Recording notes from yesterday and adding time to adilas timecards for projects.

I was on a trip with my daughter. Spent time (a few different sessions) checking emails, replying, recording notes from 7/6/23 and 7/7/23. Transferring hand written notes into digital records.

Phone call with Shari O. going over questions on merchant processing and custom email accounts. We really need a better or tighter company structure. Certain things are falling through the cracks. Sent an email out to Wayne, Cory, and Shari O. with information regarding the custom email addresses and accounts.

Working with Bryan. We looked at some code and made a few tweaks to some of his reports and pages. We then switched gears over to sub inventory with location filters. Once you add locations into the mix, it complicates things. It goes from a one-to-one relation to a one-to-many relation. That then requires grouping, dynamic filters, and dealing with scale. Lots of talk about dynamics, deeper groupings, and how to sub filter grouped results. We also talked about getting good data and small control set to make sure we are getting what we want (known data in order to get known output).

Working with Cory on projects. Went over some upcoming projects. Things like a redo on the quick clock in/outs, stacked taxes, some black box code for a client, bulk tools on expiring loyalty points, data imports, and some changes on merchant processing for a client.

For the record, the stacked taxes are a client request, and we don't currently have anything that does that. A stacked tax takes a subtotal and runs a tax on that value (normal). It then takes that new value or subtotal plus the first tax and then taxes that. That process (stacking) could be done a number of times. We have never done that and are checking about the liability and legality of even offering that type of a option.

We do a lot of back calculations on taxes and do what we call "with tax included" or out the door pricing but this other one is a new request.

Emails and recording notes.

Working with Bryan on layout and style guide stuff. Code sign-off, merged, and pushed up some code. As we were working, I noticed a few things that we could do better on...

- We need to make sure that we don't have polluted data, especially on the testing and demo sites. We use them for so many different things and don't finish all of the processes. We end up with polluted data or incorrect data.

- We need more histories on things like sub inventory, parent attributes, corp-wide settings, and other high-level places. We have tons of histories on invoices, customers, deposits, parts/items, etc. We just need to add those other histories to the list. This would be a good thing for the fracture project.

- If we have a big mess, say in a demo site, and it needs to be changed - it sure would be nice if we had some bulk clean-up tools or system admin tools that were super high level but could help clean-up or change data in bulk. We may not want these tools available for normal users (could be a problem).

- Full visibility and full searchability - everything needs search options, exports, reports, and histories.

After Bryan and I finished up on some of the code sign-off and reports that we were working on, we switched gears and started talking about some location-based grouping of data. We ran out of time, but I gave him some small things that will help, and he was going to go in and play with those suggestions.

Working with Alan on ship B, fracture, and adilas lite stuff. We were reporting on what we have been doing and who is doing what. Alan has been digging in deeper and checking out ColdBox, CommandBox, React, VueJS (vue), and other code frameworks. I took a few screenshots of his notes (see attached). Here are some other topics that we talked about:

- We would like to organize the features that we want to include and build out. Still on the wish list - to get this done and all organized

- Code style guides

- Features of CommandBox and ColdBox - products by Ortus Solutions - automation with Git (code repository stuff), sanitizing, formatting, and standardizing data and code.

- Alan is leaning towards VueJS vs React JS. We went over some pros and cons.

- Our current choice or pick for our tech stack is looking something like this: CommandBox, ColdBox, Lucee/ColdFusion, MSQL, Bootstrap 5, and VueJS.

- Lots of talk about routing, events, handlers, and MVC layers and levels (MVC = model view controller framework or methodology).

- Integrated testing for integration test and unit testing.

- Custom layouts

- Lots of white labeling options and data driven design and data driven settings.

- Nesting or sub architecture and modules - inheriting different things

- Little baby apps or configurable widgets

- Building out prototypes and playing with concepts, ideas, and options

- Layers and everything going through API sockets or API endpoints

- We would love to get into drag and drop widgets and options to create your own layouts. This would allow for either preset widgets or mini widgets that could be places, configured, and added to dashboards as needed. Super cool!

- Use of popup modals and one-pager type interfaces.

- We want tons of asynchronous type actions and transactions. Certain things need to flow step by step, but other things can be done asynchronously.

- To start out with, maybe a light mode and dark mode, to keep it simple. We may add more other custom look and feel options later on.

- Doing wireframes and then rolling over to actual mock-ups.

- We would like to look at some of our past R&D options from Jonathan Wells (designer and prototype guy).

Paying bills, updating my Adobe XD install to the newest version, and looking around on some older XD documents from Jonathan Wells. On a phone call with Steve to go over where we are both at on different projects and light catch-up. Reding notes on an XD document from Jonathan. He was really good at summing things up.

Looking over some older XD files from Jonathan Wells. I got into a couple of them and created two new small micro videos from the older mock-ups.

First round - Sample of getting into a demo site from the adilas cafe - Length 00:01:13

Second round - Sample navigation on the adilas cafe - Length 00:02:33

Emails and catching up on things.

