Scratch Pad

I don’t know what has been going on (actually, I do), but we have been seeing a statistically significant increase in the sales of iHappyBirthday. It wasn’t too long ago that we noticed that our application would not appear in the search results if the search terms were “happy birthday”, though it was still search-able with the term “birthday”. It was odd because it has always been search-able by “happy birthday.”

We emailed Apple about it, and the response we got back was pure hilarity.

Search results are working as expected at this time. App Store search results are based on several factors determined by Apple-confidential algorithms.

I’m not sure what this super secret “Apple-confidential algorithms” were that made it unsearchable by “happy birthday”, but it at least it did make us laugh. It was most likely a canned response because search was actually broken.

Anyways, we didn’t realize how important it was for our application to be search-able by “happy birthday”, because as soon as search was fixed, our sales have doubled (albeit from a small number, but welcome none the less!).

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News and Updates, Opinion Apple Confidential Algorithm, iPhone

We’ve received a couple of negative reviews due to the application crashing (which I explained in my previous post). I guess you can’t help that. But the good news is that we haven’t really heard of any more reports of it crashing after version 1.1.1 was published.

A couple of days ago, the Lite version of iHappyBirthday was released to the App store. Imagine my surprise when I checked the sales figure this morning and saw that it was downloaded close to 600 times. Only if the same were true of the paid version! I think we need to observe it a bit more to see what kind of effect the Lite version will have, but as of yet, it has had no effect. Hey, at least it didn’t have a negative effect!

We’re trying to implement one, last key feature to SaS before we release it to the general public. But it’s turning out to be a bit of a technical challenge. Hopefully it won’t hold us up for too long!

Edit: Oops. I miscalculated. It was downloaded close to 1000 times.

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News and Updates, Opinion Bad Driver, Blind Spot, Car Accident, Free Model, iHappyBirthday Lite, Lite, Rant

It’s Monday and this weekend has been an unproductive one for us. We planned on releasing version 1.1 of iHappyBirthday but that got delayed due to circumstances that probably weren’t beyond our control. And as I have the case of the Mondays, I’m going to post a motivational piece to jump start my week.

Way, way back when I was in middle or high school, I asked my math teacher, “Why is a negative times a negative a positive?”

My math teacher looked at me momentarily with a stunned look on her face, and after a moment’s pause, she said, “You know what, I don’t think your brain is capable of understanding it at your current level of development.”

I just nodded and came back to my desk.

The question of “why” is the most important question you can ask. We accept so many things as is just because we are told to. Or because we are led to believe that somehow we are incapable of comprehension. I believe that these self limiting beliefs are the worst things you can do to yourself and the best thing you can do to sabotage yourself.

It’s become such a cliche when reading job descriptions or resumes. This “can-do attitude” that everyone seems to think that he or she has.  This “can-do” attitude that all employers want. Cliche has a negative connotation, but this “can-do” attitude is absolutely one of the most important quality to have and nurture. Because most things aren’t really that hard, and the really hard things are mostly worth doing.

On the school bus (such a distant memory… I can’t believe I used to ride one whenever I see them on the road these days) on my way home that day, I thought about my question to the math teacher. How unfitting that my brain chose to visualize it with the image of someone digging a grave.

If someone digs one feet, that’s -1 feet under the ground.  If someone digs three more times, that -3 feets under the ground.  But how about digging something -3 times? What does it mean to dig a hole negative times? The way I rationalized it was that when you dig something -3 times, you are undigging the hole. So you end up going the opposite direction (filling up the hole, or piling up the dirt 3 feet high if no hole existed in the first place).

So, carpe diem!

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Opinion case of mondays, motivation, negative times a negative, product of two negative numbers

Developing for the iPhone has had an effect on me that I had not anticipated.

I have never given any serious thought to the issue of software piracy. I have never once even had a passing glimmer of interest in reading the EULA agreement during software installations. Of course, this is because I was the consumer and not the producer of software. That’s not to say that I am not aware of the various arguments for and against piracy. I have heard the arguments, but I have never pondered it in depth. Putting aside all the complicated theories and arguments, it’s really not hard to grasp.

The consumers want to pay as little as possible (which usually means free), and the producers want to charge as much as possible (which usually means the maximum price that consumers are willing to pay for your goods). It’s simple supply and demand.

To put it simply, everyone wants to protect his or her self interests. Survival instincts are still alive and going strong, folks! What a surprise.

Things tend to hit home more when they affect you directly. As an independent developer struggling to pay his bills and without the backing of a company with deep pockets, I think I would be remiss of being true to myself if I said that I wouldn’t feel a pang in my heart if people started pirating our first iPhone application. Of course I would, given the thousands of money that I spent in set-up costs and not to mention the time, energy and the personal sacrifices involved.

A thought occurred to me though. I’ve been reading various forums and blogs related to piracy, and a vast number of developers are complaining about it. I don’t think I would be too far off in saying that their attitudes on piracy may have changed after being on the receiving end. Does this mean that they will stop downloading pirated music, movies and software themselves?

The old adge about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes has proven to be right once again.

P.S. You may have noticed that a previous post about the application we just submitted to the App store has been taken down. I think that the timing was a bit premature because we still had a few issues to resolve. I’ll unveil the application once again after we take care of these few issues!

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Opinion Cracked Software, Software Piracy