February 1, 2011 - 28 Days of Android

February 1, 2011 - I was reading The Coding Horror blog recently and it got me to thinking of all my hiring experiences (as interviewer and candidate) through the years and what makes a good coder.  I think it boils down to passion.  In any profession you have folks just in it for the paycheck, and you have folks who go home at night, outside of work, and keep "working", they read journals, they do experiments, they contribute to their community of professionals.  Software engineering is no different.

I met Jeff Atwood at a conference in San Francisco (he is the author of the Coding Horror blog) at a developer conference I sent myself to.  Ever since then I have occasionally checked in on his blog.  I have also spent my own time, money and energy going to technology related conferences.

I consider myself so lucky that my professional endeavors just happen to be really, really exciting to me.  I love to snowboard, I love training for IronMan events, I love many things that I will never get paid to do, but this month of February I am focusing on my love of geek-stuff, in particular the ecosystem that powers my pocket computer, aka my cell phone.

Every night, after completing client work--and hopefully some snowboarding or other non-work passion--I will devote some time to Android development.  Android is an open community and I plan to give back to it.  From developing home screen widgets to help manufacturers track down user-issues, to researching tablet development techniques, I will deep dive into the Android development community.  For twenty eight days.

As a paid professional I am lucky to be no stranger to Android development.  I have done several projects and was just looking at some phone app analytics that impressed me.  My software has been downloaded and used on these devices (from 9 different mobile network providers) in the last year:

HTC EVO 4G
Motorola Droid X / Shadow
Motorola Droid
T-Mobile G2
HTC Incredible
Motorola CLIQ / DEXT
Samsung Fascinate
Motorola Droid 2
HTC Eris
T-Mobile MyTouch 3G
Samsung Galaxy Tab
Samsung Epic 4G
Samsung Galaxy S SHW-M110S
Samsung Captivate
LG Optimus T P509
Samsung Moment
Samsung Vibrant
LG Optimus S
Motorola Droid Pro
T-Mobile G1
HTC Glacier
HTC Hero
Motorola i1
Samsung Galaxy Spica
LG Optimus M MS690
Kyocera Zio
LG Vortex
Garmin-Asus Garminfone
Samsung Intercept
Samsung Acclaim
Motorola Backflip
Motorola Devour
Huawei Ideos
Huawei M860
Samsung Galaxy S i9000

One of my favorite things in life is seeing my work in action.  I once wrote some basic software in college for a business in Baltimore, a few years later an advertisement from that business in the New Yorker caught my eye, I checked and they were still using my software.  I get a similar rush when I hear from one of the millions of consumers that benefits from back end software I wrote for a very large partner of the NFL (and every year I hope this business will have a Super Bowl ad, an annual February tradition).  Android development has similar potential and I look forward to increasing my expert status as an Android developer this month.  Twenty-eight days, one open platform, and lots of geeky energy. 

Based on conversations I had at CES, February is going to be a very exciting month for Android.  The mainstream media will provide plenty of attention, and here is my little part, from my little corner of cyberspace.

It is February 2011, and it is time for twenty eight days of Android.   What is your passion?  May you have the resources to pursue it this month.  Feel the love!


Besides Android development and client work, Mark Scheel will be registering for Google I/O 2011 this month, an event taking place in San Francisco this May.  Digital Construction is seeking smaller Android contracts immediately, and larger contracts of any kind to begin Spring 2011.  Contact us with your ideas!