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Did a quick bug fix for Acey Decuey that screwed up button displays on HDPI devices like Nexus One and Moto Droids. so 1.51 is live and working perfectly.

Also updated High Low Red Black with version 2.0, which pretty much is an update to Scoreloop 2.01 as with Acey Deucey but also decided to try a new set of deck images, since the cards are scaled much larger in this then Acey Decuey I decided to only make the change in High Low Red Black, it adds an extra 500KB to the download size, which is 1/3 of it's size!...but let's see how everyone likes it.

Just finished uploading Acey Deucey 1.5 to the market, it's 3rd market release.

Changes you'll immediately notice, a new icon! Thanks to Photos8.com and new Scoreloop interface, thanks for version 2.01 of it's SDK.

Took a while to get that new Scoreloop SDK working properly, but glad I did, it's pretty nice.

Other changes include requiring Android 1.6, and also this version was built using the 2.3 SDK, don't know if that really makes any difference as I still built it on the limits of 1.6, because honestly I don't need anything new since then.

Also a couple of bug fixes, the biggest involving the screen display with phones with physical keyboards.

High-Low-Red-Black is a recreation of a popular playing card game. The objective is simple, a card is shown, the player will then choose if the next card is going to be Higher or Lower in value to the card shown or if it will be Red [Hearts/Diamonds] or Black [Clubs/Spades] Repeat.

Longest correct streaks get submitted to the online leaderboard

High-Low-Red-Black can be found in the Android marketplace as a free download, below is a QR code you can use to scan and download automatically.

Cyrket Link

Android System Requirements
Acey Deucey was developed with a minimum of firmware version 1.5 required. Once prompted to install Acey Deucey will note what system functions it uses.

Full Internet Access : To submit high scores and interact with Scoreloop & Ads
SD Card modify : For saved preferences and soon to be saved games
Phone State : Obviously so you still get your calls/text while playing without losing your game

Just when I put the finishing touches on my next game, Scoreloop sends me an email that version 2.0 of their SDK is out with a slew of new features.

Well sorry Scoreloop I don't want to hold back my release any further, I'm releasing 1.0 of High Low Red Black w/ Scoreloop 1.1 included. Once I get time to implement and make the changes for 2.0, I'll gladly release an update.

The same goes for my first game, Acey Deucey, so in the next few weeks you can see from me:

1) High-Low-Red-Black v1.0 - Initial Release
2) Acey Deucey v1.0 - Update release to incorporate Scoreloop 2.0 & the option to see the cards first instead of betting gameplay.
3) High-Low-Red-Black v1.1 - Update release to incorporate Scoreloop 2.0 & any fixes needed after first release.

Stay tuned!

My new game, High Low Red Black, is complete. Just finishing out a few fixes, cosmetic changes and creating the marketplace graphics and it'll be ready for everyone to enjoy by the end of the this weekend.

Here is a screenshot so you can know what to expect:



The game will feature the same High score services via Scoreloop and so far my top score is 10. While one of my testers got an 11. Wonder if those will stand.

First I want to thank everyone for enjoying Acey Deucey, over 750 downloads. Not bad for a card game that's sorta obscure. Well this one, even though it's still a card game, is a lot more fun to play! It's normally played as a drinking game, but I decided to port it over to Android.

Actually in researching about it, I found that there's 2 iPhone versions in their AppStore, but none on Android, so I may have a genuine winner here if this exact game can be successful while selling for a $1 on iPhone vs my Free version on Android...and this maybe the game I spend my time porting to the others, iPhone, BB and WindowsPhone7.

Back to the gameplay, the game is real simple. A card is dealt face up, the player must guess if the next card will be Higher or Lower in value [Aces high] OR if it'll be Red [Diamonds,Hearts] or Black [Spades,Clubs] suited. Once the player decides one of those four options, a card is dealt.

If the player choose correctly, they are granted a point, if not they lose all points. The process is repeated for the last dealt card until the player calls it quits.