Working with Bryan on dynamic groupings and queries. Changing some code around and doing lots of local testing. Pushed up code. We then switched over to a new project for authorize.net. We already have a number of API socket endpoints and merchant processing integration stuff done with that gateway. This is a new project or piece of the puzzle. Bryan and I went over a bunch of things, drew some pictures, and hopefully got him going in the right direction. We did record a super small video of one part of the discussion. See attached.

Pulling out some new sample videos from the XD mock-up files from Jonathan Wells. See below for details.

- Overview of the education mode - Length 00:01:54

- Overview of the adilas quick search - Length 00:02:49

Meeting with Alan and going over some Adobe XD assets that we have access to. The originals were created by Jonathan Wells. Our plan is to use Adobe XD to mock things up and get some prototypes out without having to write any code. Basically, just pass on the vision for the feel of the app, the flow, and a rough idea of what it will look like. Trying to keep it super simple.

Talking about wireframes, prepping for a login page with real code (still in scratch or prototype level), and going over some notes from Alan. See attached.

We talked about getting some education and training on Adobe XD and other training videos. We are trying to build up our skills so that we can get the job done. Learning is fun. We are planning a number of fun wireframes and scratch files. Alan would like to organize some of the adilas features. I pointed him to the presentation gallery stuff. We may use something like that or even build and expand upon it.

Recording notes from 8/8/23 and 8/9/23 (yesterday and today).

Online doing some training on Adobe XD (program for layouts, mock-ups, and prototyping). Trying to get some skills so that we can use this to help push ship B projects along. We have a number of assets from other designers and developers, but I didn't really know how to work the main program. Going through online tutorials. Different sessions throughout the day. Good stuff!

New data import for a client. This was for new products and parent attributes. Going over an Excel document and combing the data. Exporting to a CSV file and doing the imports. Got one of four corporations done.

Part way through I got on a meeting with Bryan to help him with the Authorize.net project. We got the ball a little bit further down the road. He called me later and said that the rep said that we needed to upgrade our implementation in order to do the new process. Bryan will reach out to Cory to communicate that. I also had a quick phone call with Cory just to report in and touch base.

Combing and uploading data (items and parent attributes for the items) for 3 corporations on data 34.

Paying bills and putting in some reimbursements into adilas for some out-of-pocket expenses. Emails and recording notes.

Emails and recording notes from older entries. Trying to get caught up. Recording notes from back on 7/11/23 and some of Aspen and I's brain dumping and high level master plan stuff. Then moved on and did notes from 7/17, 7/18, and 7/19.

As a small side note, none of this would be possible (developer notebook entries) if I hadn't scribbled some small post-it notes when it actually happened. On the negative side, it does take a while to transfer that info from pen and paper into digital, but it has great value to me and is worth it. Anyways, this is a small shoutout to the speed of pen and paper as a quick tool (small little scratches). Sometimes I'm presenting or in the middle of a meeting and can't take a digital note or someone will say something and I quickly scribble it down. That's how I roll. Those tools help extend my memory. Good stuff.

Quick phone call with Bryan to answer some questions about merchant types inside the system. Bryan is redoing some of the Authorize.net merchant account stuff in a more modern way that will include customer profiles and saved payment profiles (using tokens being passed back and forth).

Recording notes and catching up from some older entries that needed to be logged and converted into digital records. Recorded notes from 7/20, 7/21, and 7/22 of 2023.

Quick meeting with Alan. We touched base on where we are at and how is doing what. I've been looking at Adobe XD documents from Jonathan Wells and doing XD training tutorials. I've also been digitizing notes and linking things together. Alan is working on a small wireframe for the adilas cafe login. He is also doing some research on modern UI/UX requirements and expectations. We talked about some domain names and also looking at billboard type sites for pointers to the main adilas.biz site.

I'm going to be harvesting Adobe XD videos and mock-ups. Alan is going to be working on features and making a nice list of features. I pointed him to a document that Shannon and I did for the presentation gallery and a backend outline of some of the features. This is not meant for the public (yet) but it will be a good resource.

We looked at the calendar and decided that we would shoot for our next group meeting for adilas lite and fracture to be on 8/30/23 (a couple weeks away from today). Good stuff.

After the meeting, I went and purchased a few domain names to claim our spot. Also did some other small to do list items.

Meeting with Aspen. She gave me a full on presentation (powerpoint with 11 sides and tons of notes) on documentation processes and how we are going to do things inside of adilas. See elements of time # 10372 (hours worked by Aspen on fracture) for more details. It may be hidden from view (non-show on the web). Got her paid for her work that she is doing. Entered the reimbursement into adilas.

