Database Info

Website help

I recently started a website that will be about gaming/emulation/android/programming/and technology with a specific focus on retro/old school gaming through emulation on different platforms (ps3 3.55 was recently jailbroke with an easy method).
Anyways since I just got a shift and dived into a bunch of programming classes in college I am going to be looking into app creation (most likely gaming) in the near future and had already planned on covering apps/rooting/roms to an extent.
Just looking for some people interested in helping if you are into the same sort of hobby as me, its for fun and if the site ever begins to profit all team members will be paid (in detail payment situation for anyone interested through email.)
For the most part were just looking for people who love these types of things who wouldn't mind playing, reviewing, and classifying games. The forums are functional and have a mobile version if you visit from your phone.
www.impaledbeast.com
www.impaledbeast.com/forums
Thanks
Sent from space!

[Q] Question About Outsourcing Development For Android App

Hi Guys (please let me know if this post is in the wrong section, and I will move it),
I am sales/marketing professional that's been in the digital/mobile app space for a while. While I am fairly technically savvy for someone in my field (self taught HTML/CSS, websites, e-commerce sites, etc..), I lack skills in languages (java, C, etc) to build my own app. I also fear that given my own work schedule and time constraints, studying and learning on my own will not yield the level of expertise required to build an app to the specifications and quality that I have in mind.
As I had said, I know the app space quite well from a marketing, user acquisition, and monetization standpoint. I am assessing the costs associated with outsourcing the development of an android app for either either:
1) A utility/productivity app - well designed, built, possibly widget
or,
2) Adventure app - bug free, 50 levels or so to start, skinnable levels
My question for you guys revolves around the feasibility of outsourcing development at a reasonable rate, expected quality, costs, time to develop, etc. I used to own a fairly successful e-commerce company on the side, and we used to outsource development but I got so sick of the lack of quality, high costs associated, and missed deadlines...that I spent 6 weeks full tilt learning to code and ended up redesigning and developing the entire site which worked out quite well in the end...but I don't believe that my innate skill sets will allow for me to learn the necessarily languages well enough for android.
So, questions for outsourcing dev:
1) What are my options - of course there's elance, freelancers of the world...and I know many game/dev studios personally...but I know they charge major premiums and typically work with clients with a much larger budget than mine?
2) For those options, what is a reasonable hourly rate, or fixed cost associated for development (I know how long it takes to do XYZ for web dev, but not with android...so I don't know how to gauge whether or not I'm being gamed/ripped off)?
3) Quality - what can I expect for the $$ investment?[/INDENT]
As well, any suggestions or referrals would be helpful as well...but I'm more looking for some guiding principles here.
Thanks for your help and time guys, I really appreciate it - also, again, if this post is in the wrong location...please let me know!
thanks!
Geo_Mojito

geo_mojito said:
Hi Guys (please let me know if this post is in the wrong section, and I will move it),
I am sales/marketing professional that's been in the digital/mobile app space for a while. While I am fairly technically savvy for someone in my field (self taught HTML/CSS, websites, e-commerce sites, etc..), I lack skills in languages (java, C, etc) to build my own app. I also fear that given my own work schedule and time constraints, studying and learning on my own will not yield the level of expertise required to build an app to the specifications and quality that I have in mind.
As I had said, I know the app space quite well from a marketing, user acquisition, and monetization standpoint. I am assessing the costs associated with outsourcing the development of an android app for either either:
1) A utility/productivity app - well designed, built, possibly widget
or,
2) Adventure app - bug free, 50 levels or so to start, skinnable levels
My question for you guys revolves around the feasibility of outsourcing development at a reasonable rate, expected quality, costs, time to develop, etc. I used to own a fairly successful e-commerce company on the side, and we used to outsource development but I got so sick of the lack of quality, high costs associated, and missed deadlines...that I spent 6 weeks full tilt learning to code and ended up redesigning and developing the entire site which worked out quite well in the end...but I don't believe that my innate skill sets will allow for me to learn the necessarily languages well enough for android.
So, questions for outsourcing dev:
1) What are my options - of course there's elance, freelancers of the world...and I know many game/dev studios personally...but I know they charge major premiums and typically work with clients with a much larger budget than mine?
2) For those options, what is a reasonable hourly rate, or fixed cost associated for development (I know how long it takes to do XYZ for web dev, but not with android...so I don't know how to gauge whether or not I'm being gamed/ripped off)?
3) Quality - what can I expect for the $$ investment?[/INDENT]
As well, any suggestions or referrals would be helpful as well...but I'm more looking for some guiding principles here.
Thanks for your help and time guys, I really appreciate it - also, again, if this post is in the wrong location...please let me know!
thanks!
Geo_Mojito
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have a look here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/app-development

