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Wozniak to Judge American Idol-Inspired Mac App Contest
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Tue Aug 22, 2006 03:29 AM
from the idol-wastes-of-time dept.
from the idol-wastes-of-time dept.
cmundhe writes "Mac entrepreneur Phill Ryu today launched My Dream App, a new American Idol-inspired online competition where contestants can win the chance to have their killer app idea realized by experienced Mac developers. Over forty industry luminaries, including Apple founder Steve Wozniak, have signed on to My Dream App as guest judges to help contestants hone their ideas."
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Outsourcing gone mad or a good idea? (Score:3, Interesting)
I propose an optimisation, let the winner be the one with the best elevator pitch - "It's like excel meets my-space, you arrange your friends into rows and columns
just like high-concept movie ideas where a one-sentence summary gets turned into a 90-minute film.
Re:Outsourcing gone mad or a good idea? (Score:5, Funny)
Snakes on a Plane was longer than 90 minutes!
Parent
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I have to ask ... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I have to ask ... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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SQL Server. Or Perl syntax (and I say that as a professional Perl programmer).
Uggggh (Score:5, Funny)
Smart move (Score:4, Insightful)
I believe we will see more ventures of this kind in the future, even outside software. The ideas that "little people" never had the resources to implement are a resource that can be valuable and is easily tapped. What is funny is that the whole model started not in some corporate think tank, but in FPS mods. Final Doom [wikipedia.org] is the first instance I can think of.
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- Hell no I'm not filling no form I have my privacy to protect you sodding bastards rant-rant-rant-rant....
- Hey come join our new crappy tv show where the best application ideas can be selected and win! All you need to do is fill in an application with your name, age, address, and the premise of your idea.
- Where do I sign up ??!?
Seriously, lessons on how to protect your intellectual capital s
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Little People Patents (Score:3, Interesting)
Unless they protect them with patents prior to entering them in the contest. Does the winner get a royalty? Ever wonder if the "recording contract" an American Idol wins is better than a regular "slave contract" other artist sign?
Hopefully just submitting the idea is considering publishing it. Software patents are bad enough without someone else patenting your idea.
Do you suppose
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* Killer Apps (never many of these... and over time they lose their "killing" edge spreadsheets, email, etc.)
* Industry Specific Apps (software for your type of job)
* General Productivity (word processing, calendar, etc.)
It seems to me that while it's possible that such a contest will produce a new Killer App, it's not likely.. But then what were the odds that American Idol would really produce someone on the Idol level (Elvis, Johnny Cash, etc.).
If it can make a Killer App "on demand" it would be
Great ideas? (Score:2)
But unlike everyone else, we're not searching for skilled programmers. Instead, we're simply looking for the greatest ideas
The greatest ideas.. oh yeah! I found one! so uh, it would be a game, and it would be about bricks of different shape stacking up each other, and when you got a full line of bricks it disappears! oh wait I have another great idea incoming! It would be a lil yellow character, in a maze, eating pills and ghosts/monsters.
Damn it's too easy for me to come up with the greatest ideas, I onl
I wonder... (Score:4, Funny)
- 1 shock every time user logs on to Apple hardware related forum to masturbate about what new hardware may or may not be revealed during Steve Job's next keynote address
- 2 shocks for every DRM ridden iTunes song downloaded by the user because "it works out better for the artists, and because it gives me the flexibility to do whatever I want with my music." Discretionary shocks may be assigned on the basis of whether or not the song is subsequently downloaded to an iPod (max. 1 shock), and if said iPod is a "special edition" U2 iPod (max. 2 shocks)
- 3 shocks for every "My mac 'just works'" comment. Additional shocks in the event that Mac breaks down 1 day after warranty expires (max 3 shocks); further shocks may be assigned if user has to go to friend who uses Linux to get the problem sorted out (max 4 shocks)
- 4 shocks for every time user says that Apple is the only sensible platform for him/her because he/she is an "artist."
- 5 shocks for every "I never get viruses" comment to a PC user. More shocks if the user is a graphic designer who uses his computer for nothing except photoshop (max 6 additional shocks). Fatal shock may be administered if user is a graphic designer talking to a sysadmin in charge of maintaining a network of PCs.
Now where's my iPod?Re: (Score:2, Redundant)
A couple of trojans, maybe. And of course, they required admin privs. Not much of a trojan there.
Yes, users will always be able to rm -rf ~. It's their user space, they can do what they want with it. You can't protect people from stupid.
