Tim Hibbard

CEO for EnGraph software
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AJAX

There are 33 entries for the tag AJAX
EnGraph is hiring – ASP.NET, Kansas City
EnGraph is looking for an ASP.NET developer to join our team. We are a small company in Lenexa, KS that creates .NET applications for Paratransit agencies. A good candidate would be very comfortable with ASP.NET, Forms Authentication and JavaScript. A huge bonus would be knowledge of IIS, Google Maps API, AJAXPro, ActiveReports, WPF and SQL. We are accepting resumes immediately and look to hire as soon as January 18th. We would consider contract or full-time and we would require office attendance. ......

Posted On Wednesday, December 30, 2009 1:07 PM | Comments (1) |

Becoming a better developer
Dru was kind enough to tag me on how I could be a better developer. I think that in addition to being a better developer, I also need to deliver better applications. We all have different reasons for our geeky ways, and mine is to create applications that save people time. So here is my list: Start giving more talks - I really enjoy giving my talks on Ajax.net and Real time GPS implications, but I'm not an expert on AJAX and most people find my opinions on GPS to be a bit "abrasive". I need to isolate ......

Posted On Friday, July 20, 2007 3:09 PM | Comments (2) |

Why I don't use open source in production desktop apps
I've thought about posting this for a while now and responses to my architecture post by Dave and Dru have got me thinking about it again. I avoid open source frameworks or libraries in our production desktop applications. I don't have a problem with third party when it comes to web applications or internal apps. I use AjaxPro and skmRSS on Where's Tim and my home site. I use Indy.Sockets all the time in our internal apps. Where's Tim is just for fun though and if it goes down, it's not that big ......

Posted On Monday, May 7, 2007 2:19 PM | Comments (7) |

Facelift for timhibbard.com
As a display of how non-creative I am, I redesigned timhibbard.com this weekend. The new master page concept with ASP .NET 2.0 is really cool. Using a master page, I linked the Where's Tim API to show data from Where's Tim on the top of each page. Using AjaxPro and a little JavaScript, it updates every 15 seconds. Other than that, it's pretty boring :) Technorati tags: ASP .NET, C#, timhibbard.com, Where's Tim, Web design, AjaxPro ......

Posted On Sunday, April 29, 2007 11:12 PM | Comments (0) |

Bloated AJAX hits
In CNN's article about .NET 3.0 RTM, they quote Ben Noonan from Burton Snowboards: Now that our pages are enabled with Atlas, we've seen nearly double the traffic. That is a misleading statement. By nature, adding AJAX elements to your site is going to increase traffic. Every page that loads asynchronously (where the initial page load is just the structure and then the data loads in front of your eyes) is charging many more hits to the server. For example, on Where's Tim, I initially load the map ......

Posted On Tuesday, November 7, 2006 8:04 AM | Comments (1) |

HDC 2006 wrapup
Heartland Developers Conference 2006 in Omaha was a huge success! Joe Olson, Phil Wolfe and everybody else involved did a great job getting everything put together. Day 1: Joe Stagner did the opening keynote on Federated Logic. Basically using data sources that live anywhere on the internet with ASMX web services. He even talked a little bit about GPS and web based mapping solutions. Something that is near and dear to my heart. Next, I went to Dave Donaldson's talk on Power Programming with Attributes. ......

Posted On Wednesday, November 1, 2006 2:30 PM | Comments (2) |

Tulsa TechFest 2006 wrapup
David, Steve and everybody else involved did a great job in putting this event together and keeping the chaos at an organized level!! My talk on AJAXPro went really well. 25 or so people showed up and everybody seemed to understand the power of AJAXPro and several of them told me afterwards that they had projects that could use this technology right now. I've talked before about why AJAXPro is better than XMLHttpRequest. It also had advantages over ATLAS (Microsoft's AJAX library) in that AJAXPro ......

Posted On Sunday, October 15, 2006 1:16 PM | Comments (0) |

Next stop - Salem, NJ
Kyle and I are at the airport getting ready to head to Salem. Tulsa TechFest 2006 was awesome. Lots of attendees and great sessions. They did a great job keeping everything organized. And to Chris Williams, my laptop acted up when I plugged into their projector too, so it had nothing to do with your projector, my laptop is just possesed. More details about TechFest later, I met some very interesting people. I've never actually gotten a GPS reading at takeoff or landing, but I'll keep trying. Technorati ......

