Here at Webreakstuff we love fiddling with new technologies and sometimes we just have to come up with an idea to take advantage of some new shiny framework or language.
It’s great because it’s really motivating to work with a new technology and by doing so implementing an idea of our own. Not to mention that regardless the idea turns out to be great or break, the learning experience will always pay off!
A few months ago, when we launched Bling, we felt that it would be amazing if we could improve the user experience by auto-magically recognising products just by the picture. We did some study on that subject back then, but eventually the idea was abandoned and we moved on. The “problem” was that we didn’t forget about what we learned back then and we had the urge to still build something with that knowledge, still lingering inside our heads…
Last week Fábio tweeted about 2 things he’s been working on lately:
- An iOS app for recognising Magic: The Gathering cards and tell the user relevant information about said cards (like price, for example).
- A blogging engine he built based on Meteor.js.
If you’ve ever wondered about ways to handle image recognition on iOS, or you are curious about the practical application of Meteor as a web development framework, you should check out his blog and the post about image recognition. The iOS app isn’t finished yet, but it will be soon.
After all this, we feel like we need to tell you: Try new things. Build new stuff. Even if you’re working on a corporate environment, talk to your boss / manager / superior and suggest that once every 2 weeks everyone takes a half a day to just brainstorm an idea and pick a new technology they are curious about and just hack away.
It doesn’t matter if it’s an idea completely out of scope of your business area (in fact, it’s even better if it is!) and it doesn’t matter if the ideas actually go through till the end. The point is widening your mind’s eye. Learn. New. Stuff.
You’ll feel like when you were a kid and you built your first original creation out of lego blocks.
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