Ziray Studio Labs

NetRef is our latest iPhone app, published through LTZ. With NetRef, you can look up all default passwords and IP addresses for those new or old routers. Once you set up your router, you can use the built-in Ping feature to ping and test the connectivity of the router. The Ping feature also includes DNS resolution so you can ping a web address as well as a IP address.

We developed the app with the help of Jonathan Cost who has a strong expertise in networks and network hardware. Check out http://netrefapp.com to download the app. We’re always adding more routers and features, but if you have any feedback, we’d love to hear from you!

Initial App Design

Router Manufacturers

Router Detail View

Ping a Server

Reference Material and Tips

Router Manuals in PDF

All models available

For those of you who follow, you always want to know what I’m up to.

Some might think I’ve spent all this time opening a dive center here in the New River Valley. In fact, I think I’ve only spent about 10% of my time doing that.

iPhone Apps

We have two that are completed and awaiting final testing. This is usually the longest part of creating any application. We haven’t had any of our live apps crash yet, and I prefer to keep it that way. So, we do a lot of testing. And when we think we’re done, we test some more.

Lab Work

One must think I’m getting my PhD in Environmental Engineering. I do have a degree from the College of Engineering (Computer Science), but Environmental? I would never have thought. But Ana is finishing up and I’m helping out. That means preparing batch reactors, measuring gas production and writing a thesis. Luckily I’m only helping in small quantities and the lab work is completely done. Now it’s just data analysis and finishing off that thesis. I guess it’s science, and we use a computer, so it’s kind of what I went to school for.

Businesses

As I mentioned, we opened a dive center in Blacksburg. But we also created a state of the art website for it that’ll allow the company to grow into something much more than a dive center. We had the awesome team from HellowYellow design us the site, and they did an amazing job. We’re working on a ton of new features to the site like class registration, videos, etc. How hard can all that be? Well it’s part of a much larger picture, so a little harder than you think.

Part of that larger picture is this: It’s not about opening a dive center and sharing our passion for scuba. It’s about taking a business, any business, and making it the best at what it does. Most dive center websites look like theirs were created in 1996, by a dude with 10 minutes of html experience while sitting on a beach, drinking coronas.

So we started something. That something has grown to include several businesses, several partnerships, several clients and a lot of change. That change will upset a lot of people, namely those on the other side. How many, will be our measure of success.

Ever since December of 2010, I’ve been working hard on helping to open a scuba dive shop in Blacksburg. I’ve done my fair share of retail before, but my role has largely been on the technical side.

We’ve realized that the usual way things are done are: scuba instructor opens a shop, creates a website and attempts to make a living doing what they love. The problem is, these people are usually not business people, they’re not designers, they’re not programmers, they’re not using the latest technology. Take business people, programmers, designers, marketers, and influential people who all use technology on a daily basis and have a passion for scuba diving and combine them into one package. That’s what I feel the Avalon Dive Center is. We’re many people with many talents getting together to share our passion with others in the best way we know how.

I’ll be putting on a workshop on iOS and iPhone development this Saturday from 9AM to 5PM on the Virginia Tech campus. The event is free so if you’re in the area feel free to sign up:

http://www.ltzllc.com/2010/11/ios-development-code-kitchen/

The event will run all day and will be hands-on programming, but all levels of experience are welcome and encouraged to come.

We went to a Latino Festival in Roanoke, which was filled with Colombians. The food was great, the people were interesting and the displays were very beautiful. We met a mother from Colombia whose little girl dress in the traditional dress from Antioquia, the state that Ana is from. Then two Colombian girls danced a traditional dance from the coast area of the country.

The next two photos are of ours and a friend’s dog on our recent hike to McAfee Knob.

Colombianita

Colombian Dance Team

Kiara

Ollie