5 posts
We’ve opened the code of the little Instagram-based Node.js site we made for SXSW that I wrote about a few weeks ago.
Head over to GitHub to peruse the source, clone it, and have a play. I’ve written some fairly detailed instructions to explain how to get it up and running.
As I write this, ten twelve of the Many are packed into economy-class seating on their way to Austin, Texas for South by Southwest.
I’m not. I wasn’t invited. On the downside, I miss out on drinking my liver into a foie-gras-like state and eating burritos the size of Wales for breakfast1. On the upside, I get to avoid the charmless shopping-mall ambiance of Heathrow airport2, the legendarily unwelcoming demeanour of US immigration officials, and the scrotum-groping attentions of TSA goons, and I get to write snide blog posts about it. So it’s not all bad! And, in fact, despite the fact that I’m not going, I’ve ended up being involved with one rather fun aspect of the trip.
If you go to http://madebymany.com/ right now, you’ll see something a little different from usual.
We’re looking for a few people to join us and so we’re asking about to see if anyone knows anyone. We need some creative geeky types with an obsession for the new Web who like making things.
Recently, someone in the office asked, “Who here was the last person to be picked for a team in the school playground?” Around half the company put their hands up – and that’s the kind of freaks we’re interested in meeting.
[Update: Jeff LaMarche (author of one of the best iPhone books on the market) wrote one of his trademark 'no tact' responses to this post. I'd be very interested to know what people think about his post.]
[Update 2: Guy English (aka kickingbear) chimes in on this debate with what is the best response I've seen from a hardcore Cocoa developer. Basically: Apple's tools are probably better at producing better iPhone apps, but let's see what MonoTouch and Flash can deliver before we definitively say that they are no good.]
Novell recently announced a product called MonoTouch, which allows developers to write iPhone applications using C#, a language invented by Microsoft (but since standardised). It’s a very clever piece of work that allows someone without experience of Objective-C – the only option that Apple gives you for iPhone development – to write an iPhone application with a reduced learning curve.
I’ve noticed clients recoil at the phrase “Rockstar Developers”. The image of a drink, drugs and – gulp – sex-crazed development team smashing up their dressing room is problematic for many reasons. I kind of recoil from it too. It’s yucky. Nevertheless, ReadWriteWeb has published a list of the ‘Top Ten Traits of the Rockstar Software Engineer‘. It makes fascinating reading, especially if you work closely with one. The official list goes up to 10, but I’ve added a few of my own, and shuffled. See if you can guess which ones are true. Please feel free to suggest some yourself.
