April 2008 Archives
In an effort to gauge interest and some early testers, I wanted to announce a project I've been working on for a few months.
PHRETS is a PHP library written for RETS. This library adds easy-to-use PHP functions for working with RETS.
My experience with RETS and real estate data in general is from a 3rd party "data consumer" role so the initial release of this PHP library is sort of targeted to that. As time goes on and more feedback is received, it may branch into different directions to offer a much more complete set of tools and features for using RETS.
I'm also fairly new to PHP myself so these functions are being written from a PHP "newbie" which should be easy for anyone remotely familiar with PHP to work with. The current code being developed is already passing the RETS compliance test so it's just a matter of cleaning things up and offering some better features and usable functions.
I've posted some introduction material at http://troda.com/projects/phrets/
If you're interested in being an early tester or being notified when I have some source code to release, sign up for the PHRETS mailing list (Google Group) and more information will be released as things develop.
PHRETS is a PHP library written for RETS. This library adds easy-to-use PHP functions for working with RETS.
My experience with RETS and real estate data in general is from a 3rd party "data consumer" role so the initial release of this PHP library is sort of targeted to that. As time goes on and more feedback is received, it may branch into different directions to offer a much more complete set of tools and features for using RETS.
I'm also fairly new to PHP myself so these functions are being written from a PHP "newbie" which should be easy for anyone remotely familiar with PHP to work with. The current code being developed is already passing the RETS compliance test so it's just a matter of cleaning things up and offering some better features and usable functions.
I've posted some introduction material at http://troda.com/projects/phrets/
If you're interested in being an early tester or being notified when I have some source code to release, sign up for the PHRETS mailing list (Google Group) and more information will be released as things develop.
As I'm sitting here waiting for my laptop to boot up, it's gotten me thinking. When did operating systems not become operating systems anymore?
Windows Vista has been a frustrating experience for me. I purchased a brand new laptop from Best Buy last July that came with Windows Vista Home Premium pre-loaded. I wasn't thrilled at the time knowing it was coming with Vista but I decided to try it out. What a horrible experience. After suffering through it for a few weeks, I couldn't take it any more and put Windows XP Professional on it. It worked great after that.
That whole experience opened my eyes a little. I remember a few years ago when games like FarCry were coming out and everyone was so impressed with what the game demanded out of a computer. Many people couldn't run FarCry at the time because it demanded more than what a typical PC had at the time. Once people upgraded, things were better and they could enjoy the game as it was originally intended.
When did we start treating Windows, a computer operating system, like a game? What's different between Windows Vista and FarCry is that people wanted that better, visual experience with FarCry and so they went for it. With Vista, it's basically forced on you which creates an instant negative reaction.
Brand new AMD Athlon64 X2 dual-core TK-53 1.7Ghz laptop with 1GB of RAM and it has trouble running an operating system. An operating system shouldn't be pushing the limits of what my computer can handle. An operating system shouldn't be having trouble doing the basic things that computer users use a PC for. If you can do those things well AND have a good visual experience doing it then great, but be an operating, working system first.
Windows Vista has been a frustrating experience for me. I purchased a brand new laptop from Best Buy last July that came with Windows Vista Home Premium pre-loaded. I wasn't thrilled at the time knowing it was coming with Vista but I decided to try it out. What a horrible experience. After suffering through it for a few weeks, I couldn't take it any more and put Windows XP Professional on it. It worked great after that.
That whole experience opened my eyes a little. I remember a few years ago when games like FarCry were coming out and everyone was so impressed with what the game demanded out of a computer. Many people couldn't run FarCry at the time because it demanded more than what a typical PC had at the time. Once people upgraded, things were better and they could enjoy the game as it was originally intended.
When did we start treating Windows, a computer operating system, like a game? What's different between Windows Vista and FarCry is that people wanted that better, visual experience with FarCry and so they went for it. With Vista, it's basically forced on you which creates an instant negative reaction.
Brand new AMD Athlon64 X2 dual-core TK-53 1.7Ghz laptop with 1GB of RAM and it has trouble running an operating system. An operating system shouldn't be pushing the limits of what my computer can handle. An operating system shouldn't be having trouble doing the basic things that computer users use a PC for. If you can do those things well AND have a good visual experience doing it then great, but be an operating, working system first.
