By StrangeWork.com: Today I joined Steve Gillmor on his IT podcast The Gillmor Gang to talk about my new Identi.ca Twitter Bridge! Also on the show were Marc Canter (Broadband Mechanics), Evan Prodromou (Identi.ca), and Kevin Marks (Google).

On Monday I decided to make the switch to Identi.ca full time, but to do this I needed a way to post messages from Identi.ca to my Twitter account. After searching for a solution that would fit my needs for a bit I decided to just create one, thus the Identi.ca Twitter Bridge was born.

Steve Gillmor registered shortly after the application launched. I didn’t know at the time, but Steve hadn’t updated Twitter in over a month. Now he was sending all of his Identi.ca updates to Twitter. Steve was pretty vocal about his thoughts on the app, which was great. As a developer I always want to hear feedback on applications I build and launch. Having someone at Steve’s level review an application I created was a real treat!

I joined in the later half of the show and talked about my application, how it works, and where it is going. I also spoke on some new features that will be implemented, including the option to disable @replies on posts to Twitter. Steve isn’t a fan of this feature (bug as he calls it) and decided to deactivate his account. I respect Steve’s decision, but as a developer I have to give the users some flexibility with options. Not all users are the same, so I have always programmed to please the majority.

Steve also mentioned he is in the early stages of organizing a Microblogging conference and extended an invitation to me! I think a central gathering of techies to help define what Microblogging is and where it needs to go in the future is an excellent idea! I also hope they have developer specific sessions as well, and if so I’ll probably submit to be a panel member of some sort.

Popularity: 4% [?]

By StrangeWork.com: Yesterday I had the privilege of being interviewed on The Tech Buzz Show, live on Ustream.tv. I had a great time chatting about web development with Steve and Shawn.

The interview is broke up into three parts and runs about 30 minutes long.

Brad Williams Interview part 1

Brad Williams Interview part 2

Brad Williams Interview part 3

Popularity: 4% [?]

By StrangeWork.com: WebDevStudios.com, the New Jersey based software development company I co-founded, just launched a much needed new site design! Not only is the design new, but we also completely changed our website platform to WordPress.

WordPress is a leader in the open source software community, and a perfect fit for what we needed in a content management system.

Yes, I said content management system. WordPress is a great fit for any size company to manage their public website, and can become a powerful CMS with just a few plugins. Since we specialize in open source website development, it only makes sense to practice what we preach.

WordPress also gives us the much needed ability to blog! Thus the Official WebDevStudios.com Blog has launched. This blog will focus more on open source technology news, tips, source code, publicly released WebDevStudios plugins, and more!

Stay tuned as more website updates are sure to follow!

Popularity: 6% [?]

By StrangeWork.com: I’ve been working on a lot of great projects recently. One of those projects has been creating the new Asbury Park Chess Fest 2008 website.

The great folks at Prevention First, a not-for-profit agency, and the city of Asbury Park New Jersey will be joining together to host Chess Fest 2008 on September 27th. The event is going to try to break a Guinness Book of World Record for most simultaneous chess games. The current record was set in 2006 in Mexico City with 13,500 chess players.

“ChessFest 2008 will be star-studded and attract the world’s finest and most famous chess players. Pre-event chess-related festivities are planned for the week prior to the event and include a movie, a play and much more.”

Chess Fest Social Presence
We are currently working on building a “social presence” for the event. Currently we have launched four social network accounts:

Chess Fest Facebook Group - The obvious first choice. Facebook is becoming the standard for organized groups and events in a social community.

Chess Fest MySpace Group - by far the most annoying site to create an account for. Now have to wait 7 days before being “allowed” to create a group. coming soon I guess…

Chess Fest Ning Social Network - Ning is an awesome site that allows you to create a social network within minutes! Really looking forward to growing this site and getting the discussions going!

Chess Fest Twitter Account - Of course our good, and sometimes bad, friend Twitter is here. Twitter is a great tool to send out short blurbs and news posts for anyone looking for more information on the chess fest.