Posted On Sunday, October 15, 2006 9:30 AM | Comments (1) |

Upcoming events
This weekend, I'm heading to the Tulsa TechFest 2006 to give my AJAXPro talk. Sunday, Kyle and I are going to Salem, New Jersy to see one of our clients. The Heartland Developers Conference is coming up the week after that. I'm speaking at the Kansas University GIS day in November. I will be speaking in the same session as Dr. Jerome Dobson. I've heard that he is not a big fan of GPS, so that should be interesting. My talk is called "Big Brother is on MySpace. How GPS will change our everyday lives ......

Posted On Friday, October 13, 2006 8:04 AM | Comments (0) |

AJAX.net code online

I've posted the code and slide deck from my AJAX.net talk at SC CodeCamp this past weekend.

slide.htm

slide.ppt

code.zip

Posted On Tuesday, September 19, 2006 10:27 AM | Comments (0) |

Using AJAX.net instead of XMLHttpRequest
I've been brushing up my AJAX talk for next week's Code Camp. One of the things I want to talk more about is why to use the AJAX.NET library instead of the XMLHttpRequest object. Having used them both, I can say that I feel more like a hardcore geek when I use the XMLHttpRequest, but I get more done when I use AJAX.NET. Here's the main reasons why: 1) All my business code stays in .NET. I can create reusuable classes that I can use in other applications. I can use intellsense and my own custom objects. ......

Posted On Friday, September 8, 2006 3:39 PM | Comments (0) |

Fixed "Get directions"
The "get directions to Tim" on Where's Tim wasn't working quite right after I added the AJAXPro caching. That's fixed Sami has been driving all over Finland recently. Right now he is on the border of Finland and Sweden. You can watch him here. I've been able to do a lot of coding this last week. I added a bunch more functionality to our application updating framework that David will be using in his applications. Hey David, start blogging ......

Posted On Monday, August 7, 2006 8:17 AM | Comments (0) |

Using Caching with AJAXPro - AjaxServerCache
Dru came up the other day and we looking at implementing caching into Where's Tim. Turns out, the AJAXPro library that I use already contains caching capabilities. So take an AJAX function like this: <AjaxPro.AjaxMethod()> _ Public Function GetYahooTraffic(ByVal xmlAddress As String) As Traffic() and then add a AjaxServerCache attribute to the function. The "300" is the number of seconds that the data should be cached. Like this: <AjaxPro.AjaxMethod(), AjaxPro.AjaxServerCache(300... _ ......

Posted On Friday, July 21, 2006 9:46 AM | Comments (1) |

Updated demo code

I added the Where's Tim API + Google Maps demo code to the article about showing the code from my AJAX.net talk.

http://geekswithblogs.net/thibbard/articles/79447.aspx

Posted On Friday, June 16, 2006 7:23 AM | Comments (0) |

Using AJAX.net on non-SmartPhone

The Java based Opera Mini browser is compatable with the new AJAX.net library!! I have officially switched to using Opera as my main mobile browser. I can't wait to write a Where's Tim mobile version with automatic updates!

Posted On Wednesday, June 14, 2006 7:07 AM | Comments (0) |

AJAX.net on Windows Mobile
Michael Schwarz has released a new version of AJAX.net that works with Windows Mobile 5 and PPC 2003 devices. I don't have a device right now to test, but if you want to see if your device is compatible with AJAX.net, browse to http://www.ajaxpro.info on your mobile device. If you get this screen, it works. Very cool ......

Posted On Tuesday, June 13, 2006 8:07 AM | Comments (0) |

Article about using Google Maps .getBounds() function
Too many Google Maps mashups force the user to enter a zip code, or select a state before displaying the data to the user. This interrupts the user experience and takes away the "browsing" capabilities that Google Maps offers. This article shows how load data from XML using the Google Maps AJAX helper when the user moves the map and display only the points that are in the viewing range of the user. http://geekswithblogs.net/t... ......

