Every Domain Name You Could Ever Want Is Probably Already Taken
at Wed, Feb 01, 2012 - 08:01:57 via Blog

Over the last year I've purchased a few domain names, and I'm planning on picking up a few more for various projects this year as well. One of the most frustrating parts of this exercise is that every cool, even if not obvious, name I come up with has already been taken in some way, shape or form. It is almost uncanny how any domain name you can possibly think of has already been registered by someone somewhere. I've gone so far as to make up words (like Appricool - a mix of Apps, cool and apricot) and even THOSE have been taken. Its like the collective unconscious of the planet is conspiring to steal domain name ideas from me. The worst part is that most of these sites aren't even being used. They've all got placeholder pages up trying to make a quick buck off of advertising or reselling the domain name for a huge profit.

My company's name was influenced on the availability of the .com name. I landed on 84 North Studios after trying about 10-20 other names that I liked a hell of a lot more but couldn't pick up the .com for. It upset me that I had to settle on a name, but I still like it enough that its not too big of a deal.

My latest search was prompted by a new idea for a portfolio website I had. (Not so quick aside: I've noticed that all Portfolio websites are focused on hosting photos and artwork, and none are providing portfolios for apps or websites. I'm planning to cater to that need -- if there is even a need at all?). So I decided to come up with a name that has the word 'folio' in it (I know, maybe thats not so original, but it was a start). I tried appfolio, sitefolio, pagefolio, projectfolio, profolio, projfolio (You get the idea) and they were all taken. My favorite one was sfolio: user's sites would be addressed as john.sfolio.com which was meant to look like John's Folio. But sfolio was taken too. I probably won't start working on this project until I get a domain name for it. It is hard to get excited about a project without having a name, especially when the name could influence the design and attitude of the site.

I'll leave you with a list of domains that I currently own, and a short description of what they're used for. Partly for myself so I have a quick inventory (maybe there is another website idea here - domain lists - just have to find an appropriately cool name and make sure the .com isn't taken):

84NorthStudios.com (.ca, .info, .net and .org as well) My company website
FeedMyPage.com More on this in a future post
InfiniteComic.com Random comic generator created by myself and Paul Covello
MonkeysAndElephants.com Financial Markets blog
MoTimeLapse.com Twitter-like website for posting daily pictures of your moustache during Movember. Generates a time-lapse video on an on-going basis.
SnipTube.com and snpt.be A site for sharing edited down YouTube clips with very short URLs. Not 100% done yet, don't remember if the site is even live at the time of typing this.
SportivoManager.com Information website for my league manager software.
TheNoodleman.ca The first domain I ever bought. Home of my first personal website (after messing around with a couple free Geocities sites).
VealOnABun.com The second domain I ever bought. Originally got it for free for a year after signing up for a hosting account with Octagone (who subsequently went bankrupt and left me without a site). It is the home of all of my website tests prior to pushing them live to a proper domain.
VelloreCityFC.com Website for my men's league soccer team. Only kept stats for about 2 seasons as a beta test for Sportivo Manager.

Remember When The Government Told The Movie Studios What To Do?
at Tue, Jan 24, 2012 - 09:01:13 via Blog

Ok, so maybe I don't remember it because it was about 50 years before I was born. But there was a time when the movie studios were afraid of the government, and not the other way around. The early crime films of the 20s and 30s (two of my favorites: the original Scarface and The Public Enemy) prompted some public groups and the GOVERNMENT to insist on the movie studios adhering to a certain Code because they were upset that the films were glorifying criminal activity instead of condemning it.

This is a far cry from the world we live in today, where the movie studios are now telling the government what to do. The shutdown of Megaupload being a prime example of this. The service, that although was used by pirates to share copyrighted content, was also used by other people for legitimate purposes. Also, the SOPA and PIPA bills that have been filling the news lately are also the product of movie studios' hubris and belief that they get to make the laws.

So what happened? When did the government loose their balls claws and became the submissive in this relationship? Might it have something to do with the out of control lobbying and political contributing?

Yes, Android Has a Fragmentation Problem... but So Does BlackBerry!
at Mon, Jan 16, 2012 - 13:58:46 via Blog

I've been reading a lot lately about Android and its problem with fragmentation. There are many people weighting in with their opinions on whether or not it is a real problem. As a consumer, I'm not too concerned since I like having choice when selecting a new device: screen size, internal memory, speed, etc. However, as a developer I have to say that it is a real pain to deal with, and it is one of the reasons that I'm not too enthusiastic about EVER developing a native Android app.

But I'm not really interested in complaining about Android today. The reason for this post is because I am surprised that I'm reading so much about Android having a fragmentation problem but I rarely, if ever, hear about BlackBerry having a fragmentation problem. Android's fragmentation is being blamed on the numerous device makers who are making their own decisions on how to put a phone together: screen size, internal memory, user interface and available system services. RIM however has managed to create fragmentation with their BlackBerry devices all on their own, and I had the pleasure of experiencing this first hand while creating Briscola (Check out the Paid or Free version).

