RobotII

The five pound value challenge

Pete — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:05:03 +0000

This post is for those with some spare time on their hands, or those who want to make a difference in the world. The premise is very simple, just create and give away five pounds or equivalent of value.

This does not have to mean donating £5 to charity, it could be writing a blog post about your experience, giving some time to help someone out or anything that you feel generates value for someone.
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Notes on Android Development

Pete — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:04:54 +0000

In the following I wish to share my experiences in developing and distributing apps for Google’s Android operating system.

My app, QuickTodo, is a basic todo list, a category which was already over subscribed at the point of entry to the Market. It provides notifications of tasks on a given due date. There is also a free version available, with a slightly limited feature set.

Firstly I am going to talk about developing the app, how easy it is to create an app, and mention a few pitfalls along the way. Secondly I will mention the process of adding the app to the Market. Finally I will talk about marketing the app, and what my experience has been in that area.

1. Development.

Getting started with Android development is relatively straightforward. Unlike the iPhone, you can develop on a Mac, PC or Linux machine. You will need to go to the Android SDK page and follow the instructions there. Basically you need to download three things – Eclipse, the Android SDK and the Android Plugins for Eclipse.

Once you have done that, you are presented with the option to create a project in Eclipse to target the Android platform. Development is done in Java, with some major differences in the way that you have to create your code. Several classes are completely gone, and replaced with ones more suitable for a mobile environment. If you have used Java before, you should have no difficulty adapting to the SDK’s way of doing things. Most of the core is there, but the graphical elements, and the way you access SQLite databases is different from the standard Java.

2. Android Market

Adding your app to the Market is relatively straightforward. There is a $25 (£17) charge to sign up, which allows you to upload multiple apps to the Market. The only thing you need to do is make sure that your app is signed before attempting to upload it. Thankfully, the Eclipse plugin helps you out here, by making it relatively easy to sign an app. You have to provide a description for the app, pick a category and set whether the app is paid for or free. You cannot change an app from being free to paid or vice versa after you have chosen this initially, although you can change the price of the app afterwards (paid apps only).

I encountered no problems using the market, or uploading apps. The one downside is that you cannot upload the app from your phone – you have to do it through your computer.

3. Marketing and Sales

This is probably the hardest part to get right. You have to market your app yourself. Google will not do this for you. Also sales are likely to be poor. QuickTodo has only had a handful of sales since its launch a few months ago. Part o the problem I think, is that although you have to have a Google account to use the phone, you have to set up payment separately and a lot of people don’t appear to have done this. Also there are not as many Android devices out there as iPhones for instance, so you will have to work harder at publicising your work.

I would be very interested in other people’s experiences with the Android platform, either as a user, or a developer, or in feedback on my app.Similar Posts:

Location of UK Official Update for Cupcake G1

Pete — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:19:04 +0000

http://android.clients.google.com/updates/signed-CRB17-from-TMI-RC9-eu.17667e06.zip

Quick Instructions

Make sure your battery is charged at least 75% before attempting this.

1. Put the file on your micro sd card.

2. Rename it to update.zip

3. Disconnect phone from computer and shut down phone. (Hold End Call Button)

4. Hold down home button and press power button. Hold both until the triangle appears.

5. Hold Alt and press L key on keyboard

6. Hold Alt and press S key on on keyboard.

7. Wait while the the update is applied.

8. Press the home and back buttons to reboot when prompted. (Middle two buttons on front of phone, not trackball!)

Enjoy your cupcake!Similar Posts:

Migrate Omnifocus to Things Applescript

Pete — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:05:36 +0000

I found a cool site with some code to convert Omnifocus tasks into Things.

This is the original page here.

My version of the script can be found below. I have added due date conversion to the script, and cleaned it up a bit but most of the credit should go to the original author(s).

Omnifocus To Things Conversion Script

Edit: I have corrected the script problems below, so the script should be compilable now.

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Twitter and Productivity – The seven deadly virtues

Pete — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:51:40 +0000

In case you don’t know what Twitter is, the basic premise of it is that you post short frequent updates about what you’re currently doing. You can also subscribe, or “follow”, other users. Not a lot of us are interested in that – you might think. That could be the case, or not, as there are a lot of people out there who have thousands of followers.

So what is the point of this?

The main thing regarding twitter is that it can be a productivity gain, or a dead loss, depending on how you intend to use. If you are just using it to “tweet” random things like “I’m walking home from work” then there is little gain from using it, other than as an ego gratification tool.

Ok, so now you have it in a nutshell what Twitter is.

One of the ways that Business is using this tool is to connect with customers on a more real-time level, providing a bit more personalised stream of information. This is a useful way of keeping up with what’s happening with products and services that you’re interested. The difference being with Twitter is that it’s permission based, rather than “We have your email and we’re holding it to ransom”. At least spam hasn’t quite reached this far yet, although I predict that within 6 months to a year there will be an awful lot more spam than there is now.

