Hello Maya, welcome to my castle

Yes....the rope bridge is supported by invisible rope.

I recently started learning to use Maya, a popular 3D modeling program. This is my first real experience with 3D modeling, and I'm pretty excited.

I am currently enrolled in a beginning level class in the animation program at BYU. Our first task was to construct a castle. I was soon proficient with the skills I would need to finish it.

My castle is a quaint pair of towers set on a tall hill connected by a rope bridge. I like it. More to come as my skills improve!

Objects in render are steeper than they appear.

1 week later, and 100 downloads to boot!

It's been a week since my app was published, and I'm quite excited about the results.

I've seen a few app developers blog about their downloads, and I like that, so I'll be doing that as well.

For starters, I'll mention that during the week, I've updated version 1.0 to 1.1, 1.2, and finally 1.3. Each release seemed to boost usage a bit, so my usage data looks a little bumpy. Also, I use Admob for ads in my app.

Installs:

I was quite happy today. I now have 100 active installs whereas on the 15th, I only had 2. The growth seems pretty linear, and that is likely because an anagram solver is pretty boring, most people aren't looking for one. Nevertheless, I'm happy. 100 people use my app and no one has complained about it yet.

Revenue and Ad impressions:

Ad revenue for my app seems to be very volatile. One day I get 4 cents, and another I get over $1.50. I'm guessing that this will get more predictable as more people use my app. I was also quite surprised that so little clicks get you so much money.


My goal that I set was to make back within the year the $25 I payed to be allowed to publish on the Android Market . With $3 in my first week, I'm feeling pretty confident that I can reach that goal. Seeing that, I'm changing my goal to be 2 months. By March 15th, 2012 I hope to have recouped my initial investment.

It's only going to get more exciting from here on out everyone!

My first Andoid App, Jumble Solver.

A week ago I published my first Android app. It is called Jumble Solver, check it out.  This app solves anagrams (also known as Jumbles in the newspapers)

This app originated from my father showing me his FreeMat program that solved Jumbles. I don't know why my father took an interest in the newspaper game, but I tried to improve his hobby program. I quickly became frustrated with FreeMat, and in my frustration, I simply programmed it up in Java. Everything went a lot smoother, and the program was complete very quickly. I then had a crazy idea: "Why don't I try to get this on my phone?" It took a while getting the SDK and everything set up, but converting it to an Android app proved to be relatively simple. While simple, it was really exciting at the same time. When my app was running on my phone, I experienced that same joy that you feel when you make your first program on a home computer. It was like being young again! (well, younger.)

And so, after returning to school, I finally had the idea to publish the app and see where it goes.

I payed the $25 to publish Android apps, figured out how to add ads, and on January 15, 2012, I published my app.

It's been great, and since I've published it, I've released versions 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3. Each version expanded the functionality of my app. In the beginning, the app would only return the answers that use all of the letters entered in, but now, the app allows for words made from a subset of the input characters. Various sorting methods are now select able, as well as other customization.

The implementation of the algorithm is pretty fast, solving for all words that can be constructed from 10 letters within a second from a dictionary of over 172,000 words.

To be honest, this program is pretty simple, but I saw a need. Every other similar program on the market either didn't work completely or needed a web service to solve.

I hope you will continue to follow my posts and see where I go from here. I plan to continue to improve on this app and develop other apps as well. Maybe I'll even make a couple dollars in ad money, who knows.

Hello, my name is Javid Pack....

...and I am I pretty normal guy. I seem to have missed the blogging boom by a few years, but I decided to post on this blog for the sake of....relieving boredom. Also, it helps me think that my efforts are of use.

I am currently pursuing a BS in Computer Science with an Animation Emphasis at Brigham Young University.  I should graduate next year, so I'm a junior. I am seeking an internship for this summer, so if anyone happens by this blog and has connections, let me know. (I really don't think anyone will see this blog, but just in case, "Hi")

This blog for now is meant to be an outlet for all my professional endeavors, my creative endeavors, and my inventive endeavors.  Maybe I'll include some personal items, but not for now.

Stick around and watch.