Tuesday, March 18, 2003
Slashdot
Well, something somewhat interesting. I just noticed a article I posted on Slashdot was accepted. It’s not ABOUT AE (damn! Hehehe), but it’s about GPS and the upcoming war. The interesting thing is, that means a LINK to AE will be on the main Slashdot page, as the URL you get when you click on my name (ward99). Woot! Hehe, should see some big traffic from that, based on the last time it happened.
Monday, March 17, 2003
Location Alert
Wowza. I took LocationAlert and added the ability to Annotated locations. So I may not write LocationAnnotation at this point, as LocationAlert does it. It’s VERY cool. Simple to use, and does exactly what I want. I guess I’m ready to do the PocketPC
On that note, I installed the SDK this weekend and wrote a simple app, but as soon as I ran it blue-screened XP. Fun. It was trying to access the PDA hooked up to the machine, and, as I haven’t bought one yet, didn’t like it I guess. Guess it’s time to spend yet another $600 bucks *shudder*. I’m tyring not to think how much cash has been poured down AE at this point. If you start calculating my time in, the total cost is starting to get a bit high (and the personal, both in$$$ and personal time work on it)
I’m actually thinking of taking a break soon, I hope after I have something on the PocketPC. I’m starting to get burned out, and my day job is suffering. To this point, I’ve been able to do everything on weekends or (sometimes) weeknights, without the day job getting hit… but last week I was so fried from trying to do both for the last few weeks, that I was kinda flaky, and didn’t get much work done.
Oh… http://sh1.antville.org/ had a post about AE (specifically, the IraqiList) so I’ve been getting a fair amount of traffic, at least a few hits a hour. And several people have used IraqiAlert AND LocationAlert. Nifty!
I want to try harping IraqiAlert, as I think it has the potential for some press. As the war is about to start, I’m running out of time. I’m going to research Iraqi Troop movements, troops that might have bio/chem. Weapons (as was rumored today). That would be a good addition.
On that note, I installed the SDK this weekend and wrote a simple app, but as soon as I ran it blue-screened XP. Fun. It was trying to access the PDA hooked up to the machine, and, as I haven’t bought one yet, didn’t like it I guess. Guess it’s time to spend yet another $600 bucks *shudder*. I’m tyring not to think how much cash has been poured down AE at this point. If you start calculating my time in, the total cost is starting to get a bit high (and the personal, both in$$$ and personal time work on it)
I’m actually thinking of taking a break soon, I hope after I have something on the PocketPC. I’m starting to get burned out, and my day job is suffering. To this point, I’ve been able to do everything on weekends or (sometimes) weeknights, without the day job getting hit… but last week I was so fried from trying to do both for the last few weeks, that I was kinda flaky, and didn’t get much work done.
Oh… http://sh1.antville.org/ had a post about AE (specifically, the IraqiList) so I’ve been getting a fair amount of traffic, at least a few hits a hour. And several people have used IraqiAlert AND LocationAlert. Nifty!
I want to try harping IraqiAlert, as I think it has the potential for some press. As the war is about to start, I’m running out of time. I’m going to research Iraqi Troop movements, troops that might have bio/chem. Weapons (as was rumored today). That would be a good addition.
Saturday, March 15, 2003
Users...
Well, I kinda cranked on a bunch of stuff tonight, the biggest being the release of LocationAlert. It’s basically a generic version of IraqiAlert. The user can login in as different users (or guest), and choose what group they want to be monitoring. And it returns a list of locations instead of just one (within a user-selectable radius). The user can configure settings (like com port and baud, finally) and it saves/loads settings from the registry. It actually looks pretty damn good, considering I basically ripped the code from IraqiAlert and just made it better. I need to do some testing when my laptop gets back, but it seems to work REALLY well.
The next app will be the location submitter – ah, um, “Location Annotation”? Maybe. I don’t know, I’ll have to think about that a bit.
The first version will only allow the user to take a note for the current location. Once they’ve done that, it goes up to the server, and then they’ll have to edit from there if they want to do anything to it. I really need this app, to start mapping out things. Once the two of these (location alert and location annotation) are working well, then I’ll be ready to move to PDA’s. But I need to use these two to really test out the technology.
