Idea - Modular Powered Gadgets

This is one of my more recent ideas that I came up with. I was tired of events where I had to rely on battery powered gadgets, just to find out that there was no power, and no more batteries in the junk drawer, so I thought of a modular system that would allow me to see the battery level, as well as be compatible with new battery technologies in the future.
Upon also realizing the harsh reality of my ongoing economic state, I have decided to share this one with no attempts at trying to claim dibs on the idea. So here is a decent idea for any techno gurus out there with the capital to make it happen :)

The system is meant to be packaged as a pack of three battery packs, a charger, and one module of the users choice. The modules could be almost anything really, a video camera, flashlight, fan, microphone with recorder, USB charger, and many more possible modules could also be used. I just left a couple here to give the idea out.

I don't think it was a "ground breaking" idea, but it was decent enough to sketch it out at the time :) Enjoy!

Read More

I'm not dead, just been busy

I have been working full time as a Graphic Designer/Animator/Video Producer/Web Programmer/etc. for a little over a year now, and I have not been able to share much of what I have been working on. Well, recently I have been given a little more creative freedom to work on some Web/Programming stuff, so I thought I would take some time out to share a snippit with you all :)

Speed Demon - eBay Store Template
This is a single eBay template, that carries some of the theme and branding from the main website over to eBay. Single .html file with all styling and Javascript done in line.

Speed Demon - Website
This is a responsive single page website, using html5 and css3, so it will change format to fit screen size and orientation dynamically. It is broken down to sections and mostly all information and links are optimized for search engines.

Stay tuned for some more stuff. I have a few CSS3 and HTML5 tricks up my sleeve that I can't wait to share with you all soon. 

Read More

Dreams of life on the other side...

I have been working part time as a Graphic Designer / IT guy and going to school full time for Application Development. Life has been a bit busy for a while now, and this being the last full two weeks of classes, it is also a tiny bit stressful. On the upside, I am working a job that gives me full creative freedom within reason, and I get to use one heck of a military grade computer while doing so. I do plan on showing some of my work there as soon as it is released, so you are just going to have to be patient a little longer.

I have also been donating my artistic and technical talents still at Frontline Community in Grand Rapids, and things there are also smooth sailing, in fact, this is the first church I have found that doesn't make an overly bureaucratic mess out of suggestions towards artistic direction and visualizing the message. Nice place, you should visit sometime ;) Anyways, I have a few pieces here that I can show from past / current series and a couple proposals for future series... (Will be adding more soon)



After this semester of school is over, my Wife and I plan on doing a role switching exercise, and she is going to be putting work on hold while I will be working full time for Rev-X Products and starting my own personal projects in app development. This will not be easy, since I have pretty much played the role of a stay/work at home Dad for almost three years, but I have all the faith in the world that this will work out for the best for all people involved, and this is where dreaming of life on the other side comes to play. What if this actually works, what if this can actually help us afford to spend time with each other more as a family.

Read More

Note to future self,

Treat this as a dream for now, but develop it further based on the way the brain processes and stores impulses. As time moves on, the technology needed will be built.

I got an interesting idea for a processor today that focuses on using memristors instead of your general CPU, memory, L1,L2, & L3 cache. The system acts more like the neurons in our brains, when new data needs to be buffered and stored for quick retrieval, it assigns a group of memristors to handle that function, but instead of using just enough to store the information, each group is assigned the task of storing and possessing multiple copies of itself, so that when a task is needed, it is also treated and a threaded process for nCores available per millisecond. Currently our computers need more memory to save more system device IO information whether or not it is using it, and then when any of that info is needed, it has to speed up to the speed of the processor in order to be used. Doing this with memristors will save time and energy that is currently used in making a process speed up or slow down as it moves from the various caches to memory or storage. We make up for the lack of speed with the process being sent and received from nCores available because each memristor can act as a processor or memory, we can fire one signal off in many directions, and always receive that process in a timely manner.

As I learn more about the electrical engineering involved with the process, I will be further developing this idea to hopefully also include an OS with application, device, and utility runtime services too that each use this way of storing and processing information in hopes of having an OS that is capable of running any OS's applications as a native app and crunching redonkulous amounts of data more efficiently.