Posted On Friday, June 9, 2006 11:54 AM | Comments (1) |

Using Google Maps .getBounds() function
Too many Google Maps mashups force the user to enter a zip code, or select a state before displaying the data to the user. This interrupts the user experience and takes away the "browsing" capabilities that Google Maps offers. This JavaScript code will show how load data from XML using the Google Maps AJAX helper when the user moves the map and display only the points that are in the viewing range of the user. The XML file is located here. And a working example is here. <script type="text/javascript&... ......

Posted On Friday, June 9, 2006 11:48 AM | Comments (4) |

Nice feedback
Steve Walker was at my AJAX.NET talk at Wichita Code Camp. This is what he said: ...One thing that I thought was interesting about the presentation was Tim showing us how his company uses Google Maps and GPS to track items around the world in real time. In a VERY small amount of code, we were able to see where Tim was at and where he had been on his drive over this morning... Thanks Steve. People are starting to use the Where's Tim API for interesting things. One guy mashed up Where's Tim data with ......

Posted On Sunday, June 4, 2006 6:53 PM | Comments (2) |

Down in Wichita
I'm down here in Wichita for the WichitaDevelopers.net Code Camp. I left Lawrence around 5:45 AM and got here just in time. Raymond Lewallen started out with a talk about smarter ASP session and cache use. I can't wait to incorporate that into Where's Tim. Next I talked about using the AJAX.net library. It was the same talk I gave at the Kansas City .net user group last week and I think I did better. Even though Jeff wasn't there to explain some of the "under the hood" stuff, I was able to give a ......

Posted On Saturday, June 3, 2006 9:12 AM | Comments (0) |

Speaking at WichitaDevelopers Code Camp
I posted a comment on Raymond Lewallen's blog saying that I was looking forward to his talks at the WichitaDevelopers .net Code Camp this weekend...long story short, I'm giving a talk on AJAX.net, come check it out if you are in the area. I'm going to have lots of practice for Chris's SC Code Camp ......

Posted On Thursday, June 1, 2006 11:07 AM | Comments (0) |

Kansas City .net User Group - May 2006
Jeff Julian and John Alexander were nice enough to let me speak about the AJAX.net library last night at the Kansas City .net User Group meeting. I've never spoken in front of that many people before, and it was quite an experience. I didn't do a very good job going over the concept or the history of AJAX, but Jeff was there to bail me out. Thanks Jeff!! I really appreciate the feedback that people left me and I look forward to giving this talk again at the South Carolina Code Camp. I have a new ......

Posted On Wednesday, May 24, 2006 12:52 PM | Comments (2) |

AJAX.net Demo Code
This article is from a talk I did for the Kansas City .net user group. It will show you how to use the AJAX.net library written by Michael Schwarz. Initial Setup: 1) Download dll from http://ajaxpro.info 2) Open Visual Studio and create a new web application 3) Add a reference to the AJAX.net dll 4) Modify your web.config to include: <system.web> <httpHandlers> <add verb="POST,GET" path="ajax/*.ashx" type="Ajax.PageHandler... Ajax"/> </httpHandlers> ......

Posted On Wednesday, May 24, 2006 7:22 AM | Comments (7) |

Using infowindowopen with Google Maps
Kyle complained that sending me a message on Where's Tim didn't always work, that sometimes the InfoWindow would close before he could push send. This was because every 30 seconds an AJAX call was made that would check for my current location. Looking through the Google Maps documentation, I found the infowindowopen and infowindowclose events. So I created a boolean variable that is checked before my current position is refreshed and set that boolean to true on the infowindowopen event and false ......

Posted On Thursday, January 12, 2006 7:02 AM | Comments (1) |

*Gasp*...potential problem with Google Maps
In the PodcastStudio.net session the other night, I told Jeff and John that I have never had problems with Google Maps, or any Google API. Well, I think I might have found something. I was redesigning the layout for Where's Tim, because, well, I'm an awful UI designer. And I was putting everything into a 2x4 table and I set the left column width at 25% and the right column width at 74%. The upper right hand cell contains the div tag that eventually becomes the Google Map and I set the width of that ......

