Regular readers will know that at the weekends the budget for this blog does not allow for the posting of cartoons or interesting anecdotes. Instead I focus largely on highlights from my filing system.

Today, a section from my bank file entitled ‘letters informing me of my idiocy’.

This is where I file letters that tell me that I have done something wrong in banking terms, generally whilst paying in my cheques at the automatic cheque machine. Usually it is because the amounts do not tally because somewhere along the line I have pressed the wrong button, either on my calculator or on the automatic cheque machine itself.

I have never been very good at pressing buttons correctly. If, at a future interview, I am asked “What are your weaknesses?”, I shall reply, “Pressing buttons correctly”. Unless the job largely relies upon the ability to press buttons correctly, in which case I shall make something up and this blog post will be quietly deleted.

Posted by Dave at 12:46 pm on February 6, 2010 and filed under Mundane, Photographs, Starting a Business.

1 Comment Send this to a friend

I attempted to make two iPhone apps last month. I wrote about one of them yesterday (The Dave Walker / CartoonChurch.com iPhone app), but the second was to have been ‘The dullest app in the world’, an iPhone version of my Dullest blog in the world. The app was to have contained the latest up to the minute updates from the dullest blog along with mentions of @dullestblog on Twitter. Unfortunately this app was turned down by Apple, who said that it would not be of interest to enough people. Their full response:

We’ve reviewed your application Dullest App in the World and have determined that this application is not appropriate for the App Store because it is intended for a limited audience.

If you would like to share it with friends and family, we recommend you review the Ad Hoc method on the Distribution tab of the iPhone Developer Portal for details on distributing this application among a small group of people of your choosing.

If you believe that you can add additional user functionality to Dullest App in the World so that it can be accessible to a wider audience, we encourage you to do so and resubmit it for review.

Regards,

iPhone Developer Program

As you might imagine this came as quite a shock. I have the option to resubmit the app (for a fee), but I don’t know whether I’m going to do so. Should I make the dullest app less uninspiring? It might depend upon the level of interest.

If you would like to see the dullest app in the world come into existence feel free to join my rather halfhearted campaign by posting this elsewhere. Thank you!

It should be noted, by the way, that the dullest blog was updated today. This is a preemptive strike to silence critics who say it isn’t updated that often.

[The dullest blog in the world is available as one part of my other app - see The Dave Walker / CartoonChurch.com iPhone app or search iTunes for 'Dave Walker' or 'CartoonChurch' (one word)]

Posted by Dave at 4:41 pm on February 5, 2010 and filed under Cartoons.

6 Comments Send this to a friend

In my previous post I announced the new Dave Walker / CartoonChurch.com iPhone app (search for ‘CartoonChurch’ in iTunes).

I made my app using Appmakr and a few people have contacted me about doing the same. This is a summary of some of the positive and negative aspects of making an app this way in my experience. If you have no intention of making an iPhone app this post will be of no interest whatsoever.

Positives
1. The quality of the app is generally very good. My app has one bug (sometimes reverting to portrait dimensions when in landscape) but overall the quality is better than I was hoping for.
2. This is by far the cheapest way to get an iPhone app online that I have discovered.
3. The process is fairly easy to undertake, though I spent a few hours trying to find answers to questions in the support section. Editing the splash screen and header image were the most time consuming aspects for me.
4. Once you’ve paid that’s it – no ongoing costs unless you want to modify it, in which case you pay the whole fee again every time.

