Two Xcode plugins I didn’t know I needed
Mini Xcode - GitHub
Let’s you select scheme and device with a simple (Ctrl+7 / Ctrl + 8) shortcut. It also lets me size every window the way I’d like. No restrictions based on the toolbar.
DerivedData Exterminator - GitHub
Puts a button up on the toolbar, and works well with Mini Xcode: Select Derived Data Exterminator in Title Bar in the View menu.
Love em.
Donate because you’re one of the Lucky Ones
Mick Hagen and Undrip are doing something cool over at lucky.undrip.com for the entrepreneur victims of Sandy.
Donate. I did. Then I downloaded the song from iTunes put it on repeat, and haven’t stopped listening to it since. We really are the lucky ones.
Citizen Fund
Bryce Roberts posted about a service called SeeClickFix:
As with most crowd funding campaigns, these projects can be opened to anyone, anywhere to back. Given the right tools, I think they’d be surprised at the results the creativity and networks of their citizens can produce.
I’m really excited to watch SeeClickFix try and cut through the red tape and constrains of cities around the country and hope to see other city councils move forward with pilots.
This is very much one of the coolest projects I’ve seen in the funding community. If you believe in private funding rather than government then ‘be the change you want to see in the world’.
I’m glad that Bryce and his team saw potential in SeeClickFix. This certainly is something awesome.
Getting Healthy: My 4:50 Goal
It is time for me to be healthy: exercise regularly, eat healthy foods, and spend quality time with my family.
This post is going to be a bit more personal than usual. If you’re interested in the inspiration more than the post itself you can check out the original post on healthy goals by Alex Lawrence. Take a minute to read it. And join the cause if you’re feeling the need like I am.
Why start now?
I have not exercised regularly since I played for BYU four years ago. During those short years I had a rigorous schedule of hard exercise 6 days a week: weight lifting on Tues/Thurs/Sat and practice on Mon/Wed/Fri. Practice was a pretty intense cardio workout. By the end of my time with the team I was running about a 4:50 mile. Not fast by a racing standard; but I felt healthy.
Over the last year I ran 15.39 miles with Ashley; total. She likes to take a slow pace, so I never really tested myself. We went on a cruise at the beginning of the month and I felt the need to exercise. I ran 3 of the 5 days and it felt great. I was able to get down to about a 5:20 mile, but it was not as easy as it once was.
Today I am not feeling unhealthy or particularly healthy for that matter.
Joining #TmFit
The post by Alex is timely. I’ve been feeling my body getting older. I know that I’m only 28; but for the first time in my life I don’t feel like I am the healthiest I could be. I am not taking as good of care of my body as I should.
I’m not worried about losing weight. If anything I wouldn’t mind gaining a few more pounds. I probably won’t be tracking what I eat. I would, however, like to eat more healthy foods and less crappy foods.
Here are my goals. I’m hoping to accomplish them in 2013, but they aren’t meant to be new years resolutions.
- No more fast food. I’ve been eating poorly ever since I left my corporate job. Actually, I was eating poorly when I was a corporate stooge as well. It’s time to cut out the fast food. New rule: No fast food. None. I will live better without it.
- I want to get back to a 4:50 mile. This will mean speed training. A 4:50 mile is pretty much a full run for the entire distance. I’ll need to spend a couple days a week at the track, and the others running as well.
- I’d like to run a qualifying marathon. I don’t expect to actually run in any marathon that requires a certain pace. I’d just like to know that I’m back at that level of health.
How I’ll do it
I want to start a simple workout schedule that fits my life. I am strapped for time, so I need something that will help me meet my goals and still be possible. I need short but effective workouts for weekdays. I’ll try to get my runs in the mornings before my family wakes up.
