App Development in Review

I got a blog double feature today. This one is about my recently finished Android app and the next is about my Mirrodin Besieged prerelease. Second one is of course quite skippable for non magic players.

The Background: For my mobile phone programming class we had an app due at the end of the first three weeks of class. It’s an interesting class because the professor doesn’t teach anything (causing me to question why the hell I have to pay for this) and you just learn iphone/android/windows phone 7 app development on your own. Today we presented what we had along with each other group

The App: So often when you’re in the buildings on north you may have wifi connectivity but the phone service usually doesn’t come through. So if you use something like Google Voice you don’t need your phone constantly searching for phone service. It’s just wasting your battery. So our app notices when you’ve connected to wifi networks of your choice and puts your phone into airplane mode with wifi enabled. It’s a good little niche app and it’s pretty close to done, so we may put it up on the marketplace soon.

The Tales:

TALE THE FIRST

After announcing our ideas for mobile apps to the class we were sent off to go form groups. I pair up with a guy who has a decent idea about a battery saving app, mostly just to get into a group quickly. Groups can be two or three people so we consider adding a third. One of the members of a group I was in last semester is milling about us staring into space.

“Hey Dan, do you want to join our group.”

“Yeah ok I guess. You found my weakness, being asked to join a group.”

Uhhh… I’m doing you a favor here. You don’t have to be in my group if you don’t want to be. I don’t really care either way.

Teacher – “has everyone found a group?”

Dan whispering to us – “ehhhhhhhhh” as he wobbles his hand back and forth

Me – “If you don’t want to be in our group now’s your chance.”

He either doesn’t hear me or ignores it. This guys a pretty good programmer so he’ll be good on the team but I just don’t get it. If you don’t want to be in the group then don’t be. I swear my feelings won’t be hurt. Notice, I didn’t seek you out immediately either.

TALE THE SECOND

2 weeks in into app development we had to present what we had so far. Of course being seniors we hadn’t done anything besides set up our programming environment. Here I took matters into my own hands and got to work making a nice little user interface for us to show to the class.

Not too bad for a mock-up if I do so say so myself.

Then our team fell into what I like to think of as “The Dark Week.” No one in the group did anything in our final week due to our senioritis. So it was the last day and the project was so far from completion that I basically had to pull an all-nighter to finish it up. I had good help from the guy who came up with the app (Travis) and zero help from errant group member Dan. Dan has actually contributed no code to our project even now at the end.

For those interested, some of the tech talk. I designed this initial UI and Travis fixed it up as well as figured two big problems. 1. How do we send information from our UI screen to our service running in the background? 2. How do we populate a list of checkboxes from your phones previously saved networks? My code on this final part was basically implementing all the functionality. I made it do all the things it was supposed to do and solved the problems 1. How do we use the info sent from the UI in the backend? 2. How do we switch the phone into airplane mode? 3. How do we implement a service that runs in the background and checks for updates at given intervals of time? It was a good challenge and despite the hell of staying up all night, I enjoyed making it.

TALE THE LAST

So today came and we had to present our final app. It had all the functionality and was ready to go. As team member Dan had done no part of the development we decided he should at least do the talking for our presentation. We got up to the front of the class, Dan was ready to talk, Travis was manning operating the app while Dan spoke and I was just standing there looking like death. Dan began talking

“Hey guys, we’re team Signalz and this is our app.

This is our splash screen. Press start and we move to the main screen of our application. See here you see a list of networks and you can check or uncheck them and then our app will connect to them. From there you can click the button at the bottom to turn on the service and phone will go into airplane mode. When you become unconnected to the internet the phone will turn airplane mode on”

Can you figure out what our app does from that? I sure can’t. After this I had my doubts that Dan even knew what our application does. He made it seem like the main functionality was connecting to wifi networks. I’m still pissed. After I put in all that effort into making the app look good and function well, Dan completely misses the point in the presentation. He didn’t even mention you don’t have to have the app open for it to function. Sweet dude.

In conclusion:

Despite being a decent team member last semester Dan has taken a turn for the abso-fucking-lutely useless. Next project I'm either going to have to make him work or keep him from doing anything, awesome. The app is finished and we may release it to the market soon depending on how much clean-up is actually left to do and how hard it is to upload it. I had fun though and I'm excited for the next app. If you have any suggestions I'm all ears too.

Magic: The Blogging-Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease

As usual, if you don’t care for magic then skip this post. I’m just going to recap the Prerelease tournament.

