Hometown Throwdown

I made this Facebook App in April 2008.



Facebook only allows One hometown in user's profile. With Hometown Throwdown you not only get to save multiple hometowns, you get to select a rap star name and "throwdown" a story (or rap) about the place, choosing its display colors. You can Judge your friends' throwdowns, from 1 (knit cap) to 5 (bomb diggity). Plus, you can view all throwdowns per a Town or per a MC.

Features

Facebook user data, Ajax, Jscript Color Selector, Rap Star Name Generator, Notifications of 'Being Served,' News Stories of Votes Given and Received.

Platforms

Facebook

Hipster Approval

I made this Widget in May 2008.

Description

Show that you care what hipsters think--and that they DO approve of you (or your page). At install, user must take a short quiz to gain approval. In Facebook, user's music favorites are 'analyzed' and receive comment. Upon passing, user gets a Google Map listing dive bars in her area.

Features

Google Maps; Facebook user data: regional network, music; RSS feeds from Cool Tool and Pitchfork; Quiz, Javascript validation, FB News Feed.

Platforms

Facebook
Google Gadgets

Eeyore or Tigger?

I made this widget to honor "Last Lecture" Professor Randy Pausch. In his speech, he said each of us must decide whether we are an Eeyore or a Tigger. It's the second Facebook Application I produced and the most popular.

The stats have been constant since Dr. Pausch passed away: 67% say Tigger; 22%, Eeyore; 10+% undecided.

Which are you?

The SmartSeller

The SmartSeller is a shopping cart program developed by Neil McCorrison and me in 2000. I handled the UI and requirements; Neil did the code, in Mivascript, which was then a viable programming language. We based the 'cart' on the then market leader, Miva Market.



Our program was superior in several ways: it was web-based, it allowed for more categorization of products, it offered several ways to calculate shipping costs.... and there was continual work on the program into 2004. I was successful in leading Neil to implement several changes so that the program could provide for a businesses' web site (with domain support), and that it could be used by a "no-tech" businessperson as well as a web developer.


In 2001, I found a way to forward shopping cart orders to fax machines (using Ureach.com). I then made a revised version of The SmartSeller for restaurants, because I'd heard from many of them that they do not have a computer near the kitchen but do take fax orders. I was able to sign up a few restaurants, and tried to leverage that to create a Food Ordering site as part of a portal for Charleston, South Carolina. (inCharleston.net)


I am proud to have been an early integrator with Paypal.com; to have helped many small businesses get going online with a stable system; and to have worked with Neil, who is an outstanding developer and one of the good guys.

You can see the marketing web site for The SmartSeller via The Way Back Machine. (due to a problem at my old host, the web site was lost. If you would like the code for TSS, send me a note).

See also: inCharleston.net via The Way Back Machine

Wazitat Means Where is it At, yo!

Wazitat is a web service I made to help people organize and to share their stuff. I came up with the idea in August 2007 when I moved from Hoboken to Manhattan, but was leaving some things in the basement. I realized I also had things at other locations throughout the many states.


And a hurricane hit the Gulf again, reminding me of the importance to know where your things are at, to re-allocate and share resources, and to reconcile with insurance agents.

LINKS
Wazitat Web Site
Wazitat Flash Demo

The general structure of Wazitat is:
Things belong to a space, spaces belong to a room, rooms belong to a place.

Wazitat was always meant to be a social application, perhaps even a parody of a network. I.E. "Gary declared you have his blue sweater. Click to confirm or deny."
"Your son, Matt, said that you have an attic and that it contains his yearbook. Click to confirm that you have an attic...."


But as I finished the first release, I realized how much more powerful Wazitat could be if tied into a network such as Facebook. FB offers a terrific API which provides for photos, notes, and connections, and events and a marketplace. Ideally, you could search your network to borrow an item, and to arrange for a move.

I began a FB version of Wazitat but did not finish due to lack of resources and incentive. It was mid August 2008, and I was pounding away at code each day... I asked myself: am I prepared to be responsibile for the movement of goods throughout the country? I let the domains expire and have shelved the project...but I might make a FB app that handles one of the specific functions such as "Arrange a Move."


Developing Wazitat was a great way to learn Jquery, and Facebook's platform. It also forced me to grapple with philosophical issues such as: Do things derive meaning from how they are used, or is meaning a condition for action? I also had to mediate upon and work through a strategy for the integration of virtual and real worlds. I'm sure that my findings and practice will be helpful to me.

Technology: PHP, Mysql, Jquery / Javascript / Prototype