Nick Bradbury

Old Farts Know How to Code

I turned 45 this month. In many professions that's the prime age to be - and in others it's considered young -  but in my line of work, some people think middle-aged coders are old farts. That's especially true when it comes to startups.

The startup culture is similar to professional sports in that it requires a fleet of fresh-out-of-college kids to trade their lives and their health for the potential of short-term glory.

"Old farts" are often excluded from that culture, not because we're lousy coders but because we won't put up with that shit. We have lives, we have families, we have other things that are important to us. We're not about to sleep at our desks and trade watching our kids grow up for the promise of striking it rich. Especially when the people who really strike it rich aren't the ones writing code.

So many developers my age have had plenty of chances to ditch coding and move into management, but we've stuck with coding because it's what we love to do. We'd earn more in management, but writing software is in our blood. We wouldn't stop doing it for anything.

And because of the years we've spent creating software, we've learned what works and what doesn't, regardless of the language or the platform. Operating systems rise and fall, development tools come and go, but through it all, old farts know how to write solid code.

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While you're here I hope you'll check out Glassboard, an app designed for private sharing. I write the Android version of Glassboard.

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Young Gamer Geek Nostalgia

Earlier this week I wrote about "Moon Runner," a TRS-80 game I created when I was 18. That was my first piece of commercial software, but I'd written dozens of other games before that.

The first game I remember writing was "Possum Run," a bloody takeoff on Frogger which was published in a magazine called Hot CoCo when I was 16. Back then I was a long-haired metalhead, and I remember my friends being absolutely shocked to discover that I was a published geek.

During the remainder of my high school years I published a number of other games in Rainbow Magazine, including a goofy platformer inspired by Bloom County which featured a penguin trying to find wings that would enable him to fly.

Writing those games wasn't just a hobby: it was my great escape from the boredom of school. I remember countless days staring at the clock in class, just waiting for the final bell so I could go home and continue coding. And during class I'd often be scribbling code in my notebook instead of taking notes.

Every now and then I toy with the idea of getting back into writing games, and I've even considered creating Android versions of my old games. But I'm more of a news and communication junkie these days, so writing games doesn't interest me the way it used to.

Although I have to admit, it sure was fun coding that Easter egg in FeedDemon :)

Android's Overblown Fragmentation Problem

It must be hard to be a developer that has to support thousands of different devices, with screen sizes ranging from tiny to enormous, running multiple OS versions on all sorts of hardware.

That's why I'm glad I'm not a web developer.

By comparison, Android's "fragmentation" problem is miniscule. It's overstated in the tech press because it generates traffic.

I'll grant you that it's harder to support Android than it is iOS - there are obviously a lot more types of Android devices than there are iOS devices - but after a year of writing Android software, I've very rarely run into trouble due to fragmentation. And when I have, it usually hasn't been a big deal.

In no particular order, here are some of the issues I've seen:

• We've run into a few devices that don't support standard video formats, which makes video recording & playback difficult.
• I've run into some third-party camera apps that don't work correctly when launched by the ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE intent.
• It can be tricky to take advantage of features in new Android versions (like ICS) while still supporting older versions (like 2.2).
• Glassboard can't run on devices that don't come with Google's APIs for maps and push notifications. Apart from the Kindle, we've only seen one other device that doesn't have these APIs.

This is a lot shorter than the list of fragmentation-related problems I ran into when I developed Windows software.

So when you read about Android's supposed fragmentation problem, take it with a grain of salt. Fragmentation is a problem, but it's overblown.

Update: There's an interesting discussion of this article over on Hacker News.

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While you're here I hope you'll check out Glassboard, an app designed for private sharing. I write the Android version of Glassboard.

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I Used to Write Video Games

Sometimes people ask me which program I enjoyed writing the most, usually expecting me to say either HomeSite or FeedDemon.

Nope.

"Moon Runner" was the software I most enjoyed creating. It was a game for the TRS-80 Color Computer that I wrote in 1986, when I was 18 years old. Back then I was hopelessly addicted to video games, so being able to write one myself was an enormous thrill.

"Moon Runner" was loosely based on the arcade game Moon Patrol which I wasted countless quarters on as a kid. It was coded entirely in 6809E assembler and took me several months to create. I still have a printout of the source code on my bookshelf, but it's gibberish to me now.

I formed my first company ("D & N Software" - my Dad was the "D" and I was the "N") to sell the game, and had wild dreams of striking it rich. But despite receiving rave reviews in popular TRS-80 publications, "Moon Runner" was a flop. It barely earned enough to keep me stocked with peanut butter and Ramen Noodle Soup for a week.

But you know what? I didn't care about that. I just loved the fact that I created something good enough for others to use. To this day, nothing has compared to the rush I got at age 18 when I saw "Moon Runner" reviewed alongside software written by professional software developers.

