Not satisfied with this even today i’ve decided to rebuild it using native iOS Objective-c but with a twist. I’m not porting any of the existing code or graphics. I’m using this as a test to see how quick I can design, develop and even add some features to an extremely simple game. The reason behind this is out of pure boredom this weekend and taking a break from wedding planning.

I don’t expect it to be the next Draw Something nor would I really want it to as then i’d have to support and enhance it for all those users. I actually pride myself and my team in staying small, working on niche projects and building awesome results for some pretty amazing brands.

Oh and as a final twist i’ll be releasing the standard version on GitHub for the world to fork and build from. A simple *hat tip* is all I ask if you build something cool!

I’ve been a firearms enthusiast for years, went through NRA and LTC-required training in the state of Massachusetts in order to receive my license. Between the psych exams, FBI searches and criminal database inquiries (CORI) almost all avenues are covered for lawful acquisition of an LTC/FID.

All these anti-guns proposals do is stop lawful citizens from owning firearms, it doesn’t stop the criminals from going into any city/town and buying one from a trunk of a car. It doesn’t stop crime or even slow it down (aside from accidental injuries). In regards to police being the only ones that should be allowed to carry? I think not.

I witnessed a serious car accident outside my home and it took 4 minutes for a first responder to show up on scene! 4 minutes? I guess you would still be alive if that were a home invasion and the criminal got lost in your house but in reality the police would be filling out reports, not saving you.

Now back to this story. Its hard to come up with a definitive conclusion since we still don’t have all of the facts. Did he pursue? Was he in danger? Was it self defense? I wish the media would shut up for a minute and let the facts speak for once.. but that won’t happen anytime soon.

Would love to hear others thoughts on public goal lists. For now, here is mine:

2012 Goals List

01. Cook 50 healthy and new meals
02. Lose 25 pounds before wedding
03. Learn Portuguese. Finish Rosetta Stone Level 1
04. Improve my firearm proficiency. Visit range at least 25 times.
05. Continue to grow PixelBit and work with more freelancers.
06. Pay off ALL wedding expenses BEFORE wedding date.
07. Put away more money towards a down payment on a house.
08. Write 50 new engaging articles for Scriptplayground.
09. Learn a new programming language by building something.

As you can see some of these goals are much larger than 2012 but a new year is a perfect time to start new things.

The internet will NOT exist as we know it.
Sites like (YouTube, Redditt, Digg, Facebook, Google, etc…). These sites will come under fire to the point where people will lose their access and ultimately companies like the RIAA will force their hand and big websites will cave. We’ve seen it in small form with the RIAA/MPAA and online piracy of content. You know, when ICE comes in and seizes a domain name? Well now that will be on a global scale.

How about when Viacom went after YouTube under the DMCA? It can/will happen.

Still don’t see the issue?
Okay, think Chinese-style censorship across the entire WWW (World Wide Web aka “Internet”).

The recent “hold” on voting until the New Year should not be seen as a victory because they are likely trying to remove exposure and then secretly pass it while everyone is busy with a new topic. Also keep in mind thanks in part to “line item veto” not existing the government can and probably will attach the bill to a much more favorable bill. Say maybe a two month delay of federal taxes?

We need change across the entire system but for now lets work on keeping the internet because if SOPA passed its possible a blog post like this could cause the agencies to come and force my and anyone elses blog offline for “infringing”.

What can you do?
Voice your concern, post about it, call your political office and write to Congress. Thats physically write a letter to your senator or governor. An email is nice but will likely get caught in a spam filter and/or be seen by some intern who will delete it. A letter is harder to “lose”.

Why should you care?
At this point if you still don’t get it but work or play on the internet I feel sorry for you. This SOPA bill has the potential to not only kill the internet but could harm potential web developers/designers, such as myself!

I started by poking around the features though to get most you need to create a free account. However you can start to create a “Duet” whilst creating an account. I created one with my fiancé as I thought messaging a random person would be fairly creepy. Especially with an app focusing on intimate/personal communication. Of course this app is not only for love meetings, it could honestly be used to meet up for a business talk, though i’m not sure why you’d need photos/video of that!

Right now Duet is still pretty new, but i’d like to see a few things modified. First one would be to use Facebook/Twitter for registration, I hate creating new accounts that I must remember passwords for. The second would be the ability to create a Duet as a guest using your device Id that you could update later on.

