GORDON  MCDOWELL

Calgary’s 15th DemoCamp was particularly fun for me, as it was the first time I’ve demonstrated software at one. Nervous? Check. Stressed? Check. Capable of completing app store submission process before beginning the demo… not so much. I somehow overlooked the step of aquiring a distribution provisioning profile, and kept wondering why Xcode would not accept my .cer (it was looking for .mobileprovision).

Yesterday, I submitted yoctoRide. Had I known that app titles can be submitted in advance of code (I’d heard about iPhone app name squatting but never read the details), I’d have claimed the app name long ago and not worried about it. To claim an app name, all you need is a description and icon. I bet Apple has some entertaining stats about who’s claiming what.

If you want a heads-up when yoctoPlay is released, email me and I’ll sent you a single email once a functional carpooling tool is available on iTunes. I’m extremely interested in Calgarians who are willing to carpool via their iPhones. Because this software will have no value without the network effect (utility of yoctoRide is zero if only one person is running it), I’ll be heavily promoting it in Calgary where I can monitor usage and drive people around myself if necessary. (Our car isn’t that fuel efficient, so its a loss-leader both economically and environmentally.)

One point I failed to make at DemoCamp: Passenger safety will be assisted by passengers snapping a photo before they enter any vehicle. That’s a date-stamped, geo-tagged image of car and driver automatically uploaded to yoctoRide’s server.

To see all the DemoCampCalgary presentations, head to DemoCampCalgary.com where all the presentations are indexed.