furiousBlog - in my diatribe » AJAX

surprise pretzels and today’s double header

furiousBall — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 13:40:01 +0000

Yesterday started off sorta poorly, kids were not behaving while I was trying to get some coding done on a couple of jQuery range sliders for a big project. A quick-turnaround came about after the kids and I hit the Dutch Wagon Market for some pretzels and then surprising Abbe and Caroline at the cheese shoppe with a couple of pretzels for their day (Viv and I split a plate of cheese, fruit, and bread too). Also, as a bonus, our friends Natalie and Bella were there to join us for a midday mangia. Bubs and I had a nice long baseball catch in the backyard and we watched the Phils pummel the Cubs. Abbe came home and cross stitched while I worked on Big Love (Lindsey is THE most underrated guitarist).

Today, I’ve got a softball double-header. Bubs will be coming along to watch, and Viv will be hanging with her Memom. The rest of the day will most likely be spent coding and possibly dinner over at Mom’s depending on how everybody (i.e. me) is feeling.

Funny/Interesting Links…

let’s do this

furiousBall — Fri, 13 May 2011 13:21:45 +0000

My Pathfinder is home, safe and sound. Again, a big thanks to Chad’s Complete Auto Repair for once again taking great care of me.

The battle of Poll Everywhere JS embed code within an AJAX autorefresh DIV (still really need a better name for this conflict) has entered a new chapter – paid API Development support. The IFRAME suggestion didn’t function or look decent, ergo I am going to be spending some time on the phone with some fellow geeks on the left coast today.

I mentioned Abbe would be working on my high school friend Adrienne’s wedding dress yesterday and Abbe just finished her sketches last night. I immediately MMS’d them to her and Ade was happy to say the least….

“… I just looked at this for a few and tears formed in my eyes. I kid u not…. Its perfect. OMG!! Its perfect!!!!”

Today is going to be a busy one, but I am going to do my best to fit some doing good (and that is meant in an altruistic sense, not in the knocking of the proverbial boots sense) in this day too – let’s do this.

Small Business/Tech Links…

Funny/Interesting Links…

Drunk Lady at the Beach – NSFW, multiple wardrobe malfunctions
Craigslist Apartment Listing of the Day – THE ROOMBAS HAVE NAMES!
When Obama Met Osama
ROME – way cool
Vegan Black Metal Chef
R2D2 Trashcan
Flyers to Host Rangers in Winter Classic 2012!!!! – have to figure a way to go to this!

who’s with me?

furiousBall — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:00:26 +0000

Abbe got a visitor last night, my good friend from high school, Adrienne who picked out a pattern, fabric, and colors for her wedding gown. Ade is going to look beautiful! I love seeing Abbe like she was last night, agonizing over the little flowery thingies that are hand sewn on, making sure she’s getting enough material. Very excited to see the final product. And a big congrats to Ade and Geno!

The battle of Poll Everywhere JS embed code within an AJAX autorefresh DIV continues (really need a better name for this conflict… like Operation Refreshing Poll). Before we cough up money for the high dollar API support, I am going to try an IFRAME technique – we shall see.

Well, I got some good news from Chad yesterday – looks like the check engine light was just a failing oxygen sensor, translating to roughly $200 or so for the repairs. I should have the Pathfinder home at some point today, thanks again Chad!

Abbe and I got another short run in yesterday. I think if I give my left shin a break today, then do a tortuous pace run of 2-3 miles on the treadmill tomorrow, I should be in good shape for a bigger run on Saturday.

The kids both have big tests today and I’m really proud of how hard they both studied and how confident they are this morning. Go get ‘em!

Today, I’m going to try to do my best to focus on doing some good, who’s with me?

Small Business/Tech Links…

Funny/Interesting Links…

Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Dead, Vader Says
Finally… Scope Doritos Flavor

why local is important, trials of a coder, another possible need for a car repair vigil, and a pretty lady in the wine glass

furiousBall — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:07:10 +0000

Yesterday was a somewhat challenging little fella. I woke up to an email from the branch manager of my local bank letting me know that my checking account was overdrawn. It turns out an ACH payment dinged my account that should not have (unless I slept walked and bought some tractor supplies from Woodbury, NJ and didn’t realize it). Thankfully, charges have been refunded and my account is fine – big thanks to the folks at The Bank responding so quickly, gotta love the customer service you get from locals!

