The idea is for a central location to look for information about upcoming tech/web/design events in New Mexico (start with Santa Fe and ABQ).

• Shared google calendar with event organizers. we all have access to enter our own info. (built in iCal feeds etc.)
• Blog which we highlight new, and upcoming events. This is authored by event organizers, and other contributors.
• That’s it. It think simplicity is key. But even this small step would be a big help.

If you know a group that would like to post their info, or if you would like to help by contributing to the blog, email me: mick@davidmichaelthompson.com

Tech Community

In Boulder: At least a couple of events (great then 50 people) a week.  It isnt all the same people at all the events, although at the major ones you can expect the regulars, but in general a good diversity and networking / learning opportunity.  Some of these events are fun geek nights out (Ignite) some have a bit more structure in content (Boulder New Tech Meetup, generally has some demos / presentation about companies and products), some are just user groups exchanging knowledge.

Along with all these events comes many organizers.  These are people that want to give back to the community, want to see it grow, and want to be a part of it.  In Boulder I have seen many people reach out to be a part of this, and I’m starting to see more of that here in New Mexico (read as: a very good thing).

In The Land of Enchantment

Over the last year I think we have seen a good increase in geeky events in New Mexico.  NMTC, Barcamp, Webuquerque, IgniteNM, AIGA, SynerQue, ABQ Web Geeks, Several User Groups(ruby, python?), as well as others I’m sure.  One thing that I think we lack a bit, is cohesion.  Just last night I heard about 2 events that I would have been interested in attending, however I didnt hear about them in time to attend.  Part of this is trying to keep up with multiple groups and just getting lazy about doing so.  Some of it is not knowing about new groups that are just getting started.

The Solution?

There is a question mark, because this is still very open for discussion.

The first step that I’m going to take (and hopefully getting some others involved too) is to start a calendar of all NM Tech Events.  This will be administered by all the group organizers.  Have a group or are you planning an event? Contact me (mick@davidmichaelthompson.com) and I’ll set you up with access to the calendar.  This is based on a shared google calendar, and a website to display the events, and highlight some.

Step 2. Blog covering upcoming events, highlight recaps of past events, and discuss new or current groups.  I’m willing to do some of the writing, but I really want this to be a group effort (i.e. I’m looking for a bunch of other contributors)  This will all at nmtechal.com If you are interested in contributing in any way, let me know.  I want to run this very open to the community at large, everyone welcome!

Step 3. Talking with Chad Kieffer, he has the idea for a event where we actually all pull out our laptops and work on some code.  Very hands on.  I’m thinking about a “Web Project Night” at the Santa Fe Complex.  It would meet 1-2 times a month, we’d decide on some sort of small project, and try to use new tools to accomplish the goal.  Getting to work with others, build something, and try out some new things along the way.

That’s it from me.  Grow community, Grow!

Ignite NM in Albuquerque was a great success, many thanks to all the great presenters.  Ignite NM dealt a lot with technology heavy subjects.  Technology is great, believe me I’m a geek through and through.  But we are looking to having more variety in topics for the next Ignite NM.

Have an idea you want to talk about?  Want to come, please RSVP?  See more info ignite-nm.com

I’ve lived in Los Alamos, almost all my life.  I join the small town with the different feel.  I cant say that I’ve ever found another place like it.  So part of Our Los Alamos is about giving back to that lifestyle, to show others what it means to me, and help them connect with this area like I have.  

This is the first project that from conception to creation has been solely my doing.  The design, the logo, the brand, and the identity is all original and all very important to to me.  It like the project that is never quite good enough, because you want everyone to enjoy it as much as you have.  

I’ve recently started to let the word out, slowly to begin, about Our Los Alamos.  It is light on content, but more is being added every week.  Please take a look, and give me your feedback.

Why am I talking about Twitpic?  Well I thought it would be cool visualize all the photos being shared on twitter, in realtime.  To that end I’m polling twitter search every 3 secs for the term “twitpic”  and publishing them to a xmpp pubsub server.  I built a super simple web interface that subscribes to that pubsub node, and displays new images as soon as they are received. (Technically there is a 5sec delay to let the image load, which makes the display run smoother.)  That is the largest delay, 5secs.  Once anyone uploads a picture to twitpic there is <10sec delay.  

I also include retweets of twitpics, so yes you will see duplicates, sometimes many on the same page, if that image is very popular, and being commented on / retweeted via twitpic. (look out for Miley Cyrus pictures taking over at times)

Check it out, let me know what you think.  I’m thinking about either adding a feature to reply via twitter to the pictures, or to discuss them via group chat on the web page itself.  Suggestions?

http://twitpic.flarify.com

In any project issue tracking becomes needed. You might be working alone on a project for a client, and they find things in the demo that they would like changed, those are issues.  You might be working on a large project with a team, and have QA personal when they find bugs, those are issues.  When the team or person working on the UX doesnt like the interaction, that is an issue.  Or maybe you just find an issue all on your own (maybe a few issues) track those!  Notes about resolutions can be useful, even more so when you are working on 5+ projects.

