Resurrection, and updates

I could tell from the sheer number of WordPress updates that awaited me that it’s certainly been a while since I wrote here on this blog. But part of my pre-New Year’s resolution is to start writing here more – hopefully I can develop some more interesting ideas and keep growing as a writer.

I’ve learned a ton from my first semester at Harvard – where I think I’ll study computer science, though I don’t declare a major till next year – and I’ve developed an interest in seeing how technology impacts other fields – politics, economics, education, sports, whatever – in addition to technology for its own sake. So with this reboot of the blog, so to speak, I’ll work to explore the intersection of technology and other fields.

hathix.com’s second birthday & year in review

happy birthday cake elephant box cartoon
That’s one lucky elephant.

hathix.com is finishing up its 2nd year of existence. As has become tradition, I’m making a blog post highlighting everything I’ve done in the last year and taking a look at what’s in store for next year.

Check out last year’s recap – the first ever – and follow me into some stats and news from hathix.com’s sophomore year.

‘Tis the season… to not visit websites

Here’s an interesting tidbit from the life of a web developer.

You’d think that people would go on the internet with that shiny new phone/tablet/toaster they got for the holiday season.

Apparently, no one does that. Here’s a look at my latest hits (not the band type, I mean the number of visitors to hathix.com):

hathix visitors graph
As the festive spirit goes up, visits to websites go down.

From what I’ve seen, this seems to be the case with pretty much every website and app: visits or downloads sharply decrease during holiday season. For what it’s worth, things return right back to normal once the new year begins.

Sorry for downtime – also, props to WebHostingHub

A closed box package cartoon clip art
Error 404, elephant not found

tl;dr – hathix.com had some downtime but my super-helpful host WebHostingHub cleared it up immediately. Also, I apologize for the fanboyishness – it’s just that WHH is that awesome.

I was recently working with some so-called cutting-edge web programming techniques (parsing JSON using PHP from client requests using JavaScript and jQuery… told you it was gory) and realized I needed a new version of some software on the server that hathix lives on.

Introducing Sprinkle Safari, a web adventure game

Elephant with donut icon png
The logo for Sprinkle Safari, the awesome web game finally released to the public.

I’ve got a dirty little secret. Well, not so dirty, really, more… creamy. Sugary. Frosty. Sprinkle-y.

Here it is: for the last year and more(computer searching reveals since January 29, 2011 – even before hathix.com was founded), I’ve been working nonstop on a “little” web-based adventure game. And it’s never been formally released to the public – until now.

Here’s a look at the making of the game. It’s taken 16 months and over 100 hours of development.

Cabra wins the PA High School Computer Fair

A cute goat cartoon with big eyes
Bleat with confidence, kid.

Shameless advertisement: Download Cabra, the newly award-winning flashcard program!

Cabra, my surprisingly useful flashcard program, has a new feather in its cap. It’s now also an award-winning flashcard program. I’m not kid-ding (sorry about the goat pun.)

This March I shared Cabra at my regional computer fair (sponsored by the county’s Intermediate Unit) and was awarded a trip to the statewide computer fair.

Which brings me to yesterday, when I arrived in Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. Great campus (Dickinson is the 16th oldest college in the nation) and nice small town. It’s a smaller college but very well-regarded, and its facilities were great for the fair’s purpose.

Happy first birthday, hathix.com! The year in review

Cute elephant in box with birthday cake and hat
Blow out those candles, cause hathix.com is turning 1 year old!

Can you believe it? hathix.com is turning 1 year old- yup, it was registered exactly a year ago today… ah, fond memories! In just a year, hathix.com has gone from just a thought in my head to a full-fledged (and hopefully good) website.

You know, it’s hard for me to imagine life before I had hathix – but that was just a year ago. My parents say they felt the same; it’s hard for them to imagine life before kids. Anyway.