New Site's a Comin'
You may have noticed a complete lack of new stuff on this site over the last,
ooh, 6 months. This is because (a) I've been focussing on a slew of Form Tools
releases and (b) I've been redesigning this website. The site is about 3/4 done,
and looks about 100,000% better. More readable, better organized, better UI,
better looking. I'm shooting for finished it late next month.
July 27th '06, 8:00am
Stuff.
Holy smokes I'm busy. Far too much stuff to report, but here's the highlights:
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The ProBono Law of BC site is almost wrapped up. Apart from sorting out some PDF document
generation and a few miscellaneous things, I think it's almost wrapped up.
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I released version 0.9.8 of Form Tools today. Just a few bug fixes, but the project seems to be
gaining popularity which is great. It's now been downloaded from people in over 80
countries. Very cool.
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There's another job on the horizon for the Salvation Army this time. Apparently it's another custom
CMS similar to the work I did for the ProBono guys. Looking forward to that.
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I've begun in earnest working on a project with Joseph Lo of Encore Web Studios. It's very
interesting: a sort of CMS for cardiologists.
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I made a failed attempt to come up with a new style & format for this website. Structure and
format were great; design was awful. I've shelved it.
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A couple of days ago I added XML support for my
Data Generator. It's not
bad, but a trifle temperamental. When I get time, I want to add a MySQL option to generate
database insert statements. Now THAT would be useful.
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I keep getting head-hunted, which is awfully flattering. Some companies and positions
are more interesting than others, but right now I think I'm rather needed where I'm at.
April 30th '06, 12:00am
Data Generator
Here's a handy little script for web developers / QA specialists who need to generate
human-related data for use in testing software. This program lets you rapidly build custom
test data including names, phone numbers, email addresses, states, provinces and random text of
varying size. You may download the information as an excel spreadsheet or view it as HTML.
And (naturally), it's free.
I wrote this program for generating sample submissions for my Form Tools
script. Sodding useful.
March 27 '06, 10:00pm
Form Tools - Beta Release
New script! Form Tools is a program I've been developing on and off for months, built out of
the ashes of various other projects I've worked on. Here's a quick description:
Form Tools is written for web developers who work on online registration sites, or sites that
require any form of information gathering from their online visitors. Put simply, it is a form
processor, storage and data access script written in PHP and MySQL, designed to work with any
existing web form. With a few minor changes to your form, you can stop using old-fashioned
form-mail scripts and instead store form submissions in a database, instantly providing your
clients with options such as mass data export via excel, printer-friendly pages, data sorting,
form submission editing and optional email of form submissions.
Rather than release in on this woe-begotten site, I thought I'd dedicate an entire site to it -
I needed some space for the online demo, user and developer documentation and other site stuff.
So take a look! Just visit: www.formtools.org.
March 16 '06, 8:00pm
More News
BP est fini - nice to have that done. The client is happy, which makes all the difference. I'm
very pleased with the result: a simple, elegant registration form. Very user-friendly.
The ProBono Law of BC is looking pretty darn good too and
the CMS is coming along nicely. Today I'm implementing them a geo-search to allow coordinators
to map cases to lawyers depending on location. Fun stuff.
Hmm... what else? I recently gave my old Realty Management Software another upgrade for
Black Tusk Realty to allow auto-removal of listings.
Cool feature; badly needed.
My Form Tools script is one online demo away from being released. I plan on releasing it into the
wild sometime early this week. Be nice to have that monkey finally off my back. Once that's done
I can
- Finally finish off the Flash Image Scroller
- Release a little tool I've been meaning to show off: a random sample data generator.
I wrote it for my online demo to generate mock data. Remarkable I couldn't find anything
like it out there. (Qualifier: anything FREE out there).
- Begin redesigning this old dog of a website.
March 5 '06, 1:00pm
News News News
Well, my Form Tools script is looking more and more polished. I'm half-way through the user
documentation and half-way through the installation script. I can almost smell the sweet, sweet
smell of completion. Oh who am I kidding... I've just (perhaps foolishly) accepted a new
contract with BP (British Petroleum), to do a registration site for one of their conferences,
and the BCIT gig is looming on the horizon....
All I want for my birthday is a good long week off to let me finish up these projects...
And MAN does this website need a facelift. BIG time.
Feb 16, 10:30pm
Bookmarklets!
Just added! See the Free Scripts section for a couple of handy
bookmarklets, written for you web developers / QA people out there.
Feb 12, 9:30pm
Latest Happenings
Whole lotta work on my plate. First off, BCIT is a go, which is cool. Another
gig due in two weeks for a dog show registration site - lots of interesting
custom work for them poochies. Another registration site
for the Hartford - that illustrious client - and the Pro Bono Law of British
Columbia site is coming along very well and actually starting to
look half-decent. I wish I could say I had a hand in the design,
but I'm only responsible for the back end. Kudos to the designer.
The rotten thing about getting all this work is that my own projects have to
be put off and off and off... my Form Tools program is now complete, but
still needs documentation and a good thorough QA prior to release. And then
there's the Image Scroller. Poor Image Scroller... fell by the wayside.