Duet is currently only available for iPhone though you’ll find a note mentioning additional platforms/devices are coming soon.

“Coming soon to other platforms and devices.”

Overall its a pretty neat concept and seeing as it was created by Crush+Lovely its no surprise the design is amazing.

Go download the app & start your own one-to-one connections.

It all started with a simple tweet from a follower of mine and thought it was a critique on the code which i’m sure could be enhanced (it was modified 20 times across 4 rounds). Yet it was a bit more involved than that.. lets begin…

Okay, so first off I was accused of developing an app for OSHA and was paid anywhere from $50,000 – $200,000 to do. Both figures and the range in between is far from the truth. I was hired by a development company in Boston to port an Android app to iPhone which was simple enough. However as the gov continued to make changes, updates and modifications it began to add up. (my personal favorite was the myth that a custom UI is against the iOS TOS). Yet in the end I made a minuscule fraction of what others are claiming. In fact I worked over a weekend just to get “another build” to the team.

Of course to my “luck” I never even was the last developer on the project yet my name was shipped with the source code when it really should have been the company I was working with. Well actually my companies name was included, even worse.. but whatever, the damage or lack of damage is done at this point. I just wanted to set the record straight, not even including the fact I do not label myself a ninja iOS developer and never have. I work on apps, learn in my free time and extend my overall programming knowledge to Objective-C.

I guess the takeaway from this post is don’t always assume what you read is the whole picture and more importantly developers that work with teams get paid a fraction of what the end client is billed.

As an aside my personal favorite comment on some pro-FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) website was my company must be somehow connected to a political arm and in turn won this amazing contract. Well if thats the case than someone owes me a bunch more money!

Update: Without getting into specifics on programming a few people asked me about old code and extending NSLocalisedString. The latter was done in an effort to mimic language switching in-app before the client decided we could use the devices language setting (my preference on the matter). The old code is because the app was never cleaned before being released, not sure why.. but there you have it.

We wanted to let you know that we’ve removed your review of Parkway Cycle. Our Support team has determined that it falls outside our Content Guidelines because it discloses private information.

Now the only “private information” I can see is the salespersons name but how is that not allowed? I didn’t want to cut down all of the reps just the one I dealt with. I know they sell bikes a lot so maybe it was just the one I got. However Yelp not only removes my review (which I’m guessing is because the dealership disputed it) they don’t even give me a chance to respond to the accusation. Bad form and bad business.

Here is the complete review, please comment/repost as you see fit. If you have a similar story about Yelp let me know.

—
Update: took about a month, but finally got my $200 deposit back.

I was in the market for a 2006 Honda CBR600 and after some online searching I came across Parkway Cycles. I headed up to the store to take a look at the inventory and immediately was faced with “sales mode” which was an immediate turn-off. Well after looking around and answering various questions I found a bike that I liked. I spoke with Chris Fischer about the final price, process and optional financing but stressed I was only looking for now. After a few minutes of “this bike will be gone tomorrow” I decided to throw down a $200 deposit to hold the bike while I checked on a few things. Mind you a week after “letting it go” its still on the lot…

Well a few days later I decided right now wasn’t the best time to buy such a new bike, especially since its my first bike. I called Chris and got the main number when I was told i’d get a call back, but of course no call back. A few days later I call and tell them I want to cancel and have them refund my $200 deposit. Again they tell me i’ll get a call back, but still nothing. Finally I got someone on the phone and instead of being helpful they informed me I had to come in to the store to process the refund which isn’t the worst, aside from the fact I lived about an hour away and being in person to process a refund is unnecessary!

The next day I drove over to the store once again, waited a bit for the manager who handled my refund who assured me the deposit would be processed in a few business days. Well today is more than a week later and still no refund. I called the store once again when the front desk told me “I personally sent that in” and gave me some corporate number to call, which has been busy.

Basically if a company can’t properly process a $200 refund then how am I to ever trust them on a big purchase? Simple, I can’t!

Oh and as an aside Parkway Cycles is owned/operated by Cycles 128 and a few other dealers so basically be aware when buying a bike in the Massachusetts area. For now I will stick with Weymouth Honda who has been low-pressure, helpful and a joy to work with, even-though they know I am not buying a bike right this minute.
—

Just found this filtered list, you can see my review and another that was recently posted flagged down. Seems to me Yelp is allowing the reviewed location to cut bad reviews out. At that point Yelp is useless and one step away from “Paid Advertisement”. Sad because I once fought to become “Yelp Elite” but now i’m becoming “Yelp Abandoned”.

