For the most part, The 8BIT Network seeks to provide resources, practical information, and valuable content. As much fun as that is, we’re all about community.
I think that this particular property has a unique position because we’re not only looking to stay up-to-date with some of the more recent technologies available for development, but we’re also trying to build stuff.
So let’s try something different…
Periodically, I’d like to poll the community to see what you’re currently working on. Depending on the nature of the project, perhaps we could highlight it here (something like Agapage, for instance).
That said, I’ll go first…
- I’m currently working on a Rails-based course registration and database management application for someone. The ultimate goal is to help the user streamline a lot of the tedious work on his business.
- Working on building out a few of new things for Standard Theme 2.
Okay, your turn.
What are you working on?
supersimbo says
just finished http://www.recre8ni.com – its going to be ongoing though
Also some new logo’s for ministry’s in Church – cant show them yet though 🙁
Tom says
Dig the recre8ni site.
..and the suspense of the logo’s is rough. Can’t. take. it.
Brandon Cox says
I’m working on developing a content strategy for Pastors.com as well as recruiting leaders from its online community. I’m also catching up on several design projects. Oh, and I’m currently working on a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch… for energy.
Tom says
pastors.com? How’d you score that domain? Seriously though, that’s cool.
Love the other outstanding projects, too ;).
David Alan Hjelle says
Just released an API for my company’s church management software. Pretty fun stuff! Now working on getting people to use it…
In my spare time, trying to learn about CouchDB, LISP, and what the “ideal” web app toolkit might be. 😀
Tom says
Public API for church software? Nice. I’ve always considered that to be a pretty … small market? What stack does it run on?
Damien Katz, the guy behind CouchDB, is solid. Have you seen any of his presentations?
David Alan Hjelle says
Small market? Well, we’ll see. Anything is small compared to Facebook and Google. 😉
Seriously, though, the things we’re most excited about that it enables are 1) integration with other companies and products and 2) allows churches to grab data from our software to put on their website (pretty easy with some demo code we have) or in custom reports (if they are techie enough).
I’ve not seen any of Mr. Katz’s presentations. Do you have a link of something you’d recommend?
jfolkins says
David, have you checked out MongoDB?
David Alan Hjelle says
I’ve seen MongoDB enough to know that there are some similarities (JSON document store, etc.), but haven’t done any in-depth reading. Do you have recommendations?
jfolkins says
Resource:
http://vimeo.com/9864311
MongoDb and mongoid video, for ruby and nosql development. It is excellent.
jfolkins says
Take a look around minute 8:30 ish, he talks about couchDb VS mongoDb not a lot of data. Food for thought though.
David Alan Hjelle says
Cool! Thanks.
Interesting that CouchDB’s apparent performance bottleneck (i.e. HTTP requests) is also its strength: a complete REST interface. So, rather than writing an API like I just did, it’s built-in. Though, if you are storing data in JSON rather than in tables, you are half-way there, I suppose.
The query language could be a kicker, though. I’ll have to see how CouchDB fares after reading some more about it and kicking the tires. Don’t expect me to get very far very quickly though. 😉
jfolkins says
http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/SQL+to+Mongo+Mapping+Chart
Sean R Reid says
Currently I’m working on improving SEO (the SEO?) for a few of our client’s sites. We’re hoping that our agency can begin to offer this as a value-add, pending my success of course. So, basically it’s a low pressure situation. =)
Tom says
Low-pressure I’m sure but, man, SEO’s a weird beast.
Everyone wants it, the ratio of scammers to legit developers is way too high, but done right it can seriously impact a presence.
Phillip Gibb says
Hi,
In my full time capacity of a java bug creator I develop software that enables PinPad/terminals integration with a Store Merchant Server – that I also develop bugs for. The PinPads are anything like regular devices for card payment, Outside Payment Terminal for petrol pumps or cash dispensers. All for generating EFT messages and management for a payment. But the hard core stuff is the Crypto Server I created that integrates with a Hardware crypto module for Key management and PIN translations etc.
otherwise I really just do Java for the enterprise.
Tom says
Dude. Killer. You might win the award for the most hardcore developer around here.
I wrote a lot of hardware-centric code in college but am glad to be a few levels above that stuff now.