I’ve kinda given up on finding wireless in Columbia. I may try to track down someone at USC and see if they’re interested in doing some kind of R&D partnership (doubtful, I’d guess, knowing USC). I’ve thought about just putting the laptop and a WiFi router in my car, and trying to have basically a mobile WiFi node. Park it downtown Columbia, enter a bunch of locations, test. Move the car, repeat. Do something on the USC campus. The only problem is I’m not willing to leave my car on for long periods of time, and I don’t want to run fully off of the battery for the WiFi. If I can figure out a way to just run the 12 volts or whatever off the router, off the car, then... Maybe. We’ll have to see. If I can do that, then I can load the AE server onto the laptop, and configure the software to point there. Kinda cheesy, but hey, It’s Columbia *sigh*
Oh yeah, I’ve posted info about AE on several web forums that deal with location-aware, or GIS or GPS devices. Getting a few hits, and some interested. One thing I really need to do is get some more users
I’ve been adding a few new locations, which has helped test the system as a normal user would see it. I’d like to make voting better (more visible), and be able to find out who submitted a location (and get a list of locations THEY submitted). That would be nice, as it would allow me to do a top 10 submitter/quality list. Which can help spur people to submit MORE!
The next app will be the location submitter – ah, um, “Location Annotation”? Maybe. I don’t know, I’ll have to think about that a bit.
The first version will only allow the user to take a note for the current location. Once they’ve done that, it goes up to the server, and then they’ll have to edit from there if they want to do anything to it. I really need this app, to start mapping out things. Once the two of these (location alert and location annotation) are working well, then I’ll be ready to move to PDA’s. But I need to use these two to really test out the technology.
I’ve kinda given up on finding wireless in Columbia. I may try to track down someone at USC and see if they’re interested in doing some kind of R&D partnership (doubtful, I’d guess, knowing USC). I’ve thought about just putting the laptop and a WiFi router in my car, and trying to have basically a mobile WiFi node. Park it downtown Columbia, enter a bunch of locations, test. Move the car, repeat. Do something on the USC campus. The only problem is I’m not willing to leave my car on for long periods of time, and I don’t want to run fully off of the battery for the WiFi. If I can figure out a way to just run the 12 volts or whatever off the router, off the car, then... Maybe. We’ll have to see. If I can do that, then I can load the AE server onto the laptop, and configure the software to point there. Kinda cheesy, but hey, It’s Columbia *sigh*
Oh yeah, I’ve posted info about AE on several web forums that deal with location-aware, or GIS or GPS devices. Getting a few hits, and some interested. One thing I really need to do is get some more users
I’ve been adding a few new locations, which has helped test the system as a normal user would see it. I’d like to make voting better (more visible), and be able to find out who submitted a location (and get a list of locations THEY submitted). That would be nice, as it would allow me to do a top 10 submitter/quality list. Which can help spur people to submit MORE!
Thursday, March 13, 2003
StationRipper
So StationRipper kinda took off. Gave it to a friend or two, and they gave to some friends. Next thing I know, my ISP is telling me I'm maxing out my bandwidth. LOL.
Still not a lot of movement on getting people devices with GPS's and internet connections (walking around, at least). It just seems to make SENSE. Wish I was a hardware guy, as I bet there's some cash to be made with that combo.
So I'll probably not be working on AE for a bit. Going to focus on StationRipper, which is a lot of fun and getting a LOT of users!
Still not a lot of movement on getting people devices with GPS's and internet connections (walking around, at least). It just seems to make SENSE. Wish I was a hardware guy, as I bet there's some cash to be made with that combo.
So I'll probably not be working on AE for a bit. Going to focus on StationRipper, which is a lot of fun and getting a LOT of users!
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Fark
I did some work on the web site today. Locations can be deleted. Fixed a Deg-Dec to DMS calc bug, and added the ability to enter locations in MinDec.
I also added some locations, and deleted some (hehehe, nice to have the new delete function).
Tried to submit something to Fark – the article got rejected (no surprise there *sigh*), but did get some traffic, mostly from total fark I’d imagine.
I also added some locations, and deleted some (hehehe, nice to have the new delete function).