The high score will be submitted based on the longest correct streak the player earned during the time played.

I actually really enjoyed programming this game, it didn't seem like a chore Acey Deucey was at some points. I enjoyed it so much that I honestly think I'll have it Market ready by the end of this weekend, then a few days of beta testing w/ my friend's devices, It'll be available for all within 7 days.

Hope everyone is enjoying Acey Deucey. Well a small update is coming which fixes 2 features.

1) Save/Continue is working, in limited fashion, the savegame will save your scores and information about how many hands played, but it will not keep the same deck. When you resume the game you'll have the amount of money you left off with, but the deck [which consists of 8 actual 52 card decks] will be fully reshuffled. From a coding standpoint it just took too much resources and sloppy workaround code to get Android's own system of storage functions to recognize a custom array, which is what the deck is.

2) Offline High Score Submission is now working. With the current version, if you get a high score while in no coverage like a subway/airplane, or just have it on airplane mode so no one can bother you, and played a high score worthy game, the game will fail to upload and your score will be lost. Not anymore. Acey Deucey now stores one game's score for submission when service is regained. Right now I have it check for saved score before starting a new game, and if it finds one it'll prompt the player to submit now or later or clear the score without submitting. I'm open to any other suggestions to implement this. thanks.

3) Not a feature, bug fix or anything, but I decided to add an advertisement in the main menu via AdMob. Not even so much on the money aspect of it if people click, but AdMob gives fantastic reports of general usage of your app based on the AdMob calls. So for the purists out there who hate an app simply cause it has ads, I've seen the comments in other app's market listings brutal, I'll add an option in Settings to hide the ad and you'll be back to normal, deal?

Version 0.9 is expected by the end of the weekend.

Acey Deucey is a 3 card poker game, where only values matter, suits are irrelevant. Acey Deucey can be played in a variety of ways. This game uses the rules of the casino variant of Acey Deucey known as Red Dog. Acey Deucey is a 3 card game, the player is dealt 2 cards face up and wins if the 3rd card's value falls between the first two cards.

Acey Deucey can be found in the Android marketplace as a free download, below is a QR code you can use to scan and download automatically.

Cyrket Link

Android System Requirements
Acey Deucey was developed with a minimum of firmware version 1.5 required. Once prompted to install Acey Deucey will note what system functions it uses.

Full Internet Access : To submit high scores and interact with Scoreloop, possibly Ads in the future
SD Card modify : For saved preferences and soon to be saved games
Phone State : Obviously so you still get your calls/text while playing without losing your game



There are three main differences between standard Acey Deucey and the casino version known as Red Dog. This game is based on the latter.

Being as Red Dog is a casino game, as in all casino games, the player must bet before seeing cards, then after seeing the cards are given an option to raise. // Acey Deucey let's players see the cards first, and then bet and can even bet $0 to pass their turn.

Red Dog all Aces are high, there is no changing that. // In Acey Deucey if your first card dealt is an Ace, you can pick high [QKA] or low [A23]. If the second card is an Ace, regardless of what the first card is, is always high.

The main difference between the games lies in the money factor. In Red Dog you can bet anywhere from $1 to however how much money you have. You get paid based on odds, you can win anywhere from 11:1 odds on your bet to even money. The most you can lose in a Red Dog hand is what you bet. // Acey Deucey is a game played in a group, where everyone ante's to create a pot. Every win is even money, you can only bet as high as what's in the pot, and that's all you can win. When the pot is empty, everyone re-antes. However their are certain circumstances where losing a bet in Acey Deucey requires you to double or even triple your bet before adding it to the pot.


Why the regular/standard version of Acey Deucey wasn't implemented
Most of the feedback I've gotten from players accustomed to Acey Deucey, as it's played in a group, is that they are used to seeing the cards dealt first then betting. I've tried numerous changes in the code to make this work, but I've always hit 2 major speed bumps but related to the third point mentioned above, the money factor. I can't implement a way for a player to lose triple or double their bet because it'll change the gameplay. If you were playing real Acey Deucey in a group and had $100 in your wallet, you wouldn't bet more then $33 to ensure you can always cover your loss. With the payment method Red Dog uses, you never have to worry about that. You have a $100, you can bet $100 and not need to worry about being unable to cover.

