Matt Gemmell

My blog and podcast feeds go around these few main interests of mine: software, art, design, music and Apple.

Podcasts:

Varieties, science, design.

* This American Life. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/

* Radiolab. http://www.radiolab.org/series/podcasts/

* Planet Money. http://www.npr.org/planetmoney

* Stuff You Should Know. http://www.howstuffworks.com/

* The Infinite Monkey Cage. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00snr0w

* The Weekly Briefly (Shawn Blanc). http://feedpress.me/weeklybriefly

* Actuality (from Quartz). http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/actuality-marketplace-and-quartz

* Anticast (for Portuguese speakers out there - the best Brazilian podcast I know). http://www.brainstorm9.com.br/anticast/

* 99% Invisible. http://99percentinvisible.prx.org/

Technology, programming, Apple, etc.

* Debug. http://www.imore.com/debug/

* Mac Power Users. http://www.relay.fm/mpu

* Accidental Tech Podcast. http://atp.fm/

* Overtired. http://www.esn.fm/overtired/

* The Vergecast. http://www.theverge.com/verge/verge_archives/show?mode=EntryGroup&slug=the-vergecast

* What's Tech (also from The Verge, fun show). http://www.theverge.com/whatstech

* Pragmatic. http://techdistortion.com/podcasts/pragmatic

* Iterate. http://www.imore.com/iterate

* The Changelog. http://5by5.tv/changelog

* Build Podcast (each post is actually a screencast about some technology). http://build-podcast.com/

* The Talk Show With John Gruber. http://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow

*…

Here are some great resources for learning iOS:

[1] Online courses:

http://www.hackrocket.com

http://teamtreehouse.com/

http://www.lynda.com/iOS-tutorials/iOS-SDK-Essential-Training/92179-2C.html

http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/ipad-iphone-application-development/id473757255

http://codelesson.com/courses/tag/Mobile

[2] Blogs/tutorials:

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#referencelibrary/GettingStarted/RoadMapiOS/Introduction/Introduction.html

http://www.raywenderlich.com/

http://cocoawithlove.com/

http://mattgemmell.com/

http://mobile.tutsplus.com

[3] Books:

Objective-C Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide

iPhone Programming : The Big Nerd Ranch Guide

Cocoa Design Patterns

iPhone App Development : The Missing Manual

The iOS Developer's Cookbook

Cocoa Design Patterns

Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK

[4] Forums/Q&A

http://stackoverflow.com

http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/

[5] Videos

http://www.youtube.com/user/MilmersXcode?ob=0&feature=results_main

[6] Email newsletters

http://tinyletter.com/hackrocket

http://iosdevweekly.com/

http://iosdesign.co/

I am surprised that no one linked the What Have You Tried article by Matt Gemmell.

http://mattgemmell.com/what-have-you-tried/

This is how I almost never got my SO topics closed. I state beforehand what I have tried, how certain SO questions may look related but are still not giving me enough knowledge to solve my problem. I do my best to make a convincing argument that I need help and can't make it on my own. A few days later and I get my answer :) (and sometimes I figure it out myself which takes a while)

I agree with the HNers that say that someone needs to struggle a bit first. It's necessary to develop the emotional coping skills, because programming can have very frustrating moments. And they can answer "what have you tried?"

Beginners need to understand: why would I put more time into solving someone else's problems than the person asking me the question? I notice that a lot of friction comes from that place. Sometimes beginners don't realize it, but I've seen some lazy people as well. When I am on the beginning side I really try to take this into account and value the time of the expert.

To play devils advocate for a bit: Perhaps it was a "basic" question, but it's also pretty terse. More importantly, you have not given me any reason why I should want to help you.

You don't provide any information about what you are trying to do, what problem you are trying to solve, attempts that you have made to solve your own problem. You tell me no story, nor prove that you are a "peer" -- someone who has put the same effort into that craft as a potential person who may have the answer will have.

Ultimately you haven't answered the "What have you tried?" question. http://mattgemmell.com/what-have-you-tried/

You are asking someone to help you; a little more humility couldn't hurt. I don't get paid to help you solve your problem -- other than worthless internet points -- so just give me a reason to want to help you solve your problem. I want to help, but not if you are going to be a jerk.

I think Matt Gemmell put it really well:
http://mattgemmell.com/2012/07/21/entitlement-and-acquisition/

"Sparrow’s acquisition is a success story. Indie devs make a great product, build a customer-base, and are rewarded with a buy-out from a big company and they get new jobs with that company. It might not be what your particular goal or end-game is, but it is a success. I’m really happy for them."

I personally think that you need to give it a shot and try to monetize your product but if after some time you find out that this is a harder and thougher nut to crack than you thought - you better rally some bigger force behind you, pivot, sell or just give up.

The guy at sparrow decided to sell and this is a very legitimate exit strategy.

Yuck, BTDTBTTS. Satellite latency is eye-stabbing, almost as bad as the utterly worthless Mountain View's Google Wi-Fi. Local internet elsewhere, in random countries, GFL... bring your own or start a service (yeah, a friend made some serious cash putting up a service on some Greek island).

Anyone on OSX can feel some pain just by enabling Network Link Conditioner prefpane by creating a profile as follows:

Download Bandwidth: 256 Kbps
Downlink Packets Dropped: 90%
Downlink Delay: 1000 ms

Uplink Bandwidth: 256 Kbps
Uplink Packets Dropped: 90%
Uplink Delay: 1000 ms

DNS Delay: 2000 ms

Setup instructions:

http://mattgemmell.com/network-link-conditioner-in-lion/