The first weekend of this month I, along with 500 other highly motivated individuals, attended the World Domination Summit put on by Chris Guillebeau and a number of volunteers.
This unconvential convention was very inspirational and one of the best networking experiences I’ve ever had. To sum things up, the weekend was a blast; full of material about traveling, working remotely, making the most of life and other jots of info that I’ve been trying to understand. I met a number of bloggers whose works I’ve read and so many more that I’ll look into.
Big thanks to Chris Guillebeau and the rest of the team who put this summit together.
This last week I had the awesome opportunity to attend Google I/O at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The event was a two-day Google technology conference showing off some of their newest creations they’ve come up with along with some new gadgets other companies have made using their technologies. One of the largest components to the conference was the discussion of Android on phones, tablets, and TVs. Second to this was the exciting updates their doing with Chrome; including their new “Chromebooks” which are notebooks running their Chrome OS. The exciting new technologies Google is coming out with and making possible is the reason for this con and a reason I wanted to attend. On top of this though, they awarded all attendees the first day with Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets. The second day they gave everyone not only a Samsung 4g MIFI device which runs on Verizon with a three-month contract, they also announced that on June 15th all attendees will be getting a Chromebook. What an awesome and unexpected award for just going to an event I wanted to attend anyways. All in all, the conference was not only fun and exciting, but also informational.
Every hour or so the conference had a bunch of “break out” sessions. During each of these times there were a number I wanted to attend, but since I don’t have a clone or time machine, I was only able to attend one during each. My big interests going into the con involved finding technologies that could be used for Viewpoint Construction Software, but also my own personal growth. The con didn’t go in detail during the sessions, but I did get some good points on where to start developing in the different areas.
Android Development
I didn’t get a ton of info specific to android development, but what I did get was a large interest in creating mobile applications. I think creating some mobile applications would be fun, interesting, and useful. Android development is primarily done using Java, but there are those who are allowing development to be done using C# or other languages that are similar. This is great for me since I haven’t really touched Java for over five years. C# though I use almost daily. Unlike an iPhone, to create an application for an Android, it just takes having an environment like Eclipse to create the Java app and to compile and build the APK to be installed. Once this is done it is just a matter of running it on an android device. The idea of this is that it allows for anyone to really pickup on developing for Android.
Google APIs
On top of just creating an Android app, Google has a number of APIs that developers are able to use to create their applications; allowing for developers to use the Android contact list, phone dialer, system resources, Google Maps, docs, etc. The list really goes on and on. There are new APIs created all the time for developers to apply to their system. This again is a huge resource which allows for quick application creation without a ton of rewritten code. And of course, there are lots of examples out there on the interwebs.
NFC
NFC, or Near Field Communication, is a set of short-range wireless technologies allowing for Android devices (or others) to be placed on other NFC devices (even stickers) and allow the user to get whatever is stored or being shared. Unlike QR tags which only store one piece of info, these can be reprogrammed allowing for a breadth of application. Thought it was very cool and excited to see what people decide to invent using this technology.
Coding for the Cloud
Cloud computing is something that a number of companies are getting into. This new technology allows for tons of data to be stored over the cloud (or a bunch of computers with storage) and be leveraged for application development. The idea behind the “Chromebook” is to use the cloud to store all the users’ data allowing for the hardware to be changed without having to worry about reinstalling since it is all out of the users worry. My big concern for the cloud is security of people’s data and also persistency. Is the data backed up? If it is, how often is it backed up? Are users able to put important documents into the cloud and not have to worry about someone else hacking into their private data. What about companies that use this and the private data they have.
Either way, cloud computing sounds very exciting and creating apps that work with the cloud sounds like a lot of fun.
At VCS, we have some software that is quite complicated and narrowing down an application for mobile is going to be difficult. However, I am certain we will be able to find something that allows us to stand above the rest. I’m not whether it’ll be built for Android, iPhone, Blackberry or any other, but what I do know is that we need something that’ll allow us to compete with our competitors and a mobile app is something that I see our customers wanting, if not now, very soon.
For more info, check out the following presentations:
This last week (Wednesday thru Tuesday) I was spending time around the Big Island of Hawaii with my younger brother, Aaron, and his friend Randy.
What a trip it was. I saw so much during the short amount of time we were on the island and so glad I was able to get away. Read the rest of this entry
This weekend I did a lot, and then I didn’t do a lot. It was pretty great.
Friday afternoon, I had a study session with my new flight instructor. It was a good time.
Friday night and Saturday morning I spent my time playing pool in the Portland Tri-Cups. We didn’t end up winning, but I got an awesome patch for getting an 8-ball break. In fact, because of that 8-ball break, I beat a much higher ranked player, two matches to his one.
The rest of Saturday I didn’t do a ton other than try to figure out what I wanted to do that evening and playing some video games. I ended up finally finishing the Tales of Monkey Island. This is a five-part game which continues one of my favorite video game series.
Sunday was very relaxing. I finally caught up on some sleep. Beat another game I’d been meaning to play through, Braid. This game is a really awesome time-based side scrolling game. I’ve seen a number of components used in other games, but never done so well. It was a great game, though the story gets confusing in parts.
The rest of the day was spent watching the first episode of the prequel to Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. The first season was awesome and made me really want more. Sadly though, I found out the lead actor who played Spartacus, Andy Whitfield, ended up being diagnosed with cancer. This really made me bummed because he is an awesome actor that I wanted to see a lot more of. Well instead of cancelling the show, they decided to come out with a prequel (I’m hoping until Andy gets fixed for the sequel to Blood and Sand). So far, I’m excited for the direction of the show!
The evening was coming close to an end as I decided to finally watch one of the movies I have queued up. What was the movie of the evening, you ask!? None other than… “Machete”.
I enjoyed this movie. The story wasn’t the most interesting, but the portrayal of the characters was hilarious and all for fun. It also has one of my favorites, Jessica Alba, who looked so damn good. If you get a chance and want to watch an action movie with a bit of humor, then check this one out.
That brings a close to my weekend. Nothing too crazy, but overall it was great.
How about yourself? Do anything awesome over the weekend? Tell me in the comment!
Starting tonight, the pool team I’m the captain for will be going to the Greater Portland Area Tri-County APA Pool Tournament (Tri-Cups).
I’m very proud of the team and really think we stand a chance in placing in this tournament and moving onto regionals which would then lead to nationals in Las Vegas.
I wanted to share the address of the team where I’ll be keeping things updated that come to the pool team. Go to http://chalkandawepool.com
It’s going to be one exciting weekend for me and the rest of the team.
