Just saw on TechCrunch that Google has just released a Virtual World, Lively.  Haven’t had time to process it all yet, but first reaction – sucks to be in the Virtual World Business (especially web-based VW).

Second reaction – I’m having trouble relating this to their core business, but Schmidt and co. are a lot smarter than I am.

What do you get when you combine the powers of CakePHP 1.2.x and the Zend Framework?

No, not Captain Planet… something much more powerful – the ability to use the Google Data API PHP library! This is useful if you want to use Google Calendar or any of the other services supported by the data API.

Loading the Zend Framework isn’t as straightforward as App::Import(…), since Zend’s libraries assume that the Zend Framework folder is in your include path. To get around this simply:

1. Drop the Zend Framework Library folder into your vendors folder
2. Create a script in your Vendors folder called something like zend_include_path.php with the following statement:

   ini_set('include_path', ini_get('include_path').dirname(__FILE__));
   

3. In your action, just do the following, replacing Gdata.php with whatever library you wish to load (i.e. Loader.php):

   function myAction() {
        App::import('Vendor', 'zend_include_path');
        App::import('Vendor', 'Zend_Gdata', true, false, 'Zend/Gdata.php');
   
        ...
   }
   

Voila! You should now be able to instantiate your loaded Zend Library Class and work with it normally.

Yeah, I’m reading Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash for the first time.  All I have to say is if you haven’t read it and are even remotely interested in Sci-fi/Cyberpunk, or your friend’s ex-boyfriend’s mom’s weird yoga teacher knows a guy who’s interested in Sci-fi/Cyberpunk you need to go buy this book immediately.

My favorite line so far:

After that–after Hiro gets onto his motorcycle, and the New South Africans get into their all-terrain pickups, and The Enforcers get into their slick black Enforcer mobiles, and they all go screaming out onto the highway –after that it’s just a chase scene.

Ok, so taken out of context it’s pretty lame – this line ends an intense, minutely detailed sword fight and subsquent escape by Hiro.  Eh, you’ll just have to read the damn book, but hopefully it gives you a good dose of the satire and black humor that pervaids this masterfully written novel.

Location based gaming isn’t anything new.  Take a look at the wikipedia page for location-based game to see a wide variety of games dating back to around the turn of this century.  But, what are all these games missing?  Hint: it starts with an i and rhymes with dry scone.

(more…)

# query comes from GET request parameter 'q'
$input = $this->params['url']['q'];

# sanitize the query
uses('sanitize');
$sanitizer = new Sanitize();
$q = $sanitizer->clean($input);

# now the pagination options hack to perform a fulltext search
# we are searching a table called 'listings' with a fulltext index on
# `title` and `description`
$options['conditions'] = array(
   '1' => "1 AND MATCH(Listing.title,Listing.description)
          AGAINST('$q' IN BOOLEAN MODE)"
);

$this->set('results' => $this->paginate('Listing', $options);

Adobe just dropped a bomb as far as I’m concerned.  They’ve announced a collaboration between Google and Yahoo to bring fully searchable SWFs.  Ted on Flex reveals the best part:

The cool part is that this also covers dynamic data loaded in from requests to a server, these are typically ignored in both AJAX and SWF applications.

This is going to open the door for a lot of the cool and useful things we’ve been wanting to do for clients at Figaro, but have had reservations about because of SEO implications, and  I’m sure many RIA houses out there feel the same.

Combine this news with a tool like swfaddress to provide deep linking into your applications and BAM! you have a killer combo.  Let’s just remember to keep our apps classy and tasteful, guys and gals.  This news isn’t cause to go hog wild with flash like the late 90s, early 2000s restaurant site debacle.