New updates to Lyfe.net

I've implemented a few new features in Lyfe.net over the past few weeks, but I haven't really had time to sit down and clickty-clack out the hows and whys on my keyboard (until now).

Short Urls - We implemented a base 64 (as in a base 64 symbol set, not the encoding mime type), so now urls are weird looking and like 2-3 characters shorter! Thats how you can tell they're fancy. We shorten the URLs by working with a larger symbol set (0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz-_) instead of the expected base ten set (0123456789). This makes a number like 16000000 boiled down to z2G0. We do this for the sake of twitter, and other social networks where text space is vital. We have a test example script available here. Special thanks to Jeff for sassing up the code with bit tricks.

Habla chat - I implemented Habla for those of you who have questions. Im usually available at during the day. Just look for the chat box in the bottom right corner of the screen on Lyfe.net

Social network - Auto posting to facebook and twitter is fully implemented, however there are a couple of bugs with the signup i need to work out (when i get the time).

I will have more to update on Lyfe when i get some time, Unfortunately other projects (such as peoplebacon.com) are taking up a great deal of my time. Oh, and wedding planning has a tendency to monopolize time as well.

-Jim

How not to live a life of ultimate happiness

Like a raging bull on steroids, i have blindly taken up the task of resurrecting a project of mine, long forgotten by the user base it once had. Lyfe.net was once a very involved vice of mine that monopolized my time to such a degree that i lost sleep due to hallucinations about the project going awry. I will use this blog to illustrate a great deal of mistakes i made in the past, and a personal road map as not to repeat them.

Welcome to my self inflicted blight.

Entry:
My journey started long ago, sometime in January of 2004. I had just purchased my first camera phone (a Nokia 3650; the first camera phone released in North America) and wanted nothing more than to send images directly to my already established blog of daily insanity (neverendingdoom.com). Long story short, i wrote some code, and got it working. Soon after, my blog readers expressed interest in a service so that they could do the same. After some more code pounding, Lyfe.net was launched some time in early 2006. Users could sign up, and send pictures directly to Lyfe.net, or Myspace.

Decay:
As Lyfe.net became more popular, i began to create new features. I was under the impression that people wanted functionality out of a service, (which i now know to be total bullshit. want proof? how many assholes gave a green beer to each other, or threw a snowball at their friends on Facebook vs the people that actually use any of the advanced applications? the numbers are staggering) The first feature i wrote in was a survey application that allowed the user to create a series of questions, then put the survey on their Myspace profile. Once you took the survey, it would save all the answers and show you who your answers were most like. This application failed. In my opinion, it was totally bad ass. I think 6 people created surveys, and a total of 15 people took them. A total flop. So then i moved on to creating a game out of the picture aspect of the website. There was a weekly scavenger hunt to be launched that anyone could join. I was to design the first one, and the person who found all the items in my list and sent them to Lyfe.net first won. Their prize was the ability to design the next scavenger hunt. It was a great idea (and it may even work today) but nobody jumped on board. I equate this mostly to the fact that camera phones were still very early, and people commonly forgot they had the option of taking pictures with their phone. My next goal was to work video support into Lyfe.net, but when i asked my user base for videos to test with, i only received one. I ceased all development on the project the next day.

Resolve:
About a year ago i came up with a fancy idea to implement groups into Lyfe.net. I planned out the implementation, but was pulled away for another project. But now, 5 years after my initial code was written, i have started development yet again on the Lyfe.net project. I have wrangled the other two unfortunate souls i commonly called on for help with the project to put some time and effort into resurrecting this project. Perhaps Lyfe.net was before its time. Perhaps the idea is a total failure and I’m a jackass for not letting it die off, but everyone needs a hobby.