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  <title>Billsplit.com Blog</title>
  <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/" />
  <link rel="self" href="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/SyndicationService.asmx/GetAtom" />
  <icon>favicon.ico</icon>
  <updated>2006-03-10T00:54:43.9062500-06:00</updated>
  <author>
    <name>Envador</name>
  </author>
  <subtitle />
  <id>http://www.billsplit.com/blog/</id>
  <generator uri="http://www.dasblog.net" version="1.9.6264.0">DasBlog</generator>
  <entry>
    <title>BillSplit.com Code Pause</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,35539263-9a7e-4e01-abf2-97e177654f6c.aspx" />
    <id>http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,35539263-9a7e-4e01-abf2-97e177654f6c.aspx</id>
    <published>2006-03-10T00:54:43.9062500-06:00</published>
    <updated>2006-03-10T00:54:43.9062500-06:00</updated>
    <category term="Announcements" label="Announcements" scheme="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/CategoryView,category,Announcements.aspx" />
    <content type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
        <p>
Hey Everyone!
</p>
        <p>
I'm sorry to announce that I have to put the <a href="http://www.BillSplit.com">www.BillSplit.com</a> project
on pause while I handle some of my for-profit side work.  Yes, like everyone
else, I have bills to pay and mouths to feed.  So you free-loaders are just going
to have to wait a couple of weeks for any new additions or bug fixes. :P
</p>
        <p>
Send me an email or leave a comment (I'm notified of new comments via email) if you
have any feature requests or bug reports.
</p>
        <p>
Hey, who knows, maybe I'll be able to sneak in a few hours here and there to make
some random updates.
</p>
        <p>
Take care,<br />
Dean :)
</p>
        <p>
PS, I'd like to leave you with this sage bit of 8-bit Nintendo Contra advice:<br />
Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-B-A-Select-Start!<br />
That is all.
</p>
        <img width="0" height="0" src="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/aggbug.ashx?id=35539263-9a7e-4e01-abf2-97e177654f6c" />
      </div>
    </content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <title>Spongebob Squarepants Pineapple</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,66cecc04-c747-4c7a-bdff-4c89b0ca1435.aspx" />
    <id>http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,66cecc04-c747-4c7a-bdff-4c89b0ca1435.aspx</id>
    <published>2006-03-07T00:16:10.1090000-06:00</published>
    <updated>2006-03-07T00:16:54.3125000-06:00</updated>
    <category term="Completely Random" label="Completely Random" scheme="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/CategoryView,category,Completely%2BRandom.aspx" />
    <content type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
        <p>
I should have been working on <a href="http://www.billsplit.com/">www.BillSplit.com</a> updates. 
Instead, I got... sidetracked.
</p>
        <p>
My wife and I went to Costco this weekend and bought a pineapple for $2.99 and now
look what I've done! -_- *sigh* this is what happens when "modders" go into withdrawal.
</p>
        <p>
Anyway, I'd like to thank my dear wife for putting up with this crazy "otaku" ~~~
baby I love you!! :D
</p>
        <p>
Can you spot the shameless attempts at self-advertisement??
</p>
        <p>
          <strong>
            <font size="5">Ladies<br />
and<br />
Gentlemen</font>
          </strong>..<font size="3">gentlemen</font>..<font size="1">gentlemen</font>..<br /><font size="5">I present to you</font>..<font size="3">to you</font>..<font size="1">to
you</font>...<br /><br /><font size="4"><strong><u>The Spongebob Squarepants Pineapple!</u></strong></font></p>
        <p>
(click on the pictures for larger images)
</p>
        <p>
          <a href="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/Spongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple3.jpg" target="_blank">
            <img src="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/TNSpongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple3.jpg" border="0" />
          </a>
        </p>
        <p>
        </p>
        <p>
          <a href="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/Spongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple4.jpg" target="_blank">
            <img src="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/TNSpongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple4.jpg" border="0" />
          </a>
        </p>
        <p>
Close-Ups of the Spongebob Squarepants Pineapple<br /><a href="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/Spongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple5.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/TNSpongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple5.jpg" border="0" /></a>   <a href="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/Spongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple6.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/TNSpongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple6.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/Spongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple7.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/TNSpongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple7.jpg" border="0" /></a>   <a href="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/Spongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/TNSpongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple1.jpg" border="0" /></a>  <a href="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/Spongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/TNSpongebob_Squarepants_Pineapple2.jpg" border="0" /></a></p>
        <p>
Needless to say, there won't be any <a href="http://www.billsplit.com/">www.BillSplit.com</a> code
updates tonight.
