Russellsphere

I am working on a project that cycles images on the home page of a website; and jQuery has a great plugin for this called.. jQuery cycle; easy to implement and Lotus Domino works with it just fine.

I came into work this morning and was greeted with the following screen; not good :-) PARTY TIME

I tend to get overzealous when it comes to my gadgets and my Palm Pre is no exception. Palm are going through some rough times; mainly due to some cheap components in their hardware; and poor marketing. Its a shame; they are not doing so well in sales; mainly because the O.S. destroys everything that it contends with.

I went through 6 months of intense testing of phones (ask my peers; they know) – and once I found webOS – everything changed; its slick and cool – and very, very, very good at multitasking. Has great 3-D games; and is a joy to program for; thanks to its easy mojo based development kit. webOS has a great future I believe; and for that reason; I proposed a story in the big tech new site; Engadget; and they accepted it! (I didn’t write it; I just suggested the idea) How cool is that; I am famous, for 1 second.

You dont often think fondly of ‘Work Orientation’ – usually it is an array of information that is too much to contemplate anyway; as usually you are so nervous in the first place – it doesn’t matter. I was VERY fortunate to go through orientation twice.. in the space of six months. This is due to me being a contractor first; then flipping over to full time.

The second orientation was the same; however there was something new; that was actually quite interesting. This was the science behind – Paradigm Shifts; or the ability to shift your perception and look outside of the box. Naturally I am at such a high level amongst normal humans; that this comes as a normal practice for me; but I hadn’t seen it as clearly defined like it was in a class-room environment; and I enjoyed it a great deal.

I experienced a Paradigm Shift today; lights flared outside; and sparks of energy twisted around the office; as this revelation occured. There was an issue with a user publishing documents; and they wouldn’t get updated on the website; so the first thing one would do is ‘investigate the user’. I did everything; checked his rights; checked the journey between the beginning to the end; failure points – everything looked good; I couldn’t come up with a technical reason why it was happening (& why it wasn’t happening for anyone else?)

It then suddenly occured to me; this Paradigm Shift; that it was something else; something else entirely. It was the way the content person was creating the documents; and the way those documents were being looked up. It required a different line of thinking; but once the problem was found; the solution or patch fix was instantly applied. The funny thing was; there was nothing inherintly wrong with the way the documents were being created; it just hadn’t been done like that; so it required that thinking out of the box – to match the creators thinking out of the box!

I have spoken.

I have a side business called NEL Development (Nicholas Emily Lauren) ;-) – and it has some good business; I have fun with it. Well I came up with a FAQ database; so it gives my customers a fall-back information repository; just in case they switch to someone else (hopefully not..) – its just good practice. Well I used a simple WordPress template to deliver the information; its working out really well; and easy too. I’ll definitely put it in place for all my clients.

I am fortunate enough to work for a caring; kind; magnificent; stand-up Director who puts up with my strange ways; and is very open to our team developing new and interesting technologies. Well it just so happens; I have the best smartphone on the planet; we all know this – but won’t admit it; but it is. So why not develop an application that can tie in to the content of my companies web site.

A lower developer in the department.. developed the iPhone app; a skilled professional beat me to the punch for the Android app – but finally the day dawned when I released the Palm Pre app which I skillfully crafted. Of course; most of the code; was supplied to me; taking bits from here and there. I will never be a programmer; but a Developer? yes – I’m a good one; and Im very proud of the first Palm Pre app for a Medicare Contractor; EVER. Time for a raise me thinks; yes; time for a raise..

2-4 inches of snow ?! – Its possible; here in South Carolina; didn’t move down here for this – oh well – we’ll manage :-)

We went live with a Twitter thing at work; and Fran designed a cute little bird; well Jenny and I thought it would look better blinking. Here he is blinking! – how cute; I’ve called him Twit – the Tweeting Bird. Refresh the entire page; to make him blink again.

Now Id like to have him explode if people who are taking our surveys give us poor results.

I’ve been working on a really hard project at work. I’ve finally finished phase one of it; the next phases should be easier because I’ve already done the hard stuff in this one. We’ve thrown a lot into it. Its graphically pleasing; and has a number of other features:

* Scriptaculous Moving/Fade FX
* Prototype Mathematics
* A billion and one comparison operators
* Dedicate Print Style sheet with flip capability…
* Its really cool

Its been a long journey; but Im proud.