Steve Jobs

I was brought up loving technology and computers, but Steve Jobs with his work creating Apple took my passion to the next level. He showed me that technology can be beautiful, powerful, and visionary. I never met or saw Steve Jobs in person, but he's had a lasting impact on my life and his legacy lives on through Apple. Rest in peace Steve, the world lost a great man today.

Blogger iOS app

Might blog more often now that I can do it on the go.

Download from iTunes

Why Software Development Will Never be Engineering

Great article by John Sonmez.

A similar article by Jeff Atwood from a few years back:

Bridges, Software Engineering, and God

Game

I've felt compelled to create a game recently. A big source of inspiration has been Terraria, which I've found to be extremely enjoyable. The game is a whole lot more fun to play than to look at, and I've always felt good gameplay is the most important thing about a game.

With Terraria, development started in January this year, and the bulk of the work was done by Andrew Spinks, the game's creator.

My game development experience has been extremely limited, but I want to expand my skills on that front, whether or not what I create is successful or commercially viable.  I have worked on one game, which was both fun and challenging (no longer on App Store).

I've been brainstorming various scenarios to work out what it is I'm passionate about with gaming, and what sort of game I'd enjoy dedicating some time to pursuing. Any thoughts welcome, I'm very much wanting to brainstorm with any interested parties to narrow down the scope of what I'd like to create!

Update: I just downloaded allegro, orx, and sge2d to start tinkering. All chosen for being C or C++ based, and having cross-platform support

If this works, will it end drought?

Awesome concept, will keep a close eye on how this develops.

Bike is Back

Just got word that my motorbike is all patched up and good to go! It's under a year old, but  had some recent issues with the gear indicator and a minor oil leak.

So we're back to terrorising commuters tomorrow morning, can't wait. *evil grin*

WWDC 2011 wishlist

Only a few days to go before Apple's yearly WWDC, this time around it's purely software updates which should go easy on the wallet

My wishlist:

1. Cloud-based syncing of iTunes library
2. Better, free version of MobileMe
3. Revamped notification service for iOS

From what I understand, 1 and 2 are almost a given at this point. With 3, if they have include any substantial improvements in 5.0 at all, surely the notification system is in most need of attention.

Meta location-based social network service

I've had an idea floating around in my head lately, just putting this out there to see if it makes sense. Is it something worth pursuing?

Premise

• There are a large number of social networks that are either built around, or include to some degree, some location-based functionality
• These services log a user's location on an opt-in basis
• Location services can help users of these networks discover which of their friends are nearby

Problem

• Sometimes this information is not readily available on these social networks (a geo-tagged Twitter post requires an extra click to see location for example)
• Friends checking in nearby aren't always identified as being nearby by the system
• Unless a user is an active participant in the particular social network a friend nearby is using, they will not be aware that they are nearby

Solution

• A web-based platform that aggregates a variety of social networks with geo-tagging functionality of some form (Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook places, Google Latitude, Gowalla)
• Request one-time logins to all a user's social accounts through this service to access location data
• Allow scheduling of availability at certain locations (such as home or work)
• Service can also automatically poll all of a user's networks to identify where they are
• Service automatically polls all of a user's friends on these networks to identify those in proximity
• Notify user via sms/email or some other form when a friend is known to be close by

New Job

So, as of 2 weeks ago I've started work at Floktu fulltime.

We're a company in startup mode, and so far I'm the only developer on the product. Missing working in a team, looking forward building a new team here though.

New Blog

So I've started a blog again, not sure if I'll keep it up this time around but I really hope so. Writing has always been good for me.

We'll see!