, his unique position at the law firm, mistakes to avoid, and advice and guidance to entrepreneurs just starting out. Gesmer Updegrove LLP The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't Follow @thoughtbot and @r00k on twitter.Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

This week Ben Orenstein is joined by Jarrod Drysdale, the author of Bootstrapping Design. Ben and Jarrod discuss the sales and revenue of the book, and his new project, cascade.io. They also talk about learning new things, problem solving, and the differences between programming and design. They also discuss the downside to recurring revenue, successful marketing strategies for his book, advice for people who want to start something new, the concerns of a solo entrepreneur, and how his previous failures help him keep perspective. Bootstrapping Design cascade.io Getting Real 30x500 Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, and @studiofellow on twitter.Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben Orenstein is joined this week by Daniel Jalkut, the developer of MarsEdit and other fine software. Ben and Daniel discuss the origin of Daniel's twitter username, his history at Apple and his work there, and how it influences what he builds today. They also discuss the challenges of running your own company, and how Daniel's priorities and rule systems help him get things done, how the success of MarsEdit takes up his attention at the exclusion of other ideas, and how he thinks about failure. Then then go on to talk about App Store versus direct sales, why Daniel still sells his software outside the app store as well as in it, and what the breakdown of sales are like there, as well as Daniel's thoughts on App Store pricing and the benefits of being in the app store. Finally, Daniel tells us why he thinks git is like a PC and Mercurial is like a Mac, why he dislikes git, what he thinks makes a good podcast, how his podcast has changed, and much more. Red Sweater Software MarsEdit CVS RCS SVN git Bazaar Mercurial Core Intuition Real Artists Ship. Eventually. Çingleton Symposium Red Sweater Software Blog Bitsplitting.org Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, and @danielpunkass on twitter.Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

This week Chad Pytel is joined by software developer, podcaster, and author, Brett Terpstra. Chad and Brett discuss Brett's work location and setup, his open source and commercial software projects, app store pricing, his publishing experience and workflow, and his podcast. They also discuss his keyboard and trackpad mappings, and much more. brettterpstra.com nvALT Brett's GitHub profile Marked MultiMarkdown 60 Mountain Lion Tips iBooks Author Pandoc Systematic on 5by5 KeyRemap4MacBook Apptivate BetterTouchTool Follow @thoughtbot, @cpytel, and @ttscoff on twitter.Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben Orenstein is joined by Chad Pytel, the CEO of thoughtbot to take a look back at some of the things thoughtbot did in 2012. They then answer a bunch of listener questions. January Trajectory Redesign Open source releases every two weeks Factory Girl 2.4 (refactoring, speed increase) and 2.5 (custom constructors) shoulda-context gets a new maintainer February Shoulda 3.0 Apprentice.io Launches Airbrake acquired by Exceptional March thoughtbot goes to Stockholm Paperclip 3.0 FactoryGirl 3.0 Apprentice.io opens up to all employers Copycopter goes open source Trajectory gets Campfire integration April Zero Github Issues FactoryGirl 3.2 New Boston office May Trail Maps released Trajectory gets a full json API Humans Present: Refactoring June Backbone.js on Rails hit 1.0 Opening and office in SF First podcast episode! July Playbook: Video Edition Version 3.6.0 of factory_girl, memoization to the names of attributes which adds a 33% speed increase on factories with override August Learn launched September Bourbon Neat version 1.0 Online workshops November Colorado office announced Stockholm drinkup 2nd online workshop Test-Driven Rails December Ruby Science launched Follow @thoughtbot, @cpytel, and @r00k on twitter.Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben Orenstein is joined by Gordon Fontenot and Matt Mongeau, two thoughtbot developers, to discuss iOS development using both Objective-C and RubyMotion. Ben, Matt, and Gordon talk about the differences between the two platforms for iOS development, testing in iOS development, the difficulty in it, and the ways to do it. They also make they're recommendations for getting started with iOS development, and discuss iOS apps they like, designing iOS applications, the iOS release cycle, and much more. RubyMotion LLVM CoffeeScript Bacon, a small RSpec clone Writing Tests for RubyMotion Apps Joel on Software, "Back to Basics" The LLDB Debugger rubymotion-tutorial.com RubyMotion, by Clay Allsop Test-Driven iOS Development All the C You Need to Know Fantastical for iPhone UIAppearance CocoaPods Follow @thoughtbot, @halogenandtoast, @gfontenot, and @r00k on twitter.Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben Orenstein is joined by David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and a partner at 37signals. David and Ben discuss David's normal day, his working relationship with Jason Fried, how their blog, Signal vs. Noise, is important to the company, how he got into programming, where he draws his inspiration from, some good books he's read and how he learns today, how he overcomes fear and why he takes risks, how he got into racing, why he enjoys it, what he learns from it, and how feedback loops and goal posts help you learn, inspire you, and help you know how good you are. They then go on to explore what David would, or wouldn't, change about Rails, and how he sees Rails evolving into the future. David also talks a little bit about the new product 37signals has in development, and 37signals' overall product strategy, coding at 37signals and his approach to providing guidance to the team, what role he plays on Rails core, what he cares about, and what he pays attention to, and much, much more. David's website Signal vs. Noise Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction David Heinemeier Hansson's racing Sinatra Node.js Follow @thoughtbot, @dhh, and @r00k on twitter.Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben Orenstein is joined by Joe Ferris, CTO of thoughtbot. Inspired by a question on Law of Demeter from listener Nathan Long, Joe and Ben (hopefully) answer Nathan's question, and then go on to discuss how the Law of Demeter is a form of duplication, how it effects testing, and how to better architect your report, your view, or your entire system to better obey the Law of Demeter. They also touch upon Rails' try method, how the pain of testing helps guide the code you write, where the Law of Demeter doesn't apply, how people don't refactor their tests, how to productively refactor your tests and avoid wasting time rewriting things, and much more. Law of Demeter, Wikipedia Virtuous Code - Avdi Grimm, Demeter: It's not just a good idea. It's the law Nathan Long's LoD question #try Builder pattern, Wikipedia The Boy Scout Rule Ruby Science Fluent interfaces, Stub a chain of methods Follow @thoughtbot, @joeferris, and @r00k on twitter.Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben Orenstein is joined by Gary Berhardt from Destroy All Software Screencasts. Ben and Gary discuss DAS, how it has changed over the two years he's been doing it, and how his thinking has changed over that time. They then discuss Gary's thoughts on how to write software and tests, how we wants to "fix the kernel", and his exciting plans for the future. They also discuss his background, the production process behind Destroy All Software, and much, much more. Destroy All Software Screencasts Functional Core, Imperative Shell Erlang Follow @thoughtbot, @garybernhardt, and @r00k on twitter.Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots