10/29/2008 10:47 PM -
examine the intersection to the right: (map): imagine you are approaching this intersection heading east and planning to turn right to drive southbound. however, an unfortunate combination of engineering mistakes prevents you from executing this maneuver in any legal manner:another intersection exists about 100' prior to the one where you want to turna solid white line exists 15' after the prior intersection, proceeding right up to the intersection you want to turn atthe right (southmost) lane is a right-turn only lane prior to both intersectionsin this situation, you have four choices:illegally turn into the right turn only lane prior to the first intersection and proceed straight through the intersectionillegally cross over the solid white lineillegally swerve into the right-turn lane immediately after passing the first intersection, completing the maneuver before any portion of your vehicle can come into contact with the solid white lineslow down to about 10mph, illegally impeding traffic in the process.being as you cannot complete this maneuver without breaking one of these four laws, what would you do in this situation? most people select option 1.
Post.aspx?Title=The+Lessest+of+Four+Evils
10/29/2008 05:34 PM -
have you ever wanted to take an entire codebase as a string, evaluate it on the fly, and run it? ever wanted to type some code into a command line and have it execute for you? what if you could... like this: yeah, that was a screenshot. finally, the functionality of gw-basic (circa 1983) shall be ours again. sure, you'll have to download or write the command interpreter yourself, but it's simple (i.e. you pass a string to the compiler). wtf? yep. in c# 4.0, the compiler implements an api via which you can dynamically compile, execute, and evaluate code... from code. in this video, anders hejlsberg, the chief architect of the c# programming language, gives us an awesome demonstration of it. look for it around time index 59:30, or 67:00 if you wanna skip right to the good stuff. you can run literally any code dynamically. in his example interface, he news up a linq query that returns the five biggest running processes. in this screenshot (henceforth uselessly known as figure 2), you can see the result in a clearer context. with each line running upon the previous lines, you can instantiate objects (like entire winforms) and call them, as anders has done here. other cool features include optional and named parameters, which will significantly reduce the number of overloads some developers need and will also stop you from having to call methodname (x,"test",null,null,null);. if you'd like to watch an unrelated video about the actual c# 4.0 design team, it's here. these features may even make it into mv9, the version of the blog i'll likely be on by the time c# 4.0 is released with visual studio 2010. guess what year that'll be.
Post.aspx?Title=Why+C%23+4.0+Will+be+Awesome
10/27/2008 08:02 PM -
last site update post was on 10/21; since then:implemented search functionality based on post titles and bodies. unlike mv4's search feature, the mv5 search engine searches for any post whose title or body contains all the words entered. mv4, by contrast, just looked for that exact phrase, which was much simpler.updated the post selector so that whenever it navigates to a new postimplemented a referral blacklist subsystem; anytime a referrer is encountered whose root domain occurs on the blacklist:the ip is logged to have problemsif a user is logged in, their banlevel is incrementeduser receives an information bar informing them i am aware of their referral spam.implemented comment manager - allows me to approve and reject comments which require moderation, as deided by an ip's problem level, user's banned level, and whether or not a user is logged in.
