The next few days will be spent totally immersed in a “rearrangement” of a current site. It seems that it may have been a bit intimidating to an average user. It was full of amazing advanced programming tricks, menus and buttons. And it had been fine-tuned down to the smallest detail, but, as it turned out, some people may have lost their way with so many options. So, in true DDA style, we are adjusting things as needed. Our goal is always to accommodate the client with the best possible outcome. Without losing the integrity of the beautiful web design or altering the video capture, the layout and custom programming have been adjusted to offer a more friendly usability. After all, you have to find your way through to reach a happy ending.

It would be difficult for me to say how many people I know have a Facebook or Myspace account (or both). Many do. I had a Myspace account for a while, but I got tired of it. My ego didn’t need to be fed any longer by strangers who wanted to read about what I was doing today. Most parents have probably seen hundreds of pictures of their daughter, and their daughter’s friends pursing their lips and holding up their fingers in what I refer to as the Myspace pose. So there are tons of people out there on these social network sites. And they all want to customize their page with stuff: OMG, LOL, check out what ur Scooby Doo name is! or various applications that are now available through third party installable programs. Not only are your future employers using these sites to check you out, but so are those with more malicious intent. They are diving into your account trying to persuade you to go to sites where you either reveal your personal information or download and agree to installing a piece of software that will do it for them. All by seemingly harmless postings on your page. They are starting to call them ‘drive by downloads’. One little link on a friend’s page, you trust them, so you get the link too. Anyone who clicks the link downloads something to their computer, and not thinking about the repercussions, click ‘ok’ because we’re so used to all the random safeguards on our modern computers.

Social engineering has long been the way ‘hackers’ (I use this term loosely) gain information to be used maliciously. Long before the days of the web 2.0 these people were gathering dial in numbers and usernames and passwords from pieces of paper left around, in the trash, or by phoning up an unsuspecting staff member. Then came spam, soliciting something fun, sending you to links that were riddled with virus programs. Today we’ve learned these tricks and how to stay ahead of them, to an extent, but the experts in social engineering will continue to find ways to get the information you’re not so willing to give. These days, social networking sites are all the more happy to just give out that information. Oh, but your account is private? Do you really know that person you just let be a friend? Did you install an application or put one of those quiz links on your page? How about a friend of yours? Each new application can be developed and in those applications user information can be garnished. Most programmers will not care about gathering information, but some do. Every link could be malicious, you really don’t know until you go there, and even then, do you really? Not every anti-virus or security suite catches everything. It may already be too late.

Does it bother you that every move you make is tracked by a company? It happens every day, whether it is simple user information about the website you’re visiting, or if it’s something more complex, like your email address dug up through that application that tells you who your best love match is. You can be as paranoid or not as you want to be, hoping that your anti-virus/Internet security system is more up-to-date than those trying to steal your information. I don’t have a foil hat, but I try to keep up to date with the goings on in the security world, even if it doesn’t directly relate to me, as anyone who uses the Internet should. As long as your computer is connected, it is vulnerable to attack. Whether or not you help it along is up to you.

Here at DDA, we work a 4-day work week - Monday through Thursday, 8am to 6pm. While the extended weekend is great for us and we couldn’t imagine working 5-day weeks again, it does cause some concern for clients.  The concern, of course, is that we won’t be here if something should go wrong or if they need us. But we say to you, fear not! The employees here at DDA are always on-call for problems that may arise on Fridays, and we all check emails on Friday. So while we are not in office we still make ourselves available. It’s just one of the many small things that DDA offers to extend the already excellent service we provide our clients.

So whether you’re looking for a new website, video production, or custom programming, DDA is available for you 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

Every so often, I am asked by a member of the DDA team to write up something along the lines of “What are our programming capabilities?”  I get a chuckle out of this question.  I always have to ask them to get a little more specific about what they’re looking for, or at the very least, if it is OK that I give them a list of things we’ve already done instead.  To me, our custom programming capabilities are pretty much endless, it’s just a matter of time and money and whether or not I think we can get it done in that amount of time and money.  We have been able to do an amazing amount of work for a little programming department, and we’re not stopping our momentum.  So what I like to do is ask in return, ‘How about asking about what we can’t do?”  I can start with ‘well, we can’t travel in hyperspace’ and ‘we probably cannot program your coffee maker to brew beer in 30 seconds’, things that might sound completely irrational, but it may be feasible some time in the future.  Our web programming services are limited only by imagination.

