Development
the skype pointer
Jul 6th
Synopsis
As you may know, skype has many options for inserting skype buttons that do various tasks within your website. Click here to see the skype buttons.
The problem encountered is that you can’t send a message containing the skype commands within most social media sites such as facebook, twitter, etc.. The commands will just appear as plain text and therefore will not be clickable. By using this skype pointer you can add the pointer URL to a message, just like you would with any other website address, and the URL will automatically be clickable. So when someone clicks on the link they will be brought to the pointer and then the skype command will be issued.
For short URLs use a URL shortening service such as bit.ly for the pointer address. For example: http://bit.ly/zachbarrett_skype_add
skype Pointer Usage:
- URL
- Format:
http://zachbarrett.com/development/skypepointer/?name=[your skype name]&action=[skype action]
- Example: Add zachbarrett to skype contacts.
http://zachbarrett.com/development/skypepointer/?name=zachbarrett&action=add
- Format:
- skype Actions
- call (default if no action is entered)
- add
- chat
- userinfo
- voicemail
- sendfile
Feel free to give input.
The Coldfusion Rick Roll
Jun 29th
Recently I submitted some code for a CFUNITED t-shirt contest and I thought the code was funny enough to post on the blog. BTW: The code isn’t just a joke, it actually works!
The Over Programmed Coldfusion Rick Roll by Me
<cfset lyric = ""> <cfloop condition="lyric neq 'Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you'"> <cfswitch expression="#lyric#"> <cfcase value=""> <cfset lyric = "Never gonna give you up"> </cfcase> <cfcase value="Never gonna give you up"> <cfset lyric = "Never gonna let you down"> </cfcase> <cfcase value="Never gonna let you down"> <cfset lyric = "Never gonna run around and desert you"> </cfcase> <cfcase value="Never gonna run around and desert you"> <cfset lyric = "Never gonna make you cry"> </cfcase> <cfcase value="Never gonna make you cry"> <cfset lyric = "Never gonna say goodbye"> </cfcase> <cfcase value="Never gonna say goodbye"> <cfset lyric = "Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you"> </cfcase> </cfswitch> <cfoutput>#lyric#<br /></cfoutput> </cfloop>
The Elegant Coldfusion Rick Roll by Ryan Vikander
<cfset Lyric = "give you up, let you down, run around and desert you, make you cry, say goodbye, tell a lie and hurt you" /> <cfoutput> <cfloop list="#Lyric#" index="i"> Never gonna #i#<br /> </cfloop> </cfoutput>
BP Live Video Cam Array
Jun 7th
Unless you have been under a rock you are well aware of the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP was mandated to broadcast their live stream from the ROVs so the world could see how bad the situation really is. Recently on the BP site they added eleven different camera feeds that could be viewed, I am not sure if adding the additional feeds was mandated but never the less it gives us even more insight into the constant attempts to repair and stop the leakage.
I found one problem with the new feeds; I couldn’t decide which one to watch because they are all from different ROVs. So I decided to build a quick camera array so I could view them all at once much like the array I built on surfassateague.com. Due to all the feeds being broadcasted in the Windows Media format the array is best viewed using Internet Explorer (I know, lame…), this is mainly due to the limitation of Firefox using the stretchtofit parameter in the embed, but I digress.
So without further ado, I give you the BP Live Video Cam Array:
Be sure to let me know what you think…
Rising Tide Solutions: New Website
Nov 3rd
Rising Tide Solutions is an information technology business located on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. RTS specializes is graphic design, web development, application development, networking and IT technical support.
The Rising Tide Solutions team consists of Chad Heller and me, Zach Barrett.
Recently the Rising Tide Solutions logo was redesigned. Along with the new logo we will be redesigning our website. The main goal of the website redesign is to better showcase our services and to make it easier for our current and future clients to connect with RTS. The new site will leverage popular social media and a unique clean design.
Some of the exciting new features of the site will include:
- An extensive portfolio showcasing the design and innovation that Rising Tide Solutions produces.
- A self help section, where users will have everything they need at their fingertips to ward off computer viruses and malware and even request remote assistance.
The new website will launch Tuesday, November 17 at 1:00 AM EST.
The Past and Future of SurfAssateague.com
Sep 9th
A long time ago, about 4 years or so, my good friend Chad Heller started to teach me how to surf. After I was hooked we would often plan morning surf sessions before work, where we worked for the same organization. At the time I lived in a small development called Captains Cove and Chad lived in the large suburb, Modest Town, VA. Every morning would start off with dragging my lifeless body out of bed and to a computer to check SurfLine only to hear Dennis with the local report say the waves suck.
One day I decided that there must be a way that we could get the report before getting out of bed. So I looked into buoy data sources and weather station data sources and saw that NOAA was updating all their data and letting anyone access it. So I instantly started programming.
The first part I programmed was just a basic display of the current conditions in tabular form that used the data from the Deleware Bay buoy. The data was off by a foot and sometimes two. I didn’t take into account how far out to sea the buoy was and how far away Assateague is from Deleware Bay.
Utilizing Chad’s knowledge of the surf, I developed an algorithm that pulls data from the Deleware Bay buoy, the Virginia Beach buoy and multiple weather stations along the cost. After much tweaking the data became more and more consistently correct.
My next task was to somehow get the data sent to our cell phones early in the morning so we could check our phones and roll back over and go back to sleep. Once I figured out how to achieve the task a set it up and let a few other friends join in. Everyone seemed to really like the reports, so I thought maybe other people might find it useful as well. So I registered the domain, surfassateague.com, and the site was born.
