Book: The Inner Game

The actual title of the book that I just read is called "The Inner Game of Tennis", but this post is not about tennis.

This was a great read, and you should read this book if you play sports and have ever wondered why you play good one day and bad the next. This book may help you have a more consistent and higher gameplay.

I wrote a whole bunch of notes as I read, and you can read them on GitHub.

If it's too much trouble to click a link, then here's the TLDR (Too Long; Didn't Read) that shares just a few of the biggest points:

• There is an inner game and outer game. There are already many great resources on the outer game.
• During practice, analyze your movements (methods includes "feeling" it, mirrors, video playback) and don't try to force any change. During game play, just let it happen naturally; trust yourself.
• Experiment with many different playing styles. The "right" style may be different for different people.
• You still may need some good outer game practice in order to gain more from these inner game tips.
• If you dislike competition, then you have the wrong idea about it.
• When playing, if you have any anxieties or frustrations, then you aren't a player of the inner game.

And, if you have already read this book or any of the other "Inner Game" books, then I'd be happy to hear your biggest take-aways.

~ Danial Goodwin ~

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A Few Notes On Entrepreneuring

(The following list of notes on entrepreneuring and businesses are in no particular order. I probably could have titled this "Things to know/remember when building your business".)

Difference between a service company and a product company: The first is easily scalable.

Build something that does one thing really well.

Difference between a huge market and the right market.

Experience+knowledge >> knowledge. (Read: Experience and knowledge is much greater than just knowledge.)

"The trend is your friend" when asking for venture capital. Current trends: mobile, cloud, big data, and social.

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Describe your service/product better. Better doesn't mean specific, it means making an impression. Ex: My service is the oracle of big data. The words you should use evolve with time and with usage by others. The best copy now should use just one of the following: comprehensive, genuine, convenient , accessible, prestigious, premier, pioneers, quality, we obsolete .

Other terms should be purposely excluded because they are either overused, not true, or sound templated: innovative, groundbreaking, fresh, leader, unique. It is tough to know which words to stay away from; you don't want to make people doubtful and put their defenses up. One tip is to keep up-to-date with everything investors, businesses, and consumers see.

I have much more to say about this, but it could take up at least two more long blog posts. Here's a small list of currently neutral descriptive words for your business: functional, effectively, revitalizes, the original. "My business is a multinational corporation" could mean that I run a website.)
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Descriptions should appeal to each of the senses. (Copy is very important)

There are always tradeoffs. Know them.

"People who get MBAs learn how to draw timelines."

The ability to communicate effectively is your strongest asset.

When building for businesses, the ultimate goal is to either raise revenue or reduce costs.

"Engineers are not hired to create programs, they are hired to create business value."

Any more quick thoughts? What are your first thoughts? Then what are your second thoughts?
~ Simply Advanced ~

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Cross-Platform Tools For Mobile App Development

This summer I'll be experimenting with different cross-platform tools in order to be more efficient with my time. The development tools that I'm mainly looking at will create native code code for each platform that the app runs on. The biggest reason for this is performance and having a native UI that users are used to with their platform.

So, the collection that follows are my notes I took when researching many of different cross-platform tools.

In doing background research for the cross-platform tools, they are great for basic app creation. But, app can quickly become non-basic as soon as they start accessing native APIs that are only available for a specific platform. Some of the biggest pain points with the cross-platform tools may be integrating other open-source codes, using multi-touch, gestures, and native UI features/paradigms. But, there are cross-platform mobile development tools that help with those features.

A big note on using cross-platform tools to create native apps: It is not "write once, run anywhere" (WORA). The idea of creating these native apps is to maximize code reuse and/or provide a higher abstraction level for development. Up to 50-95% of the code you write can be reused depending on the type of app you are creating.

My Results:
These final choices I made are bias because I didn't want to spend over $1000 for Unity3D. I don't even want to spend $200 for MonoDroid/MonoTouch, but I will if I don't care for the free options as follows. I chose these options mainly because of their documentation, sample APIs, developer communities, and active development. Both of the following are free up to a certain point, but because I am in academia I get to go a little further with the tools.
1. MoSync
2. Titanium by Appcelerator

The following I'm not trying the following until at mid- to late- summer likely (because of cost, it can wait longer...)
1. MonoDroid/MonoTouch: ($99 academic rate per developer, per platform) The regular Mono library is free, but it is just an open source implementation of the .NET framework. It does not include tools for integrating with iOS or Android. Both of these tools integrate Mono into them.