Negatives
1. The price if you’re on a budget. Making an app is an expensive thing to do compared with setting up a website, which can be done for next to nothing these days. I took the option of a very generous discount code which several well-known bloggers were offering at the time, but unfortunately these aren’t available any more. The basic cost is now $199, a lot if you are a small operation. I was sent a discount code to reduce that by $50, but I later noticed that it had already expired when I got the e-mail. I have asked Appmakr for another code. [Message to Appmakr if you're reading: Please give us another code! It would be great if you could give a generous discount for my readers, many of whom are charity workers without a lot of money. Thank you!]
2. There is absolutely no guarantee that your app will be accepted by Apple. I made two apps – one was accepted and the other wasn’t. I’ll write more about the app that didn’t make it another time. I can resubmit it, but it will cost me an extra $49 and I’m not quite sure how I can improve it. There’s no refund of your initial outlay if your app is turned down, meaning it could be an expensive experiment with nothing to show for it.
3. Once you submit your app you can’t make any changes. That is it. Any change means paying the whole fee again. As far as I understand it if you have your own developer account you can make changes whenever you want, so for someone with the technological ability that would seem to be the better way to go.
4. In theory you can use Facebook feeds in your app, but I couldn’t make them validate. In hindsight I don’t think a Facebook feed would have added much.
5. It doesn’t display Twitter feeds very well – you get the first few words (cut off) as the title, and then a few more words (still cut off) as the body of the message. Probably not what you want to use if you app is centred around Twitter posts.

Other things to be aware of
1. The whole process takes a number of weeks. I submitted my app on 18 January and it went live yesterday, 3 February.
2. One question that took me ages to answer: Appmakr advise against making the app name different from the icon name. I did make them different and it has worked (in one case at least). You put the full name in the form you get after you submit and pay.
3. For other examples of Appmakr apps search in iTunes for Scobleizer or Seth Godin.
4. Other services are available. I suspect the price may come down over time.
5. If your app isn’t based around news feeds this isn’t the service for you.

Posted by Dave at 7:10 pm on February 4, 2010 and filed under Technical.

1 Comment Send this to a friend

I’m pleased to be able to announce the Dave Walker / CartoonChurch app, enabling you to look at my cartoons on the iPhone and iPod Touch. If that link doesn’t work type ‘CartoonChurch’ or ‘Dave Walker’ into the search box on iTunes and you’ll find it. The app is free, and there are no advertisements. It was originally going to be called ‘CartoonChurch’, but that word is too long to fit under an iPhone icon so it shows up on the screen as ‘DaveWalker’. it is compatible with iPhone and iPod touch (2nd generation) and requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later if that means anything to you.

So, what is on this app? Essentially it is the latest updates from five of my various projects, namely:

1. The 10 latest posts from this blog
2. The 10 latest CartoonChurch.com cartoons
3. The 10 latest We Blog Cartoons cartoons
4. The 10 latest Dullest blog in the world entries
5. And, just to fill up the space, my latest Twitter posts (I’d say about 10). How interesting.

Good things about the app: I’m generally really pleased with the way the cartoons display. You can resize them, but if you tilt the screen 90 degrees into a landscape view you generally don’t have to. You can look at the sites in your browser, e-mail cartoons or post them to Twitter by clicking the icon in the top right hand corner. All marvellous innovations. When looking at an individual cartoon the up/down buttons make moving on to the next one really easy. Touch the screen to make the navigation bar at the top appear and disappear.
Not quite so good: There is an occasional bug when using the app in landscape mode and using the back button – it sometimes remains at the wrong width. If at any point you’re not getting the full width turning the app back into portrait mode and then back again into landscape always rectifies it. Clicking one of the other five categories sometimes does.

So, how did this app-making business come about? Well, I tend not to like to write about electronic purchases too often as it makes me sound rather materialistic (which I am, but no-one must know), but since Christmas we’ve been rather getting into the world of the iPod Touch. In the New Year a couple of well-known blogs (Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki) were offering special codes for discounted apps on AppMakr, so I thought I’d give it a go.

The process has not been without considerable complications – if anyone else is interested in making an app via this route please ask me and I will share some of the pitfalls in another post. I also have a discount code (not as good as the one I used I’m afraid) to post, but I think I should write more before posting it so you know what you’re letting yourselves in for. [Update: Have noticed that the code I was sent yesterday expired at the end of January. have asked for another. Will write more about the process of making the app later this afternoon.]

