I’ve let WishCraze sleep for a very long time – perhaps too long.

I was talking with Topher about code repositories a while back and it made me realize that I didn’t quite understand their worth. I decided that I had a small web server of my own to play with and I might as well use it to familiarize myself with these processes that professional coders and developers use.

I set up Subversion that night. I configured it and got it working the next day.

Soon thereafter I was talking with a web developer my employer had recently brought in to work with us. He seemed lost in our world of little redundancy and no test environment. It made me realize how necessary and practical a test environment is. I thought, “do I have a server, or do I have a server?”

Then I reconfigured that server to provide me a test environment for all my various web development projects.

I first tackled setting up a test environment for WishCraze. It wasn’t easy. I had to rewrite a few things so they would work on multiple domains. I got it working though, and I was quite please with myself.

But rather than move on to another project and set up a new test environment, I decided to keep moving in the direction I was going. I had just gotten through refreshing myself on the structure of all my old code and decided to put it to use. I tweaked functions, trimmed excess code, and even rewrote functions in newly-learned efficient ways. Then I updated my live server, and it just worked.

I love my test environment.

I can ignore new error messages when there are more important things to do. I can try out new things without worrying about how it will be received. I can pretty much break everything apart, and build it up again. I can do all this without it ever effecting the real users on the live site.

This is a wonderful thing. Pretty soon I might try and get some actual users.

Filed under: The Winter Sun | Post a comment

It was a late night tonight. I only planned on sitting in my apartment playing my guitar and maybe with WishCraze, but Mike and Geordan got the better of me and I wound up in Orem catching up with some friends over a quick game of Phase 10 (as if there’s ever been a quick game of Phase 10).

People slowly drifted off to their respective homes and beds until Topher, Geordan and I were left confirming our beliefs that Across the Universe is not a movie worth staying up ’til 2:00 over. As Topher and I drove home in the wee hours of the morning, I had a nagging craving in the pit of my stomach for some sort of deceptively unhealthy nourishment. You can imagine the relief and gratitude I felt when I came across this gift as Topher lovingly walked me to my door.

Hot Dog Monster

Believe me. As I got ready for bed I took great comfort in a full stomach.

Filed under: The Winter Sun | Post a comment

Graphic Habit

For a month or two, the infamous printer has been out of commission. The white ink clogged in the print head and there seemed to be no way I could remedy the situation. I decided to empty the printer of white ink completely and operate with only the four color channels. I haven’t had time to make sure it’s working, but I hope to push out a few more orders anytime now.

WishCraze

After resorting to getting a job, I had to put WishCraze on hold. I play with it every now and then, but I haven’t made an serious updates for quite some time. After some dicussion with The Topher I’m contemplating building it again from the ground up in a Ruby on Rails environment or perhaps a some sort of PHP Framework. It likely won’t be ready for Christmas.

Guitar

After the smash hit “Hug a Redhead” stormed the BYU 167th Ward, SPF took an extended hiatus. Band members are on excellent terms with one another and frequently discuss the possibility of returning to the stage once again.

Shuffle

I’ve been thinking about my screen play a great deal lately. I don’t have much time to work on it, but I am developing a much better understanding of what I want from it. One day it will be a complete work.

Filed under: The Winter Sun | Post a comment

I fully understand that entities on the internet have ways of finding things out about me that I would otherwise think impossible to find out. I don’t know how they do it, but they seem to know where I am and what type of computer I’m on when I’m browsing around the web.

I was checking my web-based, no-name, meant for junk email earlier today and right as I was getting ready to leave the page, I saw a familiar face. It was Cosmo, the BYU Cougar mascot.

They hooked me. I had to read the rest of the banner and find out why in the world our mascot was involved in some sort of online marketing stunt.

Luckily I was immune to their attack, but I just couldn’t help but wonder how much else about me is known by people out on the internet. My email provider is nothing special. Sometimes I even wonder how in the world they know what they’re doing with a web site.

I’m not going to go canceling my Facebook Account or anything. I just wonder if there’s a bit more coding research I could do to help get WishCraze off the ground in a few more months

Filed under: Archive | Post a comment

Last night I decided I’d finally sit down to import some of my business PayPal transactions into Quickbooks. After one failed attempt I started searching online for a tutorial of sorts. Finding nothing but a few discussion board posts on the topic, I gave it a few more tries on my own. I finally went to bed with nothing but a few dozen voided journal entries to show for my efforts.

Today I finally figured a way to do it that met my needs. Since the tools I wanted didn’t seem to be anywhere else online, I figured I’d do my part to get the word out. Who knows if one day some poor soul like myself will stumble upon this post and save themselves from a messy accounting ledger. I can only hope.

The task: Import PayPal transactions into Intuit QuickBooks Pro 2008.

I run a small, home-based business. Most of my business transactions are done in person, so I have yet to develop any type of online store. Occasionally I have a customer who cannot pay with cash or check, but would like to pay with their credit card via PayPal instead. Though I’m not excited about paying the PayPal transaction fees, I would much rather win the customer (I can use all the business I can get).