Posted On Saturday, December 31, 2005 2:16 PM | Comments (0) |

PodcastStudio.net follow up
I had a great time talking with Jeff and John the other night. As I listened to the podcast, I noticed a few things that I should clarify. Lat/Long = Latitude & Longitude, and x and y way of locating a geographic point on a map. For example, the Lat/Long of Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, KS is -95.25438, 38.954069. We used the AJAX.net library by Michael Schwarz. It is very easy to use and had wanted to talk more about it, but we ran out of time. All you do is modify your web.config, register your ......

Posted On Saturday, December 31, 2005 1:49 PM | Comments (0) |

Talking with PodcastStudio.net
I just finished talking with Jeff and John from PodcastStudio.net. We had a great talk about Where's Tim, GPS technology moving forward, consumer adaptation, the negative misconceptions of GPS, how the web is opening up with API's and web services, and good old fashioned geek stuff in general. Jeff talked a little about it earlier. He might have it up tonight, so make sure to subscribe to their feed. Technorati Tags: Google Maps, Where's Tim, ASMX, AJAX, Podcast ......

Posted On Thursday, December 29, 2005 4:47 PM | Comments (0) |

All about Where's Tim Hibbard
New! Check out the new ClickOnce Where's Tim Tasktray alerter! http://timhibbard.com/where... When I tell people that I keep a GPS enabled Nextel phone in my car and anybody, at anytime can see my current position, they always ask, “Well, aren’t you worried about that?” I always say, “No, one day everybody will use their current location to assist them in their everyday lives.” While most people aren’t as comfortable with this level of transparency, I believe the social and business benefits of ......

Posted On Tuesday, November 29, 2005 9:07 AM | Comments (9) |

Get Directions to Tim
Kyle asked for it, so now on Where's Tim, you can get directions, and distance from anywhere to my current location. Push the "Get Directions to Tim" button, a dialog box will instruct you to select a location on the map, you click on the map where you currently are (you can still drag and zoom the map), and using AJAX, it will generate a Google map with driving directions and mileage from where you selected to my current location. Like I was talking about before, we want Where's Tim to resemble ......

Posted On Friday, November 11, 2005 7:40 AM | Comments (1) |

Messaging with Where's Tim
So Kyle and I were talking about Where's Tim, and we decided we need to make it more of a replication of a business Automatic Vehicle Locating (AVL) solution. So when we are talking to potential clients about what EnGraph can provide them, we use this page as an example. One of the things that every AVL product needs is messaging. So we added a feature where you can click the icon and in the info window is a place to enter your return address and message. Using AJAX, the message is sent to my cell ......

Posted On Tuesday, November 8, 2005 6:56 AM | Comments (1) |

Where's Tim and ProgrammableWeb get linked from Czech Republic
www.zive.cz wrote an article about AJAX and Google Maps and linked to Where's Tim and John Musser. It's all written in Czech and I couldn't find a translator that actually translated it, so I hope they are saying nice things. Technorati Tags: Where's Tim, GPS, AJAX ......

Posted On Tuesday, October 11, 2005 5:13 PM | Comments (0) |

Where's Tim - now with Auto Refresh
So Kyle says to me, "I guess its pretty cool to see your location on a Google Map, and that's neat that it uses AJAX to populate the map so I don't have to see a nasty page refresh to see if your location has changed, but what I really want is to have it just automatically give me a new map when your location changes..."So using a simple setInterval javascript function and a variable that is populated on the onkeyup event of a textbox, we made it happen. Just enter the number of seconds you wish ......

Posted On Thursday, September 15, 2005 2:07 PM | Comments (3) |

Google Maps code - smart centering on map
Here is some javascript code that we use on Where's Tim. It will only recenter the map if the new point is out of the map view. We use this code on the AJAX refresh button. map.clearOverlays(); var pointA = new GPoint(-95, 38); var bounds = map.getBoundsLatLng(); if ((pointA.x > bounds.maxX) || (pointA.x bounds.maxY) || (pointA.y //only executes if pointA is out of the bounds of the map { map.centerAtLatLng(pointA); } var markerA = new GMarker(pointA); GEvent.addListener(markerA, "click", function() ......

Posted On Thursday, September 15, 2005 12:16 PM | Comments (1) |

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