Commentary – Page 50

#NaAppDevMo

Ian Robinson wrote: Like in NaNoWriMo you are not going to produce an app that will make you a fortune, or maybe even make it to the App Store. But what it might give you is the confidence that you can take a concept for an App from design, through to running on your device … Continue reading “#NaAppDevMo”

Ian Robinson wrote:

Like in NaNoWriMo you are not going to produce an app that will make you a fortune, or maybe even make it to the App Store. But what it might give you is the confidence that you can take a concept for an App from design, through to running on your device (or in a simulator). This will hopefully show you that it is possible for you to do App development. Even if it’s just as a hobby and for fun. And if your App is useful you can spend time over the next few months maybe refining it and releasing it for others to use.

Ian also has a heap of starter links. And I have a truckload of books.

More important than a promise to anyone else is a promise to yourself. I’m going to do my best to work on this for an hour from 8 pm to 9 pm every night in December, permitting breaks for events, family and Christmas.

I’m entering it in my calendar right now. Who’s up for it?

JFDI

I misinterpreted a message earlier today and it led to an exchange on Twitter, the core message being: Don’t give me fucking JFDI A smart Web Developer Saying JFDI is the answer They made a Web Service No Use to An Ideas Man Who Writes No Code Doesn’t Make Pictures And Can’t Get Easy Money … Continue reading “JFDI”

I misinterpreted a message earlier today and it led to an exchange on Twitter, the core message being:

Don’t give me fucking JFDI
A smart Web Developer
Saying JFDI is the answer
They made a Web Service
No Use to An Ideas Man
Who Writes No Code
Doesn’t Make Pictures
And Can’t Get Easy Money

I did apologise for being a grumpy sod but I’m a little sensitive about this predicament.

There’s a lot to be said for product validation and building something iteratively that people will buy. Getting sales from big customers and using that to finance your first build (either directly or using bank money) is a completely valid way to start out. For certain types of business.

It’s no use for games.

With a game, even if you don’t succumb to hubris and insist on writing your own engine, you’re going to be in the shed for months with development tasks, getting code written, getting art and sound assets made and getting it all put together.

And my personal experience of hiring developers and artists has, almost without exception, been disappointing. It’s too hard to find people who have vision. Another Tweeter asked me if I was looking for a co-founder? Of course I am but I’m uncompromising in my vision and I would expect them to be the same. Co-founder? Maybe. But I’d rather just pay them. So, in the absence of big sales to make your balances, how do you pay for code to be written?

Government grants are a way of getting some risk cash to make games. Finding a private investor is another way. But both require considerable (and onerous) conditions. And (speaking for myself here), I’m pretty much excluded from government grants due to my day job and I doubt I’d find any succour from our local VC due to the general abrasiveness I have applied to their latest term sheet.

This is why Kickstarter matters so much to the average game developer. They can figure out how to provide value to customers who choose to buy the higher levels of product. With exclusive graphics, promo codes, special attributes and physical items like T-Shirts and Posters make all the difference. And this is why I often contribute to Kickstarter projects – even projects that I don’t personally want for myself – if they show a little spirit, a little vision.

So, I’m down but not out. There are others to be helped, dreams to help bring to fruition and I can live vicariously through the assistance I provide to others in their aims to create their own games studio, inadvertently helping me create a local industry.

So we soldier on and in our spare time, we chase only the things we dream about.

eBook Libraries in Northern Ireland

From NIDirect: Library users can now download eBooks. There are thousands of titles now available and they can be downloaded 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This free service is open to library members across Northern Ireland. Almost 25,000 eBook items in the Libraries NI catalogue can be downloaded to most eBook readers … Continue reading “eBook Libraries in Northern Ireland”

From NIDirect:

Library users can now download eBooks. There are thousands of titles now available and they can be downloaded 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This free service is open to library members across Northern Ireland.

Almost 25,000 eBook items in the Libraries NI catalogue can be downloaded to most eBook readers and handheld devices, including some mobile phones as well as to personal computers.

There are no reservations fees and no fines, with the books automatically expiring when the loan period finishes.

This is progressive and very welcome. Here’s the link to Libraries NI.

You can download up to nine titles and have them for three weeks, after which they will just disappear from the device to which you have downloaded them.

The DRM is Adobe ePub DRM which you have to access through OverDrive

I’d also direct you to my earlier post about Libraries.

“To me, a library is a thing not a place.”

