0:00:00Hello, and welcome to Developing Perspective.
0:00:03Developing Perspective is a near-daily podcast discussing the news of note in iOS, Apple,
0:00:08and the like.
0:00:09I'm your host, David Smith.
0:00:10I'm an independent iOS developer based in Herndon, Virginia.
0:00:13This is show number nine, and today is Tuesday, August 9th, 2011.
0:00:19The format of Developing Perspective is that basically I'll cover a handful of links,
0:00:22articles, things I found interesting in roughly the last 24 hours, and then move on to a more
0:00:26general discussion towards the end.
0:00:28The show will never be longer than 15 minutes.
0:00:31And without further ado, let's get started.
0:00:33All right.
0:00:34Our first article today is over from the Omni group
0:00:37on their main blog talking about lion adoption.
0:00:41And it's quite an impressive thing.
0:00:42They have a chart on there talking
0:00:44about for across their various platforms.
0:00:47They can see the OS version that each of those users have.
0:00:52And then they charted the percent adoption
0:00:54based on the number of days since release.
0:00:57And the pretty impressive thing is
0:00:58that Lion is-- far exceeds by quite a margin
0:01:02all previous releases that they show here.
0:01:05Looks like by around day 20, almost 30% of their users
0:01:09are using Lion.
0:01:11Whereas it took Snow Leopard, for example, 50 days
0:01:15to hit that same mark.
0:01:17So Lion is certainly on track to being very quickly become
0:01:20the de facto standard for Mac OS, which is quite impressive.
0:01:25I guess it's helped by its relatively low price,
0:01:28but also just Apple's marketing seems to be working.
0:01:33So if you're a Mac developer, that's just good news
0:01:35that you'll be able to quickly take advantage of all
0:01:37the cool stuff that Lion has with full screen apps,
0:01:40versions, et cetera, iCloud coming out this fall.
0:01:43All right, next, just a quick little note.
0:01:45This is over from the Pragmatic Bookshelf, who
0:01:48are purveyors of excellent books for technical reading
0:01:54and a variety of other things.
0:01:55I just wanted to point out this week,
0:01:57they're having a discount where all of their books are 40% off.
0:02:02If you use the coupon code AgileWeek,
0:02:05there's some conference, the Agile2001 conference
0:02:08or something's going on.
0:02:09But definitely worth looking if you're
0:02:10thinking of grabbing one of these books.
0:02:11There's definitely some good ones that they have.
0:02:13So this is a good time to pick one up if you're interested.
0:02:18Next, over on Stack Overflow, there's
0:02:20a great thread that was started talking
0:02:22about trying to create a definitive guide to forms-based
0:02:25web authentication.
0:02:27And essentially, this is trying to collect
0:02:30a collection of best practices for if you're ever creating
0:02:33a web application for setting them up,
0:02:36what kind of form should you use?
0:02:38Always remembered.
0:02:40It's like Remember Me links, those types of things.
0:02:42It's trying to kind of create a compendium of things of note
0:02:47and best practices for that.
0:02:48So if you're looking to make a website
0:02:50or just curious about that kind of stuff,
0:02:52Definitely worth checking out.
0:02:54Next, over on-- this is on the newyorktimes.com,
0:02:58but they have an article about Kickstarter
0:03:01and talking a bit about its beginnings, how it's worked,
0:03:04those types of things.
0:03:05And Kickstarter, if you're not familiar,
0:03:07is this really interesting site that sort of crowdsources
0:03:10investing in new projects.
0:03:12So say I come up with an idea, hey, I
0:03:14want to build an iPod stand.
0:03:17I can go on Kickstarter and say, I need a couple-- say $2,000
0:03:20to build that, to get the prototype going,
0:03:22to get the molds, et cetera.
0:03:23And I can essentially sell that via QuickStarter
0:03:27in small chunks to lots of people.
0:03:29So I get several, several hundred people each give me $20.
