samgrover.com

It’s been a bummer to notice that Amazon Smile doesn’t exist anymore when I try to browse to it. This post however has a different and optimistic take on it.

But this complaint only starts to address the problems with AmazonSmile, and the reasons I’m not sorry to see it go.

🔗 The End of AmazonSmile Is an Opportunity for Nonprofits to Revisit Their Values

Snow Day Walk in the Neighborhood

Jenni stands on the sidewalk with one foot deep into the snow on the ground. There’s snow on everything, lit by the sunset.

A house lit by the sunset. There’s snow on everything.

A house lit by the sunset. There’s snow on everything.

Jenni stands in front of a house lit by sunset light. There’s snow on everything.

A parked van is backlit by the sunset light. There’s snow on it clumped on its features. There’s snow on everything else around as well.

Two teenagers run across the snow packed street and sidewalks with shovels in their hands. Behind them are houses and the sky is lit by the sunset.

A street with snow all over the ground and the houses nearby. A breeze spins up some snow which glows in the light of the sunset.

Looking down at my boots in the snow with the sharp light and shadows of the setting sun.

Snowy sunrise views, and the backyard in late morning.

Melting snow on the window refracting the golden light of sunrise. Blurry view of roofs and trees behind.

View of snow capped roofs and trees in the foreground. A rising golden sun on the horizon and cloudy sky above.

A backyard with snow everywhere. Partly cloudy sky.

Silent Disco at the Portland Winter Light Festival

I took a couple of photos of these guys and visualized them morphing into one another so I asked Jenni and she made this animation 😍

People dancing at a silent disco in a dimly lit space with bright pops of colorful lights.

An out of focus image of blurry blobs of color and bokeh on a black background.

DJs at a silent disco in a dimly lit space with bright pops of colorful lights and a background wall of graffiti.

An out of focus image of blurry blobs of color and bokeh on a black background.

A couple of sunrises over the last week.

Sky with clouds having orange, red, and yellow hues with a hint of blue. Lower half of images has silhouettes of trees without leaves.

Sky with clouds having orange, red, and yellow hues with a hint of blue. Lower half of images has silhouettes of trees without leaves.

The Origin Story of Walmart Labs in Portland

The Origin Story of Walmart Labs in Portland

Today I came across this Silicon Florist article about the closing of the Walmart office in Portland. It’s definitely the end of an era.

After reading it, I couldn’t help but clarify a few things about the origin story 😬

Quoting from the article,

For a town that has been less than welcoming to Walmart, it may be a bit of head-scratcher how they wound up with a regional technology office here. The answer, like so many other regional offices in town, is through acquisition.

Acquisition, yes, but not the one of Small Society as the article alludes.

In April 2011, Walmart Labs acquired Set Direction which had been building the Walmart iOS app, and more. At the time Set Direction had one employee WFH in Portland. Next month I joined the team.

A short while later we hired a third person and rented a conference room at Collective Agency’s first location in NW Portland. When our team expanded to five people over a couple more months, we moved into the first proper Walmart Labs office at One Main Place in November 2011. During that time we built and released the first few versions of the native iOS SDK based Walmart app.

Quoting again from the article,

After being acquired in 2012, Small Society took on the moniker of Walmart Labs, serving as a regional technology office for the retail giant and continued to be a presence — albeit a much quieter presence — within the local startup community, even taking up residence in coworking spaces around town.

Walmart Labs existed in Portland for the better part of a year before the Small Society acquisition in January 2012. And while Walmart Labs worked out of a coworking space for a few months, Small Society (as part of Walmart Labs) never did. After the acquisition they continued to operate from their existing office.

For eight months Walmart Labs was split across two offices until we all moved into the space above the erstwhile Rock Bottom Brewery (2nd and Morrison) in September 2012.

Edited to clarify: During recent years Walmart Labs did move into a coworking space but that was long after all the original people had moved on.

macOS app that can never remember what I was doing last time I used it even though I really wish it did: Music.

macOS app that always remembers what I was doing last time I used it even though I don’t give a damn: Contacts.

Mechan 42: Space Explorer.

Black and white photo of a public art installation of a 17’ tall robot on a 4’ platform holding a star in its raised hands. Foggy morning scene with a bridge behind and the Sun above.

An out of focus image of blurry blobs of color and bokeh on a black background. A couple of the blobs resemble heart shapes.

Hey folks, another beta cycle for Mimi Uploader is now commencing. I expect this to be mostly bug fixes. First fix is for that annoying issue in the alt text editor where the text you’re editing goes under the keyboard 😬