A Long Overdue Update

Well, it's been a while since I've said anything about the app that is represented by that big purple checkmark on the front page, and I sincerely apologize for the delay.

You see, a lot has happened since I last posted about myself. I sorta kinda cofounded a company, but I wouldn't take much credit for it since I left due to differences in vision and location. Worked for an awesome local startup. Turned down a couple promising offers from big and small companies alike. Got rejected from a couple more. Now I'm relocated to the Bay Area, living with some great guys, working for yet another amazing company.

So the burning question remains: What's going to happen with Noodles? Well, I'm not too sure myself. I'd really like to get web sync going, but I think I've been debating among various options (for way too long now). Here's what I have on the table:

  • Google Tasks sync since they've finally released the API
  • Write my own version, probably in Django, but then I'd need to figure out hosting, with way too many options including:
  • Then there are the choices of frameworks, just within python:
    • Django
    • web.py
    • Pyramid
    • AppEngine (probably not)
  • Also been looking into Parse, which might help greatly speed up development speed.

Honestly, I'm probably just making excuses not to get this done. In the meantime, if anyone has any insight or advice on these technology stacks and wants to help me make a decision, I'd love to hear from you!

If I had one thing to say to all women out there...

I would tell you all to be the amazing and beautiful people you are with your actions and your words, not your make-up and your clothing. Be beautiful for the blind, whose vision is often truer than that of the sighted. Be beautiful in ways that can't be washed and stripped away so easily, and you will always be sought after. Be beautiful for those who want to help you share your beauty with the rest of world, not for those who want to own your beauty like a human ornament. Be beautiful for yourself. Please

That counts as just one big thing right?

Sorry, I've just been noticing how much subliminal brainwashing the females in American society (and probably many others) go through. And it's really limiting the talent pool I have to choose from these days. Women! Please! Don't let it get to you! Just be awesome! Please?

 

Related readings:
Don't dumb girls down
Women's Quest to Be 'Romantically Desirable' Can Conflict With Scientific Pursuits, Study Suggests

 

Force Closes and the Future

First I want to apologize to all the users who started experiencing force closes after the last update. In my excitement to push out the last update, I missed one somewhat important line of code. For those who care, I simply forgot to call super.onStop() when I overrode the onStop method in the Preferences activity. Anyway, an update is out and all should be good again.

Meanwhile, I'm not planning on adding any new updates to the Android app for the time being. Instead I'll be trying to create a web version of noodles that will sync with the mobile app. After considering the various other existing systems to sync with, I simply haven't found anything that matches with the current model that Noodles uses. The closest one I found was Things, which has been working on web sync for over a year now, so I'm not going to hold my breath.

If anyone is interested in testing the web app or wants to help develop/design it, I'd love to hear from you! I'm most likely going to be using some combination of Django and Google App Engine for the backend. You can contact me at webapp [at] makeramen [dot] com.

Evil Plans

Evil Plans is the second book by Hugh MacLeod, writer of the famous How To Be Creative manifesto which eventually turned into his first book Ignore Everybody. Not sure what it is, but something about Hugh and his writing just gets me off my feet and wanting to go do shit. I've already interrupted myself at least 2 or 3 times through this extremely short book because I was so inspired to start working on stuff.

I promised myself not to write about this book until I was done reading it, but here I am, 98% of the way through and I just couldn't help but write something down. The following excerpt is what got me out of bed onto my keyboard:
I've had my fair share of crappy jobs, as have we all. You know what? I never hated a job because of what it took from me — all jobs take a lot from you, especially the best ones.

I hated a job because it never allowed me to give enough to the world.
And that was it.

It explained everything. It was never about me "not appreciating the opportunities" I have. It was never about the salary, the title, the "experience," the "leadership opportunities." Fuck. That. Shit. All I ever wanted was the feeling that I am doing everything I possibly can to give as much as I can to this world. And not just to reach a local maximum by grabbing the closest easiest path to success, but to really find the global maximum output of my life.

Maybe I'll crash and burn along the way somewhere, but I can at least say I tried. What've you got to say?

So if you haven't bought the book yet, get it at Amazon. (Also if you're a student you can get free 2-day shipping with Amazon Student) I've already bought a kindle edition for myself an a print copy for a dear friend.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna go finish the last few pages and be back bright and early tomorrow working on some more awesomeness for noodles. I'll be back to update y'all then.

A minor Noodle update

Just submitted v2.9.1 to the Android Market, here's what's changed:

  • Some people didn't like the Today/Tomorrow lists, so you can now turn them off via preferences.
  • Fixed bug where "uncrossed" count that shows up next to lists didn't update in certain cases.
  • Many actions should be much more responsive now (no longer updating the uncrossed count all the time).
  • Drag-and-drop will no longer sporadically drop items when you move your finger away from right edge.

Today/Tomorrow lists are here

As noted in my last post, I've added 2 new permanent lists to Noodles. These lists allow you to "star" items to go into either a Today or Tomorrow list. As the names imply, anything you want to do today, you throw into the Today list. If you want to postpone items, or know you need to do something but probably won't get to it until tomorrow, just give it a silver star and put it in Tomorrow.

Changing states between Today/Tomorrow/None is as quick and simple as tapping the bullet/star next to an item.

That's it for now. I plan on this eventually leading to a Today widget which I know a lot of users are looking forward to.

when no one is watching

I think it was somewhere amidst all this talk about chinese parents' superiority that I saw a sentence saying something along the lines of "it's what your kid does when you're not watching that is most important." But in today's world of infinitely connected social networks, more choices in how you want to contact a person than you have pairs of socks, and bragging rights for whoever can fit the most events into their calendar, how often do people actually get to sit alone to their own thoughts and intentions? I think it's just as much of a challenge now to figure out exactly "what do you do when nobody is watching?" Or maybe more accurately, when nobody tells you what to do: no schedules to keep, no assignments, tests, meetings, just you and... whatever you choose to do with your time.

So on that note, I'm hoping to use the next.... however long I have.. to figure out whatever it is I do when nobody is watching. A brief break from the hectic world for a little introspection.