Monday, January 17, 2011

Work work work...

Its been nearly two months since my last blog post. I didn't get anything done on my app during that time. Thankfully, it wasn't because I was lazy.

Shortly after my last post was my 21st birthday. Carolyn got me a record of ACDC Back in Black and a ring that say "one ring to pwn them all". ISN'T THAT AWEOMSE?!

I wanted to get some work done on my app, but I just didn't really have the time. Sure I could have spent my weekends, but I also wanted to get *some* video gaming in. Exams hit shortly after my birthday. After exams, I went to my parents house for a lovely time.

When I got back, I was working on finishing my research project. Experiments to run, presentations to prepare for, reports to write. No time for app development.

The presentation for my research project was last Monday. It went extremely well, and my supervisor seems to be pleased with it. Today, I handed in my written report, so I hope that it also goes well.

With reports and all that jazz out of the way, I can return to my app. My course load for this term is lighter than last, so I'll have more time to spend in the lab and more time for my app.

I made some development progress tonight. I removed the "main menu" screen and made the app boot straight to the root browsing directory. I decided to do this based on feedback, and because you can access search from anywhere in the app. In its place I added a png "loading" image. This image is displayed for the few seconds (~2 sec) it takes to load the app on my iPhone 3G.

Since I removed the main menu, I moved all the additional buttons that where there (rate this app, tell a friend) into an "about" screen. This is currently accessed by clicking "About" on the root directory of the browser. I'll include a screenshot of this later because I'm sure that was not clear.

On the academic front, I'm taking the following courses this term:
  • Introduction to Quantum Information Processing
  • Electricity and Magnetism: Part 2
  • Analog Electronics & Lab (yes, this is the second analog class
  • Research Project
This isn't enough for me to graduate. I'll be taking one additional term to finish off my undergraduate degree. This is in an attempt to lower my work load so I don't go (more) crazy. During the summer I plan on taking Digital Signal Processing from the Electrical Engineering department, and one other course that I haven't decided on.

Anyways, enough talking. Going to get some more work done!