My iPhone Adventure

Is there really a compelling reason to use latex to create a document?  Is MS office or even OpenOffice not sufficient?

Do individuals derive pleasure from syntax errors when creating a document?

Is latex supposed to be some kind of time saver?  Well, it isn’t, at least not for me.  I’ve spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to unindent a subsection…the only friggin’ subsection that is indented in the whole %$*#~%@ document.

I HATE it. I just want to write my document; I don’t want to write code.

I would rather pour mixture of hot sand and broken glass into my eyes than use latex.

I would rather pull out each of my fingernails and teeth with pliers…

\end{rant}

I saw this spam in my email box and thought it was funny enough to post:

“Honorable sir or  ms:    now i introduce a good site to you. 　A week ago, I bought this site Apple laptops,. Amazing, it’s genuine and new and as good as expected,but the price much lower .They also run mobile phones, television sets, Camera and so on.    8s
If you need electronic products, please contact us:  ( www: ____ . com )   E-mail: ____ @ _____ MSN:  ______ @ hotmail.com 72A”

Obviously not a native English speaker.  I’m not sure what strikes me as so funny, but it just is.  I have to use that first line somewhere; “now i introduce a good site to you”.  Literary GOLD!

Ok, the next post will be relavent to coding, Apple, the iPhone, the App Store etc.  I promise.

“How long does it take to get into the app store?” is a question I googled many times leading up to the submital of my app.  For those curious, as I was,  here is the timeline of my App from submittal of the binary to appearing in the App store.

May 12 2010 7:11 pm – The binary for “Robodamus – Robotic Fortune Teller” is uploaded to Apple’s servers.  Status is “Waiting for Review”

May 21, 2010 9:08 am – The status is “In Review”

May 22, 2010 9:30 am – The status is “Ready for Sale”

May 22, 2010 ~11:00 am – The iPhone application is present in the app store.

I’m not sure how quickly my app showed up in the app store but, it was fast.  It couldn’t have been there any sooner than 10:30 as I was obsessively checking every 10 minutes or so after 9:30 until I decided that I could better spend my time buying supplies for a home improvement project.  It was not until about 11 am that I relapsed into my obsessive compulsive monitoring of the app store and saw it pop up.

You can find my app here.

So, the answer to “how long does it take?” is about a week gauging from my experience.

Now that my app is sitting in the store, it’s time to try and market it.  Here’s what I’ve done so far:

• Created a website for the app: http://www.robodamus.com
• Sent messages to all of the YouTube channels I follow(and like) that do iPhone/iPod Touch app reviews asking them to do a review.
• Contacted every iPhone app review site I can find that might be interested in my app. Actually I’m still in the process of doing this….
• Created a FaceBook account for my app’s character, Robodamus.  As of this writing I’m up to 72 friends.  I posted an announcement when the app was available on the app store.  I also posted an announcement on my personal Facebook wall.
• Posted advertisements on most of my tutorial videos on YouTube.
• Created a YouTube video demonstrating the app.

Unfortunetly I have no way to gauge if my “marketing” is having any effect.  Regardless, my next steps in marketing my app are:

• Keep writing to the numerous app review sites.
• Using the free Google AdSense advertising dollars I have.  A $100 “gift” toward advertising came in the mail recently from Google, so that might be useful.  I’ve always been curious how AdSense worked from the advertisers’ perspective.
• Doing a voodoo dance and hoping I get lucky.

Like Owen Goss in his “Numbers (aka Brutal Honesty)” blog post, I plan on sharing my sales data after I have enough to share.  I find that sort of information really interesting but difficult to find.

BTW, make sure to check out Owen’s developer blog;  it’s one of my favorites.  His newest game, Monkeys in Space, is pretty sweet, so check that out as well.

-James

Update 7/24/10: I’ve posted my sales numbers for for the first two months of the application’s availability here.

Well, I’ve finally handed my first application, Robodamus – Robotic Fortune Teller, over to the app store for approval.  I’m not entirely sure how long it should take to make it through the review process, but in the meantime, here is the preliminary website for the app:

Robodamus – Robotic Fortune Teller

The Robodamus title screen

Robodamus hard at work.

I’ve finally had an opportunity to get my hands on an iPad. Because Apple has seen fit to place it’s closest store 6 hours away, hearing that my local college bookstore had some iPads in stock was kinda exciting. However, I can’t be too excited by it as I’ve already declared to my friends and co-workers that the thing is “just a giant iphone without the phone, or camera”.

