The goal in creating the Rootbuzz site was to have an easy way for potential users to come onto the site and create their own community as quickly as possible. Rootbuzz.com is centered around a site creation tool. Users can quickly create an account, design a site and launch it, all from a single page! Now that the foundation and functionality has been set, a site revision is under way to polish the edges and increase conversion rates. The home page will be the center of this revision.

LIDA is in the middle of a website refresh. After existing with a basic site for the past year, it is time to upgrade. Main aspects currently being worked on: Brand new theme, use of jQuery in main header, SEO, content overhaul on all pages. Changes are still in progress, site can be viewed as under construction and a work in progress. Next steps: Use of jQuery for rotating links to our featured vendors in the right sidebar and underneath main content of pages. Dynamically setting page specific header images. Upgraded members only section.

www.ourlida.org

This semester I am doing a directed study in in mobile development on the Android platform. The main objective is to go through the complete development cycle and release an app into the Android Market by the conclusion of the class. Five other students are in this study with me, though all of us have taken pretty diverse paths as far as our individual apps go. Even so, it’s nice having a few people to bounce ideas off of during the process.

After researching the Market, I settled on creating a casino application. While there are many apps for individual casino games, I found only one that offered the full casino experience in a single application. This app is also only offered as a paid application. My model for this app is to release a free (ad supported) version for handsets, and a paid version for tablets running Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Yes, Honeycomb has a minimal market share, but it will only grow, and it’s a perfect time to get in on the ground floor while competition is at a minimum in the space. The tablet version will offer enhanced UI’s for all of the games offered on the handset version, as well as additional games that would benefit from larger screen real estate such as Craps.

What is my minimum viable product? To be a casino application, I need to create a casino game. Once the first game is finished, I can potentially release the game, have others test it and collect feedback. By being modular, I can continue to add games over time and offer a more complete casino experience. What should I start with? Slots. Slots generate the most revenue for casinos, so naturally that means they are highly popular and people spend a large amount of time playing them. A slot machine seems easy enough. Three wheels, some pretty pictures and score keeping. How will I build it? Well, android offers a gallery view to horizontally scroll images. I can just turn it vertically and automate the spinning, right? Wrong. Gallery view cannot be made to scroll vertically. After searching StackOverflow and Google Code, I came across Android-wheel. This was perfect for my application! It drastically cut down on development time; I thought I would spend the next 2 days developing a custom vertical wheel. Next was to build in the win logic and betting. This was all pretty straight forward.

I then built a trophy system in order to keep record of major achievements in the game. Each game will have a couple of trophies that can be won for various outcomes. The slot machine has a couple of trophies that are awarded for hitting certain jackpots. There are also game-wide trophies that can be awarded for things such as reaching certain chip counts. The trophy room can be accessed through the main screen of the game to view all trophies.

The next step will be creating a wheel-of-fortune style bonus game for the slot machine. I can then use the code for the wheel to create a Roulette wheel and begin developing the Roulette game. Additionally, I will be working on a 5-reel poker slot machine, building off of the existing slot machine code.

A network for small groups and Bible studies to discuss readings, share verses, and ask questions on translations.

Custom layout, design and logo.

www.ChristConnect.cc

DMAC is a premier Special Servicer for Mortgage Investors and Asset Managers that facilitates the liquidation of real estate assets nationwide.

This site was created from scratch using the clients specifications. Design features the 960 grid system and custom logo. Functions as an introduction to the company and allows customers to download required forms as well accept leads and referrals through email forms.

www.DMACLLC.com

This plugin is for Buddypress installations. It will create tweet buttons on each post in an activity stream. The plugin uses YOURLS url shortener to create links using your own custom Url shortener service.

See ChristConnect for a live example. It uses its own custom service, Chrs.co.

Currently, this plugin offers shortening with a YOURLS shortener. Future versions will allow other common shorteners such as Bit.ly, Tinyurl, etc. The plugin has been tested up to WordPress 3.1 and BuddyPress 1.2.8

Current version 0.1

View plugin on BuddyPress.org

Download the Tweet Urls plugin