Another factor is the pot, I dont see a method to recreate making a group pot of ante's when there's only 1 player...if you do, please tell me.

Attempt to add a gameplay mode more similar to the standard Acey Deucey
In order to make a "quick fix" for the players who like to see the cards first, I originally thought if I simply just added the code to show the cards without changing the other methods, it could work. Then I was dealt a pair, and in Red Dog a pair pays 11:1 or is a push, meaning you can't lose money. So any smart player would bet it all then, they can't lose but could get 11x payout.

However in Acey Deucey, if two cards of the same value come up, the bettor picks if the next card will be higher or lower and bets. If the next card is the same as the last two, the bettor must triple his/her bet. Now there was no way to me to implement losing triple or double your bet, negative numbers just didn't work. Not in coding, not in gameplay, not in submitting a highscore.

So I made a compromise, a hybrid of the rules if you will, and made 2 changes from the standard casino variant.

Obviously making the 2 cards dealt before the bet was 1 change. The other was removing all pushes, they now result in a loss of the bet.

That solves the three of a kind dilemma i mentioned above, and instead of a player getting a push for an unwinnable hand they'll just need to remember to drop their bet down to zero.

This gameplay method is still being tested, and if it does make it to the release when a user selects New Game from the menu they will be prompted with 3 choices.
1) Casino Mode [Bet first]
2) Custom Mode [Cards dealt first]
3] Tutorial, Rules and Mode Differences


PS. I would not be against anyone donating artwork for the project, Icons, Backgrounds, Cards, you will be mentioned in the About section of the game to show thanks.

It's almost here, the moment where I share my hard work with everyone. The only thing on my todo plate right now is create an icon [ I have an idea already ] and do the write ups for here and the market. Coding wise I think I'm good enough for a first release, not everything is working, but what isn't working is disabled and says "Coming Soon", the release will be given version 0.8 as looking back I've had 7 minor revisions in my original code.

0.1) Initial code, just had mathematics to calculate dealing/losing/winning
0.2) Getting card images to show instead of numbers
0.3) Adding status text on the gameplay screen
0.4) Changing the menu to create sub menus for options
0.5) Trying to implement an offline scoreboard, later removed for #8
0.6) Adding saved preferences
0.7) Changing some interface stuff, like images and colors
0.8) Implementing Scoreloop


Also I think I've come up with a way to implement the usual method of seeing the cards before betting used in standard Acey Deucey and applying it to the casino variant Red Dog that this game is based off of, implementing 2 methods of gameplay using the same code is just a lot of if/else statements so coding wise I know it can be done...gameplay wise I still need to test it out.

So in spending a few more days researching all sorts of ways to do a high score board and getting no where. I've decided to turn my time to testing out these High Score Services, like ScoreLoop or OpenFeint. The first thing I did was read up on their articles on techcrunch then some first hand research, downloaded 2 games that use these systems.

I downloaded a Tic Tac Toe game that uses OpenFeint, and on start up it immediately prompted me to sign up for OpenFeint, there was a button on the side saying "don't use" but actually if I had just downloaded a Tic Tac Toe game and was prompted with this w/o knowing what it was, there's a good chance I would of moved on to another Tic Tac Toe game. Not to mention it took a LONG loading time using my network connection to get to that screen, it must of been caching something.

Then I downloaded a game called 4 corners that used Scoreloop. It was extremely seamless integration. The game loaded up with a normal menu and let you immediately play, a quick pop up showed up saying you weren't setup for High Score submissions, but I was playing. And most gamers know you dont get your high scores on the first try. So I liked that it let you play without even noticing the game uses Scoreloop. Then when the game ended you were able to configure your Scoreloop profile if you choose, or you could be player_#####.