Post.aspx?Title=Site+Work3
10/25/2008 11:54 PM -
gunnison, co in the background. clickable:
Post.aspx?Title=Mestang
10/25/2008 11:51 PM -
having nearly run out of good driving days for 2008, i checked the weather forecast and saw a predicted 60-70f for the weekend. today's road trip was to gunnison (trip map). the map shows 162 miles, but the actual trip was about 175; i've moved the starting point to anonymize my location within colorado springs and to trick google maps into giving me a route along the highway i actually used. google wanted me to take i-25 through pueblo, but i wanted to take co-115. anyhow... i snapped this great panorama while i was there. full panorama, 4.6mb, 8737x2797: widescreen crop, 2.6mb, 8372x1073: standard crop, 458kb, 1280x1024:
Post.aspx?Title=Road+Trip%3a+Gunnison
10/25/2008 11:01 PM -
i'd like to propose a global reevaluation of how we define a "good driver". let us examine what we are taught as teenagers and in drivers' education. a good driver, by that definition:always obeys the law. always wears a seat belt, never speeds, and does not proceed into an intersection with a yellow light, even if he's six inches away from the light when it turns yellow and he's going 60mph. physics aside, it's the law. i quote the colorado drivers' handbook: steady yellow light: a red light is about to appear. stop unless you are already within the intersection. yellow arrow: a lighted red arrow is about to appear. stop if you are not already in the intersection. keeps to the right, except to pass.signals before checking to see if it's safe to perform a lane change. this process of signal, look, maneuver ensures it may take upwards of 1000' to change lanes on a highway.performs a quick safety inspection of the vehicle before operating it, even if doing so a dozen times in a day. this includes checking all the lights, brakes, and horn. would you want your neighbor honking his horn 12 times a day?always turns into the correct lane. if he's in the second-from-the-closest turning lane, he turns into the second-from-the-closest lane on the other road.signals 100' ahead of a lane change or turn in urban or metropolitan areas; 200' ahead at speeds over 40mph; even when there's another road in between and people will mistake his signal for turning onto that road.maintains a consistent speed; speeds up when the speed limit increases, slows down when it decreases.never slows down for a freeway offramp until he is actually in the deceleration lane.enters/exits traffic from proper lane, approaches intersections in proper lane, ends maneuver in proper laneremains entirely within the lane, keeps both hands on the wheel except to shift, uses approved method of steering control (hand-over-hand or push-pull-slide), keeping vehicle centered in appropriate lane, does not encroach over lane markings or drag wheels over curbssmooth acceleration/deceleration, does not impede traffic, adjusts speed to react to traffic and conditions, maintains steady speed during lane change, approaches intersection at speed which allows the turn to be made without stopping or braking during the turnmaintains an adequate gap between his vehicle and the one in front of his (one car length per 10mph or uses the "three second rule")shares the road gleefully with bicyclists who can barely accomplish 15mph. do you know anyone who drives like that? allow me to define a good driver from my own unique perspective:obeys those laws which do not impede the reasonable safe operation of traffic. wears a seatbelt if it doesn't limit maneuverability and if eschewing the seatbelt is equipped with an airbag. proceeds happily through yellow lights if stopping would result in an unsafe condition, position within the intersection, or squealing of tires.keeps to the right, except to pass.looks first before changing lanes. signals once he decides it is safe or will be safe very soon. proceeds when clear based on his current speed, acceleration delta, and the speed of nearby vehicles.always turns into the correct lane. if he's in the second-from-the-closest turning lane, he turns into the second-from-the-closest lane on the other road.signals 100-200' ahead of a lane change or turn, if such signalling is unlikely to result in confusing nearby drivers. does not signal until safe to complete maneuver, unless attempting to provoke other drivers into getting out of the way.maintains a consistent speed; speeds up when the speed limit increases, slows down when it decreases.never slows down for a freeway offramp until he is actually in the deceleration lane.enters/exits traffic from proper lane, approaches intersections in proper lane, ends maneuver in proper laneremains entirely within the lane, keeping vehicle centered in appropriate lane, does not encroach over lane markings or drag wheels over curbssmooth acceleration/deceleration, does not impede traffic, adjusts speed to react to
Post.aspx?Title=What+Constitutes+a+Good+Driver%3f
10/23/2008 03:53 PM -
there exists a phenomenon on the intertube that's bothered me for some time. i call this phenomenon "self-linking images" - that is, images that sit within hyperlinks that just link back to the same image. a recent infraction by the windows 7 blog has reawaken my disdain of this event. it's common practice to link a thumbnail to a full-size image, that only makes sense as there isn't room for a 1600x1200 image on a page 1000px wide. these self-linking images, however, are the exact same picture as the ones they link to. same physical file. seriously. <a href="img.jpg"><img src="img.jpg"></a> can someone explain what the point is here?