</p>
        <p>
Dean :)
</p>
        <img width="0" height="0" src="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/aggbug.ashx?id=66cecc04-c747-4c7a-bdff-4c89b0ca1435" />
      </div>
    </content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <title>BillSplit.com Update 3/4/2006</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,c22c7000-46c4-4cb2-b1cb-5ffe43088346.aspx" />
    <id>http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,c22c7000-46c4-4cb2-b1cb-5ffe43088346.aspx</id>
    <published>2006-03-04T23:22:42.3120000-06:00</published>
    <updated>2006-03-04T23:25:43.2031250-06:00</updated>
    <category term="Updates" label="Updates" scheme="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/CategoryView,category,Updates.aspx" />
    <content type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
        <p>
You can now save and delete your BillSplits!
</p>
        <img style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FLOAT: left; PADDING-BOTTOM: 5px; PADDING-TOP: 5px; POSITION: relative" src="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/NewBillSplitManager.jpg" border="0" />
        <p>
I added a BillSplit Management panel that allows you to save, delete and open previously
saved BillSplits.
</p>
        <p>
I struggled on placement of the BillSplit Management panel and ended up settling for
a simple non-rounded corner css box.
</p>
        <p>
As an afterthought, I added a few handy features.  After opening a saved BillSplit,
it runs the calculation for you to show everything.  Same goes for the Save As.
</p>
        <p>
BillSplit Basic is 100% cookie-based.  This means I don't have to mess around
with a server-side database and it also means the application is scalable beyond your
wildest imaginations with ZERO administration complexities.  No session state
to worry about, no worries about load balanced servers not communicating, no worries
about anything really.
</p>
        <p>
Next update will improve error handling in Bill List and People List adding. 
I'm also planning on adding simple math function support on the Amount textboxes. 
This way, if you've already set "Bob" as pre-paying $27 for the water bill, but realize
later that he also paid $15 for his share of the beer on Friday night, you could go
into "Bob's" Pre-Paid text and just append "+15" in the field to have it automatically
calculate the sum! Sure, you can do $27+15 in your head (when you're not drunk), but
what about $39.83+12.29?  Ok fine, so your math isn't that horrible.  But
really, the whole reason for BillSplit's existence to make our lives easier. Like
sliced bread.
</p>
        <p>
I should finish the rest of the tabs too.
</p>
        <p>
-Dean :)
</p>
        <img width="0" height="0" src="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/aggbug.ashx?id=c22c7000-46c4-4cb2-b1cb-5ffe43088346" />
      </div>
    </content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <title>BillSplit.com Update 2/27/2006</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,ec1b5988-a883-4375-b5ab-427ff541c390.aspx" />
    <id>http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,ec1b5988-a883-4375-b5ab-427ff541c390.aspx</id>
    <published>2006-02-27T01:44:26.0000000-06:00</published>
    <updated>2006-02-27T03:16:19.6718750-06:00</updated>
    <category term="Updates" label="Updates" scheme="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/CategoryView,category,Updates.aspx" />
    <content type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
        <p>
Updates Tonight:
</p>
        <p>
I found this REALLY GROOVY font called Dolphin from 1001fonts.com
</p>
        <p>
... So I updated the banner with the cool font!
</p>
        <p>
Here's a pic of the before and after:
</p>
        <p>
          <img src="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/NewBanner20060226.jpg" border="0" />
        </p>
        <p>
 
</p>
        <p>
I also updated the "How It Works" section of the page.  Here's the text that
I added (with pictures!)
</p>
        <p>
 
</p>
        <h3>How Does BillSplit.com Work?
</h3>
        <p>
 
</p>
        <h3>BillSplit.com QuickStart Instructions
</h3>
        <h3>Creating a BillSplit takes only 3 easy steps!