Phone call with Eric to go over database triggers and then some emails. Back on the Bear 100 changes that were requested. Working on a leader board page and a DNF (did not finish) page. Spent a bunch of time chasing down a possible error in the code. It ended up being a debugging thing. Once I turned the debugging off, the error went away. that was frustrating. The error was dealing with the relative size of the header and footer. It appeared that the title and filter buttons weren't there and thus I was looking for the error. I ended up finding them, but way off the page to the right side. The debugging code was not responsive and had a bigger forced width. Thus the page was adjusting to that width, even though I was trying to view it on a smaller screen.

Back on the Bear 100 code for the leader board. Building test logic to reverse the values to show the leaders along the way.

Online with Bryan on a GoToMeeting session. We were looking at the Authorize.net API sockets and going over some questions. I was making some recommendations for Bryan to try certain coding techniques that might help him out with more complex options. Especially for passing JSON objects back and forth though API sockets and serializing and deserializing objects for database storage.

Emails, follow-ups, and light networking with some of my contacts.

Meeting with Alan. Going over some market research that he was doing. I took a few screenshots of what he was showing me. See attached. Here are some rough notes:

- What does Adilas have that is unique - Everything under one roof, operations based accounting, in-depth inventory management, flex grid (custom data relationships), completely customizable, tons of permissions and settings, and ability to track things (inventory, financials, etc.) through time.

- What do others have - Their sites look more modern/nicer, single page applications, eCommerce integration with outside platforms (they don't have their own), mobile app available, nice page showing pricing, they have done lots of advertising/marketing.

See attachments for more details. We also went over possible ways of integrating adilas lite (fracture) with banks to help speed things up. This could be done by integrating with a system called Plaid or other software. We also spent some time talking about outside eCommerce integrations such as Amazon or whatever. We could still offer our own, plus integrate with other bigger key players (as we choose, or our clients make requests and are willing to help fund the development efforts).

Alan is using Adobe XD as a huge whiteboard and then moving things and pieces around as needed. Basically, brainstorming, putting together different elements on the screen, and then moving or organizing them in a big drag-and-drop type interface. He's using it like a giant whiteboard of sorts.

As part of our discussion, we were talking about our approach vs other company's approach. It seems that most other companies, at least right now, are doing some sort of super mashup type system. They have a product, but the big selling points are the integrations with outside parties or other sites or services. That may sound awesome, but there is some pain there as well (trying to marry everything together). Adilas is more along the lines of a single system that is fully integrated and then ties out to outside sites and services, if needed. Here is a link to a hand drawn graphic that shows the difference in approach.

Towards the end of our meeting, Alan was mentioning that we should focus on who is already using our platform and try to get more of those kinds of people onboard. Create some synergy of sorts. I mentioned that, not only could we do that, but we might be able to offer white label options for certain industries and business verticals.

The last thing that we went over was some market research stuff that Danny is working on. See attached for a screenshot of that as well. After the meeting, I spent some time reading the other sub documents and older sales meeting notes. Good meeting.

Working on the new leader board code. This is a reverse loop seeing who is the furthest ahead and who has passed the most aid stations and/or finished the race first. This is similar but different to the finish line logic. This one has to trace back through all 12 aid stations to see who is where and in what order (leader board).

Mostly working on logic for the Bear 100 and the leader board. I did get interrupted a number of times this afternoon. Only recording 2 hours of this session for the Bear 100 project. All other time will go to the new email servers.

Back to the Bear 100 - Currently, all code for the leader board is on a test file (scratch) to check dumps, variables, queries, and dynamics. Almost done with the logic portion. Still need to run a few more tests and then move code over into the real page.

Other work was stuff like emailing back and forth with Wayne and Shari O. on email server questions. Tech support call to Newtek to get info to pass on to Wayne about the email servers. On hold for over half an hour. Got a request from Bryan to jump on and help him out with the API sockets and customer payment profiles project for the new Authorize.net project. Busy afternoon!

Phone call with Hamid. Touching base and going over some ideas for fracture and adilas lite. We talked about possible networking options with our connections. We also spent quite a bit of time going over some tech stack decisions and talking about needs for adilas lite. We went over three main avenues. 1. Is Planning - business plans, tech documents, etc. 2. Training needs - both internal and external, and 3. More billboard sites - sites that point to adilas. We talked about banking hours and no limits as far as investment opportunities (working hours for future payoffs and percentage ownership options). Nice phone call.

On the phone with Steve. We were touching base and letting each other know what we are working on and what plans are in play. Steve has a developer that he wants me to meet with. He is hitting the sales side of things pretty hard. I told him that we are harvesting some past R&D and planning the next steps. I also mentioned to him that I was going to be meeting with Russell this coming weekend. I also told him about a buddy who may be interested in doing some sales and making some calls.

emails, checking on some domain names, and sending some information to Hamid about some options to work on. Spend a little bit of time recording some notes from the past couple of days. Nothing too major.

Finished up some test code for the Bear 100 leader board. Did a bunch of testing and then moved some of the test code over to the main index page. Pushed up code and did some testing online with live data. Still need to work on a few other pages, but the data is starting to flow. See the Bear 100 race/webpage.

