Almost there...

Project Update

Been too long since I've posted an update.  I've been trying to be pretty heads down to crank out the last features, and solidify the current ones, before unleashing this creation on the world.  Things are getting there quite rapidly... should be able to "go live" this week. 

Chain Update

Feels crazy that after a little over three months my first project is almost done.  Well version 1.0 is almost done.  I do have a list of things for version 2.0, heh.

I've been thinking that the next project will be making the project into a business... or at least trying to monetize it as much as possible.  Not sure how well I'll do at that, but I think there are some pretty simple things I can do to try to at least cover hosting costs.

Almost There...

Project Update

Hope I'm not speaking too soon, but it feels like the project is almost feature complete.  At least for the first release.  Have a simple logo created and pretty decent color scheme going.  Got inspiration for the color scheme from ZenHabits.net... black and white feels good for some reason.  Hopefully it won't take away from the stream content.

Still need to test it with different devices, but that shouldn't take too long.  Also, need to do some user testing.  I think the time spent reading up on design has helped quite a bit... this site is definitely better than others I've created, heh.

Will probably have to wait until we get back home to really dive into setting things up.  Since I plan to host it from there to start with, it'll be easier to actually be on the network.

Chain Update

I've been pretty hush hush on this too my immediate family and friends because I read a post by Derek Sivers that talking about doing something statistically increases the chances that you won't go through with it.... kind of goes against the grain a little, but I thought I would give it a try for this project.


Party On!

Rounding things out...

Project Update

Whipped up a couple of backend scripts to handle adjusting the what Twitter users and which terms are tracked for the daemon. Also, created one to create Events for events listed in a Google Calendar.  These will probably just run as cron jobs every hour and once a day. 

Populating the Google calendar with the events necessitated creating a couple of small scripts to scrape the match listings on the EPL site to download the .ics files, then I looked at the .ics file associated with another calendar to figure out the format to combine all the separate event .ics files.  In the end I now have the current EPL schedule in a Google calendar.  Should be easy to make changes to the events when the schedule changes due to unforeseen circumstances ;-). 

I think this system should set things up nicely for a pretty automated go live.  Just need to have each team setup before hand.  It was a manual process to get each of the EPL teams in the system.  Fortunately the EPL site has links to each teams Twitter feed embedded at the bottom of their page. 

Chain Update

Been a few days since I've posted anything new.  We travelled a lot last weekend and it was a little hard to get the time in.  Had to split a couple of days between coding and design reading.  Working from a hotel this week hasn't been bad.  Kind of fun to work all day then go out at night in a somewhat exotic location.  More exotic than normal anyway.


Party On!

Backends...

Project Update

My focus has been on updating and adding a lot of backend stuff the last couple of days.  Mostly things like the new user sign up process, password change procedure, etc.  Not too glamorous, but things that need done before launching. 

Chain Update

Starting to feel the time crunch a little.  August 18th will be here before you know it.  I should have the project ready to release by then, but I'll be traveling next week, and don't know quite how much time I'll be able to dedicate to developing... might be more design interludes the coming week.


Party On!

Adding forms...

Project Update

Spent the last couple of days cleaning up more of the models and templates to be more dynamic.  Made moderately heavy use of modal windows to display forms for the various model's attributes.  Seems to work pretty well and provides a consistent interface for the different types of objects.  Also, adding forms for feedback, and such.

 Still coming along swimmingly...


Party On!

Missed a few...

Project Update

Have been working on some more adjusting the templates and models to incorporate the CouchDB changes, and make things a little more consolidated.  The Bootstrap modal windows are quite awesome for adding content to a page.  Especially if the content isn't always going to be needed.

Chain Update

Don't know why I missed blogging a for a couple of days there.  Things have been a little on the depressing side in my life the last week or so.  Maybe I'm taking things a little too seriously.

Things are really starting to come together with the first project in the chain.  Can't wait to release it and see what the world thinks... well it'll probably be just friends and family at first.  Might make marketing the site another project after a small one.

We'll see...


Party On!

Updates...

Project Update

Have the main part of the project working the way I'd like.  Was able to make the carousel look really good and added a menu to indicate when a stream has been updated.  Might add some additional animation to the process of prepending a status update, but then again maybe not...

Worked on cleaning up some of the old cruft from the start of development.  Changed everything over to CouchDB... probably just me, but it seems a lot simpler to deal with then MongoDB.  Need to cleanup the Twitter Authorization process next.


Party On!

More adjusting...

Project Update

Working on updating the main view for the new object.  Things are progressing, but it may take a little more time than I'd originally thought... seems like most things take longer than I think, heh. 

I think this will be the last major overhaul before release though...

Chain Update

This weekend has been pretty relaxed.  Haven't traveled anywhere or had company here.  Still haven't worked on the main project as much as I'd liked to have.  Worked on a smaller side project for a couple of hours this afternoon though.  That was fun... I'll post some pics once that project is finished.


Party On!

New Object...

Project Update

Realized I need another Python object class to round out this project.  So far the streaming display has been static test streams... gonna need to make that a little more dynamic come go live, heh.  Started modeling the new object and feel that it's coming along nicely.  Need to integrate it with the other objects though.


Party On!

Back on track...

Project Update

Didn't take as long as I'd thought to get the display corrected and auto-update working again.  Needed to adjust the data structure returned from Redis and adjusted for links and what not.  Once that was squared away things looked good.  Some JavaScript adjustments were needed for the auto-update, and that turned out simple enough. 

Had an idea for displaying the streams that might be pretty cool.  Found a jQuery add-on that might help facilitate it as well.  Interesting stuff, heh.


Party On!

Clean up Clean up...

