About PuppyPics: Chrome extension that replaces page images with pictures of puppies!
Intent: Brighten up people’s day with pictures of puppies.
Personal Intent: Wanted to build a Chrome extension and something fun.
Backstory: Wanted to stretch my JavaScript muscles and follow a new set of guidelines for development.

Gallery:

• Rely on the MAN pages. They will explain what all those crazy characters after the command mean.
• Always wear protection when doing woodwork
• Piping will save you a great deal of time when you need to write a script quickly and don’t have time to clean it up
• Try to work with people with different work backgrounds than you. You’ll learn a great deal, and have some bonding time in the process

GALLERY:

Photo of me wiring a lightbulb stand by @praetoriansentry

About MoneyRunner:  Remember the days of the Atari by being a 1980′s money hungry investor looking for coins and taking them away from other players.

GALLERY:

To access project: Call (206) 456-1465, ext 1 when asked.

About GameCentral: Allow anyone with a mobile phone (old-school Nokia phones to the new fancy smart-phones) to play audio-based brain games.

The user calls the number, their number is automatically pushed to the server, where it is check to see if its in the server. If it’s not, a new entry is created for them. If they are a previous user, their score is pulled.

The user is then presented with a phone tree, which contains the game’s name. Once they pick a game, they are given instructions on how to play. Every single time they get a right answer, their score is updated in the database.

In the back-end of things, I took a OOP approach for the project. Each game is a ‘module’, which are broken down into two simplistic functions: state question & check response. All other functionality of the game is handled by the main class. This will allow for easy swapping and adding of games. An extra class, Server, was written to allow for communication to the MySQL server. It was created as an extra class in order to separate the PHPAGI and PHP, along with giving each class its own purpose.

Slide deck is hosted by GDocs, and can be viewed HERE.

Slide deck may also be viewed here:

CLICK HERE TO SEE ADMIN PANEL
CLICK HERE TO SEE EVENT MOBILE PAGE

Original Planning Post
Pillars of Support, Layers of a Pillar, Loyalty-Pie, Persona & User Stories Post

About SMSBroadcast: Targeting the upper-middle class female population, who likely have SmartPhones, I designed and developed an app to remind them of events happening at the Yolo Basin Foundation. The users send an “opt-in” message to a predefined number, where they receive an automated message back from the server. This registers the users’ number to the mailing list.

When the administrator wants to send a message to the mailing list, he/she types visits the admin page, fills out the form, and submits the message. The content of the form is saved onto a database, while the title & a generated url shortner is sent to all members of the mailing list.

The user receives an SMS message from the Yolo Basin, along with a link to a page with more info. When they click the link, they are taken to a mobile page that contains all the information needed.

The Idea: The idea is based that people still like to receive SMS messages. There is something distinct about having one’s phone vibrate/ring when we receive a message. It is also more socially acceptable to check an SMS message than to check email, and also faster. By making it more socially acceptable, there is a better chance the receiver will tell their friends about it, and in return bring more people to the event. At the event, it is up to the foundation folks to ask for donations.

• The technology exists, and is used, but it has to be labeled properly.
• Make human rights options more accessible
• Improve visual privacy & anonymity
• Dedicated digital human rights spaces
• Engage with technologists
• Create a human rights tech network
• Make tools easy to use

Photo from: http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/PX_JCS4YWHb/Ondine+Portraits+2009+Toronto+International/fl2zoy9KGKa/Colin+Farrell

About: Assignment for Week 3 of Data Representation at ITP | NYU. “Let’s see what you can do with your newfound CSV skills. Pick a data set from the Guardian Data Store and create a simple, static visualization.”

I used the data set from the Guardian’s Datablog : University applications: which subject are up and down?

Notes:I decided to use OOP to better organize the data. I noticed that each subject more could be an object in an ArrayList, rather than having a huge array. This also allows me to remove objects later if needed to focus on certain major cores, like Languages, which contains a variety of majors.

• Feelings Support – Sometimes folks want to tell someone how they are feeling, but don’t have a support group nearby. They want to communicate with a real person, but are afraid of striking conversation with a stranger. With sms, folks get the knowledge of a real person responding with complete privacy. Sometimes one expresses themselves better via text than voice.

How It Works:

• User sends a text with their emotions to a specified number (the server).
• The server finds an available volunteer and relays the message to them.
• The volunteer responds back to a specified number (the server).
• The server relays the message back to the original recipient.

From the top-most layer, it looks as if its Human <—> Human. In reality, its Human <—> Machine <—> Human. The machine in this case plays the role of the phone operator.

In the ideal situation, users would send the keyword “Omen” plus their message to a shortcode. Given the monetary restrictions on getting a shortcode via Twilio, I am using the sandbox number as the ‘shortcode’, and the sandbox id as the keyword in this prototype.

Code : On GitHub

Notes: Omen Design Notes (image on new page)