Met with Russell over lunch. We ate, chatted, and got into some good discussions. Here are some of my notes. See attached for scans of my handwritten notes.

- Russell recommended some books to read. Good source of learning. Author - Robert C. Martin - "Clean Coder", "Clean Code", and "Clean Architecture"

- Ideas on project management, saying yes, saying no, and some time management concepts.

- We talked about the addiction of "progression" and the pros and cons of that addiction.

- Provide the stable (for you, your family, and others) - then go from there. As a side note, this word "stable" kept coming up throughout our conversation.

- What if it fails? Are you going to be ok? How many eggs do you have in one single basket? Asking yourself questions like that sometimes helps you get a better, more rounded perspective.

- Consistency over small pushes. It may be better to be consistent than push like crazy all at once. Similar analogy to floods vs drips (water).

- Little bitesize pieces

- Dedicated "Lunch" time or some other dedicated time. Carving out something that is special and time for you.

- If it is your project, you will care for it and make it happen (see it through). On a different note, if you can get others to buy in and give them ownership and let them make parts of the bigger project their dream, it becomes more stable over all.

- A good testing strategy is needed. It will build confidence by the bucket load.

- Lots of talks about expectations - Testing and getting everything built out.

- Efficiency - That sounds great, and it has its place, but sometimes there are more things than just pure efficiency. You almost have to play this little balance game.

- Russell was talking about the book and podcast "The Working Genius". He was telling me what some of his strengths and weaknesses were. Fun topics. It helps you get your vision of who you are and how you work and/or interact with others and other tasks.

- Over time, it is interesting to watch strengths and weaknesses playout over time. Letting things play out (both naturally and forced - at times).

- "Keep the stable" - Russell Moore - We kept coming back to this. I think he was trying to get me a subtle message of sorts.

- Continuing education time - make the time for it.

- Not only consistency, but consistency patterns

- Planning out the details of the journey. Looking and planning ahead.

- Russel and I were talking about my wife Heather. She has said over and over again that we are chasing too many things or trying to be too much for everyone. She's probably right and correct.

- Chasing the dragon - (the dream, the final or finished product) - It can be really fun but it could also be really dangerous (both mentally and physically). Just for fun, we were talking about the thrill of it and also the long term phycological effects of that chase. True on all accounts. I love the chase but sometimes it really does affect me (burnout, stress, anxiety, etc.). There is a cost to what we do.

- There is so much more than just building it - That is one of the pieces of the puzzle (the whole).

- Marketing - Pushing it to the next level

- Technical debt - it can crush you! This is when you have so much older code that needs to be updated, maintained, and adjusted. It is called technical debt. It can crush you, it may also crush your soul, your spirit, your will. It can be a huge burden.

- Minimal on the heavy lifting. Who is doing what and what kind of time commitment does that take? Where and what is your job? Don't get sucked into the jobs around the job (whatever that job is).

- Sharing your knowledge. That is fun and it pays dividends.

- If you don't take the time to do continuing education, the world will move on without you.

- Spend an hour a week with Russell.

- Ideally, if you can swing it, 5 hours a week on continuing education. This is your future. You have to future proof yourself.

- Lots depends on the funding... If not, either bail out or keep chipping away at it. Exploring options. Usually it is not just black and white, there are options if you will look for them.

- The dream is awesome but be ok with the maintaining of it as well. It not just the new building of a certain project. Sometimes, you have to pull back and either do some upkeep or be willing to maintain what you have. Here is a link to a small flower gardener (image) with the same question - plan more or take care of what I've got?

- Why does a designer or dreamer code? I'll tell you why, we don't like being stuck. We'll get in there and figure it out in order to make our dreams and ideas come to life.

- From Russell - what is your best path? His answer - Produce features and be able to get revenue (quickly).

- Russell also recommended a video called "Minimal Viable Architecture" by Randy Shoup.

Emails, phone call with John, touching base, looking at my schedule, etc. Recording notes from a meeting with Russell. See elements of time # 10439 in the shop.

Project management with Cory and Shari O. We reviewed progress from last week, talked about chip readers, and other upcoming projects. We spent some time looking at user data and how a certain company uses PO's, E/R's (expense/receipts), and PO payments. We used the system, did some look-ups, and even looked at some raw data to see if we could figure out what they were doing. It seems like they had a PO, paid for it, then added or modified it, and then repaid for it, then remodified it again and again, and repaid for it. Not your normal processes. The system got confused. We are planning to meet with the client and doing some training vs changing any code.

Lunch meeting with Josh Hanks. He's a friend from church and lives close by me in Richmond, UT. He has a fun startup story, and I found a lot of similarities to how I got started. He would go work for a company, figure out their processes, make improvements, and help them become better. Anyways, we had a fun chat and were able to find a number of similar circumstances as we got started.

Josh has used a few different CRM (customer relationship management) tools and I was going to pick his brain on likes, dislikes, wish lists, etc. See attached for some of my notes. Fun conversations and topics.

