maha::software

How to use the 10.8 Notification Center API

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 23:58:00 -0700

I found Apple’s SDK documentation on Notification Center in Mountain Lion to be somewhat lacking. There doesn’t seem to be a basic “Hello World” example. So, here you go:

NSUserNotification *notification = [[NSUserNotification alloc] init];
[notification setTitle:@"Hello Panda"];
[notification setInformativeText:@"I love PandaBar!"];
[notification setSoundName:NSUserNotificationDefaultSoundName];

NSUserNotificationCenter *center = [NSUserNotificationCenter defaultUserNotificationCenter];
[center setDelegate:self];
[center deliverNotification:notification];

By default, Notification Center only displays notifications if the application is not frontmost. To always present the notification, you need to set the delegate on the NSUserNotificationCenter as shown above, and implement the NSUserNotificationCenterDelegate as follows:

- (BOOL)userNotificationCenter:(NSUserNotificationCenter *)center shouldPresentNotification:(NSUserNotification *)notification
{
    return YES;
}

Additionally, the above code will present the notification immediately. If you want to schedule the notification for a later time, you can do something like:

[notification setDeliveryDate:[NSDate dateWithTimeInterval:20 sinceDate:[NSDate date]]];

And then use [NSUserNotificationCenter scheduleNotification:] instead of deliverNotification:

Any other useful Notification Center API tips? Let me know!

Facebook friend browser open sourced

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 21:16:47 -0700

I just open sourced some code on github— Facebook friend browser. It’s an iOS app that lets you filter your Facebook friends by things like location, relationship status, school, etc. I hacked this together in 3 days last year. As such, it’s simple and crude.

Still, it is functional and maybe there are some bits in there that would be useful to others. (fyi, I tested this in the iOS 5.1 Simulator with XCode 4.3 and it builds.)

Some pieces of code that might be useful in other projects:

Facebook graph API stuff. Includes single sign-on support, managing session tokens, etc.
A purely client-side approach to fetching detailed data for each friend.
Asynchronous loading of thumbnail images in a table view.

If you use this in one of your projects, drop me a line and let me know :)

On Small Wins

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 18:35:38 -0700

Last month, I brought PandaBar back up on the Mac App Store. I did this because of hundreds of emails from PandaBar users in the past few months, about their disappointment that it was gone, about the fact that they missed it and loved it, and about their support for me.

“i LOVED using Pandabar… blessings to you as you find a way around this.”

“You do what you gotta do. It was awesome while it lasted. :)”

“Ah bummer…”

“I understand. Thank you, and good luck.”

Yes, some people were angry. Some demanded refunds. On the whole, though, I was amazed at how understanding everyone was. I decided I couldn’t let down all these amazing, supportive people, so I rewrote some of PandaBar’s backend to get it working again and put it back up on the store. The response since then has been overwhelming. Here are just a few examples of responses from PandaBar users:

“SWEEEEEET! This just made my day :)”

“I loved using PandaBar and so happy it is back. Thank you Thank you.”

“Just made my week.”

“Oh, I’m SO HAPPY about this. Thank you very much. :-) LOVELY.”

“I really missed PandaBar- so glad to have it back in my life! Hope you know how much it’s appreciated.”

I realized that, no, I didn’t know much it was appreciated. I didn’t realize that bringing PandaBar back would actually make people happy. I thought bringing it back would just be something that my users expected, because, well, they paid for it and they deserved for it to be working and to get updates.

I know it’s not a lot— it’s just an app, after all. But it is something— it’s a small win. A small win is when a stranger on the street gives you a smile. A small win is when your sports team beats someone they weren’t supposed to. A small win is when you step out of the office, and the weather is better than you expected, and you have a minute to stop and enjoy the feel of a cool breeze, the smell of freshly blooming flowers, the warmth of the sun on your air conditioned face.

