This is my checklist (in no particular order) that I run through whenever I’m considering starting a new project, obviously not everything is applicable for every project. Thought I’d share.
Over the last week or two I’ve been beta testing the TrustedPlaces API, by building an iPhone and Mobile applications, and yesterday I put live PlacesByDave.com. TrustedPlaces liked the application, and it now runs their official iPhone application over at http://trustedplaces.com/iphone.
I’ve not 100% finished playing with their API, so you might see another feature or two appear. Watch this space!
P.S. thanks all for the feedback, please carry on!
These bloody cats are everywhere these days, and, after spotting that icanhaz.com was available we thought we’d add our contribution to the current internet fad, lolcats. So, just for fun we built a tinyurl but with nice urls, e.g.:
… you get the picture. We’ve got a few ideas for further development, but it is a side-just for fun-project, so as and when. Enjoy your new lolcat urls, or lolurlz, kthx.
Xpay is a product from SecureTrading, I’ve used it a number of times on a number of different projects. So far I’ve been very impressed with the API, however there’s a few things about the Java application that I’d change:
I enabled three out of four requests (even if logging isn’t as verbose as I’d like, it’s a start) with some bash scripts a few months ago. There’s one for Ubuntu servers, and another for RedHat. Now they’re online and open source, if you use Xpay I hope this makes it a little easier.
What does it do? Gets your friends 3 most recent public photos from Flickr in a mobile friendly page.
How did it come about? Josh and I have recently been discussing doing a few really quick, small but useful web applications. I commented on Seth Levine’s blog post Twittering Away which lead to an email discussion. I asked for his thoughts on Radar and later mentioned I’d been thinking about doing something much more basic, but similar with Flickr, as that’s where my data is. Then I found an hour to hack it together.
It was done very quickly so it’s not without problems (consider it beta), but is a good proof of concept, and I’m enjoying using it. Point your mobile’s browser to http://prototypes.builtbydave.co.uk/f3 to follow your friends photos where ever you are.
Every year for the past few has apparently been the mobile year of something, 3d/broadband/malware, you name it! I didn’t notice, sure my feed reader told me, but I didn’t notice. I was a laggard when it came to mobile. For a number of years I refused to join the masses, “I didn’t want to be disturbed”.
[Obviously] I got a mobile, and still I didn’t really notice. Now I’m noticing. Now it affects me:
The handsets are not without problems (UI speed seems to be a big issue), but now, the pro’s outweigh the con’s. In my world, I’ve become much more mobile.
My proof, I remember in patterns. My password, no idea what it is - give me a keyboard and I know the pattern. I am updating all my passwords to something that is easier to input on a mobile (and, yes, just as secure for all those considering cracking) as my attention is often on my mobile, not my laptop. For me, this is the year of the mobile.
It’s all become a bit a little complex!
A month or two back, I bit the bullet and decided to join all the social networks I found with at least another friend on. Previously I’d ignored MySpace, Facebook, and the rest of them and dedicated my time to the one I still enjoy most, Twitter. I join them all as a bit of an experiment, looking to learn and analyze how people interact online more. I’m left wondering a few things:
My main problem now is I have friends all over the place, both online and offline. Some of these have my address/phone/im, others don’t, some are on Twitter and Facebook, but not on MySpace. To combat this I’ve got a filter in gmail that moves all emails from social networks to a different label so I can try and see everything in one place (also, I can see out of my friends what gets used more).
Thing is, my email has become voicemail. I login and see that Katy has messaged me back on Facebook (go and check that then, reply), and that Tom added me on Twitter (go and add him back), nothing from MySpace but, they don’t seem to email me (check that as I’m doing the rounds) and Rosie sent a message to everyone (read that, reply). Radar told me Pete and Josh have been adding photos on Radar (have a quick look). Then I’ve got Flickr telling me about my friends photos in Google Reader, and a similar setup with del.icio.us. Then I walk out the house, and my mobile gives me updates from Jaiku, and Twitter is my browser homepage on my N73 as well.
I love being connected, but seriously, this has to change?! If anything, just because it’s a drain on productivity - every time I check my email I’m on 10 sites doing ‘admin work’ on my ‘online social life’. And, when I want to ring Sam, he’s on my Twitter but I don’t have his number. And then there’s Skype, AIM/MSN/Yahoo/Gtalk/etc, I’ve not even got onto email yet (sorry if I’ve not replied yet). And, really, I much prefer speaking to someone.
Rant over
Over the past few days I’ve soft-launched Joard. It’s aim is to help website owners make money using job boards. I’m very excited about this product, and so-far there’s been good feedback.
I’ll be blogging Joard related topics over on the Joard blog, so if your interested you can follow progress over there (I’m sure I’ll still mention it time to time here mind you!)
We launched a job board for OSFlash, so if your looking for Flash jobs, or Flex jobs, pay them a visit! If your looking to monetize your website, get in contact - sales@joard.com.