Archive for October, 2024
New versions of NastyWriter and NiceWriter
Posted by Angela Brett in My Software, News on October 26, 2024
I’ve just updated my two iOS apps, NastyWriter (now 3.0) and NiceWriter (now 2.0). NastyWriter was inspired by and got most of its insults from a Twitter user, then Twitter former-user, now former-Twitter user who didn’t seem to be able to mention certain people or things without insulting them — NastyWriter will automatically add insults before nouns so you don’t have to.
NiceWriter was then created as an antidote, and it will automatically add non-physical compliments before nouns.
The latest versions of both apps have new adjectives (insults or compliments) as well as the following changes:
- Fixed a compatibility issue with iOS 17 and above where suggested text could be inserted without the user selecting it
- Removed ads
The first change was because it was simply embarrassing to have a buggy app out there when I’m looking for work as a developer, and I hadn’t had the time to figure out what the issue was until now.
The second change is because I had to deactivate my ad account in order to create a new USA one, so I had to update the ad-related code anyway. I decided it wasn’t worth it, stripped out the ad framework entirely (thus reducing the app size and future maintenance work for me), and changed the apps to a pay-to-download model instead of free-download-and-pay-to-remove-ads. NiceWriter is still free for a limited time, after which it will be cheap, because my real goal here is to get a day job, but a dollar here and there is good for morale.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ll write a post some day about how to change the country of online accounts, but here’s a sneak peak: Google is the worst of them. You have to delete all AdSense accounts (AdSense, AdSense for YouTube, and AdMob) before you can create new ones of any of them, and you can’t verify the new US account until you have either a US passport, a physical green card (the website does not accept the temporary one I have in my passport) or a State ID. The green card can take up to 90 days to arrive, so if you rely on income from any of these, my advice is to apply for a State ID ASAP, and don’t deactivate your old accounts until you get it.
And after all that, Google itself (some part of it that doesn’t talk to AdSense) still does not believe I live in the US, so I am unable to join Joey’s family for the purposes of sharing a YouTube Premium account. Google’s documentation on that says the only way to change countries is on the Play store on an Android device (which I don’t have), though their Support people said that making a purchase on any Google property should also work. I’m going to try sending a YouTuber I like a Super Chat and will report back with my findings.
Anyway, go check out the new versions of NastyWriter and NiceWriter! Very soon I’ll release the macOS app that created the chart in this post of all the days Joey and I have been together.
Dumb Parody Ideas at FuMPFest 2024
Posted by Angela Brett in News on October 9, 2024
FuMPFest is a funny music festival put on by the Funny Music Project, which I had never attended in-person because it’s not worth travelling from Austria to the USA for just a weekend. But now that I live in the USA, I finally got to go! It was put on as part of Con on the Cob, and was quite similar to the comedy music track at MarsCon (also run by people from The FuMP), which I have been to a few times when it happened to be a week out from JoCo Cruise. Both are approximately the same friendly group of comedy musicians and comedy music fans, having a small comedy music festival while surrounded by a larger convention.
One thing that happens at FuMPFest is the Dumb Parody Ideas contest, where people sing a few lines (up to 90 seconds per idea) of dubious song parodies. I had a few ideas for this years ago (I have a note with the lyrics from 2021), but never had a chance to enter… until now! The first one is a parody of Losing My Religion, by REM, inspired by the six and a half years of regular FaceTime calls with Joey while we were still living on separate continents:
Lyrics:
That’s me in the corner.
That’s me in the FaceTime, losing my connection.
The background is a screenshot I took while losing my connection in a real FaceTime call with Joey. The me in the corner was added in post, a little larger than the actual size of the inset which would have me in it. Joey’s playing ukulele offscreen.
The other parody idea I had was of Enya’s ‘Only Time’, which (like most things), Joey sings better than I could. We recorded a video of it before FuMPFest, because the only Dumb Parody Ideas panel I’d seen was at an online-only version of the con in 2020, so I wasn’t sure whether people would be doing them live for this one. The first take was pretty hilariously bad, setting us up to laugh through some of the later takes, so here’s the video with out-takes.
Lyrics:
Who can say where the road goes?
Where the day flows?
Google Maps.
In the end Joey did perform it live, followed by another dumb parody idea that Joey came up with on the day. A few hours before this panel, Devo Spice showed a short horror film which featured the song (of anonymous authorship) ‘I Sh💩t More in the Summer’. Joey parodied it with the things we do more at FuMPFest, taking inspiration from the FuMPFest bingo cards we were given.
Lyrics:
We chant COG! more at FuMPFest
than we do at any other time of year.
We yell ‘moisture!’ [more] at FuMPFest
than we do at any other time of year.
Eat from a food truck
“Corned beef and Cabbage”
Tune a guitar on stage
We all stall more at FuMPFest
than we do at any other… …stalling for time of year!
Both Losing My Connection and Google Maps were finalists in the competition, though we didn’t win the coveted golden spatula. Surprisingly, Joey’s last-minute parody was not nominated, despite the more developed lyrics and clear pandering to that specific audience.
Overall, we had a great time at FuMPFest. It was all streamed live on The FuMP’s Twitch channel, and at least for now, there are archives of the shows available there.
The next big thing on my calendar, which also includes song parodies and can be attended virtually, is the MathsJam Annual Gathering.
As promised in my last post, I put my new macOS app on TestFlight, and have already fixed some issues that were pointed out. It’s the app that made the chart of days that Joey and I have been together in person. It could be used to chart anything where you can summarise each day with a few colours or emoji — long-distance relationships, travel, moods, daily progress towards goals, the timeline of a novel you’re writing, weather, etc. If you’re interested in trying it, let me know somehow and I’ll add you to the list of testers. Otherwise, watch this space and get it when I release it some day soon.
When I’m not going to conventions, working on apps, and trying to convince various internet companies that I live here, I am still looking for a day job. Let me know if you know anyone who would like to hire me.
-
You are currently browsing the archives for October, 2024
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Please tell me if you do something cool with it.
Creative Output 