Jason Austin's Blog Life and times of a PHP Developer in Raleigh, NC

Goal Update for January 2010

I posted a lot of my goals, both personal and professional, at the beginning of the year.  To keep myself honest, I figured I would post an update for what I have been able to accomplish so far.

1. iPhone Developer Contract for NC State is SIGNED, SEALED and DELIVERED!
   After countless hours by a myriad of people at NC State, we finally have a campus-wide iPhone developer contract.  I posted a blog post on our Outreach Technology Blog, and before the end of the day got messages from a few other schools inquiring how we did it.  I think that just shows how inflexible Apple has been with regards to securing iPhone Developer programs for higher education.  It really is a shame.  Apple was all over higher ed many years ago, but now it seems they have essentially written us off as less important.  Either way, NC State has accomplished this, so expect to see some iPhone apps coming from us very soon!
2. Lost Weight and Ran a Race
   So far, I have lost nearly 10 pounds since the first of the year.  I have tracked my food and workouts every day...working out 21 of 31 days in January.  I also ran the Krispy Kreme Challenge and finished!  I felt great about my accomplishment, and feel much better by losing the weight.  Still have a few more pounds to go to get back to my Weight Watchers "goal" weight, but I am well on my way.
3. Mobile Committee Proposal Under Way
   I wrote a first draft of a proposal for an official Mobile Committee and sent it to a few people.  We have got it about 80% of the way there.  Everyone in the current mobile group really embraced the idea, so we hope it will be well received by the higher-ups.  It is an important step to take, but we are well on our way.
4. Big AmberCube Launch
   This is something you will just have to take my word on right now, but we are about to launch a very big initiative with AmberCube.  Garrison and I have been working nearly every night, with the hopes that we can launch the application very soon.
   
5. First Web-Dev Meetup of 2010
   This was in the first week of February, but it still counts.  We had about 40 people at our first web developers meetup, where my friend and colleague Jen did a presentation on Web Usability.  There were people from all over the University, private industry, and even other neighboring schools.  It was well received, and we are already planning the next meetup next month.
6. NCSU Dining Mobile Sub-application
   At the end of last year, we worked with the University Dining folks to get access to their menu data.  A few weeks ago, we started working on the mobile sub-app so that we could make the menus mobile-friendly.  We spec-ed it out, and our part-timer started working on the project.  It should be done here in a few weeks.  Good stuff all around.

That's pretty much it, but that is a whole lot of stuff.  January was busy, and February has started out with a blaze as well.  Gotta keep that momentum going...