sketch of home page

Unfortunately, I had to push the deadline again for the appetizer release because, well, I’ve got tons to do yet and little time to do it. Go figure. So trick or treat, my new target launch date for this thing is Halloween, who who ha ha ha! I added a couple countdowns on the side bar here, check em out. I sincerely hope the top number (appetizer) never gets bigger than the bottom number (birthday) as I really want to release something before I hit my midlife crisis (although I think I’m already there).

To meet this deadline, I have spent the last couple weekends doing nothing but coding, debugging, cursing, researching, and occasionally sleeping/eating. I put in 11 hour days last weekend and rarely left the computer’s side. There are still lots of coding hours ahead but I’m making good headway and getting this new framework figured out, slowly but surely. Most of my shared components are put together, so the groundwork is pretty much complete. All that remains is actually building the individual pieces.

So “the programmer” (aka me) is plugging away on the behind the scenes stuff and the other part of the equation, “the designer”, should be starting any day now. We are still in contract stages but these should be signed this week and I’ll have him on board stat :). He is a super talented designer and I’m excited to have him on the team. In addition to the images on the site, he will be taking care of the overall site design and blog skin as well. I’ll give him my sketches of the basic components and let him take it from there. I’m sure he’ll do a much better job laying them out than I, and that’s why I’ve decided to leverage his skills on the entire site. This will also save me a lot of time and free me up to focus on the programming and business aspects.

Man I’m getting excited about this. I can’t wait until all the pieces come together and I’m able to share the mystery application with you guys. But I’ve got lots to do in the next 28 days to make this a reality. And a lot more actors to work with: the lawyer, the writer, the host, the trademarker, the shopkeeper, the mystery team (under wraps for now), the accountant (possibly), and so on.

With so many specialists, I feel like I’m pulling off some sort of a heist! Whatever that feels like?

Why must hotmail suck??? I’ve spent the last few hours trying to get them to accept emails from my application and am on the verge of mental breakdown! Sometimes it lets them through and other times it rejects them without any explanation. I can’t seem to find anything that resembles rational behavior what so ever. Seems to me they are using some sort of robot/algorithm on crack that scan’s subject/message/sender for god knows what and then just randomly selects who can pass. Gmail and Yahoo don’t seem to have a problem, so why you gotta be like this Hotmail? Is it because you suck? Is that why?

At this rate I may just have to deny Hotmail users all together and possibly even call them names while I’m at it. Just kidding, of course, but if you do use Hotmail, make the switch to Gmail or Yahoo today! Hotmail is slow, convoluted, ancient, and utter crap in my book. Take it from me, an ex-hotmail user, it sucks. These days I only use mine as a spam trap and even then I run into problems as some apps don’t accept Hotmail addresses when registering. Hmmm…wonder why? Switch to Gmail and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. The sun will shine brighter, food will taste better, music will sound better, people will respect you more, it’s quite nice!

Plus, you’ll be able to use my appetizer worry free. If only everybody would make the switch right now, that would sure save me some time. But, as usual, the selfish world just won’t revolve around me, so I guess I’ll have to find a workaround.

Ug!

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE ZACK A DULL BOY! ALL WORK AND NO

Let’s just say it’s been a very stressful weekend. Programming this sucker is not going quite as smoothly as I had hoped. Right now, my computer is extremely lucky to be alive! Unfortunately, my brain isn’t so fortunate. In fact, that’s all I can muster tonight.

To be continued…

(Someone sent me the above animation. If you are/know the artist, please let me know and I will credit you/them or remove it. I also blatantly stole from the movie: “The Shining”. What can I say, I am no longer capable of original thought right now.)

After researching the million different PHP frameworks that are available now, I’ve decided to use CakePHP for my app. This seems to be a relatively simple and powerful framework (similar to Ruby on Rails) that will help me write clean, manageable, and reusable code fairly quickly. I spent some time last weekend designing my database structure and the classes I think I’ll need, so it’s time to start writing some code.

