Top 10 for Techies Holiday Wish List:

1. HP TouchSmart PC
2. 27" Apple iMac
3. USB-Powered Pet Rock
4. HTC Hero Smart Phone
5. LG 55LH90 LED 1080p TV
6. Mini USB Monitor
7. Sony Reader Touchscreen
8. 2GB Apple Time Capsule
9. Wii Fit
10. Apple Magic Mouse

Show Me the Data: Protect Yourself from 3rd-Party Data Feed Failures

With the Web 2.0 era in the rear view mirror, I wanted to touch on an aspect that was heavily played and still continues to this day. Integration of 3rd-party data into websites. However, the popularity and ease of use for many APIs and the portability of Web 2.0 applications has an underlying side effect, if not integrated properly. I have come across many websites accessing 3rd-party data from places such as Flickr, Twitter, etc. that are not following the basic principles and the lack thereof should raise the question, "what happens if these 3rd-party services fail?". Many sites are not applying the appropriate contingency design plans to allow continued functionality during a failure. Caching data calls to APIs is just an example of good contingency design. In fact, many APIs will require caching - like that of Amazon - but, I suspect this is intended to help limit resource use of the API host, not the site using the API. The reasons a person using API-accessed data on their website should cache are:

1. To speed up the website's load time
2. To have a back up plan if the API call fails

A simple implementation to handle these two cases would be one that caches an API call for a given amount of time and one that freshens stale, cached data and triggers an error should an API call fail.

This post is a bit late to the party but is worth writing as I have recently come across at least three sites where Firebug and other widgets have revealed issues such as retrieving API fetched data and sluggish site loading times. A decent implementation idea would be to roll your own caching wrapper and plug it in to a stable caching tool, perhaps something like Cache Lite for PHP. In this manner, you have a reusable, caching library independent piece of code that can handle caching/flushing and refreshing of data, which could function to handle the two cases discussed above.

For more pointers on this topic, please contact us. We are happy to assist.

Ingenux Brings Thanksgiving to Hungry Oklahomans

December 2nd, 2009

Ingenux partnered with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma to host the annual Ingenux Turkey Day Food Drive to help feed those who are less fortunate this season. Within two weeks, Ingenux was able to collect 294 food items along with cash donations totaling $725. The cash donations alone will provide hungry Oklahomans with 5,075 meals. Ingenux is proud to say that last year's goal was surpassed with an astounding outcome. Food and monetary donations were collected by Ingenux staff from three multi-office complexes in Edmond, Oklahoma."We are so grateful to those who contributed to help fellow Oklahomans this holiday season during a time when money is tighter than usual," Ingenux Production Director, Brandy Semore, said. "This is a great example of how people can pull together to make a huge difference."

About the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma:The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma is a private, 501(c) (3) non-profit organization that acts as a link through which the food industry and community may donate food and other goods. The products are then distributed to nearly 700 schools and charitable feeding programs in 53 central and western Oklahoma counties. In the last fiscal year, the Food Bank distributed nearly 25 million pounds of food and products to help the charitable community effectively feed people in need. Since its inception in 1980, the Food Bank has distributed 293 million pounds of food to feed Oklahoma's hungry.