Brian’s Neighborhood

It works!  Sprocket.Reader is an IMAP mail server that pulls news feeds from a database.  I'm focusing on the iPhone mail client at the moment.  It's easy to use and there are no downloads or mods required.

If you are interested in being a beta tester, email me at: xantus at xantus d.o.t org.

Here are screen shots of me reading Slashdot

Today I launched a new site, Cartionary.com.  This is part of a new company I've co-founded, with the intent of releasing a variety of niche social sites that are designed to generate high quality user content.  It's been a lot of work, a ton of fun, and we're at a point of having some users actually kick the tires (no more car puns, I promise).

A few notes before anybody clicks over:

• The image uploading needs work.  We were originally going with the YUI Uploader, but due to too many unfixed bugs and general stability issues we did a hasty switch to SWFUpload.  We're still very happy using YUI elsewhere on the site, but their uploader simply doesn't work well enough to use.  The source was not available earlier so we weren't even able to submit patches; and bug reports were summarily ignored.
• The visible features are not representative of the "1.0" of the site, which we're hoping to have out by September 1st at the latest.  We're going to have an article system inspired by use.perl.org, as well as several other features that will make publishing valuable information an absolute joy.
• It is beta.  In the real sense of the word.  I'm not publicizing it yet outside of my blog here, and that is intentional.  We're not even feature complete, so it could be considered an alpha.  Or pre-alpha.  Anyway, it is a web application.  We don't need a proper release cycle but we do need a proper foundation and starting point.  Our hopes are that enough people will get a handle on it and submit bugs and ideas that we can fix those while we're pushing out our killer features".

So, with all of that said, if you like cars I encourage, ask, beg, bug, implore and plead you to go over and create an account, poke around the site, and then tell me what you think would be the best feature for a site that is setup to accumulate the largest free resource for car enthusiasts.

Thanks!

My project, Sprocket.Socket must have inspired, Michael Carter of orbitd: Comet Daily: Sockets in the Browser

One thing he didn't consider is that you need data framing to handle raw data from sockets correctly.
For instance, if you are parsing lines of data from a socket:

This is a line\r\n
This is another line\r\n
This is

You received a partial line, like the last line above.  You need to wait for the rest of the line, and buffer it until you reach a line ending, which in this case is \r\n

I'm a POE programmer, and we have modules that frame data, and we call them Filters.

I have written several data framing filters in JavaScript, inspired by POE filters:
http://svn.xantus.org/sprocket/trunk/Sprocket-JavaScript/js/Ext-ux/Sprocket/
JSON, IRC, Line, etc

I think having pseudo-sockets in the browser is very useful if done right.  Sprocket.Socket handles multiple outgoing connections from the browser using only one long polling xmlhttp.  A spare xmlhttp request is used for quick sending of data while the other is waiting, so it doesn't have to be woken up.  All data is delivered in order.

Sprocket.Socket consists of several parts:

The framework, Sprocket
Sprocket.HTTP plugin.  It serves files, fast.  Including CGI's
Sprocket.Socket plugin.  This proxies the socket requests
An access control module.  Controls which hosts the clients can connect to.
The JavaScript library Sprocket.Socket.  This handles the pseudo-sockets in the browser
The JavaScript data framing filters, and base class
Extjs, a rich js framework.

This seems like a lot, but I can run one script and fire up a browser to get it to work.
I have a working IRC client built on all of this :)

Stay tuned for more
 

I came home around 7pm looking forward to getting the new Eye-Fi Explore that has Wi-Fi geotagging and wayport HotSpot access. As usual the cardboard box was put in front of the door and the box was crunched like this photo. And it was so light.

I was upset like "Oh shit someone unboxed this and stole the item. WTF" but the actualy the Eye-Fi card along with the recipt was inside, not stolen at all. I was now relieved but I feel a bit concerned who the hell did this. My apartment building is secured with the key fob thing and an access to the individual floor requires a key code in the elevator. So it should be someone in this apartment building or someone who tailgated. Bleh.

My room is just in front of the elevator and I've been ordering lots of things from Amazon which are usually shipped by UPS and they're always put in front-door. But this is the first time I've got this. UPS always comes around 6PM so maybe next time I'll try to be at home or put a note saying "Dear UPS: Call my cell or don't leave the item here" if the item is expensive. Hmm.