Tried to submit something to Fark – the article got rejected (no surprise there *sigh*), but did get some traffic, mostly from total fark I’d imagine.
Sunday, March 9, 2003
Sourceforge
Well, just submitted a request to SourceForge to add a project for AE clients. I’m NOT planning on open-sourcing the web site at this point, so I sure hope they’re cool with open-source clients. My plan is for all clients that I write will be open source, and available on both the main site and SourceForge. The whole goal here is to get other people writing cool applications, stuff I may even be thinking of. I’d love for someone to take IraqiAlert and function to it, or some up with some other new application. If I can achieve that, then the second stage can really be considered a success. Yeah, lots of users will be part of that success, but if I’m going to move forward, without getting and kind of investment cash, I’m going to need to rely heavily on other developers.
I can see this is already going to drain me dry – already spent $3K+ on hardware, hosting fees will just get to be more, and I’m must starting.
I pretty much have finished IraqiAlert! The web pages are done, the software works as well as it can (with me not having my laptop), the source code is all commented and pretty and I’ve uploaded that source in a zip to the main site (Woot!). I also did the various license pages and such, lots of fun. I need to really start looking around for a lawyer – going to need a corp, and need help with the legal stuff.
I can see this is already going to drain me dry – already spent $3K+ on hardware, hosting fees will just get to be more, and I’m must starting.
I pretty much have finished IraqiAlert! The web pages are done, the software works as well as it can (with me not having my laptop), the source code is all commented and pretty and I’ve uploaded that source in a zip to the main site (Woot!). I also did the various license pages and such, lots of fun. I need to really start looking around for a lawyer – going to need a corp, and need help with the legal stuff.
Friday, March 7, 2003
Released IA
I released IraqiAlert, or at least put it up on the site. I’m debating whether to try to a fark ad (“Going to Iraqi to help out Saddam? Make sure you know what area’s he’ll most appreciate you protecting!”). It would be nice to get hit a bit, I’m just sure getting fark’ed is the way to go :P
Tomorrow I’m going to take IraqiAlert, comment it, and then take that source and create a generic alert app. Basically get any group the user can access, and let them select which they are monitoring (more than one maybe?). That should be really quick, as IraqiAlert is doing 99% of what it needs to do, just needs to be more generic. Oh, and login I guess
Then the next will be the “Enter” app, which will allow the user to enter applications. Then the PocketPC stuff. Hehe, just a bit more to go.
I did a bit of a load test tonight. Ran WebWacker against the domain, getting the Iraqi group list (all the locs, ~25K a pop). Ran it for 10 minutes, 5 wackers. It was able to hit it 5265 times (11 a second). I was also using the site, trying to do various things, while that was going on, and I couldn’t tell the difference (e.g., that (smallish) load wasn’t noticeable). I’m going to keep trying various things over the next week, to try to get a feel for what it can take. I was happy to see it didn’t hurt it much, under that load (way to go Active Host!).
I did notice some spikes. On just the AE Service, the base-line for running that transation is 16 milliseconds (that’s from the time the request first comes in to just before the response time is sent. Includes all DB access, login, access validation, XML creation). I see one instance where it took 1150 milli’s, and a handful at 250-400. That’s cutting out any kind of network latency, so it’s probably either the web server being busy or the database (as in… busy doing something other than AE). While Active Host will be able to handle the site for a while, if it takes off at all I’m either going to have to host myself (which I prefer) or get a (at least) better semi-dedicated server. The problem is, of course, I don’t have control over the equipment, so tracking problems is going to be tough.
Oh, and I also added “system” name to everything. Was a real pain in the ass, but I can see that as more software gets written, I’m going to want it (to tell where requests are coming from).
Tomorrow I’m going to take IraqiAlert, comment it, and then take that source and create a generic alert app. Basically get any group the user can access, and let them select which they are monitoring (more than one maybe?). That should be really quick, as IraqiAlert is doing 99% of what it needs to do, just needs to be more generic. Oh, and login I guess
Then the next will be the “Enter” app, which will allow the user to enter applications. Then the PocketPC stuff. Hehe, just a bit more to go.
