Archive for the ‘Side projects’ Category

Posted on October 24, 2009 - by J Lane

HelpMeApp

Keeping with the tradition of writing about my ideas well in advance of them being ready for primetime, my next side project is going to be HelpMeApp.

One of the biggest problems I’ve run into with managing Mailmangr support is keeping a handle on the bug reports, feature requests and inquiries that come in.  I’ve got them scattered between a todo list in Basecamp, my inbox, and an online ticketing system.  I know that there are a million help desk/bug tracker apps out there, but I have yet to find one that’s really easy and great to use from both sides.  I’m currently using Zendesk, but I’m really not nuts about it (it’s just the best I’ve found so far).  I’m going to build HelpMeApp to be exactly what I want it to be, and then if other people are interested in using it, cool.  If not, at least I’ll stop dropping the ball on Mailmanagr requests!

I want something that’s equally easy for people to submit requests to, as for employees that have to respond to and manage those requests.  I had considered building HelpMeApp as another Basecamp/Highrise API project, on the back-end to manage all of the data; but I think there might be too many constraints with that idea.  You need to be able to merge requests, for example, and there’s no easy way to merge messages in Basecamp — so I don’t think the model will work.  There will likely be pretty deep integration though, just because that’s the way I roll (being able to add requesters to Highrise, and keep a history of their requests for example).

I’ve got a couple of other ideas to kick things up a notch or two.  I’ve actually managed to roll a couple of ideas that I’ve had in the past into HelpMeApp, and I think they’re pretty complimentary.  I’m pretty excited about where it’s going.

The bug/feature request list on Mailmanagr is starting to decrease in length now, so I think the time is right.  Any thoughts out there, or “must have” features?  I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I’d like it to look like, but if you’ve got a “it would be really neat if”, I’m all ears.

I’m probably going to do a big of a “live blogging” of the progress, although it could be slow at times.  There’ll at least be the occasional update over at Industry Interactive about how things are going.

Posted on June 17, 2009 - by J Lane

Discovergulfislands.com

I’m going to try something new.

Flyingtroll.com is charming in that it’s a complete mix of every random thing I feel like writing about, but there’s really no central theme to it.  I’ve been interested in working on a group blog for a while where I’m challenged to stay on topic and write about something of substance.  Enter DiscoverGulfIslands.com (hat tip to DiscoverSooke.com for the URL inspiration).

There’s a lot of great things about living on Mayne Island, and I’d like to group some of them together.  You won’t find posts about how Reilly and Parker are growing like weeds over there, but you might find posts about us hiking Mt. Parke, and how that’s a great activity.  You’ll definitely find posts about my weekly kayaking excursions (from now on) over there.  This week, we paddled Active Pass and it was a mind-blowing experience.

I’ll be honest, the eventual goal is that I’d like to sell some advertising on discovergulfislands.com, and see if I can do a little side work professionally blogging (but I’m not even going to consider that until there’s a good body of content in place, and we’re seeing some traffic).  Even if it doesn’t get to that point, it’ll be interesting to see just what I can make happen.

The first order of business is that I’d love to recruit some of the other islands.  Mayne isn’t the only island, and I’d love to see the occasional post from somebody from Pender, Galiano, Saturna and Saltspring (drop me a line if you’re interested).  As I alluded to before, there may be some revenue opportunities in the future, but there’s nothing immediate on the horizon (in other words, if/when there are ads, you’ll get a cut).

Posted on May 29, 2009 - by J Lane

Canadian ocean currents

I started working on an Excel sheet at work today (work in this case being Blue Vista) that automatically calculated current times for Mayne Island. It’s essential information for sea kayaking.

I can’t for the life of me figure out why this information isn’t available online. I’ve searched high and low for it, but can’t find so much as a PDF. Tide tables are available, but not currents.

I’d love to write an app to automatically pull the data, do the time conversions, and possibly even put it on a map. I’m even considering scanning and OCRing the printed book….