Down with tonsillitis, so my coding is slower, and blogging much vaguer. (After fifteen years of this, I have tendons like piano-wire anyway so a slowdown might be a good idea).
The hatchery will be getting an automatic adult remove after I finally figured it out last night. 3am fever dreams are good for something :)
The Smashwords Reader in php may end up being the real one, since the next bit of feedback was "What have you sent to T? He's sitting in front of the computer clicking and giggling and clicking." I swear, I only sent him a Reader link with his book in it. Which doesn't mean that was what he was looking at, but is still promising.
However being ill does allow me time to be a complete pain to certain deserving individuals:
I got a gift for Christmas - not something I'd have chosen to buy, but with a thirty day guarantee "if it doesn't work for you, money back". When I went to return the product - it was dreadful, ineffective and badly designed - it turns out that not only has the giver well overspent on the agreed amount, but the company in the small print stopped the guarantee right after christmas. A mis-selling case, perhaps?
I've spoken to them. The first CR said I could return it, the second said I couldn't and then said she'd escalate it to Head Office and I should expect a phone call. It's been five days, and my rating on the product has gone from 1-2 stars (it's really not good) to -1 from trying to deal with their customer service.
Braun - a faster way to get 2mm designer stubble is just not to shave: it's cheaper and you don't have to deal with their customer service reps.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Ereaders and updates
I haven't been blogging recently because I've been too busy coding. My major project has been a lightweight php e-reader that takes Smashwords samples and displays them.
It's now up and running and I've got feedback, ranging from " cool!" to "I can't fault this."
The tricky bit was the launcher - since I wanted it to open from a link and run whethre or not the user had javascript, be useable by Wordpress users and others whose hosts were locked down, and run at a reasonable speed. And it had to be code easily used by non-coders. Let's just say there's a lot that goes on in the background, and leave it at that.
The real problem, and the reason another coder is building a java version is bandwidth. Parsing and sending the sample is almost 250K or our bandwidth each time it is hit - careful coding reduces the impact on the viewer, and the host offering it uses virtually none - but it's still costly. We've got the affiliate link hard coded in, which should help to offset the costs.
On the other hand I mght try and convert it to a desktop app which can read in files. It is already capable of reading in full (free) ebooks from Smashwords, the bandwidth becomes prohibitive. If it's a desktop app then anyone who wants to can run DRM-free epubs in it. It just wouldn't have a library or anything like that.
Right now I'm working on another coding project, this one at the exciting stage where all the variables are being written out on screen when it runs so I can see what the program is doing - or isn't. The problem for that project is going to be artwork and design - I can code and write, but my drawing? Not so good.
It's now up and running and I've got feedback, ranging from "
The tricky bit was the launcher - since I wanted it to open from a link and run whethre or not the user had javascript, be useable by Wordpress users and others whose hosts were locked down, and run at a reasonable speed. And it had to be code easily used by non-coders. Let's just say there's a lot that goes on in the background, and leave it at that.
The real problem, and the reason another coder is building a java version is bandwidth. Parsing and sending the sample is almost 250K or our bandwidth each time it is hit - careful coding reduces the impact on the viewer, and the host offering it uses virtually none - but it's still costly. We've got the affiliate link hard coded in, which should help to offset the costs.
On the other hand I mght try and convert it to a desktop app which can read in files. It is already capable of reading in full (free) ebooks from Smashwords, the bandwidth becomes prohibitive. If it's a desktop app then anyone who wants to can run DRM-free epubs in it. It just wouldn't have a library or anything like that.
Right now I'm working on another coding project, this one at the exciting stage where all the variables are being written out on screen when it runs so I can see what the program is doing - or isn't. The problem for that project is going to be artwork and design - I can code and write, but my drawing? Not so good.
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Talking Money
This is ridiculous. I hadn't realised this until it came to the crunch, but I have a complete aversion to discussing monetary figures. I may have to ask someone else to write the sanitised (and more detailed) version of this for the Smashwords Tools blog.
The issue is the referral links on the Smashwords widgets. It's actually causing a few disagreements on the team, and some users wanting to know why they can't add their own - with varying degrees of politeness.
The hard truth: 500Mbs of bandwidth per day costs money.
While the developers are volunteers and donate dev time, and the processing power and server space are provided by a publisher, the bandwidth is an ongoing cost. And the tools aren't even out of beta yet.
