PlayBook Work Log: December 16 2012
PROBLEMS   
December 16, 2012

Well it has been a long time since I've done any PlayBook development. Life just hasn't afforded it recently, and any time I've had has gone to BB10 stuff.

But I wanted to make a quick little enhancement to my Alarm Clock app so that it would support a visual alarm for Eli, our 3 year old.

We're going to try having him use the PB as his alarm clock, and have the background image change when it's time for him to get up.

It took 20 minutes to make the code changes, but it looks like I don't actually have the PB SDK set up on my new computer. I downloaded 2.1 and tried to install, but during installation the installer freezes, with the window showing nothing but black. Groan. Why must computers be such a bear? After 20 minutes I finally got the installer to work by choosing the installation directory on my C:\ driver rather than my E:\ drive.

Initial implementation: 20 min
SDK installer troubleshooting: 20 min
Testing and bug fixes: 35 min
  - Bug 1: Part of my implementation logic didn't make sense.
  - Bug 2: Alarm type was getting reset once app was exited and started again due to a subtle bit of logic that took 20 minutes to discover.

Total: 75 min


I was wrong about RIM's quarterly earnings
BB10DEV   RIM   
September 28, 2012

Several months ago, as I was continuing to ponder and predict RIM's future, I guessed that RIM's quarterly earnings in September as well as December would be really, really bad, and would be hugely depressing to stock holders. Thus I surmised that the best time to purchase stock would likely be after their December earnings hammered the stock. I also figured it wouldn't be a surprise if by that time they would clarify the release of BB10 to be March, at the very end of the Q1 they had announced, or that it might even be April, or heaven forbit, May.

But I was wrong. RIM's September conference call, which happened today, was better than analysists predicted, and by some miracle their cash balance actually increased. How this happened, I don't know, but  I was clearly wrong about how bad their quarter would be.

It is also looking like my guess of a late February or March-ish release of BB10 will turn out to be wrong. RIM is sending fairly strong signals that release will be either late January, or February. So, while I might still end up being right, the rapid succession of delays has come to a stop for now.

In conclusion: Well done RIM, you are exceeding my expectations, and I think that is a very important ingredient to success: Under promise and over deliver. People grew to be incredibly tired of the over promise and under deliver of RIM in 2011, so having turned this around is great.

Keep up the great work!


The best developer success story I've read yet
MONEY   
August 30, 2012

Boom!

Inspiring!

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