The End of One Era, The Beginning of Another

Don't let the title fool you, I'm actually not about to embark on another journey down my twisted political mind.  Instead, I'd like to pay tribute to a piece of my development history that has served me dutifully over the past 4.5 years.  Most anyone who reads this blog will at least be familiar with the existence of ZSF, and some may even use it for their own purposes.  Regardless, tonight we celebrate all that it was and respectfully retire it into the software heavens.  (For anyone not following, this means that I'm not doing anymore work on ZSF, just to be clear)

Now that we have the emotional part of this out of the way, we'll get to the good news.  In lieu of the loss of ZSF, I have been working with some good friends and new colleagues to create 'ZSF Reincarnated', which we have called The N2 Framework.  The specifics of the plan for N2F are somewhat complicated, but for the moment we are working on one particular strain of the framework code named Yverdon.  Yverdon is the evolution of 4 and a half years of experience with ZSF bundled into one system.

Yverdon intends to be both simple and flexible for developers, on top of offering top performance and extremely low overhead.  The system is currently modular based, but is flexible enough to be overridden into most other popular patterns (including MVC).  Yverdon has been tested with PHP 5.2+ and should work with earlier versions of PHP 5.  Since the PHP group has been working to end it's work on PHP 4, we have opted to not make the framework PHP 4 compatible.  The system is currently being tested on both Windows and Linux environments to ensure that our code truly embraces PHP's cross-platform goodness.

Keep in mind that this is a very early release of the system.  Though we have worked hard to make the release functional, we can not guarantee that things will not change moving forward, nor can we assure you that there will not be bugs.  Our web site is in development and will provide easy ways to submit issues to the development team so that we can work them out.  We're looking forward to building a community around this framework and will rely on community feedback to shape the direction of the framework in the future, so don't be shy.

When the web site has been finished, I'll make sure to mention it at this blog.  Special thanks have to go to Chris, Matt, Patrick, Clemens and Javier for their various efforts towards this first release.  Working with each of them has been great so far and I think we're all looking forward to coaxing the true potential out of Yverdon in the months (and hopefully years) to come.

 

- Andy

Another Zune Update, Another Set of Features

The Zune Team at Redmond has been at it again, and I have to say I'm really excited about what's coming on September 16th.  Among other things listed in the article, they are adding the capability to tag and download music automatically from your FM receiver, as well as the ability to finally shop from your Zune wirelessly.

It's obvious that once again they've wasted no time between updates and as an early-adopter of the Zune I have to say I'm thankful I took a chance on the little MP3 player that could.

 

Andy

Tools For Shared Life

As most of you will know, I am currently living in an apartment with a longtime friend.  First and foremost, you should all know that it's going very well and he and I haven't had any big issues beyond how picky I am about he and his girlfriend keeping the kitchen clean.  He can't help that I'm neurotic sometimes, so I don't hold it against him in the long run.

Even so, I have been in living situations before where it would have been nice to be able to keep track of things like rent payments, grocery receipts and utility payments.  Those memories, and my newfound desire to get back into desktop application programming, have led me to decide I am going to create a set of tools that will help in keeping track of the aforementioned.  I have no specific roadmap or set of features that I've decided on, so suggestions would be welcomed.

As I get around to finishing the applications, I will release them here via my blog so that all may benefit from their existence.  I'm looking forward to working on these, I just hope that someone else can find them useful.

 

Andy

A Fit Lifestyle

As I've been adjusting to life away from home again, I've noticed that I'm actually putting on a bit of weight.  I am by no means obese, however I could stand to slim down in a few areas as well as get back into shape.

The first thing I'm going to do is dedicate myself to working out at least 3 days a week.  A workout will entail running at the least, with lifting being optional.  I splurged a bit and bought myself a pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 11's, costing me around $90.  They are great shoes, at least they have been for me.  Very breathable and extremely gentle on my feet and knees.  As long as I use these when I run, I should have a much easier time recovering from the run, which will make it easier for me to get three runs in each week.

