Clickatell automated SMS combined with Real Estate
by Cheater on Sep.10, 2010, under realsauce, update
One of my latest projects has been a cool idea for Real Estate where you SMS a property id to a number, and it sends a text message back instantly with more details about the property.
PropertyText is the first one I’ve ever seen that automatically creates the text messages from property feeds. That makes it extremely easy to use and very fast.
The idea is the property id gets put on the real estate sign so if the sign doesnt have stuff like price and so on, you can easily find it out. The agent gets the enquiry in a control panel and can ring the enquirer back.
I’ve gotten rid of Drupal
by Cheater on Sep.09, 2010, under update, website
I’ve gotten kind of sick and tired of Drupal so I’ve gone back to WordPress. Its just too big and bloaty for a simple blog.
I found a very good post on how to convert Drupal to WordPress. It made it quite painless. I just needed to reupload my images.
VoIP cheaper than Telstra
by Cheater on May.10, 2010, under internet, voip
Believe it or not, but I found it cheaper to get a second internet connection (TPG 512k 10gig limit) dedicated to VoIP, than to continue paying Telstra.
I mostly only call Queensland from New South Wales but the bill gets up to $70 to $80 a month. The main problem with VoIP is someone might call while I’m uploading a large file or doing other work. The solution to that is a cheap slow net connection solely for VoIP.
I’m saving $20 a month, and the extra equipment (VoIP ATA + cheap used router) and setup fees will be paid off in 6 months. After that its just lower bills.
Telstra simply cannot compete with 10c untimed national calls.
Google Maps Real Estate and Drawing Floor Plans Online
by on Apr.15, 2010, under gearman, google, voip
I’m very impressed with how Google Maps Real Estate has been going. Their coverage these days is extremely good and its only getting better. They are actually giving RealEstate.com.au and Domain a run for their money.
And RealSauce has released our floor plan drawer which is exciting. Its actually free to try out so anyone can fiddle around with it easily.
Floorplans and jQuery
by on Mar.31, 2010, under gearman, voip
We released our floor plan builder the other day. It meshes in nicely with our interactive floor plans and I’m very happy with the setup. The response from real estate agents has been extremely positive.
In other news I’m working on a fresh version of our real estate software. Plenty of jQuery is being used to make it very shiny. Can I just say that jQuery UI is one of the most useful things ever?
Bunny watching Good News Week at night
by Cheater on Mar.16, 2010, under club penguin
She is quite a fan of TV and will sit in her paper watching TV at night.
This was taken last night while GNW (Good News Week) was on.
Bunny watching Good News Week
Colourful large spider
by Cheater on Mar.16, 2010, under club penguin
I’m not sure what type of spider this is but its very colourful, and its massive. The web is also very large covering the space between two poles and is very intricate.
Only way to get my N85 to focus on it was to get very close to the spider. The picture was taken about 2cm away from it.
Large colourful spider - Close up
Complex PHP daemons and Gearman
by Cheater on Mar.13, 2010, under internet, Linux, realsauce
Well I need to redo a property handling system from scratch. Code to move properties from one site to another.
Not only does it need to do that, but it also needs to only send what has changed, and it needs to do it very quickly.
So that means I’ll need a complex forking PHP daemon, one master to set tasks and then some slaves to focus on specific types of property transmission (e.g. REAXML) and then some more slaves for just minor tasks which can be run in parallel. E.g. fetching images.
All the communication will be via Gearman. Its a lot easier that way because Gearman handles queuing and can also do priorities.
Most methods of moving properties around is just XML deltas where a element is only specified if it has changed. When a new property is made then the full data is sent. There are hacks to emulate that, but I will be going will a full history system where every single change is stored, and if required can be replayed.
The main thing I’m not looking forward to doing is working on the code which makes sure that all the separate slaves are still running.
It needs to be able to reset its self if anything goes wrong, and log errors. Not easy stuff.
I’ll probably create some kind of heatbeat system.
My rig – Desk side
by Cheater on Mar.03, 2010, under club penguin
Two Asus VW225TL 22″ monitors next to each other and Logitech 5.1 surround.
The monitors are brilliantly bright. They are mid-range (not the cheapest model) and run at 1680×1050.
On the screen is a very pretty rendering of the solar system, and the desktop is KDE 4.2. Of course its KDE 4.4 now but the pic was taken some time ago.
My Computer - 22" monitors and view of cables at the bottom
Automated Fax Setup
by Cheater on Mar.03, 2010, under club penguin
For my work for RealSauce, our primary method of advertising is by fax.
What you see here is three D-Link serial dialup modems, three phone lines coming from behind the desk, the power setup and the silvery cables are three USB -> RS232 adaptors.
Oh and a lot of cable ties.
Three modems being used to send faxes
