[USCBeeMan]

Has anyone seen or used this service? I am going to sign up and look at it.

http://www.beetight.com/

Well, it's free for the first 6 hives. Then it's $15 a year for up to 1000 hives.

 

[Brooklyn]

I have never used that program but I will try it out.
This is the one I use http://apimo.dk/ It is free also.

Brooklyn

 

[magista]

Pretty cool. I signed up for the freebie to check it out.

 

[bigbearomaha]

It looks interesting.

To me though, tracking activity in hives etc.. is something I don't trust to online support. If the hosted server has a bad mysql database day ( and it does happen) not just one person, but several could be in trouble with no local backup.

So, for me anyway, without the ability to install to my own server or run locally, it's too risky.

I wish him good luck though for trying.

Big Bear

 

[magista]

Good point. I have less than 10 hives so data loss wouldn't be that big of deal but if you are running a larger operation it's something you'd want to be aware of.

A good question would be does he have the ability to back up are restore the DB in case of b0rking?

The site does allow you to export a .xls of your data. He's also working on a stand alone mobile phone app where your data will be stored on your phone. That I'm waaaay into.

 

[bigbearomaha]

To bee fair, I went online and signed up for a free acct to see it in action.

I like the download-able inspection sheet to be printed and filled out at site to be entered later.

I do see there is an option to print a csv (good, simple choice) of the inspections listed.

all in all, I like it. I would definitely use it on my own server.

I am still uncomfortable with the lack of mobility in data. what if the hosted server goes down? what if the company goes down and doesn't pay for hosting the site anymore. all the time and work to enter all the data would be essentially lost (except for the csv download of inspections).

It's not like I can do a reinstall of the app on a different machine or server and copy my data over to that. There is no other incident of the actual software except on a hosted service.

there's not even the option yet that I can see of buying the software to install on my own server.

Yes, that fact is stuck in my craw so to speak but I feel if data is important enough to be tracked on a computer, it should have more support and 'what if' options. The way it is now, all my eggs are in one basket. as magista said, if it's only a couple hives, not a lot of info to retype into other app if need to move, but if more than 5 or 10, . That's a lot of trust I am putting into whatever recently graduated geek they let loose on the servers at the hosting company.

there are some extra details I would like to see listed on the inspections end such as a check box for 'no treatment', yes, one could simply not check anything but it would be nice to see listed anyway. little extras like that to encompass the 'natural' or biological management folks a bit more.

it is also nice to see one can select settings regarding what units of measurement (U.S> or metric) to use and other customizations are very handy.

As a software itself, I would give it a B+.

you can tell a lot of thought has been put into this.

I like the look of it and it works well.

too bad I can't run it on my own.

Good work though,

Big Bear

 

[Budster]

Actually, I run a few websites too. Anyone worth ones salt will backup his MySQL database frequently, as I'm sure he does. Even this website, I'm sure, is backed up through a CRON job. A MySQL database dump, through a cron job is too easy to set up. Personally, I backup my MySQL databases daily onto my local (home) system from my hosting provider. I would just ask and get reassurance, as I'm sure all will be ok...

 

[beetight]

Hi all,
Thank you for your comments, and I'm glad that you're mostly liking Beetight. I thought I'd come and try and answer a few of your concerns. I've answered some of these already to bigbearomaha on our support site, but they stand repeating and expanding here.

I understand very well the issues with trusting your data to an external host. If that's a problem in itself, then there's not a great deal I can do, but if there are specific reasons for the concern I can try to address them. All hosted web apps, from small ones like mine, through medium sized ones like 37signals, to giants like salesforce.com and google docs, have to reassure their users that their data is safe. Some of this might get technical.

Perhaps it's best I start by explaining our hosting infrastructure. We use Amazon Web Services for our whole setup. Beetight.com is hosted on an Amazon EC2 instance, with the data on an external EBS volume. This means that hardware issues are removed from the equation. If the server catches fire, we just launch it right away in another location, using the external volume. This volume is snapshotted hourly via a cron job, so that is the most amount of data that could ever be lost. There are no recently graduated geeks at the hosting company to worry about. The only person with access to the server is me, and I know what I'm doing. I'm not going to pretend that we're not having any errors. We're still in beta, and I only launched the full version on Thursday. What I do hope I can reassure you is that these errors will be minor, quickly rectified, and won't result in loss of data.

I've some experience in doing this. Beetight is really a pet project of mine. My day job is running some very big web apps. I run clevr.com, which has over 40,000 users, with massive amounts of user data. In four years we've not lost a single piece of user data. I'm hosting Beetight on the same infrastructure.

