My 3 Monitor Development Workstation

My 3 Monitor Development Workstation

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I’ve been working at home with my new company DigitalHarmonyGames.  I picked up a 2nd 23in monitor adding to my work Macbook Pro 17in I now have a triple monitor setup.  I have Unity3d running on one external, MonoDevelop on the other external and I do mail, skype and web surfing on the Laptop screen.  The 2nd external monitor was made possible by the $50 Cirago USB Display Adapter.  The USB adapter works great.  As long as I don’t run full-screen video or run anything that is too demanding on the usb connected monitor the setup works perfectly.

Chrome browser

Chrome browser

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My browser of choice is Google Chrome.  I like the bookmark syncing so no matter where I use it my bookmarks are there.  I like the support for multiple users which allows me to login to different Google Accounts.

Tips:

Use the built in PDF reader.  You can make sure it is enabled by typing chrome://plugins in the addressbar

Android’s Fragmentation Problem

Android’s Fragmentation Problem

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I like what Nick has to say about the complaints of having to support multiple devices/OSs/screen sizes on Android.

…Just like developing for iOS had an initial adjustment period, it takes time to learn the Android way of doing things. Developers and designers who are unwilling to invest that time just end up creating crappy clones of their iPhone apps.

To those folks, I can only say: remember when you bristled at seeing second-rate Mac ports of popular Windows apps? Remember how you felt about companies that treated your choice of OS as an also-ran?

Sure if I had a choice I’d prefer not to have to worry about different configurations, but that is the appeal of Android. Just like Windows gave users more choices compared to Mac, so does Android compared to IOS.

Android REST client applications

Android REST client applications

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The Qliq Android application uses an architecture described in this Google presentation.

A ContentProvider gives access to data retrieved via REST services and cached in a SQLite database.   It is a pretty elegant solution though at times it seems to suffer some performance issues in terms of timely screen updates.

There is a lot to learn about Android.  There is more than one way to solve a problem and the Android SDK provides many patterns and components to get the job done.  The best way to learn is to see how others have solved problems and to simply dive in and try things out.

I recently came across ORMLite as an alternative to SQLite.  Don’t know much about it. I wonder how much use it has on the Android platform.

Hippopotami are dangerous

Hippopotami are dangerous

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In your face Cassidy and David.  I told you that my answer of “Hippotamus” was right for the Scategories category “Things you are afraid of”.

From The Straight Dope:

“The hippo, found today throughout sub-Saharan Africa, is considered by many experts, explorers and Africans to be the most dangerous animal in Africa (not counting the mosquito).  They’ve all killed way more people than Africa’s lions have. (A few rogue tigers have killed a lot of people too, but they live in India, not Africa.) The hippo is extremely aggressive, unpredictable and unafraid of humans, upsetting boats sometimes without provocation and chomping the occupants with its huge canine teeth and sharp incisors. Most human deaths occur when the victim gets between the hippo and deep water or between a mother and her calf.”

Interviewing a Software Developer

Interviewing a Software Developer

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I have never taken a job at a place that included tests during the interview process.  The last time I interviewed someone I did it through Skype and they shared their desktop,  brought up their development environment and explained some code they had written.

There are only 3 true job interview questions

Why we don’t hire programmers based on puzzles, API quizzes, math riddles, or other parlor tricks

Hateful Hiring

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQJ8IjklA4U
If Doctors Were Interviewed like Software Developers

If Tom Brady Were Interviewed By A Software Development Company