Regardless, here are my impressions:

1) It’s smaller than I expected it to be. I guess I never really spent much time visualizing the dimensions of it. My wife also thought it was smaller than she expected .
2) It’s not that heavy. I had read other people’s comments that is was heavier than they expected, but it was just about as heavy as I imagined it to be.
3) Pixel doubling didn’t look quite as horrendous as I had expected. I did not, however, try a pixel doubled app that had any substantial amount of text. I played a Simpsons fighting game, and a version of Rock Band.
4) You wouldn’t want to do a lot of typing on this thing. Typing without any tactile feedback is just about as rough as you would expect it to be. I’m not too sure I could get used to it. I’ve been doing it for about a year on my iPhone, but with the iPhone (and most mobile devices) there is the expectation that you are only doing minimal amounts of data input.

Overall the iPad looks like a really fun gadget which almost seems useful. I think it might be nice to read on, but I’m not sure a backlit document is the ideal reading device. I think it might be fun to game on, but I can’t see it becoming something I can play some of my favorite side scrollers on without some actual buttons (the same goes for the iPhone, actually). I think it might be convient to surf the internet with while relaxing, but I like to play flash games which aren’t supported. My wife loves those flash games even more, so without flash there is no way I can convince her that we should buy one of these.

Despite the negatives expressed above, the iPad is a pretty cool gadget. This is probably only something that you’ll appreciate once you have it in your hands, at least this was the case for me. It gets very close to being useful but never quite makes it. I’m sure that if I think about it enough I’ll concoct a reason to buy it, but for now my rational side won’t allow me.

Orignal File Size: 24,085 bytes

pngout: 21,709 (9.8% reduction)

PNGOUTwin: 22,110   (8.2% reduction) 21,970 (8.8% reduction)

pngcrush: 23,392 (2.8% reduction)

deflopt: 24,051 (0.1 % reduction)

Generally, the more memory you add to your system the better it’ll perform assuming you have less memory than your application(s) can consume. Even if a particular program can’t access all of your memory, other processes likely can. The worst case is that performance remains the same and doesn’t improve; at least that was my assumption until I started reading some of the Painter X message boards.

It turns out that Corel Painter X will not run if more than 8 GB of memory is installed. With my new 1366 socket tri-channel memory motherboard this limits my system to 6GB of memory if I want to keep using Painter X and utilize tri-channel memory.

Corel has known about this problem since, at least, March 2008, but as of this writing (March 2010) a fix has not come about.

Actually, that isn’t entirely true; there is a fix. The solution is to buy the latest copy painter 11. It is for this reason that I don’t read the emails I get from Corel about “special limited time deals on Painter”. I simply hit the “delete”.

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7809_102-0.html?threadID=285442

http://painterfactory.com/forums/p/1301/5465.aspx

http://painterfactory.com/forums/t/867.aspx

Update : I was contacted by a representative from Corel who confirmed that the bug in Painter X had not been resolved but offered to replace my copy of Painter X with Painter 11.  I sent my mailing address on 4/7  and am awaiting my copy of Painter 11 to evaluate .  I’ll update this post when the software makes it’s way to my mailbox.  4/24/2010

Update : My copy of Painter 11 has arrived! My relationship with Corel is wam and fuzzy again.5/5/2010

Update : I’ve decided not to do a review of Painter 11 as I feel that I cannot be objective.  I am thrilled to have received a copy to make up for Painter X’s shortcomings, but it is because of this free copy that I feel a bias toward reviewing it favorably which would compromise my integrity, or perhaps I’m just too lazy to to a review….you pick the reason. 5/25/2010

I recently got into a conversation with a software thief on my youtube comment board. I thought the lack of intellectual honesty was incredible. I can totally relate to someone who quietly uses cracked software from time to time (no one’s perfect, and the temptation is strong), but this guy seems to think that encouraging people to steal software is all right.