Secondly, I'm going to start being more strict with when I eat.  One of my biggest problems is that I will eat if I am bored or feel like taking a break from work/play.  The former of the two can happen often with me, so I will need to try harder to resist the urge.  Eating more regularly falls into these categories as well, and my goal would be to eventually switch to a nutritional plan that has me eating 6 meals a day to keep my metabolism high.  First thing is first though, I will begin eating at 8:30, 12:30 and 5:30 everyday, or as close to those times as possible.

For now, those two goals are great starts for me.  I've been improving my lifestyle immensely since I left Technisource, and this seems like the logical next step.  If anyone has any other great ideas for things I (or anyone) could do to improve their physical fitness, post a comment and let me know.  My mom has been a personal trainer for several years, so I might even get her input on a few things and post them on this blog.  For now though, I need to go take a jog in the rain.

 

Andy

Three Cups of Tea

Over a month ago, my grandparents suggested that Mom, Ashley and I read a book called 'Three Cups of Tea'.  The book chronicles the travels of a man named Greg Mortenson through areas of Central Asia (particularly Pakistan and Afghanistan).  The book was a wonderful read which I finished in a matter of 2-3 days.  I found myself very involved with the book throughout, never once finding a section boring or not worth reading.  Mortenson's proves that there are other ways of spreading peace in the world than through the point of a gun, a point this Ron Paul supporter can happily endorse.

If you're looking for an emotional and motivational read, I highly recommend this book.  The writing is plain, but captivating, a combination rarely seen in today's world of literature.  When you've finished with the book, go ahead and make a donation to Mortenson's Central Asia Institute.

 

Andy

What Election?

Super Tuesday has come and gone, and with it a large portion of hope that we Ron Paul supporters would receive the brokered convention we have hoped for all along.  By no means is it impossible, but the odds have been stacked against us in a way that is truly daunting.

I've seen a lot of negative attitudes pop up ever since the passing of Super Tuesday, and I have to say I'm somewhat ashamed of those bearing those attitudes.  For those of us who were willing to listen, we know that this was never about the election.  Dr. Paul, without question, ran to win the presidential nomination, and he still continues to do so despite what most of the media would have you believe.  However, now we see that with the thousands, if not millions of newly active citizens in this country, the long and difficult fight to take back the country has never been more important nor closer to success.

I hope nobody gets the wrong idea.  I will soon be ramping up my own volunteering for the Paul campaign in my area, hoping to help him secure Pennsylvania's delegates.  This election is far from over and there is still a decent chance that our beloved brokered convention will rear its beautiful head.  We'll be ready if it does, as will Dr. Paul.  The real question is, will you be ready to defiantly raise your fist and fight back even if we end up losing the convention?

Lose the election?  What election.  This isn't about an election, this is about my country, and I won't ever forget that.

 

- Andy

Wash Your Hands Less...Seriously

I was taking a break from cleaning today, and decided to peruse Digg.com and see what was 'news' at the moment.  I saw a link on the front page that led to this article:

Keep It Clean, Boys: Why You Should Be Washing More

I'll start by saying that I normally do wash my hands when I leave the bathroom, mostly because it's polite.  After reading crap like this, I'm half considering washing my hands even less than I already do.  Why you ask?  It's a very simple principle...

Whenever you wash your hands, especially with anti-bacterial soap, you are killing lots of bacteria, that's a given.  However, let's think about this using the education most of us received when we were in elementary school.  Whenever your body encounters something like bacteria or a virus, it creates antibodies which help your body dispose of the bacteria/virus.  Wouldn't it stand to reason then, that in order to keep your body well protected against germs and the like, you'd be better off getting dirty and using less anti-bacterial soap?

This guy thinks so at the least.  Though I doubt I'll stop washing my hands after I've been to the bathroom, I will certainly work harder on being less concerned with how dirty things are that I come into contact with.  When you all have no immunity and are sick from the super viruses, I'll be sitting in a hammock somewhere enjoying a virus-free nap.

 

- Andy

More ZibNet Updates Coming!

We're quickly approaching our goal for initial release of ZibNet.  We'll be cutting it close depending on a few things and are intending on taking another week or two in order to do some solid security enhancements and testing...  But!  That does mean one good thing for all you beta testers.  We're going to be throwing out a few new features over the course of the next week and will be ready for major testing.  There are three big features slated to come out this week that are all comfortably on schedule.  Also, we'll be seeing our new design come out in short order as well.

