Development

Is the year over yet?

As you can tell I didn’t get through NaBloPoMo very well. Starting off late and never finished. I did better then I thought. I also haven’t done anymore videos. Mostly because I was just kinda testing things and our camera is messing up now. We hope to replace it in January though with a much nicer one (I’m still browsing, so send me suggestions). I’ve been busy with new clients and old clients the past few weeks and now have deadlines that are right around the corner and plenty to get done. I had a board meeting with the Soccer Club last week in which they voted to not pay me right away. I told them that my work would be on hold until I got paid half, so my check will be sent tomorrow. Good thing to. I just have tons more work on my plate now. I’ve got several clients that I need to switch over to WordPress. Not doing redesigns as most are new but need to move them to WordPress for them to update and not me. It will take a huge load off me. I have a few projects that I was hoping to work on this month but not sure if that will work out. Three of the projects are bigger and I’m really excited about them (no details just yet though). I had planned to do a rewrite of 2532|Gigs early this month as well but not sure if that will happen. I don’t want to see the project die as it has lots of users and plenty of things to be added and a great solid base to build upon. I might look for somebody to take over the project and just pass the site and script off to them. I wouldn’t mind staying on as a minor developer but just don’t have the time to really provide the support for bugs and new releases right now. I don’t want to drop it so I’m still debating. FieldStatus also never had a release although is ready. Its being used on a clients site and works great but not sure if I will release it. Might just release it ‘as-is’ and provide no support. I hate to do that but its better then nothing. Somebody might take the code and expand it into their own project so it could have some uses.

I haven’t spent as much time on my Xbox 360 as I had wanted. I just got it a week ago and have put in some hours but not much. I ended up buying the console, 2nd wireless controller, Vision Webcam, DVD Remote, ChatPad and Halo 3 Limited Edition. Why does everything come with a headset? I now have 4 headsets (the console, webcam, chatpad, and live kit came with one). Granted its kinda cool when you have several people on Halo 3 that they all get a headset but still its a little much. I have been getting some live play on Halo 3 in and pretty much getting owned. I was always better at RainbowSix 3 then Halo. Got Melissa to play on live with me as well (even bought her a gamertag so she isn’t on mine) and she is enjoying it and getting better. I haven’t got any other games yet and don’t plan to this month. I do plan to rent CoD4 and maybe Assassin’s Creed to check out. AC not being online kinda kills it for me as a buy. I am very recreational when playing and just love getting online to play quick matches. Sometimes it takes me months and months to finish single player games if I ever do. I’m attempting to get through solo on Halo 3 but so far only got to the 3rd lvl. I am looking forward to two games early next year. End War (lovin the trailer) and RS3: Vegas 2. I was going to buy RS3:Vegas but found out the 2nd is due out early 08, so plan to wait. Anybody else on Live look me up; gamertag: twofivethreetwo.

In other news me and Melissa will be getting married this coming Friday (the 7th). We have been together for Lets not go there cause I don’t wanna think about what will happen if I get how many years wrong. Basically since high school and we have a 4 year old son. So, more than 4 years. Anyways, we are getting married at the courthouse here in Wichita Falls, TX. Nothing major and really small. In fact so small that only my grandma will be there (mostly because we haven’t old anybody else really). She kinda wanted a ceremony however it would be so small. I am not in contact with my mom anymore and refuse to see her which in turn has caused my sisters to not be too happy with me so my side of the family would be out and most of her family doesn’t live here. So, we are simple people so something simple at the court house is perfect. We set the date a while back I just hadn’t posted about it until now.

NaBloPoMo

In accordance with NaBloPoMo I am to post a blog every day for the month of November. It looks like I am 6 posts behind. Anyways as I normally don’t post that often these daily posts will be quick and very short.

Back to work today after taking yesterday off to move my desk (near a window, lovin it so far) and rearranging the house. Our house of course looks like we moved in yesterday (even though it was a few months ago). So, we started moving stuff around and going through boxes and trashing stuff we meant to trash years ago. It felt good to finally get rid of some boxes that normally sit in a corner for months. It felt good to have the house look more like a home instead of a place with boxes stack in the corner for a year. Although the house is still a mess as there is still a few more things to do it looks good. Finally made a place in the closet for our camping gear (didn’t know we had that much). Spent most of today doing client updates to some sites and will be doing the same tomorrow. Looking to gain a few new clients this month before slowing things down in December to work on some other projects (such as FieldStatus, 2532|Gigs, and 2532|Cal). Thats it for today. Tomorrow look for my comments on Macs and why I plan to finally make the switch from PC to Mac this January. Some other topics I plan to discuss for this month of blogging (as my life isn’t interesting enough to fill up a month) include VideoBlogs, PodCasting, Music (and lots of new artists), Twitter and the future of this site.

