Projects, Projects, and more Projects!!! So many ideas and only so little time to play around and have fun.

Among all the normal chores, work, daily life, spending time with the wife and dog, and the house projects that have priority; I like to try and fit in some more fun programming and development “for fun” projects when I can. There are many ideas that I have but only such little time to try and have fun. But I figured I would give you an overview of some of the ideas I have in progress or looking to start messing around with.

WEB:

Geoart Database: I hope to finish up at least with the first version of this soon as I’m nearing the end. I enjoy the hobby of Geocaching (http://www.geocaching.com) and enjoy creating what is called geo-arts (multiple caches placed in a pattern that creates an image on the map). There are many others that enjoy creating as well as many will seek to search out for them. There are a few different blog sites that have some lists but I figured there needed to be a better database of them out there. So I’m finishing creating a website that handles all of that 🙂

Wisconsin Geocaching Association Redesign: I’ll be working on doing a redesign of the WGA’s current website. I’m the current webmaster that helps with maintaining the website. One of the many things that has been with recent feedback has been related to our website, content, and speed. So will be looking to update the feel, clean up the organization, and work on performance.

Munzee Gardens Database: Similar to the Geoart Database above, this would be for a similar idea with the hobby of Munzee (http://www.munee.com) I enjoy partaking in as well. This will hopefully be used by many as these gardens are designed by an individual and then others participate with “deploy” or placing munzees into claimed spots to all make up the designed image using different colors. Hope this can provide an interface to search for available gardens for deploying as well as seeing what is out there and more!

Arduino:

Geocaching/Smart Gadget Caches: Some more fun with the above hobby Geocaching is the creation of Gadget caches, and I look to make some being “smart”. Gadget caches are usually easy geocaches to find but involve a problem to solve to be able to access the logbook. Some individuals like to make them smart/electronic. I have already made one copying off of others ideas making a game of ‘Simon’. I look to try and come up with a couple more ideas and make them. I’ll add the ‘Simon’ one to my site eventually.

Smart Home: Plans are to work on some customization and DIY with adding smart home features. We have the Google Home and would be having it all work with that. Plans range from having smart outlets, sending signals to turn on our TV, Space Heater, and whatever else I’ll come up with throughout time. The fun and difficulty at the same time with this is we currently rent an apartment so it can’t be anything permanent for now. But that also makes it a fun trial run for a future home 🙂

Linux/Server:

WGA webserver: Along with the redesign for the Wisconsin Geocaching Associations Website redesign I’ll be working on doing some changes on the server. We have an un-managed Linux VPS and will be working on providing various updates to software and doing what I can to figure out and configure to improve the speed of the loading of our website for users as that is a major issue and complaint.

Other:

Geocaching Mass Uploader: I’m needing to provide updates to my Mass Uploader for cache creation as geocaching.com has made many changes over the past many months thus breaking my current utility. So now that it seems like they have slowed down with the changes and updates that I can go about updating the utility to be used again. I know I have already been asked and bugged about when I will be getting this done. This is my next plan project so hopefully soon.

WGA Mobile App: This might not happen, but I hope it might. There are some mini games that the WGA has created for Wisconsin Geocachers within the game of Geocaching. It has been talked about to potentially create a mobile app to provide both information as well as a better experience to play with some of the WGA games. This would be a fun on the side project among the many others.

 

As you can see so many ideas, so little time, and this is just of the ideas that are currently feasible and that I hope to be working on from time to time and are just in the software part of my life. Let alone whatever new ideas that I will come up with or see a need for throughout the rest of the year. If you have any other ideas or would like to collaborate with on feel free to reach out to me.