—-

bigdima3: you should have saved money on Windows 7 and get a cracked copy from pirate bay and get a GTX260 at first ,, the thing is, with latest cards ,the drivers seem to be dodgy ,, i was stuck between 5770 and 4850 , ,got 4850 for £60 while 5770 was £125.00, ,

Me: You couldn’t have come up with worse advice regarding Win 7. Didn’t you learn as a small child that stealing is wrong? Well, it still is. I don’t know why you think that anyone is entitled to anything for free, especially the labors of others

bigdima3: However, there are millions of ppl that already have an illegal copy of 7, , Plus, imagine how much money Microsoft made on Vista, i have few Vista licences on my laptops, i had to pay for them, but never used them, ,so yea, , heres the advise from a poor student, try not to pay for software

Me: You still have horrible and immoral advice. Not a single good argument for taking something that is not yours in that response. Stealing something because other people do it, does not make it less wrong; in fact it makes one a sheep. The fact that you have an excess of vista licenses doesn’t entitle you to steal either. Being poor doesn’t give you a license to steal. If you can’t afford Windows 7; save up for it, use your old (legal) copy of vista, or perhaps just run linux.

bigdima3: Its not like you’re going to get arrested for that, , call me a thief, but i windows 7 is only one out of hunderds of software that ive cracked or got for free you talk big cuz u can afford it, i cant, and i dont want to wait, ,

Me: Because you aren’t going to get caught doesn’t make it less wrong. In fact, doing the right thing when you won’t either get caught or be credited for doing the right thing speaks to your character. I’m not sure why you think it’s alright to take from a company because you can’t afford their products. Your right, I will call you a thief, because you’ve chosen to be one.

bigdima3: Hahahaha ,, whatever big boy, , do whatever you think is right , ,bye leave me alone now

Me: Leave you alone? right….. I’ll have to remind myself to stop forcing you to write on my video comment board. How about this, “big boy”; I’ll block you so that you don’t have the uncontrollable temptation to keep posting comments.

—-

So, to sum this guy’s moral grounds for stealing:

1. Other people do it, so it is alright for me to do.
2. I have an older version of the software, so I am entitled to the newer copy.
3. It’s not fair that other people can afford the software.
4. I shouldn’t have to wait until I can afford it.
5. I will not get caught.

I’ll admit that my responses were a little preachy, but I’ve never heard a good argument for stealing software, and this guy certainly didn’t change that. Shortly after posting my last comment, bigdima3 removed all of his posts on my board. I figured that his bullsh*t was getting so deep that even he couldn’t stand it. Who knows…

Another thief chimed in part of the way through the conversation:

—-

habboahmet: To not being a douchebag but i stick to bigdima3.. I mean, theres only a few kind of software that i have paid for until now. Everything else on software is cracked stuff like i am running Windows 7 Ultimate and didn’t pay a shit you know. I don’t find it good to purchase when you got it for free on the internet. Yes i can afford a W7 license but i do the same stuff for some of my games and movies. The last thing i bought was BF Bad Company 2 but i have downloaded lots of games after that

Me: The fault to your argument is assuming that software is “free on the internet”.  It’s not free; it’s stolen. It is really depressing to see people try to justify thievery.

habboahmet: whatever if its stolen or not i am not wasting my money to software that i can download.

Me: Well, I guess you can steal whatever you want and probably won’t get caught, but don’t try to argue that it’s o.k., because it’s not. You should at least be honest with yourself and replace the word “download”, in your last statement, with the word “steal”.

—-

At least habboahmet doesn’t try to justify the software he steals; he just doesn’t like the word “steal”. Maybe he fills a tinge of guilt.

Regardless, it is really disgusting how casually people mooch off of the hard works of others, and then suggest others do the same. These two people are prime examples of the kind of people who brought the annoyance that is DRM to the rest of us.

Here is a little video I put together on the building of my new i7 (1366 socket) pc.

PC Specs:
Motherboard: Asus P6X58D Premium
CPU: Intel i7-920
PSU: Corsair TX750W
Memory: Corsair Dominator DDR3 (3 X 2GB)
GPU: EVGA GTX 260
HDD: WD Caviar Black
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate & Ubuntu

I originally purchased a Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 video card, but the video card driver kept rebooting every half hour or so. Even with the latest drivers (both for Win 7 and the video card) it wouldn’t let up.
So, I RMA’d the video card and bought an Nvidia GTX 260 card. So far the Nvidia card is working out much better than the Radeon. The only thing left to do to this system (hardware related) is install the hyper 212 plus CPU cooler that is coming in the mail.

Disclaimer for Apple fanboys: I love macs…really, I do, but the mac pro is way too expensive for what I need, and the imacs are not very expandable (also, I’m not a fan of “all-in-ones”). For 3DS Max, Corel Painter, Photoshop, and gaming this machine is a good fit. If Apple made a mid-sized tower with similar hardware I’d buy it in a heartbeat, but they don’t. If Apple offered OS X for a machine like this one, I’d definitely install it, but they don’t. So, the machine that I need just doesn’t fall into Apple’s current lineup.