Yay! My first iPhone app is in the app store! Actually it’s been in the app store for a while now, but I wanted to fix a bug before telling anyone and well, the app store process being what it is…it took a while. Anyways, it’s finally up! I’m happy because I finally learned to make an iPhone app on my own, which is why it’s such a simple app…and free :).

I didn’t, however, use Obj C for the app, but decided to use javascript, jQTouch, and PhoneGap…so it’s essentially a web app in an Obj C wrapper. I think I will try to make a native app next…although I’m still struggling with the idea of the app store and the submission process.

On the one hand, I think it’s great that Apple is giving developers a place to be rewarded for the things they make…but the length of time it takes for them to “approve” an app and the approval process in general is hard to get used to (especially when you’re used to the speed and freedom of the web). The bug I fixed took 1 line of code and 2 seconds to update on the web (this being a web app, you can also access it here but you’ll have to save it to your home screen for it to work properly) – it took them a week and a half. I know that’s probably a short amount of time compared to how long others have had to wait but 2 seconds compared to a week and a half is a big difference! While I’m not likely to make something that they reject based on content alone, I love that no one can tell me what I can or can’t make for the web….and that whatever I make will likely work on other phones without having to rewrite a lot of code (I think…I’ve yet to package it for Android phones). I also have to say that working in XCode sort of reminds me a little of Eclipse and Flash (there are lots of things that seem weird and arbitrary).

But whining aside, I’m happy that I can now recognize the characters for most meat and vegetable dishes now! (a side benefit of doing this project :)

I just found out about the Khan Academy in the news earlier this week and I think it’s one of the most inspirational projects I’ve seen in a while.

Salman Khan is a former hedge fund manager who single handedly created a whole library of YouTube videos to explain all manner of mathematical and scientific topics to kids in a way that’s easy to understand. He started doing them as a way to tutor his nieces and nephews. Now

…his 800-plus videos are viewed about 35,000 times a day, forming a virtual classroom that dwarfs any brick and mortar school he might have imagined. By using the reach of the Internet, he’s helped bring education to the information-hungry around the world who can’t afford private tutors or Kaplan prep courses.

I watched a few of them and I’m totally hooked! When I was in school I always learned just enough math to do well on tests, but then I’d promptly forget what I learned after a test was over. I wished I had someone like Salman Khan as a teacher…someone who made math relevant and interesting beyond a test and who spoke in plain english instead of abstractions.

He’s also got a series on economics and the financial system that I totally plan on watching since I know so pathetically little about how it all works.

There’s more about his project over here.

• Apocalyptic Numbers
• Evil Numbers
• Narcissistic Numbers
• Happy Numbers
• Sad Numbers
• Wasteful Numbers
• and most fascinating of all…Vampire Numbers (so called because they have fangs. fangs!)

John Lennon had once said that ‘all you need is love’. In this matter, love is indeed different from orange juice. For there is many a breakfast we have had without orange juice, but seldom have we been able to enjoy an egg that has not been fried under the steady gaze of a soulmate.