0:03:33For that $20, I'll send them a stand when it first comes out
0:03:35and so on.
0:03:37This is just a really interesting article talking about its
0:03:39origins and start and just some of the dynamics of it,
0:03:43which is definitely worth a read.
0:03:46Next, this is a more general link,
0:03:49But recently, if you are at all paying attention
0:03:54to markets and the economy, you'll
0:03:57notice that it's been a pretty rough week for the economy.
0:04:01I think yesterday, I think it was the S&P was down 6.5%,
0:04:06all kinds of crazy things like that.
0:04:08And most I'm bringing this up, it's not necessarily
0:04:10developer related, but it's more related.
0:04:12If you're an independent person, financial management
0:04:15is certainly something that you need to be aware of
0:04:18and be far more involved in than you would be potentially
0:04:22if you were just a salaried employee.
0:04:24However, so there's some interesting articles
0:04:29over on Mark Cuban's blog, which is called Blog Maverick,
0:04:33talking about different stocks and investing things
0:04:36that I've just been finding very interesting recently to get
0:04:38some perspective, get some depth about investing
0:04:43and what's currently going on in the market.
0:04:45So just a thought I'd throw it out there.
0:04:48All right, and our last link today is over on coffee habitat.
0:04:52And so now we're getting back a bit more into developer
0:04:55territory talking about coffee.
0:04:57But basically, there's an interesting article
0:04:59talking about what organic really means for coffee.
0:05:03As someone who buys a lot of coffee, especially
0:05:06whole bean, single origin kind of things,
0:05:09it's actually something that I've been curious about.
0:05:11What does that actually mean?
0:05:12What does it mean that they're not using?
0:05:14What are they actually-- how does it
0:05:16impact the actual farming of the beans and so on?
0:05:19Is it something that I'm benefiting from when I buy organic beans as opposed to buying,
0:05:25I guess, conventional beans?
0:05:26This is a really interesting article.
0:05:28It kind of walks through the things that they can use, the things they can't use, who's
0:05:33doing the certification, some of the things to avoid, and really the benefits thereof.
0:05:37So definitely worth checking out if you are at all interested in kind of what organic
0:05:43coffee is and how it's different.
0:05:46All right, and then now I will move over
0:05:48into our more general discussion.
0:05:50And today is kind of a special day for me.
0:05:53So this is episode nine, like I said,
0:05:56which as a result of having 11 beta episodes
0:06:00at the beginning of a developing perspective
0:06:03when I was kind of getting the kinks worked out,
0:06:05means that this is the 20th episode of Developing
0:06:07Perspective.
0:06:09That number in and of itself isn't especially significant.
0:06:11It's 20 episodes.
0:06:13It isn't a very large number, but it's important to me
0:06:17because of the origins of the podcast itself.
0:06:21So about a month ago, I was listening to Back to Work,
0:06:24which is a five by five show with Merlin Mann and Dan
0:06:27Benjamin.
0:06:28And back in-- it was July 5, 2011.
0:06:32They had a show, and essentially what they were talking about
0:06:34was starting.
0:06:36They were talking about what it is to get going,
0:06:38it is to start working on a new project, working on something new, and kind of getting started
0:06:48on that. And what are the things that hold you back? What are the things that get you
0:06:53going? And one of the things that during the show, Merlin had said, was his best advice
0:07:00to someone who wants to start a blog, and this is an example, is you need to just do
0:07:07it. Sit down for 30 days and write every day and publish once or twice a week. That was
0:07:15his advice. And he says that will allow you to A) see if it's for you, see if you really
0:07:20like it, see if you have the ability to make this work, etc. And that was interesting advice
0:07:26to me. For a long time, I thought about starting a podcast. I like blogging a little bit, but
0:07:32I'm not an especially good writer, I feel like I'm a bit more able to communicate verbally
0:07:37than I am in the written form. And so I was like, "Well, let's give that a go. I've been
0:07:42toying with this idea for a long time and it's something that I've thought about, and
0:07:45rather than just wasting all this time thinking about it, I may as well just do it, see what
0:07:49it's like." And so Developing Perspective was born. And so for me, it was insignificant
0:07:55to finally get to the one-month mark. That's where I am today. This is the 20th episode,
0:08:01I do five episodes a week.