[Q] Research Survey: App Developers and App Company Managers Needed To Share Opinion

[Q] Research Survey: App Developers and App Company Managers needed to share opinion
Hi,
Currently, i am conducting my Master thesis research at the University of Technology Eindhoven about quality analysis services of mobile apps. According to literature it appears that the quality of apps is often based on user experience and functionality of apps. Only very basic and few research has been done about technical quality of apps and it is mainly unclear how app developers and app owners (i.e. managers of app companies or individual developer of their own app) think about the technical quality.
Therefore, i am looking for app developers and app owners to help me by taking a 5 - 10 minute survey. For every completed survey I will donate a euro to a charity of your own choice.
The survey is anonymous and only used for academic purposes. All data will be removed after finalizing the project.
The survey is available at survey.sogosurvey. com/k/RQsUYPUSsQsPsPsP (please remove space)
I appreciate your help in this and hope that you take the survey as all app developers and owners opinions count.
Thank you.
Mike Loeffen
Graduating student at University of Technology Eindhoven
P.S. unfortunately, I noticed too late that the survey tool does not provide an optimal format for smartphones, so I recommend to use a computer or tablet.
I hope this will not be a reason to decide not taking the survey.

Hmmm,...
I would have selected "Keep the Euro" but there was no such option, so MSF...
Then I saw this:
6) Price: How much you are willing to pay per month in dollars. The price can be:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and the next few pages had money questions.
So I felt I was filling out a marketing survey, and I aborted and posted this.
Please feel free to explain.

mikereidis said:
Hmmm,...
I would have selected "Keep the Euro" but there was no such option, so MSF...
Then I saw this:
and the next few pages had money questions.
So I felt I was filling out a marketing survey, and I aborted and posted this.
Please feel free to explain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for you comment.
To answer your first comment, I chose to make that particular question about charities not mandatory. So, if you did not want to let me donate, you could keep that question open. But I wanted to do something in return for every participation, and as a student I don't have many resources. Therefore, the decision to donate something.
You have a good point with your second comment. As I explained on the first page is that I study Innovation Management at a Technical University. This study combines the technical aspect, like IT business, with economy aspects, like marketing, sales, and management. The goal of my research for my Master thesis is to analyze if technical quality (i.e. the quality of the source code) of apps is just as important as the technical quality of large software systems and to analyze what opinions app developers and app owners have regarding the technical quality.
In my research I use the so-called conjoint analysis, which is indeed an analysis method often used in marketing scenarios, but additionally it is also a very good method to analyze different perspections of a product or service which is what I try to do in my research. Price is often excluded because it could influence the perception of respondents (and appears so now). But I chose to include it, because I assume that a technical quality analysis could always be useful in different ways (help developers in a good direction or decrease costs. This is already proved for computer and enterprise software, but it has a gap in literature in the case of mobile app software). Therefore, I try to analyze how important and how interesting app developers and owners find the technical quality by including different price levels. If someone chooses a higher price for better services, I assume that a technical quality analysis might indeed provide value from the perception of developers and owners.
Overall, it is an academic research about consumer behavior and perceptions about a relative new service (therefore the link to Innovation Management) because very few research is done about software quality of apps from a developers or owners perspective. That's why marketing aspects are included too. In the end, academic researches will always be public accessible, and I try to close some of the gap of the technical quality services about the software of apps. I cannot close the whole gap because due to the fact I am no software developer I can not include all aspects unfortunately, so in this case mainly 'human technology interaction' aspects).
I hope this will make myself and my survey more clear. If you have still some questions, feel free to ask them.
Thank you for your comment and I appreciate it if you are still willing to participate

