Agile Complexification Inverter

 ... no shit, here I am... taking a break from the redundantly recursive link sifting that is iOS development in the 21st Century.  I can not count the stack pushes I've had since about 11 AM and it's only 6:37 PM still time for a beer and a pondering session... A great story allways starts... no shit, there we were... So at my Day Job <euphemism for what I get PAID to do... but I'm unemployeed> I'm writing a little easy App for a colleague - it's a learning chance for me... and it might provide some value.  I'm busily rewiring my brain (there is some question to its inherent plasticity) at my age - so ONE valuable technique is to get drunk enough not to care so damn much and bang out some crap one night - then in the morning come back and fix the hell out of it.  There may be other valuable techniques... Well, last night I decided that the easy array data structure was just going to have to go... that was simple at first and went a long way - but I'd ...

My progress in The Impossible Room - iOS app puzzle game by Maruf Nebil. “Only one room  Only one way  Key is alive  Leave or stay" Spoiler Alert --- some puzzles are solved below. Day 1. Collected Items  ———— paper scrap lamp shade screwdriver tesla book USB cord Book Shelf  - opens Screwdriver ------------------------------------- Aristotle  384 BCE Roger Bacon  1214 - 1292 Leonardo Da Vinci  1452 - 1519 Copernicus  1473 - 1543 Galileo  1564 - 1642 Newton  1642 - 1727 Faraday  1791 - 1867 Tesla  1856- 1943 Alan Turing  1912 - 1954 Stephen Hawking  1942  3 Stars - 5 points; ball on one point - 1 missing star;  color of stars & books may signify the overlap of authors lives shark - pinguen - robot   - got a  USB cord in drawer (^^^)   <(“)   :|] Bird - Dog - Elephant - Dolphin   (...

People just don't like change.  Case in point, all the hubbub over the new iPhone 5 lightening adapter plug.  So many people are upset that the connector is changing from the 9 year old iPod 30 pin adaptor to the new lightning adaptor.  Yet at the same time the iPhone 5 pre-orders have record sells ( 2 million in first 24 hrs ). Why did Apple force this change on it's loyal customer base?  Dont they know we humans don't adapt well to changes.  Oh yes, we want the new shinny iPhone but we want it to stay the same AND get better. Maybe this picture will give you a clue as to why Apple changed the connector. It shows a typical iPhone and it's 30 pin connector, with a Raspberry Pi.  The Raspberry Pi is a full fledged computer on a board.  Take a look at the board and the most obvious thing is all the connectors.  The interface connections are the largest things.  They occupy the most space. Raspberry Pi & iPhone compared The ...

I'm excited to see Game Storming the iPhone app . Dave Gray notes that " games and play are not the same thing ."  He will teach you to bring games into the work place to get work done.  I think one of the side effects is that you may start to have fun.  For many people work will never be the same as play.  Yet if you want to change the world (thank you Steve Jobs); if you wish to have a purpose aligned life, then you will need to find a way to make play equal to work.  For me, this involves bring games into the work place. Related posts: Games and the Human Agile tools for your iPhone - a list

I have always wanted a Canon Pro Lens, one of those white and black lens that sets the serious photographer apart from the amateur.  A few years ago I rented one for an Alaska cruise we did.  Hoping to get images of big horn sheep or bear - something one typically needs a long lens to capture. In actual practice the people with the regular lens got as good of images as I did with the super fast long lens.  Why - because they could find the target faster with the wider angle.  When I started thinking about this, it made me question the need for a 35 mm camera.  Would a typical point and shoot give me just as good vacation photos for the scrap book or slide show? I tested this primise out on a European vacation.  I carried the pocket sized point and shoot Canon Power Shot SD1100 IS (8 Mpix with image stabilization).  While my wife carried a Canon 20D (35mm with various lens).  We shot many of the same scenes and typical tourist images, and while...

MacWorld just ran an article with this new iPad telephoto lens adapter. The Super Gear Telescope 6x Zoom For Apple iPad 2.  I knew I should have patented my earlier design. I’ve been taking all my pictures with this new lens and camera combination for the iPhone.  The image quality is great from edge to edge and the telephoto zoom allows image reach from Illahee, WA to Ketchikan, AK. iDuct Systems EF mounting hardware The Canon 100 - 400 F IS zoom lens is mounted to the iPhone with iDuct Systems custom hardware ($8.97 at Ace Hardware). Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS L-series super telephoto zoom lens equipped with an Image Stabilizer. The fluorite and Super UD-glass elements largely eliminate secondary spectrum. The floating system also ensures high picture quality at all focal lengths. The Image Stabilizer has two modes and it is compatible with Extenders 1.4x II and 2x II. I should have patented the design. Update: ...

How much do you coach someone via simple one-on-one conversation?  Is that conversation an active listening conversation?  Is there an App for that? Why yes, there is the Talk-o-Meter . Imagine if we had one of these Apps for pair-programming.  It would be a Type-o-Meter.  Hooked into the pair programming work station to measure the key strokes of each of the two keyboards.  Hey, that sounds like a great idea.

I am the Koontz family's designated Apple fan-boy.  The one that had the first iPhone, the one that talked Mom into buying an iMac.  But lately it has occurred to me that the title is being usurped.  First it was my mother-in-law that got the first iPad, when all I had was an iWant.  Now my mother has an iPad 2, I still only have iEnvy. While they have the new shiny toys - I've got more apps on my iPhone than they do.  However there are a few iPad only apps I cannot get.  Mom told me to get the NC Muesum of Art's app for the Rodin exhibit.  It is only avaliable on the iPad.  But the HD video is awesome on my MacBook Pro (bigger screen than the iPad). Rodin: The Cantor Foundation Gift to the North Carolina Museum of Art So what are the required apps for happiness? A list: Filxster - movie & theater search IMDb - Internet Movie Database Pandora - customized / personalized radio station Kindle / iBooks / Audiobooks / Google B...