Deck building:

The initial pack opening was a little different then usual to prevent cheating. I’m unsure why Topps bothered with this since even Get Your Game on doesn’t but whatever. You opened 6 packs (3 Scars of Mirrodin, 3 Mirrodin Besieged) and then wrote down all the cards in the packs. These aren’t the cards you get to keep though. You put these cards into a bag with the list of all the cards and pass it in to the organizer. He then mixed them up and handed them out again. So basically you don’t keep the cards you opened, you cards someone else opened and catalogued. I really disliked this since there’s a certain special feeling that goes with opening a fresh pack and slowly scrolling to the rare in the back. Robbing us of that feeling on Prerelease day seemed kinda shitty.

My pool of cards wasn’t too bad though. I ended up with a G/B infect deck that was quite potent. My all star cards were “Inkmoth Nexus,” “Skinwing,” and “Massacre Wurm” mixed with a bunch of little poison dudes. I stole many of the games by wiping the board with my worm then sticking equipment on a poison dude. Skinwing in particular was awesome at pushing through the last few poison counters. I don’t think I really made any mistakes in my deckbuilding this time.

Match 1:

I don’t remember much about the specifics of this match. He was G/B poison too but his cards just didn’t match up to mine and I played pretty tightly. I won both games fairly quickly due in part to Massacre Wurm giving me massive amounts of card advantage.

Match Record 1-0 Game Record 2-0

Match 2:

My opponent this round was definitely the best I played that day. He was playing an aggressive R/W Metalcraft deck. He generated tons of 1/1 myr tokens and bashed me as fast as he could. Game one I lost, but slowed him down a lot with my infect guys with big toughness. He finished me off with his Mirrian Crusader which really should be an auto win against my deck. I think if hadn’t played that card I could have taken him down. Game 2 I won by slowly gaining card advantage with beneficial blocks. I also wiped the board twice, Once with Creeping Corrosion and once with Massacre Wurm. Both those cards came at very good times for me, though I did do my best to slow roll them. The Creeping Corrosion killing his Wurmcoil Engine tokens and the Massacre Wurm took down his Mirrian Crusader when I needed it to. I finished him off with a 5/5 infecter. After game 2 there were only 3 minutes left in the round. We did our best to play fast but the clock ran out and we were forced to draw. I think I could have beat him and Dan Buck agrees. This draw came back to haunt me.

Match Record 1-0-1 Game Record 2-1-1

Match 3:

I was paired against a 12 year old and I was happy to come into an easy win that round... Oh fuck. Game 1 I beat him easily, he misplays all over the place by making terrible blocks and playing crappy 1/1 dudes. Game 2 gets interesting. He plays his crappy dudes and hits me for about 3 before I get my sweet infecting blockers out. Then he plays 2 “burn the impure” on my guys, killing them and doming me for 6. He then hits me for another 3 or so. I play a giant 5/5 infect dude and stabilize my board. On his turn he draws and immediately plays “Red Sun Zenith”, which is a fireball that shuffles back into the library, to kill my big dude and hits me for 3 again. Ok that sucks, but whatever. I set out more blockers and stabilize again. He draws Red Zenith again and fireballs me for the last few damage. Fuck! So this kid still can’t play for shit but he’s got a kick ass deck against me. Game 3 happens much like Game 2 “Red Sun Zenith you for 5” Draw it again “Red Sun zenith you for the win.” Dumb.

Match Record 1-1-1 Game Record 3-3-1

Match 4:

With my record diminished I face a meatball in my 4^th round. He makes mistakes then tries to take them back. I let him because he’s not going to win anyways. The only time I don’t is when I’m about to win the game and he trying to rearrange his blockers after he declared them already. But he’s a nice enough guy and the matches are decent. I beat him both games fairly easily.

Match Record 2-1-1 Game Record 5-3-1

Match 5:

I’m facing off against poppa magic this round. This is actually my round 3 opponent’s dad. Shit, now I better beat him. His deck is mediocre, he plays some good cards but also some really terrible ones. You can tell he has some trouble figuring out what’s good and what isn’t. He does, however, play much better than junior so I still have to keep it pretty tight. I beat him both games by wiping the board and hitting him with a 5/5 infect. Good shit.

Match Record 3-1-1 Game record 7-3-1

So my odds for top 8 right now are decent. Unfortunately there were a good number of people with a record of 4-1. Only one person with my record can get in but it unfortunately isn’t me. Both my round 2 opponent and my round 3 opponent (nice job kid…) make it into the top 8 so I don’t know how someone with my record had better tiebreakers than me, but sometimes that’s just the way it is. I ask the organizer my place in the standings. Apparently I was 9^th, shit.

