HA! I remember the old DOS systems before Win 3.1 too. Loved my old C64 and Amiga 500.
Sorry to have diverted your thread Simon, but have enjoyed these posts
I'm not being very productive at work right now as I have been thinking about my new mac at home I'm still itching to play with. That and I'm reading a manual for PC users like me that have jumped ship.... Don't tell the boss.
This is a Mac user to me...
I'd be glad to help out, Simon. I'm a software tester by day, making sure our healthcare system (aka Obamacare) is working. This project sounds much more fun!Originally Posted by stroppygoblin
on the 19th....
Spoiler:
Seriously though, it will be done when it's done. I put in some long and very late hours when I first started it and juggling with the day job of also working at a computer *may* have contributed to my headaches and high Blood pressure problems, so I havent really touched it since my recovery. The iOS app is pretty much fully working. You can view any book data file and add your own books including images, etc. Basic stats are also working. It's by no means 'bullet proof' and probably wouldn't pass Apple's appstore review process. I also need to complete at least the US first edition catalog file with all images (covers, spine, etc) and would like to have other files created as well.
Android has NOT been properly started yet, although I have begun to 'play' with Android Studio and learning how the apps are put together (so VERY different to iOS)
I am toying with the idea of releasing an (Alpha) test version of the iOS app so that I can get real user feedback. *warning* You would need to actually test the app and provide feedback, accept the fact that this could wipe your device (highly unlikely) and that any data you spend hours entering could be wiped at a moments notice (more likely). Serious testers only should apply. I would prefer people with actual software testing experience if possible. PM me if interested.
CD's were invented in '88. Like the man said it was cutting edge.
I was using the five and a quarter floppies too. I had to use one to boot the machine with an Intel 286 processor. I then had to use another to load the application I wanted. Don't forget to save! I remember the 3.5" floppies being a vast improvement. Later I was envious of my co-worker who had the CD and 386 processor in his computer.
"One day you're going to figure out that everything they taught you was a lie."
I knew CD's were invented... I had one of the first CD players... a Technics 1x sampling that cost me $2200.00 back in 1983 (real mega bucks in the 80's)
there were only 3-4 music CDs available at the time I purchased my player ... all classical... but I was the only one on the block with one. I still have that player.
I just didn't realize they were incorporated into computers that early.
actually looked this up...
according to tech hive.com, the first computer to ship with a internal cd ROM drive was the Performa 600 made by Apple in 1992.
still much earlier than I knew about.
I think the drastic difference in time between the release of the music CD players and the computer CD players might be the computer's CD's had to be read and writable... while the music ones only had to have the read function. think?
That screen shot was probably from an Atari ST which also used Gem
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
Is there an import from Excel feature?
"One day you're going to figure out that everything they taught you was a lie."
there's one on the "nice to have list"
Seriously though, I have thought about that, but it would require a very specific format to work. I suspect most people have their own variations of how they store information. I could define the required format and let people work out how to extract their data to match it I suppose. There is also the problem of matching what your book is called to what my app is expecting, for example - the unique ID for Carrie US First Edition in my app is "carrie_us_tf" this would have to be included in your export for me to match on it.
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
time for a bi annual update?
update forthcoming....time for a bi annual update?
...watch this space.
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
UPDATE!!!!!
well it's been a while.... (I told you not to hold your breath) but the project is far from dead. For those that aren't interested in my excuses, just jump to the video below and see the new and improved version.
SO what happened? why has it taken so long? well about 6 months ago I got pretty ill and spent some time in hospital with high blood pressure and debilitating headaches. I'm ok now, but I tried to limit the amount of time I was staring at a screen, especially at night (which is when I did most of my coding on this). When I did get back to looking at the app, I discovered that Apple had made several updates to the coding language i was using and a LOT of my code no longer worked. I kinda lost interest at that point as there were a lot of problems I still ahd to solve and the thought of having to rewrite everything just to get back to something that worked wasn't appealing.
