Posts Tagged ‘Projects’

Posted on September 30, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

The end of an era

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Today is my last day at Avusa iLab. At the beginning of September we announced that MIH Print Africa had acquired a stake in Afrigator - a project I’ve been working on since early 2007 - and as a result I’ve been finishing up work and preparing for the big move down to Cape Town.

Making the decision to leave was simple to make in that Afrigator is a passion of mine and I’ve now been given the opportunity to work on my passion full time but on the flip-side it was also extremely difficult. Over the last 14 months I’ve built up very special relationships with Colin, Gregor, Ian and Robin and we’ve grown very close as a team and as a friends.

Together I believe we have provided immense value to the company and I know that I am leaving the iLab in very capable and safe hands. I will now have the opportunity to sit back and watch what the guys produce over the coming months and I look forward to seeing them assist in helping the company reach its goals and objectives.

All I can say is that they will all be sorely missed.

Moving to Cape Town is something I and my family welcome and are looking forward to and while we’ll all miss our family and friends this move will be a life-changing experience for us all. As a parent I couldn’t ask for more than to bring my kids up in a city that has so much to offer and our quality of life is going to improve dramatically as a result.

Packing is now well on its way and on Sunday morning we move into our new home in Claremont. I don’t think we can yet quantify what this all means but I’ll post my experiences on the blog in the coming days and weeks.

Wish us all luck.

Posted on August 28, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

Apple iCal / Microsoft Exchange fix version 1.2 released

I have updated the Apple iCal / Microsoft Exchange fix for Leopard with a bug fix and a few enhancements.

Here are the release notes for this version:

• Fixed = iCal bug message saying “no data was added to iCal” thanks to Jon Milan.
• Added = London timezone support thanks to Ryan Hunt.
• Added = West Coast USA timezone support thanks to Ryan Hunt.
• Added = Tallinn timezone support thanks to Ryan Hunt.
• Added = Asia/Muscat timezone support thanks to Steve.
• Tests = Now confirmed to work on Leopard 10.5.1, 10.5.2, 10.5.3 and 10.5.4
• Tests = Now confirmed to work on all Apple computers.

Installing

If you’ve never installed this fix before then please read the detailed installation instructions found over here. If you’re upgrading from a previous version please read the detailed upgrade notes below.

Upgrading from version 1.1

1. Delete the folder /Applications/iCalFix/ in Finder.

2. Download this Upgrade Script to your computer and extract the contents from the ZIP file. The folder contains a Shell script (install.sh) which sets everything up for you.

3. Right-click on the install.sh file, select Open With and then click on Other.

4. Click on Applications –> Utilities –> Terminal. If you can’t select Terminal from the Open dialog then select All Applications from drop-down list below.

5. Terminal will open up and the install script will run. When you see the message “Installation Complete.” you can close Terminal.

6. You can now check if the bug fix was installed correctly by navigating to /Applications/iCalFix/ in Finder. If you see two files installed in that folder then installation was successful.

7. Done. Sit back and enjoy.

Posted on July 4, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

Regator.com update

Earlier today I posted this in which I argued that Regator may have stolen Afrigator’s brand.

I have to say that while Regator has certain elements that share a close resemblance to us I’m of the opinion that Scott and his team did not do this maliciously as I had initially suspected.

I was fortunate enough to have a discussion with Scott Lockhart (co-founder) via email where he assured me that they had not even heard of Afrigator until today. He also gave me access to the Regator beta website and I’ve gone through it extensively.

Having spoken candidly with Scott and seeing what Regator is all about I’m convinced this was simply a coincidence. If anything, Regator is a mashup of a content aggregator with Digg/Reddit style bookmarking functionality and I can now see that when Regator goes live there will be little confusion between our two respective sites.

I wish Scott and his team all the best with their new venture. It’s a tough market but they’re off to a great start.

Posted on July 4, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

Regator.com steals our brand - coincidence?

I’m not sure how I feel about this.

Regator.com went into private beta today and I picked it up via this Techcrunch article. They’ve also got great exposure on ReadWriteWeb and even Mashable.

These guys are a blog aggregator that not only use the Afrigator crocodile, similar domain name and colour scheme and I have to feel this is a little more than a coincidence.

There is little doubt that Mike, Stii, Mark and myself will need to speak to our legal team to find out what action we can take on this.

What do you guys think?

UPDATE: I’ve had a long chat with Scott from Regator and I’m now convinced it was a coincidence. Please see my updated post here.

Posted on May 22, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

Afrigator’s dedicated Xenophobia page

Last night we published a brand new Xenophobia topic page on Afrigator which highlights everything that is being covered throughout Africa about the recent xenophobic attacks in our country.

Stii and Mark worked like mad on this yesterday and I’m super impressed with the way in which the page has turned out. I urge you to read the blog post on the Afrigator blog as it breaks down this page into much greater detail.

One thing I found particularly interesting to see is how many blog posts have been written about the xenophobic attacks. As of last night a total of 217 blog posts have been published compared to only 33 news articles on the same topic.

I really believe that this just highlights how everyone in South Africa is condemning these attacks and the fact that so many blog posts have been written is just awesome for awareness.

At this stage though I’m not sure what value 217 blog posts have on actually making a difference but the more we expose this issue the more I would hope it applies pressure on the powers that be to resolve this issue once and for all.

Help spread the word guys… let’s stop this senseless killing.

Posted on April 11, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

Invitation to join Google App Engine

Google App Engine launched a couple days ago and I signed up to be a beta tester but hit what seems to be a major waiting list. Initially Google only allowed 10,000 developers to join but I’ve read that those invitations were snapped up within the first 10 minutes of the launch.

