Converting caffeine to code, shooting pics, and cruising the roads of life.

Archive for the ‘Script.aculo.us’ Category

The knack

Thursday, February 8th, 2007

There are times when people or companies make you mad, this is one of them. I was planning on beginning this post with a video from youtube called “The Knack.” It was a family guy video about computer and electronic tinkering. Well, Sony somehow feels that this 1:01 minute long clip violates their copyrights, so it has been removed in the last round of DMCA cease and desists on youtube. So, I won’t be starting this post off this way…

Last week, I got “The Knack.” It seems to bite any computer guy that comes into contact with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) hardware. It all started when a fellow programmer friend of mine sent me a link to a DEC Easy WebServer. This is a relabeled DEC Alpha Multia that shipped with Windows NT 4.0 Server. It included some sort of Netscape software for setting up a webserver easily. Well, I figured I would go ahead and add it to my watch list, since it was only $20 + shipping. I continued browsing and around and found a DEC VAXstation 3100 for $18 + shipping. I have been wanting a VAX for a while, so I bought it. 2 days later, I bought the DEC Easy WebServer.

So in total, I spent over $100 in a week on computer hardware that is older than me.(almost as old as me in the Multia’s case) The VAXstation came and it ended up missing the whole SCSI controller board, so I’m still looking for one of those. The Multia came today and works great, but it seems to operate in “Space heater emulation mode” all the time, I’d hate to see it under a full CPU load.

I tried installing OpenBSD/Alpha on the Multia tonight, with little luck. The installer boots and then says it can find no drives, but the hardware compatibility list clearly says the Multia is supported. So, I tried to find Debian net boot floppy images and failed. I’m currently installing FreeBSD/Alpha as I’m writing this, hopefully it works better.

Here are a few pictures of my new machines, more pictures of the Multia can be found here; more pictures of the VAXstation can be found here.

DEC Alpha - Multia EasyWebServer
DEC Alpha - Multia EasyWebServer
VAXstation 3100
VAXstation 3100

School has been crazy lately. I’ve been loaded down with homework most of the time, and on top of that I’ve been drafted by a few of the teachers at school to participate in the FBLA competitions. I’ll be competing in the single person test on computer networking. The test is a 100 question test given at a local university. I’m competing in the area my school does really bad in, so I hope I can change the tradition…

As I said above, school has been crazy lately. This has had it’s negative effects on Threadbound. When I do have time to code, I’m working on my client’s website, which I got sometime after my last post, or I’m doing coding for thunder-it.com. Today, I’ve been hit with a new block of inspiration and ideas for threadbound, so hopefully I can make some time to work on it. The stuff I came up with today is definitely new for the area I plan to implement it in.

For those of you still not quite sure about this whole Web 2.0 thing, check out the video below. It’s the best one I’ve ever seen that describes how I feel about it.

Posted in Daily Grindage, Experiences, FreeBSD, Geek Humor, Geekery, Linux, NetBSD, Personal, Programming, Prototype, Script.aculo.us, Web 2.0, Web Development | No Comments »

A bit of a test

Monday, September 25th, 2006

The past few weeks have been pretty insane. I have not only had a lot to do at school, but a lot going on too. My Counter-Strike: Source addiction is coming back too, thanks to a bunch of my friends at school and our newly formed clan. I wont’ have much time for anything the rest of the week though. Tomorrow and Wednesday I have PLAN testing, which is basically the pre-ACT test. Then I have a week to do my PSAT practice booklet and take the PSAT. Fun times ahead. :)

In other news, I would like to leak a bit of news on one of my new projects that I am co-developing with a network operator for theWyldRyde.org IRC network, DamnSmallBSD. It is a take off of the very first linux distribution I ever used, Damn Small Linux. Our goals are similar, but we are based on a completely different operating system, FreeBSD. We also have some cool ideas to keep it modular for people looking to remaster it. Keep your eyes open, the cd is bootable, we just haven’t done much work on the userland yet.

Over the past day, I also broke back into some PHP. ThreadBound officially moved a step closer to it’s main goal. Here is a little hint of a very early page:

ThreadBound - previewThreadBound – preview Hosted on Zooomr

I have also been contacted to do some more work for ThunderIT.com, so I’m very happy about that. The project I’ll be working on is very cool. Hopefully some of the cash I get from this job will help me get a new laptop.

Posted in Daily Grindage, Experiences, FreeBSD, Geekery, Linux, Operating System Development, PHP, Personal, Programming, Prototype, Script.aculo.us, Web 2.0, Web Development | No Comments »

ThreadBound.com

Monday, August 7th, 2006

Well, we came up with the new name and the teaser page is up. Have fun. ThreadBound.com I’ll make a logo soon as Alpaca gets back from Canada. Fill out the form if you want updates.

Posted in Apache, Daily Grindage, Experiences, Geekery, PHP, Personal, Programming, Prototype, Script.aculo.us, Site News, Uncategorized, Web 2.0, Web Development | No Comments »

I have been Web 2.0′d

Sunday, April 30th, 2006

Over the past few weeks, I have been in the process of developing my newest site. I can not tell you the name, at least until I buy the domain, or what services it will provide. One thing I can tell you though, is that the thing will revolutionize communities on the web for a while to come.

After reading many articles on “Web 2.0″ designs and browsing the sites, I have my own take on the style. Luckily, I’ve had the ability to please almost everybody I’ve shown the design to. :)

This new project also gives me a huge opportunity that a lot of my other haven’t. I am getting to play and learn new technologies that I have never used before. I have grown attached to the whole Script.aculo.us Javascript effect library and the web 2.0 developers best friend, Prototype. These JS libraries are just amazing! They simplify many effects and actions that would take many many lines of javascript to do. Some of the simple features in Prototype include the $() and $F() functions. $() is a simpler way to use document.getElementById, while $F() allows you to grab the value of a form object, painlessly.

Script.aculo.us is in a whole different ball park. The effects it provides are amazing and simple to use. I am going to make a prediction right now. I believe that over the next year, we will be seeing a lot more sites using this library. Back on topic, Script.aculo.us is built on top of the Prototype library, but is directed at the effects area. You can do fade in/fade out, open/close, shrink/grow, and many more effects with it. Is it is? Heck yes! Performing an effect on an element is as easy as a new Effect.Appear($(’element id’));.

One thing I have noticed that runs common through out all Web 2.0 sites is the ease of use. Forms are stripped down to the bear minimum in most cases and the use can go back to add filler information later, like profiles. This allows a user to quickly perform a task and see results. Add AJAX on top of this and you have an amazing ability to please users to your site, since you can do these tasks quickly. So I have definately taking this into consideration on my new site.

The latest problem I have had with working on my new project is figuring out how to stay COPPA compliant. This is not proving to be an easy task because there is no way I am going to be taking snail mail letters and faxes just to allow people to register on the site. I just do not have the time to go through and read each letter, then go activate the kid’s account.
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Posted in Daily Grindage, Experiences, Geekery, Personal, Prototype, Script.aculo.us, Web 2.0, Web Development | No Comments »