I set it up to allow people to sign up for 3 different reports; 5am, Noon, and 5pm. I set up the main page to display the current conditions and the tide info. Shortly after that I started adding webcams to the site. Sadly no webcams exist for Assateague on both Maryland side and Virginia side, so I was forced to use Ocean City cams and broaden the report to include Ocean City.
Since its initial development Surfassateague.com has not changed much beside a couple features added here and there such as; a tide calendar, the beach cam array, a tropical weather section. Surfassateague.com became my hobby site where I would tweak and adjust little things just to make life a little easier for surfers and myself.
I have often flirted with the idea of shutting the site down now that SwellInfo is around and almost every cell phone can browse the web now. Surfassateague.com was never meant to compete against any other site. The only purpose it has and will ever have is to be simple and free and to fill a niche that allows me to sleep in.
The future of Surfassateague.com is SurfDelmarva.com. Using the same basic algorithms developed for SurfAssateague.com. DelMarVa will be broken down by beach with its own report and web cams. SurfDelmarva.com will use a completely different approach to web development by utilizing the mainstream social media sites. One of the new and exciting features will be Scout Reports, which will let anybody who has signed up to submit a live report, photo, and even video from the beach with their cell phone.
SurfDelmarva.com and Surfassateague.com will always be free and always remain humble no matter how awesome they become.
For more information on SurfDelmarva.com check out Surf Delmarva’s Facebook.
An Update
Jan 5th
So it’s been almost an entire month since I posted something on the blog. December was a very busy month – for example; dad and Hayleys birthday on the 3rd, Christmas and Noel’s birthday on the 25th, my anniversary on the 27th, and my birthday on the 29th. Between all the holidays and holiday shopping I really haven’t had too much time to chill and blog.
So here is what I have been up to lately (as if you even care).
SteamPressure is a web application that I’m developing that monitors Steam groups and player statuses. The app can be configured to send out notifications based on the parameters that the user sets up, eg: notify me when 5 or more players in the AC group are playing Team Fortress 2. Notification can be sent via text messages to phones/mobile devices or email. The app also logs status so reports can be executed to see peak player times and other metrics. I plan to also integrate some other sweet features such as embeddable player and group badges too. This app started out as me just wanting to be notified when my friends were playing a certain game and has now evolved into a full scaled app. Stay tuned for more updates on SteamPressure.
I have also been doing a lot of Rising Tide Solutions work. I am currently working on a couple websites for clients as well as a complete redesign of the Rising Tide Solutions website. I’m expecting to be completed with these projects by the end of January. I’ll be sure to post some links as soon they are completed.
Thanks to Chad I now am using twitter which is weirdly addicting. I have even set up surfassateague on twitter and automatically tweet using the twitter api.
As far as gaming goes I’m still mainly playing Team Fortress 2 on pc. My wife gave me a Wii for Christmas and I have been playing that a lot.
So that’s mainly what’s been going on, I know not very exiting but now my blog is up to date.
Peace out!
Valve Steam Status on your website
Oct 28th
I wanted to be able to display my Steam Community status on my website so people could see if I was playing a game or if I was online… I googled and I couldn’t find anything that was already created to do this that wasn’t a pos. So it looked like if I wanted to display my status I was going to have to build my own “mini-appâ€.
I made a little app that scrapes data off of a given Steam account community profile. I was able to pull all the information I needed and make it display like the Steam buddy list.
This is what it looks like:
To put it on your site just paste in the following code:
1 | <script src="http://www.zachbarrett.com/development/steam/?id=[community id]" type="text/javascript"></script> |
Replace [community id] including brackets with the actual profile ID. Make sure you take the brackets out.
To get the community id just visit the profile of the and grab the id from the url. For example if the profile URL is http://steamcommunity.com/id/puddinPOP then the community id is puddinPOP. If the URL is http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197961161129 then 76561197961161129 is the community id.
I plan on making some updates/tweaks to this. One of them will be to auto update with AJAX. But for now it updates when the page loads.
Enjoy!
UPDATE: Status is now Live
AJAX is finished and now the status updates without reloading the page.
Adobe® Creative Suite® 3.3 Master Collection
Aug 1st
Adobe® Creative Suite® 3.3 Master Collection combines Adobe Bridge CS3, Adobe Version Cue® CS3, Adobe Device Central CS3, Adobe Acrobat® Connect™, and Adobe Dynamic Link with:
- Adobe InDesign® CS3
- Adobe Photoshop® CS3 Extended
- Adobe Illustrator® CS3
- Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro
- Adobe Flash® CS3 Professional
- Adobe Dreamweaver® CS3
- Adobe Fireworks® CS3
- Adobe Contribute®
- Adobe After Effects® CS3 Professional
- Adobe Premiere® Pro CS3
- Adobe Soundbooth® CS3
- Adobe Encore® CS3
- Plus Adobe OnLocation™ CS3 (Windows® only) and Adobe Ultra® CS3 (Windows only)
surfassateague.com development
Jul 7th
Last week I developed a Tide Calendar for surfassateague.com which displays the tides in a calendar format for the selected month. I also added the ability to export the calendar to PDF so it can be posted or stashed in the car.
Recently I developed an aggregator for the Weather Underground North Atlantic Basin RSS feed. Before this module was developed I would have to update the tropical weather manually. So now as soon as a storm develops in the North Atlantic, surfassateague.com has the latest info for it. Right now it’s showing maps for Hurricane Bertha which looks like it might give us a good swell.
I have also been working on a WAP version of surfassateague.com for use on mobile devices. The WAP version includes current conditions, tides, and live beach cam still shots. To check it out go to wap.surfassateague.com on your mobile device.
