GiantDropdown jQuery Plugin for Styling Large Select Lists

A few months ago, I was working on a performance management application for the Centers for Disease Control. They wanted a select box that contained a list of competencies from which they could compose a template. The problem was some of the items in the list were hundreds of characters long and, at the time of writing, most browsers would behave very badly with drop down boxes of that size.

I was sitting at home that night and decided I could probably come up with a jQuery plugin that would use the select list as the backing field and present a prettier display. I did and we ended up using it at the CDC. I decided I'd share in case anyone else runs into the same issue.

Here's an example of what one of the select boxes would look like:

What type of element would you like to see?
A short one
One that is a little longer
One that is a little bit longer than that
An element that is really quite long and takes up a lot of display room on the screen
An element that is so long and takes up so much room on the screen that you basically have no way of displaying the element without wrapping the text within it
Another one that isn't quite as long
One that is really very long but doesn't wrap around the screen
Short
Entheusiastic!
The last one


It's not very pretty and it behaves unpredictably with other DOM elements. With the GiantDropdown plugin, we can style it any way we choose and still preserve all of the original behavior of the select list (meaning, it even works with multi-selects and option groups).

Here are some samples of the giant-ified dropdowns:


If you'd like to get the giant dropdown jquery plugin, the can check out the Giant Dropdown jQuery Plugin Git Repository. Feel free to make improvements.

Autopilot Consulting has a Logo!

At long last, Autopilot Consulting has an official logo! It's exciting to see this dream of mine coming together and now there's a face to the name.

I know it seems slow going. After all, I posted the announcement of Autopilot at the end of May and here we are in the middle of June and I'm just getting my logo together.

Well, it's true. I'm trying to get all of my ducks in a row in my spare time while most of my efforts are still spent trying to do a great job here at the Centers for Disease Control. We're not doing the same mainframe migration project anymore (but I still intend to finish that series someday). We've actually started doing some pretty interesting asp.net projects. I usually prefer mvc.net, but they focus on very rich user experience which is a good experience for a nuts-and-bolts kind of guy like me.

I noticed that not only are my blog posts becoming fewer and further between, they're also pretty non-technical. I promise to spend a little more time writing about the things I'm learning out there in the thick of it (and maybe I'll have a little advice from time to time for those who are thinking about going independent).

The Beginning of Autopilot Consulting, LLC

If you follow my blog, there are a few things I'd imagine you know about me:

1. I love writing software!
2. I love feeling like I'm improving the lives of my customers.
3. I love feeling like I'm doing my job well.
4. I love flying airplanes.

I Love Writing Software!

This is the very reason I got into the software industry in the first place. I get such a thrill out of a good days work programming. I love the challenge of solving problems as quickly, creatively, and efficiently as possible. A software engineer not only thinks about solving problems, but thinks about thinking about solving problems. Our craft is always changing and growing and it's great to be a part of this community.

Improving the Lives of my Customers

Whether I'm your employee, I'm a contractor for you, or you purchase my commercially available software, my goal is to find some way to improve your life. I've worked in paperless onboarding, business process automation, data warehousing, entertainment, e-commerce, insurance, pharmaceutical research, and academia.

There's one thing I've found in common no matter what kind of software I've been writing. That is that I find the most joy in my work when I can change peoples lives for the better. I like to think that some of the work I have done has bettered the human condition, and I am hopeful that my work will continue to do so.

Doing my Job Well

If I'm not doing my job well, I shouldn't be doing it. If I know I'm not doing a good job, I'm not satisfied with my work. If I'm not satisfied with my work, my customers can't be satisfied with my work. Sometimes you find yourself in a position where you can't meet your full potential. Other times, you don't know what your full potential is.

It is for this reason that I've decided to strike out on my own and form my own software company. I've been developing software for a long time working for various companies. I've decided that starting my company will allow me to touch the lives of more people.

I hope to continue consulting in the software industry while I build my library of commercial products including web based services and mobile applications.

Flying Airplanes

About the same time I got my first job with the word "programmer" in the title, I started flying airplanes. Since then I've flown tailwheel, multi-engine, upside down, through the clouds, and I can't get enough. One thing I've learned is that sometimes an airplane has so much going on, that you just can't do everything by yourself. That's why some planes require 2 pilots.

