What if we could take the designs provided to us by our clients and instead of spending hours measuring spacing, and recreating layouts pixel by pixel, we could use AI tooling, and skip the manual translation entirely?

It feels like there is a growing gap between people who are deep in technology/AI space (like myself) and everyone else about whether AI is good or bad. Take, for example, this study [1] done in the US on whether people think AI will have a positive or negative effect on the US over the next 20 years.

Once upon a time—well, in a land of myth and melodrama—a young chap named Icarus got the ultimate upgrade: wings. Handcrafted by his ever-wise (and occasionally overly ambitious) father, Daedalus, these wings were a marvel of ancient engineering, crafted from feathers and wax. Icarus, thrilled by his newfound ability to defy gravity, soared into the sky with the enthusiasm of a kid on a sugar rush.

It's an incredibly exciting time to be creating software. Never before has it been faster to produce mockups or cheaper to build prototypes. If you have software you want to build, there's no better time than now. The accessibility of development tools and resources has lowered barriers, empowering both newcomers and seasoned entrepreneurs to bring innovative ideas to life swiftly.

You can Restart A Heart anytime anywhere. Find your nearest defibrillator using aedlocations.co.nz or the AED app.

Where do you start? The New Zealand Sustainable Business Network has lots of great advice. It has published a very good paper on how to calculate your carbon emissions. Following their advice and using the recommended ACE Carbon Calculator, which is an independently developed New Zealand specific tool, NZ is now starting to understand our companies’ contributions to CO2 emissions.

Māori Language Week helps us all remember that te reo is a cornerstone of New Zealand culture, and an important part of our country’s heritage. Te reo Māori is an official language of NZ. It’s a great time to be part of the broader language revival and raise public awareness and usage. Our participation links with our #TeamValues.

At Abletech we have embarked on the process of seeking advice and following recommendations. Read about some of our efforts below.

At Abletech we’re proud of our team’s culture. This week we identified exactly what our team values are. It was great! The workshop was facilitated by our GM Michelle. Everyone had a chance to speak and we collaborated to agree on four team values.

Nigel Ramsay and Tracey Norrish have been using Elixir, instead of Ruby, for an Addressfinder project. Watch a video or read the summary:

Crazy fun and good conversations at the Summer of Tech session last night. A big thank you to all the students who came and chatted with us. You all have exciting careers ahead of you!

Following on from The Abletech story — part 1 we pick up the narrative at the point where Marcus and Nigel had begun hand-picking developers.

We’re excited to see Kendall’s been recognised for growing her idea into Banqer: a successful revenue generating financial education app.

In 2006 Abletecher Michael Koziarski gave a popular overview of Ruby on Rails at a Wellington Webstock conference. That same year he also spoke at RailsConf Europe in London. Ruby on Rails has continued to grow and Abletechers, keen on the efficient technology, have grown in their knowledge and practical implementation of it.

Sharesight have joined a group of ambitious fintech startups chosen to make a trip to London. It’s great news for the successful share portfolio tracker company.

This talk will be an introduction to Elixir in the form of a walk-through of a real-world application (Addressfinder).

Last week we upgraded the software that powers Addressfinder. We turned on HTTP/2. It’s made the autocomplete even faster.

Let’s jump straight to the point: Vim can autocomplete a word, but it also knows the context of where it found the keyword, and can complete the next word after it.

At Abletech, we love tests. After all, an application is only as good as its tests. And for the most part tests love us, but sometimes they love us a little too much.

JSConf-goers enjoying the complimentary coffee on the first day of the event (and some cheery Abletechers on the right!)

Launched in 2006, Abletech was borne out of a keen desire to boost business systems using cloud technology. Its founders worked, played and studied computing. They understood enterprise strategy and best practice. They became discerning. Discernment is a quality that continues to serve Abletech well.

Our Rapid Projects team developed this mobile app in three months. We used React Native and found it fast and efficient. Watch a demo of SmartInspect. Hear what Naiki Pearl and Kate Norquay found as they developed using React Native.

The Ruby community holds conferences all over the globe, using local and international speakers, for Rubyists of all levels. The latest conference was a single day of talks held at Te Papa in Wellington which is two blocks from Abletech’s headquarters.

To me Rails Girls is a really good way to help people find programming and gain a support network. Dawn Richardson.