tyc development

Project Idea 2: Performance Review System

2011-06-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

This is an idea on revamping how we do performance review. This project would most likely have to be a full time endeavor as it can get pretty complicated.

Background
Currently performance reviews are being done as a 'get it over and done with' portion of the job as a team leader/manager.

Proposed solution
Please do email me for details.

Project Idea 1: Article creation app for iOS/Android devices

2011-06-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

This is one of the idea that I have for one of my next project, hopefully this can be realized and provide stable income to be subsidized for Project Idea 2. (Post coming up later)

Problem
Current blog/article/text editing software for android/iOS forces you to switch between apps when you want to insert media links for the articles you are creating. This breaks your train of thoughts and not really productive for content creators to create articles on the go with the virtual keyboard, non windowing system and limited screen estate.

Proposed product
When the content is being typed, the software would process the text typed and actively try to match the nouns/verb to online services for images/video/maps with corresponding tags for the noun/verb. The product might also have a server that is tied in to each user accounts for their own media stored in the server. So when the user selects a particular word they can select to insert media retrieved automatically in the background. The software should have a interface for the user to select the desired media.

With the background retrieval and also with let say voice to text capability to let the software knows that you want to insert pic/map/sound/video for spoken word. E.g. I went to speak "Picture Bankok", the software would recognise the work Picture Bankok and retrieve pics from let's say Flickr with appropriate copyright licensing and insert the link with the work Bankok. This would circumvent the need to switch between apps.

The product with the background retrieval and voice to text should aid in content creators in creating contents faster on tablet/mobile devices.

Market
Content creators

Feasibility
Workable but complicated to piece everything together, also support for upload to different blog engines would also require lots of knowledge and expertises.

All feedbacks are welcome!

Plans for remaining of the year

2011-06-25T20:52:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've last posted anything. I've been rather busy with my day job and hence the lack of posting for *ahem* 2 years...

However I've not been complacent and have actually been actively brainstorming/observing trying to come out with ideas on my next project. Projects not specifically related to iOS devices though (Not trying to limit what I can come out with) The projects would be detailed in their respective posts later.

With the ideas in my head, I guess it would soon be time for me to execute the ideas that I have into actual products and hopefully businesses. I've been reflecting upon my career so far and it does seems that my execution skills definitely isn't up to par to create a compelling product that millions would love to use. I.e. LessChart and LessChart HD functional but lacks the 'wow' factor. Seems to me that my strong point is being the dreaded 'ideas' guy, I can think of new ways of doing things in terms of human/computer interactions (At least that's what I think), but sad to say not having the chops to be able to create a compelling product based on that.

Therefore for the new projects, I'm contemplating to outsource the development of the products. But as we know getting quality developers is very difficult now. And frankly my budget of 20K might not be in line with market rate. On the flip side of the coin, if I were to do it myself it would most likely be a half baked product.

Emails to developers have been less than encouraging. Most are currently being engaged with other projects or they are located remotely and I might not have the time/energy to liase with someone remote with my day job demanding my full attention.

So guys if you know of developers interested in joining forces with my projects (Project1, Project2) please let me know. I'm located in Singapore by the way. AKA trying to look for a partner/co-founder for things to come.....Not that I do not have friends in IT, just that the climate here is such that most capable developers would have to move on to management as the income ceiling is very low.

Same problem as us?

2009-02-09T08:27:00.000-08:00

nice article on how UK's emphasis on financial wizardry might hurt them in the road to recover.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/08/james-dyson-engineering-britain-railways

Are we on the same track?

Here is what makes me goes on...

2009-02-08T08:16:00.000-08:00

As my last post suggests the earnings are actually going down very rapidly. Therefore had been busy coming up with other apps, when I've decided to take a breather and check out reviews for my current application here is what I saw and it really gives me the motivation to try and come out with other 'innovative' (shameless me) way of doing mobile software.

I am really really happy that my new way of creating flowchart with focus of fast and simple works for the reviewers (UK appstore). It feels great when your creation is being appreciated by the users. Hope I've achieve the aim of showing my friends that we are better than what we/others think. (I still remember my friend's remark on doing a flowchart is too difficult)

Oh how can I forget, if you are interested you can purchase it here

Sales figures so far

2009-01-25T06:13:00.001-08:00

Hi all,

As promised more posts. Here is the sales figure for 5 days so far.

