Kyle Mulka's Blog

I got into some more talks today with people about GROCS and projects involving digital media. They are all really cool!

I saw a friend of mine, Greg, at lunch today and we started talking about a thing which is like facebook, but instead of exploring profiles and relationships between people, it allows people to explore places and locations and objects in those locations. Also, it allows people to collaboratively edit and make connections between these places and explore the resoning behind these relationships. Also, onto the web page would go people’s feelings toward the places and things and events which occur there. He wants to keep it very conceptual and fun. Sounds like an awsome idea… now, how do you make a system that encourages this type of activity. That’s where computer science and software engineering come in…

Using the Internet for social networking is all the rage these days. If you haven’t heard of the facebook, you are living in a hole… that or not in college. I am really excited about it!

In my special topics class on continuous computing we talk about social software, mobile devices, web services, communications, location based technologies, and in general, the current trends in technology. It is awsome.

So, the other day I noticed a sign for an “afternoon tea” talking about mobility and media, and I thought is was relevant to what we were talking about in class… so, I invited the class (only about 15 students) and went. While there we talked about GROCS which provided grant money for student initiated projects. I met a school of information grad student who’s interested in the same things I am. So, I might be doing a project with him next semester. He wants to create tagged maps of the university that are completely zoomable and taggable which means you can associate an arbitrary amount of data with an area of the map. It should have building layouts, sidewalks, common areas, and the like.

Along the same lines… I was introduced to a GROCS project from last semester called Mates. Its a location based social networking tool. It connects users based on location, classes, interests, and friendships. Here is their web site and awsome video.

Over the course of this summer I worked for the Great Lakes Commission on various projects. In this entry I’m just going to list some of the things I worked with while working there more for my own benefit than for anyone reading my blog. But, feel free to contact me if you are an employer or potential business partner interested in these things. Also, if you have any general questions about anything listed below, I can probably help you out.

Technologies
Javascript
XML
Javascript DOM
PHP
PEAR (DB_QueryTool)
Mysql
Oracle
Google Maps
LDAP / Active Directory with PHP
Wordpress
Webcalendar
Mapserver
ArcGIS (ArcMap)
WMS
WFS
PmWiki
Apache
HTML
CSS
VPN

Installed and Configured Software on Development Server
Apache
PHP
MySQL
Mapserver

Projects
Intranet (MySQL hooked up databases, authentication, security, )
Wordpress (connected to Active Directory via LDAP, customized)
PmWiki (customize/style/content design)
WebCalendar (setup, administration, connected with Active Directory via LDAP, staff training)
Contacts (customized system)
Google Maping
Circle Tour (Google Maps demo including geocoding, WFS, GML, XSL, WMS, Mapserver)
MiCorps Data (designed login, search, browse, database backend)
Browsing System (scrapped)
Lake Search
MySQL Database Design
Converted two web applications ASP/Access/Windows to PHP/Oracle/Unix
VPN (Windows Server 2003)
WFS into Google Maps
XML Schema for Google Maps API
WMS Overlayed on Google Maps (two layers)
Documentation for WFS and WMS

Last weekend I was working a lot with Google Maps. They are so fun to play with! I’ve created several web services. Not all of them are ready to be released yet, but if you have a GPS unit, Garmin eTrex for example, and software, like EasyGPS for example, you can upload and view GPX files.

All of my maps services will be available through this address: http://maps.kylemulka.com

If you have any suggestions along these lines, feel free to leave a comment, or send me an email or something. Thanks.

Web Design Patterns

More encouragement to start a busines:

Bnoopy: It%u2019s a great time to be an entrepreneur

I found this XUL Parser for Java. Of course, I haven’t tested it out, but maybe I’ll find a use for it since I agree with the page that XUL is a lot easier to read and code with than Java’s Swing GUI framework.

I’m still thinking that the Notification Framework would be a good thing to implement, but I really don’t know how I should go about it. I want it to be able to scale, but I’m afraid that if I don’t plan everything beforehand, it won’t. There may not be enough time. Maybe I’ll do something simpler.

I’ve created a University of Michigan map using gmaptrack. This type of online software is almost exactly what I wanted to create. Looks like someone has already done it. Dang. And you know what, it pretty much rocks already. Anyone suggest any improvements?

I was amazed by this “Zero Install Zero Impact Rich Web Client Application” called M A B, the Mozilla Amazon Browser.

It uses the XML User Interface Language (XUL) to create a web based application that requires almost no start up time and looks like a normal application.

This is the future. Rich web applications that you don’t have to download to use. Hot! Where do I start…?