Read More

Finished Another Site: OneCraneSource

December was quite a month, besides the obvious holiday celebration and preparations, I was also helping out my churches Arts Team and creating a Christmas set to remember. I also was able to finish up a clients website and also optimize the site for best search results, which all worked out beautifully ;)

The client was Star Crane, located in Allendale MI. And this job was a two part deal, first, fix their current mail forms that they had on their site, and second, build them a new site that will help them move into the year 2013, and also be flexible and secure, as well as help promote a better search result.

This site took me about 50 hours to complete from start to finish, and with three designs and four revisions, along with a mobile version to boot, that's not too bad. With that said though, this brings me to a place I'm all too familiar with, looking for more work ;) You can check out some of the screenshots of the design below, or you can head out to http://www.onecranesource.com and check it out for yourself.

Read More

Idea - GPS Enabled Gun Safety Lock

So I haven't posted any of my thoughts on the recent shooting at Sandy Hook or any of my thoughts on Gun Control as of yet. Mostly because I am tired of seeing rows and rows of posts on Facebook that only make a statement or complaint, no real proposed solutions that weren't going completely over the left wall or the right wall. It even looks as though people are afraid the Government will try to use this to take away our weapons. So I set out on a thought experiment that would allow us our rights to bear arms, while allowing us the ability to track and disable weapons if a situation arises, so this is one of the solutions I came up with, GPS enabled electronic safety lock for guns.



In this experiment, we were given a good period of time to replace most weapons on the market with ones that included an electronic safety lock. The way this works is by pushing the button, and waiting till it turns red, then you can shoot.

The Logic:
When the button is pressed, the unit sends a unique identifier and GPS coordinates through GPRS, and awaits a simple confirm or deny message. this can happen as quickly as it takes to check the time on your cellphone, so 1-2 seconds.

In some locations, the weapon would be automatically given a denied response if your weapons identifier is not authorized for that area, like Government buildings, schools, malls, etc. Other places would be given an automatic confirmation, like rural areas during hunting season, or shooting ranges, etc. The point is to allow as much freedom with your weapons as possible, but allow the ability to provide a kill-switch if needed.

Read More

How-To - Using Joomla to build mobile Web Apps.

This rough How-To will go through using Joomla to build a simple mobile Web App.

You will need a few things first:

• Joomla 2.5 or 3.0+ - http://www.joomla.org/
• Add2home plugin for Joomla - http://download.waltercedric.com/downloads/joomla/917-apple.html
• A good responsive template. I used the YooTheme Warp Framework with the Yoo_master template for this one - http://www.yootheme.com/themes/warp-framework
• The MobileJoomla framework or one like it, this one is free at least and only used in this case to load a different template on Mobile devices. - http://www.mobilejoomla.com/

Start off by reading the setup instructs for the YooTheme Warp framework, and set up your pages accordingly. I will sometimes make it so the content of the page doesn't go down too far on the first screen, this will give the users an overall good first impression on a mobile device. Once that is complete, we will set it as the default template. With this design, it automatically detects screen size, but if your client wants a different design for Desktop users, then you can use the MobileJoomla plugin and component to assign a different template to mobile devices. 

Next we will have to download the Add2Home plugin, but don't install it right away. Once you download it, navigate to your download directory and extract the file into a folder. then navigate into the plugin folder, and change the photos there (Unless you absolutely love the ones the developer uses)

Once we are done editing and replacing the graphics, we will then re-archive the files back into a .zip and then we will add the Add2Home plugin to your Joomla extensions. Once it is installed, Just make sure you enable it.

Then it's time to start testing it out and making sure all the content is in the right places. Have fun with it and make it yours :)

Till next time!!

Read More

Projects - Star Crane Mobile site design

Did some more work on the mobile app for Star Crane today. I was able to get it to finally show the Add to Home Screen pop up for mobile phones and tablets, and I also added a custom Icon and Start Screen for the web app too.

I wasn't happy with the menu design I was using to start with on this, so I decided to use the native UI controls so that it will appear smoothly on all mobile devices. I have some messing around to do in order to get the slides how's to show up right on the mobile side as well, but the good part of making the entire mobile app just a themed wrapper for the website makes upkeep on the app almost completely automated.