0:08:02Here we are.
0:08:0320 episodes, I've hit my goal.
0:08:06I've got to say, it's kind of satisfying and very interesting
0:08:08to actually hit that point.
0:08:10It's really enjoyable to finally be at a point where it's like,
0:08:13you know, I did it.
0:08:15It's not something that if I had just started
0:08:17and it kind of falls off over time, it's no, I did it.
0:08:21And here we are.
0:08:23A couple of things that I learned
0:08:25that I think would be very sort of more generally applicable.
0:08:29First was, A, it was good to have a goal, a very specific
0:08:33goal.
0:08:33I wanted to make a month worth of podcasts.
0:08:37And my goal, obviously, more generally, that broader goal
0:08:40is, oh, I want to create a successful podcast,
0:08:42those types of things.
0:08:43But by making the goal very specific, by making it--
0:08:48I'm only going to do--
0:08:50I think they call it a smart goal.
0:08:51But I want to do 20 episodes, one month worth
0:08:55of daily podcast.
0:08:59Let's do it.
0:08:59And that was really the only--
0:09:02having that goal be so specific made it much easier
0:09:04to get going.
0:09:05If I had said, hey, I want to start a podcast,
0:09:08and it's not really in a specific way, it's like, oh,
0:09:11I'll record an episode whenever I have good content,
0:09:13whenever something crosses my mind as good and worthwhile,
0:09:16I probably wouldn't have gotten to this point.
0:09:18It would have been something that I would have done, hey,
0:09:20I did it once.
0:09:21Then maybe a week later, I do one.
0:09:22Then maybe it's 10 days till my next one.
0:09:24And then it's like a month until I'm like, wait,
0:09:26do I do a podcast?
0:09:27I think I do.
0:09:30So having it be daily, I think, was important.
0:09:32And having it have a specific goal that I'm trying to hit,
0:09:35that I wasn't going to give up until at least I
0:09:37got to that point.
0:09:39Something else I learned that I thought
0:09:41was also very helpful for me was to have an intermediate goal
0:09:44as part of that.
0:09:46So for me, that was I started off--
0:09:48and if you go back and listen to episode one, which
0:09:50I'd be kind of embarrassed if you did, but if you did,
0:09:53you'll notice that it was recorded using a USB headset.
0:09:57And you'll notice that because the audio quality is terrible.
0:10:00It is just an awful sound.
0:10:02And you know, that's what you kind of expect.
0:10:05It's just a cheap USB $15 headset that I was recording with.
0:10:08But I'd said to myself, I'm not going to allow myself to kind of get wrapped up in the
0:10:14technology and the process of what I'm doing until I'm sort of committed to the craft
0:10:20itself.
0:10:21You know, essentially, I'm not going to worry about which pen I'm writing my novel in until
0:10:27I have a good idea and I'm actually committed to writing the novel.
0:10:31And so instead, what I said is, once I got to about the halfway point, at that point,
0:10:37I would allow myself to buy the setup that I wanted.
0:10:40Specifically, I'm recording this using a Rode Podcaster, which is the microphone recommended
0:10:46by Dan Benjamin, who runs the 5x5 network.
0:10:49And so for me, that was kind of cool.
0:10:51That was, I'm a big fan of 5x5.
0:10:53I really like what they do.
0:10:55And so it was kind of fun to, OK, now I've
0:10:58got Dan Benjamin's recommended mic.
0:10:59Now this is the mic that John Gruber uses
0:11:02when he records the talk show.
0:11:04That made it kind of fun.