mtclo said:
Overall, it is an academic research about consumer behavior and perceptions about a relative new service (therefore the link to Innovation Management) because very few research is done about software quality of apps from a developers or owners perspective.
...
I am no software developer
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to learn what software development is REALLY like, this is THE BEST site I have ever seen: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/
IMO there are no effective methods of objectively evaluating software quality and I think this is a widely held opinion by those with SW dev experience*. Many attempts have been made, with bug tracking systems for example, and pretty much all have failed to objectively evaluate quality. Very good QA people can find many more bugs than average QA people. QA team size matters. Defining a single bug precisely is difficult.
(*At least in the common real world. Things may be somewhat different in the military and super-super reliable part of the industry that uses at least 10 times more developers for projects than the apps and other common development areas.)
Maybe the closest we could get to measuring quality would be MTBF, but even in other engineering areas, this is pretty difficult to accurately calculate, and it's value is questionable. And software is SO different than other areas. Eg. If hackers (who can make serious money finding a zero day bug) or others never find a specific bug that exists, nobody will ever know about it. OTOH, if a hard disk or bridge fails, somebody will likely know about it.
I've been doing SW dev professionally for 25 years, and personal/hobbyist for 15 years before that, dating back to becoming a teen in the mid 1970's when microprocessors were first arriving.
My education was in electronics however, and I'm a practical "get it done" dev who has never pondered sort algorithms academically.
I LOVE coming up with wonderful software designs that are elegant, minimizes bugs and easy to extend and accommodate future features. In my case, I created an Android FM App named Spirit2 that I took care in designing to have good characteristics.
OTOH, my Spirit1 FM app was never designed, it was quickly thrown together with hack after hack added for years. The code is a mess and it's now almost impossible to add a new feature without breaking existing functionality. Spirit1 served a good purpose, getting an app out quickly, but I had to solve the goal of getting a better quality app out by designing a new one: Spirit2.
IMO, a surprising amount of real code out there in the world today was, at least initially (with reverb for decades), quickly hacked together, not really designed well, or otherwise "very suboptimal". This includes large enterprise systems, monstrosities like the ObamaCare system, and the systems running our banks.
And most consumer apps are so full of bugs it's not funny. Big deal, the app crashes and needs to be restarted. Most people would never know if it's the fault of the app, the hardware or the operating system.
I'd like to think that my opinions above could be more important than just filling out a survey, especially if it makes you reconsider your ideas going into this.
Again, I'll HIGHLY recommend reading this site for an hour or 2, to you or anyone involved or interested in the REAL world of software development: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/
I have no connection with Joel, and haven't been on his site in many months at least. But I have spend at LEAST dozens of hours gleaning new insights and even entertainment there over the last 10+ years. Most of the time I end up back on his site when someone posts a link from slashdot or similar tech discussion sites.
ETA: Oh, and Joel's company does bug tracking software, so I'm sure he has well formed opinions on software quality: http://www.fogcreek.com/ Tracking (and fixing) bugs is still useful of course, even if there are no good objective quality measurements. But I'll be happy to step aside and reconsider if his opinions on that differ from mine,

