Imood 10

Dell, you stink

2008-02-27T10:17:00.000-08:00

It looks like Dell is having problems fulfilling my order for the new imood dev box. They've pushed back the delivery date three times now moving it all the way into mid March now.

Faced with this information, as well as a new $700 car repair fee from my escapades going to the airport the other day, I decided to cancel my order with them.

Dell, you dropped the ball.

In the meantime I will look to just use my current Windows machine to do development, which shouldn't really be an issue, though of course it doesn't have that "new car smell" I was looking forward to.

Normally I hate developing in one environment and deploying to another OS -- it seems to always cause problems -- but for right now I think that is the only way ahead.

I guess the good news is that I can start coding now.

Concerns from the Apple crowd

2008-02-19T06:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got an email from a longtime imood user Angela. Angela is concerned that I am going to leave Apple users in the dust:

I've been reading your dev blog and I'm excited about the new technology that you're going to bring to imood.com. I just want to remind you of one little thing: MACINTOSH. Please please please do NOT write the new site to hinder use with Macs. Java, in theory, will be fine if it works with mozilla, but I've seen it too many times with developers who drink the microsoft kool aid (NOT that you do!).

On behalf of all us Mac surfers, please don't leave us out of the new imood. I'm not assuming you'd do this on purpose or that you don't support OSX, but I've seen it happen before and I don't want to lose my little icon.

My response is: I am going to try not to.

Whatever technology I choose on the back end will have ZERO impact on how the pages render in your browser. So everyone out there shouldn't worry or care about that decision. The only people that decision MAY impact will be future imood client developers, but who knows.

As for supporting multiple browsers it's something I personally hate. I'd rather do manual labor than wack code around trying to make it happy in every browser imaginable. Having said that, I personally don't like writing fancy front-ends to websites so I cannot imagine writing anything that is too unfriendly.

I do have an eight year old iBook I can test on, so we'll see.

The big question will be whether all the browsers play nice with whatever Javascript library I pick. Right now I am leaning towards Dojo.

Development box ordered

2008-02-14T14:02:00.000-08:00

I finally ordered a development box today. I ordered me a nice, fat Dell with Ubuntu. Found me a code online to save $300 which is what pushed me over the edge.

The box should be arriving next week which means I can start getting my hands dirty.

Still have to make a final decision on technology and get a host if I decide to go the Java route.

Tonight I'll be stopping at OfficeMax to get some more desk space for my office and maybe a whiteboard as a treat as well.

Hang in, this ride is just beginning.

Technology, Part 2

2008-02-11T11:24:00.001-08:00

So I spent the weekend thinking about technology again.

Even though I made an excellent case for using Python the other day I still have some doubts.

I have so much experience using Java that I can move really fast if I use it. Things I will have to learn or look up in Python I already know how to do in Java.

Plus, there is the added fact that I am using Java again at work, so there is the wonderful synergy where things I learn at work will help imood, and things I learn doing imood will help work.

Still however, there is the problem of hosting. Are there any good Java hosts out there? I just don't know...

I still have some time to make this decision as I have yet to order my new development box. I thought it was going to be an easy choice, but now I toying around the idea with getting a laptop. I developed the Altruistic Tank on a laptop and I remember enjoying the freedom to work on my personal project from other locations than my house. Plus, I don't have a personal laptop.

Got to solve the box problem this week.

Technology

2008-02-08T06:35:00.001-08:00

One of the main reasons I want to re-write imood is because of the technology. imood is written in Perl and a mix of regular Perl and object Perl at that. A lot of people will say "ewwwww gross" -- and they're right. But back in 1998 that's what you wrote web applications in.

I don't really use Perl anymore and I really don't want to.

A couple of years ago when I first started delving into a potential re-write I thought I was going to use Java. Java is a language I am more than comfortable in and have tons of experience with. Problem is it's sort of a pain to get good Java hosting, and to be honest, Java can be a little clunky when trying to move fast.

For the last year here at AG Interactive I've been using Python to code since all of our web applications are Python. I have to say I thought I was going to be against it, but now I've come to really enjoy it.

And even though I've since moved over to our brand new Photo team and will be using Java again, I am leaning towards using Python for the imood re-write.

TurboGears is a very easy to use framework that I've played around with before, plus I already have great hosting for TurboGears apps over at WebFaction.

Sounds like a winner to me.

A new beginning?

2008-02-07T09:13:00.000-08:00

The desire to re-write imood.com and make it "all it can be" has once again started to swell up deep down inside me.

With the advent of imood's tenth anniversary coming up next year I simply cannot think of a better time to do this, nor can I think of any good excuses not to. My beloved World of Warcraft character may just have to go on ice...

Stick around and see what unfolds...