PayPal allows me to download my transaction history and import it into QuickBooks. That’s a wonderful tool, but it’s not dummy-proof. I have to know exactly which accounts I would like the Transaction Total, PayPal Fees, and Net Income attributed to. The problem is, I don’t know.

The Math
I don’t know accounting too well, but what I do know really helped me finally figure this out.

In general, Assets equal Liabilities plus Owner’s Equity.

A = L + OE

Whatever you do to the equation, the end result must keep it in balance.

Make a sale: Increase Accounts Receivable (Asset) and increase Revenue (Owners Equity).
Receive a Payment: Decrease Accounts Receivable (Asset) and increase Cash (Asset).

Because PayPal imposes a fee on a transaction, and I never actually see the money before PayPal pulls their share out, the increase in Cash is not as large as the decrease of Account Receivable. In order to keep the equation in balance there must be another adjustment. The PayPal fee is accounted for by increasing Expenses (which falls under Owner’s Equity, sort of, because it acts to decrease Equity).

The Method

I’ll spare you the steps I took to find this out.

When getting ready to download the Transaction History from PayPal, it asks what file type I would like. Because I’ll be importing into QuickBooks, I choose the QuickBooks (.iif) format.

I am then asked the exact name of the accounts I would like my information imported into. They are:

Name of PayPal Account –> PayPal – Business
Name of other Expense Account –> Merchant Account Fees:PayPal Fees
Name of other Income Account –> Accounts Receivable

If you are hoping to modify this method for your own use, allow me to explain what these accounts are.

PayPal Account
This is the account that receives the net income of your transaction. In other words, the total sale amount minus the PayPal fees. In my system, the PayPal – Business account is a “Bank” account set up to reflect the current amount of funds I have available in my PayPal account. This is an account I have created for this purpose. You can create one of your own and name it whatever you would like.

Other Expense Account
This will be the account which records the PayPal transaction fees. If this account only records the PayPal fees you can open it up and get a quick glance of how much you’re losing to PayPal. In my system, this is a Cost of Goods Sold account called PayPal Fess which is a subaccount of Merchange Account Fees. The Merchant Account Fees account is automaticly set up by QuickBooks to record credit card transaction fees. I am treating the PayPal fees much like those credit card transaction fees. Again, because I have created this account, if you would like to create one for your system you can name it whatever you would like.

Other Income Account
This account receives the gross total of your PayPal transaction (before the fees are taken out). In my system they are sent to Accounts Receivable and attributed to a specific customer. This gives the customer a credit which can then be applied to any of their outstanding invoices. For this account I am using the default QuickBooks Accounts Receivable account.

Once the information is imported, I apply the customers’ credits toward their invoices. The invoices are marked as paid and the totals in the various account remain correct.

I hope this helps.

Filed under: Archive | Post a comment

Every now and then I look around me and wonder if the moment I’m living wasn’t plucked straight from a story book. Some meticulous author labored through words and pages to describe the scene in which I’ve been placed.

Or maybe, somewhere far above my head, there’s an accomplished film director who cues the lights and sounds of my experience and displays this creation for a hidden audience of skilled dramatics.

I am so important – so special to have a skilled artist focus their attention on me. I’m not sure if there’s a lesson for me to learn or if I was meant to go through life unconcerned with the complexity of my surroundings. I am so small – to be here experiencing while someone else creates experience.

The rain was falling as I walked out the doors of the chapel in Kanarraville. The trees hung low, but were strong. The rain wasn’t for me, but the moment was. I walked a little slower. It’s supposed to rain for funerals, and someone took the time to make sure this one was done right.

Filed under: Archive | Post a comment

“Existentialism is dark. Those people are fixated on death.”

That’s how I used to think of existentialism.

For the longest time I was never sure what existentialism was. I asked people in high school, but I could never get a straight answer. People either loved it or hated it, but no one could really explain it to me.

When I was first introduced to it, it was a style of writing. Some lady, doesn’t like her marriage, feels like she can never really find love, and drowns herself in the ocean. It didn’t seem that much different than other books, except without any dramatic tension leading up to her death and no follow up describing her family’s grieving. She just walks out into the water and the book ends.

Then I took a Philosophy course and had existentialism explained to me a bit more. It’s a way of thinking – of looking at the world and understanding it. It claims that any meaning in life is created by the individual. There is no purpose inherent in existence. People may go around injecting the artificial purpose and direction, but in reality we’re all just biding time until we die. That’s how I understood existentialism for the next few years. It seemed empty and dark. I didn’t like it.

We covered existentialism in my Psychology of Personality class last week, and I’ll be darned if BYU didn’t take something the world had colored black for me and highlight it’s bright, pretty parts. Yes, existence has no inherent meaning in existentialism, but the focus isn’t on keeping ourselves grounded to the fact that life is useless. The focus is on finding things to give us purpose. It’s about existing – really living life. It’s about making use of our lives, because one day we’re going to die and it’ll all be over. It’s about developing real connections with people around us even if they’re going to move away in a few months or get off the elevator on the next floor. That’s the kind of existentialism I can swallow.

