LongURL—Restoring Order to the Universe
It’s been two weeks since I conceptualized LongURL, and a productive two weeks at that! Last Monday I officially launched the service (which provides a handy REST API) with support for a dozen or so shortening services like TinyURL.com. Once I stepped away from the problem for a little while I realized there was a better way to go about solving it. Thankfully the way I designed the service didn’t make it very difficult to swap out that bit of business logic, so this week I rolled-out an update that adds support for all shortening services.
After getting feedback from some helpful beta testers (thanks Marjolein and Børge!) and making a few tweaks I was happy yesterday to release the LongURL Mobile Expander Greasemokey script and Firefox extension which use the LongURL API to expand shortened URLs on any web page. I haven’t had much feedback from others yet, but for me personally, the extension tremendously improves my user experience. Sorry guys, no more rickrolling me!
MySQL SELECT Entries Before NOW()
I’m in the business of making things faster. Using NOW() in a SQL query is something I’m going to complain about. Here’s a familiar scenario from the online publishing industry where future dating articles is a commonality:
You have a news site. You need to display only articles that have been published, and one of the criteria is that they need to have a publish_date before now. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.
The New SPEEDtv.com
February 6th has come, and it has gone. After much toil and many, many long days, the largest development project MindComet has ever undertaken launched on time. That statement alone is worth celebrating.
Whether the project ends up being a glorious success to the end users or not, as a developer I can make it something to be proud of in the lessons I take away from it. For example, here’s one thing I discovered about myself: I like BIG. I like the challenge…the complexity…the impact. Big forces you to approach problems in a different, often better, way. Big challenges your development processes and methodologies when you may otherwise be content. Big requires skills, tools, and architectures you don’t normally get to use with small. Big magnifies your weaknesses, and exposes your flaws–refining those who learn from it. And in the end, if you can make it to the finish; if you can reach your goal–you’re a cut above the rest. Here’s to big. Here’s to the SPEEDtv development team.
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About
Sean Murphy is a freelance web application developer currently living near Orlando, FL. Aside from building his own applications and contributing to open source projects, he works with clients to provide top-notch consulting & development expertise.
