Zen Cart Better Together Multicategory Extension

(11/2006) When I created the Zen Cart Better Together Contribution, I imagined simple shops with categories at the top level and products underneath that - a relatively flat hierarchy. Well, along came a client from Europe selling audio equipment who had literally hundreds of subcategories along functional and manufacturer lines. I realized I something much more comprehensive was needed for larger shops - so I created the Better Together Multicategory Extension.

The Zen Cart Discount Preview Extension

(10/2006) A lot of people have bemoaned the fact that order total discounts in Zen Cart (such as Group Pricing, Quantity Discounts and Better Together) are not visible until checkout time. I had always resisted adding code to compute them on the shopping cart page, until I realized that it could be done without all the overhead of the order total module. Take a look at Discount Preview.

Social Bookmarking Zen Cart Interface

(10/2006) I wrote a social bookmarking contribution to Zen Cart which uses The Socializer. The Socializer was kind enough to mention it and create a backlink.

That PMP Guy?

(10/2006) I've been studying to take the PMP exam. Now I'm not saying the material is dull, but ...

So to make it more fun, I thought I'd build a website to help prepare for the PMP exam. I was surprised by the paucity of free exam preparation sites on the Web; we'll see if mine gains traction.

Updated Afternic Prices Realized for 2006 Q3!

(10/2006) Afternic's sales are constantly increasing - here are the third quarter auction results. And the new site design looks great - check it out!

Image Transformation

(09/2006) One of my clients is particularly interested in changing image colors dynamically. I started working on some algorithms to do this and was surprised by how rich the GD toolset was. But it took a few tries tries to get the results I wanted. Fortunately, the images I was using to test my code were easy on the eyes. Note: Updated 03/07 with new links; see also Image Tools.

Fun with Dojo

(09/2006) See my Dojo page for these stories.

New Logo!

(07/2006) When I launched That Software Guy, Inc. back in 2003, I had a very limited budget, so rather than get a custom logo, I simply bought a small graphic from Ron and Joe, whose art I had used in prior projects. This logo served me well, but business has been strong enough in the last year for me to finally break down, pry open the checkbook, and get a custom logo made by The Logo Loft. I was very pleased by their workmanship!

I Sold DoubtSourcing.com!

(07/2006) Outsourcing is a hot topic that's only getting hotter. That's why I pounced on a number of outsourcing related domain names. Doubtsourcing.com was purchased by the developer of Badmash, a comic strip about South Asian culture. I'll be interested to see what he does with it. Here's the sales notice.

George Soros Back in the News

(06/2006) George Soros is once again back in the news, writing that the chief threat to the world is not North Korea, Islamic extremism or Chinese militarism, it's the USA. Google Trends even shows a slight uptick in news volume about the zany Hungarian.

My interest in all of this is pecuniary, of course. I just happen to own soroswatch.com and georgesoroswatch.com, as well as a number of other fine domain names.

Graphics on a Higher Plane!

(03/2006) A former colleague of mine opened an aviation decal business called Higher Graphics, and I set up his shopping cart using Zen Cart. Zen Cart is a fantastic open source product with an extremely active user (and contributor) base that I highly recommend to anyone who wants to open an online store.

Some of the additions that I made to Zen Cart for Higher Graphics were:

• Dynamic price calculation based on attributes
• Linking attributes for validation purposes (dependent attributes)
• Extra image display

I have put together my own Zen Cart page to show some of the modifications I have made that others might find useful.

No More Spacer Gifs!

(01/2006) You don't have to be an HTML Extremist to realize that using transparent GIF images within tables to achieve placement is a less than ideal solution. Winding up with nested tables within nested tables within nested tables can make your html code clunky, difficult to modify and almost impossible to validate. And fortunately, there's a better solution: CSS. Don't worry - it's much easier to use than you think. Take a look at how things used to be done, and compare it with two better ways: one for a single page, and another for a site with many pages.