Saturday, August 29, 2015

Recruiters, If you cannot view my code or demos than FUCK OFF!

Kind of simple folks, REAL RECRUITERS care bout product si much that they actually look at android app and UI demos, than there are those who take on a recruiter label but just are inf act scum lower than a fucking snake.

If you are a recruiter and will not view my demos, than do not fucking contact me PERIOD!

Thursday, August 27, 2015

The Chinese Sky is Falling!

The Chinese Sky is Falling! Better Run and hide under a Rock!

Now, for what really happened. Pretend for a moment that Communist China is a big VC firm. To keep Chinese money invested at home they decide on a business and job creation spree.

Except 30 years ago there was not many ready-made-businesses. So they kind of invented a few which in turn did not really have plans to make profits.  Short-term, it goes really well as they get 10% economic growth, jobs are created, and middle class Chinese invest money in China.

Than after 30 years with not enough consumer spending growth in China to create more real jobs for non-zombie companies everything goes poof to the point where China now will only see about 3% economic growth.

Gee, you mean China will along with US VCs invest in those firms that have a solid plan for profitability in 3 to 5 years?

Folks, the sky is not falling as there still is plenty of rich middle class Chinese with money to burn in the investment markets. Change is good not bad.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

StartUps-China Melt Down

China melted oh darn it.  If you are a funded start-up than obviously you need to stretch the capital you have as it more capital deals will not be coming for awhile.

If you have not reached seed capital funding yet, its either break it down into something smaller that can funded via service consulting fees or pull the plug.

Monday, August 24, 2015

The Benefits Of MS goofing up Upgrading to Win10

The benefits of MS goofing up upgrading to Win10:

1. OS lacks the added hooks that report geo-location, etc to MS every 30 minutes for the US Federal Government to  over-apply warrant to..
2 OS runs faster.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Recruiters and temp Firms

I do android remote freelancing. That means I work remotely and ask for the first week as a cash advance. Please stop spamming my LinkedIN inbox, Google email, and my Google Voice number unless you can meet those two terms.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Freelance Marketing

You know it's funny, we have certain freelance sites that seem to better to cater to developers in wanting to see developers well-paid like Upwork, Toptal, Gun.io, etc.  But, if we search github or even Behance we do not find the other full marketing piece.

What I mean by a full marketing piece is that if one is using these freelance sites to hopefully write a RFP that gets the result of a gig awarded than one would want this full marketing piece that will with the choices of visual demos and polished website ad copy viscerally hit the intended marketing target in such a way to cause that target full read the RFP rather than scan or glance at it.

While I can do type of systems study and find out when gigs get listed at these freelance sites(some are even easier to figure out..gun.io was somewhat simple even), its still that visual visceral reaction that I need to trigger to get-the-door-open.

This is why I insist in talking to co-founders rather than recruiters as recruiters have no sense of product or marketing. And quite frankly, throwing it at the wall to see what sticks is not marketing. Its more of the interruption spam that we see on TV and hear on radio.

Co-founders have a sense of product and marketing and I somewhat like those conversations about techniques.  But to get back to thing-at-hand, the reason why I have been figuring out how certain libraries and widgets work is that I need to collect all those things in my own massive project that than shows demos covering certain areas of android native java application development in a certain visual way.

Than I can take those visual items and add ad copy to that in a nice github page that get's seen first during the quick scan of the RFP that every potential client does. The reason I do not think the RFP matters that much as most freelance sites have divorced the developer interaction during the request for proposals document preparation to such an extent that its better to hit them visually with something stunning and than just some bullet points in the RFP. As you will end up redoing the RFP anyway when you write the contract in that you will ask all the questions that the client did not answer before and re-write the RFP you did in terms of assumptions, weekly milestones, etc.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Gun.io Your Pathetic

Let's see let's make a disaster. I start putting very detailed complaints in certain RFPs at gun.io, the rfps where the gun.io staff is writing the request for rfp. Staff sees the complaint and approves the complaint ridden rfp that I have written to be seen by client.

Way to Gun.io staff..you cannot make this idiot shit up..how many gun.io employees does it take to screw a client and the developer?

Saturday, August 15, 2015

is Google DataBinding Wrong II?

Okay, so lets review with some new information. First, two-way communication between ViewModel and Model and View.

