Landscaping, and a whole lot more...

Recently the building TrailsWeb is in was bought by some new investors. Two of them are co-owners of Showtime Dirt Works. After moving into one of the suites across the courtyard from us, they asked us about building a site for them. While we were working on ShowtimeDirtWorks.com, touting their expertise in Northern Arizona landscaping design and technique, they had us work on another software project.

In their office, they mounted a plasma TV facing the courtyard. The TV displays a slideshow of pictures they took of their work. Concerned with the energy efficiency of their display they had TrailsWeb write a screensaver that turns off the computer and TV each night at 7:00PM and automatically start back up again each morning at 7:00AM.

With a few hurdles to overcome, we were able to supply an application which uses DirectX to efficiently fade the images on the screen and simultaneously automate the computer's power state. Using a technology called ACPI, the screensaver shuts the computer down at night, with the TV shutting down when the signal disappears, and schedules the computer's restart the following morning. When the timer goes off, the computer boots back up and the screensaver resumes fading images of their landscapes for interested onlookers to see.

Demonstrating our expertise with both website and software development, Rob has suggested partnering up for a larger scale web-based business. Hopefully, the next post will be declaring the new project underway...