I was sitting with some colleagues at the pub the other night, talking about one of my favorite subjects - Apple computer's highly innovate nature.  One person reflected that the one thing that made the iPhone successful was the touch screen.  That other devices had used a touch screen, but had not gotten in quite right.  Other devices that were using touch screens were clunky to use. He had apparently used several different devices with touch interfaces.  A benefit of the company he works for that has a loner program (want to try their software on a mobile device - borrow it for a few weeks).  I chatted with the person that runs the program, they have all the new toys and every week its like Christmas morning opening new packages.  What a brilliant program. Yes, I'd have to agree that one of the keys to the iPhone's success is the new user experience it allows.  Along with the wonderful opportunity for people (mere babes) to use a computer with abso...

I was just sent a link to a good article on smart phone security and safety.  It got me thinking about the mistakes I had made in my iPhone info security strategy.  Why had I made these simple mistakes? Common Sense Security for Your iPhone This article is about the basic.  Since I've had my iPhone stolen on a trip to Europe I'm an expert.  My iPhone had at the time: Find My iPhone installed and active.  But it didn't work, as the iPhone was in Airplane mode (being in Europe and off the home AT&T network).  Since the iPhone would not connect to the network, the Wipe Commands from Apple would never reach the iPhone (in Airplane mode).  A severe limitation to the security while traveling out of country (and an opportunity for a global service provider). My iPhone had Passcode turned on, it had SplashID - a safe for sensitive info like credit card numbers, etc.  I had all my credit card info, banking account numbers, driver's license, passp...

Well it's that time of year again,  Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas time, where all the companies roll out their iPad killers (circa 2010 & 2011).  If it were circa 2008 the theme would be iPhone killers, but we have progressed as a society. One great quote I read on the web was from Steve Martin in reference to CES - "Saw large wooden device that can fling boulders over castle walls. iPad killer." There are great minds trying to help companies unseat the Great and Powerful Oz ... uh Jobs, but even they are missing the silver slippers (that got ruby-ized for the Technicolor movie).  Note dear reader that I have a personal misconception that all allegories in America stem from the Wizard of Oz and I subscribe to the Monitery reform allegory of Frank Braum . I have gone so far as to require people on my teams to watch the movie and eat popcorn in order to better understand the idioms of their village idiot. Quick Toto, into the twister (worm hole) an...

I opened a Chase checking account with two purposes in mind: one try out the online bill payment features to compare and contrast with ETrade (my current bank); and two, try the new highly advertised Quick Deposit feature on the iPhone app which allows one to take photos of the check and deposit via those photos. Getting back from Christmas holiday and looking in the mail box I had 6 checks to try out the new Chase Quick Deposit feature.  This should be fun!  I open up the Chase app on my iPhone 4, sign in and find the feature no problem.  The apps user interface is fairly clean it looks like I enter the check amount and take two photos (front & back of check) to submit the check for deposit.  Appears easy enough - lets try it. Check number one data entry goes just find, photo imaging works great, the app appears to have a "steady cam" sensor built in - it didn't use the flash (interesting).  Then after a few needless confirmation screens I select Submit...

What replaces co-locations and face-to-face collaboration? In the Agile Manifesto's 12 principles we see the requirement for collaboration, this one however requires co-location.  How else will we get face-to-face conversations? The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. There are many suggestions for the substitution or replacement of co-location, but none to date have been effective. Conference Phones Web cams   High end video conferences Virtual rooms Holodecks Virtual Room at the Melbourne Museum Web cams are a cheep (you get what you pay for) alternative.  If you are going this direction, my advice is to buy a MacBook ($1000). Buy one for both ends of your connection. I believe Apple will be a leader in the video conference/phone market place within 5 years (see timeline ).  I can FaceTime with my iPhone and your MacBook, talk about portable! PCs with USB cameras...

Wondering about improving the collaboration of a distributed Scrum team, I started thinking of the history of long distance communication.  I'm no expert but here's what I see in history, the trend, the current state, and the future. History shows us that we humans have struggled with the problem of transmitting message over space.  Getting a signal to cross space is easy, attaching meaning to the signal has been much harder and insuring the veracity of the meaning is really tough.  None of that insures that meaning has been understood.  However we have studied this phenomenon and found that increasing the modes of message transmitted improves the understanding of the  received message.  That is; as we move along the modal continuum of written, verbal, visual, video messages we increase the chance for higher fidelity message understanding. Lessons to be learned - use the highest bandwidth medium possible. 1983 Map of the early internet (ARPAnet) B...

There is an App for that, but are they any good for helping with your Agile software team? Here are a few iOS apps I have on my iPhone.  I'm not sure they are going to replace the sticky notes and a whiteboard. Clock Pro - it has a multi-city world clock for visualizing timezone differences.  Great for those dis-located teams. Agilely Timer - a clock timer for scrum meetings and round table discussions. User Stories - a backlog management tool for user stories with estimates & priority. Game Storming - a set of exercises (game if you wish) that create synergy in groups and discover knowledge. Scrum Cards - estimation cards and cheat sheets for process. LeanKit - a Kanban tool, integrates with the web tool LeanKit Kanban . Whiteboard Capture Pro - whiteboard photo capture post processing. Processed Image           Original Image Whiteboard Share - another photo processing tool - this one integrates with...