Lottery Post Journal

Windows XP Service Pack 2

I installed this upgrade to Windows XP Friday night on one of my PCs.  Installation, including download time (cable modem), was about an hour and a half.

One of the first things you notice is the new security features, including firewall and popup blocker for Internet Explorer.  Both seem very well integrated.

So far no problems, and I'd recommend anyone who uses XP do the update.  If you're a dial-up user, you should be prepared to setup your computer to do the download and update overnight.  Better yet, sign up for a cable modem!  (DSL is the second-best choice.)

Predictions Update

I have added the ability to sort predictions by game type when viewing predictions for a state.

Next up is I'm going to try to add a feature to filter out "All States" predictions from those predictions shown for a state.

Hopefully these two things will help a couple of people who have told me that the predictions page is "useless".

Great mod to my Vette today

Today I had a new exhaust system installed on my Vette, that I'd been wanting to do for a long time.  It's a Borla Stinger cat-back system, and I also installed a Magnaflow x-pipe.  This thing makes my car really sound awesome!

Here's a pic of the final result from the back.  I'll post some more detailed pics in the future on my personal home page.

Wickedly cool feature!

Whew!  I just finished programming that last major feature for the new memberships.

The last feature is a LotteryPost.com e-mail address for Platinum members.

Once you become a Platinum member, you just go into Control Panel, select E-mail Settings, and then enter what you want your new e-mail address to be.  For example, if you enter lotterywinner, your new address would be [email protected].

You will be able to change your e-mail address as many times as you like.  Changes are instantly active.

I think this new feature will be a nice elite designation for those who upgrade to Platinum.  A real "feather in the cap."

For the techie-heads out there, this took a bit of effort to get the Web server to talk to the e-mail server to add and change addresses.  Now they're both using SOAP to talk XML.

The last step before launch is to create all the administration stuff necessary to track payments and membership levels.  It's all stuff that no one but I will see, but it will make everything work.

Poster Ranking

Just checked off one of my little to-do items: Top 100, Top 50, and Top 25 posters now have special graphics next to their posts.  Kind of like a seniority thing.

Platinum Search Finished ... Again

After more thoroughly testing the new search feature, I decided to add some more features that let you specify the amount of numbers to match in each row, plus the amount of bonus numbers to match, if the game includes bonus numbers.

I also added a feature so that if you're not a platinum member, you can still use a date-range-limited version of the search tool to try it out.  Basically, all of the features are intact, but it limits all searches to the month of April, 2004.

Now only two things left until I can launch the new memberships:

  1. A feature that will give all Platinum members a Lottery Post e-mail address ([email protected]), and,
  2. Some internal accounting and administration features to track payments and memberships, and to "turn on" certain features when people upgrade their memberships.

I'll probably also need to write a bunch of description and instructions pages to describe all the new features and what you get when you upgrade.

It's getting closer!

Platinum Search Finished

After a marathon programming effort tonight, I think I'm finished with a search feature for Platinum members.  It has some features I've never seen on any lottery site, so it should be pretty exciting.

It's now 3:00 AM, and I think I'm going to collapse, so this is going to be a short entry.

The completion of the Platinum Search brings us much closer to launching the Gold and Platinum memberships, so this is a big step.

Spam University

For those looking to retrain for another line of work....

http://www.j-walk.com/other/spamu/

Check out the campus!

Platinum Stats Page

I just finished the new Statistics page that will be available for Platinum members.  I am really happy with the way it turned out - very easy to use, and still contains a good amount of powerful features.  It works with all games that people can post predictions for, which is also pretty cool.

I'm sure there will be room for improvement, and there will be additional stats pages, but for "version 1.0" I think it's good.

Next up is the search page for results (another Platinum feature).  Once that's finished, I have a couple more relatively minor programming tasks, and then I should be ready to launch the Gold and Platinum membership levels.

Can't wait...