web projects
To get started, here's a list of more-or-less active web projects. Nothing here is at risk of being bought by Google, but they certainly keep me amused.
http://aisforacidmonkey.com
Sometimes a picture is so awesome, it deserves its own domain. It's useful to have a throwaway site to mess with SEO and the like. The good news is, we're
now above the Google fold for "acid monkey", and up to page two for "monkey on acid" (oh, but if you only knew how low it was). Count this one a victory.
http://burratr.com
One of the greatest things about working in the Bay Area is the sheer amount of quality Mexican food. On the other hand, it's also a curse — you're
never quite sure exactly which hole-in-the-wall taqueria you should go to for optimal grub. Enter Burratr; description will not do it justice. This is a
community project, for people who are trying to learn the whole PHP + AJAX kind of thing, so be forgiving; and for once, I'm some kind of mentor.
http://cumbiesbeta.org
My extended family is large enough to need its own domain. Being the computer guy in the group, I was drafted to design some sort of photo-sharing site.
While this didn't work out in the long run, it has provided some interesting insight into database design and the like — this was the first project
I'd ever embarked upon after learning from some of the DBAs at work. There's a cool standalone Java app to upload pictures, since the servers (1&1) are
too slow to permit large file uploads via PHP, Perl, or whatever. It's a reasonable site, but sometimes technology loses to personal politics.
http://orientation.stanford.edu
I haven't touched the site in years, but the design is mine (given that it's been half a decade, you would think they might want to freshen up). Credit me with
the good, credit them with mismatched colors and bad copy; yes, I am that pompous.
http://opensourcebar.org
At one point the proud owner of the only student-run bar on campus, it seemed fitting to auction off the related bar-aphenalia in a truly outstanding
fashion. Call this one an experiment with horizontal design, and a lesson as to why it just doesn't work all that well. AJAX and picture scrolling at its
finest, if I do say so myself. -2 points for bad layout, though.
http://routeslipper.org
If any, this is the site which is closest to my heart. Being big into cycling, and big into not hanging around the same part of the country for too long,
I've often found myself at a loss for good biking routes. Routeslipper solves that problem fairly elegantly, but unfortunately is just a little bit
too
Web2.0 to succeed (asking users to manually mark relevant cycling intersections and trace roads via Google Maps). I like to think it stands a fighting chance,
since it's definitely a nifty little tool, but the layout is back from my days of noncompliance (we've all been there), and quite frankly there are other sites
which make it much easier to upload your routes, even if they provide less utility to the end-user.
http://xbln.us
It's a situation any seasoned gamer is familiar with: you want to go multiplayer on Xbox LIVE, but no one's online. Xbox allows you to send invites to
people who aren't online, but it provides no way for the player to receive the invite if they're not spamming their message inbox at
live.xbox.com. Fortunately, it's a pretty simple problem to solve: store
your Xbox LIVE login credentials, then spider the message inbox every once in awhile. If there's a new game invite, pass it along. I'm still trying to
figure out how to get people to trust me with their login info, though; social engineering can be tough.
software projects
Occasionally — but not too often — I embark on actual software projects. Although I'm much more comfortable with a web-based development cycle
(especially rapid deployment and bug fixing), actual client applications are still better at quite a lot of things that I am (academically) interested in.
http://gemident.com
GemIdent is not my idea, but I put many loving nights into its codebase. The purpose of GemIdent is cancer cell identification, and it classifies fairly well.
Although the project has since been open-sourced, its root was funded by the Stanford Medical School.