Category: Blog


I know, I know… what kind of blogger doesn’t post for four months?

Filed Under: Blog by billh — Leave a comment
August 25, 2011

Apparently ME!   I think I owe you a bit of explanation…

This summer has been an incredibly busy time.  In the last four months, I have worked on five different major projects simultaneously. (Geez, I think I need some interns to help me out here.  Any volunteers?)   I have actually made substantial progress on all these things (though only a couple are actually visible at this time.

EventDroid – This is my Android / Honeycomb based application for Eventful events (www.eventful.com).  I hope to actually release this for beta test before the end of the year, probably after moving it to Ice Cream Sandwich.

FlashWords – This project has undergone some serious redesign to make it a more widely useful system of teaching tools.  A choice of whether to implement this completely in HTML5 or some combination of other technologies is still being weighed.

HotTrax Radio Chrome App – This is an all new, HTML5 single page, dynamic interface for HotTrax Radio listeners.  It should debut in the Chrome App Store in the next month or so.

HotTrax Radio’s Website Update – Occasionally, we need to spruce up and make more functional the website for HotTrax Radio.  This time around, I have taken a more hands on approach to this, while having to learn Joomla along the way.  We’ve cleaned up the site a lot, gotten rid of most of the outdated content, discontinued some of the streams that were hardly every used, integrated a newly built chat client system, implemented a new play button and more fully integrated our new popup player.  Many many thanks to Jim Woollard without whose help we’d never have gotten done as much as we did.

HotTrax MusicMix – Our newest channel at HotTrax Radio has just made its debut and required substantial reworking of some of the station’s internal systems.  Besides being a great help on the website, Jim Woollard is also the channel manager of HotTrax MusicMix.

As you can probably tell, it’s been a busy and sometimes stressful summer so far, and as Fall approaches, I have my doubts that it will slack off any.  Oh well, I suppose it keeps me out of trouble! 😀

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Arrrgghhh.. Fragments are kickin my butt…

Filed Under: Blog by billh — Leave a comment
April 21, 2011

There’s nothing quite as fun as teaching one’s self using incomplete examples and texts that are somewhat less than helpful in explaining the concepts involved. Thus has been my techy life for the last week or so. Case in point, Fragments in Android 3.0! I get the concept (I think!), now the only question is whether or not I will GET the implementation!! I’m sure that it’s probably just an oversight here or there on my part, but it’s sure not easy to find.

Onward and upward!!

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HotTrax Pulse is here!

Filed Under: Blog by billh — Leave a comment
February 9, 2011

After a day of letting things settle out after the transition, I am very pleased to announce HotTrax new channel “HotTrax Pulse” !  This new channel replaces HotTrax Live and is focused predominantly on the Adult Contemporary genre.   Like all HotTrax channels, HotTrax Pulse will be streaming great current hits 24 hours a day.  If you enjoy this sort of music, please give it a listen and let me know what you think!  You can tune in HERE.

My very sincere thanks to DJs Ace, Figgis, and Pandamonium, all of whom were instrumental in getting this transition done in a timely fashion!!

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My Friends are Incredible!

Filed Under: Blog by billh — 1 Comment
February 5, 2011

For a few days this past week, I actually thought I would get away with having a birthday over which my radio friends did not make a big deal!

I could not have been more wrong!  Last night, during Bad Karma’s show, once again my radio family showed me their love by giving me a fantastic online birthday party!  You would think by now that I would expect it (and in truth, I sorta did) but when it didn’t happen on the weekend OF my birthday, I thought maybe I’d gotten away clean.  Once again they outfoxed me and surprised me with a six hour gala of my favorite music and recorded personal greetings.

These parties are always tremendous fun, but I must admit that they make me just a little uncomfortable.  I suppose it’s because I am a more outwardly emotional person than I am comfortable with being.  Normally that’s not much of a problem at all, but I find all the personal greetings and well wishes choke me up and bring the tears pretty easily.

Yeah, I know… I should just suck it up and live with it.  After all, no one would go out of their way to make me feel uncomfortable on purpose.  I guess I am just one of those people for whom certain things penetrate deep within me.  I suppose that puts me in relatively good company, given our new Speaker of the House, John Boehner, seems to have the same affliction!  Wow, I actually have something in common with one of the few politicians for whom I have some respect.

ANYWAY, I want to thank each and every one of my friends for all the love and support they give me, and for all they do for our station! You are all,

Simply the Best!

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“Hi, my name is Bill, and I’m a geekaholic!”

Filed Under: Blog by billh — 1 Comment
February 5, 2011

After bemoaning my own obsession with technically oriented web video (watching it morning, noon and night…yeah.. that’s obsessive!), and making that admission to my lovely north Texas lady, I was given a new tagline for my blog!  Now all I need is a bullet proof permission to use… 😀

I wonder if there’s a 12 step program for this…

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Watched this LIVE yesterday… all I can say is ME WANT!!!

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February 3, 2011

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Chrome Scroll to Top Button

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February 2, 2011

You may or may not know that I am a Chrome fanatic!  I know several of you out there are too!  I think you’re gonna love this…

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Too funny… and too true!

Filed Under: Blog by billh — Leave a comment
February 2, 2011

Check out THIS SITE…

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Did you ever get the feeling…

Filed Under: Blog by billh — 1 Comment
January 29, 2011

… that something big was about to happen?  I don’t know about you, but I have noticed recently that although part of my mind would just like to kick back and rest for a while, the OTHER part of my brain seizes the opportunity to grab more knowledge and info and stuff itself absolutely FULL.  This then spills over into more projects with which to become involved!  Here’s the short list of my new and ongoing projects if anyone is interested:

  • Android App Development
  • A new blog for Mid Missouri Networks
  • Creating some new Video Blogs (I need my head examined, honestly!)
  • HotTrax Live to HotTrax Pulse Migration
  • HotTrax Remote development (Virtual Basic Development)
  • This personal blog (because SOMEONE needs to document the insanity!)

And of course, there’s always the ongoing support and management of the radio station and it’s DJs.

If you were to ask me why I am taking on so many projects at once, I’d tell you “Well, the boy just ain’t right!”  Call me crazy, but I have a very good feeling about the potential for some breakthrough success this year.  My mind is a buzzin!

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Hello world!

Filed Under: Blog by admin — Leave a comment
January 29, 2011

Ok, I admit that I have tried this before, although NOT in this way!

I am excited to renew my efforts at having a personal website with an entirely fresh approach to things.  This will be my first attempt at using WordPress, so I ask your patience as I learn to use this package to it’s fullest!

I hope I am able to bring things of interest here, things you will enjoy reading and things that might stir your thoughts or a bit of controversy.  Comments are always welcome, but please understand that comments will be subject to the following guidelines:

  1. You must log in to leave comments.  This is an effort to control spam.
  2. Your first comment will be held for approval.  Once that one has been released, you will be allowed to publish comments freely.
  3. I might not publish your first comment, or I might delete your published comment.  Please don’t take offense, but this is my blog, and as such I will not tolerate jerks here.  Disagreeing with my opinion doesn’t qualify as being a jerk.

(A very sincere thank you to Gina Trapani, on whose Smarterware.org Blog I first found these rules!  They make perfect sense to me, and I hope she will approve of my “borrowing” them for my own use.)

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