Developer13Just a PHP Guy...

February 03, 2010

Uncertain Thoughts

Sigh.

I'm not a writer.  A lot of the time I have a hard time communicating the most basic conceptual ideas in an effective manner.  When I am able to convert the cross-wired and fleeting thoughts into semantics, it's not as if I come rushing to tell the world about it.  Yet this poor blog still remains.

Mainly it was put together to serve as a proof-of-concept for InkType, the blogging platform which I wrote on which this site runs.  InkType, however, is currently out of commission and will remain so for the foreseeable future.  So... why the blog?

I don't know.

Why are those three words so hard for people to say?  Why do people insist on padding their personae with a safe and soft marshmallow fluff, oftentimes unintentionally embedded with razor blades of naivety, instead of just admitting those three simple words?  Why can't people more easily admit there might be something they just have no idea about?

I don't know.

Nor should I care.  Keyword: should.  Keywords do not always translate to what we have shaped as our individual realities, and maybe it's a good thing they don't.  I suppose self progression might not be such a realistic possibility should we be so quick to accept our perception of reality as the Golden Egg that in my mind we all thrive to seek.  Isn't that what we all chase?  Understanding?  Confirmation from something outside of and beyond our primitive set of ideals which might open our eyes to things unimagined?

Again... I don't know.

I'm not everyman.  Or am I?  Here I sit in a hotel room in Laughlin, Nevada.  There are hundreds of people here, maybe thousands, and here I am.  Should I just give up and admit defeat and join in on this whole "human race" concept?  Hm.  Doesn't sound so appealing to me.  I happily exercise my self-perceived right to choose how I spend my time.  I happily exercise that same self-perceived right to choose who I spend my time with.  I'm good with that.

I'm not everyman.

Yeah.  I'm good with it.

January 02, 2010

MyClientBase

If you haven't already, be sure and visit the brand new MyClientBase.com!

January 02, 2010

Broken Comments

Apparently the library I wrote for Defensio spam filtering broke somewhere around July or August.  I have a new library in place using Akismet and the comments seem to be functioning once again.

December 19, 2009

InkType On Hold

Thought I'd post a quick note to let everybody know that InkType is officially on hold now.  Not sure when I'll pick it back up, but I'm fairly certain it will come back to life somewhere down the road...

December 19, 2009

MyClientBase - Free & Open Source Web-Based Invoicing System

-My main project at the moment is MyClientBase (http://www.myclientbase.com), a free & open source web-based invoicing system.

I wrote MCB to provide an alternative to BambooInvoice.  I used Bamboo for a bit of time, and it served its purpose during that time, but there were a lot of things I didn't care for... especially when I started looking at the code.  MyClientBase is built on top of the excellent CodeIgniter PHP framework (of course), and also uses the awesome Modular Extensions - HMVC to provide a modular structure which can be maintained and extended very easily.

At the core of MyClientBase is a simple to use client and invoice management system.  Here are some of the things that MyClientBase supports:

An intuitive and easy to use web-based interface
Invoicing
 - Itemized invoices
 - Invoice reports
 - Customizable & multiple invoice templates 
 - Invoice output to HTML & PDF
Client Management
Payments
 - Can be applied to single invoices
 - Can be distributed across multiple invoices
Multiple Tax Rates
Multiple User Accounts
Language translations
 - French
 - German
 - Russian
 - Spanish
 - Turkish
Custom Modules
 - Provides powerful module interface for custom modules without having to modify the core application
 - A simple Tasks module is included with the core application
Free to use as you wish (free as in speech and beer) and will always remain free
Frequent and steady releases!

MyClientBase is and always will remain a simple (and free) web-based client and invoice management system and will continue to grow, but never unnecessarily.

A demo is also available at http://demo.myclientbase.com for those of you interested in taking it for a test drive.  Be sure and either leave a comment here or email me to let me know your thoughts, suggestions, etc.

May 08, 2009

InkType 1.0 & Spam Control

Developer13.com is running on the latest pre-release of InkType (not quite 1.0 yet but getting there), and up until tonight I haven't had any spam protection built in.  Last night I wrote a CodeIgniter library to integrate InkType with Defensio spam protection.  I just updated this site tonight with the new spam controls, so let's see if it helps thwart those idiots!  They've been targeting the site over the past couple of days... and I have no idea why, it's not as if this is a super high traffic site with tons of content.  Eh well.  Controls are go!

April 23, 2009

Command Line Terrorists

From the "What the @#$% is This World Coming To" department, we have a story that is so unbelievable it makes me want to puke.

 We've all heard arguments about whether the command line is a powerful and elegant tool or an unnecessary pain, but does using a no-pretty-colors interface constitute suspicious behavior? That's the way it looked in the case of a Boston College student whose computer was confiscated during an online harassment investigation. Some say a deeper reading of the police's warrant yields a different conclusion.

Mention "Linux" and "police" in the same sentence, and you're pretty sure to get bloggers' attention. Mention them in such a way as to suggest that Linux was a motivating factor behind a police investigation, and you're likely to have a virtual riot on your hands.

Sure enough, that's exactly what has been going on in the Linux blogosphere over the past few days following reports suggesting that a Boston College student is being investigated and has had his property seized at least in part because he uses "a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on."

Read the story in its entirety here.

April 20, 2009

Developer13.com Now on InkType 1.0!

Developer13.com has been relaunched on the newly rewritten version of InkType.  This version is currently unavailable to the general public, but it is available to an internal mailing list, so if you'd like to be included, email me and let me know.

Yeah, I know... it's been a long time since there's been any activity on this site - mostly because I've been working on the rewrite.  I think I feel a little more at ease now knowing that it won't be long until the release is all wrapped up and ready to ship out.

December 30, 2007

CodeIgniter 101: Models

Models are the most important part of any database driven web application in CodeIgniter. Models allow us to keep our database code separated from our basic program flow control (Controllers) and our output (Views) which is a necessary discipline of writing clean and well structured code using CodeIgniter. Once you truly get used to the structured discipline and implementation of the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern, you will be absolutely proud to see the difference between the quality and structure of your code. This article discusses the basics of Models in CodeIgniter and how to easily implement basic CRUD functions.