So I wasn't ruling out OpenFeint, but with my quick testing, I decided to go with Scoreloop.

Downloaded the SDK, integrated very well, already got a high score board up and running with my highest score so far. I dont know if i consider this a feature or a limitation at this point, but the Scoreloop scoreboard will only show 1 score submission from a device.

For example, if you played the game 2 times and got the highest score out of everyone, 500, then you also got 475. And someone else was also playing and submitted a few scores like 400, 325. Finally a 3rd person submits scores like 450, 425.

You would think the scoreboard would look like this:
1)500 by A
2)475 by A
3)450 by C
4)425 by C
5)400 by B
6)325 by B

But with those exact scores in a Scoreloop scoreboard is
1) 500 by A
2) 450 by C
3) 400 by B

As I said I'm undecided this moment if that should be considered a feature or a limitation...yes no one person can own the top of the board but at the same time no one can prove consistency. Thoughts?

PS: Already got an idea of my second card game to implement.

Seems like it would be the simplest thing to implement...I mean games of the 8-bit era had them...yet it has become quite a troublesome thing to code.

I've tried just creating a file and having the program save/open the file, however I couldn't get it working at first and honestly just gave up trying to do it this way. Because I knew it was a non efficient way to do it and if I worked on the code for some time, it really couldn't be used to anything else, so i didnd't see it being worthwhile.

So i decided to try using the Android's own SQLite database management. I almost had this working, got the database to create and able to add new items...however trying to pull them out in a ListView was quite troublesome., so in my searching for help on getting my SQLite code working properly. I came across many services that offer their own SDK and implement a scoreboard and other goodies.

I decided to sign up for ScoreLoop, www.scoreloop.com it gives a lot of crazy options that I don't foresee myself using, including in-game purchases. But it does have social network integration and global high scores. So i just finished the download of the SDK and in the meantime I will be reviewing how it works, it also supports iPhone.

I really don't see much promise if I release this game without a way to track scores. My only other option from my searching/coding the last 5 days is to make a website that contains the high scores. Which actually I would prefer over something like Scoreloop, but I don't even know where to begin for that. So I'll try to review ScoreLoop...if it places it's branding all over my application I'll most likely avoid it and I'm back to square one.

As promised here is the progress report, screen shots and some code insight on my first project, Acey Deucey.




The code for the project is actually not a lot of Android specific functions. Besides the XML layout files and the android methods to utilize items in those layouts, the code is simply just a lot of math. Equations using card values, bet values to find the difference between the cards, if the bet can be raised, what the payout odds should be.

Which actually should lead to easy porting, which I hope to do once it survives the criticism of android users everywhere and help me build my multi-mobile device portfolio.


To do list before putting it on the market:
1) Test w/ different screen sizes. I can do this with the SDK emulator.
2) Get the local scoreboard working, an online on is being researched to see if its possible (and free)
3) Change the XML layout code from AbsoluteLayout to LinearLayout. The book I was reading from was based on 1.5 and used AbsoluteLayout, this new book I'm currently using to guide me stated that AbsolutelLayout was deprecated and is not recommended which actually should help with step 1 because AbsoluteLayout used specific pixels as measurement for how big or the location of an object [like a card] which resulted in great results for one device, but not for another.
4) Draw an icon.
5) Type a great post on this site and link it as the apps' homepage within the market details.

Hi everyone, it's been a while but I promise you that'll be the last time. Because I have great news to report. I'm nearly weeks away from releasing my first application into the Android Market!

It is a simple card game called Acey Deucey. Any fans? If you are a fan then you know it's actually a multi-player game, well I found rules to a casino variant of the game that pays in odds and it transferred very well to a quick phone game.

Let me tell you the hardest thing to figure out in Android is the XML layouts. Coming from someone who has never dealt with the kind it was a big road block, but I got the basics down and my application will include 4 XML layouts w/ Buttons, ListViews and ImageViews all utilized.

