Well, due to unforeseen circumstances I’ve not been able to work on the banishforever.com project since my last update. So far I've completed 2 days - there will be 2 further days to go.

I’m going to be continuing it from now but don’t for one moment think I’ve been sneakily completing work over the weekend. This is not the case!

Where I got to

The website code so far is 22.2k – that’s all the css, html and asp code.

I had a rough idea of how I was going to store the tags in the database and doing some further reading on the subject confirmed to me that I was heading in the right direction - I was working toward the "Toxi Solution".

What's complete so far

1. Registration
2. Login
3. Expansion of profile
4. Basic 'creation of something to banish' page / entry into the database
5. Database for tagging created (I'll go into more detail about this at the end of the 'experiment')

Today’s goals:

1. Expand on the current basic ‘creation of something to banish’ page
2. Create the page displaying the item the user wants to banish
3. Allow users to vote on whether they agree with this or not
4. Start work on the tag cloud

No doubt there will be an update later on in the day. I just want to get cracking now though so that's all for now!

It would appear Cisco Systems, holders of the “iPhone” trademark since 2000, will be suing Apple after yesterdays unveiling of the impressive device.

The lawsuit, it’s being reported, was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and is seeking to prevent Apple from “infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco’s registered iPhone trademark”.

Apple does, however, own the iPhone trademark here in the UK and I believe also in Australia.

I decided not to blog about the iPhone yesterday as I thought it was well covered! I must say it does look great and I’m looking forward to testing the touch screen navigation, sounds interesting.

Will be interesting to see how this pans out… Is the name really that important anyway??

via Associated Press

It's now day two of the four day challenge to create a fully functioning social networking website from scratch.

As you can probably tell, the logo is complete (wow, that took all of 30 seconds in Photoshop!)

I've also completed the rough layout in Photoshop and have now transferred this to CSS and HTML. The templates are in place.

Work is about to start on the programming. 

Below is my little list of taks I'm going to be working on now. I'll give an update when I've completed these tasks with a new list tomorrow.

Todo

1. Create basic mySQL database with user tables
2. Create registration form
3. Scripts to process registraton, incl. emails, and confirmation of email
4. First logon script with profile creation incl. avatar etc.

Okay, it’s 6:20pm as I begin to write this.. day 1 of 4.

All day, so far, has been spent banging me head against a wall trying to come up with a domain name for the site that wasn’t taken.

My first choice was getrid.com but never mind… I’ve settled on banishforever.com.

The theme for the website was easily decided last night. I don’t know if it’s been done before; I did try searching for similar sites but it’s so difficult, especially amongst all the web 2.0 titles. I certainly haven’t heard of or visited a site along the same lines.

As I mentioned in my previous post, this is an experiment, a challenge… I’m not doing this to retire on. If anyone uses it, that’s a bonus.

I’ll quickly give you a bit of information on what the site is about. This is all subject to change:

The Basic Idea

User Joe Bloggs will suggest something they want to “banish forever”. Other users will vote to agree or disagree with Joe Bloggs’ nomination. There will be a banished list and a list of things that are “forever safe” (??)

There will be lovely tag clouds (something I’ve never touched on before) and each user will have an “authority rating” (??) i.e. people usually agree, their vote worth more etc.

It goes without saying that people will be able to comment, message other users, add people as friends and also place WIDGETS on their blog, myspace, forum etc.

More to follow on this…

My Next Steps

Well, the first thing I’m going to do is load up Photoshop and create a simple logo and design. Some people do things the other way around, I can’t. The design will just be a basic layout, nothing flash.

Then, I’ll start to build the stylesheet and templates for header and footer. That’s the way I usually do things.

Once that’s complete I’ll get to work creating a basic mySQL database (for now). I always tend to build as I go along rather than create a plan, saying that,  I do have a plan of how I want it to function in my head. I guess this blog will be my head to “paper” output.

At some point I’ll have to log into my dedicated server and configure the nameservers and all that rubbish… that will most probably be some point tonight. It all has to be to be online and ready by Friday night remember! Ouch! 3 days of work… I still think it can be done.

I've just received an email from PayPerPost letting me know they've added $100 into my advertiser account because I haven't yet deposited any funds.

PayPerPost has deposited $100 in your advertiser account, the only catch is that it must be used by Friday of this week. I invite you to come back and try the system. Our marketplace has come a long way since our initial launch and we now reach tens of thousands of bloggers.

That's fine by me… looks like I'll be testing out the system - I could use it to get links for my 'social networking site in 4 days' I guess.

update on the social networking site: finding a name and domain name is impossible. I currently HATE people that register domain names with no intention of using them! ARGH!!!!