Hope you all are looking forward to this as much as I am!

 

- Andy

Dad in Providence Business News

Just thought I'd throw out some 'kudos' to my father (who is now President of Zibings Incorporated). He was recently interviewed for a short article in the Providence Business News magazine. Doesn't have that much to do with Zibings (or me for that matter), but it gives a taste of the level of professionalism that he'll be bringing to the company.

Full Article @ www.pbn.com

- Andy

Ron Paulapalooza

Once again, I've gone a while without talking much to you all.  I do apologize, but as compensation for my absence, I'd like to introduce you all to a new project that I've been working on.

As you can see from my various posts, I am a Ron Paul supporter.  I am a believer though that regardless of how he finishes in the Republican primaries, we (his supporters) need to continue our activism with our federal and local governments.  In the spirit of that, I've joined on board with a festival by the name of Ron Paulapalooza.

The event, which is planned for the July 4th Weekend this year, looks like it will become a very entertaining concert.  We've selected our location and are seeking sponsorships from anyone and everyone so that the event can be a success.  If you get a few moments, check out the web site and let me know what you think!

www.ronpaulapalooza.com

 

- Andy

Thanksgiving Week

I'll be spending the next week up with my family in New England.  As a result, most of the rest of the team will be taking off for the next week as well (I guess this just goes to show how much of a slave driver I really am).  We'll resume the following week and have a good solid stream of updates coming through from that point on.  Till then, Happy Thanksgiving!

 

- Andy

The Ron Paul Movement

First: The Plug
On November 5th, 2007, Ron Paul supporters around the country raised $4.3 million in a 24 hour period.  It has created more buzz for him in a week than he's received in almost the entirety of the past year.  This was an amazing accomplishment, one that all Ron Paul supporters can be proud of.  We can't stop there though, and a new movement has been planned on the anniversary of The Boston Tea Party.  On December 16th, 2007, we will be trying again to break the $10,000,000 mark in online/phone donations in one day.  To pledge your hand in this, please visit www.teaparty07.com and pass it on to everyone you know.

Second: A Response
I've had quite a few people make comments to me recently that one of the reasons they don't think they'll vote for Ron Paul is that they think he will have no power to do anything even if he is elected next year.  Congress does make the decisions, but I think we can easily overcome this fear that Congress will stop him from getting anything done.  It all begins by taking a step back and viewing our political situation.  Our representatives often thrive on the fact that we as a people are apathetic towards our government and it's inner workings.  Our government, which was created to be 'of, by and for' the people, is no longer run by us, the people.

Voting in Ron Paul, a candidate who stands for those things held so dear in our constitution, if nothing else is a way of sending a defiant message to those currently in power.  It sends them a message that the time has come where we won't put up with their purposeful ignorance towards what we want as a people.  If you can believe this, and I don't think it should be a stretch, that should be all the reason in the world to vote for Ron Paul.

Finally: A Finale
I have pledged to donate $100 of my money on December 16th.  I hope that many of you will join me with a pledge of your own, even if you can only pledge $5, it is helpful.  Tell your friends, tell your family, and most importantly, stand behind something we haven't had for as long as I can remember: A Truly Good Choice.

 

- Andy

She Strikes Again!

Some of you may remember when I posted a video of a girl dancing to Daft Punk's 'Harder Better Faster Stronger'.  Well, that same girl has recently posted another video, this time to Justice - Phantom.  So, without further adieu...

 

Laughing Yoga?

I've been a bit sick over the past couple days, and though I'm recovering I have to admit it has had me feeling a bit down in the gutter.  By complete random chance, I came upon what really seems to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life.  I won't shy away from saying that it did the job of cheering me up though!

 

 

- Andy

What A Week...End...

So what started as a small idea for a side project between z|Casey and myself has turned into one heck of a plethora of changes.  I'll go straight into the breakdown.

The Zibings Network
This was meant to be the side project.  We were going to create a new site for the Zibings Network, one that allowed us to provide a good centralized location for registering with the network, logging into the network as well as getting general information about the network.

