My friend, it has been a while. How are you and what have you been up to?

As for me, I've been rather busy. Scribere has been taking form and is quickly approaching a Beta release. To accomodate this, a couple of things need to happen first:

1. Completion of basic user documentation.

2. Fine tuning of features.

3. Raising of funds to continue development

Though, to tide you over for the next week or two there are two screenshots which demonstrate the simplisity and power of Scribere.

I must beg you friend to pay respect to your mac and stop salivating over the keyboard. It isn't good for it. Please send an email through to Beta at Scribere dot info to be considered for the beta.

Please do keep in contact.

God bless,

Matt

Dear Reader,

As you are aware from my ramblings, I often have crazy ideas and schemes of grandeur, and nothing could be truer. This is precisely why I write.

I have a crazy idea, and it is a grand scheme. That scheme is to see Academics return to a desire for knowledge and wisdom. To see both students and professional academics alike use technology to its fullest potential rather than wrestling with it daily. This is starting off with Scribere which provides a way for taking notes whilst listening to podcasts and vodcasts. In fact, though it works by using an RSS feed to obtain and maintain the audio and video, it can be used for any stand alone file. This is perfect for listening to recorded lectures or church sermons. Further, Scribere takes note of when in the audio/video the note was taken so that the notes can be reviewed and referenced with ease.

That is the first of many crazy ideas and whilst I do love writing about the idea itself, it is nothing if it remains an idea. Scribere has taken shape for the past year and though it is usable, it still has work to be done. This is the second reason that I write. Scribere has generated a lot of interest and popularity amongst my friends and acquaintances and they have been clamouring for it. "Gimme, gimme" are the cries that come thick and fast over twitter as well as when I take out my laptop in a coffee shop on Glenferrie Rd.

This is where you, dear reader, come in. I'm at the point where finishing the app requires solid work and long hours, and these don't come cheap. In order to get the app completed, I'm in need of funds. One way of doing this is by a site called ChipIn which collates the funds into a PayPal account. In order to participate in this fashion, the ChipIn widget is provided bellow.

If you feel that using the Internet is insecure or would rather do things the old fashioned way via a bank transfer, please contact me at Matt _at_ ReformedSoftware _dot_ com.

But what is in it for yourself dear reader? If funding crazy ideas and schemes of grandure isn't enough reason then I shall detail what you will get for your donation.

• Access to Scribere beta.
• A free copy of Scribere (retail price will be roughly $30 when released).
• Weekly updates on what is happening with Reformed Software.
• Conversations over coffee.

This, dear reader, is regardless of how much you invest. If you want to invest $5 then you save money. Though I will openly say that my goal is to raise $7,000 so the more you invest, the higher the standard to which applications will be developed. To make good on this, please contact me so I know you've invested.

If, dear reader, you are considering Reformed Software as a serious business investment, then please do contact me. I do love talking to you my friend, dear reader, and appreciate the advice that you give. There is a business plan written as well, and in true style it has been writen using LaTeX.

I would like to hear from you soon, and if you decide to support using ChipIn then please send me an email so that I may respond.

Take care in your travels and may the God of all peace and glory keep watch over you.

God bless,

Matt.

Throughout the last couple of months I’ve been busily working on finishing the my university degree. It has been a long time coming, though thoroughly enjoyed. So come the end of the year I will be changing from one stage in my life to another. I’ll graduate from Swinburne. And there was thunderous applause.

My pursuits will still remain academic due to the direction that Reformed Software is taking. That direction is one of service to the Academic community through the writing of software that aids in studies. The first way in which this service is being accomplished is with Scribere a note taking application for podcasts and vodcasts. Talking to an academic today at Swinburne, after asking what I was up to and the subsequent disbelief that I was still a student, he loved the idea of Scribere and was impressed about the development thus far. He also provided some much needed usability input at that stage.

How does this square with my faith? Reformed Software is still a Christian software development company, and by God’s grace it always shall be. The difference is that it isn’t obtusely so.

Further the tagline for Reformed Software will change, though what it embodies will still be present.

God bless, Matt.

At the moment I'm still getting excited daily about the ways in which God provides and the ways in which he does. To know that it is by his grace that we live, eat and are merry is phenomenal. To know that the sun rises and the sun sets by his will is amazing.

But what does that have to do with Reformed Software? It is that by the grace of the same God that work progresses. That despite having no funds I still work and enjoy every moment of it in full confidence. Does this mean that it is guaranteed success? By no means! I'm but conveying my joy in the work and knowing that God is in control of the finer details which are beyond my control. Am I able to make the sun rise or even set? No, but I know that the God who is does.

So, back to the matters at hand. Though I enjoy every moment that I work for Reformed Software, I know that without funds there will come a day that I must remove the glasses and hand the code over to someone else. So I ask for investment. If you are wanting to invest in the work of a group of people who's very drive is "writing software to glorify Jesus as Lord and Savior" then I would like to hear from you. I can be contacted via matt _at_ reformedsoftware _dot_ com.

