Hey everyone- I’m thinking about writing a book targeting student freelancers, but I want to see if there is interest first. Over at Freelancing the Net I’m currently running a poll to see what kind of audience there is for it.
I hadn’t realized it, but next month will be 2 and a half years since my last redesign, which is considerably longer than my previous time between designs; I was young and impressionable and didn’t know what I wanted. But now something is different. My needs in 2007 were different than my needs now. Then, this was just a place for blog entries (and the occasional trying out a new web dev trick). Now information sharing has increased 10 fold. I have shared thoughts and links on Facebook, Google Reader, Twitter, and here. The new design needs to reflect that, especially since my day-to-day blogging has decreased with the advent of Twitter. I present to you: Info Overload. If you’re in a feed reader, click on through.
I’m currently reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, a very influential computer scientist who passed away over the summer due to cancer. I’m about 100 pages in and wanted to comment on his football coach and his view on Self-Esteem.
There’s a lot of talk today about giving children self-esteem. It’s not something you can give; it’s something they have to build. Coach Graham worked in a no-coddling zone.
These are words that really ring true with me. I find too many times today that kids are getting coddled. Hell, adults get coddled too. Anytime we withhold something in fear of offending, we are coddling. People don’t know how take criticism- they see it as an attack, or as “you’re being too mean.” Really, they are trying to help you become a better person. The reason I am the way I am today is because my parents didn’t coddle me. Yes, they spoiled me. But I knew my place. And when my homework was crap, or my grades were crap, or I played like crap, they made sure I knew it. But you know what? That made the times when I made them proud so much better, because I knew I worked hard to do it, and it showed. That’s how I gained self-esteem.
If I had grown up thinking everything I did was good enough, I guarantee that I would not be where I am today. And that’s something I fear for younger generations. Randy laments in that chapter that Coach Graham- an old school guy who pushed his kids to the limit- would never survive today because parents coddle their kids too much. And that’s a shame.
He knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to develop [self-esteem]: You give them something they can’t do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process.
That sounds like the kind of leadership we need with our kids today. I feel the idea of hard work is quickly dying because kids are taught that what they do is good enough. My parents, Coach Graham, and Randy Pausch knew what kids needed- let’s hope more people follow their lead.
I could go on to talk about all of the nuances in Android, what I have seen and why I think it’s better than the iPhone, but I feel that would be an exercise in futility. Those in the iPhone camp will think what they want about the user interface (UI) and features no matter what. That goes the same for people in the Android camp. However, there is one very important thing Google did that Apple did not. They made Android completely and unconditionally Open Source (OS). What does this mean for the consumer? Well before I get to that, I want to talk about what it means for the developer.
As a developer, I really like ease of use and writing an application for the iPhone is anything but. I have to apply to the iPhone Developer’s program. I have to download a pretty hefty program (called a Software Development Kit or SDK) in order for me to write an application. And there are limitations as to what I can access on the iPhone to write my app. Then if I want to submit it to the iTunes App Store (the only place I am allowed to distribute my app), I have to pay the iPhone Developers fee. They will also take 30% of my asking price. Oh and by the way, I can only do all of this if I have a Mac. Then I have to hope Apple lets me keep my app in the store. While this is likely, there have been a few incidences where apps have been taken out of the app store with no reason given. My point is this: Apple holds a pretty tight leash on the entire development process. This is in stark contrast to developing for Android.
I was up and running in literally minutes with Android’s SDK. Download the fairly lightweight program, follow the direction on the Android SDK’s site, and moments later, I had the sample program running. I can write an app to do whatever I want; even replace the dial screen, address book, or anything. When the G1 debuts, developers will be able to add their app to the Android Marketplace at no cost. However, if you want to distribute your app via some other avenue, that’s fine too. The point: it’s all up to the developer. So back to the original question- what does this mean for the consumer?
