Upcoming Zibings Activities

I’ve had a few people ask me recently what’s going on with Zibings.  The renewed interest comes at a very peculiar time, considering how much is going on behind the scenes that nobody knows about.  In order to give people a bit to go off of, I thought I’d share some things…

N2 Framework – Yverdon
Work has not stopped on Yverdon (though it’s been hindered by many other things).  At this rate, we’re hoping to have v0.2 into testing very shortly and released as soon as possible afterwards.  You can expect to see the next version sometime in March if everything stays on course from here on out.

The Zibings Network
The Zibings Network, which to most people has been dead for quite some time, is actually far from being dead.  Our initial Proof of Concept version (http://beta.zibings.net/) was a great endeavor for us as a development team, and we’re working hard to build the first legitimate version.  No specific dates in mind just yet, but we’re aiming for beginning a testing phase sometime in the next month.

Other
The reason for the delay on the previous two mentioned projects is going to be revealed within the next 3 months to early testers on ZibNet.  We’ve been putting tons of work into approaching this project in an organized manner and I know I speak for everyone at Zibings when I say that we’re excited as hell to reveal it to you.  Keep your eyes peeled here and on the main sites (www.zibings.com) as they begin to change and mature while we head towards the unveiling of our new pet project.

If you want more insight than this, you’d probably be best off joining us on IRC.  Otherwise, I’ll look forward to filling you in on more details as they come!

 

- Andy

Some Interview Questions for Developers

While reading through links this morning I came across this blog post making fun of how managers interview developers.  Having been a part of several interviews recently and being a developer myself, I thought I’d lend a few good questions to those managers out there who are looking for some tips.

I’ve used each of the following questions in various interviews with mixed results, but each one was effective in giving me some insight into the potential developer’s tendencies and personality.

1. Have you ever had to work on a project that has fallen behind schedule?  If so, how did you manage the pressure of catching up without sacrificing quality?
2. Would you call yourself driven?
3. Why did you decide to get into programming?
4. What project were you most proud of that you’ve completed?
5. What is your weakest area in the development process?
6. What is your strongest are in the development process?

As usual, don’t think that I expect my questions to be the ultimate solution or anything.  These are ones I use, I’d be curious to find out what other people use for similar situations.

 

-Andy

How To Reorganize

Anyone that knows me is aware that I’ve been sick for the past few weeks with all manner of disease and suffering.  I haven’t stopped working once, but a good indicator of how I’m feeling can be seen in the state of my office and living space.  As things stand currently, both are entering the ‘disarray’ phase of organization very clearly.

Fortunately, I am finally overcoming whatever bug(s) I’ve been enduring, and I won’t be letting things go much further down the slope towards ‘mess’.  As always, I’ll offer a disclaimer before I continue.  I am no expert, and I’m certainly not sporting a proven record of achievement in the category of self-improvement.  This is a bit of insight into a method that has worked for me before and I hope will work for me again.  Poorly-constructed legal disclaimer stated, let’s get to the meat of the conversation.

Steps To Success

1. Get Better – This one goes without saying for me, if you are depressed or de-motivated, figure out what it is in your life that’s bothering you and take steps to resolve the issue.  For some people this involves consulting a doctor, for others just a good punch to the face.  I believe myself to be in the latter category.
2. Clean Your Space – Another that seems pretty self-explanatory.  Call it managing your Fung Sh…well whatever it is that they term it, the point remains the same.  Mentally, people work better when they’re comfortable with the space they’re working in, and this is not just a tactic for your office.
3. Set Organization Goals – One thing that I started doing last year was creating a schedule for myself.  I opened up Excel, laid out three different types of days for myself (Weekday, Weekend-day and Vacation-day), broke down the day into time slots, and decided what I’d like to be doing for those time slots.  This was helpful for me, and my immediate goal at that point was to follow my schedule.  Make this suit you (same as the with your workspace/livingspace), some people find it easier to have a goal such as “Clean room once a week”.
4. Reward Yourself – When you achieve a goal, reward yourself.  I built reward periods into my schedule that allowed me to watch a movie or play a video game for an hour.  Do something that is meaningful to you and it becomes a part of your newly organized life to get that time to play.

There are plenty of tools online to help you plan and build on your successes.  One tool shown to me by a friend was something called Joe’s Goals.  I tried using it for a bit and found that my spreadsheet was more effective for me, but give it a whirl to see if it’s your kind of thing!

 

- Andy

Why Not To Make an MVC Framework

As I think about what I’m hoping to convey with this post, I’d like to make two points very clear.  First, I am sick right now and very possibly am loopy beyond compare.  Why I decided to write a blog post in this condition is not a question I could ever answer.  Secondly, I have nothing against MVC beyond its status as an apparent fad in the web development industry.  It is a good design pattern that helps many people follow some great coding practices.  With that out of the way, lets get into the reason for the post.

The other day I was preparing to make a presentation on N2F to my local PHP Meetup group.  I remembered that a good many of the other members in the group were proponents of MVC, and figured that there would be no harm in creating a simple MVC extension for N2F that would show how flexible we made our framework.  Quite simply, this was the worst idea I’ve had in quite some time, but at least I got a bit of a chuckle out of the whole process.

I would never claim to be any kind of an expert on MVC.  I know the basic concepts, and attempted to build my extension based on that understanding.  The following file will give you everything I did to make N2F an MVC-ish framework.  The file mvc.ext.php is the extension which overwrites two system events to allow the change in structure.  The rest should be fairly self-explanatory, but should never be used on any kind of server…ever.  Enjoy!

 

Download N2F-MVC.rar

 

- Andy

Andy Goes Clubbing

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m not the type to enjoy a club.  There really aren’t too many situations where I’d have fun at one, where I could stand the noise, etc.  However, there is one way that it’s possible to convince me to go, and that way is techno.  For better or worse, I am a fan of techno/trance music, and a big enough one that I’m willing to put aside my differences with the club scene.

With a bit of string pulling, two great friends in the DC area got myself and two friends VIP passes to Ferry Corsten’s live set this  past Saturday night at Glow.  I’ve been having difficulty coming up with words to justify how amazing the set was, but suffice to say it was just that…amazing.  I had a great time, as did my friends, and what more can you ask for really?  I’ll be looking forward to working a trip down there into my schedule from time to time, it was a great time and I recommend it to anyone.

 

- Andy