mikereidis said:
If you want to learn what software development is REALLY like, this is THE BEST site I have ever seen:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mikereidis said:
IMO there are no effective methods of objectively evaluating software quality and I think this is a widely held opinion by those with SW dev experience*. Many attempts have been made, with bug tracking systems for example, and pretty much all have failed to objectively evaluate quality. Very good QA people can find many more bugs than average QA people. QA team size matters. Defining a single bug precisely is difficult.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mikereidis said:
OTOH, my Spirit1 FM app was never designed, it was quickly thrown together with hack after hack added for years. The code is a mess and it's now almost impossible to add a new feature without breaking existing functionality. Spirit1 served a good purpose, getting an app out quickly, but I had to solve the goal of getting a better quality app out by designing a new one: Spirit2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mikereidis said:
And most consumer apps are so full of bugs it's not funny. Big deal, the app crashes and needs to be restarted. Most people would never know if it's the fault of the app, the hardware or the operating system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank your for your tip. I could definitely use it for my literature review. Though, as I mentioned before, I am not capable to cover all software development aspects because I had to narrow the scope according to the guidelines of the Master thesis and according to my knowledge field (I hope this is the right description).
Furthermore, I think I had to define my definition of technical quality of software better. I am aware of the fact that the word 'quality' has a lot of meanings and definitions. In my thesis I have defined technical quality as the maintainability of the source code of software. I narrowed my scope in the research to tools that inspect code quality by reporting on duplicated codes, code complexity, code design, et cetera. Think about tools as SonarQube or VeraCode. However, these tools focus mainly on large enterprise software systems or general computer software. Therefore, my research is focused on code quality of app software for Android, iOS or Windows for mobile devices.
And finally to make my intentions of my research fully clear, is that I won't develop such a tool but I want to analyze if such tools for mobile apps would have any potential on the market and would some features like a quality label or the level of reporting detail have any influence. You already acknowledge that consumers would not be aware what causes bugs or other problems. In some cases, these problems might be caused by faults in the source code. Consumers would have no influence in that case, but app developers do. Code analyses might improve the source code or decrease costs by decreasing development time. Therefore, my target group are app developers or app owners (like managers of companies that develop apps) and I want to analyze if these people would be interested in such tools if it could, for example, improve the maintainability of an app and/or decreasing costs. Eventually, as my research results will become public and it appears that such tools might provide value to app developers and/or app owners, than it can be a motivation to develop such tools. Each individual will be free in deciding what to do with my results.
Hope it is clear now
I appreciate your additional thinking and it could indeed provide value and ideas for my research.

Hi everyone,
Hereby a reminder of the survey about the demand for mobile app quality analysis services. I hope you are willing to spend only 5 minutes of your time to help me with this research to graduate.
I have received feedback that the original survey was too vague and complicated. Therefore, I have improved the survey to make it more easy to fill in.
To access the improved version, please use the following link: survey.sogosurvey.com/k/SsUYPUSsWsPsPsP
I would appreciate it very much, if you are willing to complete this survey.
Thank you.

Programming help needed: questions for the XDA Community

I’m looking for an Android programmer to help with crafting & tuning our UI / UX and writing client code to test out our authentication and application specific API’s (JSON/REST), that are currently in development. Java proficiency and a willingness to learn Xamarin.
Q1. What’s a reasonable $$/hr. should I offer?
Q2. Is it reasonable to think I can find someone with these skills that’s comfortable to work with loose specifications and contribute their own creativity, or will most people want a formal detailed specification?
Q3. If we work well together I’d like to ask them to join our start-up where their contributions to the company would be treated as capital in exchange for ownership (stock). Can I expect that talent like I’m looking for will generally want to run their own show?
Q4. Where can I find this person?
Thanks !!

Re:
It depends on deadline time, complexity of your application and experience of the developer. Your question does not explain about any of those specifications.

Fair Enough
GenieKnudson said:
It depends on deadline time, complexity of your application and experience of the developer. Your question does not explain about any of those specifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the response GenieKnudson. In a perfect world I'd like the work to start right away. Initial work is on the user interface / experience. Next would be code to exercise & test the API's we're currently working on in Microsoft Azure, (REST/JSON API's for authentication, permissions, picture processing and proprietary). Then work on the application itself. So I could pay a code monkey to do what I say then go away, but the nature of the work requires collaboration and creative input. Instead of a mercenary I'd like to find someone interested in joining the team. As for experience I'd trade years of coding experience for good knowledge of contemporary tools, architectures & design.
Our startup is too young to afford a full time employee, but we have money to pay for services, and the potential of employment and partial ownership in the business. I’m very confident in our business prospects as my partners and I are seasoned, each with a long track record of success and reward.
As I read what I’ve written I think we need to find someone physically local to me or one of our developers.