Small wins are important. They are real. They can put a smile on your face. They can boost your mood, if only for a few hours. Maybe that leads to something else good, because you were a little happier for a few hours. Or maybe not. But we need small wins as much as big wins. I think life is a marathon, not a series of sprints. So many things don’t go our way; there are so many things we can’t control. You miss the train to work in the morning; you get a nasty look from the barista at the coffee shop; you flub a meeting at work. It’s a grind, to get up every morning and go to work and take care of the kids and be a good friend and a good husband and a good dad and a good son. It’s a marathon without end. Along the way, we get tired; we doubt ourselves; we want to give up.

So I think we appreciate it when something goes a little bit right, for once. It’s unexpected. On your marathon, you turn a corner and find a much needed water station. Or you pass by a section with strangers yelling their support. Suddenly our steps feel a bit lighter. You think, maybe things are ok. Maybe you’ll keep running.

I’m so appreciative that my users expressed this to me. Their responses, in a way, were a whole lot of small wins for me. I’ll keep doing my best to return the favor.

Migrate your Posterous to Tumblr

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:08:32 -0700

Migrate your Posterous to Tumblr:

Useful instructions on how to (manually) migrate your Posterous blog posts to Tumblr.

An old project gets new life

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:31:00 -0800

I came across a project I started a while ago. It’s a music player for the iPhone. I wasn’t sure when I touched it last— turns out it was the summer of 2009. Couldn’t believe that one and a half years had passed since I last worked on it. Just for kicks, I plugged in my iPhone 4 and tried building the project. To my surprise, it built and ran.

Wow. This thing was actually working, even after a year and a half of neglect; a year and a half of iOS upgrades (from 3.0 to 4.2). A year and a half of ways for this old, dusty code to break. Somehow, this thing survived. It felt good. Like I discovered some toy motor I made and got the thrill of turning it on and seeing it whir and make noise and do motor-y things.

So good, in fact, that I started working on it again. Just made my first SVN commit to the project in over 1.5 years. I have some new ideas on where to take it now. It’s fun. I could lament over not finishing it sooner. Oh, all the time it could have been out there! Getting users! Iterating! But maybe I just wasn’t ready to work on it then. I feel more ready now; I like the new focus I’m bringing to it.

It’s never too late to pick up an old project, turn it on, and enjoy the sound of its whir.

What's Eating Google Android?

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:20:00 -0800

So earlier today I came across a great article by Caleb Elston on deciphering Android’s woes. I commented on his post and thought I would share and expand on that here.

Since I wrote a post about Apple the other day in terms of Jurassic Park philosophy, I thought I’d find a movie to relate Google Android to. The first one that came to mind: What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. A really beautiful movie, and one of my favorites. Other than the title, though, I’m not sure there’s much in common with the movie and Google Android. Oh well. Here are a few lines of dialogue from the movie just for kicks:

Becky: I love the sky. It’s so limitless.

Gilbert: It is big. It’s very big.

Becky: Big doesn’t even sum it up, right? That word big is so small.

Gilbert: God Arnie, you’re getting so big. Pretty soon I ain’t gonna be able to carry you no more.

Arnie Grape: No, you’re getting littler Gilbert. You’re getting littler, you’re shrinking! You’re shrinking Gilbert, you’re shrinking! Shrinking, shrinking, shrinking!

Becky: Tell me what you want as fast as it comes to you.

Gilbert: I wanna be a good person.

Anyhoo… back to the subject at hand. Successful products and successful platforms think about: customer, customer, customer. I ask myself— what is Google thinking about? I think it’s: search, search, search. (And, as a corollary: ads, ads, ads). Google’s core motivation is to be the search platform for mobile. They want to be the way that everybody finds anything from their phone. They will probably get there. The result of this focus shows in the really innovative things that Google is doing with voice search and image search (Google Goggles).

