Charlr (pronounced char-lar) is a new chat website I've programmed in the past 2 weeks. It's a simple idea: an Omegle like interface except it doesn't connect you to a /random/ person. Instead, you are connected to the person closest to you geographically. I get a better response when explaining this idea than for most of my machinations (which usually go: 'why would I want that?').

By tonight I expect to have some test bots from fake locations running on the server all the time.. so even if the site is empty you can check it out, see if it works, & post some feedback please!

So it's made with a Silverlight frontend, and .Net socket server backend, Json messages in between. I had read that Silverlight's WCF TCP client is limited (you have to poll for messages!), so that was out. But socket programming is refreshing after so much SOAP. Another interesting thing I came across in making this was the formula for distance between two points on the globe (inputs being latitude and longitude) is called the haversine formula.

iTunes is great program except that it's a pig, so that got me started on a program to search and play your library more quickly. The other problem with iTunes for someone like me, who doesn't like carrying around an iPod, is getting at that music simply when your away from home. So this music player, called Barracuda, acts as a server for your library. Fire up another instance of Barracuda on the road and you're ready to access your home library no problem. It talks over web protocols so you should have not problem with work firewalls- if your boss will tolerate that kind of thing.

Download Barracuda Shareware 0.5.3