Sony: Failure to Launch

From the Wall Street Journal: Sony has a “four screen” strategy of offering network services on mobile phones, tablet computers, personal computers and TV sets. “I spent the last five years building a platform so I can compete against Steve Jobs,” Mr. Stringer said. “It’s finished, and it’s launching now.” Cool! Mr. Stringer declined to … Continue reading “Sony: Failure to Launch”

From the Wall Street Journal:

Sony has a “four screen” strategy of offering network services on mobile phones, tablet computers, personal computers and TV sets. “I spent the last five years building a platform so I can compete against Steve Jobs,” Mr. Stringer said. “It’s finished, and it’s launching now.”

Cool!

Mr. Stringer declined to discuss details of what Sony has on the drawing board.

So, not actually launching now?

I’m confident that Sony will fuck this up. Whatever it is. It’s a simple equation; shut the fuck up until you have something to actually talk about. Otherwise it just sounds like a desperate gambit to stay relevant and put uncertainty into the market.

Nerdgasm

Microsofts Vision videos are frustrating because, frankly, there’s no technology there. Everything that we know about User Experience is sacrificed in terms of providing glitzy graphics. There’s no information on what runs on the back end or on the client (though obviously it’s Windows). The team who created that video live in a sparsely populated … Continue reading “Nerdgasm”

The team who created that video live in a sparsely populated world of serene docility. Everything is clean, there are no homeless people and everyone (not that there are many people) is involved as a vague knowledge-worker, having meetings, travelling and performing Powerpoint presentations. The carefully selected good-looking people mimic carefully practised activities on implausibly thin devices with needless transitions and meaningless transparency.

The video is, frankly, bereft of merit.

We have to assume that a great cataclysm has taken place and robot labour now provides for the small enclave of humanity which remains. They have all of this technology but when this message was actually transcribed it was correct. The software broke it.

My problem with this video is that this doesn’t show any leadership or ability or vision. The user interfaces might be learnable but there’s no intuition or discoverability built in. Why are there business card devices that seem transparent but need to be flipped over? Where’s the data privacy when your meeting locations are displayed on car screens? Why is there still a bellhop (and I’m going to ignore the race issue there).

It’s technological nerdgasm. And it’s not good enough.

University of Ulster Telecommunications Survey

It is kinda important that you add your tuppence to this survey. The biggest issue I see is this constant fascination with DOWNLOAD speeds. “23% of consumers in Northern Ireland are on average receiving less than 2Mbits/sec over their broadband connections. This percentage is higher than anywhere else in the UK.” “The Ofcom report also … Continue reading “University of Ulster Telecommunications Survey”

It is kinda important that you add your tuppence to this survey.

The biggest issue I see is this constant fascination with DOWNLOAD speeds.

“23% of consumers in Northern Ireland are on average receiving less than 2Mbits/sec over their broadband connections. This percentage is higher than anywhere else in the UK.”

“The Ofcom report also states that the average maximum speed available around Belfast is 8.9Mbits/sec compared to 5.7Mbits/sec in Coleraine, 4.3 Mbits/sec in Fermanagh, and 5.4 Mbits/sec in Down district.”

“Mobile coverage in Northern Ireland remains lower than the rest of the UK. 87% of the population of Northern Ireland live in a postcode district with at least 90% 2G coverage; however the figure for 3G coverage is much lower at 54%. This is well below the UK average of 95%.”

I honestly can’t remember the last time I used a hotel phone or their on-demand services.

Clayton Morris said: It’s easier to unpack your bags, climb into bed, access your Netflix que on your personal device than it is to waste the time fishing through some crappy hotel video menu. in response to this from the NYTimes: Largely because of the broad use of iPads and other mobile tablets, which are … Continue reading “I honestly can’t remember the last time I used a hotel phone or their on-demand services.”

Clayton Morris said:

It’s easier to unpack your bags, climb into bed, access your Netflix que on your personal device than it is to waste the time fishing through some crappy hotel video menu.

in response to this from the NYTimes:

Largely because of the broad use of iPads and other mobile tablets, which are heavy users of video streaming, the guest room Wi-Fi networks that most hotels thought they had brought up to standard just a few years ago are now often groaning under user demands.
According to iBAHN, iPads consume four times more Wi-Fi data per month than the average smartphone.

(I’m not even going to comment on the stupidity of the comparison with smartphones which, for the most part, have their own 3G antenna and data services.)