What happened instead, was the birth of a whole slew of upgrades to the network infrastructure.  While doing the upgrades (which include things such as friends lists and private messaging), I was faced with the necessity of having to change the way ZSF worked.  And that is why, the second part of this is...

The Zibings Site Framework
Yep!  And as with the ZibNet updates, this one started out small as well.  I just needed to add one capability to one section of the framework.  In adding that functionality though, I realized that just throwing the feature in its place wouldn't do much good in the end to help the framework grow.

After a few hours, I'd completely rewritten the framework, and we now have a few bug fixes thrown in as well as a new event system (that was the feature I needed).

 

Either way, its been a lot of programming, and this forces us to do some major updates to ZTC soon as well, so keep an eye out for that.  We're flying around like little bees as usual, this time just a few more fun things are on the way for you the user.

 

- Andy

RIP: Jake

On Thursday this week, a great friend of mine and my family died.  Jake was 9 years old and was battling cancer for a short while.  He was a great dog and we will always remember him.  May he rest in peace wherever it is that dog's go.  I guess that smoking habit of his finally got him.

 

- Andy

A Ron Paul Milestone

I thought I'd write something about this here.  First, the back-story...

Ron Paul's campaign posed a challenge to his supporters on Monday September 24th.  The challenge was to raise $500,000 for his campaign's 3rd quarter postings.  Within 2-3 days, they had raised the $500,000.  As a result, the challenge was changed, and we (the supporters) were told to try raising $1,000,000 by the 30th on midnight (the end of the 3rd quarter).

Needless to say, the group of people who keep 'spamming' the debate polls, have done their part in showing just how cunning they are.  Through almost 12,000 donations, by 10:31pm on Saturday September 29th, 2007, we had raised $1,000,000.  As of the writing of this post, there is still some more time left before the deadline arrives, and the total count for the fundraising is well over $1,025,000 and never stops rising.  To 'capture' history, I decided to take a screen shot right when my screen showed me we'd gone over the million mark:

 

- Andy

A Small Vacation

Well, I've been working quite a bit recently, and had somewhat taken a half-break the past 2 weeks or so.  To conclude this break, I will be leaving on a 4 day weekend trip up to see my father and my grandparents.  I'm looking forward to it (even though I'm leaving -after- work tonight at midnight) and hope it will give me a chance to both relax and sweat out some stress.  Keep thinking of those names and sending them to me!

 

- Andy

Car Work

It's been a while since I've posted anything about my baby doll, but this weekend I did a bit of work on it with Zac and Big Hoffman.  A lucky trip to a junkyard rendered some pristine condition parts for the Bimmer and a lot of happy moments ensued.  My sunroof is now fully functionaly (and better than it was when I received the car), the front bumper has been replaced/repaired from its stint with an unknown car, and the distributor cap/coil and spark plug wires have been replaced.

Needless to say, she's a happy Bimmer at the moment, and I'm a happy owner.  ;)

 

- Andy

Quite A Few Updates

Alright, so its been -quite- a long time since we've last spoken.  I won't apologize for it as the reason I've been so flaky with this blog is due to my excessive amounts of work towards adding features for little old you.

ZibTech Computers
A ton of work has gone into the ZTC web site, there's more details on that if you go to my news post.  What it comes down to, is that we've finally finished the inventory system and its in testing phases.  Once it leaves that, we'll be putting together things like our product listing and configuration.  Very exciting stuff!

Zibings Network
The Zibings Network updates really come in the form of two things.  First and foremost, we've sorted out a ton of bugs in the connection code and are now testing it on the ZTC site.  So far, its been running almost flawlessly, so we're happy.  Secondly, we've begun recoding ZibNetBot, which you all know and love.  He'll be redone in PHP and run as a Windows Service on our dedicated server, and from what we've done so far I can honestly say I'm looking forward to getting it done and seeing him in action.

Zibings Technologies
With the addition of someone to the Zibings Incorporated team, some new life has been breathed into Zibings Technologies, or as it was once named...Zibings.com Web Services.  I won't go into too much detail, as that would be giving away juicy secrets, but I will say that we're working on something useful for ourselves and for the company.  All of it is aimed at bringing something to life that should've been alive for years.

