The Blog
Exploration Of Thought
Thoughts on autonomy, self direction, digital business and life.
Minimum Viable Programming
Stop over-engineering your MVP. Minimum viable programming means shipping the ugly hack first and cleaning up code only once it makes money.
Donn Felker – January 10, 2012
The Wrong Time and Wrong Market (or Failing in the Entertainment Industry)
How I sank $140K over 7 years running an indie record label, why it failed, and the hard lessons on accounting, contracts, and cutting losses early.
Donn Felker – December 14, 2011
Building an Android Notification Bubble
How to build an iOS-style red notification bubble in Android using an XML drawable and FrameLayout, with no 9-patch images required.
Donn Felker – December 2, 2011
Android Validation with EditText
Skip the validation dialog box. Android's EditText has a built-in setError method that shows an inline icon and popup message instead.
Donn Felker – November 23, 2011
What’s New in Android Development Slides
Slides from my 'What's New in Android Tablet Development' session at AnDevCon, covering the latest tablet APIs, tools, and SDK changes.
Donn Felker – November 7, 2011
AnDevCon Tablet Programming Workshop Presentation
For those of you who attended todays workshop at AnDevCon II, here is the PDF of the presentation that we covered today. Enjoy!
Donn Felker – November 6, 2011
Android Tablet Programming Class at AnDevCon III
Logistics for my Hands-On Android Tablet Programming class at AnDevCon III: prerequisites, what to install, and what to bring to keep up.
Donn Felker – October 26, 2011
I’m Teaching a Free Android Tablet Programming Class Oct. 25th in AZ
I'm teaching a free, hands-on Android Tablet Programming class October 25th at Gangplank in Arizona -- seats are limited, register only if you're sure.
Donn Felker – October 13, 2011
Android’s Locale Implementation Is Broken
Android devices only ship with a subset of locales installed, so Currency and DateFormat can render wrong or garbled for locales you need.
Donn Felker – August 23, 2011
Android: Centering text between two other Views
Use layout_weight on a middle TextView to spring-load a bullet separator that stays centered between two dynamic-length text views in Android.
Donn Felker – August 3, 2011
Android: Rounded Corners with a Bevel/Drop Shadow
How to give Android layouts rounded corners with a bevel/drop shadow using one XML layer-list drawable instead of many 9-patch images.
Donn Felker – August 1, 2011
Retaining and Acquiring Talent in the Face of Rising (Energy) Costs
Hiring is expensive and gas prices keep rising. Why letting employees work remotely is the simplest way to cut costs and keep good people.
Donn Felker – June 28, 2011