Pauls Rants and Revelations

In the latest fun fun things my XP system has been doing, today it decided to disconnect all of my access to any form of network. That means no home network, no wireless, no direct cable connections. This, as you can imagine is not good (currently I’m ranting using my laptop and a neighbors wifi). There something wrong with a network bridge that I didnt setup in the first place but I am well past the point of caring about that.

So, I am now making it my mission to get a Macbook Pro that has every pimped out spec I can manage. I want it to replace my desktop so I am going for the 17″ widescreen job and as much power as I can squeeze into it (or at least as much as I can afford).

Why switch you ask? Well, if you are asking why then you are obviously a Windows user. But the reason is that I am just fed up with Windows and since XP is being pushed aside for Vista I feel that its just time to make the move. Besides, with Parallels I can still get XP so I would have the best of both worlds.

If you would like to help out in the “Get Paul a Macbook Pro” fund (and I’m talking to all of you Mac users out there) please drop me a line. Maybe Ill set up a donation thing through Paypal if enough people wish to help me get free of the MS beast.

-Cheers

I just secured a Media Temple hosting solution and will be moving sites (including this one) to them over the next few days. If you currently have a site I host and it goes down for some reason, please dont fret (much).

I will of course try to make things as seemless as possible but there is always the possibility that Murphys law will kick in so please take a backup of your current site within the next few days.

Also, for those that follow this site, I also purchased the domain paulsrants.com, which I will be switching this over too in a fwe weeks. Please update your blogrolls and links accordingly should you wish to continue following the pratlings  you have comes to loathe.

-Cheers

This is the latest example of the “just missed it” form of luck I seem to be having lately.

You see, over the last week I have decided (with some discussion with my partner in cyber-crime) to dissolve our hosting business and pursue work that actually makes us money.

One of the biggest gripes I got was that we used Paypal as out payment means primarily. While this shouldn’t be a big deal (in our opinion) it is for a lot of others. So, after we decide to nix the whole thing I find First Data merchant services.

Usually I have a hard time dealing with merchant services because there is so much room for some swindling of the customer (me) and usually not a lot of depth to the company itself or its services.

After cruising around their site I look, first, to what they offer. They have the usually suspects as far as services go and a good selection of machines if you have a brick & mortar.

What I notices mostly was all the free services they offer. This has generally been a dodgy thing in the past but I found that it made some sense to offer these services as they are already making money from the fees and such.

The free programming help they offer was of particular interest to me as I am still a little skittish when it comes to e-commerce/security type development. But they’re offers of help are most encouraging.

I have to say, though, that I am a bit disappointed that they do not list their rates right off on the site, but this is usually not done from my experience as they usually cut deals to larger clients or those that they see no trouble from (hey, I can’t blame them as I did the same thing).

But other than this one area, the rest of it looks pretty decent and they look to be trustworthy. I am going to keep them in mind when I start up the hosting thing again (what? You think I would really just forget about it?) but for now you can check them out if you are in need of such services.

-Cheers

The more I work with the Prototype and Scriptaculous library, the more I like programming. For instance, we have a fairly decent size (for me) project for a client who wants a nifty front end for their project manager. Using the prototype framework made everything so much easier that I was almost ashamed I didnt jump on the bandwagon earlier. And the whole thing is set up so that I wouldn’t even have to submit the forms (the forms are targeted to a JS call)  except for that it has to work with the companies CMS.

Even though I like it a lot it still a learning project. I’m a little peeved that its taken me this long to get the project this far but at least next time it will be easier (and since I can just copy the code, dev time would be a fraction).

OK. Have to finish this stuff now as the project is like a week late.

-Cheers

I know the motto is “Form follows function” but really this just isn’t the way most clients think about it. I mean, we, as developers have to make the thing work. That is our number one priority.

The client, more often than not, wants it only to be pretty. They want it to be this color and have these design elements and what not and if there is any money left over, make it work.

For instance, I was bidding on a project and the guy seemed fairly intelligent. I asked him questions about what he wanted the application to do and what he expected from the project and he answered them well and completely. He then asked why I hadn’t asked him any questions regarding the design of the app. I told him that “form follows function” and tried to explain that the first step was just making the thing work. Making it pretty was the next step.

He then proceeded to tell me that you dont build a car like that; that they start with sketches of what it will look like. I then told him that I am not building a car; I’m building a web app, and that if he was going to use analogy’s that he should use the correct one. The discussion disolved from there and I ended up turning down the project because I (a) dont need the money that bad and (b) would rather not have to deal with a guy telling me how to do my job.

The problem with web design, or any design, is that it really doesn’t start from sketches. It starts with a list of objectives or features. A car designer has a set or directives before he gets started on the next coupe (i.e. more streamlined, compact, low clearance, etc.). Then, taking these things in mind, starts drawing.

I know that some people will say that a comp is the first step in a new site. Wrong, says I. What if the client comes back 2 days before the site is to go live (and you know they will) and says that they want to take out this or that bit of functionality. Not only do you have to change the application, but the design as well.

The first thing one should do, as the motto goes, is make it work first. After that is locked in, then hand the list of functions, button names, desired colors and what not to the designer. That way they have a solid foundation to work from without fear that the nice bar at the top wont eventually be cut out (an exaggeration, but not far off).

Point being, for those dealing with clients, tell them that you can’t build a skyscraper without a solid foundation. And if they keep pressing the ‘design’ aspects, tell them that it will cost them more their way. If they are fine with that, please send them this way (I have some credit card to pay off )

-Cheers

For those who have asked me, and those who have commiserated with me on the difficulties of dealing with FedEx’s shipping API, I have some wonderful news.

