Programming
I made a lot of progress on my habit-building app. All the mechanics of it are working. Now I just need to make it look nicer, add in some sort of tutorial/guide, get the logos, and use it for a while (to see if there is anything it really needs added to it).
I also keep thinking about a browser-based game I wrote a few years ago – Shiny Rock Hunter. I keep wanting to re-write it, or build a game engine around it. I want to finish up my habit app first, but I may do a bit of design for this, when I need a break from looking at the same codebase.
That’s what I’ll be working on this week.
Networking
It’s not exactly networking, but I’ve been trying to increase my visibility in the programming world – to help find potential clients or people to work with (or, even just other programmers to talk with).
Last month, I posted a link to the article I wrote on building a fluent interface in C# on Reddit, and that got a lot of visitors to my site. Now, since I’m not selling anything, that doesn’t mean any money for me. But it is nice to feel that someone is getting value from some of what I write.
Thanks to that post, the number of visitors here was up 371% higher than the previous month. However, after a two-day spike, traffic is back to just about what it used to be – maybe a little bit higher, but not a huge amount.
That’s a sign that if you (and by “you”, I mean “me”) do something that’s going to bring a bunch of visitors to your site, it’s probably a good idea to have something that will draw them back in.
It looks like most of my visitors are people who search for some code sample that can be answered by one of my posts. They visit the site, get what they need, then leave.
Education
I did some more thinking about creating some more training materials. I like the idea of either building a working ‘business’ app, or a game, and having the training go through how to build it – covering all the topics I need to cover.
But I’m going to put that on hold for a while. Too many projects at the same time ends up with me never completing any of them. Get the habit-building app out, then move on to the next thing.
Miscellaneous
I’ve been keeping up with my gym visits. On Friday, I started to run low on energy (in general, not just in the gym). I made need to change my routine, or schedule, to allow for more recovery.
I still haven’t had any lock-ups after upgrading to Windows 8.1. So that’s looking good.