I am mired in a couple of coding battles right now. I am pitted against the Poll Everywhere JS embed code that I want to use within an AJAX autorefresh DIV. The tricky part has been getting the JavaScript within the embed code to execute (destroying the child DIV, re-adding it with the innerHTML and then adding the child DIV back to the DOM has been fruitless). I will be putting in a call (hopefully today) to a Poll Everywhere engineer to get some assistance. My other challenge has been getting a decent cross-browser PDF embed script to work. I found EmbedPDF which worked awesome for all of my computers (on Macs and PC), but the load time is slow and actually crashed my client’s browser upon testing. Now that Scribd supports HTML5 (so iOS viewers can play too) as well as Flash, AND they support non-Scribd hosted PDFs, this should be the answer, but their API is giving me fits.

Today, I am dropping off the Pathfinder again at Chad’s for a mysterious check engine light that just came on – get your candles ready for the vigil, people.

Small Business/Tech News…

Funny/Interesting Links…

something geeky this way comes

furiousBall — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:15:19 +0000

Oh boy, oh boy… my iPad 2 is almost here. I’ve been watching the FedEx updates on my phone and laptop for the past two weeks. She started off in Shenzen, China, made a quick stop in Lantau Island, Hong Kong, brief stop in Anchorage, Alaska, then quickly into Memphis, TN, arrived this morning in Philadelphia, PA and now she is just minutes away in Mt. Laurel, NJ. How did I happen to get an iPad 2? One of excellent customers purchased it for me, the iPad 2 will be awesome with the upcoming HTML5 projects I’ll be working on. ***NEWS FLASH – IT’S ON THE TRUCK!

Yesterday for that very same customer, I was stuck with a conundrum. We have a large media summit planned for this month. My task is to make all the web technologies work for the folks that can not attend the conference live. Ergo, I’m building the webpages and stuff – one tricky item is that since this is a faith based organization, a live chat during the presentations would have to be moderated. Now finding PHP/Flash/jQuery chats are easy, you can barely throw a rock in a schoolyard without hitting one. But moderated… now that’s a little tricky. I did find one script, plunked down the $7 for the script, but it was using SQLite and after spinning wheels with the script long enough – I cut my loses and wrote my own jQuery/PHP/MySQL moderated chat script from scratch. I’m hoping to actually use it on this fine website soon (among other places). Very excited about this project altogether too. I get to work with a dynamic group of REALLY smart folks. I’m learning lots.

Oh and that chat script? It’s going to be called vvvChat, after me and my kids’ first names… not the first time I’ve used that…

Movie Review…

The Fighter – great film, really solid performances by Bale, Adams, and Wahlberg. BUT… HOW THE HELL DO YOU MAKE A FILM ABOUT MICKEY WARD AND NOT INCLUDE THE GATTI FIGHTS?!?! Are you insane? I just can not imagine anyone thinking this was a wise choice. The film did fantastic at the box office and won Academy Awards, but two of those three fights were voted the fight of the year by Ring Magazine. The film is great, but that small part of me that is still a boxing fan was insulted.

Small Business/Tech Links…

Funny/Interesting Links…

President Bush Reacts to Osama Bin Laden’s Death with Will Ferrell
There are plenty of Osama-Obama mistakes in the news reporting lately, but this one might be the best.
Finger Nose
Project Neon

get through

furiousBall — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 15:50:31 +0000

The visit with the folks from Mind Over Media yesterday went well. They are such good people – I always feel inspired after meeting with them. Monday I will be getting a nice big list of work to review and this will pave the way for some really exciting project work to begin. I really like working with everyone and they have such talented designers that challenge me as a developer.

Bubs has his first indoor soccer game this afternoon, I’m sure I’ll have some pictures to post shortly. After the game, I’ll be getting right back to work on those final laundry lists on two projects that are wrapping up. It will feel awesome to get through this.

finishing up

furiousBall — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:28:31 +0000

I am in the home stretch on a couple of projects. I’m knocking out laundry lists of last items to finish before go-live. Both sites are really slick and will be awesome additions to my portfolio. Next week, I am planning on giving Flash Game Fever a major overhaul to see if that site is really worth keeping.

I’ve got coding to get back to. This afternoon, I need to prepare my presentation for BNI and also Viv will be visiting the dentist (and that’s always fun).

Small Business/Tech Links…

Rev Up Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

more of the traditional type of good days

furiousBall — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:35:49 +0000

So yesterday was more of the traditional type of good days. One where I did not have to back up and take a look to really see the good through the brambles of some bummers. It’s just goodness all up in your grill.

My ex-wife’s migraine receded enough for the kiddos to go see her and spend the night.

My truck has been fixed and the bill was a bit of a hit, but absolutely better than what I was expecting. I can not tell you how much I appreciate Danny over at Medford Sunoco for coming in on a Saturday morning just to work on my car. I will still absolutely take my car to Chad’s for maintenance, but it’s good to know there is someone this close that I can count on as well (especially when I’m worried about driving the car more than a couple of miles).