In the meantime I hope those of you with the technology to do so enjoy the app. If you like it and felt like rating it favourably and/or writing a review that would of course help me. Apologies to those without iPhones or iPods – this is, I’m sure, a deeply irritating blog post.

Update: There is a FAQ page here: Dave Walker / CartoonChurch iPhone app

Below: Page in iTunes.

Posted by Dave at 1:57 pm on February 4, 2010 and filed under CartoonChurch progress, Cartooning, Technical.

5 Comments Send this to a friend

My Church Times cartoon ‘The Secularists’ is now on the Guardian ‘Comment is Free’ site. Comments have been enabled, so I’m standing by with my reinforced flameproof overalls and a slight sense of apprehension.

Posted by Dave at 1:35 pm on February 1, 2010 and filed under Cartoons, My cartoons elsewhere, Religion.

6 Comments Send this to a friend

This is of course just a tantalising extract – see the whole thing on the Church Times Blog.

If you’d like to follow my Church Times Blog posts on a regular kind of basis Twitter is one good way to do so – see @churchtimesblog.

Posted by Dave at 9:50 am on January 29, 2010 and filed under Cartoons, Church Times blog, Religion.

1 Comment Send this to a friend

Feel free to post this cartoon on your blog (a link is appreciated). You can get the code to do so here.

[Link by which one can become a Facebook fan]

Posted by Dave at 8:52 pm on January 27, 2010 and filed under Cartoons, Technical.

9 Comments Send this to a friend

Posted by Dave at 4:28 pm on January 19, 2010 and filed under Cartoons.

2 Comments Send this to a friend

This is a new cartoon that hasn’t appeared anywhere else. I know, unheard of.

You don’t need to tell me that the steps are a bit funny. I know that the steps are a bit funny. But you quite often find that underground bunker churches have funny steps.

Large and high resolution versions for subscribers and those wearing the incorrect spectacles here: CartoonChurch.com » Cartoon » We are safe here.

Posted by Dave at 7:59 pm on January 8, 2010 and filed under Cartoons, Church, New CartoonChurch cartoons, Religion.

6 Comments Send this to a friend

This cartoon first appeared on the bottom left hand corner of page 15 of the Church Times on 5 December 2008. I know this because my wife has spent a lot of time putting my Church Times cuttings into sensible folders. Everything is all in date order – it is remarkable.

A larger version is here on the CartoonChurch main site along with the link to a high resolution version that is ideal for printing or looking at from a great distance. Licence info (I do go on, don’t I) is here.

Posted by Dave at 7:54 pm on January 7, 2010 and filed under Cartoons, New CartoonChurch cartoons.

2 Comments Send this to a friend

I posted this cartoon on the Church Times Blog yesterday, and thought I’d put it on CartoonChurch.com for subscribers to download. See the larger version with links to info on reusing here: CartoonChurch.com » Cartoon » Snow.

Posted by Dave at 5:19 pm on January 7, 2010 and filed under Cartoons, New CartoonChurch cartoons.

2 Comments Send this to a friend

I’m pleased to announce that I have at long last chosen the winners of my calendar competition. They are commenter no 8, Kate, commenter no 13, Z, and commenter no 26, Peter Banks. All 62 blog commenters and 17 Facebook commenters were included (repeats excluded), and I chose the winners using random.org.

I will send the winners their calendars once I have got their addresses and overcome any administrative delays.

Sorry to those who didn’t win. However, I have noticed that the calendars are on sale at Canterbury Press for the bargain price of £2.50. Good heavens! [UK postage £2.50 per order up to £50.]

As an aside I note that they are not currently available on Amazon, but remain at no 44 in the ‘Books > Food & Drink > Baking > Bread’ category. One of my lifetime goals was to be a top 50 bread baking author. Now I have achieved that I will need to seek a new direction. I will think about that whilst I have a cup of tea and a ‘bought yesterday in the sale’ Mr Kipling mince pie (currently 6 for 50p in Tesco).

Posted by Dave at 5:16 pm on January 5, 2010 and filed under Quizzes and competitions.

3 Comments Send this to a friend