I imagine that's similar to the thrill so many young coders feel today when they contribute to an open source project or post something that ends up on the front page of Hacker News.

That thrill is why "Moon Runner" will always be the software I most enjoyed creating.

Farty Shoes

One recent rainy morning, I stopped at the grocery store after walking my dogs in the park.

As I strode into the store I realized that my wet shoes were making farting noises with every step. I tried walking more slowly, but that just resulted in slower, deeper farts.

So I paused for a moment, too mortified to move. Then like any geek of good conscience, I asked myself, WWJCD?

"What would John Cleese do?"

Suddenly the moment was transformed from one of extreme embarrassment to one of merriment. I put on my best Cleese straight-man face and continued walking, all the while pretending I had no idea the flatulent feet were attached to me.

If an unexpectedly boisterous blast burst from my soggy sneakers, I'd look around as though someone else was to blame and I was offended by their presence.

When the shopping was done I picked up the pace, resulting in dozens of quick squeaky blats following me as I left the store.

I have no idea what anyone else's reaction was, but I certainly had a good time.

So if you ever find yourself in an awkward situation, don't worry about it. Just ask yourself, WWJCD?Everything will be fine after that.

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While you're here I hope you'll check out Glassboard, an app designed for private sharing. I write the Android version of Glassboard.

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Android Apps Shouldn't Be Crappy Clones of iPhone Apps

I'm sure a lot of Android users have had this experience: you see your iPhone friends using some slick new app, and you wish it was available on Android. Then an Android version comes out and...

...it sucks compared to the iPhone version.

I'm not going to name names here, because some of these apps might be considered competitors to Glassboard and not even I'm that snarky (at least, not in public). But you all know what I mean.

It's like the iPhone developers finished their version of the app, and then one of them was forced at gunpoint to create the Android version.

The end result looks like an iPhone app, but it's slower. Buggier. Uglier.

It doesn't take advantage of Android's hardware buttons, nor does it use Android features like sharing and background services.

It doesn't have to be this way. Really, it's possible to create iPhone and Android versions of your apps and have them be of equal quality. Twitter did it. I like to believe we did it. And yes, Facebook did it, too (but only because both versions kinda suck).

Look, the Android market is pretty huge, so why insult it with cheap knock-offs of iPhone apps? Treat it with some respect and it'll respect you back.

Dexter Comics on Glassboard 2.0

Believe it or not, I didn't always want to be a software developer. My first love was actually cartooning.

In college I drew a daily comic strip called "Dexter" which was fairly popular, but after graduating I found it easier to pay the bills as a software developer, and my cartoons have been gathering dust ever since.

So that's the backstory.

Earlier this week my co-workers and I were tossing around ideas for enabling those new to Glassboard to join a few boards so they could get a better feel for the app. I thought it might be fun to create a board where I post one of my old cartoons every day, so I set it up and now you can join.

If you'd like to see some of the old strips, use the invitation code "dexter" to join the board. Not sure how to do this? Just follow these steps:

PS: If you're looking for more boards to join, check out my post from yesterday.

On Glassboard 2.0, Nobody Knows You're a Dog

...but they may know you're a dog person if you join my "Dog Pics" board, which I originally created so my friends and I could share photos and videos of our canine companions on Glassboard.

If you'd like to share with us, use the invitation code "dogpics" in the app to join the board. Just follow these steps if you're not sure how to do this:

Now, you may find it odd that an app that's all about private sharing enables anyone to join a board this way. So I'll clarify that you have to explicitly create an invitation code for one to exist for a board. An invitation code provides a simple way to get people into your board quickly without having to invite them - just share the code with the people you want on your board, and when everyone's in you can disable the code so it can't be used to join the board again.

ANN: FeedDemon 4.1

This has been a busy week for me! Yesterday I announced the release of Glassboard 2.0, and today I'm announcing that a new version of FeedDemon is finally here.

The biggest change in FeedDemon 4.1 is that the social features which relied on Google Reader have been removed. Their removal was necessary because Google announced a while back that it was dropping the social features from Google Reader.

That's the most noticeable difference in the new version, but under the hood it's also faster than ever, and it fixes a number of problems customers have reported.  A complete list of changes can be found in the release notes, or you can skip all that and download FeedDemon 4.1 now.

Just install this new version directly on top of the previous version - there's no need to uninstall first.

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While you're here I hope you'll check out Glassboard, an app designed for private sharing. I write the Android version of Glassboard.

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Glassboard 2.0: Nailing the Privacy Experience

When we released Glassboard 1.0 last year, I think we nailed the privacy aspects. We built one of the only social apps that truly respects your privacy.

We didn't, however, nail the experience. Glassboard 1.0 wasn't ugly, but it sure wasn't pretty, either.

