Its been a looooong time since I have blogged about anything and its time to change that. So here are some quick updates..
1. New job at Availity doing front end web development using several of the big JS frameworks. I feel this is going to be an great opportunity to finally be able to dive into a tech and be fully immersed by it.
2. Our cycling is going well too. Shelli and Kaylee are having great first cat 2 seasons in TMBRA. Kaylee also won her first texas high school race in troy a couple weeks ago. She will be racing in the JV division next year despite being a sophomore.
I am going to be sharing gotchas and other tid bits from my new job going forward. This should be fun.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Monday, December 17, 2012
New Direction
After working for a large corporation for 18 months, I decided to go back to contracting to get back to doing leading edge work (working for On3 Solutions). For the next few months I will be working on a really good team on an enterprise level HTML 5 application. I am hoping to blog pieces of what I am doing without compromising my NDA with the client.
The only 'downside' to this current job is the location. I am now traveling to work and its ok, although my kids are none to happy about it.
That's it for now.. hope to have more soon.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
My thoughts on the Nexus One
On Monday January 11th I ordered a Nexus One as I am doing Android apps and need a device to test on. The next day this hot little device was in my hand.
As I opened the box I was a little surprised. I was getting memories of opening my iPhone and Microsoft. A little strange feeling came over me. That feeling soon went away once I saw the device for the first time. I quickly popped my SIM card from my iPhone, put it and the battery into the Nexus One and fired it up.
A very cool startup screen greeted me and I started to feel like a kid a Christmas :). After it booted up (which was pretty fast btw), my first impression was, 'wow, this is pretty cool'. Then I started to try and use it. After some initial confusion (this is my first time using an Android based device), I started to get the hang of it. Within minutes I had my gmail setup, contacts synced and all.
The Fluff
Ok, after I got it all setup, I wanted to see what this device has to offer right out of the box. The Live Wallpapers adds a level of personalization that I really like. Even the non-live wallpapers are very cool and I like that it shows on my home screen. The Gallery app is really cool as well, has some nice effects and works well.
The Business
What I am considering the business end of this device is the normal-use applications. I really really love the gmail integration. I use gmail more than anything and having an app that acts like the web version is a HUGE plus in my book. The phone app is a bit lacking in my book. I don't like that I cannot see my voicemails and choose visually which one I want to interact with. Email and texting gets a huge boost by the Voice-to-Text integration. Now, for the record, the device doesn't do the translation, a cloud service does, but still, its huge. Another huge plus is the voice searching, both on the web and maps application. Case in point. The other day I had to track down my daughters lunch box she left on the school bus. So I opened the Maps application, brought up the voice search, spoke the address, then touched the ballon, and then selected Navigate To. Now this brought up the Google Navigation app up and calculated the route... Within 1 minute I found the location and had a route to it. In my book, that is huge. Another great feature is the Notifications Panel. This is a panel that will hold all notifications and the user can slide it down and go straight to that item or clear the list. I love that. Another feature I find very very useful is the 'Back Button'. This along with the fact that Android can run multiple applications makes the user experience very good.
The not so good...
Ok, now after all the stuff the Nexus One via Android does very well, it has a few things it does not do so well. First up is copy-paste. While it does have it, it is not easy to use compared to the iPhone's implementation of copy-paste. The next is Application memory storage capacity. It has 512mb of space of apps... really?? are you kidding me? After all the default apps are installed, a user is left with between 100 - 200mb of space for third party applications. I am not 100% sure if the Droid has this issue or not, but this is one area Android needs to be changed so it can run apps off the SD memory card, or the manufacturers need to up this internal memory. Another sticking point is the applications available. I am not talking about the quantity of apps, I am speaking to the quality. Case in point. Facebook. The Facebook app for Android is far less capable than its iPhone counter part. Where I could use my iPhone to do all my Facebook stuff, I simply cannot on my N1 because the app cannot do it. Come one people, this is unacceptable. My last pet peeve is no native multi-touch.. I understand why its not there, and I know the capability is there, so its not a big issue, but still an issue.
Conclusion
All in all, I own both an iPhone and the Nexus. I have had my iPhone for over a year now and it has grown in that time. I have only had the Nexus for a week now and I am very impressed. I could almost drop my iPhone for good, but not yet.
There are more good things about the N1 that I have not spoken about because I am going to do more detailed posts on those items.
As I opened the box I was a little surprised. I was getting memories of opening my iPhone and Microsoft. A little strange feeling came over me. That feeling soon went away once I saw the device for the first time. I quickly popped my SIM card from my iPhone, put it and the battery into the Nexus One and fired it up.
A very cool startup screen greeted me and I started to feel like a kid a Christmas :). After it booted up (which was pretty fast btw), my first impression was, 'wow, this is pretty cool'. Then I started to try and use it. After some initial confusion (this is my first time using an Android based device), I started to get the hang of it. Within minutes I had my gmail setup, contacts synced and all.
The Fluff
Ok, after I got it all setup, I wanted to see what this device has to offer right out of the box. The Live Wallpapers adds a level of personalization that I really like. Even the non-live wallpapers are very cool and I like that it shows on my home screen. The Gallery app is really cool as well, has some nice effects and works well.