When Android first came out, I told people that this was just like the old desktop OS battles between Apple and Microsoft. Apple = control of the stack; Microsoft = decouple software from hardware. Microsoft came out on top. The analogy to today is clearly: Apple = control of the stack; Google = decouple software from hardware. I then told people that’s why Android would eventually overtake iPhone OS. I don’t believe that anymore. Microsoft wanted to make a better product, and arguably, in many ways they did. Without a doubt, they wanted to dominate the desktop OS.

I don’t think Google’s real focus, or their strength, is in executing a platform like Android well. They don’t want to dominate the mobile OS. Not as much as Apple does. And I think this spells doom, or worse, mediocrity, for Android.

Apple must avoid becoming Jurassic Park

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:46:00 -0800

“John, the kind of control you’re attempting is not possible. If there’s one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it’s that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories. It crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but - well, there it is… I’m simply saying that, uh, life finds a way.” Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park

So, Apple is at it again. Rejecting apps and feeling the wrath of John Q. Public. The question is: are they right, or aren’t they?

As I pondered this question, I was reminded of the Jurassic Park quote above, memorably recited by Jeff Goldblum aka Dr. Ian Malcolm. To jog your memory, this is the scene where the gang finds dinosaur eggs out in the wild, the thing that was supposed to be impossible because all the dinos were bio-engineered to be female. (If someone can find the video of this scene, please post in the comments… I scoured the web for it and came up empty handed).

How does this relate to Apple? Well, Apple may be thinking something like this— we released the iPhone, we were the first to come out with a major SDK, we were the first with an AppStore and a seamless distribution mechanism. So we can control whatever we want! We’re the best, and the control of every part of the software and hardware stack is what makes us the best.

The thing is— they’ve unleashed the dogs, they’ve created a monster they can’t control, they’ve created… well, a new form of life. Now that we’ve got this new form of life- the programmable, networked computer in a pocket- we ask ourselves: How is it going to evolve? And I think Dr. Ian Malcolm is right on the money here as well: the evolution of the smartphone will not be contained within artificial barriers or constraints. Life will not be controlled. Life will find a way.

This is not a moral argument. I’m not saying that Apple should open up their platform because it’s the “right thing to do.” I’m not saying they’re being “evil.” People often reply to an article like this by saying: “It’s their phone, it’s their platform; if you don’t like it, use something else.” I don’t disagree with any of that but it misses the point. The point isn’t that Apple is obligated to open up their platform; it’s that if they don’t, their big, beautiful, grand theme park is gonna crumble. And then the dinosaurs will escape and eat us all. You don’t want that, do you?

Haiku: Change

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:47:00 -0800

Today was the last
day and it will be the first.
Nearby a bird sings.

Software that connects people

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:19:39 -0800

I have a line on the uber-minimalist front page for mahasoftware.com: “maha::software is about creating mobile applications that help you connect with people.”

That statement has purposefully been left pretty general. You can fit a lot of things under that umbrella. Social networking, volunteerism. But it’s also specific enough to eliminate some things. Puzzle games. Flashlight apps.

I’m not trying to be secretive or stealth about it. Like I said in maha::values, I’m starting the company without a Big Idea. I do have a lot of product ideas, though— some of which are relatively small in scope, and some which are pretty big in scale. Some of the small, focused ideas have the potential to grow into more. Some of the big ones have the potential to fall flat on their faces. Lack of ideas is not the problem— it’s how to pick. I’ve got some clarity on how to approach this problem. I’ll share my thoughts on that with you in a future post.

Also, I’m pretty excited about mobile. What better way to write software that connects people than for devices that people have with them everywhere, all the time?

maha::values

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:27:49 -0800

I want to share my vision of what maha::software is going to be about. I’m going to try to do something a little strange here. I’m not going to start from an idea, or a business plan, or a brilliant paper napkin sketch. I’m going to start with values. To answer my self-proposed question “What do I care about?” in Thoughts on Startup School, I’ll answer:

Make things that help people connect with others.
Be an active member of the community.
Operate with integrity and transparency.
Make people happier.

