Headlines: EVE Blog Pack updated!

Posted on March 1, 2010
Filed Under Announcements | 3 Comments

I just pushed the magic button that will update Capsuleer with the new list of blogs.

By the time you read this post you should have already received the update.

Enjoy. There are some great new blogs to read.

chris.

Ahh the interwebs… Such flames

Posted on February 24, 2010
Filed Under devBlog | 24 Comments

I wasn’t quite prepared to make this post yet, but seeing as my hand has been pressed due the EVE Blogging community being all a flutter over the changes to the Blog Pack, I must.

Roc stated in his blog, his post was his views and his views alone, it wasn’t the views of Capsuleer.
I’ll state in this post, THESE are the views of Capsuleer.

First off lets talk a bit about history (need to start somewhere).
When version 2.0 of Capsuleer was released it came with a fancy new feature. Headlines. At that time the EVE blogging community smaller then it is now. We wanted a way to deliver some of the best fiction and in-game writing to the users of Capsuleer.

Picking the EVE Blog Pack was a natural choice. CK was maintaining a list of great writers who were active and creating content that the users of Capsuleer could enjoy and read. Capsuleer can deliver that content to thousands of readers daily. Its a great relationship, and worked well for everybody.

Flash forward to present day…
Over the year since Headlines first made its debut in Capsuleer the EVE Blogging community has grown considerably. There are MANY more active writers, and the content they are creating is amazing.

CK has decided to revise the Blog Pack and trim some of the blogs that are inactive as well as add more to it.
Good on him. It is HIS list after all.

CK realized that there needs to be change, be it good change or bad change, he did identify that it must happen.
So must Capsuleer.

I will say off the bat (well not really off the bat, cause I have already rambled on for a while now) that Capsuleer will always include the Blog Pack. Be it 20 members, be it 50, they’ll continued to be delivered through Capsuleer.

But (oh I know you were waiting for that) here is where things change on our end as well.

In version 2.1 (The version that is being worked on and tested right now) some changes are coming to the Headlines area. I want to add more content. As the community of writers grows so must the list of content Capsuleer provides.

I have no interest in maintaining a list of bloggers though, policing the content, nagging about posting. Its not what I do.

This where evebloggers comes in.
Just as CK did in the early days, Ga’len and BlackClaw are helping foster the community and help it grow with their awesome directory. Its a great destination for anyone looking for content about (and BY) the players of EVE.

Because of the nature of Capsuleer, it isn’t a generic RSS reader. If you want a generic RSS reader there are lots on the app store. Capsuleer is designed to be your portal to all things EVE. Its designed with speed and ascetics in mind. Because of those decisions I can’t just load any old RSS feed onto the phone.

There is a server process responsible for collecting and processing the feeds, and organizing whats changed. By doing things this way I can deliver a headline update in 10k vs pulling down an entire RSS feed only to realize that there are no new posts.

Its part of what makes refreshing headlines so blistering fast.

This feature isn’t going to change in 2.1. The server will always be responsible for collecting the content.

I also can’t just cram the 500+ blogs that are listed in the evebloggers listing into Capsuleer.

There has to be some kind of middle ground.
I’d love to work with the folks at evebloggers (to that note as soon as I hit publish on this post I’ll be emailing them) to evolve their listing to start categorizing and grouping blogs in a way that will make them easy to add to Capsuleer and easy for people to browse through and enjoy.

Some posts and comments have had great ideas around social network style promotion of blogs and posts, and ways to help the great content bubble to the top and get read by more people. I don’t think I have the bandwidth to code this into the 2.1 release, but its an interesting enough idea that its worth exploring for a release after 2.1. It can help bring the community together, and really help reward people for writing great content.

If you made it this far I am proud. I apologize for the length, but I really felt it was important that I state Capsuleer’s position.

As has been insinuated by a few people, we aren’t out to create elite cliques, or keep the blog community a closed affair. Out goal is to deliver features and content that the players of EVE enjoy using and reading.

I hope I have cleared up a few of the misconceptions with how the Blog Pack changes will effect Capsuleer.
If you have any questions please feel free to post them here as comments, post them on our forums at http://capsuleer.evesuite.com/forums/ or email me directly at pyjamasam@vanguardfrontiers.com. I’ll do my best to answer any and all of them.

And for those of you reading this through Capsuleer… Click here to go and comment :-)

I am PyjamaSam and I approve this message! :-)
chris.

Server Status Issue – February 14th

Posted on February 14, 2010
Filed Under Support | Comments Off

On February 14th between 1:00pm and 9:30pm the process that monitors the server status suffered from some intermittent connectivity problems.

These problems prevent the process from connecting correctly to both Tranquility and Serenity.  This resulted in Capsuleer displaying that the servers were offline when they were actually online and functional.