Feb 1, 12:30pm
Something Apt
Here's a li'l song I wrote. The working title was "Proliferative Pustular Dermatitis"
as supplied by an anonymous person, but somehow it didn't quite fit. The
anonymous person is actually staggeringly bad at naming music. That's
right.
Jan 11, 7:30pm
Yet More Gigs
Well, things are certainly getting busy... I've just wrapped up a first draft
for another job for The Hartford and will hopefully finish development for
this year's Test of Metal form today. Plus I've just started a new
project for ProBono Law of BC - a fun task involving the development of a
whole range of code. Plus there's another job on the horizon in early
January for BCIT, developing them a registration-like site. Fingers crossed
that goes through. Never a dull moment around here...! Nice that the
holidays are affording me some time to work on all these.
I guess the Flash image scroller I've been tinkering with will just have to
wait... And man oh man does this website ever need a face-lift. 'twill have to
wait!
Dec 27, 12:56pm
The Hartford - Snapshots
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See the Web Design section for a
few snapshots and a quick description of my latest registration site. This
one was written for Joseph Lo of Encore Web
Studios; the client was The Hartford Financial Group.
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Dec 16, 9:45pm
New Script: Generic PHP Form Validation
I've just added a PHP equivalent of my javascript validation script. It
allows you to very quickly, and very simply add server-side validation to
any web form. What's really cool is that it functions exactly the
same as the client-side version, so you can literally copy and paste the
JS code into the PHP and with a few minor adjustments have both client- and
server-side validation.
See the Free Scripts section to
see a demo and download the code.
Dec 11, 9:40pm
Miscellaneous News
A few things of potential interest. Here and there, whenever I could find
the time, I've been working on a new
image scroller
Flash script. Unfortunately it fell victim to a chronic case of Feature Creep,
so it'll be a while to arrive; my freelance work has to come first. I have a
deadline in early December and two more in early January. Big sodding projects,
too - full blown reg sites. The first one is for The
Hartford Financial Services Group; it's a registration site for their
upcoming national sales meeting. The second is for their "Winner's Circle" event.
The third is for the next "Test of Metal" - the infamous Squamish bike race.
I've also completed an old project - "Form Tools" - which I've worked on
now and then for the last year. It's really powerful stuff. It functions as a
generic form processing script which you install on your server (PHP & MySQL needed).
You then point your (existing) forms to the script and the script stores all submissions
made through the form and lets you sort, edit and export in various formats.
Very cool. It even includes a dash of Ajax for good measure. But again, on
the back-burners until I get this other work off my plate.
Slowly hacking away at my student loans. I don't want to frighten any
children out there, so I won't speak of the exact figure. Let's just say it
ain't pretty.
Dec 2, 6:50pm
Short Dialogues
As mentioned below, I'd been working on a series of vibraphone duets, which
today I finally found time to complete. Since the CBC's problems are still
unresolved, uploading them to ZeD TV is a trifle futile; so here's the
finished versions. And when I say "finished", I mean "not at all finished".
They're really just preliminary sketches. They need a lot more work to "finish"
them - but in the meantime...
Oct 2, 8:00pm
Life Update
Music: Short Dialogues
I've been working on a series of vibraphone duets, one of which you can
hear here.
I've uploaded the first four to ZeD, but what with the CBC lockout only
the first has been placed on the site.
Job
Going well. Mostly I've been working with XML and XSLT, with the occasional
work in JavaScript and JSP. Several interesting projects on the go.
Programming
I've almost finished a new Form Management program, used as a generic
database for storing the contents of any web form. It's really pretty cool,
so I'm looking forward to getting it out there. Several clients have
expressed an interest, and I have one that I can put it on immediately.
So much to do, so little time...
Other
Girlfriend returns to Saskatoon tomorrow for the school year, which kinda
sucks. Student loans slowly being eaten away. Toying with the idea of
writing another Flash game, but there's so many other projects I'd like to do too...
Aug 27, 12:15pm
Whole Lotta Goin's On
Busy couple of weeks. Rather than tiresomelessly type it all out, here's
the abbreviated version: moved to Kerrisdale, got sick, secured permanent work at
CityXpress (excellent!), got better, changed website from benjaminkeen.org to
benjaminkeen.com (name free at last!), got sick again, lay around wallowing
in self-pity, wrote
a new piece mourning the interest rates on my student loans, finally (after 9 months)
bought work desk to replace spongy card table. Feeling okay now, but still
iffy. Think I may have the plague.
July 3rd, 8:45pm
Old Job Out, New Job In
Today I just secured a new position at CityXpress - a very interesting
looking company. Looking forward to starting...! By the sounds of it, I'll
be working mainly with JSP and good-ol' HTML. Oh you know, that stuff that
looks like this: <HTML> ... </HTML>.
March 29th, 5:20pm
New keyboard!
As mentioned elsewhere on this site, last September I had the misfortune of
having all my possessions stolen when someone stole my moving van. Well,
I finally have a new Korg T1 keyboard on the way. My first eBay purchase.
Scary stuff. Can't wait for the sucker to get here.
March 25th, 12:40pm
And... another ZeD TV performance
Well I feel special. CBC is playing another of my pieces this
evening at 11:25pm on their show, ZeD TV. For the curious, you can listen
to the piece via their website [click
here].
That's my third performance this year! Very pleasing.
March 24th, 4:24pm
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