Post.aspx?Title=Self-Linking+Images
10/21/2008 11:07 PM -
i've made some significant improvements over the past few days since my last site work post, and some may actually prove useful to you:implemented comment system - within the newly-rebranded "post selector", i've nested a second-tier accordion whose panes include post, comments, and post comment. you can navigate among them to access these features:post - read the post. if you can read this, you're in the post pane now.comments - read the existing comments that have been posted to this post.post comment - post a new comment to this blog post.added recent searchbacks - the 30 most recent clicks from google and other search engines now appear in the "recent linkbacks" section.added search result parsing - so when you google something and click the link here, the site picks it up and records it as a recent "searchback".updated statistics section - removed site "birthdate" in favor of just its age; added "your session began at x mst; since then..."bugfix: "unable to assign ip address1" no longer appears when the site is accessed by a previously-unknown ip address. oops.added additional "information bar" instances - for example, you'll get one whenever you post a new comment, notifying you of how the save process went.people ask me why i wrote my own blogging engine, let alone why i'd keep rewriting newer versions of it. the power of asp.net and c# compel me to innovate. the information bar provides me with an unintrusive mechanism with which to communicate information to specific visitors, based on any criteria i desire.
Post.aspx?Title=Site+Work2
10/21/2008 10:54 PM -
remember two months ago when i detected the imminent signs of winter approaching? it was finalized 20 minutes ago as the first snow began to fall. boy, did i pick a great time to buy a shiny new sports car. fortunately, my 2005 ford mustang has tcs. that should spare me some navigatory trouble. unfortunately, the tires need to be replaced; if normal tires for this beast cost $600, i can imagine what snow tires will cost. i'll be saving them for winter 2009 as well. i suppose we were lucky it didn't happen until late october. if there is such a thing as global warming, it's doing some good!
Post.aspx?Title=First+Snow+of+Winter+2008
10/20/2008 12:28 AM -
no shiny new sports car would be complete without posting pictures on the internet to make your friends jealous. the deal was i would try to pay it off by september 2009 (at a piddly $1,000 per month, over twice the minimum payments) - but i plan to cash it out sooner. so this is why i haven't been blogging. i've been driving. thanks to j for parting with the bestest car he's ever owned, ever.
Post.aspx?Title=Obligatory+Mustang+Pictures+Post
10/19/2008 01:08 AM -
since my last update a week ago, a few assorted improvements have been made to the site:information bar (pictured): when important information needs to be presented to the user in a dynamic fashion, this ie-style information bar will appear. it may be used to inform the user of these events and more:you passed a bad querystring (i.e. requested a post but didn't specify which one)your banlevel has increased due to comment spam, referral spam, etc.you must be logged in to comment.an error has occurred (more detail will be provided when an administrator (me) is logged in)added description and keywords meta tags to the entry selector. these tags' content is pulled directly out of sql. when google comes in via permalink, it will see them.corrected entry selector "up" button to get the most recent enabled post, not the most recent post at all.added accordionpane: recent linkbacks. populated refbacks section. this means recent <a href=""> clicks. recent search clicks (i.e. from google) are next.added post deletion support.moved accordionpane header text back to a left-aligned format, which works better for the nested accordions (i.e. doesn't rely on color difference alone).more work will be done tomorrow, it's bedtime for me.
Post.aspx?Title=Site+Work
10/12/2008 10:38 PM -
after a bit more work since yesterday's ui development, the blog is finally to the point that it can take over from the mv3 and mv4 engines. thusly, i have hurled mv5 ui prototype 2 haphazardly into production for all to see. clearly, it is no longer a prototype. keep in mind the site is still in beta. these are the only things i'm considering "finished":entry selector (under "blog posts")statistics section (mostly)administration section - editing postsadministration section - adding posts (mostly - categories and tags don't exist yet)
Post.aspx?Title=MV5+is+Online
10/12/2008 02:42 AM -
it's pretty much final that mv5 ui prototype 2 will become the final user interface for the blog rewrite.
the prototype is coming along nicely. i took a few hours today to work on it a bit more. it shouldn't be long now before it's ready for a wide beta. improvements made since the last post:entry selector:design, pagination, selecting, and overloads have all been completed on the entry selector control (pictured).when you come in via a permalink (a url that links to a specific post), the entry selector will automatically navigate to the correct post and update the month and items listboxes to display the correct information - they even select the correct items for the post you navigated to. the page has been updated to accept querystrings that pass either a post id or a friendly name. the page determines the validity of the post, converts titles into post ids, and navigates the entry selector accordingly. bugfix: number of hits now displayed properly (previously was failing to increment upon pagination).post title has been increased to full width. it needs more space than the listboxes did anyway.posted date and hits are now displayed below the listboxes.changed the post body viewing area background color to black to work with the existing embedded images, which have black-to-transparent gradients. they look wierd on backgrounds that aren't black.bugfix: back, forward, and home imagebuttons now operate correctly.enhancement: when you're at the last post of a month and click 'forward', or you're at the first post and click 'previous', the entry selector now properly identifies the appropriate post and displays it. the month and posts listboxes are updated accordingly.added 'administration' section, visible only to logged-in users that have been manually set by me as administrators. administration accordionpane hosts another accordion which currently only has one pane - the blog post manager. others will follow. see second picture.
