Smart Sites is Complete

As promised, the main services of Smart Sites are complete for 2011.  Sign up for your own free web site at SmartSites.us to start off the new year with a new web site!

Now for the real entry

The hardest thing with this so far, ridiculously enough, is building the Links editor.  It allows you to enter an unlimited number of links to outside pages on your site, and runs flawlessly, allowing you to view the current items, add items, edit items, and delete items.  The hard part was not so much the client-side operation as trying to find a safe way to post an unspecified number of titles and addresses and save them in HTML format.  Attempting to take an HTML file, load only the Links section, and split the Title from the URL was difficult, but surprisingly putting it back together was near impossible.  I accidentally got my server stuck in several infinite loops attempting to assemble the file from the posted links, once using over 63MB of RAM.  In the end, the way  it worked out was to run a for loop based on the number of items in the posted Title array, then assemble each item from both posted arrays into one line of the HTML, repeat n times, then save it all to the inc file.

Next, I'll be building hundreds of CSS-based themes, adding database and file support, and finishing up the Pro account features.

Smart Sites

Smart Sites by Alanaktion is the new ultimate service for web site development.  I am working to finish up the editor's new security layer based on mod_rewrite and other Apache HTACCESS modules.  The main site builder service officially opens on January 1, 2011 to mark the new year, and I guarantee I'll have it working to the point where basic pages are possible at that time.  Extended features such as database integration, Smart Media plugins and secure direct-link file access will come soon after.

Some basic updates on my life (and by life I mean my company, which to me is my life :D)

lol i totally just bought another new domain two hours ago for no reason at all!!!

I bought MyOS.us just because...    yeah, it was really stupid.

But....    SmartSites.us is now nearly completed, and so far, the tests are showing that the site works faster and more dynamically than I had hoped.  I've written a lot of custom PHP and JavaScript for this, as it's technically an assignment from Mr. Long.  I wrote everything myself, and it works awesome.  I should have almost everything working and plan to officially open it in 2011.  It will be project for 2010, then I plan to rebuild Xusix OS on a lighter, faster, and more powerful framework, under the name MyOS, hence the domain name I bought for no reason...

Wow, I typed that whole paragraph in 2 minutes....

Continuing...  I plan to start the Alanaktion Web Portal on Alanaktion.com, which is basically just going to be a simplistic search engine with a table-based index.  Alanaktion.net, as you may have noticed, is now the Alanaktion Developer Network, which works well using the .net domain extension.  As a side project of Smart Sites, Smart Media and Smart Stock are two new services I should have up soon. Smart Media is a free-use photography community, which will mainly be for embedding images in a user's Smart Sites page for free, with us taking care of the licensing.  Smart Stock is a powerful program I'm writing that evaluates trends in the stock market and determines the expected values of stocks in specific fields, while allowing user-controlled influence toward specific stocks if the user chooses. Yeps.  That's what I've got right now, we'll see where this goes from there.

See ya! :D I'm so insane...     I love this pointless crap.

Corruption of Math Classes

I just spent an entire hour evaluating massive, complicated logarithms by hand. Not only is this extremely annoying, but after some thought, the only reason a high school math class would teach advanced math by hand is because colleges and universities don't allow use of calculators and other utilities on most tests. What I really can't understand, is why the colleges use this method. In any situation where advanced mathematics would be used in a career, an advanced calculator, or more likely a computer would be available. The only conceivable use for learning advanced mathematics by hand would be to become a math teacher, which would only really need to teach basic usage of these methods, and how to properly use a computational utility. Mathematics is being taught (in most cases) in the most difficult and unnecessary ways possible. I make the assumption that this is only because of this: before computational technology became widely available, it was necessary to teach methods of all mathematics by hand, and as technology has become more available, math classes have just retained the traditional methods of teaching.

Alanaktion Search and Business Solutions

The Alanaktion Search Engine has been completed, and it searches the entire Alanaktion network including the Developer Center, Forums, and Xusix websites.  I may add the ability to search our partner's web sites that we host in the future.

Alanaktion Business Solutions is a new service that I am getting started that will allow small businesses and organizations to easily keep secure client/customer databases directly integrated with a basic company web page.  Security maintaining usability has been the main focus while developing this project, to make sure account login data is transfered as few times as possible and, whenever possible, is heavily encrypted.

Alanaktion.net is now the Alanaktion Developer Network, and will have a new home page reflecting that change in the near future.  I'm also accepting design ideas, but it should be a simple, fast-loading, portal-style design for the home page.