I’ve found that you need to focus on what you “Tweet” about in order to make twitter useful. There is really no need for us to know about your dog, or what you had for breakfast. There isn’t any need for us to know about any part of your life really.

Sharing a link that you found useful, or telling us how you manage to get so much done on the other hand, could be. The advantage to you of your productivity is that you get a record of what you found out, we get to share it, and you might just understand what you shared a little bit better.

Then there is the commitment aspect. If you say that you are going to do something, and put it down in writing, you are more likely to feel committed to it, and actually get round to doing it. Maybe.

Next there is the improvement you will see in your writing, as you struggle (at first) to get used to the limited number of characters you have to express yourself. You may get frustrated at first, but if you persevere, you will get better. Trust me on that one.

Below are some tips on how to make yourself productive (rather than a time waster) on Twitter.

Tweet as many of the things you’re doing out to the world as you can.
Be specific.
Be honest.
Ask questions.
Answer questions when you have a good answer to give.
Respond to other people when you have the time.
Don’t be afraid to experiment, or ditch it if it isn’t working for you.

For other ideas on this see: http://lifedev.net/2007/01/how-to-use-twitter-as-a-productivity-tool/ or http://lifedev.net/2006/12/twitter-business-gain-or-productivity-drain/ from which this post took inspiration.

Feel free to add your own tips and ideas in the comments.Similar Posts:

Steal This Comic

Pete — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:34:03 +0000

This comic is pure genius. The original comic can be found at http://xkcd.com/488/

So true, unfortunately.

UPDATE: I’ve been informed that Amazon provide the necessary DRM free MP3 downloads at very reasonable prices. Haven’t had a chance to check this out yet.Similar Posts:

Notemeister

Pete — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:04:20 +0000

I have decided that I will take over development of the Notemeister project. In the absence of any contact from the original author, and in note of the fact that the code is licenced under GPLv2, I have created a fork of the project that can be found at http://github.com/robotii/notemeister/tree/master. No changes have been made to the original code as yet, although one thing I’m considering is to change the name of the project.

Future enhancements are likely to include OPML support for exporting and importing, and a general tidy up and freshening of the UI. I would appreciate any ideas or comments on what to do with the project, as there are sure to be some ideas that I haven’t yet thought of.

The original Sourceforge page of the project is here if anyone wants to look and see what the project is all about. I have included the project description below.

Notemeister is a small, simple note organizer made for the GNOME2 desktop. It’s features include:

Notes stored in a tree view and structure

Drag and drop support for reordering notes

Simple text formatting by highlighted bounds

Auto-save feature

Import/Export to/from text files

Link notes to a file on disk

Currently, dependancies include:

Python 2.3.3

PyGTK >= 2.3.92 (unstable 2.4)

PyOrbit 2.0.0

GNOME-Python 2.0.2

Currently I am unable to maintain the sourceforge page for the project, so this is a code only fork.

Ideas and suggestions can be posted below until I get a better solution in place.Similar Posts:

Name change on this site

Pete — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:31:15 +0000

I have recently changed the theme and name for this site to be more indicative of what the site is. It is no longer called “Images of Broken Light” as it was previously, and I have resorted to calling the site Robotii after the domain name. This is in an effort to make the branding of the site consistent, and will probably result in a drop in traffic.

The reason for doing so, is that there is no need for the site to have a title which is completely different from the url. Any comments, questions or suggestions can be added below.Similar Posts:

A few of the more interesting search terms used to reach this site

Pete — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:54:35 +0000

stream of consciousness writing

Fair enough, links to this post – stream of consciousness writing

www.robotii.co.uk

If you know the address of the site, why are you typing into google and not the address bar… wait… that was probably me

why do i i daydream too much

Probably because you you spend way too much time on the internet asking stupid questions.

visual basic script that deletes file recursive

Now on the newly created Scripts page

tips for getting to sleep

My website obviously helps with this.

“russian superweapon”

My personal favourite.

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Tomboy notes

Pete — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:32:07 +0000

Currently I am using a tool called Tomboy to store notes and other information. Tomboy allows you to store notes with wiki linking and formatting. There are also plugins that allow you to add sketches to notes, set reminders and add the current time and date to a note.

It is also possible to export notes in various different formats and, thanks to the d-bus interface, possible to interact with Tomboy programmatically. In short Tomboy is an excellent tool for Linux users — and hopefully soon for windows users.

About Tomboy

Tomboy is a desktop note-taking application for Linux and Unix. Simple and easy to use, but with potential to help you organize the ideas and information you deal with every day.

Have you ever felt the frustration at not being able to locate a website you wanted to check out, or find an email you found interesting, or remember an idea about the direction of the political landscape in post-industrial Australia? Or are you one of those desperate souls with home-made, buggy, or not-quite-perfect notes systems?

Time for Tomboy. We bet you’ll be surprised at how well a little application can make life less cluttered and run more smoothly.

Tomboy is currently in pre-release development, but you can still try it out. Tomboy is written in C# and utilizes the Mono runtime and Gtk#. Automatic spell-checking is provided by GtkSpell.

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