Over the last few months i’ve been looking into various web apps to use over at PixelBit. After looking over many, testing a few and reading reviews i’ve formulated a small list of the top tools. We use others as well but these are the ones that shine.

Basecamp
Project and client management. The Suite is a good deal.

Sortfolio
Good advertising opportunity for little cost.

Quickbooks Online
Perfect tools for managing the business, paying employees and contractors. Also integrates with our accountants systems.

Beanstalk
Hosted SVN for secure, offsite backups. While we don’t use this for all code (contract restrictions) it works quite well for our small team.

TestFlight
iOS Developers “new best thing”. It makes testing a breeze and makes it possible to push builds in minutes with a clear communication with our testing pools.

Dribbble
While not really a web tool it really is nice to get feedback in realtime as a project is being developed.

MediaTemple
I have a love/hate for this host, but so far they’ve allowed PixelBit to scale (internally) and provide solutions for our clients.

MailChimp
Excellent newsletter and one-off mailing. Clean, Fast and Intuitive. Plus it has chimps, whats not to love?

There you have it, a little list of the tools we use. I will post some more “company information” in the future as we continue to grow. For now we are focused on our brands and clients, so much that we haven’t even finished our own website. Its the “cobblers children” effect for sure.

What tools and services do you use?

Note: NONE of these recommendations were paid or compensated to be added.

Okay, here goes:

Dear Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO),

I have been a Netflix customer for quite some time, you know, when all popup ads were from Netflix and every 3rd spam email was your friend asking to join because it was the hottest thing since Pets.com. Well fast forward a few years and you guys have forced me to cancel a service I once loved. You have decided instead of building a better product to screw everyone that helped your company get to where it is today. Rather than realize not everyone* has the ability to pay more for less you decided to make the product basically worthless. With so many better options, Redbox for DVD/Blu-Ray rentals and Hulu Plus, torrents and so many other sources for online content, Netflix doesn’t serve a purpose.

You could have grown the company while working with more providers to beef up the streaming service, remove stupid expiration policies on streaming content and then (after you built up streaming) split the two options. However as it stands right now with device restrictions and limited library I wouldn’t be surprised if your companies marketshare started to slip.

Lastly, as a developer, i’ve loved working with the Netflix API in the past but you even started to make that suck.

Its time to close our accounts, just like we did those annoying popup ads back in the early days of the web.

Sincerely,
M. Keefe
Ex Netflix Customer

* One note, i’m not saying I can’t pay 60% more, I just don’t think anyone should have to.

Now you better have another internet connected device because you need to Google and find the fix. Then wait about an hour for your profile to be recovered. Once you have everything ready you get to watch some of your apps get removed and locked away because Lion removed support for PPC, without any warning that I saw (other than release notes). For me the only app that got removed was Dropbox, but others have lost much worse.

At this point you should be back to using your computer as you were before upgrading, but wait, things seem “iOS like”. Thats correct, Lion is a “iOS++” and it sucks. iOS does convert to desktop usage all that well. Starting with the “natural-scrolling” which is a great thing to argue with other Mac fans.. but I don’t like it. Then comes the “hidden scroll-bars” but the worst part is the fact Lion is a memory and resource hog. I get the “beach ball” more now than I did before. Not being happy with performance I upgraded my MacBook Pro with 8GB of ram and its still not as performant as Snow Leopard was.

I’m sure you are asking, why post this? Simple, after a quick comment on Twitter this morning it got me thinking that Apple really doesn’t care about the desktop market or computers like they once did. Apple is all focused on mobile which is great for iOS but not so much for OS X users.

I guess desktop users are like the dinosaur to Apple, only problem is desktop development and usage is still as popular for actual users. Not “smartphone users” that need to check-in to the local McDonalds. It will be interesting to see how the next couple of years shift developers away from OS X. Which honestly will suck since their are some awesome apps, Transmit, Versions, 1Password, Things and TextMate, to name a few.

* Well I do have one bitch, that being Apple gets a cut of the sale and doesn’t offer trial versions. Not to mention soon they will drop the hammer on “forbidden apps” just like they did with iOS.