Epoch Gaming
Ahh, Epoch Gaming, my favorite little thing to forget about, how I do love thee!  For once, Epoch has taken a large step forward on a few fronts.  The web site has been resurrected and is being tweaked to work with the current version of ZSF.  Also, we're preparing to plug in the ZibNet connection code so that it works properly with the network.  Add onto that the fact that we've begun having development meetings for Forgotten War...for once I can gladly say that we haven't forgotten about good old Epoch.

Zibings Incorporated
We've recently added a new Director of Marketing.  Though his name is also Andrew, it is not the same person as me, which means the world to me.  He's already proving to be a very effective and motivated addition, so I think I speak for everyone when I say that his joining us is a welcome event.

 

That's about it for now.  I'm still out campaigning of sorts for Ron Paul, but its been hard to get much done with all the work being done on Zibings.  I'll make another entry when I can, and maybe someday I'll be caught up enough that I can fulfill my dream of blogging on a daily basis.  Until then...take it easy!

 

Andy

Ron Paul...Enough Said

Those of you who are close to me have probably noticed as of late that I've been becoming increasingly upset/disgruntled with our government and even to an extent my religion. All of the specifics aside, Zibings' new Director of Marketing (who is a Democrat) pointed me towards a seemingly little-known Republican candidate for the presidency in 2008. His name is Ron Paul, and I must say that this man has quickly and completely sealed my vote for the 2008 Presidential election. I respect people who are willing to put their neck on the line to stand up for what is right, and never before have I seen a politician do just that. I could go on and on about my respect for this man and the words he speaks, the ideas he has...but for now I've decided to let a video give you some excerpts of what it is he stands for. Oh how I'd love to be proud of my country again...





- Andy

Crazy Girl, You Take Me Around The World

Jon, Zibings' designer, sent me a link today to a video that I have yet to be able to stop watching.  I'm not sure who this girl is or where she lives, but she is mesmerizing and one of my idols now. Thank you mystery girl, for being so cool...if you ever want my number, just drop me an email. ;)

Into The Future

For those few of you who've been watching my blog, you'll no doubt have noticed a recent lack in posting.  I haven't disappeared or given up on my blog, quite to the contrary in fact.  I'm considering moving away from blogger in the near future, but for now I'll just be moving the blog to being a part of a greater site for myself.

The site will serve to outline a few of my personal interests as well as be a bit of a portfolio for myself and some of my friends.  I'll still have a blog, and for the time being at least it'll still be based with Blogger, but the eventual idea would be to move over to a new system based on my Zibings Network.  It'll be quite an undertaking, but therefore fun for me and hopefully fun for you.  I'll keep you updated when I start making progress with it!

- Andy

PS - For those of you waiting for my post about my vacation, I'll be waiting a bit longer to do it.  I want to see if I can shoot off an quick version of a new site with it in it as opposed to just making some kind of strange blog post with pictures riddled throughout it.  If it will take too long, I'll just post them on here, no worries!

PSS - I also intend on revisiting my PHP tutorial on STH soon, but have to finish a few other projects within the company before that's really possible.

Windows Live Writer

I've given in and downloaded Windows Live Writer (Beta 2) to test it out, see how it works with Blogger so on and so forth.  So far, I'm pleasantly surprised.  It took me a moment to figure out what the program wanted during installation, but once I'd gotten past that point it has seemingly changed itself for my blog.  If you're thinking of using a third party application to write to your blog (and it is a compatible blog), give Windows Live Writer a try, I know you'll like it.

Andy

Meebo Me!

For any who are interested, I've added my 'Meebo Me!' widget onto the bottom of the sidebar. If you see I'm online, feel free to send me a message. If you're curious about what Meebo is, its best to just let you go find out for yourself:

Meebo

Focus: Your Only Weapon

The "Day of Great Expectations" came, and it flew by. We are now finalizing paperwork on our warehouse and office, sending out employment flyers wherever we can, and doing all of the other things we've been planning endlessly since the bidding process began.

