Projects

The Future

I have lots of upcoming changes in my life including work, moving to a new house, son starting kindergarden, etc. For the past several months I have focused on client work and have not put any time towards any of my projects. The ones that were alive and kicking have now been left for dead and others barely made it past the planning phase while some have a few lines of code started. It isn’t that I don’t have any interest in my projects anymore but more that I haven’t been managing my time very well. I have had plenty of free time away from client work and the family that doesn’t get put to good use. After doing some thinking on my projects and what I really want to do with them I have made some choices and will outline some here.

2532|Gigs

www.2532gigs.com | Version 1.2.2 (stable) | OpenSource
The Now: This was first complete opensource project and has had a great following, plenty of downloads, and is still in use. However, we haven’t had a release since January 29, 2008 which was just bug fixes. We have a few bugs still not fixed and several features half completed. We did start work on the next full featured version and completed several new features and fixed a few bugs but it never got completed and after several months it is still sitting on my HD.
The Future: Several new and amazing features have already been completed and tested along with a few bug fixes. I plan to refocus and start a rewrite of the script to fit the new features and some future plans I have for it. This script is far from dead but will be on life support for a little bit longer. Goal is to have a new stable version by the end of the year.

FieldStatus

www.fieldstatus.com | Private Beta Next | Web App
The Now: FieldStatus came about from a client script who needed a way to notify their club members of the status of their fields (it was a soccer club) via email and text messages. They were using a web app but that site was not only lacking some features but hadn’t been updated in some time and their contact email was bouncing. It is hard to use a site when there is nobody behind it. The project which started out as an opensource project turned into my first web app instead. The project has been started with lots of code laid down but currently no version to test (or at least public).
The Future: I have been excited for this app since starting it. I have talked to several clubs and organizations who would like to use it and the prices they are willing to pay (most use the same dead site my client used before). This will be a paid service with a free version for smaller clubs/orgs. This is also far from dead and might be above 2532|Gigs on my list. My goal is to have a private beta by the end of the year.

undergroundCMS

no url yet | No Releases | OpenSource
The Now: This started about from 2532|Gigs and the lack of a really good cms designed for bands and venues. I started planning and some outlining code until a new project called StashCMS was released the same month I started coding my CMS. StashCMS had most of the features I had planned to include and although the design was lacking and some minor features needed it was a great start for a first release. I didn’t see a need to continue this script when there was a really good alternative to use. I later was going to volunteer to code for StashCMS but before I could after the first main release the script died and the developer stopped providing support and said no future development.
The Future: As I noticed from the people using StashCMS and the forums with people still looking for support or new features, there is still a place for a great CMS designed around bands/venues. So, when I thought undergroundCMS was dead it looks like it might come back to life sometime next year. No real goal for this but to see if while working on 2532|Gigs I can have a first beta release early next year.

Some other projects that are not dead yet but I still don’t have much information on including In The Falls which right now I don’t want to give out too much information, Team Management System which is in private beta for a client right now and will have a release early next year (this won’t be opensource, it will have a fee attached). There you have it, some of my past and future projects and some plans for them. Lets see how things go. I plan to blog more on the projects as I start the back up and get some releases ready.

What’s New?

That is a very good question. I am in the process of looking at some new clients and have recently made a partnership with another freelancer who is a little over booked with clients so I will be taking some off his hands. I am still working on my projects with my latest web app just around the corner. I also have a new project in the works but not ready to say just yet. Most of my work days right now are doing client updates. It seems I can go weeks or months and no client needs updates or work done and then when I get in the process of new clients my current ones start sending loads of updates. The good thing about updates is that the day seems to go by pretty fast.

Spring is of course here and one can only hope that we don’t have a repeat of last year. I really don’t want to have to deal with massive flooding again this year (the picture above is from Wichita Falls, TX during the flooding last year. It was not taken by me and you can see more here). Last year was bad enough. It also cut our camping trips to only two for the season when we had planned more. In fact we already have two camping trips planned so far with the first being the first weekend in June for my birthday in Lawton, OK at Lake Lawtonka. The other being around the 4th of July here at Lake Arrowhead. We plan to get another one in but not sure when or where yet. Need to start going through our camping gear in the next couple of weeks as well.

Moving to Wichita Falls, TX has a huge plus over Lawton, OK and that was the MPEC (Kay Yeager and Memorial Auditorium). They don’t get much during a year but they do get a few big concerts and shows. In January you may remember that we took the kids to see Playhouse Disney Live! which was great. On Monday I will be going to see Sevendust, Saliva, Neverset, and Overscene at the KY. I originally hadn’t planned on going but I’ve been a huge fan of Sevendust for years and Saliva is a great band. It should be a great show and I’m looking forward to it.

On top of going to the Sevendust show on Monday the wife and I will be going to see Jeff Dunham on May 8 at the Memorial Auditorium for his Spark of Insanity tour. I have loved Jeff Dunham for awhile and both of his DVDs are great. It will be great to finally see him in person. That is really all that is going on right now. Still working on my redesign which as of today is about 75% complete so it should be up very soon.

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.

Updates Soon

I know the site has been lacking on posts the past several weeks and I do plan to get back to posting. For those who follow me on twitter know how busy I have been between work, looking for new clients, coaching my sons soccer team and still working on settling since the move. For some reason it always takes us months to get settled into a place. We have boxes that haven’t been touched still, nothing on any walls, etc. I have also been working on a new design to put up here for the past several months and its still not finished. Looking at it now, I don’t even think that I like it. Might just use a theme for now and set my goal for my design in January. I also haven’t forgotten about my OpenSource Projects either. 2532|Gigs is still an active project however development has been on hold for awhile. I talked with Nick (the other developer) and we have plans to pick back up on development in the coming weeks and release a new version very soon and shoot for v2.0 early 2008. FieldStatus is just about ready for its first release. I have been working on it the past few weeks bug fixing and putting the final touches on it. Its currently in use on a client site and works great. It will be released as an OpenSource script until January 2008 when it will be moved to a hosted app with several price levels. More details on this will come later this year. Thats about all I have for now. Things will calm down in November and I will be back to posting and developing some of my projects (and some new ones next year).