Total downloads: 100
Commision paid to me: USD $1.4 per sales
Estimated profits: USD $140

Majority of the sales comes from USA. Second most downloaded region is Japan (pretty surprised considering I did no localization). Third coming in is Great Britain.

So no, you can't survive on iPhone apps alone.

iPhone flowchart application

Best regards.

My first iphone flowchart app up

2009-01-19T21:55:00.000-08:00

Yes after all the wait and frustrations finally my first iPhone app is up! Of course there are some gotchas again. Most importantly for your W-8BEN submission the ITIN number is not really required, key in 000000000 also for item 9 select first and second checkbox, leave 10 empty as singapore have no tax treaty with the states. This got me for a while...trying to apply for ITIN from IRS...

you can have a look at my app here. anyway more post to come...oh I'm available for iPhone application consulting jobs in the meantime..(finding inspiration for next app still)

Creating Toolbar in iphone sdk

2008-11-21T09:11:00.001-08:00

Here is how you can create a toolbar at the bottom of your screen. (with code taken from the UICatalog sample)

UIToolbar *bar = [UIToolbar new];
bar.barStyle = UIBarStyleBlackOpaque;

// size up the toolbar and set its frame
[bar sizeToFit];
CGFloat toolbarHeight = [bar frame].size.height;
CGRect mainViewBounds = self.view.bounds; //view of your viewcontroller
[bar setFrame:CGRectMake(CGRectGetMinX(mainViewBounds),
CGRectGetMinY(mainViewBounds) + CGRectGetHeight(mainViewBounds),
CGRectGetWidth(mainViewBounds),
toolbarHeight)];

//add button
// create a bordered style button with custom image
UIImage *im = [UIImage imageNamed:@"selection.png"];
UIBarButtonItem *selectItem = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithImage:im
style:UIBarButtonItemStylePlain
target:self
action:@selector(changeSelection:)];
selectItem.width = 50.0f; //you can set the width of the icon
selectItem.title= @"Selection"; //set text below image icon

//note the nil at the end
NSArray *items = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: selectItem,nil];
[bar setItems:items animated:NO];
[self.view addSubView:bar];
[selectItem release];
[bar release];

sizing UILabel accordingly to the height of the string

2008-11-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

In my app I needed to resize the UILabel size dynamically in runtime as the text would not be determined during compilation time. Luckily this can be done by using the sizeWithFont method of NSString class.

Call sizeWithFont of the text.
Get back a CGSize struct and you can now init your UILabel with the struct.

UIFont *font = [UIFont systemFontOfSize:14];

CGSize textSize = [ myText sizeWithFont: font constrainedToSize: CGSizeMake(lineWidth, lineHeight*1000.0f) lineBreakMode: UILineBreakModeTailTruncation ];

UILabel *l = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10,10,textSize.width,textSize.height)];

This took me awhile to find out..hope it helps you. Happy coding.

Objective C forward declaration

2008-11-21T08:33:00.000-08:00

Was 'debugging' this for few hours, nothing more than not reading the documentations carefully. I needed to create a forward declaration of a class A in my class B as I would need to access some properties in class A.

However when compiling XCode was complaining to me about 'error: request for member in something not a structure or union'. Cracked my brain, tried rewriting my accessors in class A. Checking the access rights, property declarations, all was in order.

Finally did the google ritual and found out that to access properties in a forward declared class you must include the interface file in the implementation file of the class accessing. Too abstract to talk about here's the example:

Class B .h file

#import ....

//forward declare class a
@class A

@interface B

Class B .m file

//import interface file for class A
#import "classA.h"

@implementation B
....
A.someProperty = @"Got me there";

Hope this helps.. :)

my iphone development blog

2008-11-21T08:28:00.001-08:00

Hi all,
This would be a blog about my iphone application development blog. Have been developing my app for the app store for the past two months and making headway. It was a great learning experience and I must say developing for the iphone is like no other device, the possibilities is huge and the best part is that boring business apps are even given a new lease of life.

I can say the end product is certainly better with less effort as compared to WM which I had developed for.

Steadily I would be posting tutorials or code snippets and lessons I learn along the way. Hopefully can get my iphone developer program approved and have my app up to the app store.

Best regards.