Tea Tracker Launch

After many delays and spending entirely too long in pre-launch, I have finally been able to get Virgo 19 established as an Android, app maker. Virgo 19 will be operating as an arm of Route-17 Pty Ltd. We made this distinction because we have bigger plans for Route 17 as a whole.

The first major app off the production line of Virgo 19 is the Tea Tracker. I am a big tea drinker with a substantial collection of tea tins. I don't like putting ugly physical labels on them. Besides, I like trying different teas, so the tea tins usually have an ever changing array of teas insides. So I always wanted an app to track my tins and tea. I couldn't find the app I wanted, so that seemed like the right app for Virgo 19 to establish itself with.

It was great experience making the app. But one of the biggest surprises post launch was how people wanted a save button! Initial designs for the app did include a save button on the "Add Tea" activity screen. However, we decided to drop it as a redundant function since the back button auto saved the information. But the lack of a save button seems to bother the early adopters. So now we are thinking about how to put it in without cluttering the screen, which was another factor in deciding to drop the button.

Further expansion plans for the app include adding a tea collection management activity. That tracks tea purchase history and allows users to add new teas they want to try. Plus a shopping list to help them replenish their tea stock. Maybe even a shareable wishlist function, especially ahead of Christmas.

It is a niche app. But the mobile market is now mature enough that focusing on niches is better than chasing "everybody". So focusing on tea lovers seem like as good a starting point as any..

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"Add Tea" Activity Screen

Getting into the Internet of Things

I am a big fan of Kickstarter and crowdfunding in general. Indeed, I am interested in exploring the idea of crowdfunding as a source of research funding. Especially given the rise of research crowdfunding platforms such as Experiment. Although at the moment, Kickstarter is the only crowdsourcing platform I regularly use.

I have backed a diverse range of projects through the site. Even flirted with the idea of launching my own project. The majority of the projects I backed in the technology field have been related to the Pebble Smartwatch, which is something I am obviously interested in given AWEAR.

However, lately, I have become interested in the Internet of Things (IoT). Living in Australia, I know that the IoT future still has a while to go. Internet infrastructure is just not there for many people. Including myself, and I live in a major Australian city, in a well-established suburb. Yet even my internet connectivity can be patchy. There is also the fact that sometimes, IoT solutions seems to be seeking problems to solve.

A good example of this is Knocki. Which at the time of writing is just four days away from being successfully funded on Kickstarter. Knocki is undoubtedly a cool idea. However, the actual practical utility of it I am not entirely sold on. I can see it being of great use to my grandparents, who face great mobility challenges. But they also live in Bangladesh and are at that stage where introducing anything new in their routine is a problem.

My mum is also getting on in years. But she's not yet too old for new tech. So Knocki could be for her. Except that every suggested example of what Knocki can do can also be achieved with a smartwatch. Indeed, the smartwatch has the advantage of being on your wrist already and you don't have to remember how many taps to dim the light. The "remembering" part may not seem like a big deal to someone young and carefree. But older adults or even overworked adults would rather stick to an old-fashioned remote for the simple reason that they can always look down and read what the buttons do. You just hit the dim the light button. But again, I get why Knocki appeals to some people. It is, as I said, undoubtedly cool. If I had more smart gadgets around my house, I too might be keen to get a Knocki.

As it is, I decided to jump into the IoT Kickstarter scene in a more DIY basis by backing MbientLab Inc's Metawear. I got two since they can also work as custom wearables. I am thinking of building something like a baby monitor. I babysit my niece from time to time, and she's becoming more mobile by the day! So, even as my mother and grandparents might benefit from items that do not require them to move much. My niece needs things that help us track her as she begins to explore the world around her. I can also look into using Metawear to device something elder-friendly for my grandparents. But for now, I will focus on my niece and perhaps come up with something cool for myself.

So that's my action plan for July. Build something cool with Metawear. Also, to keep my research credentials up, I will be working on a "State of the art" paper on IoT. I am looking forward to it.

Online Training Website

Despite my resolution to post more, I clear have not. Obviously, this is an issue and I am going to start remedying it by posting something, hopefully useful, at least once a fortnight! For my first topic, let's talk online training website.

Online training is one of the greatest things about the internet. Lifelong learning is more important than ever and thanks to the internet, easier than ever. Or is it! Well, yes, it is but I think it is important to find the right way to learn.

To that end, I looked into a few online training and tutorials related to digital photography. I, of course, am an avid photographer but I have mostly been taking photos in automatic mode with point and shoot cameras. This is okay for photos I take merely as a memento but not ideal when I do want to capture a scene because it invoked a particular emotion in me.  If I had a dollar for all the times I took a picture of a fairly ordinary scene because I was feeling something, only to come home and realise that I had totally failed to capture it, I would have money enough for a lot of different lenses.

There was also the time the photographer for my brother's Bangladeshi wedding reception was in a car crash the day of the wedding. Thankfully he is okay but it did mean that we didn't have a photographer for the wedding. So I stepped in as the unofficial official photographer. Most of the photos were okay but a few too many had blurry parts. Also, I was shooting by trial and error, which is a silly thing to do when you have a wealth of knowledge just a few mouse clicks away!

As a result, I decided to look into some online training. I tried reading some photography tips and tricks websites, as well as watch some YouTube videos. But I do better under more structured teaching environments. It can't be too structured, I need time and space to go off and try things on my own, but completely informal makes me procrastinate too much.

So far, I have tried taking online photography courses through Alison and Udemy. I also had a poke around Lynda but decided to avoid triggering the free trial at the moment.  Alison was completely free, but you could pay a fee to remove ads. But honestly, I do not think Alison is worth even the effort of disabling AdBlocker. The courses seemed cobbled together with the photography course I was looking at literally being a recording of a university lecture. A particularly bad recording I might add. Making it a complete waste of time. I ended up asking the Alison support to delete my account because I could not see myself ever returning.

On the other hand, Udemy has proven to be much more useful. The photography course I am taking is currently offered for free. Yet it is clearly a planned lecture designed for an online environment. As such, I am getting much more out of it. I would definitely recommend Udemy to others. I certainly hope my photography becomes more intentional, and less at the mercy of whatever the camera decides to capture after I finish the course. We shall see.

I would like to point out that all three website I mentioned also offer extensive courses on programming, software design and other computer science topics. Even for these, I would recommend Udemy with the caveat that I haven't tried Lynda. I would like to try Lynda at some future time and do a proper comparison between them and Udemy. But for now, I will be concentrating on Udemy.