note: you may notice that i can see the administration pane here despite not being logged in. during debug, i have a hack in place to treat all requests from 127.0.0.1 as administrators. needless to say, this will not be there in production. /note
as you can see, i've just thrown a datagrid into my tier-2 accordionpane and bound a custom templatecolumn based on post id. i've cheated and embedded the id of the corresponding post as an attribute of each edit button. this is done in the onitemdatabound event handler. i've eschewed the datagrid's internal edit functionality as there were too many fields to include without scrolling horizontally, so i had to create a separate 'editor' window (see third picture).added the blog post editor. initially, this was just a panel with a table and a bunch of textboxes; but i added an accordion to the panel when i realized there wouldn't be sufficient space for the categories and tags listboxes. this wasn't a problem in previous versions because the editors were nigh full-window and didn't track as much information.
you may notice a disparity between the friendlyname in the blog post manager and that in the blog post editor. the manager's grid is automatically sized and doesn't play well with very long contiguous alphanumeric strings... i didn't want the friendlyname field to be the biggest one there, so i perform a string.replace() at databind time to replace the plus's with spaces.
next things on my list: tags and categories within the blog post editor, entry selector, and 'categories & tags' accordionpane. support saving categories from blog post editor.category & tag managers - new accordionpanes in the administration section.analysis & design on new comment system. will require users to be logged in so i can trace spammers back to their windows live account.
Post.aspx?Title=MV5+-+UI+Development
10/10/2008 09:15 PM -
you may recall the harrassing phone calls i've been getting, claiming that the factory warranty on your vehicle may have expired. i've gotten these calls from 973-328-7372 and a series of other numbers. i've tried to handle this situation a number of different ways...ivr: "this is the second notice that the factory warranty on your vehicle may have expired; blah blah blah, press 1 to speak to a phone lackey."
me: *click*
i got called back.ivr: "this is the second notice that the factory warranty on your vehicle may have expired; blah blah blah, press 1 to speak to a phone lackey."
me: *presses 1*
phone lackey: "were you interested in extending the factory warranty on your vehicle?"
me: no. take me off your list.
phone lackey: "ok, i'll take you off our list. goodbye." *click*
i got called back.phone lackey: "were you interested in extending the factory warranty on your vehicle?"
me: my vehicle has 235,000 miles on it and is older than you are. if you'd like to provide warranty coverage, i'd welcome it, as the vehicle is worth $385 and needs $10,000 in work.
phone lackey: *click*
i got called back.phone lackey: "were you interested in extending the factory warranty on your vehicle?"
me: i've asked you five times to stop calling. if you do not cease and desist immediately, i'll be forced to pursue legal...
phone lackey (interrupting): *click*
i got called back.phone lackey: "were you interested in extending the factory warranty on your vehicle?"
me: listen here, you little shit...
phone lackey (interrupting): *click*
i got called back.
these little bastards just won't stop calling. they use a variety of numbers:
251-824-1114 / 2518211114
319-758-7205 / 3197587205
210-204-1887 / 2102041887
610-269-8829 / 6102698829
303-969-9989 / 3039699989
484-380-3096 / 4843803096
860-216-2292 / 8602162292
973-328-7372 / 9733287372
Post.aspx?Title=The+Factory+Warranty+on+Your+Vehicle+Has+Expired+-+Part+Deux
10/06/2008 11:38 PM -
i've just integrated windows live authentication into the mv5 prototype. unfortunately, due to the way their sso solution is architected, it only works if being called from the actual production url. this can't even be spoofed, as it has to return you to that url with an authentication token in order to authenticate.
therefore, i launched the site early. once i'm done integrating the windows live sdk, i'll probably restore the proper mv4 interface.
i'm having a fairly unusual issue with the integration. mv5 uses ajax, which prohibits the server from terminating the response mid-stream via a response.redirect() or response.end(). it also disallows the developer from overriding the content-type.
