I've been away for a while

Sorry I've been away for a while guys! I've been trying to juggle school work as well as preparing for the big wedding day!

I do have an update for those interested which is the restart of projectini! I've put together a design and uploaded a prototype of the site here. Now you may be asking a couple of questions in regards to why I chose this design.

Personally, I felt keeping it simple and likable are two unique UX approaches. Starting from the top up, You can see I chose my logo to be a simplistic martini glass with an olive. The reason I like this logo is because it's simple and it says to me "Keep it Classy!" which will be my overall motto with this site. I chose the menu to be on the top right as basic archetypes suggests menus are often located on the top of the content and decided to go against the grain with a large (fluid) background image.

Why did I go with a large background image? The answer is simple: The Audience. My website is targeted at developers and designers who have a decent internet connection. This is because the scrum tools I'm advertising are "Internet Heavy" and would be of no benefit to someone logging in with a DSL connection. I've even contemplated timing out the page if their speed isn't up to par but decided against it due to visibility implications. I'm still working on the tables that hold the wording and the contents as I feel they are just a tad mellow. I may just have large divs move up and down from the bottom instead of trying to integrate text with that noisy background image.

Oh well, I feel like this is definitely moving somewhere for the better!

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Alternate Reality

Recently, I posted my thoughts on alternate reality. It turns out that there is a company currently working to make this come alive! While they are very reserved on their technology, You can assume their end result by watching the video on their home page. You can find them here: http://www.magicleap.com/

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Projetini - Project End

So after giving it some thought, I decided not to pursue the projectini project as I was moved to a new position in my current company and won't be able to manage this project and the other. As of now, I'm setting the status of this project to suspended in hopes that I can reopen it or someone would be willing to develop my idea. Priorities are a definite staple in my life, and considering my new up and coming life events; It's a better choice to put this on the back burner and revisit the idea when I have more time in my hands.

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As Promised

As promised here are some pictures and a video of the robot I've created. The robot works either through the WAN (Internet) or LAN (Home or Office Network). The logic is mostly done in an Arduino board with Ardumoto shield enclosed within the black box. I'm using a 12v 5ah battery with attached charger of which is attached to an extension plug that also has the tablet plugged in. I'd love to hear some thoughts and ideas on how I can improve him!

As far as cosmetics go; I'll be giving some companies a call on how much the would charge for a 2 part hollow plastic enclosure. I'm hoping it wont be as expensive so the end product does not break the bank.

You can also attach a Verizon MiFi card and control him outside as long as there is enough signal and low latency.

Here is the Video:

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Inexpensive Telecommuting robot

Recently I've been involved on a side project funded by my current employer to build an inexpensive telecommuting robot. I am proud to say that I have successfully completed this task and believe that I could sell it at a $500 price point. This is a full, tall robot that can be accessed via any machine as long as they are within a network. I will post more on this tomorrow with pictures and video.

Good night!

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VR vs AR - Possibility?

I've been pondering what I can do with the oculus rift goggles that is unique and entertaining. Interestingly enough, I had a dream of something that I referenced to as Alternate Reality. Virtual Reality puts you in a virtual environment while Alternate Reality modifies your current environment. I'll add this to the list of project Ideas as a thought. As far as making this work, I'm thinking that I would add bifocal cameras to the oculus rift glasses and create a program that pulls in visual data and renders content on to that virtual area. I know there was something similar created for phones in a 2D spectrum... I'm thinking we can do it on a 3D level. Alternatively, I was thinking I could the kinect to create a map of the room of which is uploaded to a computer, and the computer generates a map based on the objects and dimensions of the room.

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Projectini - No bueno

Greetings!

I haven't heard from the designer helping me with this so I'm looking for a designer willing to donate some time for this project. In the mean time, I'll be taking a shot at some of the design elements to try and get something out to the public by next month. I wouldn't want to loose the Google entrepreneurship opportunity that landed on my lap.

Oh well!

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System Shock + Oculus Rift + Unity = Amazing

I've decided to post a couple of threads online to see if I can get any support for the System Shock 3 project. As of now, I'm hoping to create a working demo that'll grab further interest of the project. The demo will be compatible with the Oculus Rift goggles and should feature a handful of the assets and graphics used for the System Shock 3 title. There are copyright issues to this, but I'm hopeful of getting past that with a Demo and bringing it to the right holders for their blessing as well as a deal.

