The Chronicles of Stuffed Guys

Dropbox and Google Docs

Sergey Smirnov — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:37:04 +0000

Stuffed Tracker art concept

Sergey Smirnov — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:02:00 +0000

We in Stuffed Guys are lucky to be working with an outstanding designer nickoose. He is the person who have originally come up with an idea to physically create a real stuffed doll for our new site that he was designing in 2005. That doll is mr. Stuffed, you can see him in our official logo and in the header of this blog (by the way, the image in the header of this blog is not computer-generated if you were wondering, it’s a photo of a real custom-made doll in custom-made clothes).

Well, nickoose strikes again! This time with the main art concept for the new Stuffed Tracker site which we’ve launched several weeks ago. Here it is:

The main ideas:

A tree — is your site.
You cherish the tree and water it; and look how it grows every day.
The magnifying glass is of course Stuffed Tracker itself. You use it to carefully examine the tree (your site) in order to understand how to grow it faster and keep it healthy.

Flash uploading (still) sucks

Sergey Smirnov — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:48:44 +0000

The new version of WordPress as you might already know features a fancy new file uploader. It actually uses a hidden Flash movie to allow you to choose multiple files at once for uploading and displays a progress of uploading.

The thing is — it doesn’t really work.

There are numerous reports of people for whom the new uploader just hangs forever in a so called “Crunching” final state. I’ve tried it on two different computers with two different browsers and it didn’t work for me ANYWHERE. The files were actually uploaded on the server, but the uploader didn’t seem to understand that this actually happened.

The progress of uploading doesn’t show what’s really going on. Usually it quickly gets to 100% and then hangs there for a long time. As I understand this happens because as far as Flash is concerned it has already sent all the bytes of the file to the network (so it shows 100% completion), but it has no clue if all of the bytes actually arrived to the receiving party or not.
We wanted (as WordPress also does) to communicate with the Flash-based uploader in the page in order to do some stuff when the upload was finished, but this seemed to be buggy as hell, sometimes this worked, sometimes not, this also depended on the machine where we tried, the browser, the exact Flash version — a complete nightmare.

Unfortunately, as the latest version of WordPress shows, Flash-based uploading is still not ready for production server/software use. Which is a pitty, it could have been a great addition to the Web experience.

Stuffed Tracker helps in unexpected way

Sergey Smirnov — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:25:26 +0000

While examining the most frequently used keywords on Google which were used to arrive to this blog (as reported by our own Stuffed Tracker, of course), Ivan has discovered that lots of them are related to porn for some reason. That was strange, since this blog has nothing to do with porn in any way, so we started investigating.

It turned out that WordPress which powers this blog had an unfortunate security hole in one of the previous versions which allowed anyone to modify already existing posts via XML-RPC interface. Our version was newer that the one that was affected, but apparently someone managed to use this exploit on our blog while we still used the older unprotected version of the blog software. So we had links to porn sites in a hidden layer on the front page in the latest 5-6 posts, they were indexed by Google and we got first places on some specific porn-related searches.

The amusing thing is that the people who modified the posts kept the original posts untouched (thank you very much!) and just added their hidden HTML in the end (yeah, I know they did it to stay unnoticed, but still that was good of them). Getting rid of this stuff was trivial of course.

