Projects

Over the years, I've worked on a bunch of non-work related projects. This is an incomplete, reverse chronological list.

Banshee Web

Banshee Web is a web-based application for controlling Banshee, a Linux-based media player. It is designed specifically for iPhone/iPod Touch use. It is a Python script that uses dbus bindings to control Banshee. I've decided not to release it until the dbus interface for Banshee improves to offer additional functionality, such as viewing the playlist and changing songs in a more robust way.

Remote Desktop Web (rdw)

Link: RDW on Google Code

Remote Desktop Web is a web-based, native remote desktop client. It does not use Flash but instead uses an AJAX HTML interface to send remote keystrokes and mouse clicks to a Java server on the host.

GreenGene (YellowLeaf)

Link: YellowLeaf on SourceForge

Using the working name YellowLeaf, GreenGene is a reimplementation of an old mainframe-based plant breeding simulation program designed to teach students genetics concepts. This was part of a Software Engineering Project course at UBC. GreenGene is now a fully web-based application, using PHP and MySQL. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Web Caller ID (webcid)

Link: WebCID at Sourceforge

WebCID originated as a Windows application that captured caller ID information from an analog modem. As time went by, I rewrote it as a Perl daemon and added a PHP-based web interface to run on Linux. Calls are logged to a database and the web interface enables you to see who called when you're away.

Since switching to VOIP, I haven't used this program in about 2 years.

PicGo

Link: Demo Album on PicGo.com

PicGo was written in 2002 when online photo albums were less sophisticated than they are now. It is a multi-user, multi-album photo gallery hosting system written entirely from scratch. It was intened to include community-based features like comments and photo sharing but development didn't get that far.

I have since switched to using Picasa.

quizmeBC

Link: quizmeBC web site

This project came about in highschool (at the end of 2000) as part of a couple web competitions for Canadian highschool students. We took previous Provincial Exam answers, dumped them into a database, and wrote a fancy exam engine to drive the site. We’ve received quite a good response (even 9+ years later, even though the site hasn’t really been changed). We also placed highly in several of the competitions, include one from BC School Principal’s Association and CTV NewsNet.

Over the years, we’ve received a lot of feedback from teachers and students from around the province. Apart from complaints that it hasn’t been updated in years, we’ve received a lot of positive comments.

Amazon BBS

Back in highschool, I ran a RemoteAccess-based BBS in Mission, BC called Amazon BBS. I started at a time when the BBS scene was dieing somewhat, and the Internet was taking over. All the same, the BBS grew in numbers quite quickly.

Toward the end, I become more involved with FidoNet, acting as District 50 Coordinator (1:153/50), and Zone Coordinator for UserNet, a BC-based echo network. I ran FrontDoor and later switched BinkleyTerm.

During the operation of Amazon BBS, I also wrote a Windows-based user database manager which I called RA-UBE/32 — or, RemoteAccess Userbase Editor. Written in Delphi 3, it managed all aspects of user management. It was somewhat buggy and never released beyond a beta version.

Unfortunately my backups of my BBS are corrupt, and I am unable to retrieve the old ANSI menus and such.

Other Things

mvpmc

I contributed a couple patches for mvpmc to improve the remote control functionality. MVPMC is a replacement firmware for the Hauppage MediaMVP set-top box.