Last year, I committed to launching 4 new projects by the end of the year. I did succeed in that goal for the most part – I launched 4 new projects, including the Countism mobile app that has gotten some very good reviews so far. In the end though, I didn’t really feel that successful, and only felt like I had one really solid project. Continue reading
Selling My Passive Income Stream: JSCompress.com
I recently sold JSCompress.com – a website that I created, and have owned and operated since 2008. Over the years, it has gained a lot of traction and popularity, and is heavily trafficked – the most heavily and consistently trafficked website I have ever owned (about 3,500 uniques per weekday). It was a really tough decision selling the website, but in the end – it was the right time to do it.
Return Field Errors in Your JSON Error Response
While developing the new Job board for Techlahoma (soon to launch), I decided to customize the JSON error response to include a field_errors key with a dictionary of the field names submitted, and the error message that maps to that field. This allows me to more easily create in-context error validation feedback for users without having to implement additional client-side validation. A huge win for productivity, and a really nice feature for anyone implementing the JSON API. Continue reading
Don’t Transpile JavaScript for Node.js
Transpiling JavaScript on the client is pretty much required for wide browser support, but transpiling JavaScript when running it server-side with Node.js is entirely optional, and I strongly recommend against doing it. Continue reading
Disabled Comments
After switching back to WordPress from a static blog that did not have any comments, I left comments on out of curiosity to see what would happen. Sure enough, within a few days, I already had over 20 spam comments to moderate. I just switched comments back off, and don’t plan on turning them on anytime soon. They are too much of a hassle a police. There are lots of ways to contact me if you need help or clarification on any of my posts.
Switching from Middleman Back to WordPress
After a little over 2 years on Middleman, I decided to move my blog back to WordPress. Middleman – and static blogs in general – are a good idea in general (especially for security and performance), but I found it more difficult to write and contribute to my own blog on a regular, ongoing basis. This was especially noticeable after I started working for NetSuite instead of contracting, because I was no longer doing all of my work on my own personal laptop everyday. Continue reading
Countism
Countism is a mobile app idea that I have been working on and thinking about for a long time. Even though I have been thinking of the idea for a while and even did some initial work, I did not plan to actually build and release the app – that was always a question that was up in air. My initial work was really just experimental to see if it was something I could build easily enough to make it worth the effort, and to see if my idea would be viable in app form.
DevData: The Data You Need in the Language You Want
Around two months ago, I launched a new website called DevData. It is a website that I wished has existed for many years, and finally just built and launched it myself.
Year of Making Stuff
Well, the rest of the year, anyways. Better late than never, right?
Inspired by Justin Jackson and his Build and Launch podcast, I have decided to commit to launching at least 4 new projects this year. It’s not nearly the quickening pace of Justin’s one product per week on his podcast, but I figure it’s a good starting point. Continue reading
SoundingBoard
I just re-launched SoundingBoard as a new blog to help non-technical people learn how to evaluate their app ideas.
During my time running Brightbit (a web development studio), I met with a lot of people about their app ideas. Some were bad and crazy, but most of the ideas I heard were good ideas that just lacked the critical thinking steps necessary to determine basic viability or technical feasibility. Continue reading