What we can do is work with ColdFusion to create advanced programming; programming which can do just about anything on the web.  If we have access to your database, we can integrate a website with your current inventory management system.  If you need things to float around and work like it’s in a desktop environment but on the web, we can do that too.  What about image processing?  Sure.  File transfers? No problem.  Can we give your dog a bath?  Well, I don’t know about how you’re going to get the shower to chase down your dog, but we could probably find a way to run robotic software to scrub him.  I’m not saying it would be easy. It would probably take years, but we could do it, and we could do it using ColdFusion.  Why?  Because I have faith in the abilities of our team.  We have a unique bunch of very intelligent programmers who can do some amazing programming work.

Last night I watched Top Chef, a cooking competition show in which I’ve recently developed an unhealthy addiction. During each episode the chefs compete in challenges with hopes of impressing the judges, winning immunity, and passing through to the next round, inching one step closer to the grand prize. The reason I enjoy the show so much, and reserve an hour of TV watching every Wednesday, is because I love the creativity. The challenges are universal to all participants, but the way each chef approaches their meal varies drastically. Even more, the end results are always quite impressive given the amount of time they have to finalize their dish. There may be moments of panic, but inevitably the chefs find their inspiration and work vigorously to meet there specified deadline.

This atmosphere of creativity is not unlike the environment here at DDA. The graphic designers, creative and online copywriters, corporate and medical video production specialists, and programmers all have to work under a certain conceptual umbrella determined by the client’s needs. However, each individual has their own approach and style, imprinting their signature on the end product.  

This is what makes our staff here at DDA so great. If we only produced cookie cutter websites, brochures, and corporate and medical training programs, our business would not be thriving as it is now. Clients turn to us for our creativity and tendency to reach for the innovative. And with a staff comprised of creative individuals possessing various strengths, exciting websites, graphic designs, custom programming, and exceptional video development are guaranteed.

In Coldfusion, there are many ways to format a number using built-in functions within Coldfusion. Someone might need to format a number in order to pass it on to a Google analytics tracker or to display the number on the screen. One function that is easy to use is the DecimalFormat function; it takes only one parameter and it returns the number as a string with two decimal places, and after every three digits on the left, it adds a comma. If you need the number displayed in U.S. currency format, then use the DollarFormat which does the same thing as the DecimalFormat function except that it adds a leading dollar sign. To display the currency as a number to the thousands place, use the NumberFormat(variableName,”9.99”) function which takes two parameters, the number, and a mask.

In PHP, functions number_format and money_format are used with different options in the parameter fields if you would want commas after every thousands place or not. In C#, String.Format function or adding a mask in the console.writeline/response.writeLine function will diplay the number in different formats.

Nothing is more satisfying than finishing a massive project. I think the feelings of accomplishment and relief are universal to all when a task comes to a close that you have invested much time and effort. But though this feeling of elation may be addicting, rushing to complete a project just for the sake of finishing is a grave mistake. This holds true for all projects here at DDA. Creative online copy must be proofed and re-proofed, custom admin and database programming functionality must be verified, and graphic designs should be thoroughly reviewed. If not, you may experience a few moments of the “I finished a project” feel goods, quickly followed by regret for the oversights.

At DDA we have set in place a system of review to try and eliminate these faux pas. Every page of copy is thoroughly reviewed by fellow writers. After the page is posted to a website or laid out in a stylish design, round two of proofing commences. To some, this may seem like overkill, but our clients expect and deserve the highest caliber of work and this system of retracing our steps to ensure accuracy is a means of guaranteeing quality.

So, with every project completed, comes an equally important task of quality assurance.  Without it, the minor oversights will overshadow the hours of hard work. So test, test, and re-test!

When I was working on my programming degree (or computer science, whatever), obviously I had to take quite a few programming classes.  Some of them focused on obscure programming languages that I’ll probably never again use (in fact most of them) and some of them were all about methodologies and databases that my 20 something mind thought I’d never need.  Alas, I now wished I’d put more effort into some of them.  It wasn’t exactly easy, trying to juggle a full-time job and full-time college, and still be a college kid, so I did have to cut my corners where I could.  There are quite a few things I probably would have learned from the wisdom of professors and former IT professionals, but I find that most of what I learned 10-15 years ago was a great foundation. So many things have changed that I use very little of the actual skills today.

