Archive for April, 2011

Scale Issues

Friday, April 29th, 2011

It happened again recently.

When I was a kid, I would occasionally get this sensation that the room I was in was suddenly very small. Nothing ever looked different or anything, everything just felt different, like I was a giant squeezed into a doll house. And it only ever happened at night, as I was going to bed. I didn’t really think anything of it and eventually it went away.

I think I need to get more sleep.

Things to Look Forward to

Monday, April 25th, 2011

One of the reasons I really wanted to have a kid was that there’s so much to look forward to — the birth, seeing him learn to walk, and the day he can use the toilet on his own (soooo looking forward to that).

I’m also looking forward to bigger stuff like holding an actual conversation with my son, discovering what his interests are (besides eating rocks), and in general just seeing what kind of person he becomes.

I’m still looking forward to all of that. But as he transitions from baby to child, I can tell that there are things I’m going to miss as well. And no matter how tightly I hold on, he’s not going to be a baby forever. All the more reason to cherish it while I can.

Levitating Beads

Friday, April 22nd, 2011


http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZGdsu34epdk

I finally figured out what to do with those beads of desiccant that come in packets that say “do not eat”. You know … besides trying to eat them.

The Making of Horizon

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011


http://www.youtube.com/embed/n1oOd0o-Dzo

One of my friends, Emma Coats, directs independent films on the side. She was the one who directed me in the 48 hour film fest short, Agent Pepper. Her latest project is called Horizon, a really ambition short film that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world.

I worked on an effect in one shot and I’m also putting together some interviews of the cast and crew. If you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind an independent film production, check it out! And be sure to follow our HorizonFilm Facebook page and YouTube channel.

The End of Google Video

Monday, April 18th, 2011


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oVmzn7igDo

Waaaay back in the day, in the year 2006, I shot a little video called “Mach Attempts a Blue Run” wherein I attempted to snowboard down an intermediate run — not particularly hard, but I’m even worse at snowboarding than I at trotti biking or motorcycling (warning, graphic sausage foot video content).

Anyways, I hosted the video on Google Video and haven’t thought about it much since. But I recently got notice that they’re shutting the service down. Fortunately, they emailed us on how to download the videos. Unfortunately, the instructions were wrong. There’s supposed to be a download link, but it doesn’t show up on all the videos. Fortunately, I found a way to download them anyways. Basically, copy the link that you’d use to edit the video, like this:

http://www.google.com/video/upload/EditVideoInfo?cid=69a5f82163647956

And then replace “EditVideoInfo” with “DownloadVideo”, like this:

http://www.google.com/video/upload/DownloadVideo?cid=69a5f82163647956

Mad Libs + Twitter

Friday, April 15th, 2011

I discovered this website called That Can Be My Next Tweet. You feed it a twitter username and then it generates a new random tweet based on their old tweets. It’s surprisingly effective. Here are some fun ones based on my own twitter:

So very true. Baby farts … it must be heathens. Not sure how I can’t get back.

Starfield 3D is even better than regular chocolate cheese on Twitter notification, so much.

Chocolate cake + motorcycle back yard in the baby. I’m not the Marriott Hotel. Glad I just woke up.

Okay, so they don’t always make sense. But apparently, I tweet a lot about my iOS projects and my baby. And chocolate.

Revenue From Free Vs. Paid iOS Apps

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

Here’s a look at two weeks worth of sales for the entire Mach Werx line of fine quality iPhone and iPad apps. In particular, it’s the week before and the week after the launch of my free iPad app Starfield 3D. Mostly, this is telling me not to quit my day job.

But I was also interested in what kind of numbers I’d get from doing a free app. The line for Starfield 3D is actually in the hundreds. So waaaay more people are downloading that than all my other apps combined. Of course, I don’t get any money from a free app. But, I do have an in-app purchase to remove the ads from Starfield 3D. I’d heard that the conversion rate (the number of people who actually pay for something after downloading a free version) is about 1% and the data (at least for this one week) seems to hold that up.

Another thing I was wondering was whether or not the ads that I put in Starfield 3D (ads for mostly my own apps) would be effective. It’s a little hard to tell because the numbers are just so darn small. But I think it’s possible that a few people downloaded Castle Tiles from it. So … maybe?

Social Circle

Monday, April 11th, 2011

One of my friends wrote a cool app to manage cyclical to-do lists called Social Circle. It’s for stuff you want to do on a periodic basis. For example, you could use it to remind yourself to keep in touch with longer distance friends or relatives.

At work, a group of us use it to keep a list of places we goes to lunch — that way we can keep track of places we haven’t been to in a while. You can also use it to keep track of weekly chores and such. Check it out!

Baby vs. Spoon

Friday, April 8th, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qKx8ipABIU

When I was a kid, I wanted to sound like David Attenborough, of BBC Wildlife. Sadly, I discovered that I sound nothing like David Attenborough. But that was the inspiration for this video.

Starfield 3D Rejected then Approved!

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Last night, I hit a slight snag with Starfield 3D. Apparently, Apple is very particular when it comes to the wording in IAPs (in-app purchases). Mine was originally called “Remove Ads” because it … well, gave you the option to remove ads.

But technically, the IAP didn’t remove ads, it gives you the option to remove ads (although it does set that option when you buy it for the first time). So I changed it to “Enable Option to Turn Off Ads” and then the app was approved. Moral of the story: be very accurate when describing your in-app purchases.

Anyways, it’s finally approved! So if you’ve got an iPad, get Starfield 3D for free now! If not, check out the demo video.