0:11:05That made it kind of exciting for me
0:11:07as I'm sitting down and doing it.
0:11:09And that was something that I could look forward to,
0:11:11not necessarily all the way at the end of the goal of hitting
0:11:13a month, but it was hitting it just about halfway through.
0:11:17And so that's where I'm right around episode 11, episode 10,
0:11:20I think it was 11 or so, was the last one I did
0:11:23without using my new mic.
0:11:25I got the new mic, recorded episode one,
0:11:28sounds much better, as I'm sure you'll appreciate.
0:11:31But that was a very big help for me
0:11:34in terms of really keeping me motivated,
0:11:35because that was the first thing that I was looking forward to.
0:11:38And looking forward to a goal that's only a week or two away
0:11:40is much easier even than a month away.
0:11:43So that was definitely a big help for me.
0:11:45So I think more generally, I would just say,
0:11:47it's something that if you want to get started on something--
0:11:49and so maybe tying it back to iOS development a little bit--
0:11:52If you want to make an app, I think it's very important that you say, "Okay, I'm going to
0:11:57make an app in a particular time frame," and you're going to ship something at that point,
0:12:03irrespective.
0:12:04That's the...
0:12:06And I think having that kind of discipline will really help you get something out the
0:12:10door.
0:12:11You say, "Hey, I have this great idea for..."
0:12:14Who knows?
0:12:15"I have a quick game.
0:12:17All right.
0:12:18first app, what I'm going to do is I'm going to say 30 days from now or whatever makes
0:12:23sense for you, but I really recommend keeping it into about 30 days or so. Say, "I'm going
0:12:28to ship it. I'm going to ship it however it is. Whatever it looks like, I'm going to ship
0:12:32it." And this is my first app, and it may not be the absolute perfect thing, and that's
0:12:38okay. The process of actually shipping something, of actually getting something out the door
0:12:43has tremendous value for your ability to ship other things later.
0:12:47Because A, you've proven to yourself that you can do it.
0:12:51It's not this amorphous thing that, "Oh, I wish I could do this.
0:12:54Oh, I wish I could do that."
0:12:56You've actually shipped something.
0:12:58And two, it creates focus and creates discipline in what you're doing.
0:13:02That, "Okay, I can't just go wandering around with toy features.
0:13:06I can't go wandering around with pet projects.
0:13:09If I'm going to ship it in a month, I'm going to ship it in a month."
0:13:13And so that's just something that I would recommend to tie it back down to that.
0:13:17And then like I said, additionally, to have intermediate goals is very important.
0:13:21To have something that you're trying to do in the middle.
0:13:24That's a reward for yourself.
0:13:27And that could be all kinds of things.
0:13:28That could be allowing yourself to get that new computer that you've been wanting if you
0:13:33hit that goal.
0:13:34Or it could just be something simpler.
0:13:36It's like going to, it's like, hey, if I really am focused and work on this well after a couple
0:13:42of weeks, I'll take my wife out to dinner. I'll do something like that. Or, you know,
0:13:48I'll go buy an Aeropress so I can make really good coffee. It doesn't have to be expensive.
0:13:54It doesn't have to be this big and, you know, intangible thing. It's just creating something
0:13:59that you're sort of denying yourself that you want, so that it creates a desire and a motivation
0:14:04to keep going. All right, so that's today's show. Hope that was interesting. Hope that's enjoyable.
0:14:09Like I said, it's a big episode for me now that I hit 20.
0:14:12I expect at this point to keep going,
0:14:14because I enjoy what I'm enjoying making the show,
0:14:16and hopefully you are enjoying it too.
0:14:19As always, if you have any questions, comments, thoughts,
0:14:21complaints, hit me up on Twitter.
0:14:22I'm @_davidsmith.
0:14:25And otherwise, I hope you have a good day.
0:14:27Happy Tuesday, and happy coding.
0:14:29Bye.