timdorr.com

It's been a while since I've updated the blog (again), but I've been quite busy! I've been working on a new Atlanta coworking space called Ignition Alley. It's something that our local ecosystem of entrepreneurs and startups has demanded for a long time, but now it's finally a reality. It's been a very hard project to set up, but has gone extremely quickly. I only started it in June of this year and we were up and running by September. Now we've been open a month and things are really starting to get interesting.

If you want to know more, feel free to stop on by. I'm there most days of the week to answer any questions you might have. I hope to see you at the alley!

I whipped up a new little Twitter app called Twivia. I've actually had it ready to go for a while, but never got a chance to finish it off. But I spent a good chunk of today polishing, bug-fixing and implementing features to get it ready for prime time.

The basic idea is that it's a trivia game you play over Twitter. You answer via direct message (to keep people from using search.twitter.com to cheat) and it keeps tally of your score. For now, it's relatively simple. There's one question an hour (unless no one answers, in which case it waits until someone does) and a global scoreboard. I'm still trying to figure out how to provide feedback on answers, but I'm thinking that will be via a direct message sent back (but I have to wait until Twitter raises my API limit to attempt that). I'd also like to get some prizes mixed in, but I'm concentrating on features and stability first before I start throwing cash at it.

So, give @playtwivia a follow on Twitter and start answering some questions :)

Ah, the wonders of Internet memes. Bacon is all the rage nowadays. As such, companies have been looking to capitalize on that taste demand. Enter J&D's with their two entries in the field: Bacon Salt and Baconnaise.

I've had Bacon Salt for a while now. It's awesome stuff. Goes great on a lot of things. My only issue is I've become pre-hypertensive and that much sodium isn't going to help things. So, I was excited to hear about Baconnaise, which would allow me to continue my bacon-flavored adventures with less sodium and heart attacks and such.

I ordered a jar of Baconnaise from their site last week and got it earlier this week. Excluding the holiday, it was only about 3-4 days of shipping time. Not too shabby! I ordered the light version, as it cuts the fat to 1/3 the previous value and dumps 25mg of sodium as well. But to it's credit, the majority of the fats in the regular version are unsaturated.

My first plan was to try some as a spread topping for a Chick-fil-a Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich. For those familiar with them, they're relatively subdued in flavor compared to other Chick-fil-a options. But the best thing about them is they have nearly no fat (3g), a ton of protein (28g), and a whole wheat bun for complex carbohydrates. They actually would make a great entry in anyone's diet.

So, I got two yesterday and put some Baconnaise on the bun. My first impression was that the taste was surprisingly light. However, two things likely factored into this: 1) I'm coming from Bacon Salt, which is extremely flavorful 2) This is the light version, so it's probably not going to be as strong. Regardless, while the taste was minimal, it was excellent. I definitely recommend the combination.

The consistency also surprised me. Realistically, Baconnaise is much less a spread and more of a dip. It has a texture and thickness that matches dips more than mayonnaise. I'm going to try it with some carrots as a dip a little later on today as a snack. I have high expectations for that. I think it would also go good with potato chips, but I'm not interested in taking in those kinds of saturated fats.

All-in-all, it's a great product. I'd recommend getting the pack of Bacon Salts and Baconnaise direct from J&D's, provided it's not in your local grocery yet. Give it a whirl and see if you like it. If you like bacon, you probably will.

My next iPhone app is almost ready to go. It's going to be an Internet-enabled app, so this will be interesting to say the least. I do believe I've got all the bugs worked out and made the UI a lot smoother to work with. Now I've just got to put up the ability to turn the service off, if needed. There are 8M+ iPhones out there and freebie apps like this tend to get abused.

It's also going to be interesting as to how I monetize this. The app will be using AdMob's iPhone support for a free version. Then there will be a paid version for $0.99 that removes the ads. I've actually got to do some trickery in XCode to make it as simple as changing a build setting to switch between the two. Or create another target. This is all stuff I'm really green on, so we'll see how it goes.

My first iPhone app, Metronome, is now available in the iTunes App Store! Buy it, please!

It was actually a fun little project to make and I believe it's the most accurately-timed metronome in the App Store so far. The algorithm is smart about computing tick timing to avoid drift. I also worked out a better tuner than the rest. Although, detecting tune from the microphone is going to be a bitch, but something I want to do. A tap button for BPM is the next obvious feature and will get in there ASAP. I also wanted to figure out something for custom rhythms. I've just got to figure out a good UI pattern for that.

Anyways, it was my first real go at Cocoa Touch. It's a really, really easy system to get up and running on. I had a few issues with the sound system, but overall, it's dead simple to get started on and make something cool.