Web development and the Middle East

Not much to say, but instead of saying nothing, I'll say those few things I can think of . . .

Today was yet another day at McMaster-Carr Supply Co., working in Merchandising's Item Group. The most exciting moment of the day came when I realized that tomorrow I get to tackle a mini-challenge of writing a script that will automatically classify products as bars, strips, sheets, or cubes based upon their dimensions.

OK.

I've seen a number of exciting things on the web recently, only to realize that the odds of them becoming ubiquitous are about 1:1,000,000,000. One of those is Macromedia Flex. It sounds like exactly what I would love to use for my hurricane website project—I can't exactly wrap my brain around it, but it involves some crazy integration of mxml, ActionScript 2.0, and n-tier architectures. The problem is that it sits on J2EE, which I will not be running on the hosting account I pick up from wavepath.com; moreover, I still couldn't exactly grasp what the advantage of Flex is over using Flash MX 2004 Professional with all of its nifty XML Connectors to make remoting a snap. The best I could gather is that "Flex is best suited for n-tier setups", etc., which makes me think, along with the price, that Flash Pro 2k4 is still the way to go.

That said, I'm almost finished with the database/historical layer of the forthcoming stormpulse.com. Then I get to work on lots of PHP scripts for generating XML from the MySQL tables, and then finally Flash. And somewhere in there I have to establish cron jobs to cURL reliable feeds, as well as learn enough about things like hurricane vortex measurements to intelligently parse it into the database . . .

. . . I also learned, as was expected, that many software packages already exist that do similar or better things than what will be stormpulse.com. The difference? Stormpulse will be a free, publicly-readable and accessible website, while all that I've seen so far are bona fide software installations for the power user types. The problem is I need to figure out how to generate revenue. So far Google's AdSense is my best guess, or perhaps just a meager PayPal Donate Now button.

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Our softball team finished 6-6. Basketball starts next week. Mamun and I will be on the team. Should be fun. He's "undersold us" so as not to manage expectations.

Emma is a greater and greater joy to behold every day. Coming home from work and holding her is just such an amazing experience . . . you really can't put into words just how much you love a child until you have your own. No, pets don't compare. That isn't meant to sound elitist; that's just the way it is.

I found out that there's an Imacon scanner on campus that I may be able to borrow to scan in my 4x5 negatives from Yosemite National Park. Finally, digital copies of my negs! Then I can adjust in Photoshop and voila, output via Inkjet, Lightjet, Giclee, whatever-have-you. Woohoo!

Of course there's the looming possibility I won't actually be able to USE the $10,000 scanner, since I'm no longer a student. Alums are people too, though, right? And aren't we all students, deep down?

Yasser Arafat is on his deathbed, and I am so tired of Zionist interviews and commentaries on the Christian radio stations, talking about the forthcoming nightmare of mobs of Palestinians carrying Arafat's remains to the Temple Mount. Who cares?! Let them have their parade. Of course, if you're in the pro-Israel camp, you probably think you have proof that this is yet another required sign of the Second Coming . . . *sigh*

With all this, I am going to finally finish brushing my teeth and hit the hay. I haven't been able to wake up early in weeks!