Apples and Nuts

15 days into the tracking, patching, testing, cussing loop from hell. Familiar whining this. It pretty much epitomizes the life of a hacker.

The iPod Touch remains in its original box, untouched, waiting for the next (Palm OS) release of ninerpad (will it? ever?).

But I like to peek. So I waded, again, through the iPhone SDK (hush hush Apple may be listening) docs. Things are becoming clearer.

But then, this very interesting post by Michael Ash. It helped put things back in perspective.

Yes, the iPhone oasis may beckon, but you may want to reconsider drinking from its pool. The process of getting an app on the iTunes store is not as simple as it is for Palm (mobireach, my cart provider, makes the process a google times simpler). But that's not the main issue for me. Learning has its curves, like many good things, so it can't be that bad.

No, my main beef is that Apple will not remit royalties to participating developers until their net reaches 250$. Granted, if your paid app is hugely popular, that may come fast and easy. But if it is not -- and that is the most likely (just do the math) scenario "for the rest of us" -- , it may take months before you see that first payment. Nice? Not.

But I'll try anyway. After all, nobody likes to miss a boat, any boat, no matter how small.

Still, just to keep things on an even keel, I think I'll stick around for a while with the Palm OS and with my friends at mobireach.

And now, back to our regular programming: cussing at Palm OS 5.

We all have it coming, kid

1.1R2 had the shortest ESD shelf life ever. A few hours and then, the bomb. What's the point of writing a smart repair feature if it ends up making things worse? Never a better time to start reading up on Erlang than now, methinks. Then again, maybe not.

Anyway, I guess that 1.1R2 had it coming (thanks, Clint).

Now working on 1.1R3, and testing deeper and in closer collaboration with the user group -- what would I do without them? -- than ever, and impatiently waiting for the day when I can sink my teeth into some fresh (feature; hell, platform even) fodder. This load's getting on a bit.

Signing out.

Palm developer vacation spot du jour: iPhone SDK

ninerpad 1.1R2 is out, at last. Time to take a short break and open that iPod Touch box...

Links of interest:

• iPhone GUI PSD will come in handy for UI mockups
  
• Hand Picked iPhone Application Development Resources

Ideas:

• ninersim...

Titanic Notwithstanding

So... awareness of something big and bad knocked on my door today, in the form of a customer inquiry worded thus:

I think I lost my ninerpad data.

Three days ago it turns out, I released version 1.1R1, not knowing that it housed a monster of a lurking bug. It went like: tap on the green folder icon to start a filing operation, create a folder, change your mind and don't file, and zap!, your data becomes corrupt.

I took the product out of circulation immediately of course, hence rendering tens of redirected vendor links useless, losing exposure and sales, good karma, etc.

And now I'm busy cursing and patching and hoping to be done before that red hot iron of a new release loses its online glow.

(background vocals: and laying the grounds for more mistakes)

We all do that, don't we? Our time left gets shorter, knowledge (wisdom?) accumulates, aspirations multiply, and rather than choose reason over passion, we sometimes become overnight optimists and takers of imprudent shortcuts.

Note to self: if you work for a company whose CEO, COO, or CCO mentions "sense of urgency" in a memo, in a conversation, or in a speech, send out copies of your resume, fast.

I think I'll delay the patched release a couple more days.