Safe Python playing with Virtualenv

Python is a pretty great programming language. It’s fast to write, easy to read, and extremely flexible. It’s a good language to have in your arsenal for when you quickly need to write a web scraper to quick app prototype (although Go Lang is also quite popular for the latter task as well).

You’re going to make mistakes when you first start with Python, and you’re going to want to try the latest and greatest tools (like IPython). Unfortunately, this kind of playing/learning can have a negative impact on your computer, so it’s important to set up a safe environment in which to play. That’s what we’re going to be doing today, by setting up secure environments using virtualenv.

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033 : Bestselling indie games with A Dark Room’s Amir Rajan

awake. head throbbing. vision blurry.

So begins one of the most unique games to ever hit the App Store. What follows is an experience that takes the player through a dystopian world that starts with the simple gathering of wood and slowly grows in scope to places you’d never expect.

Amir Rajan discovered the original web-based A Dark Room (developed by Michael Townsend) on Hacker News and knew it needed to be on mobile. He negotiated the rights to create the iOS app and began his journey into RubyMotion and Objective-C development. He shares how he promoted his app and what it felt like to have a meteoric rise to the top of the App Store.

You should listen to this episode if you’ve ever wondered what it takes to have a best-selling app.

NOTE: It’s highly recommend that you finish A Dark Room before listening to this episode!

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:15 — 44.4MB) | Embed

030 : A carefully crafted app launch with Jeremy Olson

Jeremy Olson Tapity It’s easy to look at somebody like Jeremy Olson and think, “wow, this guy came out of nowhere and just dominated the app scene!” His created his first app, Grades, while still in college, and it won him Apple’s prestigious Design Award in 2011. From there, he founded Tapity, an app development company that just launched its newest app Hours. He’s also the co-author of the popular App Design Handbook.

But creating a beautiful product is only one step in the process of releasing successful apps. In this interview, Jeremy takes me back to the beginning, and shares how he used a journal-like blog to make industry connections and build an audience before he even knew what he was doing. He also talks about turning app releases into launch events, which explains why Hours was covered by almost every major tech news website.

With over a million apps in the App Store, app success really is all about the launch. Jeremy shares exactly how he does it.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:22 — 39.7MB) | Embed

029 : Novice No Longer goes back to apps

I was still working retail when I truly felt what it was like to be a novice. I was just starting the second chapter of a book on Objective-C (after two other books and a video course couldn’t help me) and the words were beginning to sound like gibberish. I just couldn’t make it any farther in my journey to learn programming.

Each of these resources contained a small disclaimer in the intro: some prior programming experience required. At that point in my life, I had done a little HTML and CSS, and figured that experience was a solid foundation for learning more advanced programming with the right guidance.

But nothing made sense. And it wasn’t a matter Googling terms I didn’t understand — I didn’t even know what I should be Googling or how to determine a helpful answer. Everything I read went over my head, and it was impossible to sort the helpful information from the advanced stuff that I really wasn’t ready for yet.

That’s when I discovered Programming in Objective-C by Stephen Kochan. It taught a language I was interested in learning, and didn’t require any prior programming experience. I didn’t need to learn C before tackling Objective-C. The book simply started from the beginning. It was for novices like me.

Programming teaches you a new way to think. Yet even after finishing that book, I still remembered what it felt like to be in the dark. When I talked to other people interested in learning to code, I saw them in the same place I was years before…and I wanted to help.

That’s why I launched Novice No Longer, to help people build apps even if they had no prior programming experience. I launched the podcast in order to further this goal. Over time, the podcast drifted away from this vision, and became more a business/entrepreneur/lifestyle design podcast. It’s been amazing, and I’ve had some amazing guests on the show, but it’s time to get back to the original vision.

I’m taking a break from the podcast for a short while for the revamp. When we return, we’re going to have some top app developers on the show, like Jeremy from Tapity and Dan Councell from Realmac Software.

Is there someone you’d like to see on the show? Let me know.

I’m also introducing a brand new segment to the show, called Ask a Developer. Each week, I’m going to play a question asked by you, the listener, and my guest and I will do our best to provide an answer. It’s a chance to get your biggest questions answered by the masters.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:33 — 7.0MB) | Embed

026 : How to hire a coder without learning code

Dann Berg You have an idea for an app. Maybe you’ve even made some sketches or you have the full wireframes done. Now it’s time to hire a developer…but you don’t have any idea where to begin.

In this episode of the podcast, I share exactly what you need to do to get an app in the app store. We start with your mockups then move into finding a developer, communicating with that developer, and submitting your app. This is the entire process.

If you’re ready to finally get that app in the app store, listen in.

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:32 — 28.6MB) | Embed