I enjoy developing innovative and functional web applications. Primarily I use PHP and MySQL, but I’ve never shied away from a challenge. In addition to custom development, I’m also quite handy with WordPress and can modify it to power nearly any type of business website.
The real Fake Steve needed to move his blog and relatively large audience off of Blogger to allow for more flexibility and expansion. A hosted version of WordPress seemed like the best fit and I began the process of converting his template, redirecting his traffic and RSS feeds and customizing WordPress to accommodate his potentially high traffic volumes.
To accomplish this, I integrated WordPress dynamic widgets, added WP Super Cache to help with page load, wrote redirects for all RSS feeds and added a Google site map for safe measure.
At the same time, Fake Steve also wanted to allow select bloggers to contribute to his site in a section called Rabid Fanboy. Leveraging some interesting post page rules I was able to segment these new authors from Fake Steve’s original content and create the experience he was looking for.
SoftballLeagues.net is a fun experiment that I’ve been toying around with for far too long. The site, through PHP, MySQL, Twitter API and some AJAX, helps softball players and teams to find each other. The application is location-aware once a user selects their state and will filter lists accordingly based on the player’s location. This is still a work in progress as I have a lot of enhancements in mind.
Aetna Fire Alarm needed an online tool to allow clients to login and view their building alarm tests and needed it quick. To save time, I reused WordPress’ admin design, but developed the application completely from scratch to meet Aetna’s unique requirements including CSV file importing and exporting, multiple building address searches and bar coded device integration.
I worked closely with Aetna and their clients to ensure the product met everyone’s needs and delivered it on time and on budget.
Another side-project of mine over the last few months has been Feedcrush.com. If you like music and discovering new artists, Feedcrush is a great place to see what one of the top college radio stations in the country is playing.
The site simply tracks radio station (WERS in Boston) song plays over time (currently, about 16 months worth). You can comment and rate songs and there are links to listen to most songs. Eventually I plan on trending the play data for patterns , but haven’t gotten around to it. I still think there’s a “bigger” idea here, but I haven’t had time to fully work it out either.
The design was inspired by Gmail’s “labels” tool. While I was testing the application, I was receiving automated emails that I filtered into a red Feedcrush Gmail label. After seeing it for about a week, I thought, “that would make a cool ‘logo’”. The Flash graphs are powered by amCharts.
My biggest hurdle to date has been data normalization. WERS’s play lists rely on DJs to manually enter the song data, which can get ugly fast. While I do some cleaning to remove extra spaces etc, I’ve yet to accommodate differences like “&” vs “and” or misspellings. If you have any thoughts, feel free to share them in the comments below.
After using 37signals’ TaDaList task tool and being dissapointed by the lack of functionality, I found myself thinking, “I can do better than this.” So I did, I think. Sure, it’s not as flashy as TaDaList and it’s not built on Rails (OMG!), but it suites my needs and I think it might work for a few of you as well. Try out Task Tracker now.
Key features (not available in TaDaList):
- Dates: Sort your task lists by date
- Tags: Sort your task list by tag or keyword
- Friends: Assign/receive tasks from friends and family
- Views: View all of your tasks at once regardless of date or tag
Feel free to use this software at no charge (and at your own risk). Keep in mind that even though I plan on using the tool as my primary task manager, it’s still a “pet project” and could change at any time. I will do my best to maintain any data you have entered, but you never know. Also, if you have suggestions or feedback on the tool, feel free to leave a comment here.
Future plans currently include tag colors to further organize your tasks, a real user interface (it’s hideous right now) and some enhanced friend features.