I think we nailed the experience in Glassboard 2.0, though. The new version - which we released today on Google Play and the iPhone App Store - doesn't just look better, but it's also easier and more fun to use. Check out the screenshots at the bottom of this post for some examples of how the new version looks.

We also answered the #1 request of our customers and built a web-based version of Glassboard (currently in beta). My favorite thing about our web app is that it enables you to share PDFs, Word documents, MP3s, Excel spreadsheets, and many other files from your desktop with your friends, family and co-workers - even if they're using our mobile apps.

There's a lot more I could say about the new version - like how it enables viewing a gallery of photos people have shared - but hopefully I've said enough to get you interested. We're really pleased with Glassboard 2.0 and we hope you'll give it a try.

Jenny Blogs Up a Storm

If you haven't checked out the Glassboard Blog lately, you should stop by. Our own Jenny Blumberg has been posting some great stuff there.

Here's a smattering of recent posts I've enjoyed:

• The Rise of the Planet of the Monkeyspheres
• The two types of social networks: Are you just spraying people or actually connecting with them?
• Ads, if I ignore you will you go away?
• Keeping track of the trackers: Collusion exposes browser cookies for you

Girls Around Me Shows Why Privacy Shouldn't be an Option

Earlier this week I wrote that privacy shouldn't be an option. Privacy - like security - should be expected, not something that users have to enable.

Need proof? Just read about Girls Around Me, an incredibly ill-conceived app that takes advantage of women who don't know they need to configure the privacy settings in the social software they use.

Software that isn't private by default assumes users know how to make it private, which is an unrealistic - and, in the case of "Girls Around Me," potentially dangerous - assumption.

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I write the Android version of Glassboard, an app designed for private conversations. Find out more at glassboard.com.

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Privacy is not an Option

Years ago, in the Dark Ages of desktop software, security was an option. People used software that was insecure by default, but if they knew where to look they could turn on various options that made the software secure.

Microsoft Outlook used to be like that: by default it would allow viruses to be emailed to you, but you could configure it to be secure if you knew where the security options were.

Then people started getting all sorts of nasty viruses via email, and Microsoft wised up. They stopped treating security as opt-in and started making their software secure by default.

Fast forward to today and we're seeing a similar situation with privacy.

By default most social software isn't private - it's configured to share everything about you, not just with people you know but also with advertisers. You have to figure out where the privacy settings are - and what they mean - if you want the software to respect your privacy.

And as with the opt-in security settings of the past, today's opt-in privacy settings are leading to all sorts of problems. Every day we see headlines about privacy violations that could've been avoided if we used software that didn't treat privacy as an option.

Software developers need to look at privacy the same way we've learned to look at security: it's not an add-on or a feature that customers have to turn on, it's something built-in that shouldn't be turned off.

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I write the Android version of Glassboard, an app designed for private conversations. Find out more at glassboard.com.

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Digital Ownership and the Path to Privacy

What does it mean to "own" something that exists only in digital form? If the answer is we don't really own things that are digital, then does that mean we don't own our private information when it's merely bits of data?

Those questions reflect our inability to value non-physical things. We as customers look at digital goods as less worthy of monetary value, and companies look at customer data as less worthy of privacy.  In both cases, we de-value things that we can't touch.

There are plenty of examples of companies who believe the rules of privacy and ownership are different online than they are in the physical world.  Mobile apps upload our address books without permission, websites track us without our knowledge, media corporations secretly install rootkits on our computers, and online stores sell us digital goods we thought we owned but merely leased instead.

Yes, the tech and entertainment industries pretend they value digital items when they rail against piracy, but they suddenly get fuzzy when it comes to valuing our digital rights.

Yet piracy also reflects how we as customers value digital data. Many of us pay for music, movies and software when it comes in a box but steal it in digital form, as though the real value of a piece of music is in its packaging instead of in its artistry.

We lash out against companies that violate our privacy, yet fail to see how our unwillingness to value their digital goods in some small way led to the prevalence of a business model that gives the actual product away and earns money by selling our personal information.

And we never noticed that in order to own all this free stuff, the free stuff gets to own us back.

Let's Not Screw Up Mobile Privacy

This week we saw headlines about mobile apps that violate your privacy by uploading your address book without permission.

These kind of "mistakes" helped kill demand for desktop software, and I'd hate to see history repeat itself with mobile software.

Several years ago I wrote that desktop software is paralyzed by fear due to all the frightening warnings that show up when you try to install something. It wasn't just the rise of Web apps that led people away from desktop apps: it was also because installing desktop apps became too damn scary.

The same thing could happen to mobile software. Repeated privacy violations will force mobile OS vendors to show more warnings, scaring customers away from trying new apps.

Mobile developers who want to avoid that possible future should accept the idea that data on the device must stay on the device unless the user has given permission to upload or share it. Being able to access data on the device in no way implies ownership of that data.