Screencasts and positivity

Hi all, it’s been a big few weeks. I’ve been consciously trying to become a more positive guy, read a few books on the subject, our house has started getting underway again and now has a roof and some brickwork, I’m half way through my latest contract, and I’ve recorded a couple of screencasts.

I’ve also dipped my toe back in the waters of making my own apps (games). Here’s our house as it stands now:

Screencasts

So, in the last few weeks I’ve made a couple of screencasts on iOS development for beginners, showing how to make an app from the very first opening of Xcode. You can blame Scott - he put me up to it. But the difference (hopefully) is that these beginner screencasts would teach best practices, not ‘beginners fluff’ that hurts you in the long run. Anyway, they’re pretty rough but if you find this useful i’d love feedback, if these prove popular i’d definitely make a series of them. Here’s part 1, making a todo-list:

And here’s part 2, saving and loading data so it persists across app launches:

Note that youtube will default to playing these in 720p - be sure to click the settings icon (bottom right in the youtube player) to change these to glorious 1080p. And if you’ve got ideas for topics for further screencasts, let me know.

iOS game

So last time, I spoke about trying to make an iOS game in my spare time (my current contract is part time). Well, i have to admit it’s very hard to find the time to work on games on my time off with two kids under my feet! So not much progress there.

However, i’ve been poking around on elance.com, and I’m teaming up with a guy who will do the design work with me on a game idea i’ve been wanting to do for quite a long while now, but i’ve always put it off because i thought the artwork would cost a fortune. But, from what i’ve been quoted, it seems it won’t cost very much at all.

You developers out there should take note: if you’ve got an idea for a game but haven’t made it because you can’t draw the artwork - pay someone on elance, it’s much cheaper than you think. No more excuses!

Positivity

As for the year of positive thinking - well, i’ve started off by reading. I’ve read ‘How Children Succeed’ by paul tough, which i thought would be a great way to learn how to be resilient in the face of adversity. However, the book was more observational than ‘here are the lessons learned and how to put them into practice’. However, it did put me onto a much better book…

I’m currently half way through ‘Learned Optimism’ by Seligman. And it’s much more practical. Basically, he says that helplessness (the ‘my efforts make no difference’ mindset) is the enemy, and that the trick to stopping adversity leading to helplessness is to think as follows:

• This problem only affects one facet of my life, the rest of my life is fine.
• This problem won’t last forever, it’ll be over soon.
• This problem wasn’t all my fault. (this one isn’t as important)

Anyway, i’ve put a repeating reminder on my phone to think (meditate?) on two of these thoughts daily: our house will be finished soon; and despite the financial mess, my family is all healthy. I’ll try this for a month. Maybe you should too?

You guys

This time I’ve only got one site that a mate has been working on: projectmatches.com. The idea is that freelancers spend too much time searching for jobs on clunky job boards, and this service will streamline the process for you. Go and sign up for the pre-launch list if you like the sound of it!

Anyway, all the best, hope you got something out of the screencasts if you’re a budding iOS developer, and have a great month.

Chris Hulbert

(Comp Sci, Hons - UTS)

Software Developer (Freelancer / Contractor) in Australia.

I have worked at places such as Google, Cochlear, Assembly Payments, News Corp, Fox Sports, NineMSN, FetchTV, Coles, Woolworths, Trust Bank, and Westpac, among others. If you're looking for help developing an iOS app, drop me a line!

Get in touch:
[email protected]
github.com/chrishulbert
linkedin

---

Please subscribe to my mailing list:

 Subscribe via RSS