Nathan Waters

It’s 3AM here in the middle of the week, I’ve been working non-stop all day and have only left the comfort of my computer twice for the past 12+ hours. Last night I did the same and was up till 4AM.

Why?

I’ve been working/coding/stressing/cursing to try and finally get this pixel site out that I’ve been working on and off for the past few months. I can tell you it’s looking pretty damn good, and only a few more little issues are standing in the way of launching.

I’ve been finding the almost-all-nighters are a great way to get things done. Beverages have been a mix of beer and pepsi, munchies include some dry nutri-grain. Though a dual monitor setup and coffee/hot chocolate machine would be awesome.

Anyways, I thought I’d do a little write-up on a few scripts I’ve found and been implementing into this upcoming site.

They include:

• Form Fields (US$29.95) - a form generator which has the awesome ability to add data directly into a database as well as emailing me a copy
• Zookoda (FREE!) - a mailing list, newsletter management and RSS-email system. So I can allow visitors to signup to a newsletter and I can integrate my blog posts into the newsletter or setup email notifications as alternatives to RSS. I was looking at using DaDa Mail (FREE!), but was also looking for an RSS-email alternative.
• sNews (FREE!) - a blogging platform like Wordpress and Blogger, but it is all contained in a single PHP file, and is very easy to integrate into existing site designs by simply adding in a small code snippet.
• Simple Tell a Friend Script (FREE!) - a quick popup, allows users to tell a friend about the site and they can enter multiple friends’ email addresses

So they’re some great little tools. I found it quite hard to find these, despite the fact that I think they are the best around.

I’m still looking for a very, very simple “Tell a Friend” script where a visitor can simply enter a friends email, click submit and voila, an email is sent to that address. I’ve found a few, but they go too overboard with multiple fields and options.

hmm, now I just have to decided whether I should continue working on this site, catch up on some sleep or do some uni work (haven’t done that in a long time). Argh, I’ve got a lab report due tomorrow which I have to start and a Physics test on Thursday which I’ll have to start studying tomorrow. Fun, fun.

Nathan Waters
Nocturnal Creature