Like any tech-based business we work on many problems unique to our shop. We have our own ways of organizing work, approaching problems, designing architecture, implementing code, and maintaining infrastructure.

We draw heavily on our past experience in product development, and borrow just as heavily from external ideas that we discover along the way. We believe that “not-invented-here” is a uselessly incurious mindset.

We’re experts in building teams and slinging code. Our team is small, high-powered, tight-knit, and colocated in Austin, Texas, in an office full of freewheeling communication and challenge.

We have a hard time finding developers who can keep up with us. Their senior is our junior.

Do you want to join us? Try out some of the questions we post here in the blog based on what we encounter in our work. Broad and deep skills and strong desire to learn are essential. Answer some of the questions and show us your strengths.

From Zero to Tom Lane

Safety in constraints

 Posted on March 14, 2021  |  2 minutes  |  346 words  |  William Baxter

The PostgreSQL documentation has this to say in the context of constraints: The NOT NULL constraint has an inverse: the NULL constraint. This does not mean that the column must be null, which would surely be useless. Instead, this simply selects the default behavior that the column might be null. The NULL constraint is not present in the SQL standard and should not be used in portable applications. Of course the description of the NULL constraint is correct, however requiring that a column must be null does in fact have utility! [Read More]
database  postgresql  question 

JavaScript Question Zero

How are numbers stored?

 Posted on March 12, 2021  |  2 minutes  |  395 words  |  Nolan Aguirre

What does .1 + .2 equal? Easy math problem, the answer is .3 no problem, right? Well, not quite. In the magical land of JavaScript, .1 + .2 = 0.30000000000000004, because obviously. This was actually the first thing I learned about JavaScript, my first intro to the language being a lengthy conversation about all the worst things in the language (glances at the this keyword). But, back to math… why doesn’t . [Read More]
JavaScript  question 

Terraform Modules as Functions

Using no-resource modules to build config maps

 Posted on March 3, 2021  |  2 minutes  |  310 words  |  William Baxter

How do you create user-defined functions in Terraform? The definition of a module in terraform resembles that of a function with side effects implemented through resources. We use zero-resource modules as Terraform functions. Below is a simple example use of for_each_slice taking input from var.config.hosts. For each element in the input map it slices out the corresponding value the named keys, throwing an error for missing keys or keys that fail a requirement, such as being a non-empty string. [Read More]
infrastructure  question 

The GraphQL Test

How are your GraphQL skills?

 Posted on March 2, 2021  |  1 minutes  |  175 words  |  Kyle Brown

This is a simple test designed to evaluate your GraphQL skills. GraphQL is a key technology here at Vertalo and one that we make heavy use of. We expect candidates that we consider to have real-world, professional experience with GraphQL (or have a firm grasp of it through their own side-projects). So with that, on to the test… Using the following info: GraphQL endpoint: https://7onqiz6vuffs3aommsb53zueom.appsync-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/graphql API key: da2-me7asja3yvfkrcotlexulhzrru The endpoint uses basic API key authorization …do the following: [Read More]
graphql  question 

Unix Filters

A powerful building block

 Posted on March 2, 2021  |  1 minutes  |  87 words  |  William Baxter

What is a unix filter? A unix filter is a program that reads data from standard input, writes data to standard output, and logs to standard error. (Some definitions do not include logging to standard error — YMMV.) Anyone who has spent time on the command line in a terminal has worked with unix filters. Questions What makes the unix filter a powerful concept for processing data? What cool things have you done with unix filters? [Read More]
question  unix