Blog Not Needed

Life has been very difficult lately, and made more difficult by the fact that I’ve been fighting a major depressive disorder that has me all out of sorts and between doctoring, day jobs and dealing with everything that just leaves me overwhelmed, I have noticed that my “deadline” for launching autonomic has come and gone, and come and gone again.

I’m going to make it easier on myself from now on, and just say, that autonomic, and following that, the new diysearch, will be launched when I finish them. I can say that autonomic will be finished “soon” meaning, not “in a while.” I really am not comfortable giving myself a solid date, but more like a time period. So, I’m saying “spring time” for autonomic, and “summer” for the new diysearch.

I am happy to see that diysearch has made it back to page 2 on Google. What a drag that was, seeing it way back on page 10. Yuck.

I’ve been busy with other things as well, such as my solo music project. Just released a 3-song CD EP with a 6-song 12″ (and CD) in the works. I don’t have firm dates on that either, but if you like weird, melancholy, synth-pop-ish electronic post-rock instrumental stuff, then you might want to check it out. Or not, I’m not doing this to  move units, become a vacant rock star or to even make a dent in the indie rock world. This music project of mine is something of therapy for me… keeps me sane, gives me something to look forward to. It helps with the depression. Its a vehicle, pure and simple, and if someone else finds that they like it, well, that’s just icing on the cake.

In closing this post, I just want to ask those who still read and follow what goes on with this little insignificant project, to bear with me here whilst i get things sorted out. Thank you.

As I’ve been hinting around for a while now (better part of this year) there is a new site in the works, and its finally starting to come together. The site called, The Autonomic Us, will be the first DIY-centric social networking/bookmarking site specifically designed for those of us into DIY projects (zines, music, crafts, what-have-you.)

This has been a long time in coming and after spending a lot of time, and I do mean A LOT of time looking at the mainstream options (Facebook, Digg, Mulitply, MySpace, Orkut, Friendster…) the realization came to me, as did the original realization to build DIYSearch. There is just too damn much noise out there.

No, Autonomic is NOT out to replace the use of these sites, that would be ridiculous, but the goal behind it is to lower the signal to noise ratio out there for the news/events/announcements folks like you and me, care about.

One thing I am going to be rolling out with this site is the inclusion of Google’s OpenSocial API. It is not my intention to create yet another bloody website you have to create an account on, so the idea is to have Autonomic act as  a host for these other sites and utilize Autonomic’s functionality (posting content, friending, chatting) without worrying about whether or not you have an account. There will also be a Facebook widget as well. I should also say that if you have an existing account on DIYSearch (if you added links) that that will obviously work with Autonomic.

So, when will Autonomic be launching? First of the year is the target. I don’t have a specific date, but it will be in January of 2008, which will mark its “public beta” period.

I’m going to keep posting developments as they are needed.

Stay tuned.

Full disclosure. I am, and have been, straight edge, for close to 20 years. I’m in my early 30’s, have a career, earn good money, live in a very nice place, drive a nice new car and basically all of the trappings of a young upwardly mobile type person, but I have never forgotten from where I come from, and straight edge has been something I live by (so much so that I do have a few straight edge tattoos, I tell you this not to engage in a “I’m cooler than everyone” contest, just as an illustrated of the level of committment I have for the philosophy).

Having said all of that I generally leave my life choices out of Diysearch and out of most of my life. Being “straight edge” is a personal choice of mine, and one I do not use as a measuring stick with  which to judge the rest of the world, but there are instances where straight edge does serve as a compass.

This is one of those cases. Someone decided to post links to “cheap cigarettes” sites. They were, of course, deleted from the link queue (and never saw the light of day) but it got me thinking. The reason they were deleted, primarily, is that, being straight edge, I will not promote a behavior I find self-destructive, foolish and unhealthy. I don’t have a problem with people who smoke. One of my best friends smokes. I do not think any less of him for that, sure I may, on occassion chide him for his habbit, but it is all done in jest.

The principle here is that through including links to something like this, to me, is something I cannot do. So, the long and short of it is, don’t bother trying to submit links of this nature. They will never be included. Its that simple.

I hated to do it, but lets be realistic. Its already September the 28th, and so far this month I’ve logged about 10 total hours on the development of DiyShare. There is probably more like 80 more hours required, if I had to estimate it, so I am pushing the launch date back to Halloween. Basically I’m giving myself the month of October to complete the development and testing. There is already something like 50 or so hours already invested in the development, so a good chunk of work has already been done, and while I am discouraged with having to do this, I am not overly so, because of the work that’s already been put into the site.

September has just been an insanely busy month for us. Lots of things going on that has required our time and that means that Diysearch and its associated projects takes a back seat. There are still a number of features I need to add for our Editor that I haven’t gotten to yet. Juggling the priorities is difficult because, while our editor needs the tools to effectively do her job, they have to be weighed with getting DiyShare finished. Often, tools for Diysearch have taken a priority in that Diysearch is a production system, its live and is actively being used, so that means a new system (DiyShare) gets pushed back.

It’ll get there. A little less time with the Warcraft and in 5 weeks it should be ready.

I am reticent about filing this under “site news” because in reality it kinda isn’t. But in some weird tangential way it is. This is also me just trying to keep myself motivated and not let this thing get stale (as I often have a habit of doing), but the sad truth is, I don’t have a lot to report.

Yes, I’ve been doing some work here and there on the various new category functions (like “watch” feature, which is going to be really cool when I figure out how to make it so that any “object” in the site could be “watchable,” because the last thing I want to do is paint myself into a corner of hardcoding functionality like that) and the next big thing will be implementing a content management system for the non-database driven pages.

Our editor is always looking for opportunities to better present content within the site, and currently “static” pages are encapsulated as templates with embedded XHTML (for presentation). Well, this makes it difficult to edit. I decided on OpenCMS as the content management system. OpenCMS is a very mature, enterprise-class content management system more like an Interwoven TeamSite than say something like a Droopal or Joomla (which I didn’t like because if you choose one of those products, you are forced into doing things their way. I don’t like that). With OpenCMS I can define content types and elements using standard XML schema, and then transform XML-based content using JSP (Java Server Pages) into the presentation templates currently used within the site. So publishing is quite simple. There are a few odds and ends I need to finish up (like a batch job to push the managed content into the UAT and production sites).

What else? Oh yeah, development on DiyShare is grindingly slow, which brings me to the title of this entry. Instead of spending all of my waking spare time writing code, I’ve been playing the Warcraft. Actually I’ve been playing this game on and off for about 9 months, and have been sinking enormous amounts of time in leveling my main (a night elf druid, who is currently level 45, nearly 46). So, if you play and happen to play on Gilneas and happen across XBlinder, that’s me. Come tell me to stop with the Warcraft and get back to working on the site!