That's also why a lot of airplanes have autopilots. An autopilot is there to take care of going where you tell it to so you can focus on the important things. That's why Autopilot Consulting is here. We want you to focus on what's important &emdash; your business; we will handle the technology.

Together, we'll grow your business and improve the lives of your customers.

Do more. Work less. Put your business on autopilot.

Telephone Game for Android

You may know it as Grapevine, Gossip, or the Telephone Game; we call it Chinese Whispers. No matter what you call it, this is a new take on the classic game and we hope you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed making it for you.

You start the game with a short story and pass it to a friend. The next player illustrates the story with our built in finger painting canvas and passes it to the next player who will provide a new caption. Several rounds later, hilarity ensues!

We hope you'll check the Android Market for the free Telephone Game for Android by Mobile Magic Developers.

WTF is WTF Ware?

James and I worked together for about 3 years at Emerald Software Group. James went off to ThoughtWorks and I stuck with Emerald. We've both spent most of our careers writing business applications.

While we love leaving a big project knowing we've made a difference, we got to wondering how we could write software that enriches the lives of more people. We decided we'd get together and start writing mobile apps that are entertaining, useful, funny, amusing, and enriching.

We started writing apps on our own and have had a lot of fun doing it. We decided that we ought to join our efforts and see what we came up with. Thus, WTF Ware was born.

I wish I could say we had a good story for how the name came to be or at least something clever WTF Ware could stand for. Unfortunately, no such story exists.

We were just about to start writing our first app and we realized we needed some sort of organization name. James asked, "WTF is our company name?"

"Beats me dude. Just make something up for now and we'll come up with something later."

Well, WTF Ware is what James made up and it stuck. So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce ourselves. We're wtfware.com and thanks for checking out our applications.

Upgrade Chuck Norris Facts Free

Initially, when I released Chuck Norris Facts, I published two versions. I had a free version which was limited in facts and functionality. Then I published a paid version that included all the facts and customization.

This proved difficult to maintain, so I decided to make the free version ad supported and (at the time of writing) fully functional. Unfortunately, it was still a little difficult to maintain. I still wanted to have only one code base so that I could release one app all the time. Another issue was that if you have the free version for a while and switch to the paid version, you lose your fact history and start over.

Thus, I switched upgrade paths. Now, I encourage everyone to try the Free Chuck Norris Fact Widget for a while until you decide that you like it. Then, you can purchase the Chuck Norris Fact Widget Upgrade for less than a buck. This will remove the ads immediately and you won't lose your current fact history.

If you are a user who has already installed the full Chuck Norris Fact Widget, you can download and install the free version and there will be no ads (as long as you don't delete the paid version). You'll have to start over with your facts (but they're random anyhow so it shouldn't be too bad). This way you'll continue getting updates with new facts and seasonal backgrounds.

If you really want to delete the previous paid version, send an email to me and I'm mail you a buck or something so you can download the paid key.

I'd also like to thank all of the users of both the free and paid versions for sticking with me through this learning experience. I hope it's been as enjoyable to use as it has been to write.

Sincerely,
Patrick Caldwell

Chuck Norris Facts Widget for Android

A few weeks ago, I decided I'd like to try my hand at writing an Android application. One of my favorite features of Android over iOS (other than the fact that I think Apple lacks any form of ethics or sense of social responsibility) is that Android allows you to add widgets to your home screens. Sure, you can still have the half dozen views full of rows of boring icons, but the widgets give you a great deal of functionality without ever having to launch an app.

I decided a good first shot at Android development would be to write a Chuck Norris Fact of the Day widget my family and friends could stick on their home screens and enjoy a little daily pick-me-up. I knew that adding customizability would let me work with preferences and the nature of a daily fact would give me some Android data management experience.

I released the Chuck Norris Fact Widget on the Android Market and several of my family and friends downloaded it the first day. Over the next few weeks, about 1,500 of their family and friends downloaded it, so I've been working to improve it ever since.

If you're on your Android device now, you can download the free version called, Chuck Norris Facts Free or for just a buck, you can get the paid version called, Chuck Norris Facts with Widget. The icon should look familiar from above and the publisher name is, of course, D. Patrick Caldwell.

I hope you check it out and I hope you enjoy a little bit of my sense of humor.

Sincerely,
Patrick Caldwell

For the programmers who read my blog, I'll be posting some technical information I learned while developing this application. Specifically, how I managed to change the background image of my widget with remote views.