Thinking: Our Blog
While working on some custom tracking software, I ran into a very peculiar issue when storing some floating point values in a Microsoft SQL database. Specifically, I noticed I was getting weird rounding applied to my input. This only happened when there were more than two digits after the decimal point; for instance, 1.005 would become 1.004853184548342. The column in MS SQL was a float, and I was using a float before sending it through the ADO.Net pipeline.
We recently launched a new website for the Buzzard’s Bay Regatta, an annual sail boat race that happens in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. It was a fun site to build, and as the design lead I was given a lot of creative freedom to come up with a look and feel. The client had an awesome collection of photos featuring different classes of boats that race in the Regatta which they wanted to showcase as prominently as possible.
We came up the idea of including a list of vessel classes on every page, allowing the user to click on any class and use it as a page background. Pretty neat, huh? One pretty serious problem: while this worked great on the home page, the interior pages had content that covering most of the image.
The solution was to create a slideshow that can be launched from any page, any time. Just click View Slideshow, and all the content on the screen slides away, leaving you with pristine images in a well timed slideshow that starts with your current image!
Go check it out at http://www.buzzardsbayregatta.com!
You’re invited
All over the world, release parties like this one will be celebrating a milestone in Drupal’s history – the release of version 7. Oomph and the Providence Drupal Meetup would like to invite you to our office for a little party on the occasion. Snacks and libations will be provided, so come down, hang out, and check out our cool office space in recycled shipping containers.
Friday January 7th, 6pm
Oomph, Inc.
the Box Office, Units 301 and 302
460 Harris Avenue
Providence, RI
Visit the website to RSVP and see who else is planning to attend!
C. Murray Consulting is now Oomph
As we head into a new year, I am incredibly excited to flip the switch on our new website and new name – Oomph. C. Murray Consulting began five years ago as a small one-man shop with a handful of clients and is now, I genuinely believe, one of the top web agencies in the country.
For some time we have wanted to change our image to better reflect the outstanding team we have, the wide range of services we provide, and the energy and enthusiasm behind our work. It has taken longer than hoped, but with some help from our friends and a big push from our team, we have turned the Oomph brand from a wild idea into the real deal.
It’s bold, it’s fun, and I am thrilled with the result.
To our existing clients and friends, thank you for supporting us – we love working with you and will strive to provide an even higher level of service going forward. Your feedback is always welcome.
For those of you finding us for the first time, we look forward to our next challenge. Feel free to pick up the phone and call me to chat about your project.
Happy holidays to all!
Last month a momentous site launch occurred at the Oomph headquarters. Jake was able to finally throw the switch and make the new Rhode Island Green Building Council Virtual Green Marketplace live. It was momentous for a few reasons, the first of which is of course the fact that this represents the first major comprehensive listing of LEED™-certified projects and “green” resources in the state.
Though the RIGBC site was developed on the WordPress platform, the first thing you may notice is that is does not have the typical “look” of a WordPress site. Since the site was designed and mapped out first, the CMS platform was chosen after the storyboards were developed. This allowed Oomph to choose the right platform for the job after the details of how the client wanted everything to work were mapped out. The site was developed from scratch, so we were able to make it look anyway the client wanted.
Last night I debuted a 5 minute lightning talk at the WordPress Providence Meetup in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 30-40 locals with varying WordPress interest and experience. Entitled “That’s a WordPress Site??”, the presentation is a tongue-in-cheek, rapid fire debunking of 3 pervasive myths about WordPress: that it’s just blogging software (not a CMS), that it’s not meant for big business or enterprises, and that all WordPress sites sort of look the same.
All of the lightning talks were recorded, so we’ll hopefully have video of me engaging the audience with the slides sometime soon. The raw slides really work on their own as a 3 1/2 minute showcase, so I’ve published the slide deck – animation and all – in HD quality on YouTube for all to enjoy.
Today’s release of WordPress 3.0 brings some exciting enhancements and new features that strengthen the software’s position in the realm of content management systems. For developers such as us, two sets of features in particular should prove invaluable in implementing WordPress-based solutions for our clients.
First, version 3 expands WordPress beyond the traditional blogging constructs of posts and pages by allowing users to specify custom post types. These custom types can function either like posts, organized linearly, or like pages, having a hierarchical structure. This feature builds on the custom taxonomies introduced in WordPress 2.9, which let users expand the organizational options for content beyond just categories and tags. Now, combining custom post types with custom taxonomies, users have complete control over how content is organized and displayed.
Custom post types don’t just let users segregate press releases from product pages, for example, but also simplify the addition of fields specific to each post type. A product post type could include pricing and availability, whereas a press release could hold media contact information. Following this example, separate taxonomies can be assigned to each, reaffirming a clear organization of content.