We’ll post updates as we build out the space.
iOS meetup in NYC
So last night I went to a meetup in Manhattan while I was here on work/vacation/non-sense. About 200 people showed up! Event the organizer of the group was surprised by that. Pizza and beer were flowing, everything a coder could ask for. The gig was put on by Microsoft, they were previewing a new cloud solution they have developed called Azure. To there credit they only subjected us to 7 minutes of that non-sense before jumping into the more relevant talks.
I’m not saying I’m a MS hater, but as far as cloud solutions, Azure has a long way to go to catch up to the already more established solutions. It’s probably a good solutions if you are developing a windows phone 7 app but I can’t see any real use for it other then that.
I got to share Beer Shelf and a couple of other projects we’ve been working on and I met some great people working on some really cool projects. Here are the highlights in no particular order:
hexegonal Rochambeau – a new twist on an old favorite, this game is really clever and Randall Li is a great indie developer doing it in his free time. Give him some love.
boundabout – created by Micheal Dinerstein, is a way to create a story when you are out and about with your friends that you can share within the group, as a posed to blasting out out to the world with no context of the people that were there.
stamped – I’m using this app while I’m in NYC. Real great simple concept, I’m not sure about the execution yet (just started using it today). Basically get rid of all your review sites and star rating apps. This weeds that out to a stamp that is equivalent to a 5 star rating. Sometimes all you want to see is what the top results are.
mixel – When I watched the intro video I really didn’t get why anyone would use this app. However, check out some of the images in the gallery that have been made with this app! Crazy stuff, Matisse would be proud to use this app… if he weren’t dead.
A Jazzy Day – lead developer Dana Morgan. The app is full of great illustrations. Teach your toddler about jazz, sounds great.
Day 209
Well it’s day 209 and our project thiswildidea with Theron Humphrey is really picking up steam!
The project has been featured on instagram today. And the side project maddieonthings has absolutely gone viral. Congratulations Theron, this project deserves all the recognition it is finally receiving.
Beer Shelf Beta Signup!
The moment is here. Go to http://beershelf.com/ to sign up for the private Beta release.
We have less than 100 slots, so it’s first come first serve. We will obviously give you preference if you are a brewer or advocate. Here are some screens to titillate you.
ntop network monitoring FTW!
A number of our projects require stress testing and lately I’ve been using ntop to monitor the network aspect of the tests. In a nutshell, ntop monitors your network interfaces and then you can view all the data that it logs in a nifty web view in your browser #hawt
One of my fav features is the ability to add your own protocols in /etc/ntop/protocols.list (on debian) and then they appear in the web page in its own chart. For example, we have a node.js server running on a non-standard port so I just append NodeJS=<port #> to the protocols.list file, restart ntop, and now it appears in its own chart. Cake!
We’re On Wired!
Pete Brook wrote a lovely article on our project thiswildidea.
Read the article here: http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2012/01/stolen-gear-is-small-hurdle-for-year-long-photo-project/
SOPA PIPA – Internet Police
If you are looking for a short answer on why these bills are a bad idea the short answer is: these acts give the government the authority to decide what you look at on the internet.
If that doesn’t strike you as a bad idea then check this out: http://www.youtube.com/user/TotalHalibut?blend=1&ob=video-mustangbase
You can sign a petition at: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
One of the more impressive displays of activism against SOPA PIPA today was the take down of php.net! They replaced the entire site with a black screen displaying this message:
503: Stop SOPA/PIPA
The SOPA/PIPA bills threaten the open nature of the Web and thus threaten Open Source projects like ours. If you have the ability to vote in the United States, help us out and contact your representatives. If you are not able to vote in the United States, you can help by petitioning the U.S. state department. Bills like these have a habit of spreading to other countries if we don’t stop them at their source. Visit AmericanCensorship.org to learn how to do both.
I only found this out from a friend of mine. He was trying to download the latest version of PHP for a client and had to find another way to get at it.
Maddie On Things
A necessary addition to our thiswildidea project has arisen, and we could no longer ignore the obvious next step. Introducing maddieonthings.com, a collection of wonderful images of a faithful companion placed in precarious positions.
Coindexter
Wow. We’ve been super excited about this since Spring 2011, and finally the day is here! Coindexter is an online game for kids/tweens (though I’ve known several grown-ups who have played for hours) and Bearhanded has had the amazing privilege to work with Applause Marketing to bring the world of Coindexter to you!
The art for Coindexter is incredible and the games are fun to play again and again. After you make money playing the games you can spend it on game upgrades, new clothes, item upgrades or game items – and the entire time, kids are learning about how to save money and spend it by managing their savings account and their wallet. You also earn trophies for various game achievements as well as for spending and saving achievements.
Not only are the mini-games entertaining, there’s an over-arching plot line to save the professor Coindexter who is stuck in time. Repair his time machine so you can go back in time and save him while exploring and playing games along the way!
Head over to Coindexter.com to sign up for your free trial account.
This Wild Idea – on the road
It all started with this project: http://30.thiswildidea.com/
This idea culminated into a conversation between us and artist/friend Theron Humphrey. Together we decided it was a necessary venture to tell the story of the common person in America for a year, one person a day. Plenty of artists are photographing subcultures that are driven by angst, we didn’t want to do that. Being human is a valid enough reason to be taken note of. In a day where we put emphasis on fame and power we wanted to show honor to unrecognized and overlooked. The farmer who grows your food or the mechanic that fixes your car, they are the proverbial “heartbeat of america”, and they deserve our attention.
Theron is currently on his 30th day. Check out some of the amazing stories so far and follow the journey for the next year!
http://www.thiswildidea.com