Dina Fleet Berry

I spent the last four months writing for WP Apps Hub. That time has come to end but the knowledge I’ve gained is huge.

Why I did it

I not-so-patiently waited for Windows Phone 7 to release and bought it ten minutes before the T-Mobile store officially opened at the Mall on November 8. Please accuse me of an aggressively overboard enthusiasm for an unproven product! That’s what I had and still do. I wanted to learn both the development and design sides of this microcosm. My husband suggested I build an app and game review site. The distraction of the actual site development was too much so I was thrilled when WP Apps Hub advertised for a writer. I was fortunate to have a great boss in Justin.

WP7 Community

I reviewed Windows Phone 7 games and apps. After looking at so many games and apps, I learned a ton about the people who make them. The WP7 Community is awesome. The developers are wonderfully enthusiastic, talented, and love the medium. While the community isn’t quite as organized as it could be, and the division of Silverlight versus XNA is distracting, I’m thrilled to see great technical leaders stepping up and caring for the technology and community.

UX

Microsoft, and the community, can provide only so many sample apps to learn from. Since design isn’t my strength, I needed to see both the good and bad User Designs on the Phone, and understand what made them so. This job was absolutely great for that. I took notes. I learned.

Infections

Justin, my boss at WP Apps Hub, and I both were interested in developing apps for the WP7 Marketplace. That passion was slightly distracting but completely illustrates how infectious mobile development is. 

Software Development

So I’m off developing a Silverlight app for the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. It’s a business app (a.k.a. Aggregated Information) with a very small market (Windows Azure). Granted. But it’s the coolest market , in my opinion, so I’m happy to work on it – which is the whole point. Follow your passions. I’ll follow mine.

Where to Find Me

My WP7 development work is supported by posts over at Project 31a.

I bought my three-year-old son a body pillow. I know that sounds crazy but let me explain.

He sleeps in a regular twin bed. He went right from crib to twin without a problem. I bought a bed rail that fit completely under the mattress and hugged it tight. However, the bed rail’s main surface area, the wall that actually kept him in bed, was mesh.

Somehow, one of the holes in the mesh stretched. Then enlarged. Then ripped into the next hole. And so forth. I ignored it while only his hand could get through. Then his arm. Then his head. Ack! This took weeks but it happened and a swell of panic rose within me every time I saw the bed rail. I chucked it. But now he could fall out of his bed. I pushed his huge, old, falling-apart rocker next to his bed but that didn’t look much safer.

Then I went to Costco. If you are member of Costco, Sams, or any of those warehouse clubs, you know there is a danger to impulse-buy there. They had plush adult-size body pillows. I just had to get the kids one each.

My thought was it could be the new bed rail. It’s huge and soft. The rocker will hold it in. He immediately crawled up on it and laid down. I told him he is supposed to sleep beside it, hug it. No, no, no. He wants to sleep on top of it. He demonstrates. I panic. This is worse, not better.

He is demonstrating our compromise below.