Any who, I still need a team who can help me with this so the offer is out there! Let's see who bites :)

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It's be a while!

I haven't posted in a long time but I figured I'd post one of my recent ideas. I'm currently in the process of building a robot from scratch and I realized that what we need is an operating for robots. Now i'm not talking about a linux distro.. I'm talking a new operating system created from scratch that would be better suited for the integration of arduino devices and controllers.. I'll add this to my list of ideas, It definitely couldn't hurt!

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Mock Ups!

Still in the process of creating Projectini (AKA Unity or Project X). Here are a couple of interactive wire frames I came up with. These should give me (and you!) a decent idea of what the website will contain and how it will work. Aside from a couple of eye sores, I gotta say that the logged in portion encourages me to complete my site so I too can use its tools!

Check the mockups out here!

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System Shock 3 Anybody?

I felt somewhat nostalgic last night and went back to play some of my older games. I then remembered that my all time favorite game System Shock was on my PC and I proceeded to play for a bit wondering how nice it would be for a System Shock 3.

I then asked my self, Why not create it your self?

After giving it some thought and doing research on the trademark and rights to the game, I've concluded that I can make it happen if I can find a team who is willing to spend the time to recreate this game. Assuming I have a team or at the very least someone who is familiar with blender and unity, I would first create a demo. I would then use the demo and create a new Kickstarter project show casing the demo and asking for funding. Once fully funded, I can purse the rights of the game as well as attempt to buy the trademark off EA or come up with some kind of additional funding on their part to get the game going.

I'll add this to my list of projects.. Couldn't hurt right?

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Decisions Decisions

Still having a tough time trying to figure out a good domain name with the team. I'm trying to find something that will be catchy and easy to remember. Something that goes well with the logo as well. I do however have some of the sitemap done and some of the mock ups courtesy of https://moqups.com/.

I've been toying with the idea of VR and Unity as well. There is so much potential out there for VR that it's almost heart breaking not being able to be a part of the wave of the future. I can envision peripherals + kinect + Rift all creating an amazing experience.

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Project Unity or {x}

I've been working to get the project unity started. I have a designer working with me to create the graphics which I believe is a good way to start. I've already drawn up the wire frames for some of the pages as well as created a sitemap for most of the public facing pages.

I'm really excited about seeing this thing in action, While I was site mapping the "Scrum Room", I felt like this alone can be an incredibly useful tool!

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Google Start-up

Greetings!

I received a neat email from Google that stated that my project had been selected to be a part of Google's Startup launch program. This is incredibly exciting as it provides an amazing opportunity for my project to materialize using the provided Google tools and technologies. As of now I'm forming a team to get a good plan going for this site. I'm also considering using the Startup weekend site (http://startupweekend.org/) to network and hopefully create a full team for this project.

I'll keep you guys posted!

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Unity3d start

Greetings!

Nothing much to post today except for my new found interest in Unity3d and Blender. I'll probably be learning this just so I can have a little bit of modeling experience. It definitely can't hurt right?

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Ideas, Ideas, Ideas!

Greetings!

I've always been one to think outside the box and think of possible projects that can help the open source community. While driving during one of my long commutes to Ohio from Virginia, I began to think of something I describe as Project {X}.

The idea came to me when I was thinking of creating a game similar to angry birds. I thought to myself that while I can create all of the logic and server side code needed to implement this, I wouldn't be able to create any of the designs as I am not very good at making things "pretty" or "Eye-catching". I then sat and thought.. I wish there was a website where I can post my idea and if others liked it, they too would invest their time in polishing and making the Idea come to life.

Then it hit me that I can create this website! The website can be best described as GIThub for teams (Project Managers, Devs, Designers, DBA's, etc..)  rather than individual projects. A new comer to the site would come in, register and post their idea for everyone to see. A designer would come along and see this idea in which he would "apply" to be a part of the idea. A DBA and a project manager comes in and see the Idea and decide to do the same. Once the Team is formed, the group leader (Or Idea Holder) would assign roles and get cracking on the development of the Idea with tools provided by my site.

