DVPweb.com

Worlds Fastest Server

2009-03-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

Ok I've thought I've seen dozens of ways to hype a product or service.
Until now.

Uber webhost http://www.HostMySite.comcrack team of engineers have teamed up with drag-bike builder Shawn Darby to create an electric drag bike equipped with a webserver so they can claim the title of running the world's fastest server.

According to their website:
This is an electric drag bike, capable of going from 0-120 mph in eight seconds, houses an integrated server that distributes content and data to Web pages while it accelerates down the track. This first-of-its-kind drag bike is outfitted with Web cams, GPS, accelerometer and other sensors serving Web data while in motion.

It's insanely cool. The webdata feed from the bike begs programmers like myself to build mashups.

I've rolled together a very quick flex RIA mashup test harness that shows each trip, the gps waypoints and maps a marker on a yahoo map. It's not an app yet, just a tickle of things to come.

Infact they are sponsoring a contest for developers to build an app to show off the bike.

NOTE: The mashup may not work for you if you are behind a firewall/proxy server.
The WFS webservice doesn't have a crossdomain.xml policy file posted yet. [Hey guys, add the file!]

More to come...

Workday at the Grove

2008-08-08T14:17:00.001-07:00

Once a month I head down the hill and spend my Saturday morning volunteering with friends at the grove. This month the Grove staff and board will honors those volunteers who show each month up rain or shine. Please join us.

| View | Create Your Own Photobook

Mixbook Rocks

2008-07-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

| View | Create Your Own Photobook

IPhone 2.0!

2008-07-11T11:07:00.000-07:00

OK, I'll admit Apple has grabbed me by the balls and squeezed tight.

The new Iphone 2.0 software is sweeter than chocolate. Kudos for Apple making that a free upgrade for existing 1st gen users.

There's a cool new "apps atore" - similar to the itunes store, which allows you to browse and find apps for the iphone.

Cool app #1:
Remote -- turns your Iphone into a I-Tunes Remote control.

Couch potato that I am, I can now change the music playing on my computer from anywhere.

Some fun possibilities here:
How about goosing your house guests from afar. Create a few mp3 messages and add them to a play list in ITunes. Leave the computer running and the speakers on when you are away.

Goose your guest, using "Remote" to play your special messages
For example: " I told you not to bring home any tricks" -- (say at 2 am?)

I'm always forgetting where I parked my car, this next app fixes that problem.

App # 2 Jott's for Iphone. It's a voice memo recorder on steroids. Record a brief message on the iPhone - the message gets transcribed, and shows up on their website, your email or can be sent to someone.

So ever wonder where in the world waldo is? This next app tells you.
App# 3 Whrrl - Let's your friends light up icons on a map using their location info.
Mashup of local info, reviews, and opinions from your friends.

Just learned there's a donut shop arround the corner. Who knew?

Iphone 4 Sale

2008-07-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

I've got a first generation iphone 4gb for sale - with brand new extended (and tranferable) warranty (valid until july 13 2009) - orignal box, screen good condition, and just a few minor scratches.

Phone is Upgraded to same 2.0 software used by the newer model.

Paid $650 1 year ago, $480 or best offer.

Why $480 ? - $400 for the phone, $80 for the new warranty. The "premium" price on the older phone is this.... Apple and ATT requires you to activate the phone in the store. My old phone is already activated, it you can do whatever you like with that, including hacking it to work with another carrier. (So I'm told)

The Newer 3G Iphone does list or $199 -- however, they hide an addtional $360 purchase price the 3G plan since the new plan (required) costs $35 for data and 200 text per month.

Bottomline, with the new 2 year contract -- a new 3g iphone really costs you $599.

$599 or $480 you decide.

Who needs cable?

2008-06-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

My new Roku device just arrived.
Kudos to Netfix for getting this right from the very start.

Now only if they could get their RSS feeds working. Hint: We want a
rss feed for the watch instantly que.

Dear Google... Where's the policy file?

2008-06-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

Come on Google... What will it take a public flogging?

Adobe has been publicizing the changes in the policy file for some time now.

Clearly no one at Google has found the time to review the bug postings?

http://code.google.com/p/gmaps-api-issues/issues/detail?id=364

How could this one slip through the cracks?

PicLens Part Duex

2008-06-02T20:25:00.002-07:00

A thousand words... right. My buddy and Artist friend David Fink took one look at my use of PicLens and saw the potential for his website http://www.davidfink.com/ -

Check out his PicLens enabled gallery, he just posted some interesting photos shot at Coney Island.

Beside have a great eye for the interesting, David is a very talented artist, infact I'm a big fan and happen to own this one. Do check out his art. If you do purchase one, tell him I sent you there.

