Working on Scythe 1.1…

Thanks to everyone who has written in with feedback, feature requests and bug reports for version 1.0 of Scythe!  I received a lot of very useful info about individual billing scenarios and also some great ideas of how to make it better.  Planned updates for version 1.1 include:

• The ability to switch into an hours-only mode so as not to reveal your $$$ totals to anyone looking at your menu bar.
• The ability to select whether or not archived projects should be included in the total.
• Better parsing of your Harvest URL in Preferences.
• Support for auto-updates so you won’t have to check for new versions.
• Some minor bug fixes.

I’m hoping to have this out by the middle of July.  If anyone else has any additional features they’d like to see, please let me know and I’ll see if I can get them in!

Breaking bad habits…

I have a problem.  I developed a major addiction to news and political blogs during the ’08 elections.  I thought this was just my way of staying informed during our electoral process last fall, but the elections are now over, and I am still reading news sites and blogs obsessively while I wait for pages to load or some software to install or deploy.  Finally, this morning, I decided to put my foot down.

I suppose I could have downloaded some site-blocking software, but instead I took a much simpler (more ghetto) route.  Here’s what I did:

1. Opened up /etc/hosts in my favorite text editor.
2. Added entries for all of the news sites that I check obsessively (news.google.com, wsj.com, etc).  These entries all point to localhost (127.0.0.1)
3. Turned on “Web Sharing” in System Preferences, which will start up Apache on the local machine, which in turn means you’ll see something when you visit http://127.0.0.1.
4. Edited Apache’s default index.html file to have a nice reminder message about why I’m not actually seeing the Wall Street Journal home page when I mindlessly open a new tab and type “wsj.com” into it.

This is what WSJ.com looks like to me now:

Praise for Sausage Fingers

I occasionally get nice emails from users about a free app I released several months ago. The app is called Sausage Fingers, and it’s intended for Mac laptop owners who have trouble with their cursor jumping around while typing. David, a SF user wrote me this morning and said:

Thank you for Sausage Fingers. From the very first day I got my Macbook until today I have been mightily annoyed at how the cursor would flail around the screen when I was typing in Outlook or Word if I inadvertently touched the keypad while typing. Then I found Sausage Fingers, wow! just the ticket.
IT’S GREAT!!!!!!

Thanks David!

If you own a Mac laptop and the trackpad interaction makes you feel like you have sausages for fingers, go download this app and give it a try!

Saving Screenshots in Flex 3

I recently had to implement a feature to save a screenshot in a Flex/Rails app I work on.  After googling around for a while, I found plenty of posts on how to use ImageSnapshot to obtain an image of a component and encode it in Base64.  I was surprised to find that there were not any examples of how to save this image data server-side.

It turns out that it’s pretty much as easy as you’d think if you use the Base 64 encoded image data and HTTPService to post it to your web app.  So for example, on the Flex side:

var screenshot:ImageSnapshot = ImageSnapshot.captureImage(componentToCapture);
var base64EncodedString:String = ImageSnapshot.encodeImageAsBase64(screenshot);

var p:Object = new Object;
p['image_data'] = base64EncodedString;
imageSaveHTTPService.send(p);

And then on the Rails side, you’d do something like this:

// In your screenshot controller somewhere ...
require "base64"
def save
  image_data = Base64.decode64(params[:image_data])
  // save the image, etc.
end

Exactly how you save the image data on the Rails side is up to you. The decoded image data could be dumped directly into a file, stored in a blob, or passed to one of the image storage plugins (like attachment_fu).

Good piece on the $0.99-app madness

From Jay, a former Boulder Labs buddy who now creates iPhone apps at his company DevToaster:

When a developer prices an app at a dollar, instead of it’s free market value (such a value would be determined by supply/demand), the only chance for financial success is to sell by volume – which necessitates recognition and attention from Apple and free or paid advertising.  However, the quantity of apps competing on volume sales makes it very difficult for new apps to get noticed on the App Store.

It’s a Keeper – Georgia 1.0

The newest edition of the It’s a Keeper series of apps is for the fine state of Georgia.  Some of the species included in this edition are: Amberjack, Blue Marlin, White Marlin, Sailfish, Black Drum, Bluefish, Cobia, Dolphin, Flounder, Gag, King Mackerel, Spanish Mackerel, Red Drum, Red Porgy, Striped Bass, Black Sea Bass, many sharks including the Small Shark Composite and a list of prohibited shark species, Sheepshead, Spot, Atlantic Croaker, Red Snapper, Spotted Seatrout, Tarpon, Tripletail, Weakfish, and Whiting.  Get it from the AppStore today!

It’s a Keeper – NE v1.2

The Northeast Edition of It’s a Keeper has been updated on the AppStore.  This version features some updates for Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York:

• NY: Fluke and Black Sea Bass updates for 2009.
• RI: Fluke, Porgy, Black Sea Bass, and Striper regulations for 2009 are in!
• MA: Updated Haddock to 18″ for 2009, added information about emergency Spring Cod Conservation Zone.

It’s a Keeper – NY NJ DE – v1.1

As promised, a new version of It’s a Keeper for New York, New Jersey, and Delaware has been uploaded to the AppStore today.  This version includes a bunch of updates:

• NY Fluke Regs have changed! Minimum length is now 21 inches, and the creel limit is 2!  There is also a split season now for Fluke in NY.
• NY Black Sea Bass minimum is now 12.5 inches (up from 12).
• NJ Fluke Creel Limit has been lowered to 6 (down from 8).  The season has also been updated for 2009.
• DE Fluke regulations have been updated.  Minimum length is now 18.5, with a creel limit of 4, effect May 11, 2009.
• NJ Black Sea Bass minimum is now 12.5 inches.

Florida Edition of It’s a Keeper is Up

The Florida Edition of It’s a Keeper is up on the AppStore today! Over 50 saltwater species and their state regulations will be upated throughout 2009, for  only $4!  Go get it!

Dave’s app on WSJ!

Dave told me a while ago that he had been interview by the Wall Street Journal about his “Aggravate” family of iPhone applications.  Now you can see his Aggravate Nails on Chalkboard app in a WSJ tech blog video.

Nice work Dave!