Category Archives: projects

Geckoboard Weather Widget (Wot I Made)

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Back in December, this happened:

I’ve been wanting to do something ‘cool’ with it since then, but until now I hadn’t found the right project. Then earlier this week I came across Geckoboard, a neat app that allows you to create Panic-like status boards to monitor all sorts of interesting stats.

I decided I wanted to use it to create a living room dashboard that pulls in my calendar events, the current time, the weather, and maybe a todo/shopping list. I would then place my iPad somewhere prominent and have all the info available at a glance.

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The Flying Developer Eats His Own Dogfood

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There’s a term in the software industry called ‘Dogfooding’, or “To eat one’s own Dogfood”. It refers to the practice of using the products you develop. The term was coined in 1988 when:

“Microsoft manager Paul Maritz sent Brian Valentine, test manager for Microsoft LAN Manager, an email titled “Eating our own Dogfood”, challenging him to increase internal usage of the company’s product.” – Wikipedia

I’ve been at Shopify for the better part of a year now, so I thought it was about time that I engaged in some dogfooding of my own. The result has just gone live: The Noble Pony

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Reactions plugin end-of-year update

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Last time I posted about the wp-reactions plugin, I said that I planned on having a new version released by the end of the year.

The good news is that I’ve made considerable progress over the last six weeks overhauling the back-end to make it easier to maintain and expand. I’ve also learned a lot more about relational databases in the process, which is good for me if not the plugin users.

The bad news is that this process isn’t finished yet, so it’ll be a little while longer before there is a new version available. I hope that anyone out there who is waiting for a new release isn’t too disappointed.

Lighthouse Keeper is now called Limelight!

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As stated in the update on my previous blog post, there is already a Lighthouse-related app called Lighthouse Keeper. Bummer.

Still, not to worry. To avoid confusion and general awkwardness, I’m going to change the name of the app to Limelight. I’m pretty sure that there are no existing apps in the same domain with that name. Pretty sure. Not 100%. So if there are any app developers out there developing a Lighthouse app called Limelight… I’m sorry in advance. Hopefully I’ll be ok this time though.

I’m going to release a new version of the app with the changed name in the next couple of days.

Introducing: Lighthouse Keeper

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Update: Oops! It looks like there is already a Lighthouse-related app called Lighthouse Keeper (it can be found here). Future versions of my app will have a different name to avoid confusion.

Lighthouse is a lightweight hosted bug-tracker produced by entp. It’s advertised as “Beautifully Simple Issue Tracking”.

Lighthouse Keeper is a small AIR app produced by me. It allows you to export Lighthouse ticket info to a csv file.

Background

I learned about the existence of Lighthouse earlier this week at a job interview. I’ve used a couple of bug-trackers before, but Lighthouse had never appeared on my radar. The two guys interviewing me got into a spirited conversation with each other about the various pros and cons of different bug tracking solutions, but Lighthouse in particular. One of their comments was

I wish there was a way to export my tickets as a csv file.

Maybe someone will come up with something using the API.

That’s a challenge if I’ve ever heard one. Continue reading →

wp-reactions Project Update

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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.

The Flying Developer Role Plays

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I think my inner nerd has finally taken full control of me.

I recently started playing Dungeons & Dragons (4th Edition) after listening to the podcasts Penny Arcade did at Wizards of the Coast (who publish D&D). I’m DMing the Keep on the Shadowfell campaign for a bunch of other new players. We’re all thoroughly enjoying it. And yes, that makes us all thoroughly nerdy.

I don’t have very many miniatures, which is a problem because 4th Edition relies heavily on moving characters and monsters around on a grid during combat. There are many alternatives (such as Lego men, dice, or other small objects), but I wanted something a little slicker. I wanted my game pieces to have a uniform look and feel, and not break the immersion by forcing the players to think too much about what each item represented:

“Ok, so the quarter is a goblin, and the dime is an orc. No wait, the dime is the goblin, and the quarter is the orc. Got that? Oh, and 3 more goblins appear from around the corner. Does anyone have any change?

I had a look round online for ideas for replacements, and found several people had made their own tokens using images found around the web. To be honest I was disappointed by these, as they were usually mismatched and of dubious quality. I needed a better solution. Continue reading →