Get Viagra Now Internet
Get Viagra Now No Doctor Visit
Get Viagra On Internet
Get Viagra Online
Get Viagra Online Guarantee
Get Viagra Without A Prescription
Get Viagra Without Prescription
Herbal Alternative To Viagra
Herbal Alternative Viagra
Herbal Levitra
Herbal Natural Viagra
Herbal Online Viagra
Herbal Remedy For Erectile Dysfunction
Herbal Viagra
How To Buy Cialis
How To Buy Sildenafil
How To Buy Tadalafil
How To Buy Viagra
India Generic Viagra
Indian Viagra
International Drug Store Viagra
International Internet Viagra
Internet Pharmacy Viagra
Internet Viagra
Internet Viagra Pharmacy
Internet Viagra Sales
Ireland Viagra
Irish Viagra
Legal Viagra
Legal Viagra Online
Legal Viagra Sales
Legally Purchase Viagra
Levitra
Levitra And Cialis And Viagra
Levitra Buy
Levitra Canada
Levitra Cheap
Levitra Cheapest
Levitra Cialis
Levitra Cialis Viagra
Levitra Commercial
Levitra Commercials
Levitra Dosage
Levitra Generic Cialis
Levitra Info
Levitra Information
Levitra Lowest Price
Levitra Medication
Levitra On Line
Levitra Online
Levitra Online Pharmacy
Levitra Pill
Levitra Pills
Levitra Price
Levitra Review
Levitra Sale
Levitra Sales
Levitra Sample
Levitra Sildenafil
Levitra Tablet
Levitra Uk
Levitra Vardenafil
Levitra Versus Viagra
Levitra Viagra
Levitra Vs Viagra
Levitra Without Prescription
Levitra Woman
Low Cost Levitra
Low Cost Sildenafil
Low Cost Vardenafil
Low Cost Viagra
Low Cost Viagra Online
Low Dose Of Viagra
Low Price Cialis
Low Price For Viagra
Low Price Levitra
Low Price Viagra
Lowest Cialis
Lowest Cost Of Viagra
Lowest Cost Viagra
Lowest Price For Levitra
Lowest Price For Vardenafil
Lowest Price For Viagra Online
Lowest Price Generic Viagra
Lowest Price On Viagra
Lowest Price Viagra
Mail Order For Viagra Tablets
Mail Order Generic Viagra
Mail Order Sildenafil
Mail Order Viagra
Mail Order Viagra In Uk
Mail Order Viagra Online
Mail Order Viagra Uk
Mail Order Viagra Without Prescription
Mail Viagra
Male Erectile Dysfunction
Meltabs Viagra
Mens Viagra
Muse For Erectile Dysfunction
Natural Cure For Erectile Dysfunction
Natural Remedy For Erectile Dysfunction
Natural Sildenafil
Natural Viagra
Natural Viagra For Woman
Natural Viagra For Women
Natural Viagra Uk
New Erectile Dysfunction Medication
On Line Generic Viagra
On Line Generic Viagra For Sale
On Line Pharmacy For Viagra
On Line Pharmacy Levitra
On Line Pharmacy Viagra
On Line Prescription Viagra
On Line Sildenafil
On Line Viagra
On-Line Pharmacy Levitra
On-Line Viagra
Online Levitra
Online Levitra Us
Online Sildenafil
Online Sildenafil Sale
Online Vardenafil
Online Viagra
Online Viagra Review
Online Viagra Sale
Online Viagra Uk
Order 50Mg Viagra
Order Cheap Cialis
Order Cheap Levitra
Order Cheap Viagra
Order Cheap Viagra Fast
Order Cialis And Viagra
Order Discount Viagra
Order Generic Levitra
Order Generic Viagra
Order Generic Viagra Online
Order Levitra
Order Levitra On Line
Order Levitra Online
Order Mexican Viagra
Order Pfizer Viagra With Mastercard
Order Sildenafil
Order Sildenafil On Line
Order Sildenafil Online
Order Sildenafil Online With No Prescription
Order Vardenafil
Order Vardenafil Online
Order Viagra
Order Viagra Canada
Order Viagra Cheap
Order Viagra Now
Order Viagra On Line
Order Viagra On-Line
Order Viagra Online
Order Viagra Online In Wisconsin
Order Viagra Online No Rx Prescription
Order Viagra Online Uk
Order Viagra Online With No Prescription
Order Viagra Onlines
Order Viagra Or Levitra
Order Viagra Prescription
Order Viagra Softtabs
Order Viagra Uk
Order Viagra Usa
Order Viagra With Mastercard
Order Viagra Without A Prescription
Order Viagra Without Prescription
Ordering Viagra
Ordering Viagra Online
Pay Pal Buy Levitra
Pay Pal Buy Vardenafil
Penis Erectile Dysfunction
Pfizer Drug Viagra
Pfizer Drugs Viagra
Pfizer Sildenafil
Pfizer Viagra
Pfizer Viagra 100Mg
Pfizer Viagra Cheap
Pfizer Viagra Discount
Pfizer Viagra Price
Pfizer Viagra Uk
Pharmacy Online Viagra
Pharmacy Viagra
Pills Sildenafil
Pills Viagra
Price For Generic Viagra
Price For Viagra
Price Generic Viagra
Price Of Levitra
Price Of Viagra
Price On Viagra
Price Viagra
Prices Levitra
Prices On Viagra 100 Mg
Prices Viagra
Prices Viagra Generic
Psychological Erectile Dysfunction
Purchase Cheap Viagra Online
Purchase Generic Viagra
Purchase Generic Viagra Online
Purchase Generic Viagra Uk
Purchase Levitra
Purchase Levitra Online
Purchase Sildenafil
Purchase Sildenafil Online
Purchase Vardenafil
Purchase Viagra
Purchase Viagra And Cialis
Purchase Viagra By Check
Purchase Viagra In Australia
Purchase Viagra In Uk
Purchase Viagra On Line
Purchase Viagra Online
Purchase Viagra Professional
Purchase Viagra Soft Tabs
Purchase Viagra Uk
Purchase Viagra With Pay Pal
Purchase Viagra Without Prescription
Purchasing Viagra
Purchasing Viagra Online
Real Viagra
Real Viagra Paypal
Rx Levitra
Rx Viagra
Sale Levitra
Sale Vardenafil
Sildenafil
Sildenafil Alternative
Sildenafil Alternatives
Sildenafil Buy
Sildenafil Buy Online
Sildenafil Canada
Sildenafil Cheap
Sildenafil Cialis
Sildenafil Drug
Sildenafil For Sale
Sildenafil Generic
Sildenafil Information
Sildenafil Levitra
Sildenafil On Line
Sildenafil Online
Sildenafil Online Buy

And Stuffed Tracker saved the day!

