The Virtual Store Concept And Thoughts

On April 21st, 2008 The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) reported that Apple filed a virtual stores patent in which customers might be able to see where other shoppers are in the store and possibly interact with each other.

TUAW makes an intriguing point that "this system would also allow for storewide announcements of special events or sales going down."

MacNN where Apple's virtual store patent was first revealed tells of some of the creepy almost stalker-like features in Apple's patent (under the headline "Caution: A Work In Progress").... which would probably be or quickly become annoying!

Now as TUAW mentioned "I doubt the old methods of clicking and browsing by yourself are going away anytime soon."

The reason the standard web interface of today won't disappear anytime soon boils down to why people are shopping online and what their purpose is.

More frequently than not people who are "shopping" online are just looking for more information... whether it be more information about a particular product or any number of things...

But it all comes down to the basic marketing concept that people are looking for a solution for a problem they have... even if it is just a problem only that they perceive! (But that's a post for another day)

In such a case where people are looking for the solution to their problem or want more information about a particular product then the idea for such an interactive virtual store may be an attractive option...

And may also be perceived as a good option for people who are really interested in making a purchase but are a little unsure... and need that little extra social proof or assistance.

However, in the case that I'm sure we all frequently come across is quite simply the fact that we want what we want and we want it now!!

Many times we've already done our research about the thing we're going to get and the only thing standing between us and having it is the distance between our chair and the place where the thing we want is...

And we don't want to bother with anyone else - they'll just slow us down - so if we can log online, put the thing we want in our shopping cart, pull out our credit card and have it show up at our door we couldn't be more satisfied!

Why try and put any extra steps or roadblocks in our way to get what we want. Plus, why would you want to add a whole new level of complexity to everything that we didn't ask for or ever wanted....

Which is why the standard web interface of today won't... and shouldn't disappear!

It will be a nice feature separate of the standard web-based shopping interface for those who would like it, but give us all the option to do things as we would normally do as fast as possible...

Because if you start adding those extra features into the load-time of the website, it has the potential to make it a much more agonizing experience to get through all the steps for getting what we want!

Click Here To Read The Full Article By Itself.

The New Virtual World

On April 4th, 2008 Marketing Vox reported on Nickelodeon's virtual world development... particularly about various extensions to couple their current virtual worlds and a new virtual world concept developed by Nick - Monkey World.

According to the article Monkey World will contain social networking features but will be more of a massive multiplayer online game (MMOG) than a traditional virtual world.

This idea at least to me seems to be a better approach than what most people think of as a virtual world... since most of the virtual worlds I've tried out seem to be lacking in the area of organizing and collecting/storing your in-world social data.

Also, having something to accomplish in the virtual world much like a MMOG operates would reduce the standard boringness of going to a virtual world and just explore... it gives you something to do if you aren't feeling quite social at the time or are new - it gives you something that you can connect with other users about!

Having something to connect with other users in a virtual world is important because knowing what to say to someone else to connect with them in a standard virtual world can be challenging...

But once you add in the dynamic of all having a common goal or at least something to work for like in a MMOG you instantly have something in common that you can begin a conversation or even a friendship with!

I think that the two unique dynamics of Nick's new Monkey World with integrated social networking and an MMOG-like concept can become a model for all virtual worlds.

Click Here To Read The Full Article By Itself.

PHP File Upload Problem Solved!

I finally managed to solve the PHP File Upload Stalemate!

Thanks, in part, to this forum thread... and a bunch of tinkering around in my php.ini file...

I realized that the directives that I modified from:

memory_limit = 8M
post_max_size = 8M
upload_max_filesize = 2M

And changed to:

memory_limit = 8000M
post_max_size = 7000M
upload_max_filesize = 6000M

Was causing me to get the following in my HTTPD/error_log:

[error] PHP Warning: POST Content-Length of 363120480 bytes exceeds the limit of -1249902592 bytes in Unknown on line 0

More specifically it appears that it was the fact that there was just too much of a differential in the post_max_size and the upload_max_filesize that was causing the error...

Which was why PHP would overflow to the negative value... and is considered a feature - though not too many people (probably including myself) would really consider such as a feature!!

I was able to fix the error by modifying my edits of the directives to:

memory_limit = 8000M
post_max_size = 6000M
upload_max_filesize = 6000M

And now it works like a charm!...

So far at least with the large 346.3 M file I tested it with. Hopefully it will still work with larger files!

Now it's pretty much off to the races to finish testing the rest of my project.

One set-back down and very likely several more to go!

Click Here To Read The Full Article By Itself.

Missions Conference 2008

I just finished putting together a page for my church's website for it's upcoming Missions Conference this weekend.

The Missions Conference is a two day event this upcoming weekend on Saturday April 26th and Sunday April 27th...