Screen shots will be following in my post next week. I've set myself up a calendar alert to remind me to post on this, and now that my domain transfer is complete and I'm finally comfortable to write code that wasn't an alteration to example code in a book/site. I shouldn't have any issues keeping up!

Also I'm eager for beta testers on different devices to help test before it goes on the market. Amongst myself, friends and coworkers I have a HTC Hero, Motorola Droid, Motorola Droid X, Motorola Droid 2, HTC Incredible and a HTC Evo. [I just realized those are all CDMA phones haha] So if you have another device and willing to help, let me know.

PS Any suggestions for other card games? I'm sorta planning on a checkers (w/ AI) game to be my next challenge.

Since my last post, which I recall being quite a rant. I honestly have not been on top of my learning. I blame the fact that last month I moved and am still getting settled, hell my internet isn't even live until Friday. I secondly blame the World Cup. Just like the Olympics, I'm not an avid fan of the sport. But when the big tournament is held every 4 years, I become all about it. Throw a little being in the bridal party for my friends wedding into the mix and that has sucked away all my programming time, even my gym time has laid waste side.

In a small bit of development news, I completed a project for my "class". It was pretty much a read and retype code job aka I didn't learn a damn thing. I don't know how this professor thinks the class can do the final project in 2 weeks, write your own app from scratch.

I already thought of mine, depending on how easy it is to implement, is going to be cee-lo [a 3 dice game] game where shaking the phone rolls the dice. Of course I probably would of coded the game I have in my the idea for right now, but I don't want it to be intellectual property of the school.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I planned on taking a class at my former college as part of their new "continue professional learning" department entitled simply iPhone Development. It is based on the famous Stanford classes which we're lead by Apple employees.

I figured it would be worth it in a few aspects, in order of rank.

1) End the class with a certification I can add to my resume.
2) Have a human being resource I can ask questions to.
3) Make me get started, having homework will do that.
4) Meet other iPhone devs between the teacher, TAs and students.
5) The class fee included the $99 Apple dev fee.

Well I am now 4 weeks into an 8 week class and I can gladly say besides #1, I'm incredibly disappointed. Hopefully when the class ends the certification does have some bearing, it really was the reason i wanted to take the class.

In regards to why I'm not pleased.

2) the "teacher" doesnt come to class, he does all his "teaching" online via a very archaic system called Moodle, the TA is in class more on that in #4.
3) I figured the class would start slow...but I would of never guessed this slow for a class half over. In the 4 weeks I've had class my 3 assignments were modifying the professors "Hello World" with a different background, creating an RSS feed reader in Dashcode [search youtube, you can find the how to in a 5 minute video], re-modifying your Hello World to allow it to be debugged on a device by changing 2 LOC...so yeah I haven't learned much.
4) Regarding the last assignment, we had no information on how to change our programs to run on a device, so I asked the TA for help. He didn't know. He had to look it up [or possibly ask someone else] and then email me later in the week. By the time his email came, I had figured it out.
5) This was just flat out lack of information or misleading information, however you can look at it. The class listed that it "includes student registration in the Apple Developer portal", aka the $99 fee. Well it does, but doesn't. I have access to the developer portal, however it's only 1 year and any application I want to send to the AppStore will go under the college's name as the developer name unless I make my own and pay my own $99.

Well that ends my rant, thanks for reading it. I promise more frequent posts from now on and more positive posts about my career changing movement.

On a sidenote, I bought a used iPhone for this class [and to use as an iPod] and at my job I'm on call so I have the work phone as well. So in my pocket right now is a iPhone [dev phone/ipod] , Android [my phone], Windows Mobile [work on call phone]. There is a blackberry at my desk too, but I'll just leave it there, it's solely there as a backup in case someone at work breaks/loses theirs.

Palm is offering new developers a chance to sign up for free by waiving the usual $99 fee. For reference Android is $25, iPhone is $99 for this developer fee.