The idea is, everything that maha::software does will be done with these values in mind.

This list will probably change. But I think the core ideals and intentions will stay the same. Is it crazy to start a company without a Big Idea?

Why Write?

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:51:53 -0800

Paul Graham, in his essay on essays, makes a beautiful insight on why we should bother writing anything:

“Expressing ideas helps to form them.”

The more I write, the more I get this. I’ve experienced this many times, ephemerally, and this sentence captures my intuition perfectly. To me, this means:

If you have a thought in your mind, write it.

If you have a picture in your mind, draw it.

If you have a song in your mind, compose it.

If you have a design in your mind, build it.

The journey of doing it, whatever “it” may be, will crystallize, expand, and perhaps completely transform what you see in your mind’s eye.

Thoughts on Startup School

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:02:00 -0700

I attended YC Combinator’s Startup School last weekend in Berkeley. I’m just getting around to thinking about my thoughts on it (is it possible to think about thoughts?). Mark Bao has detailed notes on the event.

Here are some things that stood out to me:

Paul Graham’s talk was a series of points distilled from the responses of past YC Combinator founders on what the startup experience is really like. A couple of points stood out to me. First, that “Startups Take Over Your Life.” I’ve heard this before. It makes me think: do I really want that? Isn’t there a way to be successful without letting the company take over your life? I’d like to think balance and diversity in your life is sustainable when you’re running your own business. I don’t know the answer yet.

The other point that stood out to me was the “Value of Community.” In this context, this reminds us that the community of other entrepreneurs, in your neighborhood or city or area is invaluable. To me, interaction with this community brings perspective, new ideas, practical help, and, at the least, commiseration.

There were other good points, such as “Don’t Worry about Competitors,” and “Start with Something Minimal.” These are things that I’ve heard other entrepreneurs speak of, and that I intuitively agree with.

The talk that I was really looking forward to was Jason Fried’s (of 37signals). I’m a fan of 37signals and their approach to developing software. They are super user-focused, love to iterate their products, and are huge proponents of the paid model of web software. Fried made a bunch of great points in this talk, and he was, as he often is, blunt, aggressive, and uncompromising. Which in this case was a good thing, even though I didn’t agree with everything he said. You have to have a point of view on things. Fried is a great example of that. That’s not to say you don’t change your point of view over time; you also have to be receptive to new ideas and cold, hard, experience. But being committed to your point of view at any given point in time is important.

On charging for software, Fried talked about putting a price on something forces you to be good, and it gives the customer incentive to give you real, honest, useful feedback on your product. Giving away something for free dilutes these forces. Fried’s rhetorical question to the audience: “Anyone know how to sell things for free?” To which he answers: “You can’t. You can only sell things for money.” Glib, maybe, but I agree with the core point here, which is that charging for things is better for both the producers and consumers.

Fried also says: “planning is guessing.” Business plans, he says, are really “business guesses.” The “start with something minimal” maxim from Paul Graham’s talk is a corollary of this point. Instead of planning a long, complex, product roadmap, start from the beginning, and improvise. Maybe it sounds too simple, but I think the reality is that you’re going to have to do this anyway. Might as well accept it, get your product out faster, iterate, learn, adjust to what’s right in front of you. The role of improvisation in entrepreneurship sounds like a good topic to explore further in a future post.

37signals is one of the more prominent web software companies that bootstrapped. Their existence, and their success, has given me the confidence to bootstrap maha::software. Fried rails against taking funding. It’s distracting to developing the product and building the real business. Not that I know any better, but I absolutely agree. I’m not saying “taking funding is bad,” but the funding-centered approach to starting a company, the VC culture, in Silicon Valley, completely turns me off. It turns something very personal (a company is a reflection of the people that comprise it, after all), into something very cold and impersonal; dehumanizing, almost. It’s a game that some people are very good at. I don’t know if I would be good at it or not, and I don’t want to find out. I want to keep my business personal; I want it to be about real people using a product that real people made. I want it to be about making people happy, if only for a second, or a minute, or an hour a day. I want it to be about making myself and everyone involved in the company happy.