BSE? Round 3 Part 1

Shit's getting real now. This round is going down in two 8 song parts partly because I'm writing more for these later rounds and partly because 16 at one time is a lot.

Match 3.1

Victor: Brian Wilson - BNL

Defeated: Peacebone – Animal Collective

Why did this song deserve to be here?

What a cool song. To those who don’t know the band this might actually be animal collectives most accessible song. Once you get past the noise intro there’s a pop song in there. Of course being animal collective it’s still quite original and noisy. There’s a galloping synthesizer keeping the beat throughout the whole song and space age noises come in to provide our countermelody to the vocals. Speaking of which I don’t think the lyrics make much sense but they do sound good. This is one of those cases where each individual sentence is more important than a cohesive whole. Lines like “I was a jugular vein in a juggler’s girl” don’t really make much sense but damn do they sound sweet. Of course he even addresses this somewhat in one nugget of wisdom “It’s not my words that you should follow, it’s your insight”

Why did it lose?

I know it’s odd that I brought back a first round to have it go all the way to the 4^th round. But the first round was easily the hardest match BNL has faced and of all the other 3^rd round songs Peacebone is one of the easiest. Not to take anything away from the song or Brian Wilson’s victory but I think I can only see maybe 1 or 2 more remaining songs on the list Brian Wilson could have beat. Spoiler warning: this song will lose next round

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxvGHQHiY70 (hmmm that’s an odd one (Though I would expect no less FROM ac….))

Match 3.2

Victor: A Day in the Life – The Beatles

Defeated: Stand by Me – Ben E. King

Why did it deserve to be here?

This is one of the most recognizable songs out there. Of course it helps that it has one of the most common chord progressions ever. It’s actually often referred to as the “Stand by Me Progression” and it goes C Am F G for the musically inclined. Some of the songs it’s in are Earth Angel, Duke of Earl, Every Breath you Take and This Magic Moment. So how does a song with such a common progression be so recognizable. Well it definitely starts with the bass. It gives us our first taste of the background riff and continues throughout the song. This riff’s picked up by the orchestration later in the song. I must say that adding strings to a pop song often cheapens it and makes it sound over produced but they work very well in Stand By Me. I think this is due to the simplisticness of the other parts, the song’s not trying to do too much.

Why did it lose?

Another causality of The Beatles. A Day in the Life is so damn good

Match 3.3

Victor: No Woman No Cry – Bob Marley

Defeated: Like a Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan

Why did it deserve to be here?

What a strange song for a folk artist. There’s such a strange hate coming off of this song. I guess I always knew that it was about the fall of someone a little too big for their britches but this is the first long look I’ve taken at the song in a while and I’m really seeing a lot contempt in the lyrics. It’s strange though, there’s definitely pity present too. Wiki suggests that Bobby was referring to a friend of Andy Warhol who had some sort of fall. That’s all well and good but I think it’s a bit more general than that and Dylan is referring to that sort of extravagant lifestyle in general.

The song had some interesting effects on the music world too. For one it was the first single to break out despite being well over 3 minutes (clocking out at 6 minutes and 13 seconds) This is also the song where Bobby got famously booed for using electric instruments because he was “selling out [man]” Reportedly someone even shouted “Judas” at him during one of his concerts. Fucking Hippies eh?

The song definitely sounds like Dylan with some of the most famous instances of Dylan’s particular vocal style (e.g. HOw does it FEEEEeeel.) We’ve got Bob tearing up the harmonica at various points in the song too. Our big stand-out instrumentation wise though has to be the organ which plays throughout the song and has a very unique and interesting quality to it.

I’m happy to say that Bob likes this song as much as we do. It kills me when artists don’t like their own songs (see Sweet Child of Mine and GNR.) So I’m glad to hear Bob’s Opus is among his own favorites.

Why did it lose?

This is the first of the real giants to fall and it took a giant to do it. I think many (most) would disagree with this pick but I gotta go with my own instincts. Marley crafted a masterpiece and gets me every time.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk3mAX5xdxo

Match 3.4

Victor: Lost in the Supermarket – The Clash

Defeated: For What it’s Worth – Buffalo Springfield

Why did it deserve to be here?

