atomicbird

It's an interesting time to be a Mac developer. With the release last week of the iPhone SDK, Apple suddenly opened up a whole new interesting platform to software developers. And as one might expect, those who have experience developing for Mac OS X have a huge head start when it comes to this new platform. Development for the iPhone uses the same tools, language, and even many of the same frameworks as the Mac.

I think I can say all of that, despite the NDA and Apple's rapidly-developing official position on what can be said and where. Earlier this week Apple reps announced that iPhone development could be discussed on Apple's Cocoa-Dev mailing list, but this was followed the next day by a hasty retraction. That is, one day the rule seemed to be "go a head, talk amongst yourselves", but by the next day this had changed to "don't you dare". I can only imagine the internal discussions. The official line may have changed again by the time you read this.

Anyway, in my case the nature of the SDK means that my daily routine has changed rather suddenly, in a nice demonstration of business on internet time. On Thursday the SDK was released. Friday I saw an ad on Craigslist for a company near me needing an iPhone developer. Saturday morning the company's CTO phoned me, and Monday I started doing iPhone development on a contract basis. And incidentally, soon afterward I started filing bugs with Apple against the SDK. Of course, it's still a beta release.

I don't often do contracts, but I really wanted to get a fast start on the iPhone, and what better way to do it? Aside from the same deal where I can continue working from home, I guess. Some aspects of the work mean that I really do need to be on-site for a lot of it, and I'm out of practice at making daily trips to an office.

Right now I'm splitting my time between this contract and my own apps. I'm not putting anything on hold or making fundamental changes to my business, but at the same time I didn't want to pass up this opportunity.

Yesterday Atomic Bird was one of the featured developers at MacSanta. It went well. It was the first day of MacSanta and I was concerned that not many people would have heard about it yet. As it turned out, well, I don't release specific sales numbers but yesterday's MacSanta customers here at Atomic Bird came to more than 90% of the number of MacSanta customers last year. Last year of course MacSanta ran for about a week, with all developers listed every day. So I'd call MacSanta a smash success already, and it's still just December 2.

And it's still going

Although Atomic Bird isn't the daily featured developer, MacSanta deals continue for the rest of the month. You can find Atomic Bird on the participants list where everyone who's participated in MacSanta so far will be offering discounts all month. Just use coupon code MACSANTA07TEN. And of course there are new featured developers on the main MacSanta page every day in December.

The MacSanta promotion is back for a second year!

For the month of December, independent Mac software developers will be offering special deals on their software through the MacSanta web site at MacSantaDeals.com. Every day new developers will be featured, offering 20% off of their software for that day, using coupon code MACSANTA07 when purchasing. After their featured day they will continue to offer 10% off through the end of the month using coupon code MACSANTA07TEN.

Atomic Bird is featured December 1

We drew the very first day, so on Saturday December 1, all of our software will be 20% off with coupon code MACSANTA07. That code can be used in our web store, but be sure and visit the MacSantaDeals.com web site to see what else is available. After December 1 the coupon code MACSANTA07TEN can be used for the rest of the month.

Thanks

The MacSanta promotion is run by Paul Kafasis of Rogue Amoeba, who does all the work on a volunteer basis. Most of the participants also volunteer to buy Paul a beer if we ever meet in person.

I probably shouldn't say anything. As a longtime Usenet reader I've (mostly) learned better than to feed the trolls and get involved with online flamewars. But sometimes things get a little out of hand. Anyone can set up their own web site and start blogging these days, and it can sometimes be hard for a person searching Google to know who to believe.

Over the past week, a developer named Rick Downes has gone on a tear against a number of other Mac developers, posting a series of angry, insulting, and simply untrue statements about them. In most cases he uses technical arguments as the basis for the post, but rather than be content with this he instead layers on hateful, mean-spirited personal attacks on his targets. It's his blog, but I'd hate to think that an unsuspecting person might come across some of his statements and wonder if maybe they're true.

Worst has got to be his over-the-top attack on Daniel Jalkut. I know Daniel and respect him a lot, both as a person and as a developer. You don't have to like Daniel, though I don't know why you wouldn't, but not liking someone doesn't excuse outright lies that could damage a person's reputation. Rick repeatedly states that Daniel doesn't care about his customers, and makes it out that Daniel is somehow getting away with ripping people off. How you do that when your software has a downloadable free trial escapes me, but that's not really the point.