Anyway, imagine my excitement when I received this email in my inbox this morning.

Eager to test the new service out I went to the website, logged in, and can now build my first application.

Currently the service only supports Python so now I have to figure what to do in this space…!

Posted on April 3, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

Afrigator Is One Year Old Today

Wow, can’t believe this thing is one year old already… check out the celebration post on the Afrigator Blog.

Posted on April 1, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

FireFox Add-on for TimesURL

The TimesURL FireFox Extension is my first official attempt at a FireFox Plugin and I’ve had great fun in the process, along with some nasty headaches as well.

The add-on allows you to shorten and share a website directly from your browser. Simply click the TimesURL icon and the add-on will automatically shorten the URL for you and present you with the short version that you can share with your friends via email, post to Facebook or bookmark on Muti.

This extension has been tested to work on FireFox 2.0.0.13 as well as the latest Beta version 3.0b4. It’s really simple to install and it’s a great addition for those of you that use Twitter or just want to share links with other people.

We’re working really hard at turning TimesURL (pronounced times-earl) into a destination to share information rather than just to shorten links and there is a lot under development to create this enhanced sharing experience.

If you haven’t used TimesURL before then what better time to start using the service with an easy to use FireFox add-on?

Posted on March 31, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

Apple iCal / Microsoft Exchange fix for Leopard

One of the major drawbacks to working on an Apple Mac in a large corporate company is that most IT departments still use Microsoft Exchange Server for email and calendar support.

While we’ve found many a work-around to get email up and running using Apple Mail there remains this irritating bug that prevents Exchange iCal events from syncing correctly with Apple iCal.

The reason this bug exists is because Exchange doesn’t use standard compliant timezone information while Apple does and as a result iCal can’t figure out what the correct timezone is from Exchange iCal invitations. Here’s a quick example of the South African timezone differences between the two.

Exchange uses this format:
(GMT+02.00) Harare/Pretoria

While iCal uses this:
Africa/Johannesburg

This means that when a meeting request comes in from a Windows PC, iCal can’t read data beyond the GMT+02.00 and it simply adds on 2 hours to the event. So a meeting sent from Exchange, scheduled for 14:00 actually appears in iCal as 16:00. We’ve missed many a meeting as a result!

Over the last few months I’ve spent countless hours trying to find a fix but no one has managed to get this issue resolved - not even Apple. I’ve now resorted to creating my own bug fix which I’m releasing publicly this morning.

How this bug fix works

The install script downloads all the necessary files from my server and installs both an AppleScript and Shell script to a folder called iCalFix in your Applications folder.

The AppleScript is then assigned to a Mail Rule and runs whenever an iCal invitation is received. The AppleScript downloads the iCal file to a temporary location and the Shell script then runs on the temp file and replaces any incorrect timezone information.

Once completed the new iCal event is then imported to iCal with all the new timezone data in place. The beauty of this fix is that you don’t need to edit any of the package files for iCal and even your original iCal invitations are left untouched. This means that you can upgrade iCal at a later stage and you should be safe from any data corruption.

Installation

1. Download this Install Script to your computer and extract the contents from the ZIP file. The folder contains a Shell script (install.sh) which sets everything up for you.

2. Right-click on the install.sh file, select Open With and then click on Other.

3. Click on Applications –> Utilities –> Terminal. If you can’t select Terminal from the Open dialog then select All Applications from drop-down list below.

4. Terminal will open up and the install script will run. When you see the message “Installation Complete.” you can close Terminal.

5. You can now check if the bug fix was installed correctly by navigating to /Applications/iCalFix/ in Finder. If you see two files installed in that folder then installation was successful.

Setting up the Mail Rule

The last step before you can begin using this fix is to setup an email rule that calls the AppleScript file. Click on Mail –> Preferences –> Rules and create a new rule that looks identical to the one below.

If you’d like to read detailed instructions on setting up this particular Mail Rule then make sure you read the readme.txt file located in the Install Script package.

All done!

After completing the above steps any new iCal invitations sent from an Exchange server will automatically be converted to the right formats and you will never have an excuse to be 2 hours late for a meeting again!

I suggest that you test this fix out by sending an iCal event from an Exchange server to see if all is working correctly. If the fix isn’t working for you then your exchange server is probably using a different timezone format and you’ll need to read the section in the readme.txt file on customising timezone support for your country.

Caveats

• NB: Make sure you open the readme.txt file in the Install Script folder. This readme file contains important information which isn’t included in this post.
• This fix has only been tested on Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.1 and 10.5.2 and there is no guarantee that it will work on previous or future versions.
• We’ve only been able to test this fix on three MacBook Pros and while it worked on all three YMMV. We’ve now tested it on about 10 Macs now and it has worked on every one we’ve tested thus far.
• Before installing or running this fix make sure you backup your iCal first. In iCal click File –> Back up iCal… and save a backed up version to your computer.
• When you recieve an Apple iCal invitation there is a message that pops up in iCal saying that “no data was added to iCal” but when you click OK the iCal event is loaded to iCal anyway. I’m not sure why this happens with iCal but I’m working on a fix for that.
• I can’t provide support. If you want help in setting up a unique timezone regular expression then I’ll assist with that but any other queries I cant’t respond to - I just don’t have the time, sorry.

Posted on March 26, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

New Media Marketing Presentation

Well it’s done. My presentation on SEO and Social Media has been delivered and if you’re interested you can now view it below or on Slideshare.