Great in it’s simplicity. The main riff in this song are two one measure long notes. Of course there’s lots of other assorted guitar parts scattered through the song and they’re richy and twangy. I always thought this was a Vietnam war song but apparently it’s about some small riotish happenings over clubgoing, huh. But this song gets it’s notoriety for being a representative of this 60’s generation of civil unrest. It may be about curfews and clubs at it’s core but it’s applicability to so much of the sixties makes it so much more memorable.

Why did it lose?

Jeez, it’s not getting any easier is it? I love FWIW but I just can’t pick it over the Clash here. Probably another controversial pick, but I think it’s the right one.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZP0pzDRtQw

Match 3.5

Victor: Heroes – David Bowie

Defeated: Time After Time – Cyndi Lauper

Why did it deserve to be here?

This song is an utter heartbreaker and a song of hope at the same time. Cyndi’s talking about leaving someone and the uncertainty that goes with. The chorus reassures us “If you’re lost you can look and you will find me, Time After Time.” These few repeated lines that make up the chorus really drive home the point. Themes of leaving, distance, and memories are all touched upon in the verse but none of that is as important the support Cyndi offers.

The music is sooooooo eighties too and I love it. Synthes and electronic drum beats only fit the mood in very specific songs and mostly these songs are overly poppy 80’s Jams (see She Blinded Me With Science, I Wear My Sunglasses at Night, Living in a Box etc.) Somehow Lauper turned this synth beats into something that fits a serious composition perfectly. The ticking clock in the background is especially effective. It’s thematically spot on and musically interesting.

Why did it lose?

It’s hard to even say, both these hold special places for me. I think Bowie is better musically though. Cyndi is pretty damn eighties too.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdQY7BusJNU

Match 3.6

Victor: Boys of Summer – Don Henley

Defeated: Come on Eileen – Dexy’s Midnight Runners

Why did it deserve to be here?

I’ve told people before that if I ever had a daughter Eileen would be my first pick for names. “Eileen? Like from the song?” Yeah, from the song. “Isn’t Eileen like a sexual object in that song? Is that how you want people to see her? I remember that line about the dress” Wtf, shut up. It’s a pretty name from a pretty song. Everyone I tell this has pretty much this same reaction and I want to slap them.

The song itself is a marvelous hoedown. The video is awesome with the band members all wearing overalls without shirts and playing banjos. The lyrics are fun and happy and the music matches it well. Just an all around hit.

Why did it lose?

My gut wanted Come on Eileen, it’s been one of my favorites for song long! But I have to admit that Boys is objectively better. Though I don’t think I share quite the enthusiasm that Rushlow has for it. It was close.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc-P8oDuS0Q

Match 3.7

Victor: The Modern Leper – Frightened Rabbit

Defeated: Stan - Eminem

Why did it deserve to be here?

Drew has been giving me flack the whole way along here about this song. I still agree with all of those picks though easily. Listening to Stan still gives me chills to this day. It’s easy to make a song that’s sad or a song that’s happy but what about those other emotions? Eminem captures anger, fear, paranoia and obsession in this 7 minute package. First off the Dido sample is amazing. “Thank You” (The source material) is a cheery song about how things are ok with someone in your life. So Eminem takes this happy tale and turns it around completely. Suddenly the someone isn’t a significant other, it’s a distant celebrity. The one thing keeping Stan sane is the thought of Eminem in his life (“with your picture on my wall, it reminds me that it’s not so bad.”) He tries repeatedly to contact Shady and get a response back with no success. This eventually leads him into a dark spiral that ends with a brutal suicide in which he also kills his pregnant girlfriend.

Slim comes in at the end as a voice of reason for Stan, but of course by now his letter’s too late. This an interesting perspective from the celebrity side of the artist-observer equation. Slim is commenting how the celebrity can’t always be everything the fan wants them to be. This case is especially exaggerated as Stan is looking for soulmate of sorts, but it can applied to the fan who wants a regular correspondence or special recognition as well.

The style of the song of the song is perfect. Slim distinguishes his own voice from the teetering character Stan using extra desperation and anger in the voice whereas “Slim” speaks with more of a calming concerned voice. Stan also sounds like a fan and references concerts and songs much like a fan would. The verses sound like letters but still hold to a flow and rhyming scheme. Eminems words are calculated well and the song achieves all the goals Slim has set.

Why did it lose?

Both have pretty fantastic lyrics. Maybe it’s just my personal tastes of Pop/Indie music over Hip-Hop pushing Modern Leper over the top. Leper has a great tune saddled with it’s poignant words.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snHfdV3gw9Q

Match 3.8

Victor: The Message – Grandmaster Flash

Defeated: Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag – James Brown

Why did it deserve to be here?

