Tech Visioneer Blog

CTA: Chicago Transit Authority and Google Maps

Keith Ellis — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 15:41:29 +0000

For those of you who don’t know, I will be relocating to Chicago in the weeks to come. I came across this website while looking for an apartment. It’s a great way to see how close something is to a train line. Check it out
http://www.tastypopsicle.com/maps/cta.asp

For those of the readers who are in NYC, the same kind of website exists for the NYC trains as well.

RIAA’s Worst Nightmare: Automatic Wireless MP3 Sharing

Keith Ellis — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 15:03:25 +0000

The Viktoria Institute in Gothenburg, Sweden, is working on a concept they call PUSH MUSIC, which is software that automatically shares music files with nearby users who have similar tastes. It monitors the listening history of the user, and develops awareness about what kind of new music he might like. The concept envisions Wi-Fi-enabled music players that automatically establish a peer-to-peer connection, enabling people to either “browse” the music collections of others and take a copy of whatever they like, or — here’s the magic part — just automatically recieve music the software has selected for you. (You here that? That’s the sound of teeth gnashing and hair ripping coming from RIAA HQ).

Using Analytics to drive more traffic to your website

Keith Ellis — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 14:19:17 +0000

This post is more of a bookmark for me than anything else but I thought i would post it here since measuring web traffic has always been a touchy subject. The links below are to a 10 part series which I started reading but didn't finish yet. As I finish reading each part, I will write a small description so those of you who don't have the time to read the entire series can jump to what you'd like.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

From bobbing for apples to blogging for dollars

Keith Ellis — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 13:45:48 +0000

Party people – who would like a few extra dollars in their pocket? Those of you that know me should know by now that I, you, me, are always trying to come up with some niche way to earn a few extra bucks…or more! I am confident that with my network of friends, collectively we could come up with a few good subjects to write about. Blogging is huge! There are people who literally make a living of writing and maintaining one or more blogs.

When you have a few minutes, read through these articles and lets get a conversation rolling. Please leave a comment with your name, email, and URI/website (if you have one) along with your thought. The one thing I'd like you all to keep in mind is that the main focus of a blog does NOT have to be the same subject as what your main work focus is for your entire life (i.e. if you're a teacher, you don't need to blog about education). Blogs can be about anything! Let's just get a nice list of possible subjects going.

How Bloggers Make Money from Blogs
How Much Do I Earn from Blogging?
Blogging for Dollars
Principles of Choosing a Profitable Blog Topic

Peace.

Expert .NET Delivery Using NAnt and CruiseControl.NET

Keith Ellis — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 20:01:41 +0000

I've been thinking about buying this book and was curious if any of you readers out there know anything about it? The Slashdot review I read sounded suprisingly positive however they one criticism was that the author strayed from the core topic a bit much.

Sunset in Brooklyn

Keith Ellis — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 17:37:25 +0000

I seem to be obsessed with the view from my moms apartment in Brooklyn. But it's definitely a wonderful view…slightly biased though.

This photo was originally uploaded to Flickr by KeithFree.

How to turn on Google Analytics for your site in 2 lines of configuration: a custom IHttpModule

Keith Ellis — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 17:13:48 +0000

I came across this blog this morning and thought I would share it with everyone. It's a great way to easily integrate Google Analytics into your ASP.NET website.

http://weblogs.asp.net/cazzu/archive/2006/06/08/InstantGoogleAnalytics.aspx

Developing with Web Standards

Keith Ellis — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:29:15 +0000

Somebody asked me about some of the materials I used when I participated in a web standards panel discussion at last months Buffalo Macromedia User Group. I thought I would write a blog on the subject since it is a HOT area in web development and adoption is really taking off now (with the standards-based redesign of many high profile websites). I am by no-means an complete expert in these areas but I've been developing table-less designs with css/xhtml for several years now so I'm always trying to expand my knowledge in this area. I'd love to hear any comments of feedback you all might have.The two links below are great introductions to web standards. I'm particularly a fan of the first article as it's short, to the point, and has single-handedly helped me convince several businesses that developing in this manor is the way to go!

Ten reasons to learn and use web standards – www.456bereastreet.com
What are web standards and why should I use them? – www.webstandards.org

Standards allow you and me as developers to have a goal of what an application must support. Simply listing the browsers an application supports is not enough anymore. A web application should be constructed with the mindset that it requires certain standards (i.e. CSS, DOM, XHTML), and from that the list of supported browsers is defined. For the most part, pc web browsers only represent part of an audience and there are always changes to what a browser will support when new versions are released.

The one other thing which was mentioned is the concept of a base or default css stylesheet which can be included and used throughout an organization in all of it's applications. I think this is a great concept and I've read several other high-end designers & standards evangelists who have published just that. Have a look.

http://nataliejost.com/my-default-css-styles
http://tantek.com/log/2004/09.html#d06t2354

Lastly, as far as AJAX and client-side scripting, there are a number of options. The book I brought in for you to peruse is DOM Scripting, which has their Best Practices chapter available online. This book covers the current state of JavaScript, and rather convincingly demonstrates how the need to write multiple scripts to cover all browsers is a thing of the past. If your goal with client-side scripting is a model which can easily be tied into VB.Net code or .NET solutions, I think you should look for an AJAX & .NET offering, of which there are several. Most work with their own server controls which allow you to define regions of a page to update dynamically and/or triggers for call such events. The first link below is to the most popular .net ajax suite. Its development started very early on and was far and away the biggest reason Microsoft started work on their Atlas implimentation to integrate AJAX functionality into .NET 2.0.

http://www.ajaxpro.info/ – developer's blog
http://atlas.asp.net/ – developer docs
http://ajaxpatterns.org/DotNet_Ajax_Frameworks

Read Saddam Hussein’s story

Keith Ellis — Sun, 21 May 2006 16:12:37 +0000

A recent CNN article reported that Saddam Hussein has authored a new book. As much as we all love to hate Saddam, I have no doubt that the modern dictator of the fertile crescent will make for an interesting read.

If you're not curious or sold just yet check this – the Japanese translator of the book says it would be a good story for a musical…and that the book shows Saddam to be "delicate and tender."

Building a silent PC

Keith Ellis — Fri, 05 May 2006 14:54:13 +0000

I'm not sure how good a strategy this is but it's definitely interesting to think about. Check out how PC Magazine builds a silent PC. I know I've never thought about building a quiet PC in this way. What do you think?