Apr 03, 2005 iRooster

iRooster Status Update

I’m going to try something a little different and see how long I can keep it up. I want to post status updates on iRooster on a weekly basis to keep everyone informed.

For those just tuning in, iRooster is my alarm clock for Mac OS X. I highly recommend checking it out at sixDollarChimp.com.

So, there are three separate projects for me to report on this week: iRooster - Mac OS X, iRooster Windows, and web stuff.

iRooster - Mac OS X I released v2.1.1 Beta 2 last week to correct a really stupid bug that I let get through in Beta 1 (sorry again). Since then, I’ve focused all of my energy in this space to working on localization. Before too long iRooster should be available in 5 separate languages (English, Spanish, French, German, and Catalan). Please leave a comment or email me if you want to see it in your native tongue.

iRooster v2.1.1 should be released within the next 1-2 weeks, I hope. I apologize again for the delays on getting this out the door, but between work and a few personal matters my time to work on other things has been somewhat limited.

I am currently waiting on receiving OS X 10.4. I have a copy pre-ordered. I have a few ideas as to how I can improve iRooster with some of the new functionality in Tiger, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Once I get it and start playing around with it I will begin planning v2.2.

iRooster - Windows This project continues bit-by-bit. Since I have a decent-sized (and very passionate) Mac user base, my first and foremost concern still rests on making sure that my existing customers are kept happy.

iRooster for Windows is coming along and will probably see release sometime in Summer 2005. It will require the .Net Framework, and should contain every cool feature that its Mac sibling possesses.

Web Stuff Let’s see, the sixDollarChimp Forum was 0wned earlier this week. That’s always a bit embarassing. I updated phpBB to the latest version, which should keep this from happening again any time soon. I am also going to keep a closer eye on critical updates from them.

I’ve started work on a site design update for sixDollarChimp.com. I hope to have it live within the next few weeks. It won’t change the world, or cure cancer or anything, but I really like it a lot better than the current design.

I also started building my own bug tracking system last night. I had tried out a few free ones a month or two back and I absolutely despised them. Since I don’t want to pay for web-based bug tracking software (as much as I’d like to use FogBugz), I am stuck rolling my own. Planned features include:

  • Total transparency. I intend to keep all bug reports in this freely accessible database so that anyone can see the current state of my software.
  • Ease of use. There’s no sense in having a bug database that discourages my users from using it.
  • Automatic crash report tracking. I have some functionality built into iRooster that sends me crash reports with the user’s approval (not that I’ve received one in a while :grin:). I will redirect these to an email address my bug database will monitor so that crash reports can be pushed in automatically.

doot doot.