There is more incentive to release free apps. iPhone developers face a higher financial risk because it’s costing them money right off the bat. Why should they write an app for free? With Android, there is no risk. The only cost to the developer is time. Plus, there are virtually no restrictions on developing for Android. I can write an app on any computer (PC or Mac), to do whatever I want, and distribute however I want. That’s convenient for the developer and therefore convenient for the consumer.
My bottom line is this- Android gives developers the power to do whatever it is they want to do with Android. That means the world’s first phone that can be tailored precisely to your liking. I think it was Morgan Freedman who said it best- “My my, isn’t that something?”
*This was originally published on Oct. 2nd in my school’s student run newspaper, The Aquinas.
Update: The G1 is out today! And, Google has released Android’s Source Code
Web Design tutorial blog NETTUTS published an article I wrote about Building a Facebook Appication Check it out!
New post here Friday.
I know I’ve been slacking with posting lately; in my defense, I’ve been busy. I promise a new post is coming this week that will sum up my summer. Its been a summer for business and while I didn’t define it this way on the outset, the goal turned into increasing my revenue streams. But more to come with that later this week.
For the time being, you can read super awesome, and new, blog Of Folly and Of Vice. Also, here is my Manga Avatar. Apparently they are all the rage:
Lately I have been getting an unorthodox amount of comment spam, mostly in the form of Trackbacks. In lieu of this I have added a field to the comment form where the user should type ‘notspam’ in order for their comment to be valid. I am not sure if this will work for trackback spam, but I’m really hoping, because I am tired of my inbox being full of it!
I know I haven’t updated in a while, and that is due to the fact that the semester is now in full swing and it’s going to be a busy one. Some things I have lined up:
Hopefully I will be able to find time to write about all of the above, but especially the first two.
You might have noticed I recently added a “Movies” box to the sidebar, with a flash object showing recent reviews from social networking site Flixster. I started using the site a couple of weeks ago through Facebook, and I’ve got to say it’s a pretty awesome website.
I’ve been meaning for some time now to make a movies page, much like my friend Stephen at Mekosh.org. I figure I review enough, so why not make my own page for them. However, using Flixster, I get what I wanted and so much more. I can easily review movies on a 5-star rating system, make my comments, see what friends think and even create lists of movies I want to see. Not to mention it keeps the average rating I have for all of my movies, how many I’ve rated and how many I’ve reviewed.
My Profile Page organizes that information quite nicely, with customizable skins and a number of other modules I didn’t mention above, like favorite actors, photos, etc. I don’t use too many social networking sites regularly, but Flixster is definitely added to that list.
This is part 3 of 5 of the mini series for my new design. In this part I will be talking about the dynamics of the site and using WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS).
A change made more on the back end of this site is all of the pages on the site can now be edited through WordPress. This makes it much easier when I want to update things like my resume, the about page, etc. One of the reasons I never did this before was I did a lot of PHP stuff on the seemingly static pages, and there was no way for me to integrate PHP code via the WordPress admin panel. To fix that problem, I found a plug-in called runPHP.
This handy little plug-in ads a check box to each post asking if I want to run the post or page thought the PHP preprocessor. All I do I add in the php code (with normal tags) and I’ve got dynamic, easy to update pages. This comes especially handy on my projects page, which calls a number of custom functions. With runPHP I can easily change parameters or function calls right from WordPress.
On the same token, my projects page is also completely dynamic. I will talk more about the plug-in I wrote in the next series, but I would like to touch on the fact that this was something I had been planning for a while. I needed an easy way to add, edit and delete projects from my resume site, Casabona.Org. With WordPress, I was able to add another set of pages to the admin panel to do just that. In the coming months I will be combining Casabona.Org and this site, making them fall under one roof. This plug in will make it much easier for me to manage my projects.
Using the power of WordPress, I am able to quickly and easily manage my site, transforming the open source blogging system into a CMS. Now, this site is updated more frequently with some very rich content.
(and use it to your advantage instead)
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