I would like to recreate the CloudOS that our hosting provide restricted access to, however it will be a difficult and possibly unneccessary change.  It is likely that any change I make will just make it more difficult to ensure usability in the future.

New Search Engine

Ok, so I decided not to use the stupid Projects blog on Alanaktion.com...   It was such a pain to maintain, I figured I may as well just stay with Blogger, since it's so fast and easy.  Anyway, that's beside the point.

I'm starting up a new web site!  The Alanaktion Search, which was previously just a tiny redirect script on Alanaktion.net, is now being built at www.alanaktion.com!  When completed, it will allow fast, easy searching of several common web sites, as well as all of the Alanaktion and Xusix products and services.  With time, it may even search my blog!  Be sure to check it out and comment on how you like it!  Any suggestions are welcome and helpful.

Recent Projects

It's been a while since I last posted, and since then I've started work on several new projects, one of which will actually tell you about the others, so I'll just link to it (it's a new self-hosted blog for my company projects).

Alanaktion Projects Blog
Note: this link may need to be updated as I add new features to the blog.

I Need New Music

I've grown somewhat tired of my current music collection, regardless of the fact that I have over 17,000 songs on my laptop...  If you've got any music I may be interested in, feel free to post a comment.

My School Site

For my Computer Applications class (which is likely somewhat below my level of experience), I created a new personal website.  I think it's very nice, and blalalabl sjdl kf jlskd fjsl...

There it is!
CLICK HERE (big long url)

Please don't spend too much time on this site, as it is run off of a small server, and I assume could be overloaded quite easily.  Large PHP scripts (like the countdown or Hangman game), especially may take a lot of server power to execute.

For server stats, click here. (this is quite laggy too)

CloudOS Servers Down

Unfortunately, after much effort, CloudOS 1.9 and 2.0b servers remain down, thanks to our hosting provider.  I am still working to fix this problem, but I can't say I expect a solution to be presented any time soon...  I may, if necessary, switch to using the Alanaktion Beta Development Server, which has never actually been accessible to the public, as the CloudOS hosting server, as it has powerful script and database processing abilities, and is not directly connected to any of our other servers, further increasing its capabilites.  If I make any progress whatsoever, I'll be sure to post.

Free iTunes Store Codes

This link will allow you and me to get free money for your iTunes account.

http://itunesgenerator.com/?i=108094

Alanaktion.net Update

After some work a while back, I can't remember when for sure, I completed Alanaktion.net version 3.2, which introduced some nice dynamic pages with glass styles.  Now that I've had my fun with version 3, I've started development of Alanaktion.net version 4, codenamed "Interface4".  This will be a revolutionary new approach at a dynamic web site, using a consistently themed, minimalistic interface to access every feature of the powerful web site.  You can see what progress has been made (if any) at http://www.alanaktion.net/interface4.html.

CloudOS 2.2 Released

CloudOS 2.2 is now available!  Join for free today, or pay later!

cloudos.alanaktion.com

Website Animation

I've added animations to the entire Alanaktion.net interface!  Although it is not complete, you can see most of what will be there on the Contact Page.  It is a great example of the usage of the CSS Webkit and Opera animation properties.  Soon, I will have the full animation sets working for Google Chrome, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari.

Lockheed's Amazing Cover (literally)

see more

Wow, that's awesome.  Crazy idea...  You'll have to read the post (click the image) to know what I'm talking about...

CloudOS Update

I repaired a theming compatibility bug and installed a new theme, Oxygen, which is based off of the KDE 4.4 theme Oxygen.  I also added several new games and other applications.  I'll add a few more themes later today.
cloudos.alanaktion.net

SUSE Development

After completing CloudOS, I returned to Linux development.  Using SUSE Studio, I've got three Linux distributions almost available; Desktop Edition, Server Edition, and Graphical Server Edition.

Desktop Edition
A powerful, fast, and feature-rich operating system that includes all of the most common Linux applications.  Perfect for the average user.

Server Edition
A lightweight, terminal-only Linux built for running large, powerful server systems.  It includes PHP5, MySQL, Perl, Python, SSL, and many other great features.

Graphical Server Edition
A powerful, easy to use server operating system with a simple but extensive interface.  It includes PHP5, MySQL, Perl, Python, SSL, and many other great features.

CloudOS is Complete

I've completed the last bit of work on CloudOS!  Sign up for free at cloudos.alanaktion.net.

