2009-08-25 ---------- * I am absolutely astonished that nearly all of the parsers worked properly without having to rewrite much 2007-11-21 ---------- * Changed the "Daily Line" link to "Live Odds" -- I dunno, it makes more sense 2007-10-05 ---------- * Added elementary support for automatic linking of URLs so you don't technically have to use the [url] formatting anymore, but I really would rather you did; also, the code still needs a bit of work but it should be okay for the moment * No clue why I didn't think of this before but I added a throbber to let you know that your request to change your pick has gone through and is just waiting to return; for about 5 minutes, I was using an actual throbber graphic but abandoned it when it made the layout that isn't showing the date/time information look silly * Turned off the neato "fade-to-orange" thing when you change your pick; I'm messing with it and it'll probably come back at some point 2007-09-27 --------- * Made the message board history a little more intelligent -- now you'll only be given the option of directly jumping to the eight pages surrounding the current page, although there are also next/previous/first/last links * I guess some favicon weirdness was introduced with the conversion to true XHTML -- it's fixed now 2007-09-26 ---------- * Added the St. Louis Blues logo, as requested by Kurt * Finally imported the 2003 and 2004 data; unfortunately, the 2005 data is gone * Fixed a really dumb bug in the preferences menu having to do with the recent data model migration * Started writing the caching system -- this will greatly improve the speed of the big board, typically knocking off 2.2 or 2.3 seconds (a huge gain) * Actually fixed the Safari week-navigation bug 2007-09-25 ---------- * Added the original Buccaneers logo to the pool, as requested by Koci; touched up the Vikings logo and made it look less stupid 2007-09-24 ---------- * Touched up the Titans and Giants logos; added the Lakeland Flying Tigers logo, as requested by Keyon 2007-09-22 ---------- * Touched up the reminder email a little bit: you now have a link that you can probably click and plus signs for those positive spreads to make them a bit more explicit 2007-09-21 ---------- * Worked a little more on the splits page -- maybe a "result" column in "pl_user_picks_vw" isn't such a bad idea after all 2007-09-17 ---------- * Migrated over the new database model -- for the most part, this was all transparent to the user * Visible changes include the modified totals rows ("Wins This Week" instead of "Weekly Percentage") and games which are over will now display their final scores either in the tooltip (if you're not showing the extra date/time information) or on the screen (if you are) * All of the pages are valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional, as far as I know; I'll validate the CSS (a really aggravating task; I should probably just rewrite it all) one of these days * Actually, it looks like all the CSS checks out fine; this is not to say that it's well-written -- it could still certainly use an overhaul 2007-09-15 ---------- * Made our "BBCode" support case insensitive and sort of fixed excessively long links messing up the page structure, though I should really do more with this 2007-09-13 ---------- * Finished off the statistics on the development big board and continued overhauling the data model * Made the dev pages almost completely compliant with XHTML 1.0 Transitional * Added the Ajax Football Club logo, as requested by Blair * The new data model and webpages that go along with it will be ready for Week 3 * Goofed around with caching the big board -- it seems pretty feasible * Old change -- I gave you back the ability to highlight stuff on the big board; I don't really know if I like it but whatever 2007-09-12 ---------- * Threw in the statistics at the bottom of the development version of the big board * Found a nice, general formula for computing "games back" -- it's solved using the quadratic formula, that thing you learned about in 8th grade 2007-09-11 ---------- * Note to self: I need to import the data from past years 2007-09-10 ---------- * Set up a development version of the site so I can do my data model overhaul; naturally, all of the changes will be almost completely transparent to the user * Note to self: I need to improve the way we push games for all users 2007-09-09 ---------- * Uh, well, everything worked fine * Nothing to report (good news) 2007-09-07 ---------- * Oh my word, it looks as though everything might have gone without a hitch, except that part where I get the first game right 2007-09-06 ---------- * Happy NFL Season, everybody! This truly is the most wonderful time of the year * Started what I think will evolve into a pretty decent FAQ page * Added [url=] functionality to the formatting * Added "Blog" and "FAQ" links to the header of every page 2007-09-04 ---------- * We're pretty much live now; the reminder system isn't quite done yet but it'll be ready for tomorrow * You will all be pleased to know that our humble little community is now the #1 Google search result for "coinflipper" * Implemented a much nicer message board history and, moreover, pretty much assured the need for SA-style post-jumping; you may thank me at your earliest convenience * Centered the big board for you high-resolution whiners * Restored reverse chronology to the message board * Fixed a small bug in the automatic spread-updater having to do with time zones * Made the reminder system live; here's hoping... 