December 2nd, 2007, 8pm GMT. I switched the iDeskbook site to direct users to the 1.0 release. It was ready for the world.
One year on, I look back, and think, wow, what an achievement. While I’m not bothered who has downloaded it, who has tried it, likes it, or otherwise, I followed a project of mine through to a conclusion. A big 1.0.
So, iDeskbook didn’t overly take off, I’ve not broken the 1000 user mark, but hey, I had fun building it. It was a tool for me, that I figured I would make fancy and let others use. I still support it with stability releases, currently at 1.0.15 I believe, and future major versions, 1.5 and 2.0, are in the pipeline. My app was what I wanted to be, except for one thing – they are all Windows products, missing one goal I had, for it to be cross platform. I planed to make it Mac OS X and Linux compatible, and didn’t realise how hard it would be. I put the “i” at the front to try and symbolise that, and unfortunately, it hasn’t happened. And I doubt it will – and as such, I will probably drop the i from the title of the app with 1.5, no decisions have been made yet though.
Speaking of which, 1.5 is still being developed, although there hasn’t been a snapshot in a while, I plan to get Alpha 3 out of the door in the next couple of weeks, when I have fixed a couple of bugs. My PhD is taking up most of my time at the moment, but I am learning to manage my time so I can build iDeskbook/Deskbook at a faster rate – a more relevant program for all.
If you have been following it’s development, supporting me in any way, thanks. Hopefully the next year will be as fruitful as this one.
On a side note, I offer my congratulations to the Songbird team for releasing their big 1.0 today – that truly is an awesome product! Well done guys!
Wow, it seems to have been a while since I have posted here… mainly because I haven’t had much to talk about..
Anyhow, it’s been an interesting couple of months. If any of you follow my software activities, you will have noticed that iDeskbook, my Windows client for Facebook, has gotten a face lift in the upcoming version 1.5, with alpha 2 currently out. I’ve got more to do, but I am chipping away, making it a more useful product. I’m also trying to get Mac/Linux versions out through the use of Mono, but it just doesn’t look like it is going to happen at the moment. *sigh*, well, I reckon iDeskbook 2 is going to be a complete re-write anyway…
On that front, Arcanos, my issue tracking system, has been retired – it was causing me a headache to maintain it, with so little gain, it wasn’t worth keeping it. If you need to provide a bug report, contact me at http://drnaylor.co.uk/contact.
Right, so that’s the website and boring stuff out of the way, time for the more interesting stuff. Since I graduated with a 2:1 at Uni with a B.Sc. Physics with Lasers and Photonics Degree, I have been offered a PhD placement which is due to start at the end of this month. Essentially, I will be doing a theoretical research degree in Solid State Physics – and I can’t wait for it! Of course, the waiting for it is killing me… I just want it to hurry up and arrive!
Other than that, the month of July was quite a boring one – moving out of my student house and going back to my parents (I’m insured to drive a car now!) was probably the most exciting thing that happened… and when exciting, I don’t mean a good thing – I would have liked to have stayed with Abi, Karl, Ben and Rob for another year, they were, on the whole, fantastic housemates – sure we had our niggles, but hey, that’s what kept the house alive…
August has been more interesting – but it has kind of left my head in a whirl. Meeting new people, (well, a new person), strengthening friendships with some of those I already knew (so I’d like to think, they probably want to kill me actually – or just make fun of me as they always do), it’s been good.
Of course, every silver lining comes with a cloud – but it is probably just an over-active imagination. Some of the things that have been said to me in passing lately, most of them not even negative or derogatory, perhaps following on from a joke or something, makes me wonder. A lot. All I can say is though, what ever happens, happens ;P.
I do wonder though… what if?
So, I have been doing a bit of work on iDeskbook 1.1 – and I figured I’d show you a screenshot of the front page…
More are here.
After considerable thinking, the next version of iDeskbook will be 1.1 – due to the overhaul of the setup/update system I am writing, and thought that I would tweak iDeskbook a bit based on the first couple of months of it’s life. Above, you can see the prototype splash screen, inside iDeskbook, some features will be added, some will be removed.
The codename for iDeskbook 1.1 is "Tayler", after Sean Tayler, after he mentioned the update system was a bit (read – a lot) shoddy. Goes hand in hand with the new setup system really,which, co-incidentally, has a new splash screen similar to the one above… I love consistency, it means less work! 
I just had to show off with these splash screens…. notice the "flairs" extending out of the window!
So, what do you think?
In future, iDeskbook Setup will be easier and nicer than ever before, unifying the download and install experience. Screenshots below.
More on the next version of iDeskbook soon…
Just a quick blog to let you know I am still alive. I have just been so so busy, with exams and whatnot, to post. I’m hoping to post soon though – when I get a bit of time to write something!
Oh, in case you care, iDeskbook 1.0.8 is out now, and a new version of the MD5 Hash Generator is also out, if you use that as well.
See the application directory listing here – http://hull.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=6296675901&b&ref=pd
Erm… after a complete screwup, I have released iDeskbook 1.0.1. If you want to try it out, but couldn’t before, give it a go now! It should work…
Sorry if you tried before and it didn’t work!
After about 5 months, iDeskbook 1.0 is due to land at 8pm GMT tonight! The build is in final testing stages, and, if all goes well, iDeskbook will be finally out of beta, and work on iDeskbook 1.5 can start!
Just over 18 hours left. Not long now!
I would just like to take this chance to thank everyone who has supported me in this project, it has been great working on it and hearing the feedback.
Thanks, first and foremost, goes to Ben Dawson, who did a lot of the UI for me, and helped hugely in the design of the project.
I would also like to thank Rob Parker and Dave Morris, for the feedback that I have had from them at various stages in the project (whether though Arcanos or otherwise!)
I would like to thank Oli Morris, Nick Laver, and Laura Padget, for their support, and allowing me to use their surnames as the various codenames for the various milestones (Morris for Alpha 4, Dawson, Laver and Parker for the Betas, and finally Padget for the 1.0 release later today)
Of course, I would also like to thank my sister Natasha, Charlotte Burkitt and Ben Best for their help in my final web site design, which again, will be revealed later today.
Also, thanks to Richard Whitehead, Danny Calegero and Steve Gate, who all have used the program at some point, I hope you liked it back when you did try it, as it is much better and more stable now!
Finally, thanks to everyone else who have supported this effort, including the rest of my family, my housemates, coursemates and friends who have had to listen to me going on about it and/or have genuinely shown an interest, including Carl Horsefield, Amy Brown, Rob Gray, Tom Digby, Sean Tayler, Karl Reed and Abi Marchant, I couldn’t have done you guys! If I’ve missed you off, sorry, I’ll add you if you e-mail me!
Thanks a million guys, you made this all worthwhile!
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