Why is this?  Why did we teach antiquated languages to students in preparation for the real world?  When I was first going to college in the early 90’s, programming and computer science was still full of math geeks plugging away at big mainframes.  That didn’t change for much of the 90’s, especially since most trade schools were looking to fill Y2K positions (mmm COBOL).  It was the lucky few that actually got to learn useful programming languages that are widely used today.  With the popularity of the Internet, it seemed that programming changed direction again.  There are designers and there are programmers, usually with very little crossover, as there are at DDA today.  Designers are great at design, but not so great at programming, and I’m certainly no designer, I can barely make my projects look plain and nice.  So then, what of the web programmers that we so desperately needed.  They were off being taught actionscript and javascript and maybe a little about MySql, but again, nothing useful.

So, here we are then, left to our own devices because technology moves faster than education.  We learn on the job as our clients tell us ‘hey we want this custom system that looks this cool’.  We got our theories and methodologies and knowledge base from BASIC and PASCAL, but we stepped ahead into new technologies, took our hits and continued on.  This is why we’re not perfect as programmers, because we’re always learning as we work.  We are finding better ways to do things daily, and finding that even the things we programmed 3 months ago there’s already been a new development.  So if anyone ever says that we do not have time to learn on the job, those are people that don’t understand that as programmers in the modern world, that is the only way we can continue to be innovative.  We must continue learning all the new tools and apply them or we will not be able to provide our clients with the best possible custom programs.  So we do… and I think we’ve done one heck of a job coming up with some really cool stuff.

A friend sent me the funniest e-mail. It was about living in 2008 and alike the very best humor often is, it was so very funny because of how true it was.  And we all need to remember to laugh at ourselves no matter how true the facts are. It reminded us of how dependent we are on modern technology. Some of the funniest reminders are, ”You accidentally enter your password on the microwave,” ” You e-mail the person who sits at the desk next to you”  and “Every commercial on TV has a website at the bottom of the screen.” In a personal experience, I recently put in a new stove and my brother said that there were so many buttons that he wanted to hook it up to the Internet so I could cook and work at the same time. I thought that was too funny at the time, until I saw a show about the newest appliances being designed. They actually allowed your computer at work to talk to your oven at home. Now, you could start dinner while you were still at work and it would be ready by the time you came home.

It’s unbelievable how modern technology and computer programming can make our lives even more convenient than they already are.  Those websites that are listed at the bottom of every commercial are full of every convenience. It may be the photography or animation that catches your eye, but it’s the custom programming that makes it all happen. Advanced programming is the norm here at DDA, as is custom animation, professional photography services and custom web design. Things that happen everyday here, make lives easier and more convenient for so many. 

The 5th of May.  Why is this so important to a 3rd generation American of Eastern European descent?  Just as the 4th of July reminds those of us in the USA of freedom, so should the 5th of May.  American freedom was won against one of the most feared military of the day, the military of the country that had control of most of the world.  The same went for the battle that commemorates the 5th of May.  Innovation and perseverance, two qualities we should always consider important, led a small band of soldiers to defeat an army twice its size one morning in 1862. 

So what does all of this have to do with programming at DDA?  Is it the cerveza and tacos?  A sombrero and margaritas?  How about a mariachi band?  Ok, well all of the aforementioned things would definitely help programming move along faster and make it more fun, but I’m talking about the bones of what happened that morning in Puebla.  Innovation.  Thinking outside the box. Problem solving solutions.  Those phrases and keywords that we hear from management across the nation.  The Mexicans had a problem, they had to take on the monumental task of defeating an army twice its size.  They did so by diverting the mounted army from the infantry, and using some interesting tactics of cattle stampede.   This is the sort of thing the programmers at DDA face daily.  We have the monumental tasks of taking on some of the most complex custom programming in a short amount of time in order for our clients to have the best possible software that meets their needs.  We cannot always meet every want, but with innovative thinking, we can usually accommodate all requests, limited only by the funding and time we have to do our work in.  We work efficiently on our projects with ColdFusion (it is after all a pretty rapid application development system) to create the most advanced system possible in the shortest amount of time.  This proves on every project that we are capable of amazing things under short time frames and low budgets.  Much like the Mexicans in 1862, we can take on tasks much larger than traditional wisdom thinks, and overcome the obstacles, proving that we can do anything.