Where to track?  

Bugzilla – Open source, the de-facto bug tracking for open source projects, well at least at mozilla the creators of bugzilla as well as many other open source projects. Though I have seen less and less projects using Bugzilla lately.   Pros:  it can do just about anything, a million features, easy enough to add anything else you need / want.  Cons: you have to setup, you have to host it, too complex for most clients to use, too clicky. Update: look like there is a new version of bugzilla, 3.2.  I havent tried this one yet, but it does promise a greatly improved UI.  I hope so.

Email – I have done this.  And it can work with limited success.  It is better then nothing, but at the same time has a lot more time involved.  At least you get a history, though it might be in a less query-able format.  This seems like the place many projects start.  But as the spreadsheets that you start emailing back a forth get larger, this becomes far to hard to keep up to date.  Pros: easy to setup, everyone already knows how to use it. Cons: data will be out of sync quickly, it is harder to search and query, i.e.  what are my current open issues?

Basecamp – This is a nice project management tool.  Great interface, excellent workflow, and a simple set of features that is everything you need.  Issue track is missing a couple of things here though.  Mostly because Basecamp tracks todos.  You lose source control integration, issue states / statuses.  But I find that for many clients this is the simplest and easiest to use.  This is often the best choice for client interaction,  It sure beats email.  Pros: easy to learn, most people will understand right away.  Cons:  it might not have every feature you are looking for in issue tracking.

Lighthouseapp.com – These guys are newish, but have created issue tracking that makes sense.  It doesnt get cluttered by a million features that are never used, but it still has the features that count.  I’m using this for my startup.  We can track milestones, issues that need to be completed for each milestone, general issues, and even create some wiki like pages for easy information / idea sharing.  Their interface has a very good feel, easy to use even for your first time, and you are never left guessing how to do something, it is obvious.  Pros: great interface / UX for issue tracking.  easy to learn.  Cons: Might be more than a client wants to deal with.

Which method of issue tracking to use?

That depends on you and your client or team.  For a development team I heartily recommend lighthouseapp.com.  If you have a lot of client interaction in your issue tracking, it might be better to use basecamp.

Anyone like something else?  I know there are a lot of companies in this area and some really great services, so what else I’m I missing? 

Why Filter

First, why accept html at all?  because it is easy enough for users to work with, for a WYSIWYG editor to work with, and it is what you are going to be displaying, really it is best all around in terms of your site’s performance and your user experience.  

Ok, so why filter?  Well there are some hurtful people out there, and some people that dont know what they are doing, both can make you look bad.  First the people that dont know what they are doing will forget to close their tags(leaving a <b> tag so the rest of the page can be bold), and using other markup that will ruin your design.  Then the hurtful people will come in a add some javascript to destructive ends, compromising the security of your site.  And keep in mind that script doesnt have to live inside a <script> tag.  it can be in many attributes, such as onmouseover for example. combine that with some inline style that enlarges and positions text to cover the whole page, and boom!  the hacker just got their malicious script to run on your site without a script tag, not good for your users.

How to Filter

We understand the need, now how do we accomplish the task?  3 main points.

1) Whitelist tags and attributes.  Create a whitelist of allowed tags, and their allowed attributes.  Whitelists are better then blacklisting.  Cause they should be shorter,  they are easier to maintain, and more restrictive.  A comprehensive blacklist could take a long time to make, and whenever a browsers decide to add support for new tags, your blacklist requires updating.  If you use a whitelist, it is shorter, and wont break as new tags are supported.

2) Balance is needed.  Your page can be ruined if the user submitted code includes some </div></div>  Or what if the user opens a tag that they never close… maybe  <center>  What will your site look like then?  You need to add balance to your user submitted html.  Balance all tags.  Also keep in mind tags that self close, <img> or <br> for example.  and to be XHTML compliant make sure they include the self close <br />

3)  Proper Nesting.  Improper nesting in certain browsers can lead to trouble similar that that of unbalanced tags.  Check for <b><u>text</b></u>  

Here is the Code

So enough talk here is some links to helpful code to get this done:

• For sanitizing HTML by means of a whitelist: http://refactormycode.com/codes/333-sanitize-html
• and adding proper balance: http://refactormycode.com/codes/360-balance-html-tags
• I recommend Cal Henderson’s (Flickr Engineer)  book “Building Scalable Web Sites” Chapter 5 http://www.amazon.com/Building-Scalable-Web-Sites-applications/dp/0596102356

So long, and be safe…Filter your Html.

I’ll try to update this post by the end of the week with pictures of vegas/the expo.  I’m just too lazy to sync my camera.  Has anyone ever used the eye-fi card? Because I was thinking about getting one.