Here are a few takeaways:

- On SaaS (software as a service), here are some of the main complaints (not our product specifically but in general). People don't like extra steps, or required steps added by admin to do simple things. If the interface is too hard or too many clicks, it turns people off. If changes are made to flow, processes, or verbiage, people want to know (and yet they don't want to know everything - delicate balance).

- Mobile is really nice, but there are certain things that still work so much better on a laptop or desktop environment.

- Almost all of us have numerous channels and applications to use and balance. That could be emails, messaging, calendars, software, etc.

- People like to be able to edit things. If you lock it down too tight, it causes different problems. Let permissions, histories, and settings play in as needed to keep things secure but still open.

- People like options to control popups, reminders, feedback, snooze options, finished/completions, follow-ups, etc. They just want to control what hits them (virtually).

- There can be major pain trying to bounce and juggle too many calendars. For example, one for CRM stuff, one for projects, one for mail stuff, and one for personal. It can get kinda crazy. Lots of bouncing between multiple windows.

- We talked about one-to-many relationships and subs of time.

- As a wish list for CRM software - Josh loves to see recent activity, follow-ups, associated quotes, associated projects, progress and completion percentages, and even projections. Other things that are needed are good data, quick access, quick notes, and great drill-downs to other details and information.

- We talked lots about the need for custom fields and custom data points - per industry and per company.

- Opportunity costs and client acquisition costs - the hidden costs.

- The whole last part of the conversation flipped from CRM over to logging projects, hours (timecards per project or per location), quick notes, and logging mileage. Ideally, all of those things all nice and tied together. Josh was wanting and needing an app to do just those things (projects, hours, notes, and mileage). We talked about maybe making a mini version on some adilas features to make that happen. That could be really cool. The other need to that was availability to upload pictures and scans to those calendar events. Here's the kicker, we already do all of those things inside of adilas. We would just have to tweak it a little bit to make it flow, just like he wants. A small custom wire job of the existing tools and features. Pretty cool!

- Lastly, this is more for me, but when we build out fracture and adilas lite, I really want to revisit the settings and options for elements of time and scheduling. See element of time 8004 in the shop for more details. Lots of cool ideas.

Recording notes and then meeting with Alan to touch page. We gave each other updates on what we were working on and progress being made. I gave Alan a small pitch to show some stuff that Josh Hanks and I were talking about over lunch (see EOT # 10437) and how we could make a little mini app for projects, time tracking (hours), quick notes per day, and mileage - all tied into one little mini app. That could be really fun and would or could be one of our little industry-specific skins (from the value add-on core model).

Looking over my notes. On the phone with Steve talking about building out a little mini app for projects, hours, notes, and mileage (see bottom of EOT # 10437). We were talking about new and small custom homepages, limited scope, limited functionality, but still riding on the main adilas.biz platform and system. We want to be able to control everything from settings, custom interfaces, and templates.

Steve was saying that he was on a demo, showed a lady a certain page and she wasn't getting it, showed her a different homepage and the lady was sold. It's all about how the person sees things and perceptions. Steve is also really excited about the QuickBooks POS going out of service or them not supporting it here in the near future. He's seeing lots of potential sales from that little change in the environment (digital space).

We got deeper and talked about dynamic names, settings, titles, toggle on/off switches, and making things custom per company/user. We also got into talking about look and feel and changing how the system shows the "more options..." (either hidden with icons or a button and then a list of navigation links).

Lastly, our conversation rolled over into evolving and evolvement of the system. It doesn't seem to stop.

After Steve and I hung up, I went back to recording notes, text messages, and emails. Lots of busy work stuff.

Getting ready for the day. Emails and recording some notes. I have an appointment at 11 am, not much time this morning to really dig into anything.

Steve wanted me to meet with a guy by the name of Pete - he's a techy guy and a developer.

Met with Pete over Google Meet. He was showing me what he has done and what not. He was interested in adilas and the variety of what we are in and doing (not just a single business vertical). He gave me a good rundown on what he does, where he has worked, and some lessons learned. I really enjoyed our visit. Here are some of my notes - kinda random:

- Different ways of networking - one thing leading to the next, to the next, to the next. Some of the processes and needs are the same, but the people that make those connections are what really changes.

- Pete likes to get into a smaller organization and then really accelerate certain parts or pieces of that organization.

- He has done a lot of managing of teams and different leadership positions at different companies.

- He is interested in supply chain management and all of the pieces that touch that sector.

- On average, he seems like he likes to be with a company for 1.5 to 2 years. That's not bad, that just seems to be his turn rate.

- When possible, he likes to virtually steer the ship. He'll jump in and do SOP's, technology, decisions, and training. He's ok with bouncing around.

- If needed, it's ok to pull back and go into "maintenance mode".

- Introspection and looking inside yourself. Where does he want to end up and/or do? Great questions. It is management, software, hardware, training, or a mix?

