Disconnect between Apple and Devs on iPhone Platform development.

In response to this article on the new restrictions in Apples iPhone SDK terms.

This article shows that there is a disconnect between developers and apple in that the majority of developers seem fixated on the potential of the iphone platform with no regard for the realities of the platform in the wild. By that I mean that yes the platform is basically a little computer with unprecedented capabilities in the mobile space (now shared with some of the the android platform products) and so amazing things are possible in terms of not only the user experience (ie great apps) but also the developer experience (ie the platform is powerful enough and generalized enough in the OS to support different programming models, languages, frameworks etc) BUT that power is being used to create a product that has to be a toaster essentially; a product that just works and works to a certain standard. At close to all times.

It is the age old problem of not developing to requirements. The devs insist on seeing the world as a playground for them to have the best experience they could have while developing software and pursuing their software desires while hopefully producing something users will want to buy. Apple is not interested in devs experience except in so far as it enables them to produce the software it wants to provide to the users and inherently therefore in so far as it allows the devs to make money. Ie apple is focused on the customer and will cater to the devs only in so far as giving them the tools to make money. They will not baby them and support their every whim.

Google will baby them and support their every whim because (a) google is run by devs, (b) google doesnt really care whether they dominate the mobile market they just want to further their plans of shifting the world to a web-based computing platform and so their focus with android is not the customer it IS the devs who develop for the platform.

Apple focuses on the customer and makes allowances for the devs.
- satisfiy the customer, keep the devs interested enough to further the platform.

Google focuses on the devs and makes allowances for the customer.
- satisfy the devs, keep the customer interested enough to further the platform

So, either apple is not communicating it's modus operandi effectively or devs just aren't listening or interested. Probably both.

Has anyone noticed that no business types have complained about the new restrictions?
I'm sorry guys but there will always be enough devs with sense enough to develop in whatever they have to to (a) have a job and (b) work on a platform that is huge in the customer space. So a bunch of the elites complaining doesn't mean anything in the real world. COMPANIES will continue to churn out iphone platform apps.

Finally, the author says to Jobs "You didn’t need this clause to get to where you are now with the iPhone’s market share". No dude but they do need it to stop hacker types from making a mess of the platform and it's clean user experience parameters now that it IS the dominant force. In exactly the same way that Apple may need to alter things in OSX once they reach a certain market share and become a target of the security hackers. The situation has changed; the platform has simply reached the stage where the wild west must be tamed. Deal with it.

Wife + Child == Everything

I related a set of events that happened today that renewed my appreication for my wife and child on the message board of a podcast I listen to regularly (The Deadpan podcast).
Not going to re-write it here, you guys can deal with second hand content. So without further ado:

"Hey guys,

Sorry i haven’t contributed to the community in quite a while Jack (and after you gave me such a geek woody by mentioning me in a list of new community members and all) but I have been listening to the podcast (Deadpan is indeed the mutha f@#$%in' way) and lurking in the boards every now and then.

Anyway, I wanted to share an experience I had today that involved the deadpan in finale.

I had a dream/nightmare last night (ie it started off ok and then went bad):
My wife and daughter and our 3 cats moved into a new house in a great neighbourhood.
My wife left the house to go to work leavign me and the Spudlette (my daughters nickname which is short for her super hero name “Spudlette The Crazy Chicken”….erm….mine is “The Bowel”…don’t ask. My wifes is “The Glare”…anyhoo!) to start gettign the house into some kind of order.

Well after a few bits which aren’t germain to the nightmare part the time period sort of changed such that even though time had gone forward I no longer had ever had a daughter and my wife had left me. And I was still in the living room of the house (with just the cats now) havign to start theunpacking.

Just as I finished the unpackign and was doing somethign at one of the windows I saw my wifes car pull up and she got out in a wedding dress. Somehow I knew she was coming back from her honeymoon. She and her new husband who was an old friend of mine. They were goign to live in the new house. My mother was helping her out of the car (because of the dress being so cumbersome) and into the house.

They all entered the house and while my mother and my wifes new husband and (perhaps) his mother were all sorting stuff out my wife (Mari - ironically…you shoudl have seen what a clown I looked liek when I asked her father for his permission to “marry…er…Mari”) came into the loungeroom and started to talk to me like nothign was wrong, like we must have had a perfectly amicable split. That wasnt how I felt. I felt destroyed.

I left the room, pushing past her and heading for the kitchen. She followed me and I realised I was goign to try to win her back. With her standing in a wedding dress and havign just returned from her honeymoon. Tough but I needed her. I couldn’t live without her. And I remembered my baby, like she was a future that had been changed because I had fucked up and lost my wife.

Just as I was startign to talk to her the husband, my friend, walked into the kitchen and knowing our history he was suspicious and well to cut a short story shorter we started to fight.
A sword fight.
With hard cardboard tubing.
Awesome fight. Very kung fu.

In the middle of the fight I woke up in my bed. I looked over my shoulder and my wife was not there. And my heart just about exploded until I rolled further and bumped up against something. Turnign over fully I found it to be my little girl snuggled up in the covers up against me. And my heart did burst. I drew her into my arms and held her against me for a long time. During which I heard sounds of Mari int he other room getting ready for work. Everything was ok.

The dream didnt really linger in my mind very long after I too got up and started (very hurriedly) getting ready to take my daughter to school and then myself to work (we were running very late now) but when I got into work I remembered the dream and started to related it to Mari over IM. By the time I was finished I was feeling very emotional again and sad. The feelings were still very fresh. Just as I finished recounting the tale I hit the end of Deadpan 59 (which I have listenned to before but I liek the Tee Morris interview enough to keep listening when my playlist clocked over back to the beginning) where you (Jack of course) played the song which I dont know the name of (To Make You Feel My Love seems possible) and I just about lost it completely. Being an emotion junky and a bit of a masochist I dont know if this was the worst time or the best time for that song to kick in but it had a pretty spectacular effect to sya the least.

Mari suggested chocolate to cheer me up but I opted instead for the solitude of the bathroom for a little breakdown. I’m ok now though.

Thank you Jack, for playign that song as frequently as you do. Though it may have been painful it enhanced an experience I was having and made the lessons learned all the more powerful.

Deadpan for life.

Myrddin"

First you get the money....aw crap!

Is it really too much to ask to have some measure of control, some power over some aspect of my life other than the power to send it all crashing down in a blaze of flaming destruction?!

I don't know

Where are you heading?

........I don't know.

Where do you want to get to?

........I don't know.

What do you want?

........I don't know.

Who are you?

........I don't KNOW!

Who do you want to be?

I......I don't know.

Shite the first

Every now and then I stop and for a few moments I watch as the whirlwind continues on around me. Detached, in the calm eye of the storm, I watch as it continues to rage. 

What am I looking for? 

A space in the scene that cannot be filled by anyone but me perhaps? 

A sign that if I were to step out of the dance, if I were gone from the play, the space I had occupied wouldn't just gradually disappear as the other participants adjusted their places.

Or worse, that my place wouldn't simply be filled by someone waiting in the wings.

Is that it really?

Am I watching to see if they really need me in their lives?

Or am I really just watching, wondering if I really want to be a part of the whirlwind anymore?