</h3>
        <h3>1. Add Bills to the Bills list
</h3>
        <p>
          <img src="http://www.billsplit.com/BillSplit/images/BillSplitBillDiagram.gif" width="450" border="0" />
        </p>
        <h3>2. Add People to the Person List
</h3>
        <p>
          <img src="http://www.billsplit.com/BillSplit/images/BillSplitPeopleDiagram.gif" width="450" border="0" />
        </p>
        <h3>3. Click "Calculate BillSplit"
</h3>
        <p>
          <img src="http://www.billsplit.com/BillSplit/images/BillSplitCalcDiagram.gif" border="0" />
        </p>
        <hr />
        <h3>How does the BillSplit get calculated?
</h3>
        <p>
These pages are written in ASP.NET with VB.NET in the code behind the pages. 
The BillSplit engine class is designed to accept a dataset of Bills and People and
returns a set of plain-english instructions detailing who pays and receives money
to and from whom. (That was a mouthful).  The logic for BillSplit Basic starts
by calculating the total of all the bills.   This total is then divided
by the number of people included in the BillSplit to determine each person's share
of the bill.  A set of nested loops with intelligent logic iterates through the
list of people who pre-paid the bills to determine how much this person is owed and
which person to best pay to settle the balances with the least number of transactions.
(Another mouthful).  These nested loops actually generate an output dataset. 
The data in this dataset looks something like this: (more to come)
</p>
        <hr />
        <h3>Where's my DATA stored?
</h3>
        <p>
Your data isn't stored anywhere on my server! Hard to believe? Well it's true! First
of all, I really have no interest in your data (sorry to disappoint!).  In fact,
the data is sent back to your computer as a cookie.  The cookie contains your
Bills and People list as a compressed string.  This cookie takes up very little
space on your hard drive (less than 1000 bytes) -- that's smaller than Google's homepage
logo image!
</p>
        <p>
Storing the data in your computer's cookie container makes my work a LOT easier. 
I don't need to worry about designing or maintaining fancy state-of-the-art databases
and YOU don't have to worry about registration or log in!
</p>
        <p>
Just understand that if you ever feel the urge to tidy up your computer and clear
out your cookies, your BillSplit data will be cleared out as well.
</p>
        <hr />
        <h3>Can I share BillSplit data with other people? Can I save my BillSplit data?
</h3>
        <p>
I'm working on this functionality.  More to come.
</p>
        <hr />
        <h3>How does this site make money?
</h3>
        <p>
I don't have any plans on making money with this site (other than accepting donations
if you'd like to buy me a drink).  I feel that I've gained so much from the Internet
(free email, awesome search engines, free chat programs, music - legal of course,
etc) that I should be giving back somehow.  This is my contribution back to the
community. 
</p>
        <img width="0" height="0" src="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/aggbug.ashx?id=ec1b5988-a883-4375-b5ab-427ff541c390" />
      </div>
    </content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <title>BillSplit.com Update 2/26/2006</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,769c23dc-2691-4e31-b6e7-8e0537d7b9ef.aspx" />
    <id>http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,769c23dc-2691-4e31-b6e7-8e0537d7b9ef.aspx</id>
    <published>2006-02-26T05:36:57.1090000-06:00</published>
    <updated>2006-02-27T03:11:16.7656250-06:00</updated>
    <category term="Updates" label="Updates" scheme="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/CategoryView,category,Updates.aspx" />
    <content type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
        <p>
Updates tonight:
</p>
        <p>
Added labels for Edit/Save/Undo/Delete buttons on Bills and People lists. Thanks to
Vy for the suggestion.
</p>
        <p>
Added a "Click to add Bill/Person" note on Bills and People lists to make it more
obvious how to add a new person. Thanks to Holden for the suggestion.
</p>
        <p>
Major thanks to Kal-EL on EFnet #ASP.NET for the tip to set the LABEL text instead
of CELL text.  On re-draws, the blank label text was writing over the cell text
and causing the "click to add" to disappear. I was baffled and spent hours trying
to get past this.  There were so many variables ... poorly formated CSS styles?
Bug with AJAX? I tried everything before Kal-EL had a great suggestion to try setting
Label text instead of Cell text.