2007-09-03 ---------- * "3" days left -- Dale Earnhardt (that's right, kids, I still like NASCAR) * Tried to get a nice mobile version of the reminder emails working but I think character limits are gonna be too much of a factor * Cleaned up the message board a little bit (not noticeable) 2007-09-02 ---------- * Fixed a weird scheduling anomaly in week 8 -- I think it was due to that ancient time when I was using USA Today's schedule to create mine (theirs had typos) * "4" days left -- Longhorn Football national championships 2007-09-01 ---------- * Happy College Football Season! (No, I don't care about those stupid Thursday games) * "5" days left -- Jeff Bagwell * Added a time zone cookie -- trust me, you'll like it if you don't live in the Central time zone 2007-08-31 ---------- * "6" days left -- Longhorn College World Series titles 2007-08-30 ---------- * "7" days left -- Craig Biggio * Started work on the email reminder system * Changed the score updating interval to 5 minutes 2007-08-29 ---------- * "8" days left -- Troy Aikman 2007-08-28 ---------- * Put (what I hope are) the finishing touches on the scores/schedule/spreads parser and activated its crontab entry for the final week of the preseason * I liked making the "10" burnt orange so much that I made the "9" Cowboys blue; this will probably be a theme of some sort * I can't stand computer clocks; for some reason, this server's gets out of sync after a while; I'll synchronize it daily so this won't be an issue * Added "Next/Previous Page" links to the bottom of the message board page because, you know, it makes sense 2007-08-27 ---------- * Gave the appropriate treatment to the number "10" on the "days left" portion of the (only so much longer) temporary front page * Fixed a small bug with the message board history which would display the "next page" link if you weren't logged in 2007-08-26 ---------- * Finished writing the scores/schedule/spreads parser; figuring out a decent timing policy for keeping everything updated * Added "previous page/next page" functionality to the message board 2007-08-25 ---------- * Once again changed where the "Daily Line" link points; I think we'll all be very happy with this page * Worked on making a universal parser for that awesome point-spreads page; it should definitely be ready for opening day 2007-08-23 ---------- * Wrote a score updater which parses totallyscored.com's XML feed but it might not be used unless they can get their home/away designations straight 2007-08-22 ---------- * Added preseason week 3 to the database * Rewrote the regular season schedule-parser because USA Today sucks; ESPN.com's schedule is actually very good 2007-08-15 ---------- * Rewrote the schedule-parsing code for the regular season using USA Today's website instead of NFL.com; despite a bunch of silly, uh, typos on the USA Today page, everything seems to have worked okay; it remains to be seen if USA Today will properly update their website to reflect the flex scheduling 2007-08-14 ---------- * Sad realization that NFL.com changed their layout and that I'd have to rewrite every bit of the code which automatically parses the NFL schedule and scoreboard 2007-08-12 ---------- * Kept working on splits and previewed them to a few (extremely privileged) folks * Created a Yahoo! pick 'em league to see what they're doing that we should (or shouldn't) do; if you're interested in joining just to goof around, let me know and I'll invite you * Notice a small flaw in the data model: each user should have an associated season for which they are participating; this will probably be added before the season starts 2007-08-11 ---------- * MySQL can go to hell (ERROR 1116 (HY000): Too many tables; MySQL can only use 61 tables in a join) * Working on some splits; if you have a special request, let me know 2007-08-10 ---------- * Changed the "Daily Line" link to a much better page of NFL spreads * Fixed a silly bug in the percentage-calculation code having to do with pushed games * Removed one pixel of padding that was really getting on my nerves 2007-08-09 ---------- * Goofed around with the color schemes a little bit; put logos into the "simple" style * If you actually read this, you should send me a message letting me know -- I'm incredibly curious * Fixed up the message board a little bit, visually * The "post message" text area gets auto-focused now * Added delinquent logos for the Houston 1836 and Dallas Mavericks 2007-08-08 ---------- * Sort of cleaned up the silly buttons on the message board page * At some point in the past I added the little favicon * For some reason, I've been sending informational emails out which say this is the "2008" version of the contest; mea culpa (that's Latin for "my bad, yo, ain't no thang") * Since it was mentioned to me, IE 6 is most certainly not supported -- they didn't bother to implement PNG transparency so I didn't bother to care about IE 6 2007-07-30 ---------- * Kind of fixed a bug in IE, except that now it's a different bug * IE still sucks and I don't officially support it * Slight crisis averted with the apostrophe situation; it should be all good now 2007-07-29 ---------- * Moved the preferences success/failure message to a place that's actually visible once the page reloads * Toying with the idea of making the preferences pane its own window 2007-07-26 ---------- * Fixed the cookie issue by disallowing accesses to "coinflipper.org" 2007-07-24 ---------- * Removed a bit of stupid juice from the "simple" stylesheet * Fixed a cookie oversight -- they'll actually persist over multiple browser sessions now and, you know, be useful * Made the tooltips for each game easier to access and more informative * Note to self: I should probably make the cookie domain ".coinflipper.org" so that it won't matter whether the users navigate to http://coinflipper.org/ or http://www.coinflipper.org/ 2007-07-23 ---------- * Added a style-switching preference * Added label tags for all of the preferences (try clicking "Email" instead of the input box) * Put the finishing touches on the "simple" style 2007-07-22 ---------- * Fixed some glitch having to do with escaping quotes on the message board * Started writing the style-switching code * Watched way too much of "Minority Report" * Ate grilled Hawaiian chicken at Hula Hut 2007-07-21 ---------- * Implemented the "show date/time under each game" preference * Created the first of (what I hope to be) a series of new styles for the site * Added Alok, Erica, and Blair as users and moved Nims, Peter, and Waldo into obscurity * Cleaned up the Big Board code a little * Watched a lot of "American Gladiators" * Cheered for David Beckham * Stopped caring about supporting Internet Explorer (http://sneden.net/files/seriously-IE.gif)