I also run even more critical systems. We run hosted emergency planning systems and software for fire stations. We have several very large clients who rely on this, and can't tolerate even minutes of downtime. While this obviously isn't running on the same systems as Beetight, I hope this can reassure you that I'm not going to lose your data.

That said, however reliable a host, it's always more reassuring to have your own copies of the data. As bigbearomaha notes, you can currently download inspections as CSV files. I plan to extend this to all parts of the system, with an API to allow external client software to have access to the data.

In any case, thank you for your comments. All feedback is really welcomed, particularly as we're at such an early stage and need comments to help us improve. Do let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[bigbearomaha]

It's good to hear you have such a nice setup.

I have been a network tech and admin on Windows and Linux systems since '97. perhaps I am just paranoid from being a part of the server scene for so long.

Anyways, as I mentioned above, outside of the hosting issue, it is a very well put together app and I wish you good luck in it's further development.

I wasn't trying to rain on your parade, I just know firsthand that Murphy's law applies in full force when it comes to networks and servers. As a matter of fact, there are a few special corollaries added to that fun little law just for them. heh heh

enjoy the bees,

Big Bear

 

[sharpy98]

I like the site really well, think it will be awesome for a small timer like me. Only issue I have ran into so far is I can not get it to load on my BB storm. I get the site header but that is all. Good site overall though.

 

[beetight]

Yeah, it doesn't work very well on Blackberrys. This is because I unfortunately have no way of testing it on them, as the emulator software is Windows only. I hope to get this resolved eventually though.

 

[odfrank]

Yeah, it doesn't work very well on Blackberrys. This is because I unfortunately have no way of testing it on them, as the emulator software is Windows only. I hope to get this resolved eventually though.

Blackberrys and beekeeping do not mix. I have had to replace my trackball several times just answering my phone while extracting or working bees. Honey and propolis is very tough on trackballs. The littlest trace of honey on your fingers and goodbye dependable trackball function.

 

[Budster]

Is the sight done in ModX? Just curious, I've tinkered with it in the past.

 

[beetight]

Is the sight done in ModX? Just curious, I've tinkered with it in the past.

It's done with CakePHP. In fact, I started doing it mainly as a project to learn CakePHP!

 

[Budster]

I've breify looked at CakePHP... Pretty similar to Smarty isn't it? Oh well, nice job by the way! I only have 5 hives and tinkered around with your site to see what it was.

 

[honeydreams]

why not just make the softwear for beeks to use instead of just on the web site?

 

[beetight]

why not just make the softwear for beeks to use instead of just on the web site?

Because I started the project so that I could learn CakePHP, which is a web application framework. I also just prefer writing web applications. This is not my day job. I did this for fun, and because I wanted to use it myself.

But a web-based system gives a lot of benefits. You can access your data on any computer and from your mobile, and it's all in one place. It can run on any operating system. There are also features that I plan to add which wouldn't work if it was just a locally-installed program.

 

[Batman]

It look's good so far. I'll prob bump up to a 'script when I get paid again. Between a trip to the bee store, a Dadant order, a replacing a wireless modem, a replacement of a lost iPhone, and a few other purchases, I kinda shot the wad of available fund I had left.

Craig

 

[Budster]

why not just make the softwear for beeks to use instead of just on the web site?

I didn't write this software, but have wrote much software in the past.

With all of the different operating systems and hardware this could be a bit daunting to work on all platforms. Also, MySQL would be required to be installed, or you could use other databases or even "flat files". It's tough to write software that will work on "most" systems...

Also, I do PHP, or as we say "LAMP" which is Lynix, Apache, MySQL & PHP. There are so many directions to go in, once you throw in Perl, Pyton and all the extras!

My biggest challenge when writing web-based apps is that they "look" different in different browsers and screen resolutions due to some conflicting WWW Consortium Standards. (CSS's) That's why I think he did a great job on his software, not only for the info it tracks, but because it works aesthetically as well! If you've ever done any programming, you will learn what painting yourself into a corner really is!

It's like going into a restaurant and getting a cube steak...

You want it baked or fried?
You want it with or without gravy?
You want it on a bun or on a plate?
etc, etc, etc...

He's done a great job thus far! And, I forgot to mention, software is never really done! There's always a bug to fix, an improvement to add, etc. It's quite a daunting task! Great job I think.

Now, I can write the "nuts and bolts" and get the heavy lifting done, but I am artistically challenged. It's hard to find someone who can do both as he has.

 

[duncan_bees]

:applause:

I subscribed.