Back to Nature

2008-05-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

I recently went on a camping trip to King's Canyon National Park. Didn't think about work, answer cell phones or watch TV. What a concept. I did manage to hike over 18 miles of beautiful trails and got a chance to relax. No bear sightings, but came across two rattlesnakes, and a inquisitive deer came over to check us out.

I love to take photos on my trips, and was pleasantly surprised that my rechargeable batteries lasted the entire trip. I shot hundreds of photos, and sadly (I'll blame Vista) - my card reader fried one of my compact flash cards, so I lost about a two hundred shots. Before it fried, I did manage to transfer about half of the photos. (If anyone knows of a way to repair a damaged cf do contact me)

I'm using Picasa 2 to manage and upload the photos. I love the simplicity and the simple tools. One cool feature is the ability to upload the photos to a web album, which also has a RSS media feed. A media feed means you can load my photos in a browser or rss reader and see thumbnails. Also there's really cool plugin called PicLens that detects the media feed and creates what they call an immersive experience. Think coverflow.

Worth checking out. First install the PicLens plugin and come back here and click the image above or go to the RSS media feed, and click on the PicLens button on your browser. It's possible to have images on the webpage launch PicLens, but blogger doesn't allow link tags.

Code Behind

2008-05-28T11:03:00.001-07:00

Last night I had an opportunity to do a presentation at BAADUG about Code Behind techniques and a basic introduction to Cairngorm and MVC.

Good news no one ran away screaming, it was after all, my speaking debut at BAADUG, and elsewhere for that matter. I'm a coder not a polished speaker, so I have no regets for any lack of powerpoint slides in my presentation. We'll leave the ppt for the Adobe guys... What I had hoped for was a way to introduce our members to some of the basic concepts in flex programming that I personally use day in and day out.

Feel free to comment publicly or privately, be kind (I am human) if you attended last night's presentation, as I'd like to hear some feedback.

Also would help to know found the information useful and what you'd like hear in a future talk.

As I mentioned last night, I started out as a TV news editor, not an engineer, I'm just a quick study, and willing try anything and spend hours hacking away. For me it's always been about the end result, but recently I've learned that how to get there is just as important. Techniques and design patterns are useful means to that end.

Networking, is the primary main reason I show up for BAADUG meetings. I hope that showing members an insight of my own practices, will help open up future meeting discussions for all.

The flex community offers programmers of all levels fantastic resources for development ideas and solutions. Also as Mark mentioned, our group can always benefit from members doing such presentations, so step and show us what you got.

As promised, I said I'd provide some links to some of the great articles I've read on the subject.

Code-Behind (Facade) Design Patterns:

Ted Patrick's Article:
http://www.onflex.org/ted/2007/02/code-behind-in-flex-2.php

Adobe Dev Net Article:
http://www.onflex.org/ted/2007/02/code-behind-in-flex-2.php

Cairngorm:
David Tucker's Video Series: (IMHO:Winner Best intro to Cairngorm series) Parts 1-5
http://www.davidtucker.net/category/cairngorm/

AS3 Libraries Demo'd:
Yahoo Maps:
http://developer.yahoo.com/flash/maps/index.html

Degrafa:
http://www.degrafa.com/

Finally last night's raffle prize sponsor:
Premium Port Wines.
http://www.premiumport.com/

Expectations...

2008-05-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

We all have them. Managing client expectations can be challenging.

Adobe's Ted Patrick has a great suggestion - when showing clients functional prototypes (wireframes) - don't use the default halo skin in flex.

Use a simpler black and white skin to keep them focused on the functionality of the app vs distracting them with apps look -- Check out Ted's Blog.

Wow Ted, what a great idea! He's so right... with flex it's easy to mock up quick prototypes of applications to illustrate functionality, most of us find it's easier for the client to "get it" when they can see a working example and click through the UI. Even with timeline and schedules, they don't just understand how much effort is requred to move a functional prototype over to a finished product.

Clearly if you deliver an app that's got a pleasing interface, you set up an expectations - that the app is further along, or if the client likes UI then they might not consider other alternatives.

Ted's idea is so simple, I wish I had thought of it ....

Wireframes and prototypes are a great tool to communicate the application design -- then again so scratches on a napkins.

One thought why not dumb it down ever further... Actually use a napkin.

Web 2.0 Conference Day One.

2008-04-24T07:45:00.000-07:00

First Impressions... Sparsely attended? Ouch.

To be fair I was meeting with a staffer at one of my pro-bono client's www.AIDSMemorial.org to work on the long overdue rehosting and retooling of their website.

I arrived at the expo hall 30 minutes before closing...

With that I'll get back to you.

Web 2.0

2008-04-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

Going to the conferernce this week with the expectation of seeing something new. Let's hope i'm amazed. LOL.