I know, it might be a little short-notice for a lot of people.... and that's because I hadn't thought about putting a page up on the website for it, until I was asked about the possibility of doing that for the church this last Sunday by one of the elders.

Part of the reason I wasn't inclined to make too many modifications to the church's website was when my computer's hard disk blew up I didn't back up a lot of my application support files, which is where the iWeb files for the church's site were...

And if I were to make any changes I would have to go back into iWeb and re-input all the pages from scratch, or hand code any edits or additions... which isn't a really simple task with the way iWeb creates its pages.

But all in all I spent a few hours tinkering around with creating and writing up the Missions Conference 2008 page and putting links in several of the other pages on my church's website.

Since I practically lost the working iWeb file for the Church's website, I will then begin to recode the site to create a template for it with php to make it a whole lot easier to manage and work with! -- Which was what I was hoping to eventually do anyways!

Click Here To Read The Full Article By Itself.

PHP File Upload Stalemate!

In one of the projects that I have been working on that I've been most hopeful about keeps leading me to one error after another in a stalemate!

This project involves file uploads to a server.

I am doing this with an Apache Server (on Mac OSX) and PHP 5.

I've successfully - or so I think - reconfigured the php.ini file to allow for the capability to upload larger files.

Which is almost identical to this php.ini example, except for the following directives:

memory_limit = 8M
post_max_size = 8M
upload_max_filesize = 2M

Which I've changed to:

memory_limit = 8000M
post_max_size = 7000M
upload_max_filesize = 6000M

And now when I try to upload a large file, which is a .dv video file (one of the larger files I first came across on my computer)... I get the following in my HTTPD/error_log:

[error] PHP Warning: POST Content-Length of 363120480 bytes exceeds the limit of -1249902592 bytes in Unknown on line 0

Now 363120480 bytes is about 346.3 M and is the approximate size of the file I'm trying to upload.

But 1249902592 bytes is 1192 M, and that doesn't match any of the limits I've set in my php.ini file!

Plus 346.3 M < 1192 M!!!

I don't know what's up with the 1249902592 byte-value being negated in the warning - it doesn't make any sense... or is it just a dash in front of the byte-value?

Also, the first time I tried to upload the .dv file the server timed out or something... and got the "this server dropped connection" (or similar) message in Safari.

But that only appeared the first time I tried to upload the file and didn't appear any time after... Which is Totally Bizzare!

I've tried looking in the httpd.conf file for any possible settings that might be hanging things up and countlessly poured over all the directives in the php.ini file... but to no resolve!

Even changing the PHP directive max_execution_time = 30 (because it would normally take about 30 seconds for the upload to fail) to max_execution_time = 300 does nothing... It will still fail after about 30 seconds.

Click Here To Read The Full Article By Itself.

This Pathetic City

Title: This Pathetic City

When the sky is dark
And everyone's home from work
We will be all that's left
In this vacant city.

On a corner of Lake Ave
Another victim is stabbed.
No one hears him scream
In this empty city
As his voice echoes back.

We've got to get out,
Out of this pathetic city!

Staring down an empty avenue...
All you see is a newspaper in the wind,
And flickering street lights...
You can stand in this intersection,
Looking down the road
And watch as each traffic lights
Change from green to red.

How much has it torn ya,
Past the point of pity,
When I want to be in California
And you in New York City,
To escape our miserable lives.

But we can't find a way out,
Out of this pathetic city!

But when they've all gone to bed
We'll paint this city red;
And we'll never come back.
As they question our head
When their river runs black.

We didn't destroy this city;
It was the politics,
And corporate pricks!

Though they try to lay blame
It is always the same:
The citizens get screwed
Because it's just their game,
And there's nothing you can do!

We've got to find a way out,
Out of this pathetic city!

And how about the weather
Never getting any better...
Winter is the new institution.
Until snow is all you'll ever know!
It slows you down and drives you mad
Freezing you down to the bone -
Hardening the heart you thought you once had!

Like we need another reason
to hate this city and find a way out,
Out of this pathetic city

 

Story-line conceived & first
    four sections written:
    3/21/2008
Section five & seven written:
    3/23/2008
Section eight written &
    section eleven started:
    4/1/2008
Section eleven finished, &
    section six, nine, ten &
    twelve written, as well
    as edits & title given:
    4/4/2008

 

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This is 100% Original Material by Benjamin VanScoter, and is therefore:

© Coyright Benjamin VanScoter 2008. All Rights Reserved.
Use Without Prior Written And Signed Consent Is Against International And Domestic Laws.

So don't even try to use any part of this work!

If you want to refer to this work link to it using the Permalink (found below).

(This writing may or may not be based on anything factual or that has happened in Ben's life... and may be entirely fictional.)

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