I could still have this thing all wrong. I don’t know. Maybe Jon Howard will set me straight. Regardless, the last few days I’ve been jazzed about existing. I’m trying to real listen to what people are saying to me, and really open up when I talk to them.

Half the Ward is moving out before the week is over, but why should that stop me from cherishing the time I have left with them.

Filed under: Archive | Post a comment

Last summer (2007) I struck gold at the thrift store.

I started out looking for pants, but soon realized they have electronics too. I found a great USB extension cable (of which they had many) and soon uncovered what I consider to be a great treasure – an APC Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) – a electronic backup battery (generally for computers).

Not believing my luck, I found the nearest power outlet and plugged it in. The lights came on, and when I pushed the button marked “TEST” a buzzer sounded. I made it mine.

When I got home I performed one additional test. I plugged the battery into the wall and my cell phone into the battery. After about an hour I pulled the batteries plug from the wall. My phone stopped charging. I tried it on other devices with the same results. The UPS went into the closet.

Then along came WishCraze – the up-and-coming wishlist web site that’s going make giving gifts so much easier (I may be biased). A replacement battery for my UPS found its way onto my wish list and waited to be found.

Sometime before February 12 (my birthday) my wish list fell into the hands of some potential gift-givers (my parents). A short time later my friend Rick knocked on my door to deliver my new battery. It was the exact shape, size, and storage capacity that I was hoping for, yet I’d never said a word about it to anyone. I was thrilled! The UPS emerged from the closet.

Last night I stayed up late to work some more features into the official WishCraze web site. One particular page just wasn’t loading properly which caused me to search through lines of code to find the missing semicolon or mis-assigned variable. All at once, the lights flickered, the heater hiccuped, and a buzz pierced the stillness of the night. Lines of code still glowed on my screen.

Gifts do more than make people smile. Good gifts bless people’s lives. The gifts may be big and the gifts may be small, but the real value comes from the blessings they bring. I hope those who visit WishCraze will see beyond the material items that get put on lists and realize how wonderful good gifts can be.

Filed under: Archive | Post a comment

I think it’s about time I explained myself.

A few people have pointed out that I seem to have fallen off the face of the world (my words, not theirs). While that not really an unusual thing (I tend to disappear at times), this time there was a reason.

Shortly before Thanksgiving 2007, lightning struck my brain. For as long as I can remember, my family has always put together gift wishlists before Christmas to share with one another. It helps take most of the guess work out of Christmas shopping. We don’t always buy things off the list, but the lists give us a guide to help figure out exactly what one of our family members would want.

As the internet became more and more popular and online retail became more and more accepted, some of us started turning our lists of items into lists of links. That way the gift-giver could find out exactly what make, model, color, size, texture, and flavor of item we wanted. I don’t know if anyone used those links, but I felt like I was doing a great thing.

So I decided to take the idea to the masses.

I got a proof-of-concept going over Thanksgiving break and then started designing the web site – something called “interface design”. That’s no easy task.

I don’t remember if it was me, or whether is was Mike (my partner in this project), but we started to realize the merits of a Facebook App. Facebook allows developers to build mini web applications that interact directly with user information on Facebook. Users can add them, remove them, and share them with their friends. A Facebook App, we thought, would allow us to build the basic web service and get people using it without us having to spend quite as much time with interface design.

We got to work. The Facebook code structure is easy, but the instructions are very poor. None-the-less, the Facebook App started to develop. As it neared completion I began spending more and more time in my room, more and more time on my laptop during classes, less and less time with friends, and less and less time on school work.

So I’m here today to announce that your online gift wishlist service is now ready for Facebook. We call it WishCraze.

- Build a list
- Share it with your friends
- Browse and shop your friends’ lists

So, if you have a Facebook account, go add my App and check it out.
If you don’t, there’s also a blog up and running so you can read up on the progress we’re making toward the next stage.

Next up is our full-featured web site which will allow anyone, anywhere to build lists. Then come RSS feeds, personalized links, a MySpace App, a Google App, and snippets of code which will allow yo to show off your list on any web site or blog you want.

This isn’t going to be easy, but hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Filed under: Archive | Post a comment

I didn’t realize it at first, but my cell phone was truly a wonderful device. At first I was impressed with the bluetooth options, the music playback, video features and expandability. Months later I learned how to enable the data connection to my provider and discovered the wonderful world of mobile internet.

I looked up actors on IMDB without getting up from the couch. I checked my email while walking between classes. I updated my facebook status multiple times a day. It was wonderful.

Then Peru ate my phone – long story.

Mike has been letting me borrow his old phone, and it’s been great. I have to collect all my old phone numbers, but I manage.

Today I fell in love with the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1.

The iPhone has been hot because of how simple and pretty it is, but it’s seriously lacking in the world of true smartphones (virtually no expandability, no 3G, and there’s something about actual buttons that actual people really like). The X1 is a beautiful touchscreen device that brings us everything the iPhone lacks. I admit, the iPhone may be a tiny bit more appealing to the eye, though that point is arguable, and only time will show if it’s as simple as it looks, but as of right now, I want one.

Check out the fancy product page here,
or the comprehensive product page here

Filed under: Archive | Post a comment