So I went to sign up just to sign up and take advantage, and just a safe warning, they ask for your Tax ID, which I don't know off hand so I couldn't continue with the sign up.

http://www.phonenews.com/palm-waiving-99-fee-for-new-developer-accounts-for-a-limited-time-10962/

I came across this article today via my RSS feeds from a financial blog. The Smart Passive Income Blog, it's a blog designed around how to earn passive income and the writer has entered the world of iPhone Apps. So far has done very well, and shared this list of 5 things that I'd like to share.


1. You Don’t Have to Develop Your Own iPhone Applications

The writer of the blog comments that he doesn't know how to code, he just had an idea and outsourced it to a programmer to get it made.

I plan to live the other side of this spectrum!

2. Any Type of App Can Be a Success Story

Every day, iTunes showcases the most downloaded and most profitable applications, and every day it surprises me.

At this stage, I have no idea how iTunes displays these, but I know how Android does and from reading other articles, getting mentioned in the "Featured Apps" section can be a huge boost

3. Getting Your App Made and Approved is Only Half the Battle

Not every app is a success story, for every person who can quit their day job from 1 application, there's 20,000 other app developers who are going to keep trying.

Promotion is key, hopefully I can build up a decent blog following before even releasing my first application.

4. It Takes Time To Create an iPhone App

The blog writer says it took 2 months for their first app to be made..and that's with an experienced programmer coding it, not a newbie in training like yours truly.

5. Free Apps Are Profitable

I see this on Android all the time too, search an certain app and you'll get 2 results a "lite" version for free and a paid version for price. The Lite version is sometimes a limited version [only a few levels in a game, let's you read but not edit a document, missing features, including ads] and in itself promotes the paid version in which you get rid of all the annoyances and get the full blown application. Sorta like a demo.

However unlike a "demo" some lite versions of paid apps are just as useful in their lite state for some users. One personal example is "Titanium Backup on android. I use the free versions and it lacks a few features, but those features aren't really needed for my uses, and I'm a constant user of a the free version.

Now what the article I'm referring to states is they have this model for their app, a free and a paid version, the free has ads, the paid doesn't and surprisingly the paid one earns upwards of $10 a day, while the lite version consistently earns between $30-60 a day due to ads alone!

Interesting stuff, full article is here: http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/5-things-you-must-know-about-creating-your-own-iphone-apps/

I remember reading about the idea of Adobe AIR on mobile devices. In laymen terms, you simply create your application in AIR's SDK and it'll run on any device supporting Air. Which Adobes hopes is everything.

Here's an interesting article I'd like to share about this:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/05/adobe-air-developer-demonstration-one-game-five-platforms-all/

It shows a simple game being played on desktop operating systems (Mac, Windows, Linux) and also mobile systems (iPad & Android)

I can see it's usefulness but I also can see its misfortunes and it's technically running a system on top of a system and therefore eating more resources, which at this stage in the game are extremely limited on the mobile world.

Just wanted to post a quick update, I was able to get Hello World working on Windows Phone 7 as well and also figured out how to run my applications for android straight on my HTC Hero and not the virtual device that the SDK creates! Pretty cool to say the least, for me this is all new.

Also unlike the Windows Phone 7 and Android, Blackberry [like iPhone] requires to sign up for a free developer account before even downloading the SDK, which I just went through and am downloading it's 368MB SDK. So I'll report back with my fourth Hello World hopefully soon.

Less then a month away before I start my college's class on iPhone Development. Really excited!

Purchased my OS X compatible netbook last week. Went with the MSI Wind U123, it was really a battle between the Lenovo S10-2 and the Wind U123 after during all my research, it just came down to the better deal.

I was scoping (and placing bids) and a few computers since my last post on eBay. I lost getting a S10-2 by less then $5 twice. The max I wanted to spend was around $220 if the computer was refurbished, $250 if it was new. Then I came across this deal one morning from CompUSA [yeah remember them?, they still have an online store] it was $300 with a $35 cashback [think like mail in rebate, but via email] and free shipping for a brand new MSI Wind U123, it included a 9-cell battery which sealed the deal for me.