Ok, this is a pretty sweet song but it took a pretty weak bracket to bring it to the third round. It probably would have lost to Sweet Child o’ Mine immediately if it wasn’t for the fact that GNR doesn’t like the song themselves. 99 Problems ain’t exactly a hard 2^nd round either. All that aside it’s just one of those sweet old dance songs. This is really how dance should be done. The horns are kickin’ James Brown is bringing the funk and everything is in it’s right place.

Why did it lose?

The Message does deserve it’s spot handily, you gotta give it to the Grandmaster.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtqDB2spyG0 (I wish all music videos were like this)

Fifty

At the age of ten every cousin on my Dad’s side spent a week with our grandparents in Florida. This was a big BIG deal. You got to ride the plane by yourself and then spend a week with Grandma and Grandpa doing all the Florida stuff like Disney land and Universal studios. At the beginning of the trip my dad came over to me and reached into his pocket and pulled out a 50 dollar bill “Now this fifty dollars is yours to spend however you like while you’re in Florida with Grandpa and Grandma. So bring back some nice souvenirs” Now to my ten-year-old self 50 bucks was an insurmountable amount of money. It was a sum of cash that couldn’t be spent in a lifetime. I was overjoyed and vowed not to waste it.

When I got to Florida I had a great time. I got to go to Disney land and do all the things I hadn’t done before. Though, I was still a little too scared to go on Space Mountain. I didn’t get to meet Mickey, though we tried very hard. And all the while, in the back of my head was the fifty. Every souvenir stand I passed I scorned, “What would I do with that after I brought home?” I kept asking myself.

Eventually, the trip neared its end and still intact was my fifty dollar bill. My grandpa, grandma and I were visiting somewhere I don’t remember and my grandma stopped to go to the bathroom. Outside the women’s restroom there was a classy souvenir shop with golf umbrellas for sale.

“Why don’t you get your father a golf umbrella with some of the money he gave you?” my grandfather asked.

I scrounged my head on this one. It seemed like a nice thing to do but I couldn’t figure out what the difference was between a golf umbrella and a regular one. So why get one when we have at 5 at home?

“I just don’t see the point, what would he do with it?”

My grandfather is the kindest and most polite man I have ever known. He’s soft spoken, intelligent and a true gentleman, especially when it comes to my grandmother. He avoids confrontation and chuckles often in conversation to prevent awkward gaps.

“You know what, that’s selfish. Your father gave you fifty dollars and you won’t even spend ten of it on him, absolutely selfish.”

I was in shock. I had never heard this man be angry about anything and here he was angry at me. He didn't raise his voice or act like I was in trouble he just let it be known I was complete disappointment to him at that point in time. The disdain and disgust in his voice is something I won't ever forget.

“But I don’t get why…”

“There’s no excuse. This is absolutely greedy and I can’t believe you.”

At this moment my grandmother returned. I was in tears but hid my face so she wouldn’t notice. My grandfather said nothing and continued to have a stern expression about him for the rest of the day. We never said anything about it again and I’ve never seen my grandfather angry since then and I hope I never ever do.

When I returned from Florida my dad asked me what souvenirs I’d bought and I told him I didn’t get any.

“What? None? Well ok.” And he took his fifty back.

Insomniac

Sleep in the night has been a rare commodity these days. It's extremely unfortunate since I have a class at 10:30 on North campus this semester. It's 6:45 and I'm not even tired so what's the point when I have to wake at 9:30? I spent all of Saturday trying to adjust my schedule by missing sleep the night before and it seemed like it was going to work since I passed out quickly the next night at a reasonable 2am. But then tonight rolled around and I wasn't even tired by four but by then I had to try. I've been sitting here in my bed for two and a half hours. I may have to resort to drugs soon or at least beer.

Loose ends

The end of school breaks always remind me of things I wanted to do but didn't get the chance. There were countless magic decks I wanted to make, video games I wanted to play, books I wanted to read (song contests I wanted to update...) These are of course just the material things, really I just wanted to spend more time with friends and family. My parents leaving early to go on vacation is a reminder that breaks near over and I won't see a lot of people again for a long time.

Break is a constant "There's always tomorrow" and now I've reached the last day I can truly say that. I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow yet. The Hamily wants to have an early dinner at five but I also promised Emaley I'd spend some time with her and I already kinda ditched her today in the same fashion. And of course there's Jay, Kevin and Ryan too who I all would like to see before the break ends.

With all these loose ends I'm just hoping I can wrap up a couple of them.