Phillip Gibb says
it is funny, I am trying to get to grips with CSS and design of frontend stuff on my blogs – but I have been very intentional to stay away from frontend development in my job.
Tom says
In some respects low-level development is harder than web development. I think anyone that’s had to write code for managing memory, threads, and network communication would say that.
To some degree, I still do feel that way, but I also think that creating robust web apps with solid middle-ware, a nice presentation, and well-performing JavaScript code is challenging in and of itself.
Dunno if I’m being clear, but whatever :).
dewde says
This explains a lot. I mean, it doesn’t, but want you to think it does.
peace | dewde
Phillip Gibb says
I am not sure what it means, half the time. The the other half I just convince myself I know
Matt Phelps says
One of the sites I work on is a movie theater site, and I couldn’t find a decent system to keep the look/design consistent that didn’t involve editing the html directly. So I made a system. Currently it is a file-based PHP driven system that I update by updating a specific file. It’s even set up to send mobile browsers to a narrower version without the Flash video players.
Future plans include moving to a PHP/MySQL based system, make some changes to make design/layout changes easier, adding an admin section that can resample the poster images to a set size automatically, and releasing it under a GPL.
Then there’s the custom client-side management system that allows clients to manage their accounts by themselves, including making payments, updating contact information, adding/removing services, etc. The latest upgrade for that was splitting the database and making some changes to the code so more them one user could be attached to a single account. Not sure if I’ll be releasing this under a GPL, haven’t decided on that yet.
Tom says
“I couldn’t find a decent system to keep the look/design consistent that didn’t involve editing the html directly. So I made a system.” This is why development is so much fun – scratching your own itch (of course, it can take a while to do that).
Let us know when you’ve got that thing in a functioning state – would love to see it!
Matt Phelps says
It’s been up for a while now (I think since Feb). lowvilletownhalltheater.com
Relatively basic on the outside, but no one seems to be able to guess what goes on under the hood. I call it my sandbox site. I get to do basically anything with the site, and I get advertising in return. Both on the site and and before the movie.
And the header of the site? That’s a picture of the inside of the theater.
jfolkins says
You mean, you get an Ad at the Movie theater before the show? If so, that is totally AWESOME!
Matt Phelps says
And best of all I don’t pay a cent for it. All I have to do is keep the site updated, and that’s far from difficult.
But I have to share the screen with other advertisers. Still quite a bit of exposure.
Mark says
I’m working on implementing Google Apps for our church – email take-over goes off tomorrow!
Tom says
Nice! We’re big fans of Google Apps around here 😉
jfolkins says
Course scheduling application for 15k students is what I am dev’ing on most days lately. Although today I’ll probably be doing some DBA work in Oracle as auto extend doesn’t always behave as documented!
ALTER TABLESPACE…
Tom says
Sounds
excruciatingexciting..! 😉jfolkins says
Oh believe me, it is absolutely painful.
Ben says
I’m working on developing a more stable online live feed of our morning and evening services. We are currently using Sermonstudio.net (very good service for the price) and have seen great results but are always looking for better ways to improve on the UX of the page. I have yet to find a really good chat room system.
I’m also working on creating an ecommerce site. I’ve really just started (knew it was coming but procrastinated). There are so many variables and so much at stake this it is scary territory to get into with a client.
I’m also working on raising three boys, got any apps or software for that?
Tom says
You’re right, eCommerce is a sensitive area – dealing with money is tense.
No software for raising kids. Not yet, at least. Perhaps after we have some of our own, I’ll come up with something =P
wvpv says
working on a PCI-DSS compliance project in our beyond obsolete legacy system.
Tom says
Payment security? Fun! Or not..? 😉
..and LOL at ‘beyond obsolete legacy system.’
Chris McGrath says
You guys are working on some pretty cool things.
Professionally I am working on the redesign of our corporate website which is launching Sept. 11th (no connection to 9/11). The dev version is at http://dev.lifecaremediacenter.com/Lcca.com
Personally I am working on a WordPress site for an up and coming country talent. The site is set to launch in a couple of weeks. The dev version is at http://www.digitalmcgrath.com/jdh
Tom says
Nice – looks good! I dig the musician’s site.