New CloudOS Framework

I decided that my work so far on CloudOS had become ridiculously insecure and displayed completely differently (incorrectly) in every browser.  Also, the lack of a mobile edition was somewhat disappointing.  I decided to rebuild the entire OS on the eyeOS framework, which provided a basic UI (including mobile), and a secure user system.  I will continue the development of it until it is safe to openly use, at which time I will post a link on my blog!  Hooray! lol :D

Alanaktion Linux

I'm still hard at work on the Alanaktion Linux Distribution, and so far the kernal and base UI work great on most systems.  I'll continue to enhance the UI and set up the initial programs to better make use of the OS.  Although the OS may not be available to install for some time, I'm hoping I can have it finished and uploaded to the Alanaktion Tech Archives in a few weeks.  I'll be sure to post a link on my blog and on my website when it's available.

New Site UI

After recently cleaning up my website's UI, I decided it needed some changes, so I redesigned everything from the font schemes to the background images.  The entire UI now uses Internet Explorer compatible rounded objects, as well as semi-transparent glossy panels and controls.  Check it out at www.alanaktion.net.

Developer Training Center

I decided that I could use some help with all my projects, so I started the Developer Training Center, to help people learn the languages and skills necessary to design computer applications and web sites.  It is available for registered users at dev.alanaktion.net. You can request an account be emailing me at alan@alanaktion.net or using the Contact page at www.alanaktion.net.

New Developer Center and Linux

I decided to rename CloudDev to the Developer Center, just because I think it sounds better.  I started development of a custom Linux release, and will be distributing each release of it on the developer center, now available at dev.alanaktion.net.

Alanaktion CloudDev

While setting up my new interface for the site, I omitted one key feature that many had liked in the old site.  Alanaktion CloudDev, the open-source development community, had several frequent visitors as well as some incredible content including the in-browser window manager, CloudOS.  I have been redesigning CloudDev to directly interface with CloudOS, the Alanaktion Forum, and XusixNet, and should have it ready by next month.  Until then, you can still use whatever I've gotten working so far by going to cloud.alanaktion.net.

Hooray for the Proxy

I've been working a lot on my PHP Proxy lately, available at pxy.alanaktion.net.  The proxy works perfectly with the full version of Facebook (minus the games and some applications), and has good compatibility with MySpace, although you must enable JavaScript (selectable on the Proxy homepage).  I hope to continue making the proxy work better for more sites and fix download, flash, and javascript errors.

The Pirate Bay Attack

Yesterday, several Hollywood actors and producers as well as MAFIAA organized an attack on the notorious torrent site The Pirate Bay. Not very surprisingly, they were being attacked through massive fines directed at their ISP, forcing them to either give in or find another ISP.  They chose the second, and had the site back up running perfectly by today.  Hooray for TPB!

See TPB's Blog Post
The Pirate Bay

Mobile Web Design

Developing web sites can be very fun, but one thing in particular can become very challenging.  Mobile browsers such as Safari on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad can support most content that a desktop browser will (the iPad especially does well with large pages) but many other mobile phones and devices, such as the Blackberry, have very limited browsers.  On a proper web site, each device should be detected uniquely and processed correctly, allowing the best design possible for that device.  I've begun my newest development in to this feature, and so far, I have automatic individual processing for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad (it detects and processes the iPad very uniquely), Palm OS devices, Google Android phones, Blackberry Phones, and several others.  This new feature processes the device you're using when you go to www.alanaktion.net, and displays the corresponding site for your device.  iPod touch, iPhone, and most other smaller mobile devices (not iPad) have access to the Alanaktion Media center, where music and video can be streamed on the devices.

Alanaktion OS 12

I've begun working on Alanaktion OS 12 with a few friends, and it may become the most amazing program we've ever designed.  Right now, it's proving to be greatly disappointing, but you can check it out on the Development Blog or the Beta Release page.

Alanaktion.net Update

Alanaktion.net has a new interface update, and along with it, the new Xusix Tech website is finally available!  Check it out at www.alanaktion.net!

Music Design

I've recently discovered that I love making music.  I installed Adobe Audition 3 and a few nice VSTi's, and I think I'm about complete with my first song.

[file temporarily removed]

I started my blog today, and while it is still quite empty and unorganized, it will significantly improve over time. I'm quite busy with lots of other things right now, so I won't be making it a very high priority, but it will continue to get updated.