- We talked a lot about professional services - Basically business needs and byproducts. This could be things like CPA's, Attornies, Designers, Developers, etc. Kinda like what we want to do for the adilas marketplace.

- We got into some code, backend, frontend solutions. We talked about nocode (no code) and lowcode (low code) solutions. He showed me a little bit of Bubble (bubble.io) and what they were doing. Just for fun, he said that he got a team to roll out a quick demo in about two weeks. It was just a demo, but a quick thing to show to investors and key players.

- Using API sockets and endpoints to do all of the main data play and heavy lifting.

- It's ok to strategically take a pause or a break.

- We talked about marketing and matching products and potential clients (users or customers). The difference between throwing a wide net or a more focused net (fishing analogy). Ways of creating your own mini marketplace.

- Pete showed me a cool, 20 question, walkthrough, to get a new service provider all setup with a professional service offering. Nice looking sequence and small decision tree based on the users input. It was setup like a little chat bot of sorts. Basically, a small Q&A with simple decisions, lists, choices, and in the end, it helped get you all setup. Pretty cool.

- Light talks about Geo fencing, Google places API, and other small wizard type interfaces. When you put it all together, you end up with a bigger wired-up mash-up with different pieces, libraries, and such. It looked pretty good.

- He was using some special discounts and coupons to help with billing stuff.

- Lots of byproducts - not the main products, but things or needs that get generated from the main product that become new products and services. Lots of byproducts.

- Everything was responsive web layout ready. He showed me lots of screens with simulation of what it would look like on different size screens. That was kind of cool.

- Pete showed me some of his rating systems and even pulling ratings from other outside services to create an overall rating for the professionals and their services.

- We went over some role based and team based permissions.

- Airtable - basically, a sharable spreadsheet through API sockets - simple database of sorts

- We went over some options for dynamic page content, drag and drop organization, and how that plays into the mix. He had a nice looking interface. This led us into more Bubble.io stuff. Imagine a map of clickable elements with light logic, nav, and flow built in. That is what it looked like.

- We got into some discussions on UI/UX pieces (user interface and user experience stuff). Lots of different libraries.

- Talking about change. Pete said a couple of times - I'm an agent of change management, not just change. The change management piece was important and where he likes to be.

- We talked about a few different analogies and ways to look at both companies and what they offer. An analogy of a triangle, you could look at the top, the middle, or the base (bottom). You could also look straight on (like a path or hallway) or you could look at the same thing from the side (see the beginning from the end or from the outside). Fun conversation about angles and how to look at things and analyze what you are looking at.

- We talked about the user feedback loop, what they want, what they are willing to pay for, what they expect, what they need, and even the phycology behind some of that (those choices or decisions). This conversation lead into a light talk about interactive education, helping people who are getting stuck, and figuring out why they are either getting stuck, frustrated, or losing interest. Lots of interesting ideas.

- Letting customers drive the next steps - by their feedback.

- Changing in the proper way and at the proper time - proper change management.

Good discusion. After the meeting, I got a prompt from Otter.ai to see the transcript (voice to text) or transcription. I popped in and read a few things. I didn't read it all, but that was interesting. I had never played with that before. Great meeting. We ended up and I told Pete that I would talk with Steve and we'll go from there. Good stuff.

Looking at code with Dustin. We ended up grabbing some older stable code and comparing it to the new code to see what changed. We were looking for a missing div tag (containers, rows, columns, etc.).

Merged and pushed up some code for Dustin. Emails to the race director for the Bear 100. Looking at notes on Otter.ai from our earlier meeting with Pete. Phone call with Steve to go over the meeting.

Recording bills and then going over notes from today and yesterday. See notes in the shop for 8/21/23 and 8/22/23. Some good meetings.

Emails, looking around in Adobe XD. Prep work for a video for invoices. Writing out a small outline and script to help me know where to navigate and click.

More video prep work. Made a couple of practice videos. I was having some issues with my microphone. I ended up recording a new one, see attached, for a demo on the invoice section (view). It is about 3.5 minutes long. As a fun side note, the kids were still home. You can hear the kids in the background. I'll re-record it later.

I did re-record it and the audio is better but I bounce around a bit more. Hard to keep me going in a straight line - :). Here is the other video, once again, about 3.5 minutes long (view # 2).

The actual meeting with Hamid was from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm. I spent the first half an hour doing some prep work. Putting him in the system as a user, assigning permissions, and recording a small video for how to record project timeclocks in adilas shop (just under 4 minutes in length).

During the actual meeting we went over how to add project timecards, different tasks, adding, editing, and looking things up. We built some quick links to help him navigate around quicker. We then talked about Snagit and Camtasia for options for internal and external training. Hamid is going to checkout some tutorials there to see how it works. We briefly talked about some of the billboard sites and options there. The other major topic was dealing with helping to refine some documents and make things more presentable. I gave him a few links to check out and we'll slowly start refining some of the pieces of the plan.