Obviously, one can use an even bus such as Otto to wire up that other mode of communication from your UI widgets to ViewModel. And by making the event objects pojos with no android calls in them that means they are testable.

SO the fly-in-the-soup is how much is put into the generated classes. Right now, the doc reads setters and getters. Thus we can test for values but a small part of the logic you put into the xml files to enable data binding obviously is not in the getters and setters.

I am just going to have to work some examples to wrap my head around this..

Thursday, August 13, 2015

is Google DataBinding Wrong?

I have this deep sense that the putting of view logic into the xml-IDE-editing system removes the value that this part offers in being part of the View-Model POJO. The sense comes from the testing JSP, etc.

The problem now is how do I prove it in a way that makes sense to most developers both beginning and advance. The other aspect is maybe Google is cooking something up to use the tools-lib to assist the xml-IDE combination to do some sort of view logic testing.

Angel.co UI Sucks

Not the site mission but the overall implementation of the user-Interface.  We are suppose to be able to search the site to find those start-ups that are funded and that are offering dev positions with salary amounts and stock potion amounts listed.

The distinct problem is that when most start-ups lie about salary, ie they are not funded to the point of paying that salary, the current User-Interface becomes this prison of lying games.

The other aspect is that when start-ups do not get adequate funds to cover any operational costs they instead refuse to list the investment round amount. So it becomes a game of hide and seek in determining any funding amounts.

And quite frankly it's a truth in advertising issue or FTC issue if a start-up is listing salary on a job posting ad and has no money to pay for such a salary. And it's just as bad as someone coming into your email inbox and claiming your skills fit a job when they have no idea what your skills are or what the job skills are of the job they are peddling.

This is why I am looking for that start-up that refuses to use recruiters and HR to find an android developer as they than already understand the marketing problem and are willing to go all-out to solve it. That means something in terms of user advocacy in that is more probable that start-up will give a shit about the product in terms of the user as they understand the marketing impact when they do not have the full detailed attention of the co-founders brought to bear on the problem.

And quite frankly the caring about the marketing of the start-up and the advocacy of the user of the products has to come from the top  of the start-up at the level of the co-founders. With having to act as a un-breakable team the individual teeam members do not have the political power to correct marketing or user treatment if it does not flow from the top-down.

I want to find a start-up that gets this and quite frankly the Angel.co UI is in the way of that task.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Gun.io Sucks

Let me state that the concept of Gun.io is unique in that use your github.com repos to qualify as a developer and gun.io assists in the client coming up with the repo and determining if client has enough budget to get something developed. No worrying about the client having money, its handled by gun.io. And a guarantee for the client.

What could go wrong? Well, quite a bit actually if its the wrong implementation.

Let's do this the system analysis way. What is the intermediate product?  One is the project being developed, the process, and the rfp being developed, again the process. Why? Because that is the two things the client interfaces with and if those are not right than other competitors beat Gun.io in amount of projects completed and developers signed. Currently Toptal and UPwork do exactly that feat.

They key problems stem from having the client annonymous until a developer is chosen. Why? Because the expertise to determine if the rfp is technically feasible and costs feasible is not in Gun.io staff's hands as that expertise among specialized areas such as mobile native front ends and other front-ends is in hands of the developers who are members of gun.io.

Thus we have gun.io assisting in detailing the rfp without relying upon the expertise of the crowd of developers they have gathered. HOW THE EFF CAN THAT WORK? In fact it does not in fact work. I just ran into another example where the client wanted to do this experimental thing and it was mentioned in the rfp that Gun.io had a hand in detailing where client wants it done in Unity via a dll on android and the C/C++ apis are locked up by Google requiring root permissions and thus can only be done via java apis as a native android java application not a unity dll. Not to mention that fact that experimental projects are always rfp'd differently because in fact is experimental, often times its a retainer rather than rfp. How the eff could Gun.io miss that?

If Gun.io would have the client named instead of anonymous, one can use the contracts between clients and developers to enforce communication using gun.io, one could implement a RFP issues board where developers could open issues during the several weeks-to-months process of detailing the RFP to alert the client to technical and budget issues in the RFP. In fact some of Gun.io's competitors in factt do this feat.