As easy as it is to hoop, holler, and jump for joy, one thing that everyone on the team has been amazing about doing is focusing. Within minutes of hearing the news, we were already into full speed ramp-up. The order is huge, and is no small undertaking to fulfill, so it isn't hard to think of the urgency a small company like ours has to use when working towards this type of goal.

It would have been easy to sit and think about the money, to think about the change in lifestyle, to think about any of the changes really. We could have all taken a day or two, and simply celebrated. Instead, we all got to work, and as a result I have every confidence that we will not only fulfill the order in the time span we were given, but we will more than likely beat our schedule by almost a week.

This brings me to the title of the post, "Focus: Your Only Weapon". As I've made clear, its easy to celebrate your victories, but you should never forget that a victory isn't complete until the entire war has been fought. When you hit a milestone with a project or with your business that is a huge victory, but only part of the puzzle in the long run, do everything in your power to focus your 'troops' on the tasks yet at hand. If you can do this, you will always come out of the war with a victory on all fronts.

Forget it, and you'll have fun for a while, but end up regretting it in the end. Reminds me of what my dad always used to say to me, "Work hard now, so you can play your ass off later." So true dad...

Time Apart

Its a scary title, but in reality is something that isn't even remotely scary. In recent months I've been constantly trying to find ways to help myself 'stay fresh' on my various programming projects. One of my biggest downfalls has always been overzealousness, meaning of course that when starting a project I put so much time and effort into it that I just can't bear working on it after a while and I fall behind schedule after dashing ahead.

I've slowly been developing a method of working on projects by taking advantage of the realization that when I don't allow myself to concentrate too much on a single project through the use of other smaller projects, I rarely burn out on any of the projects and have a much better chance at staying on schedule (and sometimes even beating my schedule). I've begun to call this the 'Time Apart' method, as you can guess from the title.

Each day I seem to find new ways to take this method a bit further. I've started using a time tracker on my computer to track how much time I'm spending on each of my projects. This in conjunction with Base Camp (which my good friend Cassie introduced me to) are helping me keep my project-schedule a little bit more organized. It works for me, and who knows it might even work for you. ;)

- Andy

Free Hugs?

I've been continuing on my personal mission to constantly broaden my horizons through reading and discovery, and today was perusing through random blogs on blogger (you can do the same using the 'Next Blog' link at the very top of my page). I came across a mostly quiet and short-spoken blog from a girl in Texas, but for some reason decided to look at it. There was a picture of a dog lying across two seperate parts of a lounge chair or couch of some kind, it just amused me for some reason.

After studying the picture for a little while, I scrolled down through the page and saw a post about something called 'Free Hugs'. I started the YouTube video and was soon smiling. I haven't had a particularly rough day, but it was nice to see something this heart warming. You can view the official site for what turned into a whole movement at www.freehugscampaign.org. Here's the video that I saw (which apparently won one of the YouTube Video of the Year awards!):

Motivation From Within

In the past few weeks I've had more than one person ask me how I "do it", meaning of course how I keep my attitude up and my energy up farther day in and day out. As to why they asked me, I may never know, but its not my turn to ask a question at this point. Instead, I've opted to put it down here so that I have a record of my ramblings to refer to should I ever be asked the question again. The easiest way to answer the question is to say that I get it all "From Within". Its rather vague on the surface, but here's the best I can do to explain...

When I say I pull my energy and what not "from within", I am literally revealing the entire process through which I find the limitless amounts of energy I appear to have on a daily basis. There's nothing special about it, I just notice myself getting angry or depressed and stop for a moment. I tell myself that I'm better than this, and that as a result I can do better than I'm doing.

From that point on its just a simple tug of war between my feeling of motivation to "do better" and whatever emotion it is I'm battling with at the moment. I don't know if this is unique, I don't know if its the most effective method either, but it works for me, which is the real point isn't it?

I apologize to anyone that might find this post to be very short, but then again I never did promise that it was an extraordinary thing which I did to motivate myself. Just remember though, the only reason this works for me, is because I found out that it works for me. I have no idea if it would work for anyone else, so this is not an advice column. Figure it out for yourself, and if this helps you in anyway, I'm glad.

- Andy