Lynnwood, WA

Just added the Lynnwood, WA store and new parts to the database today.  And fix a problem with some of the RSS feeds.

The Stock Room

So this feature probably shouldn't have taken this long to implement, but I got a request to add the Saarbrücken, Germany store (a 8x6 wall) with a few extra columns to indicate parts the store might have in the back room.  After thinking about it, it really wasn't that hard to make that happen.  I have gotten some requests in the past to do this for stores that combine similar parts into the same container, but how to solve the problem just didn't "click" until now.   *smack head*

Anyway, I'll probably start adding a 'stock room' column(s) to some of the German stores first.  If you think your neighborhood store needs a stock room column, let me know.

I've also gotten a few other great suggestions to show some basic PaB statistics, but I'm also pondering a upgrade to the web-site's look-n-feel... I'm hoping to get to both soon.

BrickBuildr's Short Term Roadmap

So, I found out it's about 50 posts before Google's spam filters kick in... that's good to know. :)

Over the next few weeks as time permits, Brickbuildr will undergo a few changes...

I hoping to integrate the web-site with OpenID. Rather than go into details, if you've got a Flickr/Yahoo/Google account, setting it up to use OpenID is pretty easy -- both Google/Yahoo support OpenID. Bottom line, I want to add some features to BrickBuildr (ie. tie your Bricklink store with your ID, tie your Brickshelf account (if you still have one) to your ID, point people to your MOCpages account, etc.), but before I can do that, you need to be authenticated (are you who you say you are?). Once authenticated, you can edit your "profile"!

I'm finding out that grabbing images from Picasa is almost as easy as grabbing them from Flickr. Now all I have to do it make some changes on the back end (the database) to start looking in both places... and if people use other images hosting web-site (like PhotoBucket), I need to take that into account as well.

There's a few other changes I'd like to implement to iPick-a-Brick... A 'sold out' button any can hit if they call about a part and it's been sold out... Like to do a 'sold out' watermark to go over the part once this button has been hit...

I'm sure there's a few other back-burner projects for the web-site, but I can think of them now... If I do, I'll blog about them... or if you'll have any suggestions, let me know.

Shared LEGO Calendars on BrickBuildr

Shared LEGO Calendars on BrickBuildr
Originally uploaded by mhuffman

So a little background on this feature... Joe Meno and I were talking the other night about the idea of 'shared' calendars. I was explaining to him about my 'Central Florida Tech' calendar, that I had invited a person or two to add events to it & before I knew it, there were 10-15 people that were adding events to the calendar -- it grew beyond my expectations & took on a new life of it's own.

Joe was talking that his LEGO calendar was getting hard to maintain with all his editorial jobs with BrickJournal and would like to see something like that for the LEGO calendar. So last night we came up with 5 different types of LEGO calendars: (1) LEGO Club Events, (2) LEGO Conventions, (3) LEGO Contests, (4) LEGO Displays, (5) LEGO Mindstorms & FLL Events -- I had a shared LEGO calendar for GFLUG/GFLTC anyway, so Joe merged all of his events into my calendar, then we started moving events into the different types of calendars (we still have more work to do, but it's looking better).

Anyway, if you maintain a web-site, or a part of a LEGO group that would like to get the word out about your events, or would like to contribute to the shared calendar, send me a e-mail or Flickr mail me & I'll send you an invite, so you can start adding events.

New iPaB Wall View on BrickBuildr

Another New Feature on BrickBuildr
Originally uploaded by mhuffman

I was so exicited when I first released iPaB. When I told my LUG-mates about it, their only criticism (in jest) was "you should make a wall view where you can see everything on one page." Grrr... I thought.

So now, a few months after the fact, here it is. There's still a few bugs to work out with it, but for now, enjoy.

New Items

Just added some new items to BrickBuildr, now you can view a User Cloud, a Group Cloud by Photos or a Group Cloud by Members, and added an option to View Groups by Categories.

Tag Cloud Added

Added a new tab called "Flickr Tags". Under it you'll see how AFOLs are tagging their LEGO images -- the bigger the font size, the more images tagged with that word. Check it out!