Web Standards, Accessibility and Other Stuff

My personal project this year, TimeTracker, is now complete and available for purchase. It’s a a web application to track one’s time with clients. I developed it for a friend’s employer, Music to Grow On, in order for music therapists to track hours with their clients. Of course, other professionals such as psychologists, teachers, and consultants, could make good use of the application.

Manage session time with clients with the TimeTracker

In TimeTracker, the professional may enter session information, run reports on his sessions, and view his client information. An administrator may edit user and client information, assign clients, modify all session data, and run detailed reports. In addition to tracking session dates and times, the scope of the project expanded to record driving miles, and to mark sessions as an assessment or a quarterly evaluation. You can read the list of features here.

So I was getting directions the other day on Google Maps, and noticed that the Street View is now available in my neighborhood. If the street address of my rental house is entered (”18750″), my neighbors home is actually shown. I had to modify the address just a bit (to “18740″) to get a better shot of my home.

At first, it’s a little scary knowing that your home is now plotted on Google Maps, but I’m down with it. I’m just glad you can’t read the license plate numbers…

I recently purchased a new PC at Fry’s. I don’t have the budget for a new Mac yet, so I got a pretty decent Windows box for only $300! Plus the tax and extended warranty, of course. It’s an HP Compaq Presario and has 2 Gigs of RAM and 250 Gig hard drive. So the computer came with Windows Vista. To my surprise, I’m really liking it. It has more of a Linux-like GUI which is pretty cool.

Wal-Mart is selling a computer for $199. It’s called the Everex TC2502 and I like it.

Why is it so great? First of all, it uses less energy than a typical desktop computer so it’s friendly to the environment. Second, the price is right; it doesn’t come with a monitor, but monitors are so inexpensive now, and you may even have an extra lying around somewhere…I do.

Last, but not least, it’s not Windows! The Everex TC2502 runs on the gOS operationg sytem, a Linux system that’s based on Ubuntu and Enlightenment). This is a great alternative to that crap OS and obviously much more affordable than the pricey Macintosh.

Some of the specs:

• 80GB hard drive
• 512 MB RAM (2 GB max)
• CD burner and DVD player
• OpenOffice software
• Ethernet port
• Keyboard, mouse, and stereo speakers