Lori M Olson OPED — Lori’s Unvarnished Opinion
There are a lot of different paths to success. And not all of them seem like parking lots when you reach forks in the road. Sometimes these parking spots look like rest stops. Somewhere that’d be really nice to stay, at least for a while. Some of them even have great views of success, off in the distance.
But make no mistake, if you have an ultimate goal and your current job or business is not actively moving you towards that goal—you should probably think about making a change. Shift that car out of park, get back on the road and start heading in the right direction again.
If your goal is to create and launch a successful app, what is the next thing you can do to head back out on that road? Hit reply, and let me know what you need to get there.
FITS — Featured in the School
Foiled once again by life—more like the universe conspiring against me!—I don’t have much activity in the school to discuss today. So I thought I’d give a nod to my friend, Kevin Murphy.
Kevin’s newsletter this week directed my attention to his latest blog post: Programming Guitar Greatness. It’s a great little walkthrough of using real life domain terminology to inform your domain model. (Also, you gotta love anybody who provides a Stevie Ray Vaughan soundtrack while reading their blog post.—Ed.)
Using real terminology from real users is key to your app success, and is a core concept of 6 Pack Apps. Sign up today to get to the front of the line!
TALK — Talk of the Tech
Here are this issue’s selections from a couple of the busier RubyMotion/DRGTK chat spaces:
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Slack — If you’ve been wanting a “full-stack monitoring solution which delivers real-time data to improve app performance” for your RubyMotion app—which is what BugSnag promises—you’re in luck, because there’s a CocoaPod for that! So reports Lucas Haley in a recent post.
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Discord — Speaking of luck, there’s now a working Checkbox example, the gist for which appeared recently.
APP — All Things App
If you’re not quite on board with the new look and feel of Apple Music—at least when it stops changing for five minutes so we can actually assess if that’s the case or not—you may find yourself with a hankering for the old school aesthetic of the classic iTunes MiniPlayer in all of its early iPod-esque weirdo greenish glory. Yet more luck: Mario Guzman has come up with exactly that. Looks great to us!
GAME — All Things Gaming
If the only thing your modern take on Space Invaders is lacking is some relatively realistic looking planets, then there’s a handy, dandy planet generator that should do the trick for you as we learned from a recent Mastadon toot this week.
Now you’d think with an infinite number of planets already out there there wouldn’t be a need to make up new ones, but clearly you’d be wrong about that.
SPOT — Spotlight On…
While we are taking a trip down memory lane, does anybody remember Mastermind from the 1970s? Well even if you don’t, our friend Akzidenz does as he referenced it in a recent post to the Discord. To what exactly was he referring? A new game in development by dishcandanty. Worth a look, for sure.
On a completely different subject, are you a ham? 🥓 No, not that type of ham and we’re not talking about a ‘life of the party’ type ham, either.
Rather, many millenia ago, there was a whole subculture based on (h)amateur radio stations—folks who went to extraordinary lengths to make two-way radio contact with other, similarly equipped folks half way ‘round the world. Unfortunately the internet kind of drove a truck through the novelty of that, but there are still lots and lots of folks actively engaged in the hobby. If you are—that kind of ham, that is—then there are a couple of RubyMotion apps for that.
Now you really can’t say we don’t try and cater to every taste, no matter how narrowly defined it might be.
TWIL — This Week I Learned…
It’s just possible that you’ve never thought much about the word ‘dashboard’ as it is used in a metaphorical sense all the time in software. But if pressed on the matter, you might say something like “well, dashboard like you would find in a car with all the gauges and lights on it.” Sort of makes sense, right?
However turns our that early carmakers were, in turn, making a metaphorical reference of their own. In their case to the board mounted at the front of a horse-drawn carriage which prevented the ‘mud’ the real live horses out front were kicking up as they were ‘dashing’ back to the barn. Hence dash-board.
Of course, though, we all know what else Donner and Blitzen were kicking up. Which is how we bring this full circle: a dashboard is the thing out front which prevents you from being hit with shit. 💩
Thanks for Tobias van Schneider for this fascinating little history lesson.
HAHA — And They All Laughed
Somehow, this one reminds us of one of our favourite George Costanza lines: “I don’t think I’ve ever been to an appointment in my life where I wanted the other guy to show up.”
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“When I get real bored, I like to drive downtown and get a great parking spot, then sit in my car and count how many people ask if I’m leaving.” — Steven Wright