studiowhiz ramblings

I’ve written about this before here on Studiowhiz, in fact I was involved in early beta tests with the Macromedia team to create a way to allow developers to drive internet based applications without the need of a browser. Kevin Lynch was then one of the top dogs at Macromedia, he coined the term “KevinCloud” and was probably one of the first to think of the internet as a cloud.

Today GigaOM and the New York Times both talk about how Adobe is gearing up to release AIR to the public. Of course this is a good thing and I for one am happy to see this come about. After all I’ve been saying for years it’s time for the internet to operate outside the browser. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey there all you web nutters … I’m thinking of a little side project. And I need your input. If studiowhiz was to offer hosting to you would you consider using it? I’m not just talking any old hosting, I’m talking about hosting that will allow you the ability to run PHP beside ASP, Perl beside Ruby on Rails, MySQL beside MSSQL, pop, imap and all that usual stuff.

We could give you the flexibility you need to build the web apps you always dreamed of. Our hosting would scale as you do, with a small monthly fee & pay as you go add ons, hosting with us could be the advantage you need. You’d have access to 24hr, 7day support, your site would be hosted on some of the most robust systems on the net today.

Would you be interested? I’m considering this as one way of helping grow Studiowhiz. As this site continues to grow and I have more ideas we need community support to do that. By offering a service we all need & use we can get fantastic hosting and any profit will be funneled directly into the growth of Studiowhiz from a blog to a resource.

I would need 10 people/websites to consider driving this forward (that would see you paying around US$13 a month). Oh and yes this would potentially be a ‘cloud computing’ solution (don’t ya love buzz words). Register your interest by either a comment or drop me an email webmaster [at] studiowhiz (you figure the rest out).

Edit:
I now have 2 or 3 other parties interested so need maybe 7 more to register interest

I used to develop full time, that is designing, programming and full development of websites. Of course that was a number of years ago, and my job now, while requiring a growing understanding of the internet, doesn’t see me coding or developing.

I’m starting to set up a small website in the evenings, just a small site I hope people will enjoy. It should be the sort of site I can set up and only touch once in a while. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve just spent about 4 hours looking around Google trying to find some solutions that I need. I only have a few requirements:

• must be free (open source)
• must be php & mysql
• must be (x)HTML & CSS compliant
• must integrate with PayPal
• must have Credit Card integration (c2o etc)
• manage memberships (free & paid - 1 off fee, paypal)

As a bonus I’d love one solution that can do all of that and can manage online tests - nothing over the top just a few multi-choice questions in each test. Would like to track users answers, not so worried about them being able to see their history. This however is proving hard to find.

Got any thoughts? Why not post some links in the comments & I’ll check them out.

If you hadn’t heard Apple are running their MacWorld conference at the moment. This is the ‘holy of holy’ events for any true Mac aficionado. At these events Steve Jobs has a keynote speech in which he reveals the direction for Apple in the coming year - oh and he throws out any new hardware.

Well I have to say all in all I’m rather disappointed. I mean he announced 4 new things today and none of them have the usual ‘wow’ factor I’ve come to expect from Apple. Read the rest of this entry »

I enjoy using WordPress, after all it is pretty much the leading blogging software. It’s been through a number of iterations and has become a pretty solid hunk of code.

However I have to say, WordPress upgrading sucks. I’ve just completed an upgrade here and seriously, all that downloading, unzipping, making sure I backup my files and then uploading the new ones. Bah humbug. Why can’t WordPress have an auto-upgrade feature?

How hard is it to have the system know what files have changed, and simply update those directly? Sure allow the admin of the site to verify file updates (in-case they have hacked the odd file).

Maybe I should just switch to a hosted version of WordPress ey?

Update: Jan 25 2008: Well folks it’s all over, MacHeist is done and $488 003 was raised. However true to form the MacHeist guys thought that wasn’t the best number, so they’ve added $21 997 to the amount to bring the final total to $500 000 raised for charity.

UPDATED: more apps are now available. Purchase now using this link & help raise even more money for charity

Every year a bunch of guys get together to raise some funds for charity. They call themselves “MacHeist” and with the offer they have for us this year - well we might as well be robbing them blind.

MacHeist is fast becoming a regular event. Each time a bunch of Apple software companies are asked to provide software at massively reduced cost. This year there are 10 fantastic apps on offer for the low price of $49.00 - over $340 down to $49.

I have been looking for a personal finance app and was about to spend $39 for one I found, then I found MacHeist which happens to have Cha-Ching as part of the package. That and 25% of the $49 goes into the charity fund, and I walk away with a sweet bundle.

There are 3 apps (Snapz, CSSEdit & Pixelmator) still waiting to be unlocked. To unlock these MacHeist needs to hit certain targets. They need to sell 5000 bundles to unlock CSSEdit. Lets help them get there ey!

To find out about any of the apps, head over to MacHeist now.

» Get MacHeist now

Tags: mac, apps, ultimate OS X apps, apple, charity, raise, money

Any web developer will tell you setting up email for a client can be the bane of their life. I know when I ran my own company and was providing all hosting services, 90% of the support queries we took were in regards to email.

In the last 2 years I’ve moved completely away from this aspect of business, however because I work in the online industry, everyone asks me for advice. Now I simply say “Google Apps” and point them at this fantastic solution. I’m going to guess that almost 60% of businesses could get away with using Google Apps for their entire online presence. Here in NZ almost 65% of businesses don’t even have a website - Google Apps could solve that.
Read the rest of this entry »

Getting a website or online business online is not the easiest thing, especially if you are not a coder. Trying to find out what CSS, PHP, ASP and other terms mean is hard. When you start looking at off the shelf products it makes it even more confusing.

I’ve just been asked by a friend if he can mix and match a PHP application with a website built in ASP. Strangely enough he’s the 3rd person to ask me this in the last 7 days.

Well the short answer is no, you can not install a PHP application on an ASP server. (By the way, ASP & PHP are coding languages used to build web applications - look for more explanation in my upcoming Jargon Explained series). Trying to install PHP on an ASP server is like trying to put Diesel in your Petrol car.

Read the rest of this entry »

Remember the Milk is a great online service that helps you remember things. Think of it as your digital to-do-list. When I started using this service, it was simply a website that you could email tasks too. Now, well it’s so much more.

Today they have announced full integration with GMail which brings your list into you mail, allows you to link tasks with email or calendar events. You can then receive alerts (reminders) to your email or your mobile phone. They have a great video you can watch that shows you how Remember the Milk works with your GMail account.

I also noticed today (and they may have had this for a while) that there is an interface for mobile phones. You can use Remember the Milk on both Windows Mobile & Apple iPhone, and sync your tasks over the air. Fantastic, I must get back into using this. With the integration, the mobile solution and the ability to share tasks, I’m sure it’d make life easier around my house. (Yes dear, I’ll get milk on the way home)

» Remember the Milk
» RTM & Gmail integration video
» RTM & Windows Mobile
» RTM & Apple iPhone