Project Status

Finding out that I need to fix the display of statuses again.  The time adjustment function seems to have been broken somewhere along the line... probably because it's a string and not a time object, heh.  Also, need to fix the auto-update of the streams and probably the modal windows again.

Feels like two steps back for one step forward sometimes...


Party On!

Fun with Entities...

Project Update

I may have been totally wrong about TweetStream not including status entities yesterday.  I may just not know how to access them once I've converted a status to JSON.  Need to do it with:

  status['entities']['user_mentions']

Instead of:

  status['user_mentions']

Doh, that was at least an hour I could have saved myself.  Well back to converting model methods to use Redis.  Also, thinking about changing the backend store from MongoDB to CouchDB.  Twice now I've had an error with MongoDB because of improper shutdown... granted I'm running the MongoDB on a laptop that gets moved around a lot.  Don't remember these types of issues with CouchDB though. 

Plus CouchDB seems to have easier replication.  I briefly played with setting up a couple of replicated MongoDB instances so I could develop this thing on my desktop as well, but didn't get very far.  Ran into some replication errors and never when back to fix it.  I think the size of my project won't require the more advanced MongoDB replication needs.

Worth a test anyway...


Party On!

Changes for Streaming...

Project Update

Started working on adjusting the model methods for retrieving and parsing status updates that are stored in Redis instead of using the REST API.  Things were going swimmingly until trying to parse the user_mentions field.  I guess TweetStream doesn't include the entities for status updates.  According to the Twitter dev documentation they are included by default when using the Streaming API.

Will probably have to adjust the TweetStream version I've installed using Ruby Gems...


Party On!

Another design research interlude...

Project Update

Due to having company yesterday and attending a great CCR concert, I looked for a new design book to read.  Found this great book by Smashing Magazine, which is a site I think I came across not too long ago when looking for design help.  The book has  a lot of great content and being free is a great bonus. 

Might look into a subscription to Smashing...


Party On!

Locking things down...

Project Update

Getting more good close to having the features I want in the daemon script.  Just need to lock in some code to restart the daemon if the track and follow list changes.  Looked for something like CouchDB _changes in Redis, but the only thing sort of close is the watch command.  From what I can tell that only enables you to execute Redis commands when a key value changes.  It'd be cool to be able to execute an external script or shell command, but that might have all kinds of security considerations or something.

Chain Update

Actually started this post yesterday, but got distracted by something.  Found the post edit screen open and waiting this morning, heh.


Party On!

Can Taste the Daemons...

Project Update

Have a feeling that the daemon script is almost there now.  I have a script to follow multiple users and put the tweets into Redis, but need a way to identify tracked terms in the Redis key.  Probably just need to learn up some Ruby ;-).

Chain Update

Coming up on the third month, and haven't missed a day so far.  Feels kind of good, but it'll feel better to have one project done.

Football

Almost forgot to mention a big congrats to Spain for winning the Euros yesterday.  Played a great game against Italy.  They mentioned that this Spanish team may be the best in history, and I think I agree.  Though my football history only goes back to 2007 ;-).



Party On!

Almost have the daemon...

Project Update

Was able to lock down most of the code to consume the Streaming API and put the tweets into Redis as a JSON string.  For the consumer part the Ruby TweetStream library works like a champ.  I did a quick test of reading tweets from Redis using Python, and it's just as easy as writing them with Ruby.  Things are finally looking good with the whole migration to the Streaming API task.

Just need to clean some things up and make the script into a daemon, which the TweetStream library very helpfully has options for...

Chain Update

Weekends with company are fun.  Have time to work on the project this evening and things are coming together.  Feels very relaxed...


Party On!

Getting closer to daemonhood...

Project Update

Did some more searching on the Streaming API last night and came across the Ruby TweetStream library.  After playing with it for an hour or so, it really seams to be what I've been looking for.  Just need to get a script the way I want it and use it's deamonize feature to run.  Will probably need some type of monitoring, but that should be relatively easy to setup.

Chain Update

Forgot to blog yesterday.  Wrapped up in a cool project for the day job and some projects around the house.  Feels like there isn't enough time in the day sometimes ;-).

I guess I shouldn't sweat it if I miss a blog post... just don't want to miss working on the project each day in some fashion or another.

Inspiration

I really feel like this post on ZenHabits is very wise advise.  Things are better if you just allow them to happen.



Party On!

More of the same...

Project Update

Still working out how to get a good API daemon going.  Maybe my standards are to high or something... seems like it shouldn't be this hard.  I could just be that dense ;-).

Actually think I should get it before the end of the week.  Then I'll need to figure out how to save the status updates to Redis.  Was a little confusing the time I tried it with Python.

Chain Update

Traveling for hours and hours in a car then working at 8:00am the next day isn't very cool.  Might have to adjust that for the next trip.  Will probably have to dedicate a day for just traveling with enough time to get to bed at a decent hour.  Woke up feeling really good this morning though.  Good to be back in Boone, and the mountains!


Party On!

Back to the daemons...

Project Update

Started focusing on getting a daemon stream parser thingy going again.  Tried looking through code repositories as per the Open Source Examples project by host section.  Found an interesting project that uses Node.js for the backend.  Interesting at any rate, though I don't know if it will work long term.

This whole think might be easier to create a Python script with urllib2 as the getter...

Chain Update

It's been a very hectic time since last Thursday.  A lot of travel and running thither and yon.  Also, I think I may have broken my big toe while sleeping the other night.  Woke up with it mysteriously aching then last night I couldn't sleep due to the pain.  The pain was greater than when initially going to sleep so I must have jammed it against the bed while drifting off...

Crazy times...


Party On!