Ok, I’m going to go off the reservation here and do something that mixes home life with “work” life.
Every year over the Christmas season we play a game. We count the number of Christmas Trees we see on vehicles. And by count I mean the first person to shout “TREE!” gets a point. While the game makes me happy, it does cause stress as gosh darn it I also want to win.
My wife has infected a bunch of her friends with the game and here’s a snippet of what she posted this morning:
****** TREE ON A TRUCK SEASON IS FINALLY HERE!!!*********
Woo hoo!! By far one of my favorite days of the year is rapidly approaching!!! The first day of Tree on a Truck season!! How do you play? By spotting Christmas trees strapped to the top of trucks/cars and even motorcycles this holiday season. Last year, we saw a pickup truck with a fully decorated AND lit tree driving around. And a tree in a grocery cart. And yes, both count.
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So where does the “work” part come in? We’ll early this week I had a crazy thought. Why not have a little “App” that we can use to help keep track of who has how many trees? I could “whip something up and then use it for NotesIn9”.
Ya know what happens when you “whip something up”? It becomes a mixed together mess.
Anyway – I did do it. I made a quick and dirty web application using XPages and Mobile Controls. I wanted to see the mobile controls in Domino 9.0.1. There was good and bad. I’ve never actually targeted a phone before so that seemed interesting. And believe it or not I’ve not done a lot with validation, cookies, and some other things yet and this would give me a good playground. Some things like cookies and “splash screens” I’ll be needing for the day job sooner rather then later.
So anyway – if you want to play the Christmas Tree game at home – feel free to go to TreeOnATruck.com and track your trees.
No it’s not a great site yet. Not even a good one. But it seems to functionally work. I plan on building the app for NotesIn9 and hopefully highlighting improvements as I go etc. So if you’re just interested in that great. I did use Java so there will be some “getting started” material involved. I’ve already learned a bunch of new things from working on the app.
Not exactly sure when it’ll hit NotesIn9. Certainly not on Black Friday. That’s the best weekend of the year for Tree Spotting!
Note: the website is designed for Smart Phones and does not work in IE.