Hey Guys,
It’s been quite a few weeks since I last posted. I thought I would update you on my current tinker toys that I do during the day. I’m a full time CTO/Developer as well as Partner with BestPartyEver.com. After quite a bit of busy weeks developing we have launched our alpha version of the software and are going through a series of micro-releases. It’s quite nice to work with a small, but agile team, creating a tremendous amount of growth in this application that has been needing an overhaul for quite a while. We debuted a new Budget Calculator today that uses auto-saving and live calculations. Numerous weeks went into making a new javascript library for the site that uses multi-level namespaces for organizing the code for re-use, speed, and compliance with third-party libraries and the silly global namespace issues with prototype, etc. Some fun modern usability technologies were used to create better site navigation such as the tag cloud on party ideas. We can definitely see the popularity of halloween party ideas during this season. We used geoip tracking to automatically detect the user’s region they are browsing from to target ad locations. Leveraging an open source tech for this one, hostip.info, we transformed the data layer of hostip to fit snug in with our architecture and still be updated on a regular basis to make the ip system more accurate. We also developed a layer between Best Party Ever and Wordpress MU. This was a fantastic idea as we didn’t want to redevelop the wheel here and we can re-use technologies developed for the wordpress platform for blogging reducing a mountain of work on our part. Don’t forget that we do full code reviews before deciding on technologies to be part of our core system. I’ll write a bit more about the daytime party that I live later. Take care.
Blogged with Flock
Tags: halloween, party ideas, wordpress mu, bestpartyever, javascript, php, work, technology, geoip
I’ve been in the web industry way too long, when I can date back to when image maps and things such as scrolling tags were prevelent and widely used among popular sites, sadly. Coming from a C background, web dev was cake, but introduction of technologies for style seperation and “Usability” within site design started arm twisting excercises with the advent of browser compliance headaches. We’ve gone quite a ways from simple to complex to making complex simple again. Grid based layouts used to be simple with a table layout, then the introduction of html4 and javascript craziness made people think twice how to design their code for their layout, not the end product itself. Eventually trends make it to a point where it becomes uncool to do without it. My headache, since I’m layout-challenged with CSS has been to always hack at existing layouts until I see it fit for the new usage. I’ve found a much better approach for desiging my grid layouts using this neat project called BluePrint CSS Framework.
Blogged with Flock
About ~six weeks ago we decided to expand our datacenter to a San Jose location. Mae West is our new location for current and future servers at the Blackacid Community Colocation Project(BCCP). It just so happened to be the same weekend as SHDH18. Never had a better time with a bunch of geeks and some of these guys know how to pound a beer. If you are in the bay area and you haven’t heard about this event, you are really missing out. I’m still living in Phoenix these days so its not an easy event to make. We hope to set one up in Phoenix if it appears to be a tough habit. If anyone has interest in helping out with such an event, please email me. Adios!
I decided it was time to start using a remote interface for blogging. I’m testing out some of its features, but there is more to be discovered as I actually start working deeply with it. Check out flock, you may like it.
Blogged with Flock
It’s been a hell of a week with tossing and turning between personal, business, and education. I’ve succeeded in re-entering a University to finish up my BSE in programming. Biggest feat of getting a business plan written for a new venture is completed, Continue reading ‘Busy, Busy, and Busy’
