Barbarian Meets Coding
barbarianmeetscoding

WebDev, UX & a Pinch of Fantasy

windows8devwindows-store-apps

Getting my Feet Wet With Windows 8 Store Apps Development

{% img left /images/beginning-windows-8-app-dev.jpg "Beginning Windows 8 Application Development" "Beginning Windows 8 Application Development" %}

Earlier this year I decided that I wanted to get my first contact with Windows Store App/Windows8 development. I did not have a lot of time, since I want to focus on refreshing my web development skills and becoming a web-dev-wiz for my new job, so I needed something quick and light. I decided to take advantage of my ever-growing library of ebooks and start reading Beginning Windows 8 Application Development - XAML Edition by Kyle Burns. It was definitely a great initiation to Windows Store and modern application development with 300 pages of pure goodness covering:

  • The Microsoft design language
  • Windows Store Application types and XAML controls
  • Data binding and MVVM
  • IoC, Dependency Injection and Service Locator
  • Service Agent Pattern, REST services and Odata
  • Asynchronous programming model: async and await
  • Contracts: Search, Share
  • Notifications and Tiles
  • Sensors, Camera and Location API
  • The Windows Store

The book doesn’t go very much in depth in any of the topics, but it gives a very good overview of the windows store application development experience and a lot of interesting exercises illustrating each feature to get you started. The image below, for instance, is a Netflix movie browser that consumes and OData web service.

A Netflix movie browser Windows 8 app screenshot

So, putting Windows 8 in pause. Web dev! Here I come! :)

P.S. As usual, you can find my test projects at GitHub.

personal

Life Teachings and Enlightenment 2012 Edition

Everyday, sometimes early in the morning, sometimes not so, I get to work. I run the security card at the door, enter inside the office building defying the deadly revolving door and try to persuade the coffee machine to make an aromatic, silky, strong espresso without much luck. I continue to my office, remove my outdoors attire, sit in my comfy chair and switch on my laptop.

The first thing I invariably do is to open Evernote. I have my very own customized version of Getting Results the Agile Way and I handle all my goals through notes. Each day, I create a new note - say 2013-01-13 work - and set attainable goals for the day. In the header of the each note, I have a collection of rules of conduct, mottos or maxims that I have been gathering during the year: My life teachings of 2012.

  1. When I get sad, I stop being sad, and be AWESOME instead
  2. My self-imposed mission is to spread joy in the world!
  3. Sell yourself well, don’t be too humble!
  4. Don’t put energy into things you don’t want more of
  5. Make small projects of every endeavour. Define goals and scope! Remember Parkinson’s Law!
  6. Enjoy Life! It’s a short trip! Don’t take things too seriously! Loosen up!
  7. Don’t forget the 20/80 rule
  8. Always find the why of things!
  9. Always strive to improve things! Never shut up, express your opinions!
  10. Be Bold! Be Awesome! Don’t care about what other people think!
  11. Get outside of your comfort zone! Make it a habit!
  12. Sharpen the Saw! Practice smart! Practice Perfect!
  13. Be diligent, have discipline, a little bit of work every day makes a difference
  14. Anything is possible, you make your own reality, you are in control of your life. Don’t ever feel like you don’t have a choice
Awesome
personalyear-summarybarbarian-chronicles

Goodbye 2012! Hello 2013!

Another year gone and I am not in Forbes’ richest-person-alive list yet, what a disappointment… I really had high hopes there for a minute with quiz4couples… XDDDD (Seriously how does people write without using smileys)

Anyhow… The year was actually quite great after all. These were my highlights:

  • Awesome year with Malin
  • Moved downtown to a beautiful appartment
  • After 5 years being the biggest fan and advocate of tobacco, I quit smoking and have been clean 10 months (I really need to write a blog post about how I quit smoking from one day to the next with no effort whatsoever)
  • I relaunched my blog, Barbarian Meets Coding and wrote 50 blog posts
  • I launched jaimegonzalezgarcia.com as a hub for my personal brand
  • Built and published my first windows phone app: quiz4couples
  • I am finally able to speak and understand Swedish. Yey!
  • Built an WP7 and ASP.NET MVC 4 evernote clone with a backend on Azure at work as an innovation project (Fun!)
  • Started Barbaric Monthly to build monthly projects with quite success
  • I finally learnt WPF, XAML and MVVM
  • I read 45 books on tons of topics
  • I went to the gym 3-4 times almost every week this year and ran regularly
Jaime in amsterdam

Pretty good… I have to remember to read this post whenever I feel I am not doing enough.

2013 looks quite exciting in prospect. I am going to start working at Medius focusing on ASP.NET MVC this 4th of March, which means that I will be doing pure .NET both at work and at home, something I haven’t been able to do for the past two years (Yey!). I think it will be awesome not to feel like I have to play catch-up with the software development world week after week. And there’s Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, two super exciting platforms full of promise for this upcoming year. It’s going to be great…

Ok. Time to wrap up. Good night folks. Malin and I wish you a happy 2013! :)

Malin and I wish you a happy 2013!

P.S. Oh! One more thing, I finally found some time to create a trial version for quiz4couples. So, if you haven’t tried it yet, please do, now you can check it out for free :)

quiz4couplesappbizdevwp7

quiz4couples on a roll featured on the AppBizDev Podcast

We are on a roll! :)

This afternoon I was, again, surprised and beyond happy when I saw that Alan Mendelevich and Ben Riga had featured quiz4couples on the AppBizDev Podcast (a great show on the business of building and selling apps that I have mentioned before in this blog).

The feedback was great with a lot of interesting ideas for improvements and app monetization strategies. Food for thought and energy for continuing developing the app :) Awesome!

So, miss it not, I encourage thee to go and listen to AppBizDev Podcast Episode 8: Atta + Tweetro + MetroTube + Drama! In the meantime, I will stop procrastinating and build a trial version for quiz4couples.

P.S. Alan and Ben thank you very much both for the feedback and the 250k impressions in AdDuplex.

quiz4coupleswindowsdevshowwp7

quiz4couples muy caliente on the windows developer show

I was listening live to The Windows Developer Show this last Friday, and, to my huge surprise, Ryan suddenly started talking about quiz4couples!. Both Ryan and Travis gave great compliments to the app and the landing page. I could not be more grateful and happy, so thank you guys!!

“He is a Spanish software developer… So his app is caliente… well, muy, muy caliente”

Awesome! These guys are freaking hilarious XDD Don’t miss it! Go and listen to The Windows Developer Show episode 96: Get To Know Your Spouse, and any other episode for that matter, because the podcast is just great.