The Business
What I am considering the business end of this device is the normal-use applications. I really really love the gmail integration. I use gmail more than anything and having an app that acts like the web version is a HUGE plus in my book. The phone app is a bit lacking in my book. I don't like that I cannot see my voicemails and choose visually which one I want to interact with. Email and texting gets a huge boost by the Voice-to-Text integration. Now, for the record, the device doesn't do the translation, a cloud service does, but still, its huge. Another huge plus is the voice searching, both on the web and maps application. Case in point. The other day I had to track down my daughters lunch box she left on the school bus. So I opened the Maps application, brought up the voice search, spoke the address, then touched the ballon, and then selected Navigate To. Now this brought up the Google Navigation app up and calculated the route... Within 1 minute I found the location and had a route to it. In my book, that is huge. Another great feature is the Notifications Panel. This is a panel that will hold all notifications and the user can slide it down and go straight to that item or clear the list. I love that. Another feature I find very very useful is the 'Back Button'. This along with the fact that Android can run multiple applications makes the user experience very good.
The not so good...
Ok, now after all the stuff the Nexus One via Android does very well, it has a few things it does not do so well. First up is copy-paste. While it does have it, it is not easy to use compared to the iPhone's implementation of copy-paste. The next is Application memory storage capacity. It has 512mb of space of apps... really?? are you kidding me? After all the default apps are installed, a user is left with between 100 - 200mb of space for third party applications. I am not 100% sure if the Droid has this issue or not, but this is one area Android needs to be changed so it can run apps off the SD memory card, or the manufacturers need to up this internal memory. Another sticking point is the applications available. I am not talking about the quantity of apps, I am speaking to the quality. Case in point. Facebook. The Facebook app for Android is far less capable than its iPhone counter part. Where I could use my iPhone to do all my Facebook stuff, I simply cannot on my N1 because the app cannot do it. Come one people, this is unacceptable. My last pet peeve is no native multi-touch.. I understand why its not there, and I know the capability is there, so its not a big issue, but still an issue.
Conclusion
All in all, I own both an iPhone and the Nexus. I have had my iPhone for over a year now and it has grown in that time. I have only had the Nexus for a week now and I am very impressed. I could almost drop my iPhone for good, but not yet.
There are more good things about the N1 that I have not spoken about because I am going to do more detailed posts on those items.
Monday, January 4, 2010
2010
2010 is my year.. my year to get my diabetes where I want, and get to where I want to be as a developer... hi 2010, nice to meet you.
I have now had diabetes for 10 years.. and it still suck as much today as it did 10 years ago. The difference is I am 10 years older and my body just isn't what it used to be. So I started today, making managing my diabetes and my body the way I should be.
As far as my 'professional' career, this is my year to do and get where I want. I realized I have 10 years of development experience doing many different things. My main focus is going to be mobile development on both the iPhone & Android platforms. I will also be doing more contract work as honestly, that's where the 'real' money is these days. The main thing that has kept me from doing more contract work has been my diabetes.... however, I have realized that if I get my body into good shape and have a good diet, my diabetes will not require so much of my time..
this blog will be both about my personal and professional path this year and beyond... Again, welcome 2010, lets get rolling!
I have now had diabetes for 10 years.. and it still suck as much today as it did 10 years ago. The difference is I am 10 years older and my body just isn't what it used to be. So I started today, making managing my diabetes and my body the way I should be.
As far as my 'professional' career, this is my year to do and get where I want. I realized I have 10 years of development experience doing many different things. My main focus is going to be mobile development on both the iPhone & Android platforms. I will also be doing more contract work as honestly, that's where the 'real' money is these days. The main thing that has kept me from doing more contract work has been my diabetes.... however, I have realized that if I get my body into good shape and have a good diet, my diabetes will not require so much of my time..
this blog will be both about my personal and professional path this year and beyond... Again, welcome 2010, lets get rolling!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Mobile Development
I have recently jump started my mobile development, starting with my iPhone. I have published a simple app to the App Store on iTunes so I could learn quickly how that whole process works. Mission accomplished.
Now I am starting on Android. Why you ask if I am doing iPhone applications. For one, I believe in being diverse on the platforms I develop for. Another is I just like learning, and this is definitely a learning experience.
One thing I like developing for Android is that the developer fee is a 1/4 of Apple's and its a ONE TIME FEE, not a recurring yearly one... The one thing I do not like is all the different devices to target(diff screen sizes & Android versions) for. That is where Apple has Android beat. Other than processor and on board RAM, only one device in essence.
I am going to be blogging more about my travel down this path as its just getting started.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Moved to a Mac Book Pro & an iPhone
For the longest time I was very anti-Apple. I always felt like 'they' were full of themselves and way over priced for what they were. Well, I still feel that they are a bit pricey, but I love how they work :).
I have had my laptop now for almost a week and I am already working better than with my PC I was using. I love all the little things that OS X does and allows you to do. I am also very happy with the performance of the laptop even though it only has 2gbs of RAM.
I also just got an iPhone, something I also said I never would do. How this came to be is that my wife and I decided that we were tired of Verizon's crappy service and we were going to switch to AT&T. Well, one day we went up to the AT&T store and I started looking at all the phones they offer and compared them to the iPhone and the plans that it has. Compared to what we were paying with Verizon, this was a heck of a deal. I have only had my iPhone for a few hours now and I love it. I may not like everything that Apple does (iTunes drives me nuts), but I do like the mac book pro and the iPhone a lot.
I have had my laptop now for almost a week and I am already working better than with my PC I was using. I love all the little things that OS X does and allows you to do. I am also very happy with the performance of the laptop even though it only has 2gbs of RAM.
I also just got an iPhone, something I also said I never would do. How this came to be is that my wife and I decided that we were tired of Verizon's crappy service and we were going to switch to AT&T. Well, one day we went up to the AT&T store and I started looking at all the phones they offer and compared them to the iPhone and the plans that it has. Compared to what we were paying with Verizon, this was a heck of a deal. I have only had my iPhone for a few hours now and I love it. I may not like everything that Apple does (iTunes drives me nuts), but I do like the mac book pro and the iPhone a lot.
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