Since we want the widgets to be free to use, we can a) put an ad on the website (which doesn't cover the costs) b) ask for donations (creating legal and tax issues) or c) add a referral link. At least with a referral link a user only contributes when the widget actually gains them a sale.
The worst current offender is the store - which doesn't take a referral link - but some of the widgets in the pipeline are larger (and fortunately faster). They are going to have to have hardcoded referral links, because otherwise the hosting cost will be prohibitive.
Oh well, away from these depressing thoughts and back to work on a search box for users who have webhosts who only take basic HTML - links and images only. I love a challenge.
The issue is the referral links on the Smashwords widgets. It's actually causing a few disagreements on the team, and some users wanting to know why they can't add their own - with varying degrees of politeness.
The hard truth: 500Mbs of bandwidth per day costs money.
While the developers are volunteers and donate dev time, and the processing power and server space are provided by a publisher, the bandwidth is an ongoing cost. And the tools aren't even out of beta yet.
Since we want the widgets to be free to use, we can a) put an ad on the website (which doesn't cover the costs) b) ask for donations (creating legal and tax issues) or c) add a referral link. At least with a referral link a user only contributes when the widget actually gains them a sale.
The worst current offender is the store - which doesn't take a referral link - but some of the widgets in the pipeline are larger (and fortunately faster). They are going to have to have hardcoded referral links, because otherwise the hosting cost will be prohibitive.
Oh well, away from these depressing thoughts and back to work on a search box for users who have webhosts who only take basic HTML - links and images only. I love a challenge.
Friday, 13 January 2012
You know you're a little geeky when...
...after a day of PHP coding and trying to get putty and ssh to work together despite two networks that don't want to talk (for a closer analogy, doing the PC equivalent of two computers standing in the corner with their fingers in their ears shouting la-la I can't hear you) you relax by looking at chess problems.
And then wonder what it would be like if you played a video of the 1851 Immortal Game to the theme song of Mortal Kombat.
The answer?
In a techy kind of way, very cool indeed.
The Game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoJkiz4f2p0
The Music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAwWPadFsOA
Start the music first, the game immediately afterwards, and enjoy. If you get it right the moves in the video are pretty much on the beat.
And now back to digging up imagemagic from wherever the shell put it.
And then wonder what it would be like if you played a video of the 1851 Immortal Game to the theme song of Mortal Kombat.
The answer?
In a techy kind of way, very cool indeed.
The Game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoJkiz4f2p0
The Music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAwWPadFsOA
Start the music first, the game immediately afterwards, and enjoy. If you get it right the moves in the video are pretty much on the beat.
And now back to digging up imagemagic from wherever the shell put it.
Monday, 9 January 2012
Tools - an unexpected level of interest
Last night I checked the usage stats on those tools. Then I checked again. Then I dropped an email to a friend asking if they saw the 500% upswing too. And then google produced this:
http://www.smashwords.com/about/beta
We're in the status update on the front of Smashwords itself.
The only thing I would like to mention is that this isn't the sole work of one independent developer. This is more because of the owner of an independant publisher (who happens to also be a technical consultant) bemoaning the lack of smashwords widgets, and grabbing a few friends in the same field to correct this - and then making the widgets available to other people with Smashwords' permission.
This isn't, from our point of view, a money-making exercise due to hosting costs and supporting the backend engine. If someone else wants to use that engine to produce a widget with their own referral link embedded that would be fine with us.
The other thing this has given me is a rather extensive list of fixes and suggestions to deal with today, among the work on my own projects and this bits that pay the bills. But, after that update my most nerve-wracking job today is definitely going to be a scheduled and major upgrade to that back-end engine.
Wish me luck!
http://www.smashwords.com/about/beta
We're in the status update on the front of Smashwords itself.
The only thing I would like to mention is that this isn't the sole work of one independent developer. This is more because of the owner of an independant publisher (who happens to also be a technical consultant) bemoaning the lack of smashwords widgets, and grabbing a few friends in the same field to correct this - and then making the widgets available to other people with Smashwords' permission.
This isn't, from our point of view, a money-making exercise due to hosting costs and supporting the backend engine. If someone else wants to use that engine to produce a widget with their own referral link embedded that would be fine with us.
The other thing this has given me is a rather extensive list of fixes and suggestions to deal with today, among the work on my own projects and this bits that pay the bills. But, after that update my most nerve-wracking job today is definitely going to be a scheduled and major upgrade to that back-end engine.
Wish me luck!
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