With regards to development, a lot of work has been going into fine tuning the process of how the beta testing is going to be run. This will hopefully occur during the next couple of months along with a lot of improvements on the web front.

God bless,

Matt.

Hey folks, just a quick one to say that I'm alive and that everything is still progressing as far as Reformed Software. I've been busy getting back into university studies (final year after 7 long) and am doing a lot of coding. Unfortunately this has resulted in only a few updates. This makes me sad.

So, I'll be updating more regularly from now on as things are starting to take shape. I've been working on graphics for the applications as well as websites so that the business looks a bit more professional than it currently is.

Hang tight for more updates as this old blog engine will most likely disappear and a new website will be put up in its place.

God bless,

Matt.

So, it has been a long time since I last posted here. Even longer with my personal blog.

Things just seem to be getting busier and busier, which results in little time to blog and let people know just what is happening. First big news "The King is dead! Long live the King!". Roughly translated, TheUnboundWord is no more. Instead, Scribere has taken its place. This is complete with a new website which is in the works as well as a more appropriate name. Scribere is Latin for 'to write' and fits the purpose of Scribere perfectly. The Beta (or Alpha) testing has been delayed by a couple of months. This is due to me not being comfortable with the level of usability in the program. Plus, I haven't done much in the way of documentation or administration work that I would like to get done.

Add to this, I've been working on a new website for Reformed Software and by the time Scribere hits 1.0, the new site will be in place. Until then, this humble blog will continue and much fun will ensue.

Currently I'm in the process of writing up business proposals and looking for venture capital to get things rolling. Once this comes through much will occur in rather rapid succession.

Until then, I will be posting once a week with the progress of development and also random thoughts about Software Development as pertains to Scribere and other projects.

God bless,

Matt.

Every so often a bug comes along that ends up being a pain to get around. Unfortunately there are even those out there which have very little documentation on the correct use of the api required. So, many days were spent devouring internet sources for any and all documentation on NSURLDownload. All I could find though was sparse bits of open source code and apples documentation. The open source code is usually a gold mine for figuring out what I wanted, but alas that wasn't the case. The code was either undocumented or so convoluted that following it would be a week long effort of itself.

So, I turned to the Cocoa development lists provided by Apple. These guys are top notch in the majority of cases and often rather helpful. In this case, not many of them had the expertise in using the api calls I was. This then caused me to be left with playing around on my own.

Having some experience with Mathematics, I placed in that part to get what I wanted. This though caused values which were often ridiculous. I couldn't figure out why. I even went to the extent of making the method thread safe so that values weren't overwritten. This though proved to be futile.

My second attempt at fixing it was to place in if statements so that the value was reset after a certain time interval. This still proved the same results.

So, what was wrong?

I then thought that I should, just for the fun of it, see the values that I'm actually getting back from the method. And this is where I found the problem to be. The values that I was getting were very close to zero. They were that small.

So, as it happens when you divide a large number (number of bytes received) by a small number (time between packets received) you get something that is ridiculous. It all started to make sense. I was doing the calculations way too fast. This became a relief and I could simply place in an if statement that delayed the calculation until the duration was longer than one second.

Now since there is very little documentation of calculating the rate of a download I will place in the required method here.

- (void)download:(NSURLDownload *)download didReceiveDataOfLength:(unsigned)length

{

bytesReceived += length;

tempBytesReceived += length;

[self setPercentageComplete:[[NSNumber alloc] initWithDouble:((bytesReceived / (double)expectedLength) * 100.0)]];

duration = [lastPacketReceived timeIntervalSinceNow] * -1;

if(duration > 1) {

bytesPerSecond = tempBytesReceived / duration;

kilobytesPerSecond = bytesPerSecond / 1024;

tempBytesReceived = 0;

lastPacketReceived = [NSDate date];

}

}

God bless,

Matt.

So, I recently blogged about why and when coding is fun. Yet I forgot to mention the greatest joy of all that comes from doing the work here at Reformed Software. That is, worshiping God.

How can coding be worship? Because the end result is the production of software applications and resources that allow for people to know God in greater depth and worship him. The software created has the ultimate purpose of helping Christians study God's word and worshiping him. This is why the greatest joy of all is worshiping Jesus and this is done through the work here at Reformed Software.

Now for all of you theological nitpicks out there, coding isn't the only way of worshiping God. Using the software developed and sold by Reformed Software isn't the only way to worship God. The idea is to show God as the glorious Father, Son and Holy Spirit. My joy comes from knowing that God is worshiped by the work I do.

So, I encourage you all, whatever your work, to do so to the glory of God. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:31-33:

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, 33 just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

God bless,

Matt.