My workout plan is 6 days a week:
- Monday short run: 1–3 miles
- Tuesday shoulders chest and abs
- Wednesday long run (7 min/mile pace): 6–9 miles
- Thursday yoga/abs
- Friday fartlek run (7 min/4:50 split): 3–6 miles
- Saturday chest back and abs
The yoga/abs workout will come from P90X. They are the best part of the workout plan. Also, for the month before the marathon I’ll likely bump my long days to 12–15 miles per day.
How I’ll track it
I’m hoping that ‘public accountability’ will mean that someone is going to point me back to this blog post during the year and say: “Are you following your plans, and reaching your goals?
I’ll be tracking each run and my total miles with the Nike+ app for iPhone and all of my stats are set to public. The app is very well done. I’ve thought about buying the FuelBand. Have any of you used it?
For my own personal records of how close I am getting to my goals I’ll likely use Day One. I love the DAYTUM concept, but the team was hired by Facebook, and they have stopped development. I may have to home brew my own solution for a database app.
- Alright. Wish me luck, it starts today.
Shots like this make me miss BYU. (via mwphoto)
3 Quick Sodastream Tips
- Test out a few different levels of fizziness to determine what you enjoy most. Personally I prefer about five pumps (until buzz). The recommended three pumps (until buzz) wasn’t enough.
- You don’t have to flavor your entire liter of fizzy water at once. I’ve learned that by using a second bottle for mixing you can have more than one flavor of soda at once.
- Don’t blindly follow the directions of the flavors. I like my flavors significantly fizzy and watered down. That means that I use about twice as many pumps as recommended and a quarter of the flavoring. Add a bit of flavoring and taste; rinse and repeat until satisfied.
I’m testing through the flavors. Some are better than I expected, and others are much worse. It probably won’t replace Diet Coke for me. But every other flavor I’ve tasted is better than their canned countertypes[1].
Overall, I’m very happy with the carbonator. The fizziness is exactly what I was hoping for. I may have to keep a few lemons and limes in my office for some simple soda water tastiness.
One of the last things to keep track of is the number of pumps I get for each CO2 cartridge and how long it lasts me.
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Yes, ‘countertypes’ seems to be a real word. ↩
Best Place In The World For Startups
LearnStack was awarded a $25,000 grant from USTAR North’s Go-To-Market program.
We’re so excited about this that it’s been hard to keep inside since they sent us the acceptance emails.
Six teams received the grant LearnStack was awarded. The USTAR program is helping good teams strengthen their product before going to market or fundraising.
There are opportunities to start a business anywhere in the country. You can find advisors, money, and co-founders wherever you go. There is, however, something special about what is going on here in Utah. The energy is palpable. What Alex Lawrence is doing for Ogden alone is mind blowing.
This state is the best place in the world to start a business.
Pallbearer on Flickr.
Tablet Deployment Tools Should Be A Top Priority
I wrote a post for the ZAGGBlog about Amazon’s new Whispercast service.
In the 90s, business adoption of computers running Windows was driven heavily by the requirement for Microsoft Office. In order for co-workers to effectively collaborate on documents and files, they needed to use the same software. Apple didn’t have a good answer to Microsoft Office, and we all know how it turned out for them in that era.
The most common response I’ve received for this post is that Apple has the Configurator.
I am aware that tech admins have the Apple Configurator and Remote Desktop tools that attempt to offer this functionality. If the iPad is the dominant device in the market, then Apple Configurator may be the Microsoft Office of this era. If Android devices take off, then it will almost certainly be Amazon’s Whispercast.
Up to this point, Apple hasn’t shown it takes enterprise IT requests seriously and we’ll have to see what they think of education IT requests. More than 70% of the reviews for Apple Configurator on the Mac App Store are 1 star. Maybe Apple has some room for improvement in their solution to a major technological problem.
Take the feedback
Listen to every bit of feedback, even if it’s something extremely negative like “your app is spam.” You never know what will lead you to learn some new insight about about your app and users.
The harder we work on our startup the harder it is to take helpful feedback. Don’t let your love for your baby get in the way of a chance to learn and make it better.
