Category: Deep Thoughts

NYLUG (Linux Users Group)

Thanks to the kind invitation of Brian Gupta, I’ll be part of his presentation on Android next week at the New York Linux Users Group (NYLUG). I met Brian at the Android Meetup, where I had given a short talk on “Android Dev 101”. Brian runs the #androidnyc channel on freenode, and is a great fan of hacking the lower levels of the Android platform.

Here’s a taste of what we’ll be talking about:

The talk will start with a review of the internal architecture of the Android platform, breaking down the various components, and examine how they work. Then we will review the latest status of the open source project, including how to get and build the source code, and how to get involved.

At this point there will be a short session introducing application development on the Android platform, walking through the open-source tool chain, including the command line tools and the Eclipse.org IDE based environment. The core application components will be broken down, including the XML-based formats for resources and user interface design. The required “Hello, World!” app will be shown, along with a more complex “Geo Report” app which utilizes more advanced features such as GPS location and the Camera. Finally, application deployment either via the Android Market or through direct web or physical distribution will be demonstrated.

You can find out more about the event, and if you do want to attend, make sure you RSVP… IBM is hosting, and it is mandatory to get in.

Something Extraordinary is Possible!

My friend Ben Rigby, co-founder of The Extraordinaries project that I am contributing some time to, wrote a great post on TechPresident last week that lays out the premise for a new approach to volunteerism. These ideas are both what inspired The Extraordinaries (“Why is it so hard to get people to volunteer?”) and also drivers for its theories (“Why don’t we have a new approach to volunteering?”).

  • Volunteerism has a problem. Most people don’t do it
  • People have a problem with volunteerism.
  • Volunteerism excludes most of us.
  • We’re trying to woo “Last Mile” volunteers.
  • Volunteerism is modeled for the Industrial Economy.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 74.6% of the U.S. population did not volunteer in 2007. Why? Because we’re too busy. We’re driving to work in bumper to bumper traffic, shuttling kids to after school sports, studying for class, and working at Starbucks to pay for college. We’re a nation with a lot to do. And when asked, we cite “lack of time” as the reason for not volunteering.

Fortunately, Ben’s got some ideas on how to improve the situation:

  • Let’s find new ways to do volunteerism.
  • Perspective shift experiment
  • Support Information Era volunteerism

“In addition, we can start thinking about how we can use these inspired models to inform the field of volunteerism. The private sector is quickly coming up with brilliant new ideas that take advantage of the amateur’s passion for participation. Threadless, Innocentive, iStockPhoto. These are companies that have dominated their niches by relying on loosely structured peer production. These models work. Let’s explore them deeply.”

Make sure to read the post and check out the main theextraordinaries.org site as well for information on you can get contribute or get your organization involved in a new approach to getting people to help you get things done.

Skadoo: PhoneGap-based app now in iTunes

Skadoo is a PhoneGap based application that is now available in the iTunes store. The app should be considered very beta… though (developers take note!) Apple doesn’t allow you to include the word “beta” in any graphics, description or application meta-data.

In short, say its “Phonegap-based” means that this app was built using HTML, CSS and Javascript, and then wrapped up in a native binary iPhone application. I’ve blogged about this before, when I showed how to turn a blog into a native iPhone app in 10 steps.

The full server app is still under development (server queries are VERY slow), but in short, it is a “people” search engine, for finding various profiles of someone online based on searching for their name. I, through my work with Oliver+Coady, was hired to build the iPhone App and get it into the App Store ASAP. PhoneGap was the best solution to get the job done quickly.

Skadoo in iTunes

Development time was < 1 week... .it took longer to get the app into the store than it did to build it! The app uses JQuery for server interaction and the UI was built in Dashcode. Another quick interesting thing about this app, is that it uses HTML 5 Database to persist search results and Safari/Webkit extensions for CSS translation and transitions. Both working pretty well, though the translations are about 4x faster on the iPhone Simulator than on my iPod Touch. Get Skadoo for your iPhone today!