Psst! HMIS Update

Team Lazarus have been good little worker gnomes – yet even they need a good and earned holiday break! We’re still on track with Project:Seraph – the codename for Digital Gnome’s HMIS.

I’m afraid though we were not immune to the Ruby on Rails vs CakePHP (or other PHP Web framework). We spent some time developing two codebases for the server and….it’s hard to pick. I want to merge them both.
For me, once I read up on the Ruby language I got sooo much more out of using RoR.  CakePHP, however plays to my PHP experience.
And I’m totally  ecstatic about the code generating and scaffolding abilities – RoR more than CakePHP – but I’d take either!

Zend’s implementation of AMFPHP is a plus for CakePHP, but Chris says Ruby has one too!
Installs for either are a breeze – we’ve been testing on SliceHost with no problemos.

Ultimately it may come down to performance. I’m hearing Rails may have some issues – but have yet t see any evidence. So we’re currently running this down and thinking about how to test both to find out…I’ll keep y’all posted about what we find.

For  the non-developers that have heard my rants and have gotten copies of the Project:Seraph functional specs through lunch bribes…I’ll have a semi-white paper for you very soon.

Fresh AIR

At first glance, I pegged Adobe’s AIR product as gimmicky and left it at that. Recently a client asked for a tool that could convert some data from CSV format to a XML format. Easy enough.

“What Platform” I asked assuming Windows.

“Well – some of my clients have Macs” my client replied. Sounds like a Job for Flash!

Only the app needed to run off the various clients desktops and once I saw the size of some of these files…better they be processed over the clients several machines than one server. I took a second look at Adobe AIR – and I am digging it! Basically it’s a Flash/Flex app right on your desktop, so I’m able to quickly develop a sharp-looking app in Flex, get local file handling for FREE and my client is ecstatic that his users, no matter the machine, can go to one place to install the tool.

AIR logo is a registered property of Adobe and is used w/o expressed permission.

One Year Ago…

I got my walking papers about this time last year from a company that outsourced it’s software development to Beijing – then was bought by a Canadian company.

I miss the folks I’ve worked with -but the lesson isn’t lost on me.  Change is a charging minotaur breathing down your back as you navigate the maze. Like it or not you’re going to have to think like Theseus – or wind up dealing with the business end of some horns. It’s the one thing you can absolutely count on, and still not be prepared. There is an African wisdom that says:

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.
Are you ready?