Was able to meet my September goal and submit my first iOS app to Apple. Should take a week or so to be reviewed. If all goes well, I will add the project page to bitcake as soon as the app is live.
Started work on my next iOS app. Right now I’m thinking about a game. I have the rules figured out but need to do a basic implementation to see if the game actually works… is it fun, is it challenging but not too hard, etc.
I was thinking about making MangAI Reader as my next app, but I’m worried there isn’t a big enough market for it. There are already a lot of comic readers on the App Store. I’m not sure exactly what functionality MangAI Reader would add over existing apps. Automatic page split detection would be there for sure. Porting the AI of MangAI would not be a fun project (seriously, I can barely follow it and I’m the one that wrote it :P). The memory and speed restraints of a mobile device may also not be sufficient. I could go the route of pairing with the desktop version of MangAI. That way your computer would handle all the heavy AI and send the interpretation data to your mobile device. I’ll keep thinking things over. Please leave a comment if you are interested in an iOS MangAI Reader.
I intend to slow down development for a while. Putting in overtime to finish the iOS app came with a cost to my health ^^;
The more I work on my first iOS app, the more it looks like a real app, the more I want to work on it… recursive motivation? It’s hard to tell how much longer it will take. Most of the code and graphics are there. I want the first version out by October (health and Apple approve process permitting).
MangAI is doing well. Waiting on user feedback for possible memory improvements in Linux environment. I’ve noticed that a lot of times when I receive an email from a MangAI user, I will email back with the information I need from her, then never hear from her again. Are my responses not getting through? I usually reply to an inquiry within 24hrs. If you don’t hear from me in two or three days, please email me again.
I like to post at least once a month so you guys know I’m still around. Let’s see what’s been going on:
MangAI v1.05 is running strong. Haven’t received any bug reports for it. There have been some feature requests, most notably to add a batch job function to the GUI like the one that already exists in the CLI. The idea is that instead of processing a single series job, the GUI would allow for a job queue so that you could process multiple series jobs (like your entire digital manga collection) with a single click of the “Run” button. I’m still debating adding this feature because of some issues. I may play with GUI job queue and see if I like it, but right now it is not on my priority list. Please email me if you are interesting in seeing this feature added.
Development for my first iOS app is going well. I’ve learned a lot about Objective-C and Cocoa Touch in the past months. Still a lot of work to do, but the basics of many of its main features have been implemented.
On a side note, “you can always go back” is a reference to an inside joke at bitcake. We had a computer science teacher that explained the concept of recursion by drawing out a series of steps and then explaining with arrows that at any step, you could go back to an earlier step. This explanation took several class periods, always the same lecture with nothing but endless repetition of “you can always go back”… recursion at its best I guess :P
What’s a weekend? Since my health keeps me indoors at all times, I don’t have much concept of Wednesday vs. Saturday. Fortunately that means I’m working every day. Here’s what I’ve been working on:
First iOS app is coming along slowly but nicely. It’s starting to actually look like an app. The more into it I get, the more functionality I want, so my initial time estimate was way off. Still several months away from release.
MangAI has been stable for a while now. I’ve only received a few problem reports and those have either been solved or I never heard back from the user (where do you guys go after I’ve replied, lol). I’m pretty good about replying to email within 24hrs (usually less), so if you guys have any questions or problems feel free to contact me. If you don’t hear back from me within a day or two, please leave a comment in the blog just in case I didn’t get the email.
I recently started working on a new MangAI AI feature. I’m trying to see if MSM interpretation can be used to improve MPM, while up till now it has only been MPM helping MSM (if you have no idea what MPM and MSM are, check out the Manga Intelligence Model). The basic idea is if you have a volume folder without chapter info (Foo_v3), but the scans within the folder contains chapter info (v3_c10_p1.jpg, v3_c10_p2.jpg, … v3_c15_p200.jpg), then the program may be able to infer the missing chapter info for the volume folder (Foo_v3_c10-15). This new data propagates to the output archive/pdf/epub files as well. Initial tests make this seem doable, but since this is such a big logic change, it will require a lot of testing. I also have a few things I’ve wanted to improve so I’ll work on those as well.
Thought I should share the current goings on at bitcake.
MangAI seems to be in a good state. Haven’t received any bug reports since the v1.04 release. Hopefully I can leave MangAI alone for a while and focus on other things.
Currently learning iOS programming. Reading my way through Beginning iOS 5 Development. It’s a long book and I read super slow, but it does a great job of providing a foundation for iOS programming. I already know the app I want to write first but will wait until I’m at least finished with this book before starting. Pretty tempting to just go for it though ;]
Let’s see, what else is going on… Considering posting some of the research I did in grad school. I could add an “Articles” section to the site for this purpose. May also write about my current health condition for anyone that may have something similar (or for those of you that are interested in crazy medical stuff you would usually only find on House). It doesn’t even have a name yet since no one else seems to have it… I think I’ll call it “Earth Axis Syndrome”.
