Taking things for granted

I've been working from home for almost 9 years (9 years this month) and have been self-employed for more than 5.5 years. Things have been pretty good for me, and I've been reasonably happy. Recently I had the opportunity to change the status quo in terms of my work. After a lot of thinking, I realized that I have things pretty good; I control my own hours, I get to work on my own projects when I want (within reason as my own projects don't pay the bills), and to some extent I control what I work on when (prioritizing projects based on what interests me). I've taken things for granted and didn't completely know how good I've had it! Are there things I'd like to change? Of course. Working out of my house sometimes would be nice, but I can't justify the expense of an office as I wouldn't use it all the time. Would it be nice to work on one project all the time without having to do a context switch? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Sometimes I complain about my work (doesn't everyone?), but my hope is that after this week's re-evaluation, I can do a better job at doing my work and not complaining. If I get paid, is there a reason to complain? While I do take a lot of pride in my work and try to steer my clients in the right direction, the old saying "the customer is always right" might just be the ticket to my happiness!

GrandDialer is far more successful than I could have imagined

My first iPhone application, GrandDialer has been downloaded more than 9000 times! I thought that it wouldn't be that popular because people can't get GrandCentral accounts. Boy, was I wrong! The reviews are pretty good, but some people expect way more than I can do with the application. As far as I can tell, the only external interface to GrandCentral is through an HTTPS connection. GrandDialer is based on a perl script.

While I'd like it to do more, pretty much all I can do is dial the number. Things may change in the future, but GrandDialer is going to remain a one trick pony until GrandCentral opens up more interfaces (I don't plan on doing web scraping as that is very error prone and just not fun to program).

I encourage people to read the FAQ before contacting me as it answers a bulk of the questions people ask and the response time is fast!

If people like the program, please purchase something through my Amazon link.

Reviews on the AppStore

When I look for software, I like to try it out before I buy it. However, with the AppStore for the iPhone/iPod Touch, you can't so you have to rely on reviews and the product description. Even for free apps, some people find reviews important. The review mechanism on the AppStore has a lot to be desired. For instance, anyone can post a review even if he/she hasn't downloaded/purchased the app. This should change as it skews the reviews and can be misused, especially for paid applications. Second, there is no way for developers to respond to comments without posting a review with a star rating (and of course, who is going to give his own program anything less than a 5 star review?). Third, even posting a 5 star review, it looks like I only get one, so I can't respond to reviews and point out why I shouldn't get poor reviews. Apple should take some lessons from VersionTracker; while VT isn't perfect, it is a lot better than the AppStore. Fourth, there is no way to post a review without giving it a star rating; so people that ask questions like "How do I get a GrandCentral account?" give it a 2 or 3 star review.

While the current review system works for music, it needs to seriously change to be usable for applications.

(On a side note, why do people post crappy reviews saying stupid things without reading the instructions or contacting support?)

AppStore approval mechanism has a lot to be desired

Today I saw a new program at the app store called "I Am Rich". The description says:

The red icon on your iPhone or iPod touch always reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were able to afford this.

It's a work of art with no hidden function at all.

This app costs $999.99! Does the author think any idiot is going to buy it? Why did Apple approve this? This is worse than the flashlight apps. The AppStore is turning into a pile of crappy apps with a small number of quality apps. As I indicated on the T4Show podcast yesterday, the cruft in the store is going to make it harder for serious developers to make money because people will get tired of sorting through this junk and then the main (only) avenue for distribution will basically be gone. Apple needs to actually screen applications and needs to charge way more than $99 to be in the program ($99 is far too low to screen out the people that aren't serious).