Carts & Paypal

06.30.2004

A couple of weeks ago I finished up the new shopping cart addition to the Bioventures website. Along the way there have been little bugs, but nothing major (just an added address field here, a credit card validator there). They're even getting orders from it! 8 orders so far, which is about 5 more than I had expected. Biotechs are usually pretty slow during the summer since most of their customers are researchers at schools, so that in conjunction with it being a new cart had me a little skeptical. But it looks like things are moving along!

One thing I've been wanting to do is to integrate my cart better with Paypal. Paypal is better for a lot of small businesses, because it saves the business the money of getting an SSL certificate and all the accounts needed to transact a credit card, while Paypal has enough features and and has been around long enough that most people feel safe using them. While trying to integrate some of their features, I came across the PayPal Developer Network, which is just chock-full of hints and help to get your site running smoothly when integrating with Paypal. After searching the message boards, I found answers to the problems I was having along with a couple more answers I didn't know I needed yet.

I guess I've just been a little cart-crazy of late.

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Some More Links

06.29.2004

I've got so much going on without having much to say, I thought I would share a couple of things I've seen recently:

• Ever wonder if some of the fees added on to your phone bill are what they sound like?
• The first Do-Not-Call case is going to court.
• A cruise ship got reposessed right before a 19-day cruise. Makes me remember all the fun I had on my little cruise.

  
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  My Mommy's Moving

  06.23.2004

  After months of being on the market, it looks like Mom is about to sale her house. Offers and counter-offers have been made, and now a tentative closing date of 7/2 has been set. After that, Mom will go off an become an official resident of Tennessee, where she and Terry have been living in an RV park 90% of the time.
  
  It strikes me as weird, even though it shouldn't, that Mom's about to move. I didn't move out until 5½ years ago, and then the house I bought was only 3 miles away. It was in a different county so it felt further away. It was a long distance call so it felt further away. Still, it was only 3 miles. A few years ago she and Terry started staying at the RV park because it was easier for Terry to get to work while he was on call. They were now 120 miles away, but their house was still only 3 miles away.
  
  Now it's sinking in that 3 miles away isn't going to be there any more. I'll have to learn to make the 120 mile trip (and I'm notoriously bad about not taking trips to see family). But 120 miles isn't really that far. I commonly drive to Nashville and Florence for dinner, so going a little further to see Mom shouldn't be such a big deal.
  
  Gonna miss that 3 mile trek, though.

  
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  Some Links

  06.21.2004

  The Daily Planet is an Austrailian brother than went public last year. It seems that they're about to get out of the brother business to avoid some police investigations into their stockholders.
  
  There's a new 70 megapixel 360° webcam out from a company in Switzerland. ~$7700, webserver included.
  
  Ever wonderif there's any merit to all the ads that will make body parts bigger (and more). Well here's the facts from Popular Science.

  
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  My Boss Is Trying To Kill Me

  06.18.2004

  This past January, JJ the Boss ran in the Disneyworld Marathon. He's a fit little ex-F14 pilot, so with the proper amount of getting ready he was able to accomplish this without too much trouble. He's since decided he is a marathon runner, looking forward to next going to a marathon in Quebec.
  
  He's also going to next years Disneyworld Marathon. Not wanting to be alone, he's added a little incentive for his out of shape employees. If we participate in the Disneyworld Half Marathon he'll pay for the trip down and the hotel. We all think this is a good idea, because it not only coerces us to get into better shape, but there's the payoff of it all being paid for.
  
  Being in the worse shape of the bunch, I'm not sure I can make it. "You can do it." said co-worker Jer. "You've got 8 months to train. You can even walk it. You've only got to average 4 MPH for the 13.1 miles to finish in the alloted time." JJ the Boss chimed in with "I'll even make you a training schedule. You've got 9 months to train."
  
  So, the first thing I've learned is why our schedules are rushed, because the 6 months until the race has been called both 8 months and 9 months. Being realistic, I let everyone know that my normal walking pace (at least on the treadmill) is 2 MPH, half of what it needs to be. On top of that, I'm good if I go 1/2 a mile at that speed, much less 13.1.
  
  But I'm going to try. I've started my training. I'm getting everything for my will together, making sure emergency numbers are in place. This morning I even tried a little harder onthe treadmill, going 3/4 of a mile in 20 minutes (at least it's a little progress). Still, I'm gonna die.

  
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