FAQ On Standing, Conferences, App Development

Answers to a few questions I’ve gotten asked more than once lately.

Are you still standing at your desk?

Yes I am. I haven’t mentioned it because I’ve kind of forgotten about it—once you get over the hump, it becomes the norm. I probably stand about 60-70 percent of my workday (generally 8am to 5pm), with many breaks for lunch, pacing, and meetings. I sit everywhere except in my office, and when I work/code/write at night I do it curled up on the couch. I lost three pounds in the first three weeks of standing (and watching what I eat), no gym.

Are you going to Google I/O? How’d you get in? It sold out in 59 minutes, during which time the registration site was mostly down.

I am going to Google I/O, and here’s how I got in: a week before registration opened to everyone, Google opened registration to 2010 attendees, and I jumped on it. (Read: the event didn’t really sell out in only 59 minutes.) Relatedly, Google offered me a free press pass, but I turned it down to pay the $450 to register as an attendee. It was a matter of identity (and giveaways).

I’m not speaking at Google I/O, but I am speaking at SXSW Interactive and at CodeConf. Here are all the when’s and where’s of the conferences I’m going to and speaking at this year.

How’s that whole selling-an-app-in-the-Android-Market going?

Much better than I anticipated. I was hoping to sell 500 copies in the first month. Even with a free web download available, we’ve sold close to 2,000 copies of Todo.txt Touch in the Android Market and gotten an average 4.5 star rating from almost 150 user reviews in 2.5 weeks. Honestly I’m embarrassed that the app is so beta and rough around the edges. Then again, if you’re not embarrassed when you ship your first version you waited too long. We’re iterating quickly, releasing an update every Sunday.

Overall, besides an initial hiccup or two, it’s been a great experience. The Android Market let us release early, iterate often, gather feedback, and fund development without any delay inherent in an approval process. Speaking of approval, I submitted Todo.txt Touch for approval to the upcoming Amazon Appstore, and about 8 days later, I received notification that it has been approved. I have no idea when the Amazon Appstore will launch, or how it will work.

Are you making an iOS/WebOS/web-based/AIR version of Todo.txt tools?

The iOS native app is underway, which I’m committed to releasing because I want to learn iOS development. There’s plenty of discussion about other versions. Thing is, I have a full-time job, and Todo.txt apps are spare-time projects. In other words, unless other developers step up to lead other versions, there are no guarantees.

Follow @todotxtapps on Twitter to keep up with news on the projects.

What iPhone dev books did you wind up getting?

I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of my copy of the newly-published Beginning iPhone 4 Development, as well as the iPhone Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide. I’ve watched the first two Stanford lectures and created and tinkered with a few “hello world”-level iOS apps so far.

Speaking of the full-time job, how’s ThinkUp going?

Incredibly well. We’re doing some neat stuff with conversation analysis, you can now embed conversations on any web page, and we’re in the process of testing real-time Twitter support. Check out our latest beta release changelog—it’s a long list of impressive work by a brilliant community.

Thanks for asking.