I'll add this to the Projects page and hopefully get interest from you guys to help me out!

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Check if page is cached using Jquery and .Net

Greetings!


A couple of months ago I hit a brick wall when trying to test if a page being loaded was cached or not. To clarify, if a user were to hit "log Out" and redirected to a log out page (while obviously destroying the sessions of course) but then hit the back button, the page would load successfully as if it had not been logged out in the first place (front-end wise). To many .Net developer this can provide a frustrating experience as the Page_Load event in the code behind does not get called when a page is being loaded from cache. After a couple of days of searching, I found the solution (I take no credit for writing the code, I merely found it and edited it but no longer can find the source) which entales a small amount of .Net and Jquery.

For the codebehind, I created a class called CheckCache with the following sub procedure

Dim CookieName As String = "isCached"

Sub setCache(response As HttpResponse, cookieData As String)
response.SetCookie(New HttpCookie(CookieName, cookieData))
End Sub

To walk this through, the CookieName is used to identify the cookie in which we will be accessing. The sub procedure creates the cookie and receives an httpResponse object as well as a string which will contain the data within our cookie we would create when the sub procedure is called.

I then created a js file called CheckCache with the following code

function getCookie(name) {
    var nameEQ = name + "=";
    var ca = document.cookie.split(';');
    for (var i = 0; i < ca.length; i++) {
        var c = ca[i];
        while (c.charAt(0) == ' ') c = c.substring(1, c.length);
        if (c.indexOf(nameEQ) == 0) return c.substring(nameEQ.length, c.length);
    }
    return null;
}
function setCookie(name, value, days) {
    if (days) {
        var date = new Date();
        date.setTime(date.getTime() + (days * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
        var expires = "; expires=" + date.toGMTString();
    }
    else var expires = "";
    document.cookie = name + "=" + value + expires + "; path=/";
}
$(function () {
    $.isCached = (getCookie("isCached") == 'true');
    setCookie("isCached", 'true');
})

The getCookie function retrieves the cookie data by the cookie name. The setCookie function sets the cookie with a value we pass in and receives optional parameters for cookie expiration. Lastly, The ready function contains a variable I created that can be called via jquery to check if the page is cached or not while at the same time setting the value of the cookie to true stating it has been cached (which is normal on document load).

Implementation and how it works:

On each page load (generally a static header control) you want to add the following code on page load

Dim BrowserCache As New BrowserCacheCheck
 BrowserCache.setCache(Response, "False")

When ever the codebehind fires the setCache function on pageLoad, we know that the page is not being loaded in by cache because we know that the page load event DOES NOT get called when a page is cached. Because the codeBehind fires first, it creates the cookie and set its status to False as in "the load request that just came in has not been cached.". After this event fires, our JS ready event fires next as soon as the page is finished loading which sets our jquery variable to false (because the code behind page load event fired and set the cookie to false which means false == true returns false) and then opens the cookie back up and marks it to true.

The reason it opens the cookie back up to true is because we know that a page is cached after the document ready event fires, because we know that we change the cookie to true. Whenever the user hits the back button now, the page load command does not get called thus the cookie still remains true meaning that it's being loaded from cache.

Let me know if I can further clarify this!

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Documentation

Greetings!

Creating documentation can such a pain sometimes. Specially when the documents deal with web applications and you need to reference every single plugin you've used on a site. Perhaps there should be a push for an automatic documentation writer? Realistically, I can't imagine it would be that hard to implement as we reference plug-ins in a predictable manner such as <script src="etc..etc"></script>. I'll add this to my projects folder and see what I can come up with. Perhaps I can add a data attribute for my project to come in and sweep the application for anything that needs to be documented. Hm.. I'll need a template, this application can be a web app or I can create a console app..

Oh well, for those curious, I'm using the documentation found here

I'll add this as a possible To-Do Project and see if I can get anything created possibly based on this template.

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Greetings!

Greetings!

This is my first post in a long line of posts. This blog is going to be about any code I write and interesting methods I find out on the web. I will even post up snippets and Ideas I come about in hopes that it helps the community.

I will post back soon!

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