therefore, there were obvious issues with the parts of windows live that handle cookie clearing and logout. specifically:
to clear the windows live cookie:
httpcookie logincookie = new httpcookie("webauthtoken");
logincookie.expires = datetime.now.addyears(-10);
response.cookies.add("webauthtoken");
string type;
byte[] content;
wll.getclearcookieresponse(out type, out content);
response.contenttype = type;
response.outputstream.write(content, 0, content.length);
response.end();
yep, works fine right up until the response.end(). then there's the actual logout... when you log out of windows live, the windows live server performs a call to all the urls you're logged into, passing an [action] request header. when this [action]="logout", your page is supposed to do this:
httpcookie logincookie = new httpcookie("webauthtoken");
logincookie.expires = datetime.now.addyears(-10);
response.cookies.add("webauthtoken");
response.redirect("default.aspx");
response.end();
for some obscure reason, logging out involves changing the response-type and returning a zero-byte gif to the windows live servers that call it. but you can't change your content-type when you've already begun to respond.
that's where i left off for the night; see ya tomorrow. play around a bit with the entry selector and live id authentication. for now, the "login" and "logout" links are at the far top-right of the page.
Post.aspx?Title=MV5+Prototype+Temporarily+Online+in+PROD
10/06/2008 12:37 AM -
i've been working on the prototype gui for the blog rewrite, which i've been considering since july and building since august. that is, i spent about a month on the namespace and unit tests (though admittedly, most days were only an hour or so). the gui has been coming along more quickly, now that i can actually see some good come of it.
it's starting to look like this, the second design prototype, will evolve into the website's production user interface, so get used to it.
today i worked more on the entry selector (dark grey area in screenshot), which will become the principle method for reading posts and navigating among the different posts. this way it replaces both the "recent entries" and "archives" sections.
i've populated the mv5 database with a migration script i created - a paltry 52-line sql query - so as you can see, the screenshot now has production data in it. i'll run this script every once in awhile while mv5 is under development to keep up to date.
navigation changes you'll notice:three navigation buttons at the top of the entry selector: back, forward, and home. the 'back' button will go to the next-older post; 'forward' will go to the next newest; and home will go to the most recently-added post.two listboxes for primary navigation: instead of flipping through the posts one at a time, you can select them by month and title. when you click a month in the upper listbox (i.e. "oct 2008"), the lower listbox will update to display posts from that month. in the above screenshot, you can see only posts from october 2008 are in the lower listbox. clicking one of the post titles will populate the post to the larger text area on the right so you can read it.no translucent background: in mv4 (zi255.com), i noticed the semitransparent entry viewer causes it to be difficult to look at thumbnails, as they blend in with the text and other graphics behind them. the mv5 entry selector will not be translucent.permalinks built into the title: i'm dropping the chain link icon and just linking straight from the title. any time you want to create a link to a specific post, just right-click its title and click 'copy shortcut'.i've also configured it to look for a friendly name first. that is, for the post new car: 2005 mustang, the difference is easy to note (the old url will still work): old url: http://www.zi255.com/?req=post&pid=603new url: http://www.zi255.com/?req=post&title=new+car%3a+2005+mustanganother major change is that the site will look exactly, or almost exactly, the same in internet explorer and firefox. granted, i don't care too much as only 17% of my traffic is firefox (more like 9% when you disqualify spammers)... but dad uses it, so i'll make it look nice for him. he's been using the old legacy mv4 interface and i want to show him some of the cooler stuff in web 2.0... like the ajax, asynchronous postbacks, etc...
looks the same in ie and firefoxokay, to the point. screenshots side by side; ie7 and firefox 3. thumbnails are clickable.
firefox 3internet explorer 7
the two browsers still look slightly different, as firefox still doesn't obey some of my css styles (i.e. "text-align:center;" is supposed to center things inside that style... duh...) but it'll look just as good, and be just as easy to use as it is in internet explorer.
hopefully this layout will make sense when you see it for real. look at the screenshots and let me know what you think.
