I have a new job! This means that instead of being gainfully unemployed, I now get to spend my time working on Gazaro.com. I’ve not worked in a start-up before, and the atmosphere is a refreshing change. There are no clients to deal with, no stifling management to report to and tonnes of new technologies to learn. To give you an idea, here’s a list of all the new stuff I’ve worked with since I started there last week:
Python
Google App Engine
Google Protocol Buffers
Google DataStore
Amazon’s SimpleDB
Django templates
Git
Feeling that my skillset was stagnating was one of the reasons that I left my last job, so being exposed to so many new ideas and methods is perfect. That’s all I have to say on the matter right now, but I’m sure I’ll have updates over the next weeks and months on any cool stuff that I do while I’m there.
I’m sad to admit that I’ve somewhat neglected my wp-reactions Wordpress Plugin over the last few months. All the usual reasons apply: Work, real life, laziness.
It seems though that there is still interest in the plugin, so over the next few weeks I’m going to give it an overhaul. It’s been a long time coming, and since I first wrote the original code I’ve learned a lot about the ‘correct’ way to program web apps.
The current code is not very flexible: In order to implement the new features that are in the roadmap, I’m going to have to start again from scratch. This time I’m going to give the plugin a proper DB back-end, so that reaction text can be updated without resetting the count, and so that posts in different categories can have different reaction options (and a lot of other things, too!). This should also make it a lot easier to maintain and add further features to.
So, if you use wp-reactions, or are holding off until some of the features you want are available, rejoice! I expect to have a new version available by the end of the year.
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been in the Wave preview for about 2 weeks now. However, things only really got interesting over the weekend.
The invites I sent out finally arrived (yay!), but even then most of the interaction I did with others was limited to “Yay! Google Wave!”. It seemed that beyond patting each other on the back for getting into the preview, we all had very little to say. Awkward. Surely we could come up with something to do with this fancy new piece of technology?
That something happened over the long Thanksgiving weekend. I needed some advice on how to get Struts and Spring to play nice together. I have a friend with more experience in that area than I, so I asked him. In Wave.
For about 5-10 minutes he tried to explain this in regular text, just like he would have done in IM. It didn’t go very well. Then he said ‘I wish there was a drawing plug-in for this’. ‘Hold on’, thought I. ‘This is exactly what Wave is for. There must be a gadget for that!’.
Adding gadgets to a wave is a breeze. You just need the gadget’s xml link (provided on the page linked above) and then you insert it into a blip by using the ‘insert gadget by URL’ button when editing. It’s not entirely intuitive, but once you’ve done it once it’s very easy to do again.
The number and scope of available gadgets is growing all the time. Want some extra functionality? Chances are someone will have written a gadget for that. There are many reasons to like Google Wave, but I think this fact alone makes it well worth while.
I wish I actually had something to say about Google Wave other than how awesome it looks in principle. I even got an invite to the preview last week. Trouble is, none of the invites I sent out have arrived yet. This means that I have but one person on my contact list (the person who invited me). Seeing as Wave is billed as a collaberation and group chat tool, having just one person isn’t really worth it. Apparently Google is staggering the release of invites so that they can maintain stability and speed. This is completely understandable, but it’s frustrating to have access to such a wonderful new service and have no-0ne to play with… *sigh*
Hopefully some of my other friends will get in soon, and then I’m sure I’ll have plenty to sat on the subject.
Update:Guy, the developer of the C25K app, was kind enough to leave a comment on this post. Here it is in full:
Thanks for the feedback. I’m actually the developer of the app, and I hear you on the complaints.
True, the application needs to be in the foreground to work. This is my first Android app, and I wrote it mostly for myself and to learn how to program for the Android. I haven’t really worked out the “background” thing yet. It’s the first thing on my todo-list. Also, the sound pack support is still a little experimental, so there’s only one. I’d be happy to add more, though, as time allows. The idea of allowing to choose any audio file is good. I hadn’t thought of it.
To put it in context, though, this is a weekend project and I decided to share it with the world for free. As I find more time to hack on it, upcoming versions will be better…
Best,
Guy.
Thanks for getting in touch Guy! I really like the app, I have found it invaluable on my runs. Not being able to change the chimes hasn’t bothered me as much as I thought it would, I think seeing the option to change them leading to no real choice was what annoyed me. The no-background thing is a problem however. Right now I would give the app 3.5/5, as soon as I can run it in the background that rating would go up to 4.5 or even 5/5. Here’s hoping we get a new version soon!
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I have decided I need to get fit.
This is a variation on my semi-regular desire to ‘lose weight’. Unfortunately, these urges never last long enough as laziness inevitably gets the better of me and I go back to the frozen meals. This time though, I think I will have more success. This time, I’m using technology! Read the rest of this entry »