[Completed] Internet of Things (IoT) - General Assistance

I apologize in advance if I posted this thread in the wrong place... I appreciate all the contributors, forum admins, etc.... for all the hard work and expertise that is the backbone for the XDA community!!!
Here is my question: (for additional background info, etc... please see details below) I'm wanting to learn as much as possible about the IoT. So I have checked out starter kits for the Arduino and Rasberry Pi Platforms but not sure if 1 is better than the other or should I get both? I understand the difference in technology, specs, etc... for these 2 platforms but have no idea which 1 would best help me develop the skills necessary to find work in the IoT field. I do have some basic coding skills, expert on hardware of all types and basic soldering skills working with boards/electronics. I feel like the basic starter kits for either platform will be very boring and uninspiring... should I buy a certain starter kit and add a couple component kits? I don't mind running through the basic projects very quickly to get a quick overview on how it all works but I would prefer a greater challenge and more in depth projects. I cant find any intermediate or higher degree of experience type sets. Any assistance at all would be greatly appreciated... or if you know of any forums where I might find XDA quality professionals to mingle with...
***** (the extended, long winded and probably way too much info version)*****
I am looking for a little basic assistance\guidance on the latest hot topic, the Internet of Things (IoT). I rely on XDA for all my mobile needs. The professionals that contribute content, apps, roms, root methods, etc... are the best in the biz, truly amazing people! I have spent 2 days searching the web for info on this topic but all the info I have come across is a little too generic so I thought I would try my luck here on XDA where the real brains and experts behind all things technical congregate.
My Question is very basic but I'm hoping to get some helpful feedback or pointed in the right direction. I have worked in IT field of the Telco industry for 20yrs. Mostly designing and building multi-million dollar data centers. As manager of IT, my staff and I supported 80+ MS Servers (Exchange, IIS, SQL, PDC"s, AD, SMS). I got my MCSE in Windows NT 4.0 (you can stop laughing now... haha). I actually started the IT Dept, for a small CLEC and it all went to **** when I was promoted to Mgr. of IT, then Director of IT. I helped many techs get the latest CCNA, MCSE licenses while I was sent to "executive training seminars/courses". Just wanted to provide my experience and background.
Now I'm 45yrs old, was laid off many years ago and lost my footing in the fast paced IT market. I will never take another mgmt. position because I enjoy being in the trenches. I'm not a fan of Bill Gates, MS software and OS bore me to tears so I figured the next big thing is gonna be IoT apps/solutions. So now to piss you guys off with a very basic question... I want to get a starter kit for the Arduino or Rasberry Pi platforms but not sure which 1 is best suited for IoT integration, apps, etc... or should I get both? I have seen all the starter kits but I'm not the type of person that enjoys making a light blink or any of the other basic projects. I'm pretty confident that I can take on more challenging tutorials/projects. I would have more fun building my own drone/quadchopper or integrating blu tooth devices, security cameras, etc... and eventually hope to find a not so common area to integrate IoT solutions, maybe agriculture in the medical marijuana industry. That would be lots of fun. hahaha
I'm an extremely fast learner (already have some experience soldering boards, etc... but far from an expert) so if there are any pros here with experience on these platforms in regards to IoT, I would greatly appreciate any help, technical or career advice. Again, I know this isn't the focus of XDA but I know where to find the experts... I would probably ask for marital advice on here if it involved any gadgets. lol...
PS. Sorry for the long read I just wanted to provide some background info hoping to avoid the "newbie" label and being referred to a basic beginner kit. There are so many variations in the available kits, an extensive list of projects, upgrades and components. What I hope to find is someone who has already been down this road and can help me avoid buying over priced gimmicky kits. I assume I will want to purchase a larger starter kit then add a few components, sensor, etc,.. type kits. Has anyone purchased any of this stuff off WISH? I wouldn't trust the boards off that site but small electrical components like resisters, etc... might be fine.
Thanks to all those who take the time to respond to my request and if I get nothing, I'm forever grateful for all the support on my SamSung devices.