The other major problem is that the RFP editing process is not git versioned. Why not? RFP's on Gun.io's system get changed all the time without any clues to the thought process involved or the assumptions made leaving the developer in the position of having to guess whereas if it was git versioned we as developers would be able to see some of the thought process in terms of changes to the rfp.  The other aspect is when that RFP changes the developer is not allowed to change their proprosal.  SAY WHAT THE EFF?

Another aspect is there is no two-way commuication, sending email to Gun.io is like sending it to a black-box where nothing comes out. A way around this is to set up an issue board where the Gun.io staff has two or three dasy to clear issues posted on a day. And this for both the developer and clients who are members of Gun.io.

Another aspect of the RFP system Gun.io has set up is that you may have thousands sending proposals which means essentially Gun.io's promise that developer's questions will get answered by the client during the project award process are somewhat meaning-less and somewhat naive. A better way to handle it is drop the anonymous client attribute and have an issue board set up for each open rfp combined with having the rfp git versioned so developers see the edits and allowing developers to modify their proposals after they are submitted(marked as a new proposal version, of course).


Another aspect of the product is the developer process as it touches both Gun.io and the client. Would it be so effing hard to set up a system whereas when the project is awarded to the developer and the developer accepts that a private https Slack channel be set up for communication between the developer and client. Slack has an api to do things like that.

Gun.io really could be a neat system to use for those firms needing development, if someone really paid attention to the effing product!

And I will not even get into the failing write for Gun.io project due to lack of action Gun.io's staff part.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

MobileApp State of the Nation

In 1985 a song came out by John Cougar Mellencamp called Face-of-Nation in which during the recession and Reagan as president, he blasted the GOP reaction of ignoring the poor and the working classes.  Here it is another recession, this time world-wide, and we are starting to see the beginning of the effects of automation in that there are less jobs for us humans.

Everyone is worried that less jobs for humans might be a bad thing.  But, we forgotten some important elements and trends that may lead us to a brighter future.  As human-kind is put online we as humans in our business and public and private lives produce a lot of information.

The disadvantage of our technological state right now is that no system or systems have a mature enough computer language and or AI to automatically adjust to the new data in the act of organizing and transforming it. In short words people are making mobile applications to organize and transform this data in the task of feeding this human-kind-internet beast.

Which means we will see more small businesses making mobile applications as a means to earn revenues and profits. That means there is a mix and symbiotic relationship between the big platform start-ups like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc and the mobile application makers.

It is not a big-start-up-fits-everything type of evolution.  And that also dovetails into how we should approach both providing capital and providing education resources as we need both capital raised for big start-ups and the small mobile app makers and we need both those who just learn the basics of coding and those who make the higher sacrifice and actually go through the full process of completing a computer science degree.

I do not have all the answers for you, I just know that given certain trends that we are doing it wrong in this big all-encompassing focus on big start-ups. As we need both the big platform start-ups, the middle-sized start-ups, and the mobile application makers that integrate with those and have success as small businesses.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Peter Thiel's Social Bling

It might seem strange to put Peter Thiel's words in the consumer light, but I assure you it will hit you like a-ton-of-bricks.  For reference, if you google search for Start-up classroom notes pdf you will find that someone has prepared acopy of notes for you to reference his thesis as he presented that in his start-up class.

One part of Theil's thesis is he makes the point that since the 1970s income and salaries in real money terms have not increased but declined.  Now, it gets interesting in that what do we grab when we give up?

Some of you will say, illegal drugs and drink, etc. You are not wrong in that there is a whole slew things we grab as distractions from that realization that we are not making any headway or progress. But, somewhat humans are positive animals they tend to even though they may be facing no progress economically they than will search for ways to make progress in a social status manner.

Or put another way, Facebook and twitter have reached the decade old status. Fads usualy start to decline after 5 years so why has not facebook and twitter declined but instead are not fads?  It goes back to why use some our time to buy a facebook or twitter
distraction? I mean we don't do it with Email or SMS.

The key here is that people are using their time to buy something that acts as bling in that it elevates their social status. How does this pertain to mobile applications?

If I am right than the aspect of making a mobile application in some whay the user transformer in that it makes a user a hero in their social network and thus the social likes and tweets become part of the social bling trail that someone would use to eventually download and or buy the mobile application. In short words, your friend sees the social juice you received with a mobile applicaiton and they want the same social bling in their social network.

