Office Hours — Today, February 22

← Thursday, February 17

Feb 22
9:55 AM
Mark M.
has entered the room
Mark M.
turned on guest access
10:00 AM
scott k.
has entered the room
Mark M.
howdy, Scott!
scott k.
hi, mark
Mark M.
how can I help you today?
scott k.
i plan to attend often from now on
i'm doing ok
scottt
has entered the room
scott k.
i'm going to upload my first app to the store today
Mark M.
congrats!
scott k.
we'll see
Mark M.
howdy, scottt!
scottt
hello
congrats, scott k
Mark M.
scott k: do you have a question?
scott k.
not now
scottt
i also dont have any questions and will just be lurking this morning
Mark M.
um, OK
scott k.
i also just want to lurk
Mark M.
if either of you come up with a question, chime in
otherwise, we'll see who else shows up
10:05 AM
scott k.
i'll comment that i had a hard time with the licensing and emulator
Mark M.
I haven't used LVL, just read about it
scott k.
the emulator was very flaky, but the LVL worked perfectly on real device
Mark M.
seemed like some of the newer emulator images had issues with the LVL piece of the Android Market stuff
that's the key problem -- LVL is really tied to the Market, but they can't make the Market available for the emulator
so, they have a piece of the Market, enough (in theory) to operate LVL in the emulator
however, my guess is that extracting that piece is a manual effort and therefore prone to bugs
scott k.
my app is a "speaking stock quotes" app
Mark M.
but, that's just a guess
scott k.
designed to be launched by voice command even if the phone is off/locked
Mark M.
I wouldn't think the "off/locked" part would work
scott k.
it does now -i had to use a PowerManager
scottt
scott k: so your app reads the quotes out loud -- say, for someone on their morning commute?
scott k.
exactly
scottt
mark: "they can't make the Market available for the emulator" -- why not? licensing?
10:10 AM
Mark M.
scottt: licensing
they have a rough enough time preventing random Pacific Rim firms from pirating the Market APK and running it on devices that don't pass the CDD or CTS
if the APK were on the emulator, it'd be that much worse
scott k.
my app doesn't have voice recognition,just speech
i can launch it on my motorola bravo with a voice command app from Nuance Communications
Mark M.
how has battery consumption been?
scott k.
what i don't know is how many other devices have a voice recognition app - it cam pre installedon my att bravo
my app doesn't use battery except when running
10:15 AM
Mark M.
well, yes, but if you are using a WakeLock to keep the CPU on while the screen is off, so you can rattle of stock quotes, that will consume more battery than if you didn't
er, rattle off stock quotes
scott k.
the wakelock only exists during the speaking
scottt
i had a bit of a problem with the first weather demo example in BCGAD and using the emulator. i found it wouldnt load anything unless i manually changed the location (telnet/geo)
Mark M.
scottt: well, yes, that's necessary
otherwise, we don't know where you are
scottt
(sry, didnt mean to interupt, slow typing)
but i would think it'd come up the first time (with a valid location)
Mark M.
nope
emulator doesn't retain past GPS fixes
neither does a device, to a large extent
if you requestLocationUpdates(), you get all new fixes
with the emulator, a fix only comes when you simulate one with DDMS or telnet
scottt
ok. but even if i set a loc and then bring up the app, i get a blank screen
Mark M.
correct
if you requestLocationUpdates(), you get all *NEW* fixes
scottt
is there a way to make an initial "update" fire?
Mark M.
"new" meaning "after you called requestLocationUpdates()"
well, you could try getLastKnownLocation() in and around the time you call requestLocationUpdates()
if that returns a non-null value, use it
otherwise, you have to wait for a fix
however, I don't think that will help with the emulator
10:20 AM
Mark M.
getLastKnownLocation() is null, even if you had previously sent over a fix
something about the way the GPS simulation works, I expect
getLastKnownLocation() only seems to be non-null if there is something actively seeking fixes, like requestLocationUpdates()
scottt
ok. i guess that makes sense. a couple of years ago i did gps work for some weapons detectors that flew around in uav's. i had to do something similar when testing within the bldg 9where gps didnt work)
Mark M.
oboy
armed Androids
oh, no, wait, weapons *detectors*
whew
scottt
yeah, the detectors. lol.
i had to stop saying "i build nuclear bomb detectors" cause everyone freaked out b4 realizing what i said
Mark M.
yeah, particularly in airports, I can see that being an issue
scottt
after my wife got grilled coming back from manilla once, i then answered the question "what do u do?" just that way
10:25 AM
scottt
luckily the customs guy understood what i meant and sent me on my way immediately. looking back it could been much worse.
scott k.
do you know if the USGS site in your WeatherDemo can take a zipcode ?
Mark M.
off the top of my head, no
weather.gov can
but I don't know if the Web service API can
fitz
has entered the room
scottt
so i guess if i had an app that did gps, i'd probably consider saving the last gps loc at app close to use as the initial loc. the built-in (htc?) weather app seems to work that way.
Mark M.
howdy, fitz!
scottt: yes
particularly for weather, it's probably a pretty good value
odd cases, like the user being in airplane mode during a flight, it'll be wrong, but that should be considered acceptable
as you note, the HTC Sense stuff, like the weather on the home screen, seems to work that way
10:30 AM
fitz
hello Mark - you snowed in?
Mark M.
fitz: not presently
barely got an inch in the past 36 hours
and most of what we had melted on Friday (66 degrees F! who-hoo!)
fitz: do you have a question? besides the snowfall in eastern PA?
:-)
OK, anyone have a question?
scottt
mark, i looked at the slide shows (http://www.slideshare.net/commonsguy/presentations) and esp liked the making money one.
fitz
ya have a few ant questions - sort of
Mark M.
scottt: Thanks! And I even don't ask for 30% of the take! :-)
fitz: go ahead
10:35 AM
fitz
so from Eclipse I run this: ant -f build-samples.xml and get a build successful then....
Mark M.
what is build-samples.xml?
fitz
Then I run this: ant -f build-samples.xml -Dsample.credentials.username=<username> -Dsample.credentials.password=<password> sample.docs.run Usig my credentials and get a CAN NOT FIND FILE
So question is it is looking for DOCS to run right - would have thought first ant command would create the file? am I missing something here?
Mark M.
well, I'm completely lost
ant -f build-samples.xml will not create build-samples.xml
I have no idea what those properties (e.g., samples.credentials.username) are for
fitz
here is what a Google Employee says:
View paste 
This is what I run from the java directory of the extracted zip file and it seems fine using ant 1.7.1:

ant -f build-samples.xml
ant -f build-samples.xml -Dsample.credentials.username=<username> -Dsample.credentials.password=<password>  sample.docs.run

Replacing the proper user name and passwords of cours
Mark M.
OK, for whatever this is for, sample.docs.run is an Ant build target
it should be in build-samples.xml or in something loaded by build-samples.xml
fitz
this will anable the Google samples to run so then I can program to each function like docs, gmail etc.
Mark M.
and I still don't know what that means
10:40 AM
Mark M.
only the people who gave you build-samples.xml and whatever it is supposed to be building will be able to tell you what is going on
fitz
once it builds (if I can get second command to work) what do I get from this BUILD SUCCESSFUL - do I get jar's?
Mark M.
again, I did not write build-samples.xml
I have no idea what it is, where it comes from, or what it does
fitz
just trying to put the pieces in place :)
http://code.google.com/apis/documents/docs…
Mark M.
nothing of what you are describing here feels like a generic Ant issue
you'll need to seek assistance from Google -- I have never used this API
fitz
ok thanks
Mark M.
sorry
fitz
FYI they are saying this weekend it might snow in San Fran - weird weather
Mark M.
that's wild
10:45 AM
scottt
sounds like the ant is doing something diff when u give the sample.docs.run target and that path thru is failing. perhaps there's a "helper" program missing
fitz
thanks Scott
scottt
mark, about your slide shows. are there any downloadable videos/notes anywhere?
Mark M.
not that I am aware of
most of those presentations were delivered at conferences
some of those conferences had cameras rolling
however, nobody has ever sent me links to the videos, and I haven't gone looking
and the notes are in my head :-)
scottt
ok. i havent tried more than a cursory google-search yet either
Mark M.
any other questions?
scottt
i used to prepare tech talks down to the word, but found that just using a bullet pt or two and ad-libbing was much better received (and much more enjoyable for me)
(of course, that only works if you really know the subject)
10:50 AM
Mark M.
yeah, I tend to focus on the slides, and then just "wing" the delivery
biggest thing then is having the right number of slides, so the delivery winds up at roughly the right duration
fitz
has left the room
scottt
the reason i liked that slide show was that i was curious how to get compensated as a small-shop android dev.
Mark M.
I had a related set of blog posts up on AndroidGuys, back when I blogged for them
I have been meaning to update those posts on my own blog
I'll get to that someday
scottt
i'll check that site out
Mark M.
if you haven't done so already, beg/borrow/steal a copy of Chris Anderson's _FREE_ -- many of the ideas are riffs on his "50 ways to make money from free" appendix
scottt
i will. i will.
10:55 AM
scott k.
thanks - i'm sure i'll have some questions after i publish my app
bye for now
Mark M.
see ya!
scott k.
has left the room
scottt
in discussions with a colleague, we've been thinking the best way to get started is to churn out small, quick-hitters that satisfy little itches. being small, they can be given away for free with bits of revenue coming back from ads or indirectly from "referrals" to more substantial apps
Mark M.
that implies the existence of the "more substantial apps", though
scottt
yeah, there is that. but that could also mean apps on other platforms or perhaps consulting services, etc
Mark M.
precisely
free apps (whether ad-based or not) are "loss leaders", but you have to have something for them to buy, unless it's all just a hobby
all sorts of mobile niches that you can try to become "world's expert" in
scottt
true
Mark M.
in-app purchasing will open up new avenues as well (e.g., buy levels for games)
done right, your community can both create and consume the paid-for content (e.g., users create levels, you sell levels and take a slice of the amount)
11:00 AM
Mark M.
not all sorts of apps fit that model, but it's just one model out of bunches
it's one of the reasons why I've ranted off and on about not sweating all of the paid-app issues (e.g., only certain countries can buy apps)
scottt
my latest gig was running a team that was setting up an online poker site (unfortunately the owners had a nasty brea-kup and the project is in hiatus). but one of or plans was to let the users create distributable skins for the tables/avatars.
Mark M.
yup
well, it's time to wrap today's chat
next one is Thursday, 4pm Eastern
have a pleasant day!
scottt
after doing IT for nearly 3 decades, i'm finally hopeful that there's a real niche opportunity for the small shop
ok
scottt
has left the room
Mark M.
turned off guest access

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Office Hours

People in this transcript

  • fitz
  • Mark Murphy
  • scott keller
  • scottt