Caktus Blog

[What is Normalized Data?]

In the early 2000s, I had a paper test that I gave to developer candidates. It was a single sheet that I printed out from Excel, in landscape, containing order data from a small fictional online bookstore. I asked each candidate to normalize the data from the spreadsheet by drawing and writing on a blank sheet of paper I provided.

I haven’t always been a Software Developer….Imagine that.

I spent 20 years in Corporate America where I took my career as far as I could without holding a college degree, so I’m definitely not green when it comes to work experience. What a stark difference from my past work experience and my current situation: the corporate world was a dog eat dog kind of world versus the collaborative nature of developing I’m in currently.

During the past year, we’ve begun a new program for folks looking for training prior to beginning a career in web development. This program has paired Caktus with a local coding bootcamp to sponsor several students’ learning, and subsequently to continue our relationship with those students, which has led to a full-time position for several of them. Read below for details on how the fellowship has worked. Looking for more information about mentorship at Caktus? Check out A New Mentorship Program.

ODK is a popular tool for offline data collection with a thriving user community. Like a number of other offline data collection tools, it uses the XLSForm standard for authoring forms. While convenient to author and exchange, authoring the forms in Excel means each iteration of the form must be uploaded to the ODK Central server that distributes forms to mobile data collection applications, such as ODK Collect.

Back in the Day: BFF Music Bytes

Picture this: the year is 2003 and two young women are far from home. They're joining thousands of contemporaries in the pursuit of independence, education, and community. One of them hailing from the bluegrass state, the other from the Motown Records capital city of Detroit, both of them trepidatiously ready to call North Carolina home for the next nine months. Their hometowns couldn’t be more different, but one night after a full day of orientation, one of them spies the other reading a familiar book. Not only were books the key to her heart, but to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in this Detroit girl's hands was nothing short of the magic infused within the book’s pages. From that moment on, she knew they would be the two best friends that anyone could have. And it was so.

It’s another collaboration Friday during this celebration of Black History Month with Caktus! Here is a list of books that team member Keanya Phelps read and loved, along with an accompanying soundtrack curated by Lindsey Ardrey.

Wouldn’t it be useful if we could document changes in our life and revisit them later at will? It would allow us to better analyze situations, remember what we were thinking, or help us remember how we got to our current state. Although no such tool currently exists for changes in life, one such tool does exist in Django. It is called django-simple-history.

Gather a group of friends and family, put on your dancing shoes, and flashback to the 80s with Keanya Phelps’ playlist. Enjoy a vibrant weekend, folks!

Black History Month, recently also referred to as Black Futures Month, is all about celebrating freedom. What is freedom and how do we make sure it's here to stay? Let these recommendations from teammates Jeanette O'Brien (photo credit) and Gerald Carlton help you to dream yourself free and then act upon those visions.

Every work project, or weekend dance party deserves a worthy soundtrack and we’re not here to disappoint. Team members Keanya Phelps and Lindsey Ardrey invite you to open your ears and let the musical notes of these artists drift into your ears. Happy first Friday of Black History Month, folks!