I also got in a really good run yesterday afternoon. For those of you that run and have an iPhone, I can’t say enough about RunKeeper Pro – this app is such an incredible tool for training. It’s pricey ($10), but definitely worth it.

On top of those good things, I had a great day working on several client sites - Stone Scapes By Rich, The Family Registry, Independence Seaport Museum, Hope for Humanity, and a few projects still under wraps until launch.

Today, Abbe and I are going for a 10 mile run at Cooper River Park and then we also need to spend some time clearing off countertops, because tomorrow the crew is arriving to start tearing them up! That’s right the NeedCounterTops.com contest I won is becoming a reality. Monday, the old countertops are coming out and Tuesday, the new sink, backsplash, and countertops are going in! Also on Tuesday, the folks from BEN FM 95.7 are going to be visiting my house – I have no idea if I’m being interviewed or videotaped, this should be fun!

Oh and I recorded this… this is just the outro to Jeff Buckley’s So Real…

I’m not sure how many guitar players there are out there reading me, but that song has a lot of incorrect or close to correct version of the tab for this specific part, so I thought I’d post this…

OUTRO: (play throughout the end of the song)

|-------3-3-3-3-3-3-|
|-------3-3-3-3-3-3-|
|-------2-2-2-2-2-2-|
|----0--0-0-0-0-0-0-|
|-2-4---------------|
|-----3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|

|-0-0---0-0-0---0-0-0-0-0-0-|-0-0---0-0-0---0-0-0-0-0-0-|
|-3-3---3-3-3---3-3-5-5-5-5-|-3-3---3-3-3---3-3-5-5-5-5-|
|-3-3---3-3-3---3-3-5-5-5-5-|-3-3---3-3-3---3-3-5-5-5-5-|
|-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-4-4-4-4-|-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-4-4-4-4-|
|-------------------0-------|-------------------0-------|
|-3---3-3-----3-----5-5-5-5-|-3---3-3-----3-----5-5-5-5-|

|-------3-3-3-3-3-3-|
|-------3-3-3-3-3-3-|
|-------2-2-2-2-2-2-|
|----0--0-0-0-0-0-0-|
|-2-4---------------|
|-----3-3-3-3-3-3-3-|

|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-|
|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-0-|
|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-0-|
|-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-0-|
|-------------------------|
|-3-----3-----3-----3-----|

Macho Salad

Pictures from the Wedding

furiousBall — Mon, 31 May 2010 21:02:50 +0000

This weeks is gonna be nutzo (to borrow a word from The Fonz) – two dance recitals, Knoxville hospital project, lots of work for EMS, Abbe has four orders she wants to get completed, one site for me to finish, guitar and piano lessons to teach, and the usual carting kids to school and such. It’s a shorter week, but plenty going on. In the meantime, here are pictures from the wedding Abbe and I attended this weekend in Coplay, PA…

xkcd : Geeks and Nerds
Ewok Song Karaoke
Rick K. and the Allnighters – watch the drummer
Captain Planet Returns From Vacation

wow, how did THAT much Aldo Nova get in my iTunes collection?

furiousBall — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 14:02:49 +0000

Yesterday BLP (aka my buddy Bill from Dixon Hill) came over to discuss one of my favorite clients, EMS, have some lunch at Zinc Cafe (wow the asparagus and skirt steak salad ruled!), and then spend a few hours playing guitar together. I needed that. Every time I talk to Bill, I feel better. The guy just knows his stuff but also wants to make sure you understand it as well. We game-planned a slew of changes for our client and listened to some of my most embarrassing selections from my iTunes collection (wow, how did THAT much Aldo Nova get in there?).

I got the new cleaner Wheelies design up and implored my good buddy LarryMac to stop using Comic Sans (note to self, perhaps this is the impetus to remove Comic Sans from CKEditor in my furiousCMS installs). The email I got back from LarryMac made my day too, “this is the nicest thing anyone has done for me today!”). I improved a processor hog of a query for EMS by a factor of 300% reducing page load time from about 10 secs to less than 3 (need to stress test it a bit more still, but I think I fixed it!) And also, I fixed an extremely frustrating Vidiscript uploader problem for Pornsite Terry on one of his sites (NSFW).

Had a great lesson with Jan. The Phils won again. NJ’s own Frankie Edgar upset B.J. Penn. Mom returned home from her cruise and picked up that farting, peeing, and constantly licking things cocker spaniel of hers.

I didn’t have time to fit in a run yesterday, so today… it’s on. Also, today concludes the end of a frustrating season for the Flyers – a do or die game against the Rangers, winner gets the 8 seed in the Easter Conference playoffs. A part of me is actually rooting against the orange and black – I want change for next season.

Small Business/Tech Links…

Tweetie 2 For Mac is still Coming