So for the 5 or 6 days I was waiting for it to ship I prowled the forums/wiki over at InsanelyWind and came across this article: http://insanelywind.com/wiki/index.php/Windows_XP,_SnowyWindOSX-_Dual_Boot

SnowyWindOSX is a prepared version of OSX designed just for the MSI Wind, no need to fiddle around and changing stuff from the retail version to make it work, so I figured this was the best bet, also used Windows 7 instead of XP, worked out just fine, very very easy.

Progress so far since setting up the OSes

Android : SDK installed, Hello World coded and working
Blackberry : SDK installed, no coding yet*
iPhone : SDK installed, Hello World coded and working
Windows Phone 7 : SDK installed, no coding yet

*Blackberry and Android can both be coded for within the same software, Eclipse, then after it's setup when you go to new project you can select Android or Blackberry or any other Java SDK you have installed and make a project for that platform.

I wanted to write a post about the new phone OS Microsoft is bringing to play. Windows 7 Phone, but honestly haven't done much research on it yet.

What I do know, and intrigues me a lot is that with it's SDK a developer can develop an application that can run on the phone, a windows PC and a Xbox 360...that is one cool feature that the other companies don't have the base to implement. Mac has computers but no console, Google just has it's web browser [and future netbook OS]

With a release of this system [and new phones] planned for this holiday season, it give's me plenty of time to learn it's SDK, which I plan to install once I get my new Lenovo S10 or MSI Wind and dual boot Windows 7 and OSX and the laptop will pretty much be my coding machine, I know the Atom processor does have enough horsepower to properly code for Android and iPhone, I hope Windows 7 Phone is no different.

I'm unsure of the registration fees at this time [Apple is $100, Google is $25] but the SDK is a free download as it is with the others. This is one exciting platform to get into, Mobile Development. Besides those big 3 you still have Blackberry, Nokia S60 and Palm's WebOS to consider.

First step in developing for mobile devices is not to learn to code for them...it's to register as a developer to submit your yet to be coded goodies!

I got a free $25 AMEX card as a gift for volunteering somewhere and because I hate holding onto those things [you have to know exactly what is on there to get its value] and Android registration being...$25...I just used the card to register. The registration name: XStreAM Mobile Applications.

XStreAM is a nickname of mine and has been for a while, as you tell by this sites url, I also used to DJ and my name was DJ X StreAM, check out my DJ site, the link is to the right. I haven't updated in who knows, but the downloads are still valid.

Hi again everyone, this orginally started as a side project/hobby and I was dedicated at first...but then it fell off. Well now I decided to get back into it full steam ahead. I do technical support at my current job, and I recently became pretty much the Blackberry guy. Anyone with any problems, new setup, anything come to me. So to keep my resume updated I added the word "Blackberry" and as well as "Android" due to my experience [little as it may be] with coding and an user. I started getting hit constantly by recruiters looking for Blackberry, Android and iPhone developers. Just cause that one word made their search hit my resume, even though I'm not qualified [yet] I plan to change that now.

A combination between that, my office possibly moving and making it a 20 minute longer commute for me and desktop support becoming a thing of the past [ala these mobile devices, cloud computing, virtualization] made me realize I got to make a move.

So no more is this a side project I do on my spare time [which has LACKED], this is now a whole movement to advance my career and become what I went to college for, a Software Developer.

First step, take a course to learn the real basics behind mobile coding. CHECK, my college is offering a 8 session night class starting in May doing just that for the iPhone.

Next step, develop a portfolio, program anything and everything, whether for myself or someone else, just get the experience. [One of my first projects will be a checkers game, Android marketplace lacks anything proper regarding that]

Third step, port. Whether it's android or iPhone, whichever my first real successful application is on, I will port it to the all 3 systems. Blackberry, iPhone, Android. WebOS and Nokia's are at like step 17.


That's it for now, regardless of my progress I will be posting. I promise you that. PS check out my lame attempt at a banner for this site.