Alex Reich

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Writer, Editor, Programmer

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Los Angeles, California

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GPS mobility communications microsoft ajax asp.net python django silverlight xaml csharp old vb code sharepoint dark chocolate dark beer presentations

I am an independent consultant based in Los Angeles, California with my office at the Venice Center for Peace Justice and the Arts in Venice, California.

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Well, it looks like I am about to take a new position shortly. As it hasn’t been announced yet, I’ll keep quiet on the details. Since I’ll be doing more writing (and editing), I wanted to thank my high school AP English teacher, Mrs. Spiers.

First, she didn’t flunk me, which is good because I hated Pride and Prejudice (and still hold a grudge against Jane Austin, Elizabeth and her Darcy). Mostly, though, she encouraged me to keep writing and occasionally recognized when I actually made a point. I remember my favorite line in my Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness paper, “Jim is a work of the jungle.” Distilling great works of literature down to a 3rd grade level, Isn’t that what good writing is all about? :D

Thanks again, Mrs. Spiers!

6:36:42 AM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it

10/13/2008

Oops I'm Late! v1.2.3

Oops I'm Late! is rolling forward! A lot of minor issues have been resolved and new features are being added. v.1.2.3 is also the easiest version to learn yet! New features include:

Better Facebook support: There were a number of minor issues last week w/Facebook that were resolved. The service was added to the Facebook Applications directory and was enabled. Issues w/Facebook.Compact were resolved.
Use Appointment Notes: The appointment notes/body can be used as the notification message itself. Use Menu, Settings, Use Appointment Notes checkbox. Added to Ecnomoy/Ad Supported.
Twitter-Compatible: Social networks which comply w/the Twitter API are now supported. A service need only use an alternate API root, for example, http://army.twit.tv/api.
Auto-Attendees bug fix: Users who had set attendee filtering to "None" were unable to have appointment attendees automatically added. This has been resolved.
Multiple-results from Yahoo: Entering an ambiguous location like "Venice" now allows the user to choose the most appropriate result.
Menu change: Adding attendees w/Social Direct is now Web Contact. In the context of Twitter- this feature is 'Friends'.
Single result change: Geocoding which results in 1 possible location is now automatically assumed to be the user's selection, but still requires confirming and copying the location via a map.
Known issues: there is a minor issue w/tabbing in the Settings form that seems be Windows Mobile related.

*** Updated 10/18/08 - v.1.2.3 Refresh - Facebook API change resolved

**** Updated 10/28/08 - v.1.2.3 Refresh 2 - UI issue resolved, All special fields now case insensitive

9:55:44 AM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Computers and Internet

10/2/2008

Oops I'm Late! v1.2.2

Oops I'm Late! v1.2.2 is out! While the main new feature is Facebook, this version is much more a product of the developer who uses the product every day/dog-food loving/application hardening style. The Facebook implementation was based on the original Facebook.Compact project and will require patience by the user during installation.*

The highlighted features added in this version:

Twitter and Facebook messaging added across all versions including free, ad-supported
Yahoo! support for geocoding w/destination verification using Yahoo! maps
Social Network Friends – Add Twitter and Facebook friends to send direct, private messages in addition to public status updates

Finally, a change was made to settings.xml with Publishers and Publisher becoming SocialNetworks and SocialNetwork respectively.

* Facebook support requires several steps during installation that ensure uninterrupted secure communications. Facebook users will require installation of the Facebook Equifax certificate, which Oops I'm Late! downloads from it's original source on behalf of the user. Next, the user will need to log in to Facebook and add Oops I'm Late! as an application to their Facebook account. Finally, the user will need to grant the permission to update the user's status. Source: Facebook Development with the .NET Compact Framework, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb932386.aspx

9/10/2008

Howdy, TechZulu

I am doing some tech blogging again, this time for TechZulu. I am super-excited as the site is a major up and coming player here in SoCal and Efren is super cool to work with. Check out my first post regarding the Mixergy event, "Strut Your Stuff". http://techzulu.com/mixergy-strut-your-stuff.html

1:27:18 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Computers and Internet

9/3/2008

Holy Schneike, what happened to Techlusive?

It took my 13 year-old to point out to me that Techlusive.com was gone w/the following note: "To all the readers of Techlusive, our situation has changed and Techlusive is shutting down indefinitely. Please visit Digg for all your tech news." He goes on to sell his PHP software.

I went back to Google Reader and read the last few posts in the feed. If it was Chris R's Canada bashing that caused the shutdown, all I can say is that Vancouver is a beautiful city and I have nothing against our friends to the north.

In other news, I will be tech blogging again soon enough. Doing the daily entry was some work but also a lot of fun and I have been actively seeking out more socal tech blogging. For now, the old posts I linked to below could be obtained by pasting them into a search engine and viewing them via cache.

10:18:20 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Computers and Internet

8/21/2008

Back to work

My editing & writing gig w/Techlusive has come to an end as my consulting and other projects are keeping me busy. It was a pleasure working with Chris from Techlusive and I wish him and the site well. Below is a list of the articles I wrote over the last month, Enjoy!

9:13:53 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Computers and Internet

7/23/2008

Now writing for Techlusive

I thought I would post back here about my new writing gig at Techlusive. You can see Chris's introduction here and my first article titled "So You Want to Be a Video Game Making Star" here. I like the approach being taken w/the site as a Southern California Tech Startup Blog, a sort of Techcrunch meets Engadget meet Slashdot for SoCal. I think we, in the Southern California tech community, are forgotten mostly in this area and overshadowed by NorCal.

Of course, we have Disneyland, Hollywood and Paris Hilton instead of Apple, Google and HP. But moreover, we also have the defense industry and a lot of high-tech on our own turf. It will be interesting to cover some of the lesser known local companies and shed some light in new areas. Of course, I will still make the occasional entry over here and the Oops I'm Late! twitter (my scratchpad for product and traffic related news) as well as my own personal twitter here.

7:36:31 AM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Computers and Internet

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