Month: January 2007

  • January 25, 2007

    The Gym

    One of my resolutions this [every] year is to go to the gym, try to lose some weight, etc. This year I am actually following through with it, and it feels pretty good. I started on Jan. 2, the day I got back to school, and have been going just about everyday, taking a day to rest here and there. Once I actually started going, it wasn’t that hard to continue. I felt pretty good after going to the weight room and/or cardio room, even if I was sore or tired. And I started seeing progress after just the first week.

    So what I am doing different this year? I am actually going. My friend told me getting to the gym is 90%, and that’s about right. Once I get there and start working out I want to keep going and finish the work out for the day. Some awesome music doesn’t hurt either.

  • January 20, 2007

    MYO Silly Putty

    After viewing this YouTube video on how to make your own Silly Putty, my friends and I could resist. We went out and got the ingredients and went to town. You can see the pictures below, but the final product (mine anyway) was pretty good. It’s a little stronger than regular silly putty, but it passes my three tests: the newspaper copy, bounciness and that cool pop sound silly putty makes. An added bonus is the outside of it is not a prone to picking up any particle that happens to touch it. It did harden a little over night when I left it out, but that was nothing working with it couldn’t fix. It’s a fun (kind of messy!) project if you are looking for something to do.

  • January 18, 2007

    Treo vs. iPhone

    Treo 650

    Today I read a post at Treonauts.com comparing the Treo and iPhone. As a Treo user (and a bit of an Apple hater), I was curious to see what they had to say. While I do find the Treo better, I felt the comparison was pretty biased towards the Treo (even for a site dedicated to Treos). They break the article down into 7 sections pitting the two phones against each other. While I won’t go in-depth, I will touch on what they said.

    Screen Resolution + Input Method (Palm 1: Apple 0): I will agree with them on input method. While it is cool that the iPhone has a touch screen keyboard, and multiTouch technology, there is no replacement for the recoil of a real physical keyboard. Plus in my experience, it’s easier to type on a real keyboard. However, the screen resolution on the iPhone is better. Treo: 320×320, iPhone: 320×480. I would say 1:1 here.

    Operating System (Palm 1: Apple 0): I agree with them here. Palm OS is more open, and more versatile (as we’ve seen so far). However, it’s epic that a phone is running OSX. 2:1

    Storage (Palm 1: Apple 0): It’s also epic that the iPhone will have 4 or 8 GB on board. However, that’s all you get. Treo has SD support, so I can have theoretically as much memory as I want. 3:1

    GSM + Wireless Data + Camera (Palm 0: Apple 2): No question. iPhone wins this bout. 2.0MP camera for a phone is crazy, and WiFi built in. That is something I wish the Treo had. 3:3

    Battery (Palm 1: Apple 0): The battery is removable. Plus, the Treo battery is a tank- I can’t imagine the iPhone having a great battery with the nice screen resolution, WiFi, bluetooth, and Lord knows what else going. 4:3

    Dimensions + Weight (Palm 1: Apple 0): Sorry Treonauts, no matter how you slice it, the iPhone is smaller and weighs less. One thing I wish was different about my Treo is size. The 650 is like a brick. 4:4

    My Overall Thoughts:: I was really impressed with the iPhone when I first saw it. It may be revolutionary. But no keyboard or removable battery is tough. Especially since the iPod has had so many problems. Built in WiFi is awesome. The internet stuff is awesome- better browsing, mail and the adaption of OS widgets is cool. But I love the Palm OS and the freeware you can get for it, it’s awesome battery life and real keyboard. If I had run the same review as the treonauts, the Treo and iPhone would be tied up. BUT, I feel like the Treo is better choice, at least for me. While the iPhone is rich in graphics and media, the Treo I feel is better for practical and general use.

  • January 14, 2007

    Live Update

    Well, it’s that time of the year (as trends show) for a new design. I will write more once the actual site is launched, but this one comes from a more mature, more experienced me, so hopefully this one will stick around for more than a year, and I can actually focus on content. This is just notice that I will be doing testing in house, so the site may be in shambles some times- but I will try to keep that to a minimum- Thanks for your patience!

  • January 12, 2007

    The Business: Project Tracking

    BackPack

    In the second installment of this series for 2007, I would like to talk about another ‘problem’ I have run into since getting a higher volume of clients; keeping track of projects. If you do not stay organized and on top of what you have to do for each client, you will ultimately fail as a business. That’s why you need to set up something that works for you. The system I am about to describe is something I find works very nicely for me.

    Backpack is a well-developed web interface by 37 Signals that allows you to keep pages and within those pages notes, tasks, files, and Writeboards (a collaborative tool, also by 37 Signals). Also included in Backpack are reminders and the calendar(if you pay for it). When I get a new project, I create a new page, put in general info about the site, notes on ideas and brainstorming, all of the tasks, etc. I have also been toying with the idea of buying the Basic account, which would include the calendar, file and image storing and a lot more reminders. And at $5/month, I can’t go wrong. By having a calendar and reminders ‘in house’ so to speak, I would be able to keep track of all deadlines, billing, and other important dates.

    So far, Backpack has been working out great for me- I just bring it up in a web browser where ever I am and get to work. And when I do collaborative work on a project, the writeboards are perfect. If I were to build something to help keep track of projects, it would be Backpack.

