SEP Blog

We’re curious people by nature. And we love to teach others what we’ve learned. So explore our blog to gain fresh insights from our expertise in areas ranging from culture to AI.

SEP Wins TechPoint’s 2024 Innovation Service Partner of the Year Mira Award

SEP Recognized as Indiana’s Top Innovation Service Partner, Winning TechPoint’s Prestigious Mira Award Westfield, Indiana – SEP has been named the Innovation Service Partner of the Year by TechPoint at the 25th annual Mira Awards. The Mira Awards, Indiana’s largest…
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security lock symbol over person typing on laptop

5 Tips to Strengthen Your Computer Security and Online Presence in 2023

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center 2021 Data Breach Report, there were 1,862 data breaches in 2021. While 2020 saw a total of 1,108 data breaches. AKA computer security is no joke! But where do you even start? SEP’s Junior Sys Admin team compiled their top tips for Computer Security Day. See our top five […]
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Manage the lifecycle of QObjects in C++ using smart pointers with custom deleters that invoke deleteLater.

deleteLater: Managing the QObject Lifecycle in C++

This post describes how to manage the lifecycle of QObjects in C++ by using smart pointers with custom deleters which invoke deleteLater. Qt has it’s own lifecycle for QWidgets/Objects that is distinct from the usual C++ object lifecycle. Most of the time that is essentially a non-issue. Normally, QWidgets last for the lifetime of the […]
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phone app displaying in dark mode on desk

Welcome to the Dark Side: 5 Tips for Designing a Dark Mode Version of Your App

Are you thinking of coming to the dark side? 🦇🖤 Designing in dark mode continues to grow in popularity, especially following the implementation of optional dark mode for Apple iOS, Facebook, Google Chrome, Youtube and other highly trafficked sites and operating systems (source). But what is dark mode? If you aren’t familiar with it, dark mode […]
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software developers smiling and working

How to Be Successful at SEP

The following document is based on advice shared with all new employees (SEPeers) on their first day at the company. Here at SEP, we all come from different backgrounds; some of us have years of experience at other companies, and others have come straight from school. We are not just engineers, but also testers, designers, […]
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A herd of elephants, as generated by Stable Diffusion

A Gentle Introduction to Mastodon and the Fediverse

Have you heard of Mastodon? No, not the band. The social network that’s been growing by leaps and bounds lately! If you’ve heard the name, but aren’t sure what its deal is, then this post is for you. The Big Idea Mastodon is a federated social network. What does that mean? Put simply, it’s a […]
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Friday’s 13 Tips to Overcome Design Workshop Facilitation Nerves

Facilitating design workshops can oftentimes feel as scary as Friday the 13th. The nerves that build up moments before meeting with a client can feel the same as the nerves I would get as a kid while watching the classic 80’s slasher film as Jason skulked around Camp Crystal Lake. In both scenarios, I was/am […]
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6 Reasons to Love SEP’s Employee Ownership Culture

If you know SEP, you know we care a lot about our work. But we care even more about the people we work with. We’ve always been this way, but launching our ESOP in 2010 brought employee ownership culture to the forefront of our business. It strengthened the connection between SEP and its people even […]
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consultation working meeting close up of laptops and hands drawing on paper

Software Design Accessibility Audits 101: What You Need to Know

Accessibility in software design is an important topic that often gets overlooked or deprioritized. The good news is, addressing accessibility does not need to be a giant undertaking. In this post, I’ll give an overview of accessibility laws and how you can conduct your own software accessibility audit. This won’t make you an expert on […]
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Industry: The Product Conference

Before I jump into my experience with Industry: The Product Conference this year, let me set the stage— On Father’s Day a few years ago, I didn’t have anything planned. I figured I would ‘wing’ the day and not feel constrained to some schedule (these are rare moments in my life). So my wife suggested […]
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