Wake Up Call For App Developers

AppDev

Wake up. The toast doesn’t have to burn, you can get it while it is golden brown.

Apple and Google boasts that their app stores offer zillions of apps for users to select from.

Who does this benefit? It benefits Apple and Google (and whoever else is in the distribution game that I’ve neglected to mention.)

You might think it benefits the users. Yes and no. Yes, there are many apps to choose from. That is good. But, that also means tons of garbage in addition to the cherries. If somehow the market filtered out the dogs, then users would have less garbage to sift through. But, at the moment, having a zillion apps is to the advantage of Google and Apple. Later when they see sales suffer because of decreased customer inclination to purchase brought about as a result of purchase regret, then Google (for sure) will institute some kind of “app rank” that will eliminate (or push to the bottom of the list) all the dogs.

And what about developers? Continue reading →

App Success Is a Lottery

AppDev, Web-Dev

It is no secret that success in the various app stores is pretty much a lottery. While there are many things that you can do to guarantee failure, there isn’t much you can do to guarantee success. In fact, a recent survey by App-Promo.com suggests that 60% of developers don’t even break even (meeting development costs). And, horror of horrors, 80% of the app developers did not make enough money to support a standalone business.

Personally, I think these numbers are pretty damn good. That means 40% of all app developers surveyed broke even (or better). And, 20% of app developers surveyed made enough money to support a standalone business. In the world of brick n’ mortar, in the world of storefront business start ups how many succeed? By comparison these numbers are pretty good. And, if you stand around a room of competitors and don’t believer you are in the top 20% of those present, you don’t belong in business. “Damn right, I’m better at what I do than four out of five of these other schmucks.” Is this a proper attitude? It is gracious to think this way? No. However, if you take the time to ask the winners in the room, they will confess (if they are being honest) that they do believe they have a definite competitive edge. Continue reading →

Didgeridoo: Day 4

Bloggish

Started working with Circular Breathing video 2 from the Didgeridoo Dojo guys today.  Making nice progress. But….

Later in the day, it looks like I might need to back off on the circular breathing part a bit and get more drone time in. It’s like my mouth doesn’t even remember what an embrasure is.

What happened is the circular breathing breaks up my embrasure (a little) so that after each breath I have to find the embrasure again. It’s not that far off but with the low (Bb) drone it can be a little tough — at least on this particular didge. It is definitely worth getting an “easy” didge for your first. I got this one because it was gorgeous wood and as a bass player I’m thinking the low Bb will be excellent addition to my musical adventures.

Below is a link to lesson 2 (of 5) for the circular breathing.

Didgeridoo: Day 3

Bloggish, Music

The low tone is working well. Running about 90% or better on getting the drone and keeping it.

About a dozen practice sessions throughout the day. Starting to experiment with shaping the sound while playing the low drone.

Also started work on the circular breathing thing. There are several good tutorials on youtube. I’m working with one from the guys in Didgeridoo Dojo. Continue reading →

Didgeridoo: Day 2

Bloggish, Music

Today I’m practicing in short 10-15 minute sessions spread throughout the day. So far five of them. The goal this morning was to just get a drone out of the didge. Thankfully that worked out pretty well.  Meaning, I managed to get a drone for part of the ten minutes. Don’t use a clock, that’s just about how long I can go before getting light-headed.

I suppose the getting light-headed part might be something to look into — wrong breath, wrong technique, mucho pollen, plastic bag over my head — I’m sure there is something that will need to be changed. But, later for that. Right now my only goal is to get on the drone as quickly as possible.  Continue reading →

How using Om Mani Padme Hum App can change your life

Bloggish, Gaming

Let’s consider for a moment what it means to use the Om Mani Padme Hum App.

First you find the icon on your phone or tablet. Then you tap on the icon to open the app.

Following this you select the “flavor” of prayer you want to run — that particular day. After this you manually activate each step of the process — frame by frame, intentional moment by intentional moment. All of this on behalf of another, or on behalf of all beings everywhere. Continue reading →

Wind On The Pond

Bloggish, Tid-Bits

To illustrate a point, I’d like to represent one’s inner world as a pond. For me when I think of a pond I am reminded of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond. Off the topic at hand, but if you have never encountered the book you may want to give a few portions of it a read.

In any case, we started with the notion of using a pond to represent one’s inner world.

So, moving forward, I’d like to observe that more than a few folks have noticed (and mentioned) the presence of ripples, waves, and darn near tsunamis mucking about on their little pond.

The general presumption is that: “if my pond is unsettled it must be something happening with me.” That is not necessarily the case. There are a variety of potential sources of “winds” that can disturb the surface of your pond: Continue reading →

I’m Basically Agnostic

Bloggish

As usual, given enough time, people will dumb down a concept to such an extent that it will come to bear no resemblance to its original concept — and often come to mean the exact opposite of its original.

Consider “agnostic”. If you care to look the word up in the dictionary (www.dictionary.com) you’ll find definitions of the following sort: Continue reading →

What Is A Game?

Gaming

In The Study of Games, Brian Sutton-Smith writes, “Each person defines games in his own way—the anthropologists and folklorists in terms of historical origins; the military men, businessmen, and educators in terms of usages; the social scientists in terms of psychological and social functions.  There is overwhelming evidence in all this that the meaning of games is, in part, a function of the ideas of those who think about them.”

If the meaning of games is a function of the ideas of those who think about them, how then would a spiritual gamer think about games? Continue reading →