I like the direction this is moving, so I think I will keep it like this unless the client doesn't like it, then I may be able to change what they need, but for usability across the board, this is the way I feel it best presents it's self.

 

 

Read More

On to other things - new site design

So I have been working on a new project recently, and this one was a two part project. The first part was making sure that their current site has a working contact form. and the second part is redesigning a new look and feel on top of a Joomla site, so that they can expand in the future with components like an online storefront, or deeply integrate a social marketing campaign into their website.

I took a peek at their current site, and found out that the issues were with the current request mail form, which mind you is written in .PHP, which I kinda hate. I was able to fix the issue though, and got it working perfectly. I know its working perfectly, because the client is now getting SPAMBOT requests :) Too Funny!! But I have them covered already, because the first thing I implemented into the new request form on their new site was a ReCaptcha security method. This should stop the spam from coming through.

I then took my time and started working on a nice responsive theme, but wanted to keep it looking like it was more for their Corporate Office vs a large crane shop. I remade their logo based on some of the feedback they gave me and then used the main colors of their logo and equipment for the highlights of the site. I also used a simple menu system that will adjust to smaller mobile screens and provide a mobile dropdown menu in those cases. Overall, the site is pretty solid so far, with no real issues other than having to rebuild Apache with multibyte strings enabled.

My next stage of this process is to dismantle the site and modules I have now, and rebuild it with a darker, more progressive theme, and after that, another lighter theme, so once they choose from one of those, I will put it all back together with the look and feel of their choice, and then it goes live. I gave the client a timeframe of two months for the project, but the pace I am working, it may only take me three to four weeks, so that's a good thing ;)

Till next time, enjoy your adventures!

Read More

Forced downtime... again

I have been busy lately, so please forgive me for the lack of posts recently. For starters, I have almost no work on the table, three projects in limbo, just waiting for a green light, and a tiny trickle of gas and cigarette money coming from one web client. So I have a bit of downtime. This doesn't mean that I haven't been bust cold calling businesses or answering requests for websites and graphics work off the web though, I keep myself pretty busy, just in things that don't generate immediate income.

I started taking out some time to make some animated backgrounds for my Church's projectors during the songs. Some... less psychedelic ones perhaps ;) Here is a playlist of a good portion of the animations. I am willing to donate high resolution animations for any religious organization that may want it, otherwise, I think I will ask for a donation.



I also got a little flame under my butt on music too, trying to make a couple new songs and a couple remixes of things I hear here and there. Here is a little taste of one song I'm working on recently:


As usual, I'm always up to something, so keep posted for updates on what I'm up to next.

Thanks ;)

Read More

APPS: The Adventures of making a showcase app for Windows 8 UI

Yesterday, I woke up knowing I would do something I have never done before, but not quite knowing what it might be. I started off the day, took the kids to school, and came home and cleaned up a little with Willow (More like, I cleaned, and she played the defensive linebacker role), so after she fell asleep, I climbed onto the computer and made up a quick and dirty mobile app for my church: Frontline Community It's still not done, but I at least got the basics in there, and can do a little of styling in Visual Studio now. 

Then I decided to take it a step further, and see what I can do to make a Windows 8 app. I put the basics into Joshfire Factory, and deployed it as a Visual Studio project. Opened it and instantly found that it didn't work. That's fine, I thought, I love a good challenge, so I was off looking to see if I can figure out why it didn't work. I found that much of the issues with the project were because it was using the old version of WinJS. I corrected every line that pointed to the old WinJS, and updated them to point to the location of the new version. I rebuilt and then clicked Run. 

Almost... There were a couple of issues still, like when viewing a section or page, and going back, you get the same content loaded behind the items on each section. Well that sux! 

So I dug a little deeper, and found out that it was not checking to see if the content was already loaded when it went back to the home screen, since I'm still a novice at this, I felt a simple CLEAR statement on load will do (I'm not too sure how to do a conditional statement just yet). That did the trick :)

Now all I have to do for it is fix the picture container when it loads the pictures from their sources, and also fix the YouTube stream from trying to use an ActiveX component... (Not even available, cant see why it defaults to it) and I'll be all set. At least I got somewhere in my ventures though, even though it is not 100% working, it is better than anything I've done with the OS thus far. (Minus a couple found registry tweaks :0)

Read More