TeeShark said:
I apologize in advance if I posted this thread in the wrong place... I appreciate all the contributors, forum admins, etc.... for all the hard work and expertise that is the backbone for the XDA community!!!
Here is my question: (for additional background info, etc... please see details below) I'm wanting to learn as much as possible about the IoT. So I have checked out starter kits for the Arduino and Rasberry Pi Platforms but not sure if 1 is better than the other or should I get both? I understand the difference in technology, specs, etc... for these 2 platforms but have no idea which 1 would best help me develop the skills necessary to find work in the IoT field. I do have some basic coding skills, expert on hardware of all types and basic soldering skills working with boards/electronics. I feel like the basic starter kits for either platform will be very boring and uninspiring... should I buy a certain starter kit and add a couple component kits? I don't mind running through the basic projects very quickly to get a quick overview on how it all works but I would prefer a greater challenge and more in depth projects. I cant find any intermediate or higher degree of experience type sets. Any assistance at all would be greatly appreciated... or if you know of any forums where I might find XDA quality professionals to mingle with...
***** (the extended, long winded and probably way too much info version)*****
I am looking for a little basic assistance\guidance on the latest hot topic, the Internet of Things (IoT). I rely on XDA for all my mobile needs. The professionals that contribute content, apps, roms, root methods, etc... are the best in the biz, truly amazing people! I have spent 2 days searching the web for info on this topic but all the info I have come across is a little too generic so I thought I would try my luck here on XDA where the real brains and experts behind all things technical congregate.
My Question is very basic but I'm hoping to get some helpful feedback or pointed in the right direction. I have worked in IT field of the Telco industry for 20yrs. Mostly designing and building multi-million dollar data centers. As manager of IT, my staff and I supported 80+ MS Servers (Exchange, IIS, SQL, PDC"s, AD, SMS). I got my MCSE in Windows NT 4.0 (you can stop laughing now... haha). I actually started the IT Dept, for a small CLEC and it all went to **** when I was promoted to Mgr. of IT, then Director of IT. I helped many techs get the latest CCNA, MCSE licenses while I was sent to "executive training seminars/courses". Just wanted to provide my experience and background.
Now I'm 45yrs old, was laid off many years ago and lost my footing in the fast paced IT market. I will never take another mgmt. position because I enjoy being in the trenches. I'm not a fan of Bill Gates, MS software and OS bore me to tears so I figured the next big thing is gonna be IoT apps/solutions. So now to piss you guys off with a very basic question... I want to get a starter kit for the Arduino or Rasberry Pi platforms but not sure which 1 is best suited for IoT integration, apps, etc... or should I get both? I have seen all the starter kits but I'm not the type of person that enjoys making a light blink or any of the other basic projects. I'm pretty confident that I can take on more challenging tutorials/projects. I would have more fun building my own drone/quadchopper or integrating blu tooth devices, security cameras, etc... and eventually hope to find a not so common area to integrate IoT solutions, maybe agriculture in the medical marijuana industry. That would be lots of fun. hahaha
I'm an extremely fast learner (already have some experience soldering boards, etc... but far from an expert) so if there are any pros here with experience on these platforms in regards to IoT, I would greatly appreciate any help, technical or career advice. Again, I know this isn't the focus of XDA but I know where to find the experts... I would probably ask for marital advice on here if it involved any gadgets. lol...
PS. Sorry for the long read I just wanted to provide some background info hoping to avoid the "newbie" label and being referred to a basic beginner kit. There are so many variations in the available kits, an extensive list of projects, upgrades and components. What I hope to find is someone who has already been down this road and can help me avoid buying over priced gimmicky kits. I assume I will want to purchase a larger starter kit then add a few components, sensor, etc,.. type kits. Has anyone purchased any of this stuff off WISH? I wouldn't trust the boards off that site but small electrical components like resisters, etc... might be fine.
Thanks to all those who take the time to respond to my request and if I get nothing, I'm forever grateful for all the support on my SamSung devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Greetings and welcome to assist. This is not really our field of expertise unfortunately. I know very little about Arduino but have used the raspberry Pi. We have a dedicated forum for the Pi here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/raspberry-pi
I think the experts ther will be able to assist you bettert than us
Good Luck
Sawdoctor