The point is: I've met a lot of developers in my career, and Daniel Jalkut is easily the most concerned for his customers of any developer I've ever met. He sets very high standards and lives up to them. If anyone has any issue with his software, he wants to know and wants to fix things as quickly as possible. Even now Daniel's probably considering whether there's anything valid in Rick's diatribe and making whatever fixes might be needed. Rick's statements regarding Daniel are totally at odds with reality.

It's hard to even know what motivates Rick. If I-- or, I believe, Daniel-- discovered what I thought was an embarrassing flaw in someone's application, my first inclination would be to contact that developer and let them know. Going public with a blog post is completely unwarranted unless the flaw in question somehow endangered people, and only then if the developer additionally failed to warn those people. Loading on personal insults is unwarranted, full stop. Criticism of another's work may be valid, but it's best to make such criticism as constructive and helpful as possible. Publicly lambasting another's work like this as the first step helps nobody.

Rick's attack on Jonathan Wight is similarly an over-the-top baseless rant. Among those who know Jonathan, he's earned a reputation as a technical whiz who always has time to help someone out. His technical chops are on public display at his public code repository. He runs the Iron Coder contest. Rick seems to hate him, apparently because Jonathan teaches kids about robots and doesn't have many applications listed at versiontracker.com (never mind his consulting work, I guess). And of course because he disagrees with Rick on a certain technical issue.

As for Rick's comments on Kenneth Ballenegger, well, I'm not even sure I understand what he's saying. The constant use of the word tool makes it apparent that Rick's not happy, but about what I'm not sure.

The community of Mac developers is, with very few exceptions, an enthusiastic group doing their best for those using their software and welcoming to anyone who shares their interest. There's a real sense of professional courtesy as well, with developers mostly willing to lend a hand to others and provide constructive criticism to each other when appropriate. In most cases if one Mac developer mentions flaws in another's application, they'll do so privately an in the spirit of helping a colleague do a better job. Please don't be misled by the few exceptions to this rule.

DJ Chris Moulios (a.k.a. Suboctave): At Buzz Andersen's WWDC party in 2006Next week of course is WWDC. Right now everyone's falling all over themselves to second-guess Steve Jobs' keynote in advance. I'm more concerned with the extra-curricular activities that keep developers busy after hours.

I've been a regular at WWDC since 2002, the last year it was held in San Jose. That year I knew nobody and therefore didn't make it to any events not on Apple's schedule. I still learned a hell of a lot though, and it was only a few months later that I launched Macaroni. The rest is Atomic Bird history.

By now though, owing in no small part to MacSB, the Mac Software Business mailing list (and its associated IRC channel), WWDC is as much about networking and meeting online friends as it is about technical sessions.

Sunday night is the new SF Mac Indie party, a new event that looks to be great. Sunday night has always been the calm before the storm of WWDC, and last year some of us from MacSB got together for dinner. This year though Chuck Soper has taken the lead in organizing a major event for independent Mac developers. Chuck has done all the legwork on this and I'm really looking forward to it. I'll claim a small amount of credit for having recuited my buddies at MacISV Accelerator as sponsors and for giving eSellerate the extra nudge they needed to sign on. If you're an independent Mac developer anywhere near San Francisco, you need to be there, because everyone else is and we don't want to miss you. You don't actually have to be going to WWDC to attend, but if you're not, you're missing out.

That's followed on Monday by Buzz Andersen's legendary WWDC party (see pic at right). Last year DJ Chris Moulios's performance distracted me from what would otherwise have been an excellent opportunity to meet & greet, but I was so amazed I didn't care. I don't know the DJs Buzz has planned for this year but I can't wait.

That's just the start, though. If you're going to WWDC, Colin Barrett has put together an iCal calendar of after-hours events that'll help you plan. But even that just scratches the surface by listing events that are actually planned. Some of the best events are in the restaurants and bars around Moscone where you can find groups of developers eagerly trading notes and having a good time.

Should be a great week, regardless of what Steve has up his sleeve.