BTW, we’ve launched a completely new stand-alone site for the new 3rd generation of Stuffed Tracker not long ago.

Three

Sergey Smirnov — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:27:28 +0000

Mac has won (Vista, last part)

Sergey Smirnov — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:01:16 +0000

Or it is definitely winning.

After my previous posts about the experience that I had with Vista I’ve encountered the most serious problem in it — the network part of Vista was “reworked”, which in Microsoft speak I guess means “fubar“. It just doesn’t work. You know, as in “just works”, but the other way around.

I won’t go into detail here, but I, a reasonably experienced Windows user, was not able to properly setup the damn network at all (the internet connection sharing and all this stuff). And this is not the worst part.

The worst part is that now — after I finally managed to make the network work in some form — I can’t connect to my server from my laptop using a VPN connection (again, not going into much details). This works in XP without problems and not in Vista.

It will be a big pity if Apple won’t get a huge crowd of converts now. I am certainly planning to convert. Just waiting for the Jaguar to be released hopefully along with the update to the Apple’s Macbook Pro line (which are gorgeous already, but are almost a year old).

And while I am waiting, I am back to XP.

PS. And I agree that this might just happen. Microsoft is very close (as probably it has never been before) to losing it’s top position.

Project communication with Factory Nova

Sergey Smirnov — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 16:55:32 +0000

Created this simple diagram to compare the usual direct project communication (when all people involved in the project talk to each directly) with the project communication based on Factory Nova.

Obviously, Factory Nova works as a centralized repository for everything project-related. All people involved in the project, instead of communicating directly with each other now communicate indirectly — that is through Factory Nova. This helps to keep all the information regarding the project in one place and easily accessible.

But there is one more thing.

Factory Nova notifies everyone involved in the project about everything that happens in the project. And it does it via email.

We decided to rely on the email, because we think that an email client is the best personal productivity software that exists today. Modern email clients are so sophisticated that you can do absolutely wonderful things with them — tagging emails as tasks (with stars or flags), create “smart” email folders which would contain only flagged emails-tasks which you have to do as soon as possible, filter and search all emails very quickly.

Factory Nova works as the central mechanism for managing all the information about the project and you can actually use it for everything, including working with your tasks if you are comfortable of using a web browser and a web interface for this. But, you can also just rely on the email notifications that are send to you to manage your own personal workflow.

This works not only for the developers/workers in the project, but for the managers too. For example, I am a manager in the project and I get an email notification from Factory Nova that a certain task was just finished by a developer. I quickly look through the final developer comments which are also available to me in the email notification and I see that something is not right. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to deal with this right now, so I just flag this email in my email client and it becomes my personal task. Later that day, I will look through all the flagged emails, solve each problem and unflag all corresponding emails.

So in our opinion email is far from dead and is ideally suited for a scenario that I’ve described. We will certainly add RSS in this scheme this year, although I am not sure if the RSS reader clients will fit this as good as the email clients. But we will see.

Vista disk activity again

Sergey Smirnov — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 00:11:31 +0000

Apparently, lots of people have trouble with Vista doing something with their hard drive all the time. My previous post about this gets quite a lot of hits from Google.

Here are the top keywords for this week:

Different kinds of Simple

Sergey Smirnov — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 23:41:06 +0000

I was watching an almost complete collection of Apple keynotes since 1997 (when Steve Jobs returned to Apple) and for some reason I formulated this.

There are different kinds of “simple” in software engineering and actually in any kind of engineering.

Simple, which was made simple without background “domain” knowledge, basically with the only reason that “it is easy to create this thing this way”, just blindly following the mantra that “every solution should be simple”.
Simple, which is a result of a lot of work and background analysis.

The first one is worthless, the second one is genius and is a result of a very hard work. It could be very hard to distinguish between the two. The first one can be easily disguised as the second one.

Another amusing exchange with a potential customer

Sergey Smirnov — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 12:37:21 +0000

Continuing on this amusing post.

Mr X: I have no money to buy your software, I can translate it into my language. Will you give me one license for free for that? Or else..

Me: We can give you a 20% discount for the translation, please tell me if you are interested.

Mr X: I told you that I have no money, can you give me a 90% discount? Or else..

Me: No can’t do.

Mr X: I cracked your software. If you will give me a free license I will tell you how I did that.

The End.