FedEx, when using their Direct XML transaction methods to ping their service, returns an encoded binary string that is to be used for their shipping labels. I have been messing with it on and off for weeks now ever since we got the system to return information correctly. The problem that arose was that the information we received wasn’t decoding properly (FYI, the returned format was 2DCOMMON as a PNG). I decoded the information but it was still a no go. So I got a brain wave and decided to just make a script to create an image file for it (since its a PNG data anyway) and then display the newly created image in the browser so the client can print it out.

I was floored when it first came up and I saw all the nifty information in the FedEx label. The client can now print these out on a standard printer for the shipments.

I can’t paste the code in here as the meter number and other sensitive info is in the request string but here is basically the process the system goes through for shipping:

• XML formatted shipping request is made the the fedex servers
• XML formatted return string is parsed and thrown into a DB table
• Client goes to the admin and hits the Print Shipping Label button
• Resulting page pings the database for the OutboundLabel string, decodes its using a Base64 decoder, writes it to a PNG file, and displays it on the page.
• Client prints the label and they are off and running.

Im still not exactly sure why I cannot just append the decoded Base64 data in the SRC of the image, but at this point I really don’t care since its working now.

Let me know if this method works for anyone, or if anyone has a better way to go about it. This solution is in ASP with an Access database.

OK. Back to work with me.

-Cheers

Its not a question of “can you”, but more a question of “when can you”.

I’m sure that most people would agree that having a job that you can continue learning on is a very good thing. Also, most people would agree that in web development, learning on the job is pretty much a requirement.

But where does one find the time to learn when there are project deadlines, client review, meetings, and the dozens of other tidbits of work to be done? On your lunch break? After hours? My boss regularly forwards articles and such that explain the latest technology of this or that, the newest JS prototype, or something really nifty that he’s been working on (which btw Boss, the new WP is flipping awesome!).

Now I’m sure that everyone has a boss or coworker that forwards stuff like this to your group, but do you take the time to read it thoroughly or just give it a once over? I try to read them through but I usually don’t have time (or attention span, sometimes) to read them as well as I would like. My question, then, is how much of your working day should you set aside for learning and study about your given profession?

Google allows, almost requires, employees to spend 20% of their day for experimenting and exploration into new things and for learning. This is great, but not all of us are Google employees. So for those of us that don’t have a Google ID badge, we pretty much have to decide what we can justifiably use of our “companies time” to put towards learning.

I would say that in my company (to whom, by the way, I am eternally loyal ) I could justify an hour of every day to devout to exploring new tech or refining my skills in certain areas. I have a crap tonne of del.icio.us bookmarks just gagging to be clicked and having a devoted hour in which to check them all out would, I think, prove very beneficial in the long run for the company as well as myself. Eventually, if I can clear out all of my late projects that is, I could set aside more time of the day for this purpose, but I believe an hour is a good start for me and most people. Perhaps after lunch? Perhaps first thing before work?

What times would you think work best? If you already have a study time set aside when is it and what works for you? I’m sure my boss will chime in as he subscribes to this blog, but what do you, the non-bosses or the world, do for learning on the job?

-Cheers

I got the office chair that I am using now from the big boss (the owner of the company I work for) about 3 years ago. It’s a decent chair and I have re-padded it to make it a bit more comfortable, but I am feeling lately that a change of seating would be good. That, and my ass falls asleep after a half hour which is very uncomfortable.

I check the usual haunts (Best Buy, Office Depot, etc) but as usual they don’t have anything I would really want to buy. I check online and find one site selling Home Office Furniture that actually looks pretty good. I check them out for a while (they have a crap ton of stuff) and find they are pretty good and well rated sellers of office furniture. In particular the Barbados leather chair is looking good to me as its very plush and comfy looking. The rest of the chairs are good but this one is just gagging to sit in my home office. They offer a lot more brands of course and their shipping times are also very fast but I will have to save a bit before I have it in my office.

I’m 90% sure that I’ll go with them for my chair, but if I find an executive super high back leather chair somewhere it will be in my office faster than you can say “pins and needles on my butt”.

-Cheers

Ugh. Today I found it damn hard to concentrate on anything. I have no energy and my allergies (im allergic to spring) are acting up so I have a nice layer of snot mist going on around me.

I though it was because I was starting to get burnt out on work (which my boss has several del.icio.us links for) but I didn’t fit the profiles for that.

Then I thought space invaders were stealing my creative thoughts; but Norad said the skies were clear of alien ships (and the guy at Norad was rather rude to me when I was asking about it).

My only other thought is that I’m just having a low energy kind of day. Tomorrow I will probably be back to the semi-normal state of unnaturally sparse normality that is the norm for me. And if you can say that 3 times fast I will give you a cookie.

-Cheers

Well, sorta. I wanted to really try out a Mac G5 but I really, really don’t want to shell out the $5 grand for it. I mean, how will I know if I like it? Will it play nice with my other computers?

Anyways, I only know 1 other person who has a mac and he isn’t going to let me borrow it for a few days. Anyways, I checked around and saw San Diego computer rentals which sounded promising. And just so you know, they don’t only serve San Diego. I just requested a quote for a G5 and will hear back tomorrow.

I know quality costs money, but why does it have to be so much money in the case of Macs? If I like what CRE send me to try out then I may consider purchasing but otherwise Ill just keep renting it when needed.

-Cheers