Today 1.0 Released
Today marks my entrance into the world of independent Mac software development. I’m happy to announce the release of Today, a utility that makes managing your daily schedule easier than ever.
But first, the backstory.
Towards the end of 2007, I was suffering from some incredible burnout. I was coming out of a long, stressful client contract and needed to recharge. I took the entire month of December to step away from computing and try and get myself psyched back up to enter the world of Ruby on Rails. January came and I slowly started to pick back up with it, but it wasn’t sparking my interest nearly as much as it had in the past.
I’d begun developing a bad taste in my mouth towards the whole Web 2.0 space and the Rails community in general. In a lot of cases, it seemed like people were stroking each other for how few lines they could put in a method rather than innovating anymore.
More than anything I was working on Check Off 4.0 and other personal projects that were centered around Mac OS X development. I’ve shifted away from OS X in the past 3 years because Rails has been paying the bill, but it’s always been in the back of my mind as where I’d rather be. Mac OS X and the iPhone are where the innovation is now and it was time for me to take advantage of it.
I had enough in savings to live off of for a few months and decided to just make a go of Indie development 100% to see what happens. It was definitely the biggest risk I’ve taken in my short career, and while it definitely paid off personally, it’s also my hope that it will pay off financially. I gotta eat!
Today is the fruit of the past 75 days of development. As I was working on Check Off 4.0, I knew I was going to be using the system’s calendar store. I also had the urge to keep track of my daily calendar in a way that was less intrusive than iCal. Check Off works because, unlike iCal’s task management features, it doesn’t take up much screen real estate and its visibility can be toggled in a split second.
I wanted that for events as well, so I forked the Check Off 4 code base and Today was created.
While my decision to forego a paycheck for the first quarter of the year may not have been good for my pocket book, it was definitely great for personal growth. I don’t think I’ll be ready to exit the consulting world entirely off this project, but it’s hopefully a good foundation. I am still pursuing a few Mac OS X and iPhone development gigs and hopefully Today will help shine a light on my little consultancy.
So I guess April 22, 2008 is the day I was born as Indie. Happy birthday to me.
