It sometimes amazes me that after being in web development for as long as I have, some things can still jump up and bite you if you haven’t run into them before. This past week I ran into one such occasion.

I was developing a web-based “FTP” application for one of my clients, with Job 1 being “it has to work on the Mac”. The previous application that had been developed for this client by a third-party was clunky to use, both from a front-end and management area perspective, oftentimes would not work quite right, and many times outright fail – and 95% of the system errors occurred on Macs due to the way the code was written. Cutting out a lot of the details, the new system proposed would work like so… a front-end user would log into the system, be able to manage their previously uploaded files or view files that my customer had sent to them via the application, or upload a new file. If they uploaded a file, the page they looked at contained a few form fields which would be inserted into the database, which mostly helped track which Job Number the file belonged to and some other relevant data, a comments field, and the file field itself. The page also included two iframes, one hidden and one visible; we had decided to go with a simple remote scripting solution because we felt in the interest of the client’s budget that we wouldn’t try and implement anything fancier. In order to keep the user looking at the page they were currently on, the form had the target attribute point to the hidden iframe where it could process the information but otherwise keep the user in “stasis”: the second iframe would load a fairly standard progress bar upon form submission which would reload itself to allow user feedback for the user uploading the file, letting them see how their upload was doing as they waited. Once the actual processing script was complete, with the file written to the server’s hard drive and the database inserts all doing what they needed to do, an alert would be raised to the user letting them know the upload was successful and they would be redirected back to their main view.

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I was having a conversation with a coworker the other day about the work I needed to do around the outside of my house this spring, and he commented that he didn’t understand people who enjoyed doing yard work – that he didn’t “get anything out of it”. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not some crack-job who actually ENJOYS going out in the yard and tearing out bushes, or raking for an hour and a half. I don’t throw a bunch of confetti in the air and run around the house cheering every time I have to mow the lawn. But on some lower level, I have to admit that I genuinely like looking at the result of my work. Whether that means I can enjoy the fact that I don’t have some form of ivy bush taking over the fence along half of one side of my property, or the mid-summer step back to say “damn my lawn looks good” and know that my family can enjoy the time we spend outside because of having a healthy, well-maintained lawn… I can say that yes, I do get something out of it.

Today I spent pretty much the entire afternoon and evening raking around my property, taking care not only of what leaves had been trapped under snow most of the winter but also what had been trapped in with the bushes and plants next to the house and also which had piled up in one particular corner of the fence in my backyard under a large cluster of trees. By the end of all of it I took probably 8 huge loads of sticks down to throw in the pond behind out house and filled 10 (ten!) 30gal/50lb bags with leaves which are now sitting next to the garage waiting to be disposed of. After finally removing all of that from the upper layer of my lawn, I also got to drop a load of Scott’s Turf Builder With Halts Crabgrass Preventer on the front and back yards. Depending on who you listen to, that should possibly be dropped after you’ve moved the lawn at least once: but some sources say that isn’t necessary and since we have a day or two of rain on the horizon today was the perfect opportunity to drop the stuff in the ground.

Last year I kept up with some minor upkeep on the lawn, but this year will mark the first year of truly doing what I can to get my lawn in tip-top shape. Beyond that, the wife and I have begun our talks about which plants will be staying or going and all of the plants in front of the house will be getting an overhaul – on top of redoing the edging and just overall trying to clean up the curb appeal of the home while at the same time trying to settling on something without too much maintenance. Neither of us are really “flower people”, so a few bushes and some mulch and I’ll be more than happy. Plus redoing the “island” that contains a dogwood, a holly bush, as well as a few other scraggly overgrown plants will be a nice upgrade as well.

We also will soon be putting a call in to a tree removal service to get estimates on what it would take to remove some of the birches from our property. The trees are nice to look at, but one cluster of three very mature trees was planted two feet from the front corner of the house and the branches above continue to grow out over the roof: one of the trees in the backyard is leaning back towards the house and in fact was touching the sliding glass door during one of the ice storms when it got weighed down: and another one on the side of the house is leaning out towards my neighbor’s house. That final one especially is NOT something I want to deal with if the tree ever fell and landed on my neighbor’s house or car. We didn’t initially plan to make a tree removal process a “big deal”, but as we walked around the yard looking at things we realized just how bad shape all of the birch stands were in around the property. Like many other things in our home, the former owners of 10 years didn’t seem to have done much around the place (they didn’t really let anything fall into a state of disrepair, but it seems like they also didn’t do much in the way of “home improvement” either) and the landscaping was one of those items where that fact really stands out. On the bright side, we likely wouldn’t have to pay for removal since I have at least two friends with wood stoves who would be more than happy to get some birch wood to dry out and burn next year.

Today I had a few people over and one of my buddies (Org, for people who know him) showed up with a trophy in his hands. When I asked what on Earth he had in his hands, it turned out that he went out to the GameStop in his hometown for the Midnight Madness release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and took part in the in-store tournament that apparently most locations were holding: he won at his store. Details for the tournament can be found here. Apparently he now moves on to the District Finals next weekend in Manchester, CT – should he somehow win there, he would move on to the Regional Finals where I’m guessing the location would be New Hyde Park, NY. The true Finals are in San Jose, CA. Now, I know the guy is a good player – and I don’t know if he could make it as far as the true finals – but I think it would be kind of neat to take a spur of the moment trip to CA with a buddy to go watch him play in a tournament for this.   Definitely best of luck to him though.

While he was over, we definitely got some game time in of it and it definitely aims to please. In some ways it felt like it was “more of the same” for the franchise, but I don’t think any fans of the franchise would think of that as a bad thing. Some of the new levels are definitely interesting, with the Mario Kart level bringing karts from different directions (and actually letting you place a well-timed hit to send a kart off the track and at an opponent) and the WarioWare level forcing you to take part in minigames as you fight. Some of the new items are very neat as well, such as the 3-part rocket of death you can only use if you happen to pick up all three pieces during a fight, or the “break me” ball that will allow you to execute a Final Smash move with a simple press of the B button (which, by the way, some of the Final Smash moves are simply devastating: Ike’s Final Smash will likely send you if you have any damage taken before he gets to you).

I liked it, I really did; but I’m still on the fence about whether or not I will be going out to pick up my own copy. It’s a great party game but I only get to hang out in person with people who would be willing to play it once in a blue moon, and the draw of online play is tempting but I know I won’t be able to consistently put together online games with those people either – which means dealing with the powergamers out there who can beat me blindfolded and/or the 12-year olds who would rather turn their Wii off and disconnect from the match rather than face a true loss. We’ll see. I still have Metroid Prime 3 to play through and beat anyway since the DS has been keeping me really busy lately, maybe I’ll get back into that for now and bide my time until Kart comes out.