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blownd

87 karma · joined January 6, 2010

Developer of Mac and web apps. Living the good life in sunny Queensland, Australia.

http://lowndes.net

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blownd··on Thomas Flohr: The high-flying multi-millionaire
"Stop looking at social media websites, and instead work out what contribution you can make to the world, and go and do it," he says.
blownd··on Four years with Google Chrome, and I'm never going back
You might like to take a look at my Mac app, it allows you to switch between Chrome and Safari tabs with cmd-tab and type to search for a tab by name:

http://most-advantageous.com/optimal-layout/

blownd··on Lion's Mission Control: UX fail, especially for multiple displays
An app I developed, Optimal Layout, lets you switch to a window by typing it's name: http://most-advantageous.com/optimal-layout/

It doesn't solve all the problems in this post, but if you are trying to find an open window I think it's the fastest way. Expose is chaos if you've got a lot of windows open.

blownd··on Most Australians will have their web access censored as of next month
The best: http://www.crikey.com.au/
blownd··on Window & tab switching with 'type to search' for OS X
The layouts you save are monitor agnostic; so if you save it on one monitor then apply it on another it will be applied proportionately the same.

It's also really easy to rapidly apply any kind of custom position using the grid.

This isn't exactly what you are after but it still gives you a lot of flexibility.

blownd··on Raskin zoomable desktop manager for Mac OS X
Can I piggy back on this to spruik my Mac window manager here?

I posted a separate submission this morning but it hasn't seen any attention and I thought it would really appeal to HN's:

Window & tab switching with 'type to search' for OS X http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2675963

blownd··on Window & tab switching with 'type to search' for OS X
Hi HN, this is my OS X window management application and it's got some unique features I thought fellow hackers would enjoy: the latest update adds tab browsing for Safari, Google Chrome and Terminal, combining this with 'type to search' makes for really fast window and tab switching. Watch the screencast to see what I mean.

Developing a OS X window manager is risky business, Apple could wipe it out at any time and Lion's certainly got some really nice features with Mission Control. But I reckon Optimal Layout's still going to appeal to keyboarders, what do you think?

blownd··on Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?
History of the World - J. M. Roberts

http://www.amazon.com/History-World-J-M-Roberts/dp/019521043...

This was my lunch time reading for many months whilst doing contract web development. I was working with the most offensive tech lead I've ever met, but he was also incredibly effective.

It kept me sane (I think).

blownd··on Apple copies rejected app
Absolutely! I develop Mac window management apps and every time a new OS is released I half expect Apple to come and wipe out my product line.
blownd··on Apple copies rejected app
Ludicrous link bait headline and tabloid trash article from The Register.

Apple didn't copy the app, it sound like they were maintaining control of their interests; no one should be surprised by that given Apple's track record.

That's not to say Apple haven't copied others apps, they've positively trampled on a slew of third party apps with enhancements in Lion and IOS 5, but that's all part of the game at this point.

blownd··on What Does Having the #6 App in a Mac App Store Category Get You? $15.42
I'll share some numbers: I've got three utilities in the Mac App Store, two currently free: WindowFlow[1] & Window Keys[2], and one paid: Optimal Layout[3].

Firstly, from what I've seen, only the US store really matters for paid apps. I've seen very low numbers move Optimal Layout to close to the top of the category: e.g 5 sales in Canada placed it at #5 in the top paid utilities.

In the US Optimal Layout hit #4 in the top paid utilities and #40 top paid overall with 82 units sold in a day.

For the free apps, WindowFlow was the best performer getting the most downloads in Japan & France (for some reason) hitting the number 1 spot in both store with about 700 downloads a day. Neither of these translated into many sales for Optimal Layout, but it was just great to have lots of people trying out the apps.

So overall it's not a big market yet, being a part of bundle like MacUpdate or MacHeist delivers access to a much bigger market (40,000+ in 2 weeks) but it's relatively steady and only going to get bigger.

I'll revive my blog soon and post a more detailed analysis of how I see it playing out.

[1]WindowFlow: http://most-advantageous.com/windowflow/

[2]Window Keys: http://most-advantageous.com/window-keys/

[3]Optimal Layout: http://most-advantageous.com/optimal-layout

blownd··on Ask NH: MacOS / XCode 4 Guides, Books, Tutorials?
There are loads of great resources out there for learning Cocoa for Mac development but because Xcode 4 is so new you aren't going to find much aside from Apple's own documentation.

But I strongly recommend you check out Programming iOS 4: http://oreilly.com/catalog/0636920010258

It's still in development and has just been updated to cover Xcode 4. I've been reading the previous edition and it's brilliant: great writing and the first half of the book is applicable to both iOS and desktop Cocoa development. As a relatively new Mac developer (1-2 years) this really consolidated my knowledge of Apple's frameworks and Objective-C.

blownd··on How I sold my start-up for $40 million
Apparently the state of New York has roughly the same GDP as Australia. This chart matches each state to a country with equal GDP:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/01/comparing_...

Texas GDP = Russia's GDP!

blownd··on Ask HN: Where can I find Mac beta users for our software?
Check out http://macdeveloper.net/

You offer a incentive to testers there and they give you feedback on you app. I've used it a couple of times with really good results.

blownd··on Life Hack - The 30/30 Minute Work Cycle Feels Like Magic
Working alone from home I've found myself enjoying playing with the kids toys during a break. Last year I played a lot of swing-ball (or totem-tennis as it's also known), I recently picked up a trampoline which is great fun and incredibly energizing.
blownd··on Ask HN: how do you organize your workspace to work more efficiently?
Mac Developers might like to take a look at my project: Optimal Layout. It gives you very flexible keyboard commands to control windows as well as a window switcher:

http://most-advantageous.com/optimal-layout/

It includes an option to re-arrange a whole group of windows in one go with window tiling and I've got an update coming in the next week to make this process much simpler and more customizable.

blownd··on [dead]
I always thought TL;DR was more dismissive than "Summary"
blownd··on Your App’s Website Sucks
OK, be honest with me, does my voice suck on my app screencast & does my website make sense?

http://most-advantageous.com/optimal-layout

All feedback is appreciated.

blownd··on Ask HN: Anyone want Forrst.com invites?
Hit me up.

My site / product: http://most-advantageous.com/optimal-layout

Email: b(at)lowndes.net

blownd··on XMonad on OSX
I'm working on an app to make window management as easy as possible: http://windowflow.com

It's about to relaunch with a significantly improved UI and more flexible tiling methods, so check back in a week if you don't like what you see now. Any feedback is appreciated.

blownd··on Ask HN: Review my Mac App - WindowFlow
Great feedback, thank you!

Yes being able to get one window to jump to a particular position would be really handy. There's a shortcut to center a window on screen, I'll add ones for the edges.

blownd··on Ask HN: Review my Mac App - WindowFlow
A direct link: http://windowflow.com
blownd··on [dead]
Has anyone here used a service like prMac and found it worthwhile?

I'm about to launch my first Mac app and I'm struggling to apply myself to the marketing aspects and would love to just get on with coding my next idea; so I was thinking of using prMac but now it doesn't seem like such a great idea...

blownd··on Ask HN: VPS - Where should I go?
Linode have an iphone app now too, I haven't used it but do recommend their VPS services.
blownd··on Ask HN: What are you working on?
My first Mac app: http://www.windowflow.com - it gives you keyboard shortcuts for moving, resizing and tiling app windows. I'm getting ready for a big new release today so if you try and it and it's not quite right for you, give it another go later.