A couple of months ago, I looked at it again and discovered things weren't really as bad to fix as I thought and it only took a couple of hours to be up and running again. after that it was full steam ahead and I managed to get all of the data file handling sorted as well as making the app a lot more stable. Since then I have been adding more features and basically testing the crap out of it. My biggest concern was that once people start using it and spending time entering all their data, they weren't going tp be too pleased if the app crashed and all that work was lost. I then started thinking about how the user could make a back up of their entered data ( all of the main book data is easily re-downloaded, but user entered data is local to them), so I have now added an Export/Import feature. You can save the generated file to an email or dropbox or whatever data sharing app you choose and then reload it back in again at any time. Speed of data loading has been improved too. Take a look at the video and I'll explain some more of the new functionality below.
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
New Functionality:
Now supports 'Other Authors' This was required for the 'Books about King' data file. I also added some additional filter settings, you can now fine tune your filter to show searches such as "show me all hardback books about king that are lettered editions'
Added Settings screen. You can turn on and off extra search bar capability such as matching on author or artist name as well as the original book name or publisher.
Added ability to scan a barcode and have the list show the scanned book. This was fun as the catalog data usually lists just the ISBN-10 number and most barcodes are ISBN-13. rather than add all the ISBN-13 data as well, I wrote some code that would generate an ISBN-13 from the ISBN-10 value (If your interested this tells you how to calculate the check digits and convert)
Added slide left on list screen to quickly add the selected book to 'My Books'
Added copy function so its easy to add multiple copies of books with similar characteristics (that ones for you Terry!)
Added swipe left/swipe right on cover view to quickly get to next and previous books
Added export/import function (still work in progress as haven't resolved what to do with user photos yet)
Added checks before user removes catalog or cover data
Added Insurance value to My Book data. I thought it would be a nice idea if the app could produce a PDF document (that you could email, save to drop box, etc) that would serve as a document for insurance purposes, either in the event of a claim or in order to get a quote for premiums. I would be interested in feedback as to what this report should show and formats, etc
Lots of bug fixes!
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
I'm going to spend some time on the book data files, getting the majority of images uploaded and the information for each book complete. I'll then be looking for some beta testers!
If you have an iOS device and are willing to take on the job, PM me. I would prefer to use people that have some experience in testing software, also there is a small possibility that it may crash your phone (really unlikely) and a higher possibility is that any data you enter may get lost so be prepared to enter stuff more than once.
Oh one more piece of news, I now have someone working on the Android version. They are doing it in their free time as well, so progress wont be quick (hopefully faster than mine!) - I'll keep you updated when I get something to show.
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
"One day you're going to figure out that everything they taught you was a lie."
video says it is private?
Hate it!
Spoiler:
Should be fixed now - can someone confirm they can view it?
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
To be fair to Apple, it was a new language and was going through a lot of revisions, the changes they made were all for the good, it just meant extra work on my part. I quite like a company that's not afraid of pushing forward, even if it means loss of backwards compatibility. If this was Microsoft it would have been completely compatible with everything going back to Visual Basic 1.0 but an absolute mess to work out! Don't get me started on code compatibility and different flavours of Android!
Both companies (Apple and Google) have very different approaches when it comes to putting apps on their app store. Apple is I agree, far more regimented about code standards and app content, but I think that makes for more robust software. Also Apple charges $99 a year but I can put as many apps on the appstore as I like for that $99. Google charges (I think) a one off $25 PER app. For a one off app like this, Google's pricing is more favourable.
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
I can view it nowShould be fixed now - can someone confirm they can view it?
Thanks!I can view it nowShould be fixed now - can someone confirm they can view it?
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
Video worked now. Nice Simon. It's looking great! I like the barcode scanning. Lots of cool features. I didn't see if you can take and upload your own photos.
Yes you can. That was in the previous video (2:10):
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
This is looking very impressive Simon, thanks for the work you put into it!
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