Loading images as they become available

Currently working on a project that required me to create an image upload and processing factory. Basically, it allows you to upload media (photos and video) and then processes media, encodes video, resize images etc.

The problem: After uploading a batch of images, the user is brought to a page where they may name each photo they just uploaded and add descriptions. However, since we allow them to upload many photos at once, the images are not available right away. So they will see a default placeholder image until the new one  is availble. When the new image is loaded, we use javascript to change the image on the page, without reloading.

The solution: a little javascript, a little jQuery. Read the rest of this entry »

Smurf You! launches to brighten up the week.

Been a long couple weeks for me and several others as we are dealing with some malicious site activity at work. However, Smurf You! is now live and I am very happy with the results.

Smurf You! is a micro blogging application that allows you to post your status to Twitter through SMS and all kinds of cool gadgets, some still in development. Using the open source micro-blogging service, SatusNet, and a javascript written by Adrian Speyer, you can send status updates to your friends and family and translate those into smurf-talk using the translate function.

Just having a bit of fun with it, but eventually I can step through my experience using statusnet and implementing it in a blog series to come.

Enjoy. Now smurf off! http://www.smurfyou.com/

The new www.ORLive.com has launched

June 1 the company I work for, ORLive, Inc. launched a total site redesign. I played a major role in developing this redesign and to architect the back end. I worked with one other developer and one designer and outsourced about 10-15% of the work to other vendors.

Although the working conditions for this project were not ideal and the time line was shorter than we could have wanted, this was probably one of those projects where, if asked in an interview what my greatest challenge and/or accomplishment was…. this would be it.

Three months total to get a whole new back end in a Content Management System with limited documentation. I am still surprised we did it. Granted it launched minus some key features we intended to make, it was still a success. The design has flaws we are working out. Navigation is a problem. Countless other things need to happen but www.orlive.com is here and it launched June 1 as planned.

Let me know what you think?

Google Wave Is Coming

If you are looking for the new wave of social networking, watch this video from Google I/O 2009 conference. It shows a sneak peak at the new innovative communication tool. It will be open source and from the looks it can open up a huge role of possibilities. Very cool stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ

Welcome to the site

Welcome to Neilmpatterson.com. More good stuff to come!