I did a bit of a load test tonight. Ran WebWacker against the domain, getting the Iraqi group list (all the locs, ~25K a pop). Ran it for 10 minutes, 5 wackers. It was able to hit it 5265 times (11 a second). I was also using the site, trying to do various things, while that was going on, and I couldn’t tell the difference (e.g., that (smallish) load wasn’t noticeable). I’m going to keep trying various things over the next week, to try to get a feel for what it can take. I was happy to see it didn’t hurt it much, under that load (way to go Active Host!).
I did notice some spikes. On just the AE Service, the base-line for running that transation is 16 milliseconds (that’s from the time the request first comes in to just before the response time is sent. Includes all DB access, login, access validation, XML creation). I see one instance where it took 1150 milli’s, and a handful at 250-400. That’s cutting out any kind of network latency, so it’s probably either the web server being busy or the database (as in… busy doing something other than AE). While Active Host will be able to handle the site for a while, if it takes off at all I’m either going to have to host myself (which I prefer) or get a (at least) better semi-dedicated server. The problem is, of course, I don’t have control over the equipment, so tracking problems is going to be tough.
Oh, and I also added “system” name to everything. Was a real pain in the ass, but I can see that as more software gets written, I’m going to want it (to tell where requests are coming from).
Tuesday, March 4, 2003
Laptop dead
Well, my brand new vpr Matrix died. I like it a lot, but it’s going to be ~2 weeks before I get it back, repaired. So I’m screwed trying to get things working around the yard, which is pissing me off to no end. I’m really close on the Iraqi alert program. Just needed to do some final testing and more options (like distance to look at, etc.) Don’t know what I’m going to do now. I was hoping to release it before the whole Iraqi war started, or right about that time (which looks to be now, or next week).
I may just release it, but not publish the fast as much as I’d like. *sigh* Oh well, thank you Best Buy :P
I’ve been researching PocketPC’s. I 99% sure that’s the next target platform. Lugging that PC around has been a pain in the ass, so I’d love to get it working. Only problem is, I can’t find a wireless network in Columbia. I’ve considering trying to use the lap top – get a Linksys DSL router w/ wireless, put the web server on the lap top, drive down town or wherever, power it off the car, and at least a temp wireless network going. A pain, but it might be worth it.
The actual location-aware stuff seems to work really well, I just don’t have the infrastructure to really test it out. Once I’ve got a few things working, I may take a trip to someplace that provides a really solid public network. Go to NY or the SF and map out part of the city. Basically get a guide book or history book and walk around, entering facts.
A new idea:
I could develop a War Driving application. People are already using wireless cards and a GPS to map nodes. I could use a AE to combine those two. Start a new group, let people enter info in (actually, Hehe, could just automatically generate the info when it detects a LAN it hasn’t seen before. Basically drive around, hit a new name. See if it’s on AE. If not, send it in). Then you could set in a mode that as you drive around, it tells you how far away the nearest point is. Could be a very cool demo of the technology, and I’d think people War Driving would be a good target audience.
I may just release it, but not publish the fast as much as I’d like. *sigh* Oh well, thank you Best Buy :P
I’ve been researching PocketPC’s. I 99% sure that’s the next target platform. Lugging that PC around has been a pain in the ass, so I’d love to get it working. Only problem is, I can’t find a wireless network in Columbia. I’ve considering trying to use the lap top – get a Linksys DSL router w/ wireless, put the web server on the lap top, drive down town or wherever, power it off the car, and at least a temp wireless network going. A pain, but it might be worth it.
The actual location-aware stuff seems to work really well, I just don’t have the infrastructure to really test it out. Once I’ve got a few things working, I may take a trip to someplace that provides a really solid public network. Go to NY or the SF and map out part of the city. Basically get a guide book or history book and walk around, entering facts.
A new idea:
I could develop a War Driving application. People are already using wireless cards and a GPS to map nodes. I could use a AE to combine those two. Start a new group, let people enter info in (actually, Hehe, could just automatically generate the info when it detects a LAN it hasn’t seen before. Basically drive around, hit a new name. See if it’s on AE. If not, send it in). Then you could set in a mode that as you drive around, it tells you how far away the nearest point is. Could be a very cool demo of the technology, and I’d think people War Driving would be a good target audience.
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