Author: bryan.stone

There’s a Whole Fediverse Out There

Influenced by a number of factors, such as trying to put the feed from https://morgantownprtstat.us back in a publicly viewable place (RIP public Twitter feed), me trying out Mastodon, and interested to see how things pan out with Threads joining the Fediverse, I’ve decided to throw the ActivityPub plugin onto a couple of my WordPress sites just to experiment and see how this works.

What can I say, I like playing with new tech toys…

[You can find me at @bryanstone and the new PRT feed at @morgantownprt – Hoping to get the latter also back up and running at its old Twitter location too before it begins operation for the fall semester, but baby steps here.]

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Morgantown PRT Status

This week I’ve launched an all-new website at https://morgantownprtstat.us. This coincides with the renaming announcement of PRT Status Notifications to Morgantown PRT Status. I am doing this to better represent my own presence online and through the public services I’m providing. To that end, I’ve also launched a Twitter feed @MorgantownPRT which will receive the same alerts as the iOS app. As such, I am from here on posting most future Morgantown PRT Status related blog contents to the blog at morgantownprtstat.us, so check it out!

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February 2018 Update: Announcing PRT Status Notifications

It’s been a quick minute since I’ve had time to update my blog; we’ll just pretend I’ve been here the last four months, right?

Even though I’ve been a bit absent from my blog, that’s not to say I have nothing to show for the last four months, at least. Besides keeping busy with classes and my job, I’ve also been pursuing some new personal projects, both with a friend of mine, as well as a solo project, specifically pertaining to my iOS development. I was hoping to have something in the works to announce by the end of October, but my first plan didn’t pan out the way I hoped it would so I put the project on the back burner for a few months. For the last month I’ve been working on it again, and it’s almost ready so I’m finally able to confidently announce my new project…

PRT STATUS NOTIFICATIONS

As a student at WVU, I’m not immune to needing the PRT (and being let down when it’s out of service). When you rely upon it, you really just need to know immediately at any given point if something happens, so that you can plan ahead and adjust accordingly. I’ve found an app or two over the years on the App Store that allowed me to check the status on my phone, but it’s so inconvenient having to manually check them or log into Twitter to check the WVU DOT feed when I need to know now.

That’s why I’ve built PRT Status Notifications. Its primary functionality within the app is checking the status of the PRT. No clicking around or refreshing a feed, if you have an internet connection it will automatically update every time you open the app. But it doesn’t stop there. Should you choose to allow push notifications, you won’t even have to open the app to check. You’ll start to receive notifications with information such as affected stations, bus pickup locations, and estimated downtime in a single notification, and later be alerted when the system is confirmed back on a normal schedule.

If you have an Apple Watch, you’ll also be able to check the system status from your watch for the first time (that I’m aware of). Just like the iPhone app, the Apple Watch app will automatically refresh every time the app becomes visible, whether you open it from your home screen, dock, or it being the last-running app that comes up when you turn your wrist.

PRT Status Notifications is currently in invitation-based beta testing via Apple’s TestFlight system. If you’re interested in receiving an invitation to help provide feedback, please send an email to ‘prt-status-feedback (at) bryanstone.net’ with your name and email-address.

Watch for PRT Status Notifications to release on the App Store! Follow my blog and you’ll be the first to know when it drops. Happy February to all, until next time!

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The Wonderful Wizard of “Woz”

I’m making a new category of my blog away from my site and my iOS Development so I can just geek out for a minute. 

Tonight I had the pleasure of getting to enjoy an evening listening to Steve Wozniak in conversation as the keynote speaker at a conference presented by the American Middle East Institute. I loved every minute, every tangent, every story he had to tell. It was fascinating hearing about some of his technological feats, as well as the more philanthropy-related things he’s done with his success. 

Steve Wozniak is easily one of my biggest idols in the world of computers. Sure, I heard of Steve Jobs before I heard of the Woz, but the more I learn about Wozniak the more I admire his accomplishments. Sure, I want to make an elegant product. But the things he spoke about really spoke to me on a deeper level, something I understand and strive for: make a product that you want, because you know what a user wants. If you want it, others will. This also made me think about the things I’ve learned about entrepreneurship: Find the problem you want to solve, as opposed to the solution to a problem that might not even exist. 

Beyond this ideal, which he emphasized by talking about how the Apple II was a computer that he wanted, I also admire how well Wozniak can think outside the box, and make it work. His thinking is so outside the box, especially with the way he brought color into computing displays, that the box is in California, but his ideas were straight from the moon. I like to imagine that I can also think outside the box, and come up with a crazy solution when my back is against the wall, and make it work despite it being crazy. Often times, these are the ideas I’m most proud of coming up with. 
Anyway, listening to Steve Wozniak was a fantastic opportunity and I’m so glad I had the privilege. Geek out over. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

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October 2017 Update: Looking to the Future

I haven’t gotten to do much as far as iOS development since the release of the Blue Calculator+ Apple Watch companion app, but I definitely have ideas in the pipeline, pending some proof of concepts I need to experiment with around my class schedule. (It’s a little draining to think about continuing to learn Swift in my free time, around the four computer science classes I’m already taking this semester). That said, I’m hoping to have something put together enough for a new app announcement by Halloween, and hopefully released for people to take advantage of by the spring semester! So stay tuned for news on that.

Happy October! And if you’re new to my blog check out Blue Calculator+!

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Coming Soon: Blue Calculator+ Watch Companion

After conducting some more testing, I have eliminated the bugs from Blue Calculator+’s Apple Watch companion app. Now that it seems to be stable and not crashing, I think it’s ready to be pushed with my first App Store update! I’m submitting the update to review this weekend, so by sometime next week it should be an available update. Keep an eye out for it!

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Bringing Back the 80’s with a Calculator Watch

Blue Calculator+ is now fully available in the App Store (check it out!), and I’m already planning more for it as I continue learning iOS development. Tonight I’ve begun experimenting with watchOS development, to create an Apple Watch companion to Blue Calculator+. I’m beginning internal testing now, and I’m hoping to have the update sent to App Store Review within a few days.

This may or may not also help me (jokingly) prove to my brother that my Apple Watch is superior to his retro Casio calculator watch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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