This will be a bit trickier than usual because of what’s going on in my day job. I will be building a new web app at work using the Java programming language, which I haven’t used since my college days. This is my first major project at my “new” job and, hence, there is going to be a ton of learning to do in the upcoming weeks. At home, I will be using the PHP programming language (which I’m also a bit rusty in as I haven’t used it in a year or so) in a framework that is completely new to me. So I get to build two apps, side by side, in completely different environments. Hopefully I don’t start confusing the two and build mutants by mistake, which would then, naturally, destroy the earth.

My deadline for completing the rough draft of my appetizer is October 2nd. Now, assuming I am a magician on cocaine, this is certainly doable. I had planned on starting sooner but I keep getting sidetracked. There are so many business related things that are up in the air right now that it’s hard to stay focused. Attending the business fair last weekend only put more question marks in my head that won’t get the hell out. These are things I don’t need to worry about right now (office space, advertising, cash flow, etc.) because my main objective is to serve the appetizer. But the more I learn, the harder it is for me to stay focused. All this business knowledge is crowding my brain.

Needless to say I’ve been a tad overwhelmed this week. When starting a business for the first time, I think it’s tempting at the onset to think about all the things that must be done and analyze every single angle so you do everything just right…but be careful! You might just think yourself into calling it quits before you even get started. I think it’s better to try to focus on the 2 or 3 most pressing issues and forget the rest. I’m not saying develop tunnel vision completely, but it does you no good to overwhelm yourself by thinking about all 50 million things you have to get done and then losing focus and fumbling on the execution. Planning is good, obsessing is bad. I am definitely a good example of that this week.

me and my prototype

Hear ye hear ye, the appetizer has been prototyped! Well on paper at least. I spent all day yesterday and today designing it, naming it, and copywriting it. My wonderful girlfriend Misty user tested it for me this morning and after some minor tweaks, we both agreed that it’s looking pretty darn good. I had her point to something when she wanted to click and then I gave her the next page, in case you’re wondering. She did an awesome job and uncovered some things I hadn’t thought of. So now all that’s left is to actually build the thing! I also need to find a good designer to build me a logo and some miscellaneous images. I just posted the following on ProgrammerMeetDesigner…

I am building a web application and looking for an experienced designer to build approximately 5 vector images. I am hoping to have this completed by the end of the month and it would consist of the following (its grape related btw)…

1 Logo
1 Grape Icon (different from logo)
2 Vine Images (1 HR, 1 Arrow)
1 Larger image of a grape bundle

I want these to represent something new and exciting so am looking for a high level of creativity. The images would need to be fun, simple, clean, crisp, colorful, and in the spirit of web 2.0 ;). I know it’s a term that is way overused these days, but hey.

If this sounds like a good project for you, please respond with an estimate, portfolio, and a little about you and how you typically work with your customers to arrive at a final product. You can reach me here or at zackdad@gmail.com.

Hopefully I’ll have a designer on the payroll by Friday and can get those images within the next few weeks. Everything is coming together nicely so far and it’s on track to be delivered by the end of the month, so stay tuned.

I’ve been thinking in terms of 3 a lot lately. For instance, my dream company right now would consist of the following 3 people:

1 Programmer
1 Designer
1 Businessman/Programmer (me)

My current plan of action consists of releasing the following 3 products:

1. One small “Appetizer” application that I will build and design myself. This will be a good transition step for me and allow me to crank something out relatively quickly and start getting my name out in the technosphere. I’m hoping this will help me generate buzz as well as open a few new doors and aid me in my networking efforts.
2. A slightly larger scale application that I will build, but outsource for the design. Hopefully I will find someone with similar goals and aspirations and we can team up on future endeavors as well.
3. And a large scale application that I may form a partnership with the designer from app. above on, or someone else, or go it alone.

It’s only 3 more months until my 30th birthday!!! Which means I’ve lived 1/3rd of my life already, if I’m lucky :).

And, of course, there’s a 3 day holiday weekend coming up! I will probably spend it working, although considering taking it off and enjoying with family.

Did I mention its now 3 o’clock on the 30th?