More Specific Notes: (I take a lot of notes directly in Notepad++/Notepad)

/* Cross-platform SDK */

- Mono (native app, C#) (open source): This is just an open source version of the .NET framework to be used anywhere, like in Apple and Linux OS. http://www.mono-project.com
  - Mono for Android (proprietary): Free version only allows small apps and no access to 3rd-party libraries. Lowest paid version is $199 per platform/developer. Academic cost is $99 per platform, per developer (http://support.xamarin.com/customer/portal/articles/177042-do-you-have-any-student-or-academic-pricing-)
  - MonoTouch (for iOS) (proprietary): 
Conclusion: Good if already have much code in C#, or prefer the .NET framework.
- Unity3D - high costs
- Marmalade (native app, C++) ($15 per seat/month;$149 per seat/year): http://www.madewithmarmalade.com/
- Rhodes (HTML/Ruby): Says native app, but seems to be web app with just a native UI. http://www.motorolasolutions.com/US-EN/RhoMobile+Suite/Rhodes
- MoSync (native app, HTML/JS w/optional C/C++ extensions) (open source | Free): Seems promising. Needs Mac for iOS publishing.
- Titanium by Appcelerator (native app, JS) (Free): Uses JavaScript mainly, but it is not a web app. It is translated to native code (but, a web UI ‘could’ be made instead of a native UI). Android, iOS, and web only.
- PhoneGap (web app, HTML/JS): Very limited, though has basic access to camera, contacts, some sensors.

Conclusion: For free, use possibly MoSync or Titanium. For paid, use Xamarin’s MonoTouch/MonoDroid ($99 per developer, per platform)

Wikipedia also has a very long list of potential cross-platform tools to choose from. It may be helpful if you are trying to do more background research into the many different types of development tools that provide non-native code when compiling for different platforms.

Source: I originally put this on my developer blog.

~ Simply Advanced ~

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Quick Notes - 20130221

• "The Presentation of Self" by Erving Goffman (1959)
• We define situations.
• Microsociology, Erving Goffman
• Wallflower, Perks of Being a
• Movie: "Tootsie"
• I now have a proper name for what I've been calling group think (peer influences), which is Solomon Asch and the Asch conformity experiments, aka Asch Paradigm.
• It seems to be hard to overcome first interactions/experiences. Perhaps, that's because it is when our brain connections are first formed around the new topic. It's harder to break those connections than create new ones. Those new connections group/form around the initial connection. So, that initial feeling will be there for a long time.

• The only "real" theories we have are based upon a human defined topic (i.e., Euclidean geometry where a line can't intersect itself and parallel lines don't cross)
• I have tons of excuses, but none is sufficient enough excuse
• Being deaf-ish in one ear, but still able to detect where sound comes from [audibly]. Perhaps the timing of sounds is used rather than the intensity of sound.
• People who don't change their desktop background screen may be considered as "not tech-savy", but I haven't changed my screen from the default because I've gotten past procrastination. Changing the background does not significantly effect my ability positively enough to warrant time to look through the great choices of wallpapers that I have used in the past and the many more I have saved.

~ Simply Advanced ~

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Where Windows 7 Sticky Notes Are Saved, Stored

Avid readers of this blog (me!) will know that I like Windows 7's Sticky Notes. It works and it's quick. There are many Sticky Notes shortcuts that most people don't know about also, which I wrote a blog post on a while back.

Now, another thing I wanted to discover was, "Where are Windows 7 Sticky Notes Saved?" The answer follows.

C:\Users\Dan2012\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Sticky Notes

Just change Dan2012 with your own username and you will find a SNT file that can be read for the most part with Notepad++. I didn't check any other text editors.

~ Simply Advanced ~

PS - I hear that Windows Vista Sticky Notes are also stored in the same place.

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Sticky Notes Shortcuts You Didn't Know

The desktop application I am talking about today is Sticky Notes that comes standard in Windows.

I used to think that Sticky Notes was a featureless program. But, one day I decided to try out some formatting shortcut keys that I typically use in other Windows products. So, then I discovered that the application supports Ctrl+b for bold, Ctrl+e for aligning text to center, Ctrl+Shift+> for increasing text size, and more. This has made Sticky Notes much more useful than before.

I used to think that just writing on paper was the quickest way to keep notes and a todo list. But now, for efficiency, I use just one large Sticky Note on my desktop. This has the added benefit of not having to throw away physical paper.

List of hidden Sticky Notes shortcuts:

Bold	Ctrl+b
Italic	Ctrl+i
Underline	Ctrl+u
Strikethrough	Ctrl+t
Decrease Font Size	Ctrl+Shift+<
Increase Font Size	Ctrl+Shift+>
Align Text Left	Ctrl+l
Align Text Right	Ctrl+r
Bullet/Numbered Lists	Ctrl+Shift+L
Subscript	Ctrl+=
Superscript	Ctrl+Shift+=

I'd like the chance to answer any questions.
~ Simply Advanced ~

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