Links that I sent to Hamid

- 10,000 foot view of where we are headed... https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=748&id=10377

- More links and research stuff - master plan - https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=748&id=10179

After the meeting, I did some clean-up, reviewing some Snagit files, different videos, and uploading the new video for adding subs of time.

Zoom meeting with Russell. We were going over some testing strategies and ideas on how to get better overall testing coverage. Pros and cons and costs of testing or costs of not testing. He was showing me a project that he is working on, and I was asking questions and taking notes. Here are a few things that I wrote down.

- The company that Russell works for allows for 4 hours a week for continuing education. That's pretty cool. I like that idea.

- We looked at some Lucid chart diagrams. UML diagrams, flow charts, and wireframe diagrams.

- Talked about stacking API socket requests using GraphQL vs simple or single Rest API calls.

- Patterns and strategies

- Using a data dictionary of sorts - For example: Defining a field, it's value, it's name, it's datatype, etc. We have a table inside of adilas called db_field_settings. It allows for things like: mins, maxes, validation rules, sort orders, names, aliases, special instructions, look-up values, defaults, etc. That's not exactly what a data dictionary is, but we will end up using more and more of this type of things as build out fracture. I have many needs for this level of control inside the application. Here is an example of a past entry dealing with elements of time and time templates (see EOT # 8004).

- Pseudo code, tracer code, or simple scratch files. Great way to get started and do mini prototyping without having to tie in everything.

- Different kinds of testing - unit testing, integration testing, and end to end testing. They tend to go in that order... if you are building new. They sometimes go in reverse order if you are adding tests for existing pieces. It depends on your architecture. Usually, you will have the most unit tests, then less integration tests, and even less end to end tests. That's the ideal.

- From Russell - If your tests are hard to write, then your code architecture may need some help.

- Providing a mock or mocked up data. Often, you may want to certify that your mock is similar to what really happens with real data. You want to make sure that you are comparing apples to apples. Ideally, you don't want to run tests on production servers. Most of the testing is pre-production, if possible.

- Russell and I were talking about time management. Often, we get pulled in different directions. We tend to go where we are needed. That may not always be where we want to go.

- There are huge demands in all areas. Backend, frontend, and even middle management stuff.

- With good testing and good testing coverage, it almost allows for a license to be almost careless in refactoring. If it needs fixing, you can just fix it vs leaving it alone because it may break something else. If something is wrong and you don't fix it, and you keep building on that piece or function, you tend to stack up technical debt.

- Everything has a connected ripple type affect. If you add more people, you will need to add more people to manage those people and what they are doing. Everything in a system affects other pieces of the puzzle or system (ecosystem).

- We talked about the challenges of a multi-use scenario or how our users use our product. Each company is so different. That can really make it kind of hard to test and predict every scenario. Welcome to our world.

- At some point, you almost feel like you have lost control of your users and what they do. It's almost too open or too freeform. There are pros and cons to that approach. It tends to come down to three things - 1. Permissions, 2. Settings, and 3. Templates or virtual instructions (rules and assignments).

- Lots of time talking about pressure from upper management, budgets, timelines, or others (even clients). What happens if you push things out too quickly? You end up getting what you pay for. It's really hard to get both fast code and good code (bug free and super stable). If you want the more stable code, you have to plan it out, build it out, plan the testing, check it off, and probably do more testing. The combo of both fast and good is really hard to get, especially if you have multiple developers involved. Long story made short, it takes time and planning.

- What price are you willing to pay? Great question.

- Learning about different tools and when to best use them. Each tool is best suited for a specific task and/or activity. Not every job only uses a hammer (and nothing else). It depends on the job. The hammer might be the correct choice, but it may not be. It all depends on job (project, task, activity, function).

- Start where you are and build from there.

- If your code is modular, well tested, that allows for future refactoring.

Meeting with Bryan. He had some questions dealing with sub inventory and doing queries to pull back records. We ended up getting pretty detailed and looking at debugging info and then refining queries from there. Lots of sub inventory type stuff. That is a deep, deep, puzzle that needs some loving.

Recording notes from meetings and such. Recording notes for 8/23/23 and 8/24/23.

No real meeting took place. Just a few texts and voicemails messages today.

Back on the Bear 100 custom code stuff. Trying to get things done and updated before this year's race. Tweaked the new leader board code, added links, and some conditional logic. Also made changes to the full race view, the runner details, and quite a bit of work on the new leader board page. Pushed up new code.

Emails and reviewing a video from Bryan on saving credit card info for Authorize.net (multi-token stuff). Small tweak for the race director for the Bear 100 mile race. He wanted a sort order changed for one of the pages. Made the change and pushed up the code. Getting started with normal Monday morning stuff.

Going over projects with Cory. Small tweak to the spit cart pages. Pushed up the changes. We then got into a small bug (new need vs a real bug) to allow for the invoice payment search to handle a deeper "or" clause with the salesperson and who did the transaction. Testing and pushing up the new code.