I made an update to the server status checking code and deployed it at 9:30pm.  This new code contained a more robust connection routine and was able to successfully retrieve the server status again.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

chris.

v2.1 Alpha Test emails have gone out

Posted on February 8, 2010
Filed Under Announcements | Comments Off

All the emails have gone out to the people chosen for the 2.1 alpha test program.  In total 12 people were selected (I originally wanted to pick 6 but there were so many applications I decided to double the number).

I just want to say thank you to everyone who applied.  I am sorry I couldn’t pick you all, but managing a large number of testers isn’t very easy given the tools Apple provides.

So if you applied, check your inbox.  There might be an email waiting for you.

If you didn’t get an email don’t worry, 2.1 is slowly trucking through development and will be in your hands soon enough.

Thanks again to the community for all your interest and support.  Your what keeps us going.

chris.

Forum Spam

Posted on February 8, 2010
Filed Under Support | Comments Off

We are aware of a spam mailer coming from our forums entitled “Important message from the forum administration!”

The body of the message is this:

“Dear, *yourname*!

A virus alert was noticed on your computer.
We highly recommend you to check your computer and perform online virus
check at our site immediately: http://security-tool2010.net/*yourname*”

This is NOT from the Capsuleer Administration Team!

We are currently working as quickly as possible to remove this spam, and apologize for the inconvenience.

Alpha Applications Closed

Posted on February 3, 2010
Filed Under Announcements | Comments Off

I have been meaning to make this post for the past few days, but man… RL just keeps getting in the way.

The application process for the Alpha Team for Capsuleer 2.1 is now closed.

My inbox is SWAMPED with emails and its going to take me a few days to sift through all of them and pick the suckers … um I mean voluenteers.

I do want to take this opportunity though to thank everyone who applied.  The volume was overwhelming.  Its nice to see that there are so many people who are willing to take time to help make the next version of Capsuleer the best ever.

So for that, again, I thank you.

So for those of you who applied, keep an eye on your in-boxes.  I’ll try to have emails sent out to the selected people this weekend with a list of next steps that you need to follow.

Until then.  Fly safe.

chris.

-tap tap- Come in Alpha Team?

Posted on January 21, 2010
Filed Under Announcements | 5 Comments

In our quest to get Capsuleer 2.1 out of the docking bay, we have come to a point where we need some help.

Alpha testing…

The single largest new feature in 2.1 is the Items Database. Its huge. From both a code standpoint and a data standpoint. There are over 10,000 items in EVE.
So where do you, our user base, come in?

We are looking for a few good pilots to help us alpha test this new area. And by few I am thinking about 5 new testers. Your mission (should you choose to accept it) will be to work your way through a section of the Item Database and compare it with the information available in-game.

Not only are we adding an Item Database to Capsuleer in 2.1, but we’re working to make it the most complete and most accurate one available outside of the game.
So the questions you should be asking when reviewing: Are the right attributes displayed, are they the correct values, do they have the same formatting?

Its a big job. But we know with the help of our amazing community we’ll be able to check every item.

If your up for this challenge (and it is a challenge) then give us a shout at pyjamasam@vanguardfrontiers.com and use the subject line:

Capsuleer Alpha Testing

(If you don’t use that subject line my email filter won’t pick it up and your message might get lost to the email daemons)

We are looking for people who have the following hardware (all running OS 3.x):
- iPhone 2.5g
- iPhone 3g
- iPod Touch 2g

Basically a good cross section of the hardware we try to support.
Just because you don’t have some of the hardware listed above doesn’t mean you won’t get selected. We’ll give higher priority to people who have those devices (and if you have multiple devices that bumps your chances even higher).
Due to the volume of people applying we are going to randomly select the alpha testers from the pool that best meet our criteria.

And if you haven’t decided if you want to help yet, let me add one more bit of enticement (we’re not pretending that all this hard work doesn’t deserve a reward).
You’ll be automatically included in the beta test program for 2.1 which will be launching in a bit.

chris.

2.0.5 Now Available

Posted on January 6, 2010
Filed Under Announcements | 3 Comments

2.0.5 is now live on the iTunes store!

Changes in 2.0.5 include:


Download it now.

Happy Holidays!

Posted on December 23, 2009
Filed Under devBlog | 48 Comments

Thank you to everyone who has supported Capsuleer over the past year.

We here at Capsuleer HQ hope you have a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

We’re looking forward to the new year, and I’ll be posting some presents in the next week that will show you where we are headed with the next version of Capsuleer.

But for now all you get is a measly Christmas Card :-p

Fly Safe.

API disabled for the weekend

Posted on December 18, 2009
Filed Under Support | Comments Off

In case you didn’t notice it over on CCP’s feed, they have disabled the API for the weekend (starting Friday, December 18th, 2009).

They expect to bring it back online on Monday, December 21st, 2009

For further information you can view their post at http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=3645&tid=1

chris.

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