Post.aspx?Title=MV5+UI+Prototype+Improvements
10/04/2008 12:46 AM -
i know what you're thinking... i'm not a sports car kind of guy. i'm the guy who buys a practical car and doesn't care if it takes 30 seconds to reach 85. lemme explain my thinking, in order of cars i've had:1981 honda civic hatchback si: $500, paid cash. it was about 15 years old and had 150,000+ miles on it. its previous owner took horrible care of it. it overheated and had myriad other problems i can't begin to recall, as i knew next to nothing about cars at the time. i do seem to recall something about a spring-loaded arm being sheared off from the engine block... the clutch had problems toward the end, as this was the car i used to teach myself to drive a manual. for some reason i felt that if i could align the rpm correctly to the gear i was shifting into, i wouldn't need to use the clutch pedal... hindsight is 20/20. thousands of dollars in maintenance (thanks, dad) went into this $500 car before it threw a rod and i moved on.1984 nissan/datsun stanza: $1,000, paid cash. also an old, high-mileage car; had frequent overheating problems and leaky fuel injectors. had to replace the transmission.1992 dodge shadow: $2,000; financed. this time i moved up - $2,000 was alot when i was making $6.50/hr. ran beautifully until it was hit by a mexican. not a hispanic - an actual mexican, complete with green card and everything. he got busted for dui, hit and run, and if i remember correctly, the truck he was driving (isuzu rodeo or ford bronco; i forgot which) may have been stolen.1991 dodge shadow: $1,000; paid cash (i think). cheaper than the previous, but with fewer miles and better options. my first exposure to power locks and windows. threw a rod.2000 saturn sl1: $12,000; financed. i finally broke down and bought a nearly-brand-new car. it was a year old and had 8,000 miles on it. drove it for three years and 150,000 miles - which is considerable when you realize it was in storage for half that time. got repo'd because i made much less money back then. damn shame, i only owed about $2,000 on it at the time.1994 honda civic: $500, paid cash. ran beautifully. in the military, when you're overseas and receive orders to leave, you must get rid of your car before you leave. therefore there are awesome deals and some even go for free. i picked this up while i was stationed at kadena ab, okinawa, japan. totalled when i drove into an army mp while driving wrecklessly around the island. the 2000 saturn was still in storage during this time.1991 eagle talon tsi: $750, forgave a debt to j in return for the title. another old car, but driveable. it had an aftermarket turbo which was supposed to sport 14psi but was adjusted to 30. felt like it was a very fast car; but i had no way of verifying that because the spedometer never worked. smoked from the exhaust and breather valve; generated so much pressure we had to saftey-wire the dipstick down. was impounded when i got a very large ticket (driving without a license, without insurance, without proof of insurance, without registration; expired temp tag; speeding; car smoking). never bothered to go back and get it. again, hindsight is 20/20.2000 toyota celica gt: $8,000; was in good condition, except the clutch slipped a little. was told four times i was absolutely approved for financing, but rejected at the last minute due to the reposession. 1994 saturn sl1: $750; paid cash. blew the engine on the drive home. i was barely going 10 over the speed limit. granted, the speed limit was 75, but i couldn't have known this would happen as test drives are generally far too short for a thorough understanding of the vehicle's idiosynchracies.1990 mitsubishi eclipse gs: $1,000; paid cash. you know the one; i've been bitching about it on this blog for exactly one year (bought it 10/4/2008). it had a bad thermostat (see also), what appeared to be a bad cv joint but was actually bad struts, leaky steering system, it eats alternators (first alternator, second alternator (and cooling pump), third alternator, alternator overcharging (which blew a 40-amp fuse (for contrast, the circuit that runs our enti
Post.aspx?Title=New+Car%3a+2005+Mustang
10/02/2008 08:08 PM -
i've been working at a major insurance provider for nearly three months now, swamped under mountains of paperwork and beaurocracy. i've been inundated with meetings, conferences, process documentation, storycard updates, and more meetings. this week, things started to change.
tuesday, i ran out of work. i literally had nothing to do; so i left early so i could write some code. when a programmer has to go home to program, something is horribly out of whack. called in sick yesterday.
today, i went into work and found i hadn't gotten behind on my workload, at all. so i went to pc1 and pled for something to do. "give me some work, or at least let me fuck around on the internet." he couldn't find anything that needed to be done, so he looked around for something old that could use a retrofit.
he finally came up with an old .net 1.1 statistics reporting website. it connected to the old db2 system and provided information about the e-mail campaigns running on the legacy systems. since we're rewriting these systems on the windows platform, we need to be able to monitor that one. but since we're migrating to the new system gradually, we need to be able to monitor both at once.
i was basically given free reign to go create something new, on what the company believes to be the "brand-new" .net framework 2.0 (mv5 is being written on 3.5). no meetings, no requirements, no story. just go build it. exactly the environment in which i work best. pc1 estimated it would take a month of work to finish the project. i started at 10:00 and was halfway done by 4:00.