Reviewing Adobe XD documents and looking at options for shopping carts from Jonathan Wells (older files). Light tweaks to the navigation and exploring the adilas features document.

Quick meeting with Alan. We went over a few things that we will be reporting on for our next update meeting in a couple of days. We will be reporting on decisions, training, market research, and harvesting videos from Adobe XD files from Jonathan Wells. Light talk about upcoming schedules for the next couple of weeks.

Lots and lots of research on Adobe XD files from Jonathan Wells. Lots of options. I want to make a number of smaller videos to capture some of the R&D that was done, a few years back. Looking over multiple files.

Chaning my email settings and trying to get things working locally on my computer. I could use a web interface to get to my email, but I couldn't use Outlook Express, on my local laptop. We just changed some email server stuff.

Back looking through Adobe XD files and prep work for harvesting small R&D videos from stuff that Jonathan Wells did for us. Made two new videos. One for the cart and one for a small tour of the fracture or adilas lite interface. See attached.

- Video - Internal shopping cart - round 1 - 00:03:49

- Video - Fracture - Tour of the interface for adilas lite - 00:05:05

Also did some prep work for one on some different look and feel options and the beginnings of an adilas style guide.

I got a phone call from Shannon, my sister, and she was checking in and seeing if she could help out a bit. That would be awesome. She has been a huge asset, over and over again. I would love her help. That's exciting!

Video prep work on the adilas style guide and some possible look and feel options. Taking ideas from Jonathan Wells and some of his Adobe XD mock-ups.

- Video - Fracture style guide overview - 00:02:08

Also got a call from Eric. He is working on some new functionality for tips on credit card transactions. We talked about a number of options including some possible settings. I was recommending that we somewhat follow the existing code for change due on cart and invoice payments. We talked some accounting and Eric is going to reach out to a few other people and contacts to make sure that we have all of the pieces that we need. Good stuff.

Went back in and did another video showing some of the existing navigation, pieces, and elements. This one is a little bit more raw (showing it in the Adobe XD interface) vs a nice slide or PowerPoint type view.

- Video - Mapping out the system - 00:05:00

Working on a new website to help highlight and show adilas lite (fracture) projects. Here is the new site address: https://data0.adilas.biz/lite/

Back working on the website for adilas lite projects (fracture). Trying to get the main pages in place for our meeting tonight.

Alan I jumped on a GoToMeeting session for about 15 minutes to go over the flow and agenda for tonight's meeting. He handed off a PowerPoint for his part of the presentation. I showed him the work that I was doing for the web page for adilas lite and fracture stuff.

After Alan and I finished. I pushed up some new code on the adilas lite (fracture) site for some of the videos that we have been working on. That's a cool little resource and shows a bunch of the videos that we have harvested from Jonathan Wells and his Adobe XD documents. Good stuff. Here is the link to that site (video resources): https://data0.adilas.biz/lite/adilas_lite_videos.cfm

Alan and I met briefly before the meeting. He handed off a PowerPoint slide show for his presentation tonight. We kept it pretty short (about 15 minutes). He has been a great helper on this project. I'm indebted to him for that. I really appreciate the help.

We had an update meeting to show progress on ship B stuff (adilas lite and fracture). We had 10 people on the meeting. We had Alan, Hamid, Steve, Sean, Danny, Cory, Shari O., Shannon, Bryan, and Brandon (myself).

We did record it. The recording is right about an hour long. The first 20-30 minutes were from Alan going over market research and tech deck decisions for fracture. After that, I introduced a new website to publish some of our work on the adilas lite or fracture project. Here are a couple of links:

Adilas Lite - Project Home - https://data0.adilas.biz/lite/

Adilas Lite - Videos & Research - https://data0.adilas.biz/lite/adilas_lite_videos.cfm

The meeting went well. As a side note, Shari O. recommended that we have a fun, non work, meeting just to catch-up and say hi and what not. She is kinda like our mother hen, for the adilas team. Fun times. See attached for some other videos and assets.

After the meeting, I spent some time uploading things and doing some light clean-up from the day. Busy day. 

Brainstorming on some bulk ideas for managing projects and sub dates and times (project timeclocks). Emails and recording notes from yesterday. Busy day.

Looking over data import documents from Eric and a new adilas client. Texts and emails back and forth. Paying bills.

Working on the Bear 100 public runner portal. Finished up the DNF page and pushed up new code. Changed the sort on the full race view to show the winners first vs a bib number sort. Also changed the sort order on the aid stations based on the out times instead of the in times. Sent an update email to the client.

Touching base with Hamid. He is working on a Word Document and outline for our projects. He's going to refine it a bit and then send it over to me. He took all of Aspen and I's post-it notes and reorganized them into an outline. See element of time 10377 for the rough outline and post-it notes. Looks good. We also talked about some screen capture and video editing stuff. We setup a meeting for next week.