These four sites will help us spread the word and build a network of enthusiastic chess players! The next phase will include a couple more networks and possibly a social network application or two.

Now I need to study my chess moves so I don’t get hit with a Fool’s mate at the festival!

Popularity: 12% [?]

By StrangeWork.com: Startup weekend is coming here to Indianapolis! I guess I should say “going there” since I just moved to New Jersey.

Startup Weekend Indianapolis has been scheduled for Friday September 12th through Sunday September 14th 2008. You can register online if you plan on attending.

I’ve participated in two Startup Weekends to date, but only for one night each time. As luck would have it I should be back for that weekend. I’m flying back to attend the MotoGP race in Indianapolis with my Dad the weekend after.

I’m looking forward to the event and can’t wait to reconnect with some Indy Techies!

Don’t think I’m not keeping an eye on you guys!

Popularity: 10% [?]

By StrangeWork: SitePoint launched a new section a couple months ago which is a must bookmark for all web developers out there. Mash a solid reference book on HTML, CSS, and JavScript and you’ll have the SitePoint Reference.

SitePoint launched the CSS Reference in March of 2008, and just last week launched the HTML beta reference!

These reference sites couldn’t be easier to use and cover languages relatable to all web developers including HTML, CSS, and a soon to launch section on JavaScript. You can either search for specific elements or drill down in the easy to navigate categories.

Reference sites and books are great for developers like myself that know how to program, but need help remembering syntax from time to time. Do yourself a favor now and bookmark this site!

Popularity: 10% [?]

By StrangeWork.com: As most of you know I am in the process of starting my own Web Development Company in New Jersey. Starting a company takes a lot of work, but of course I knew this going into it. Business is great and we are starting to grow!

I’ve decided to shift focus on my technologies track a little. I’ve always programmed with Microsoft technologies including classic ASP, ASP.NET, VB, SQL Server, etc. I’ve been developing dynamic websites with classic ASP for almost 8 years now and I still love that language. I use ASP.NET occasionally when the project calls for it, but I love scripting languages. I’ve decided to focus my efforts on PHP rather than ASP.NET.

Scripting has always come natural to me, so why focus on a more object-oriented language? Exactly, so from this point on I will be primarily developing in ASP and PHP. The logic is the same as ASP, just different syntax so the switch won’t be too dramatic.

Expect to see some sweet PHP applications rolling out in the coming months!

Popularity: 28% [?]

By StrangeWork.com: I had my first boss in the Marine Corps, Chief Warrant Officer Lipscomb, contact me and my business partner Brian today. I haven’t spoken with him in over 7 years!

It was great catching up with him! Officer Lipscomb was the man in charge of Brian and I as we became Web Developers for the 2nd Force Service Support Group at Camp Lejeune. Thus the dynamic programming duo was born!

The Marine Corps was hard, but I’ll always have a deep respect for it. After all, it made me who I am today! I wouldn’t be undertaking this adventure to start a Web Dev company without the leadership and self motivation I gained from the Marines.

OOORAH!

Popularity: 10% [?]

By StrangeWork.com: After months of planning I finally made my move to New Jersey!
It’s really a site to see your entire life packed in a moving truck. The trip was long and boring, but we made it in about 14 hours. We arrived at 4am and started unloading at 7! HARDCORE!

I have my office all setup and am working toward my dream of running my own company. There is still much to do, but at least the move is behind me. Expect more frequent postings coming soon!

Popularity: 10% [?]

By StrangeWork.com: The Batteries.com warehouse/office move is officially over!

The warehouse servers were shutdown at 4:30pm on Thursday and back online 4 hours later. The warehouse crew spent the weekend moving over all of our products and we were testing shipments by Saturday.

Overall the warehouse move went amazingly well. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. This has been in the planning stages for about 2 months, so it’s very nice to have this done and over with.

I’m looking forward to getting back to my regular blog updates and podcasting. Next up is the BIG move to New Jersey!

Popularity: 9% [?]