  • January 9, 2007

    Announcements

    Just a few general things:

    • My brother is selling his guitar. If you are interested, drop me a line!
    • It’s that time of the year: The Weblog Awards. Last year I found some pretty awesome ones and I hope this year I will too. (Also, getting nominated for best-kept secret would be cool too- polls close tomorrow at 10pm eastern time).
    • While I will not contribute to the hype that is the iPhone, I will say, it looks totally awesome.

    That’s about it!

  • January 8, 2007

    Security vs. Usability

    Comp Sec

    A problem that all web developers people in the computer field face is security. When creating your application, website, server, you have to take into account what kind of security measures you must take to protect yourself and your users. However, you have to make sure that these measures don’t horribly inhibit the users. Twice over the last couple of months I have ran into server trouble where I felt the server disallowing certain actions strongly inhibited my ability to create a good website.

    The first occurred in October, while I was creating a website for a client. They wanted to be able to upload images to the server, to add them to the site. This required me to set the permissions on sections of the site to 777 (all can execute). There are numerous web apps out there that do this, and if the programmer does it right, security is not a huge issue. However, the server I was working decided (after years of me using it), they were going to reset the permissions every 6 hours for ‘security’ measures without notifying it’s customers. Never mind that I spent hours debugging a script I knew was working. How can one make a sophisticated web app without being able to change the permissions for more than 6 hours at a time?

    More recently, I am working on a website that would send emails through a php script using the standard mail() function. Only, due to ‘security reasons,’ the mail() function is disabled. Now I cannot report bugs automatically, nor can the user use the current contact form. Sure, the mail() function could be exploited, but so can almost anything when dealing with a scripting language. Are they going to disable SQL in fear of SQL injection statements?

    The point is that if these servers are going to disable certain, very useful functions, what are they providing as an alternative for their users? They are choosing a little bit more security in exchange for strongly inhibiting their users from creating more user driven web applications.

  • January 5, 2007

    The Business: Finances

    All About the Benjamins

    One of the things I want to do more of in 2007 is blog about my business. How I manage it, problems I encounter, and some tools I use to help me. With the redesign, I will have a page that showcases some articles of mine (much like Alex King), and series will be there. Today, since it is the beginning of the year, I want to talk about some tools that help me manage Finances.

    I think I have biggest problem with money. Up until last year, JLC Web Design was a very small operation, getting a client here or there. Since the summer, I have been working on multiple projects pretty steadily. This means I need to keep track of who is paying me, when, what they owe, and what their account consists of. Since I often offer server space and purchasing the domain, I will need to bill my clients annually. To keep track of these things, I use a simple excel document, with a sheet for each year, domains I pay for and servers I pay for. I use the simple adding and subtracting formulas to automatically display how much I have paying and making, and the profit so far. I have also started using Wesabe for my finances. I simply upload an online bank statement, and it shows up on Wesabe for me to tag and edit. This means I can make more meaningful names for “Deposit” and “Domain Rebels #0997.” And I tag all my expenses and revenue as such, as well as JLC Web Design for all transactions. Wesabe automatically calculates spending for the month, total spending, and the money I have made or lost based on the tag. It creates spending and earning reports and allows you to set goals for yourself. I can also upload multiple bank accounts, so my business and personal finances are in the same place. It’s easy, it’s free and it’s web based. For me, it’s everything I need.

    In the coming days I would also like to talk about project tracking, deadlines and sending the invoices, and contracts.

  • January 2, 2007

    Facebook vs. MySpace III

    The Showdown

    This is part 3 of a 3 part series that started here and continued here.

    User Friendliness

    The most important part of any website is user friendliness. If it is not easy to use, most people probably won’t use it. The site must also be able to grow, and keep its users informed. It can be a culmination of everything I have already talked about, which is why I saved this post for last. From the first post of this series, I talk about how Facebook is much cleaner, with significantly less ads. They really put the user first. They have a blog, where all the developers can post what they are working on. And they respond to feedback. The best example of this is the Open Letter from Mark Zuckerberg (the facebook creator) he wrote in response to the uproar about the mini-feeds. Shortly after, they had fixes out for the feeds so you can control content. These are things you don’t see MySpace doing. If they have a blog, I can’t find it. You do see the occasional bulletin from Tom, but that is usually to say “If bulletins are being posted under your account that you didn’t post, change your password,” or “Sorry for the downtime.” And there is no archive for them. (Point of interest: Facebook has no spam or downtime.)

    The second post in this series talk about add ons. Facebook this year alone has had so many. While I showcased some of them, there are a number I left out. MySpace hardly had any. This just shows that Facebook pays more attention to the user. They add things they think the users will like, and accept feedback asking what features users want to see, or what to change. I also mentioned Facebook uses the latest technologies like AJAX. This makes it much easier for the user, with less loading time and switching pages. The user can focus on browsing the site and not on waiting for the site to load.

    As you can probably tell, Facebook really impresses me. The site is really well done and the communication from the development team is second to none. The ads aren’t in your face, and the user has a lot of control over content. Facebook, in my opinion, is the better of the two sites, and possibly the best social networking site out there. Let me know what you think in the comments. Later!

    UPDATE: I just read this bulletin from Tom on MySpace:

    Some of you may have noticed already–the photo count has been increased to 300! You can now upload up to 300 photos. Enjoy! Next week we’ll have albums so you can organize your photos. Enjoy and thanks to Warner Bros and 300 for making this possible!