So its not enough to integrate with a mobile activity but we have to make that user the hero within their social network of their peers. As their peers see that elevation of their friend  than they will want the same mobile application that resulted in that social elevation of their friend.

This is differen than Kevin Rose's theory of gamification. In Kevin Rose's mind Zynga rose because of gamification. Unfortunately, Zynga in fact rose due to abuse of facebook's refusal to enforce policies and that was highlighted when facebook's enforced their policies and Zynga fell crashing to the ground.  Gamification in most respects divorces the incremental rewards from the effects of elevating the application users social status among their peers. Kevin Rose found in his own start-up that gamification without elevating the social status of the mobile application user as part of the application user interactions is nto effective at surging a mobile application download and usage growth curve.

Going back to the RapChat example, one could make an avatar award system whereas the avatar you use on the rap forum boards changes in that as your raps get noticed you are awarded points to buy more accessories to accessorize, ie bling out, your avatar. It sounds corny, right?  Its not, elevate the social status of the mobile application user through interacting with the mobile application. That is the growth curve right there, make it act like social bling in the user's life in their social network!

Some further points. No, its not described in the Google Android Application Marketing documents. But, by the same token its not in the iOS application marketing documents either. But, there are some sublte hints that maybe Yahoo, Google, Apple, and Microsoft while they do not yet fully subscribe to the theory I have expressed here are in fact opening their minds to such things.

Monday, August 3, 2015

DONT BE RAPCHAT

Okay, time for me to get into trouble. So here is a typical
Angel.co start-up named RapChat

RapChat Angel.co profile


The key words in there profile:


400,000 users in 2015


You should notice that they do not list the total users for 2015 nor give a listing of users gained each year in existance, Rapchat has been around since 2013.

RapChat is a music application, you listen to some music and compose a rap that is recorded than shared. But, what part of the full music audience are we dealing with?


Now, I am going to talk about something dear to my mobile application developer's heart....the audience.

In the USA there are about 220 million mobile users online. One percent of 220 million is 2 million. Hence, why most VCs and Angels use it as a guage to whether to trigger funding.

Side note, you as that start-up like RapChat that does not yet have seed capital funding needs to avoid the mistake of attempting to double down on two mobile platform and and define the 3 different audiences; early adopters, mid-stream adopters, and late adopters.

Karaoke bars exist because some segment of the population wanted to sing-a-long with western songs to emulate westerners. That is why it was cutural trend in Japan and spread to those areas of the US with large Japanese populations.

So in RapChat's case we have to know why a person would choose to rap. Or to put another way why is rap chosen as form of expression and what forms of expression does rap replace. And that is part of the problem with the application in that rap is a cultural experience.

There is in the urban environments where rap is heard a whole cultural experience of trying to one-up your friend with raps and those within that rap culture see rap as the new form of poetry what was originally song prose in the form of both blues and jazz.

RpaChat has forgotten that part of that cultural experience in the rap culture was in fact social.  In other words the back-end ot the RapChat application is not an enabling rap socialization platform. You have to replace the environment that originally gave rise to rap with a back-end that gives an audience to someone composing the rap.

What do I mean? It could be a simple as contests for some gift card, listen to this music song, compose a rap with the song, and submit the rap for a chance at winning the gift card. And than you turn around and tell a story about that gift card winner what work they do what things in life they do, etc.

Side note, I have worked for music start-ups in the past and they always make the mistake of not making the user of the music appliation a star socially. One tiny story every month, ho-hum ho-hum.


And you will notice that you are attacking two different goals at once with those contests. One, raising MAUs. Two, raising the number of new users.


In summary, if at pre-seed capital stage do not double-down on another mobile platform. Pay attention to the audience and figure out how to make them stars. When your start-up reaches the seed capital stage($1 Million to $5 Million) than you can start planning on porting the iphone application to android as at that point it makes ROI sense as that increase in numbers beyond the 2 million in users will than trigger the next funding round.

This is why I insist on being interviewed at my location over a paid subway meal as I want to find out if the co-founder staff of the start-up understand how to get an audience. If they do not than there is no use of me joining the start-up as most developers are not listen to in the aspects of gaining an audience, etc and so it is easier for that to happen if the top staff knows how to get an audience.