If you add up how much hotels are paying for their “in house” entertainment systems, I reckon they could afford to bolster their WiFi systems at the cost of their nickel-and-dime video delivery systems. One of the hotels I was in last summer, the first thing I did was whip out the aerials and fire in the jacks which allowed me to mirror my iPad onto the TV screen to allow the kids to watch Ben 10 rather than French situational comedies.

And it’s not as if this is a surprise. Surely the hoteliers must have seen this coming as the rise of the mobile phone left their in-room phone systems idle (other than for room service and complaining about the lack of hot water). Surely they must run some sort of analytics on the on-demand services their rooms provide? Surely they have known for the last five years that all-you-can-eat data services are the norm and their pay per view services are redundant?

I honestly can’t remember the last time I used a hotel phone or their on-demand services. It’s certainly more than 10 years.

Quantum Levitation

Less than two minutes of your life. Video courtesy of Association of Science – Technology Centers (ASTC), representing the science centre and museum field worldwide. To learn more, visit http://www.astc.org/ Science is amazing. Related posts: London, City of the Future Hang a TIC: Technology and Innovation Centre possibilities in Northern Ireland Holidays in England #TIC, … Continue reading “Quantum Levitation”

Less than two minutes of your life.

Video courtesy of Association of Science – Technology Centers (ASTC), representing the science centre and museum field worldwide. To learn more, visit http://www.astc.org/

Science is amazing.

By taking action every single day you create Momentum

The title of this post came from the Dumb Little Man Tips For Life blog. Considering my employer, it would seem to embody everything I believe is needed to be effective in my day job. Related posts: Putting some meat on the bones Cars … Are Friends Electric Passively Multiplayer – Massively Single Player Electric … Continue reading “By taking action every single day you create Momentum”

The title of this post came from the Dumb Little Man Tips For Life blog.

Considering my employer, it would seem to embody everything I believe is needed to be effective in my day job.

Find my Friends isn’t quite there yet. Unlikely to be.

While Apple can do no wrong in software and hardware (other than be TOO POPULAR), they often fail in one area and that’s social. Find my friends is the third social attempt by Apple. They’ve failed to set the industry on fire with Ping (their music sharing social network) and Game Center (their game matching … Continue reading “Find my Friends isn’t quite there yet. Unlikely to be.”

While Apple can do no wrong in software and hardware (other than be TOO POPULAR), they often fail in one area and that’s social. Find my friends is the third social attempt by Apple. They’ve failed to set the industry on fire with Ping (their music sharing social network) and Game Center (their game matching service) and now we have real world location with Find my friends.

Find My Friends is “better” for some values of “better” than the other attempts but it still highlights a lack of vision, a lack of “what could this do, where could this go”.

For instance: I’ve added a couple of people on Find My Friends.

Setting Status
Finding friends is one part of the equation but being found is another. Where is the option to set a status update so that people can see this. Even something as simple as “Busy” or “Available” will let people know if they should message you. This is even more important than selecting the “temporary” setting to be found.

Geofencing
Where is the alert that tells me my friends have entered within a mile of my location? Having a travelling GeoFence is an obvious feature for Find My Friends enabled smartphone users. And yes, it could be great for the untrustworthy or unfaithful but giving people an iota of credit, if there’s a ‘situation’ where location becomes an issue, the stupid will get caught.

Finding Friends Again. And again.
I have connections established by Ping and Game Center but Find My Friends wants to rifle through my address book to find people I can connect to? Really? In 2011, this is a solution? Why not give me a list of my Ping and Game Center connections and just ask me if I want to add them to my FMF list?

Time Alerts
Why can’t I set my non-existent status alert by the time of day or by the entries in my calendar? This stuff is all interconnected. Why doesn’t it just work? For that matter, why does my phone still ring when I’m plainly in a meeting! I don’t think Siri will help with that!

Group Messaging
Where’s the option to message all of my friends? Where’s the option to ping them with a “Anyone free for lunch” or to set a status change “Free for lunch”. Where does this actually work for friends? In the video, they say it’s good for when the family (obviously all toting iPhones) are at Disneyworld but seriously do we have to message each one individually?

The daft thing is that group messaging is excellently supported in Messages (via iMessage) but not in Find My Friends. Dumb.

So, in my opinion, Find My Friends, just like Ping and Game Center, is a pretty half-assed solution. Apple can still tie this all together and make it just work and maybe they will – maybe this is all part of the plan. Maybe the NEXT MAJOR RELEASE will tie all of these loose ends together? But I doubt it.