Thomas Penwell

Lately, I've been losing sleep over learning how to build android apps.

For my first app, I decided to build a Restaurant Order Pad app that waitstaff can use to take customer orders (to replace the pen/paper pads that many restaurants still use.) I figure I could use my experience as an order taker to build an effective app that could replace that pen/pad. The app will also cater to taking orders over the phone. No more looking up prices of everything as the pricing is all saved into the app's order menu.

We are currently in alpha dev stage and are not ready for any real world testing yet. I still have much to learn about android programming. Did I mention that android programming is a pain in the

I might turn this app into a full Point of Sale system that can keep track of all orders, send them to the kitchen and/or printer, etc... I have not decided if I will turn this project into a full POS solution.

Today I discovered that the PDF invoicing was broken. The invoice would attach however it would simply say that the specific URL used to generate invoices was not found. This is directly related to our server crash.

This happened due to a change in how I configured the web server software and was easy to fix. I have pointed the system to the NEW location on the server and all is well...

In fixing this issue, I discovered another issue with the invoicing system, this one is related to how the system flags invoices as "NEW" and as "UPDATE" (meaning the invoice changed and requires re-gen to pdf.) It will now preserve the "NEW" flag after our billing system requests a pdf generate request and the flag will only clear when a customer views it via their control panel @ TWD (as originally intended.)

Earlier today, the unimaginable happened!

My developement SERVER CRASHED!!! and it crashed HARD!!!

This server only hosts the TWD website, some personal sites of mine, but never any client sites. The main reason it hosted the TWD website is for it's ability to connect to my Access MDB file to pull client data from (mainly the client area of the site.)

As of now, here is where things sit.
1. Client sites are not affected, as they are not hosted on my dev server.
2. I still have not found out why the dev server crashed.
3. I have been able to restore the important stuff (via Mozy Client, OMG thank goodness I had this installed on my dev server. I can't stress enough the importance of having some sort of backup of your important files. Had there been no backup, I would have lost probably 2 years worth of work.)
4. For now, a limited functionality verson of the TWD website is up and running on my live server, which is fully managed by someone who isn't me.

I have not yet decided to start over with my current server or simply build a new one. Or perhaps I may simply move all my client data to the live server. Once I know more, I'll post it here.

We did a small little update to our website. We have converted our navigation menu from Javascript to pure CSS code. (Yes, CSS code can create a dropdown menu!)

In the past, I have had difficulty finding a CSS coded menu that works in IE. The CSS examples I previously looked at would work in Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, etc... but not in IE.

I will post a code sample soon. Look for it!

I have just finished my first website redesign ever. I received a customer email about his website being down and being unable to get hold of his current host, so he asked me to do a simple redesign of his website. I am glad I was able to get the content from the google cache. Check it out at http://www.whiteboxstoves.com/

Side note: This is pretty cool what this guy does. He makes alcohol burning stoves that you can carry with you in a backpack. At a very reasonable price too!