Field Status

UPDATE: I’ve posted a screen shot of the current alpha version here.

My newest project is Field Status. I started planning the project a few weeks ago and last week started coding. Field Status is a script for schools, clubs, and organizations that have fields that are open or closed due to weather or improvements. Basically it allows instant field communications between the club and its members. It offers a way for the club to change the status of a field to Open or Closed via a Web-Based Control Panel. You can also attach a short message to the status update. It has a built in mailing list that offers your club a chance to receive status changes via email or their cell phone. The club is also able to include the current status of each field on their website via one simple line of php. They also include the (un)subscribe email form on their site. The Control Panel allows you to view the email addresses in the database, add new ones or delete current ones.

The script came about when a client of mine, a soccer club in Lawton, Oklahoma wanted a better way to communicate their field status with its members. They have two soccer complexes and with thousands of kids in the club they have several teams with practices at different times and needed a way to communicate with the coaches and parents on when fields are open or closed without delays. The script is currently in an alpha release. I have a few copies running in different environments (php4, php5, mysql4, mysql 5, etc) and so far everything is good. I still have a to do list to finished the script but its coming.

I plan to make this my first hosted project. The script will be up for download on sourceforge during its beta phase and the first stable release. I plan to provide it as a hosted script that will allow you to register, create your club, add fields, and update status via the Field Status website. It will require no downloads and no installation as it will be hosted on its own server. All users will have to do is copy and paste a couple of lines of code (to show the current status of each field) and copy and paste a few lines for the subscribe form to their own site. All my projects and scripts in the paste have been opensource downloadable so it will be interesting for this project to be hosted. Currently I’m the only developer but I’m looking for somebody to join to help get the project moved from what I have to a hosted app. I still have several things on the to-do list before its ready to be used. Currently the installer, user system, user security (salted md5 passwords), change field status and emailing status to users is complete and working. I just gotta finish the settings, subscribe forms, and status include. Hopefully I’ll have the first beta up for download by the weekend. If anybody is interested in joining as a developer let me know. The script is written in php/sql. I’m hoping to have a demo up by then as well.

Developer Needed

This is pasted from my post on the 2532|Gigs Forums. I am looking for one or two developers to join on a new project (debating on whether it will be a downloadable script or a hosted app (web 2.0 style). For more information just contact me at twofivethreetwo@gmail.com. I am hoping to finish planning and actually start coding within the next week or two and hope to get something online soon after that (at least a beta version).

I am in the process of starting a new project. I am still debating whether the project will be a downloadable (opensource) script or a hosted script (i’ll provide hosting, domain, etc). The basis of the script is a status updater. There is a site called statusme.com which allows sporting clubs to communicate with members about the status of their fields. One of my clients actually uses the site. It seems that the site hasn’t been updated in years and has come into alot of problems with its system and the contact form doesn’t seem to go anywhere. I have been asked by several of the clubs who use this site if I could come up with an alternative. I thought it would be great to create and useful script for them and others. My first thought was a hosted app (web 2.0 style) like statusme.com but have also thought about releasing it (maybe doing both). I haven’t started the script yet (just thinking about things and outlining things) but I’m looking for some help (one or two developers is all).

Here is the current outline (basic) for what the script will do (if its a hosted app). The club will register (and all that goes with that, confirming email, etc). They will then be able to log in and set the field status to Open or Closed and attach Additional Comments (a text field) to it and update the status. The status is then updated and an email is sent out to everybody that has opted to get emails from that club (each club will basically have their own mailing list). We will provide code snippets to allow them to put a (un)subscribe form on their site (without having to send users to our site, if its hosted). We will also post code snippets on different ways to display the status on their site. I mainly want two ways. One is text ‘Open’ and ‘Closed’ and the second is image (a green light and red light). It has been suggested to add a text messaging feature to allow users to get text messages (but this isn’t on my list right now).

The project is still in planning so if your a developer and have time to spend on developing this project let me know. I am open to suggestions and ideas so feel free to be creative and since its still being planned, I would like more input. If your interested email me at twofivethreetwo @ gmail . com