</p>
        <img width="0" height="0" src="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/aggbug.ashx?id=769c23dc-2691-4e31-b6e7-8e0537d7b9ef" />
      </div>
    </content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <title>Advertising BillSplit.com</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,cdd7b728-7f62-463d-80b5-7113ad1a5e2c.aspx" />
    <id>http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,cdd7b728-7f62-463d-80b5-7113ad1a5e2c.aspx</id>
    <published>2006-02-23T03:34:49.6870000-06:00</published>
    <updated>2006-02-23T03:45:56.7031250-06:00</updated>
    <category term="Announcements" label="Announcements" scheme="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/CategoryView,category,Announcements.aspx" />
    <content type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
        <p>
I do this at the risk of being mistaken for a sleezy Multi-Level-Marketing salesperson
offering "A once-in-a-lifetime, ground-level business opportunity" .... 
</p>
        <p>
          <img style="PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 5px; PADDING-TOP: 5px" src="http://www.billsplit.com/Blog/content/binary/VistaPrintCard.jpg" align="left" border="0" />I
just went to <a href="http://www.vistaprint.com/">www.vistaprint.com</a> and ordered
a free set of 250 business cards to promote <a href="http://www.billsplit.com/">www.BillSplit.com</a>. 
They won't be arriving for another 2 weeks, since I selected the standard processing
(14 days).  After shipping and "processing" the total came out to $8.95. 
How are they able to offer this for "free?"  There's an ad for vistaprint.com
on the back of every card.
</p>
        <p>
 
</p>
        <p>
Now, don't mistake me for a cheapskate (even though I am in some ways).  I've
already spent HOURS/DAYS/WEEKS on the website and programming.  This is a FREE
site, for the good of the Internet/Mankind/World.  I should get some sort of
anti-cheapskate points for that.  Money-wise I want to spend as little as possible
to get the word out about <a href="http://www.billsplit.com/">www.BillSplit.com</a> --
I'll do it as a one-man-show, one person at a time... otherwise how are people supposed
to find out?
</p>
        <p>
So my plan is to take these business cards and distribute them onto campus post
boards, onto people's cars, near dorms, apartments with student roomates etc. 
I'm not asking for any money, and I haven't even implemented Google Ads yet.  I
equate Google Ads to playing the penny slots in Vegas.  I won't make much money,
and the money I get probably won't even be enough to buy lunch.  But it'll still
be fun to see the numbers, however small they may be. 
</p>
        <p>
Someone asked me about <a href="http://www.billsplit.com/">www.BillSplit.com</a>,
"How's this going to make money?"  My answer was, "I don't care if it makes money
or not. As long as people use it and appreciate it I'll be happy"
</p>
        <p>
 
</p>
        <img width="0" height="0" src="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/aggbug.ashx?id=cdd7b728-7f62-463d-80b5-7113ad1a5e2c" />
      </div>
    </content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <title>Feature Requests</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,1afa8342-9503-48ca-a9cc-c16b9166ec45.aspx" />
    <id>http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,1afa8342-9503-48ca-a9cc-c16b9166ec45.aspx</id>
    <published>2006-02-22T04:03:41.4840000-06:00</published>
    <updated>2006-03-04T23:27:05.7656250-06:00</updated>
    <category term="Feature Requests" label="Feature Requests" scheme="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/CategoryView,category,Feature%2BRequests.aspx" />
    <content type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Please post your feature requests as comments
to this entry.<br /><br />
Groovy.<br /><br />
Dean :)<br /><p></p><img width="0" height="0" src="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/aggbug.ashx?id=1afa8342-9503-48ca-a9cc-c16b9166ec45" /></div>
    </content>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <title>BillSplit.com Goes Live!</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,657b6e18-7158-491d-ae11-d794410d45e7.aspx" />
    <id>http://www.billsplit.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,657b6e18-7158-491d-ae11-d794410d45e7.aspx</id>
    <published>2006-02-22T04:02:14.4210000-06:00</published>
    <updated>2006-03-04T23:27:23.5625000-06:00</updated>
    <category term="Announcements" label="Announcements" scheme="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/CategoryView,category,Announcements.aspx" />
    <content type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Hey Folks,<br /><br />
I've never done this blog thing before, but how's it looking for my first try? 
I modifed a dasBlog template (Elegante) to fit the layout of BillSplit.com ... not
too shabby for a blog newb huh?<br /><br />
Dean :)<br /><br /><br /><p></p><img width="0" height="0" src="http://www.billsplit.com/blog/aggbug.ashx?id=657b6e18-7158-491d-ae11-d794410d45e7" /></div>
    </content>
  </entry>
</feed>