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The one that should have been the most meaningful... In 2003/04 I was working as a remote freelancer for a small software outfit in Pennsylvania, USA, on a number of projects. The company came up with a concept for a desktop application that would have "plug-in" modules that would provide a whole host of functions, from airline ticket price comparisons, weather forecasts, cinema listings, share prices... the lot. He just provided screen shots, I built it (in VB6) as separate DLLs (plus an auto updater) with heavy use of XMLHttpRequest objects to make requests to 3rd party web servers. We'd get either XML or, often, have to resort to scraping web pages; then formatting data for display in a really interactive, dynamic way. The app was released as "The Seeker" and was effectively a custom browser aggregating data from multiple sources.
Late 2004 he realised that going down the installable application route wasn't going to reach the market he wanted, so asked if we could put the same interface on the web. I reasoned we could use Javascript to drive the XMLHttpRequests back to our own server, which would do the heavy lifting and high data volume comms. So, from scratch, I built a single-page website that could do all these totally different things, using Javascript, XML and asynchronous calls back to the server. We continued to develop The Seeker whilst building the new single-page website, schmedley.com[^].
His visual designs were (for the time) stunning and unlike anything else on the web, and he was still just sending me screen mockups and I was converting that to HTML/CSS and making it all work with Javascript. As well as the full-blown "channels" we were building little "widgets" (or "schmidgets") that could be dragged around, duplicated or hidden. He was getting interest in the US and starting to team up with data providers. I thought we had a really good working relationship and he was offering a part share in the company (I'd just been charging an hourly rate up to then).
Suddenly he announced that in order to keep up producing more channels he needed to hire more developers, but he couldn't find any more good ASP people, so he was re-writing the codebase in PHP. He could just have kept me on as CTO without me cutting server-side code, but for some reason chose not to, and we parted ways very soon after. Turns out his "good" developers weren't up to scratch and the project just fizzled out within a year.
By then (but after I'd built the Schmedley prototype) Jesse James Garrett published a paper describing how websites could become far more interactive and flexible by using a combination of Javascript to communicate specific requests to a server, updating the UI in response. He titled his paper “Ajax: A New Approach to Web Application.”
I should have patented it or something but I was too busy churning out code...  No regrets though, I had so much fun on that project, and he paid well too.
modified 3 days ago.
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I wrote HaiBas, a BASIC interpreter, in 1975/76 for a software company in The Netherlands. The company and independent developers sold their packages, "apps" in modern parlance, and brought in eventually several thousand end users. It never progressed to a graphical world but there are still enthusiastic developers and end users. I bought the software rights about 10 years ago and have maintained the interpreter and associated tools (now in C++) for nearly 50 years.
Significant? Certainly on a personal level!
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Any software that lives longer than 5 years is significant. (Because that's what's quoted as the "useful life" of software).
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
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I'd say my most meaningful project was development of a real time metalic rod inspection system running on a 386 PC in 1990. The previous system was run on a PDP minicomputer.
It read data from serial port and needed to detect flaws of 1/64th of an inch with the rods moving at 1 foot per second. It's fairly simple to calculate how many readings per second are needed. I read the data and did an FFT to spot out-of-expected range responses.
The most challenging thing was the need to fire a paint gun to mark the flaw.Knoswing the distance to the gun nozzle, determined the time delay required.
Then there was the need to archive all the raw data for later review. Obviously, at those speeds, there was no way to spit the data to disk in time to get the next reading. I had to devise a way to detect the end of a rod, then vomit the data from a buffer to disk before the start of the next rod.Therewas generally a 1 foot space between rods. I write it in C, then optimized in assembly to crank the most out of every CPU cycle.
The system was in place and used in production for years. In fact I was told it is still in use after all these years.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr.PhD P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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two projects come to mind.
One was doing class scheduling at a college for students. I created a way for them to search and select which classes they wanted based upon a variety of factors and to enable them to then wholesale sign up for the classes. Took a ton of work off of people so they could then focus on getting the right classes. I wrote it 20+ years ago and the code is still in use at its core by the college. That was fun
2nd was helping people to concentrate on their job. working at a very large farming organization. they had a monthly "dashboard" that was compiled given to their upper management. It took 4 people most of a month to put together and kept them out of their real jobs and being productive. They had to run around and interview a variety of people on differing projects about status etc... Took like 6 months but essentially made a real "dashboard" that was updated real time with the data from the various project managers. The best part about this was that no one lost a job and I got a huge bonus because of time saved for the company. It was such a good feeling.
there are a host of other projects that might have been harder or what not but these two stick out alot.
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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I had the Xbox360 (yes, I know, it's "vintage") Rock Band 3 game disc, but because of my stupidity, I banged into the console, and that disc was trashed - and so I bought a NIB replacement disc. However to avoid this in the future, I want to make a copy of this game disc, and only use the copy disc to play, that way if I do this again, I could easily make a new copy.
Anyway, so I need to get an external CD writer, and I want to make sure that it can make an exact copy that the console will accept. Is there anything special I should look for in a CD writer? It seems that all such writers can write DVD, and I presume that any such writers could do a proper game disc copy.
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I think any DVD writer will be sufficient. However you probably can't use a normal disc copy program, as I believe XBOX (and PlayStation, other consoles) use various tricks to prevent illegal copying. You should probably do a web search for something like "how to copy XBOX disc", and use that information to find a utility that will allow you to copy the game disc.
Keep Calm and Carry On
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Yeah, they usually have some kind of hidden sectors that consumer grade writers can't duplicate.
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Former unadorned prior ruler creates understanding. (9)
I'm heading out to a meeting in a few minutes, so unless someone gets it quickly (quite likely), there'll be a couple of hours delay in replying.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Explainer
Former -> Ex
unadorned -> plain
prior ruler -> er ( Elizabeth Regina )
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
modified 5 days ago.
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That's what I got as well.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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It's not a word I've heard in conversation
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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I think you might have it. It's what I came up with too.
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YAUT. And now you can edit in the explanation. 
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Wordle 712 5/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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Down to the wire:
Wordle 712 6/6*
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Lucky choice of two ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Wordle 712 4/6
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
My 3 starters are meant to find inclusions not exclusions!
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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Wordle 712 X/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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Wordle 712 6/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Phew! 
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Wordle 712 6/6*
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Lucky guess!
Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. -Anon
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Wordle 712 X/6
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
Lost today.
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Wordle 712 6/6
Not an easy one today!
🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩
⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩
⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Ok, I have had my coffee, so you can all come out now!
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Wordle 712 X/6
⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩
⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩
⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩
⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩
Not easy? More like almost impossible!
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