code and science (but mostly code)
And they called me personally to tell me they were doing so, the decision having been made by "high level Apple executives." The line repeated to me ad nauseum was that "the concept of the app might offend a large group of people.” The concept of the app is to amplify liberal perspectives on social… Continue reading AskNot rejected by Apple because it’s liberal
As a mobile app developer, I work with APIs a lot. The vast majority of them use JSON. Due to a refactor of the MBTA's API for the Boston T (and on past projects) I had the extreme misfortune to work under the JSON API format. The reason it's so awful for mobile devs is… Continue reading Why I hate “JSON API 1.0” – a Mobile Dev’s perspective
I used to work at Mobiquity, Inc. as their head of mobile security, and a lot of what I did was make sure their iOS apps were as secure as possible. The thing is, a determined attacker will always succeed – our job as a developers is to make their life hard, so that less-than-determined attackers… Continue reading iOS Security 101
One hundred and forty one. Close as I can guess, that's how many planes I've been on. Between travel for work, vacations, digital nomading, school, and my family living far from where I do, I travel a lot. So, with all that experience, there are some things I've picked up over the years that I'd… Continue reading Air travel tips
I've written before about the tech that I think has a future and the tech that doesn't. This is an update to that post, with recent developments and some new technologies added to the list. The Next Big Things Mixed Reality (aka MR) Here's a quick review, stolen from my previous post, about some of the… Continue reading The Future of Tech II
I've spent the last few years tinkering and slowly building out an app I call Roost Remote to control all the smart devices in my apartment. I used to have to use different apps to control my lights, my sound system, my AC, my tea kettle... and anything else I decided to add to my… Continue reading Roost Remote: Controlling Arbitrary Smart Devices
When I travel to see friends or colleagues, I often receive gasps of surprise at how lightly I've packed. Here are some of the ways I pull it off. 1. Interchangeable wardrobe components When packing clothes, I try not to think in terms of 'outfits' and instead in terms of groups of things that… Continue reading 7 ways to pack lighter
In the course of building apps for clients, I often work with some fantastic UX/UI designers. At least one of them, I've noticed, does something that seems both familiar and unfamiliar to software developers: she has a series of common screens that many apps use and customizes those to the needs of the client. Now,… Continue reading The Dream: Reusing UX Flows
Want to skip to the part where you can help? Sign up here! Like many, I was distraught after the 2016 election. I felt lost, and I didn't know where to begin to try to stop the massive trainwreck our country was heading towards. How could I use my particular skills to make a change?… Continue reading AskNot: an App for Amplifying Liberal Messages
Mobile app developers know that users have to be prompted to take actions like rating your app, upgrading, and other such activities. However, it's really important not to be annoying about it, or your users will just uninstall (plus everyone hates being nagged incessantly!). With this in mind, I built a simple Swift cocoapod to… Continue reading Nagging Users to Take Action