Post.aspx?Title=A+Good+Day+at+Work
10/02/2008 12:08 AM -
antsy for some actual code work, i left work early yesterday to work on the blog. i called in sick today because i wasn't feeling too well, so i went ahead and worked on it today as well. it's sad, really; i'm a software developer and i develop more software at home than i do at work; but i digress.
over the past two days, in addition to watching two seasons of jag, i've created a mockup ui for mv5. it shows some definite potential. as you can see from the enclosed screenshot (clicky; full size 410kb), i'm still going with the ajax accordion and the blue fade theme from the previous themes; but this time the fades are one-pixel-wide jpgs instead of gradient filters, so the page looks the same in firefox as it does in internet explorer.
this should help to appease those of you who distrust microsoft and instead choose to use a third-party browser that requires additional overhead and resources to run.
the page is variable-width and should work well on monitors running a low resolution. i'll be testing it on my laptop, which runs in 1440x900; though it may require a little scrolling in 1024x768.
visible in the screenshot is the entryselector, a custom web control i created specifically for this purpose. its sleek ui provides a quick and easy way to access all blog entries. the entryselector replaces both the top 10 recent posts section as well as the archives section. if you think it looks unrefined, keep in mind i did this in a day and a half while simultaneously watching tv.
as is the case any time i create a new blog engine, i created a new banner image. the new banner shows off my six-screen desktop, laptop, and pocketpc with laser keyboard while the soft glow of the monitors illuminates the side of my face. it's not a new idea, but it's been working for me so far. currently it sits at 15,812 bytes; but this will change slightly when i get around to adding a page title to it.
i set the banner image to a size of 662px wide, the width by which the page was to be defined. i felt it was a fair comprimise between quality and small file size. fortunately, i did choose to give the accordion a dynamic width so you can expand the page if you want to.
so far i've only created the "blog posts" accordionpane (section) and added some basic formatting placeholders to the others; let me emphasize this is a very early prototype and may not even become the final ui.
the old interface (zi255, codename mv4) will remain my primary while mv5 is in development. the legacy interface (maximum verbosity, codename mv3) has been down for a week or two and i haven't gotten around to fixing it... when mv5 is completed it will replace both interfaces.
obviously it won't really say "most recent entry"; that's the title for a post i put in my test data. as you can see, it will double as the permalink; though i'll probably lighten the color a bit.
mv5 will be more seo'd. i'm using proper <h1> tags for the titles and will have non-ajax-dependent methods for accessing the site tree - though i'm still working out the details of those methods. when my blog posts have sections they will properly use <h2> tags and so forth.
the way the entry selector currently works is thus:the buttons on the top-left allow you to navigate back and forth among the 500+ blog posts one at a time, or provide one-click access to the most recent post (the "home" button in the middle).the listbox below the buttons lists the months with posts and how many posts were created that month. clicking on a month populates the second listbox.the second listbox (below) lists the titles to all the posts within the selected month.upon a default request (user goes to zi255.com), it will display the most recent post and select the current month.this combination of functionality will allow users (you) to browse among my considerable number of blog posts without having to open multiple windows or lose your place in the world.the post title appears in the upper center, and provides a permalink to that specific post. below that is the date and time when
Post.aspx?Title=MV5+-+Early+UI+Prototype
10/01/2008 09:32 PM -
remember the alternator i had installed a month and a half ago? and the other one i had installed ten months ago? well, the newest one just went bad again. so i'm done with this car. saturday, when i get paid, i'm going to the car dealership i mentioned recently. i'll see what i can find and possibly get approved for a car loan. j and i are combing the craigslists of colorado in search of my 11th car.
Post.aspx?Title=Three+Strikes+and+You+Are+Out