Briscola, was created using the WebWorks platform, which is basically a way of creating an app using HTML5 technologies. One problem here is that the webbrowser in BlackBerry OS 5, 6, and now 7 (and updates inbetween those versions) are all very different and they don't support the same features. So Javascript that runs in OS 7 isn't guaranteed to work in 5 or 6. Now, it is perfectly understandable that new OS versions will introduce new features, so I won't condemn RIM for doing that.

The biggest problem here was with the different screen sizes. Within a given year, there are several phones released with many different screen sizes. From portrait to landscape phones, to different resolutions for each of those configurations. This makes it very frustrating to develop an app that relies on specific positioning of certain user interface (UI) elements. So on one hand, you can try to design a UI that fits all screen sizes and looks mediocre on each, or try to design a seperate UI for each different screen size that looks good on each.

The other complaint that I have with WebWorks development (I'm not sure when this post changed from a rant on fragmentation to me airing grievances with WebWorks, but lets just go with it) is the fact that you cannot perform any offline storage unless a memory card is present in the expansion slot. There was a situation where I wanted to simply store a single bit of data to signify if the 'No Ads' in-app item was purchased, and the only option I had to store this data was to create a sqlite database to store it in. If there was no memory card, then I'd have to have the user log-in to App World every time they ran the app to check if they made the purchase (which is a horrible user experience). Needless to say I didn't implement it this way and simply made a separate free and paid version of the app. The only other option that was given for storage was cookies, however they don't persist after rebooting the phone so it was not a viable option either.

Back on the subject of Fragmentation, Android's screen size issue is the same as BlackBerry. As a developer, you're left to either create a mediocre UI that somehow fits in each screen (there are exceptions to this of course) or create a separate UI for all known screen sizes.

With all that said, I am very happy that there is still one environment that I can develop in and not worry about having to consider countless screen sizes: iOS. The iPhone app that I'm developing now has a single screen size. The app I am making fits the same way on the 3GS as it does on the 4 and the 4S. Even with the inclusion of the Retina Display, the screen's coordinate system hasn't changed (since everything has just doubled -- that is easy math!), just the resolution of the images that I can show on screen (all thanks to the COCOS2D framework). The same is true for apps developed for iPad; you get the same screen layout for both iPad 1 and iPad 2, and the soon to be released iPad 3, regardless of the inclusion of a Retina Display.

Now, there are some rumors that have come out over the last year that said the last iPhone was supposed to have a larger screen and that the next one will as well. However, there are a bunch of smart people who are saying that it won't happen. And I'm in the same camp as them, simply because it will be very difficult to convince everyone who has already developed an app to go back and re-write their apps to fit a larger screen. And using software in the OS to force the apps to fit a bigger screen will look so bad that I can't see Apple even trying it.

The big question I'm left with from all of this is: What is BlackBerry's excuse? The reason Android has a fragmentation problem is because each of the device manufacturers need to have a way to distinguish themselves from eachother. But RIM had complete control to eliminate or simply minimize the issue. Why have 4 different portrait screen dimensions; stick with one and just play with multiplying the resolution by a constant factor. That alone would make my life easier when I decide to hand-craft separate UIs.

XPERIA Smart Tags
at Thu, Jan 12, 2012 - 10:58:19 via Blog

I just saw a video for the Sony XPERIA Smart Tags and I'm pretty impressed. It seems like a handy, and quick, way to setup your Android phone for certain tasks you repeat every day. For example, enabling Bluetooth and opening the GPS app whenever you get into your car.

What I'm interested to know though is if I have to actually buy Sony's $30 NFC smart tag kit or if I can just re-use any NFC tags I happen to have lying around... like the gas station quick-pay key tags that they give away for paying at the pump.

Obligatory Procrastination Post
at Wed, Jan 11, 2012 - 14:48:35 via Blog

Two weeks into the new year and I'm already pushing things back. Didn't write Monday, decided to read all day Tuesday and I almost gave up today after tiring myself out on an outdoor rink this morning. I also haven't done much coding on my iPhone puzzle app this week. Solving a couple big issues with it last Wednesday seemed to give me the idea that I could take a little vacation. I also have to get things organized artwork wise so I can give my graphics guy some things to start on.

I am trying to be a bit proactive though. I've written down some potential post topics, and I think about things that I need to do with the app daily. I just can't seem to convince myself to actually DO them. I was about to suggest that I will buckle down starting Monday, but I think that will just feed into this vicious cycle I've got myself into. Starting tonight would be a good way to prove to myself that I can actually do this. But maybe just posting this is enough for today?

Microsoft's New 'Refresh And Reset' Is A Joke
at Fri, Jan 06, 2012 - 08:40:14 via Blog

So Microsoft is introducing a new feature into Windows 8 to allow users to more easily reinstall Windows if when (because we all know its going to happen) they're system gets bogged down with spyware/malware/crap. I thought this was kind of funny....

Instead of spending their time FIXING and securing their operating system and preventing spyware and malware from being a problem, they decided to just make it easier to start all over again.

I will be very curious to see the statistics on how often this new feature is used once released. I doubt they'll be releasing any numbers, because it would be embarrassing to admit how often people will be using it.