This brings me to Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s talk on delivering happiness. Hsieh touched on a topic that I wish more entrepreneurs would talk about: Why? Why are you doing this? What is your ultimate goal? Hsieh makes the observation that, no matter the context, these questions ultimately lead to the same answer: attaining happiness. Hsieh talk about three types of happiness: pleasure, passion, purpose. Pleasure is the fleeting, instant gratification of money and fame; passion is akin to doing something you love so much you “get into the zone”; purpose is about guiding yourself towards a higher meaning. An interesting way to break it down. He might be right; I don’t know yet. I do know that asking the question of yourself is important. Why am I doing this? I’ve asked myself this question many times. I get a different answer every time. I’ll share those answers as they crystallize in my mind.

The last talk I wanted to wax poetic on was that of Paul Buchheit, of Gmail and FriendFeed fame. Buchheit and Fried are almost polar opposites in terms of presentation style and delivery. David Shoemaker frames the comparison by branding Buchheit a “hacker,” and Fried a “salesman.” I think the comparison is more subtle than that. Buchheit, for example, talked of how he started selling things at an early age. He also stresses the value of experience, of actually doing things, which I’m sure Fried would wholeheartedly agree with. However, where Fried is uncompromising in his advice, Buchheit is more relativistic— to him, there is no absolute advice. It depends. Everyone is different, and there are different paths to success. I tend to think like this, and it makes sense to me. I’m ok with the uncertainty. Some people aren’t, and they need absolutes to guide them. Whatever floats your boat.

Buchheit ended his presentation with this thought: “If you really care about something, do it now.” More than anything else said during Startup School, this really resonated with me. It speaks to the importance of passion in whatever you’re doing. And once you find that passion, the importance of urgency; the courage to take action now. This is not just about business. This is about the eternal quest for the Good Life. The question I ask myself is then: What do I care about?

What does maha mean?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:36:42 -0700

“maha” is the Sanskrit word for “great.” In devanagari script, it is written as महा.

“Maha Software,” then, means simply: Great Software.

The most recognized usage of the phrase is likely in the name “Mahatma Gandhi.” Mahatma was is in fact a title bestowed upon Gandhi, whose first name was Mohandas, out of deep respect for him. Translated literally, it means “great soul.” Gandhi was indeed one of the world’s great souls. He is well known for his involvement in helping India attain its independence from Britain in 1947. Martin Luther King is said to have learned from Gandhi’s principle of non-violent resistance in leading the civil rights movement in the 60’s.

Gandhi also espoused qualities that I hope I can instill into maha::software. He believed in truth: speaking it, encouraging others to speak it, and living it. Gandhi believed in simplicity and self-reliance. He encouraged Indians to create the things that they used. He threw away his British-bought clothes, and homespun his own clothes. He lived his word; to use a well-worn phrase, he practiced what he preached. This is perhaps a corollary of “truth.” And he was the ultimate proponent of serving your community, of devoting your time and energy to make life better for your brother, your friend, your neighbor.

I hope to bring Gandhi’s values of integrity, transparency, self-sufficiency and service to maha::software every day. Of course, these values extend beyond the scope of any business or other endeavor. They are life values, and they are values I aspire to personally. Gandhi devoted his life to discovering and living the Good Life. The Maha Life.

The birth of maha::software

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:18:16 -0700

Earlier today, I gave notice at work.

In six weeks, I will be self-employed.

I want to start a company. I’m going to call it maha::software. I’m going to chronicle my experiences here.

I’m going to try to be as transparent as possible about the decisions I make, the internals of the company, and my personal experiences. This will be as much for myself as it will be for you.

To borrow an idea from the Pursuit of Happyness, this is the part of my life I’ll call: “Maha.”