hackoder

which HTC Magic did you try out? I have the one with the larger RAM and I find the performance to be really good.

I have an 8-month old son, and one of my annoyances with working at a Real Job (tm) is that I really feel I am not giving enough time to him. I used to be a graduate student so I would get to spend a lot more time with him in his earlier months.

Anyhow, glad to see its working well for you. Your post is well-written and thoughtful. Success in any sort of business venture has some really simple rules, the App Store should be no different.

I got that. Its just irritating when someone who's not an authority in an area pretends to be one.

Its interesting how things become trends and the next "big thing". The same concept has been around for a long time (divide and conquer), even in CS (though perhaps more related to hardware) in tree machines.

Not to say that google isn't doing great things with the concept, just interesting to note that we've already studied some really complex problems and come up with smart, efficient solutions in the last 50 yrs and a lot of what we think is innovative is anything but.

Pseudo-experts seem to be everywhere, and they're making it that much difficult to pick out people who actually know what they're talking about. So much noise...

You're absolutely correct that it seems like this person hasn't built a single android app.

I dont see why it would be hard to change the screen resolution on the fly, kinda like what desktop games do. Other apps can use fluid layouts to fit multiple resolutions.

When it comes to other features of the phone, e.g. camera or accelerometer, like one of the posters said- you'll have to do progressive enhancement. Intelligent web developers already know how to do this. You feature test, then you enable a particular feature. Its not all that difficult.

I agree with you. Its sad that we have taken all this stuff as being "normal". From start ($99 fee) to finish (30% of sales), they are ripping developers off. They should be paying developers to build apps that are resulting in more and more sales of these phones.

I think pay for performance matters to a certain stage. When you can meet your basic necessities, you look for other ways to be more content with life. You want to have more control over things, give back to your community, do something you are passionate about, etc.

Initial impressions are good. Very clean, intuitive, and useful.

You could add more value in the cover letter and interview reminder section, and also add in a resume section. For example, in the interview section a person could create a list of stuff they need to look at or study, and then check them off as they're finished. Similarly, you could create and save different cover letter and resumes. A user could use special syntax like [[Edit company name]] to just edit the relevant parts and send the resumes off.

I can see this working with a very cheap subscription model ($1-2/month) if there are more features. I dont think have you have enough to sell it right now, since most job sites have their own job tracking system.

I've found that taking steps to get people involved with my plans makes me more likely to achieve them. I'll definitely be sharing initial versions of my app with the community here.

I've been considering that myself quite a bit, and I find that its a combination of things:

- Something where I can interact directly with the client/consumer. I dislike having to program by specs, when I know that they are written by someone who doesn't understand end users. Simple, effective touches are usually missing, and the feedback loop is so long that apps take years to evolve.

- Something challenging. I want to stay up at night visualizing possible solutions. That kind of excitement makes the time spent worth every second. And with the opportunity to think and implement a solution that works really well for the problem.

- Something that makes a difference. Doesn't have to be something ground-breaking, but it shouldn't be a CRUD front-end either.

This is harder to quantify than I thought. I guess it depends on the novelty of the idea, the silken smooth end-user experience (think iPhone- I own a G1 myself, but man does the iPhone provide a great experience), and the quality/succinctness/simplicity of the code.

Good on you. I hope it works out for you. Please do post updates here (to motivate yourself, and others :)) of your experience.

What a great talk..

Now, to forward to boss or not to forward....

Thank you. That is exactly what I'm thinking of doing. Take unpaid time off. Launch my product early (2 months into the leave, hopefully), interact directly with consumers, implement, improve, and hopefully have something that I can work full time on at the end of 4 months.

Re: your point about isolation, this is why I like the WFH approach. You give people freedom, but you still work as a team. It seems more win-win to me overall, than striking out on my own.

Thanks. I feel a little under-qualified for what they are developing, but this strikes home with me:

CodeSourcery has no central office. We work when we want in an environment in which we are comfortable. We can work wherever we want: from a coffeeshop, a library, or anywhere else on the planet with an internet connection. We see our friends and families throughout the day; not just early in the morning and late at night.

Good to see that there are companies which are interested more in what you can do and less in forcing their way of working on you. Are you working for them?

I do have VPN access, its just for after hours work though :-\

Does your company have a policy to let people work from home as long as they are productive, or did you have some convincing to do?

That was exactly my point. I want to be able to work by my own schedule (with reasonable overlap with the team) and still build a great product. What I feel is that companies (or atleast mine) aren't structured this way.