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The Story of Hooked-in
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Thanks for your interest in Hooked-in. If you're like me, you'd rather watch a video than read a history lesson. So, here's the video (you might have to click the play button twice -- once to activate the control and again to get it started). But if you also want the history, scroll down and you won't be disappointed. And now for the history of Hooked-inThe first thing you should know is I am a frustrated fisherman, a caring parent, and an obsessive-compulsive software developer. Those are the three main ingredients going into this recipe. This all started a couple of years ago when I was searching the Internet for fishing reports. Frankly, I wanted to get an advantage in catching fish (don't we all?). I found a bunch of forum-style websites that had good discussions on techniques, but their sections for reports were not organized in a way that make it easy for me to get the fishing reports I wanted. Plus, the reports themselves were not delivered in a consistent format, which was frustrating. Go ahead and search Google for "fishing reports" and you will see what I mean. Then, having been a software geek for many years and inspired to find a cure for nature deficit disorder, I got the bright idea that I could build a good fishing reports website myself. John Harrington and other friends encouraged me to do it. The next thing I knew I was neglecting my family and my health working late nights and weekends on this thing. The deeper I got into it, the more ideas I had for improving it. Hmm... Photos would be good. Maps would be good. Wouldn't it be great if there was a specific fishing report for every lake and river? And state. And county. And town. And fish. And lure. Wouldn't it be fun to get points for using the site? Wouldn't it be rewarding to get votes from other members if I post a good catch? Wouldn't it be good to let other members comment on catch reports? Wouldn't it be great to keep locations secret and share them with friends?... You are starting to get the picture of this obsession. Finally, at the urging of the same friends that got me into it, I introduced the website for beta testing on November 9, 2007. That is Carl Sagan's birthday and I thought it would be fitting to honor him with "billions and billions" of fishing reports. It's also my father-in-law, Brad's, birthday and it's fitting to honor him with a website that celebrates outdoor activities, friendships, and man's accomplishments in nature. Happy birthday to you both! Hooked-in's official "opening day" will be on January 18, 2008 at the Yankee Sportsman's Classic in Essex Junction, Vermont. A special thanks goes to the United States Geological Survey, Geonames, and the Alexandria Digital Library for helping with location classification. And to Google for its excellent maps and powerful mapping API. And to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and Wikipedia for helping with fish classification. And to Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto and David Heinemeier Hansson for developing Ruby and Rails, respectively. And to Mike Pych and Mike Losapio for helping to set up the company Hooked-in LLC. And to Rob Lingle and Brad Taylor at Rails Machine for helping to get the website properly hosted. And to all friends who gave me help and ideas. And especially to my wife, Robin, for tolerating my devotion to building this website. You guys rock! I hope you like Hooked-in. Please tell me your ideas for improvement. Your ideas and involvement are greatly appreciated!
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