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Re:I wonder... (Score:5, Insightful)
How about 10 shocks for Windows/Linux users who are constantly angry at Mac users simply because Mac users can't get it in their heads that they should just give up and use PCs? I mean, come on? Don't you arrogant elitists realize that your computers are worthless and that you're assholes for even using Macs?
You know what? I'm an "artist", a graphic designer. I use macs because, well fuck] I've used Photoshop, Quark and illustrator -- on macs -- since the early/mid 90's. I like the platform. I know the platform. The platform fucking works. I don't need to justify being an elitist asshole if your definition of being an elitist asshole is that I'm a guy who makes a living, you know, eating, paying rent, etc by using a computer you clearly disapprove of.
Also, I'm a programmer. I've done professional embedded systems programming on Solaris ( cross compiling to embedded hardware ) and I used linux exclusively at home for several years. I've also done Win32 programming, as well. You know why I have a Mac at home now? Because they're so goddamned well designed, at the API level that they're a dream to program for. And the hardware works. Quite well, too.
And you know what? I've not had a virus on any mac of mine since maybe 1993 or 1994.
So I say you get 10 shocks for being a dismissive PC user who insists that everybody do things the way you do, because clearly you know better than us how to do what we do.
Parent
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BTW I read a great heckler story in the Guardian the other day. Bono was doing his "every time I clap my hands a child dies in Africa" speech at a gig, when someone shouted out "well stop fucking clapping then you idiot."
Re:I wonder... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Woz is a judge for this? (Score:2)
Uh oh (Score:2)
I won't go down too well
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Signed, stunt penguin's girlfriedn
Dream App? Why not go all the way... (Score:3, Funny)
*hangs head*....
Native Hypercard for OS X (Score:5, Insightful)
How about a modern version of... (Score:2)
So... (Score:3, Funny)
Apple Idol (Score:3, Funny)
Randy Wozniak: "C'mon dawg! S'da right language selection, needs to be a bit optimized here but its ok."
Steven Abdul: "You have great potential and your code just moves me. The UI looks fabulous! Just keep shining, win or not, you're l337!"
Steve Cowell: "Appalling, simply appalling. Dreadful. It's a no."
Re:An Ipod for IP (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
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Indeed, ideas are cheap and plentiful. Finding people who can implement them and work out the details is the hard part. As a PR move, this is great for publicity, but I don't think there are many talented [programmers|authors|artists] sitting around just wishing they had a new idea to use their skills on. Usually t
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Why do you think patents are so valuable? Will the winner of the competition get the patent?
Let me clarify (Score:3, Interesting)
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Re:An Ipod for IP (Score:5, Insightful)
If you're just talking about code-monkeys, then I'd agree they aren't particularly rare. But the guys involved in this project are developers who it seems will be expected to work out most of the actual *workings* of whatever "idea" is presented, and they have histories of coming up with useful and usable interfaces.
Saying "I want a program that will automatically fix the tags of all my MP3 files" is not hard. It's coming up with an algorithm or system to analyze song files successfully, or an interface to efficiently present songs to the user for identification, that would be the hard part.
Obviously if the entrants of this contest have already worked out the implementation details and interface for the idea and just need a programmer with Objective C experience to get it working, then the idea man deserves the major credit. But that's not what this contest sounds like to me.
Parent
Don't be so crass (Score:5, Insightful)
Look, if you're not a programmer, your idea is basically worthless. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Programmers who actually implement your idea cost money. Now, you can either participate in this contest and (if you win) not only see your idea realized, but actually get a price and royalties if the app sells.
The choice isn't between owning a great idea which will inevitably make your rich, and giving it away for nothing, as you make it out to be. The choice is between nothing and seeing your idea realized while making money.
Obviously, if you're a programmer who has an awesome idea, don't participate in this contest. Implement it yourself. But I don't think there's even one programmer too stupid to realize this.
Parent
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You are so right.
I know a number of highly experienced and more to the point highly creative engineers, and they pretty much agree: ideas by themselves don't have much value. In part this is because these are the kinds of people who have dozens of ideas every day.
So many people have a naive view that they will have a Eureka moment that will change their lives
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I totally agree. Good idea? No value. Good idea + person who can implement it? Some value. Great idea + person who can implement it and actually has a clue about the subject and about programming and interface design and all that stuff + a plan to make money with the product? Lots of value.
99% of all ideas fall into the first category. If you don't have a real plan to implement your idea, you might as well give it away in this con
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Try finding a good Cocoa developer who will implement your idea. Good luck.
Re:Don't be so crass (Score:5, Insightful)
Good programmers are worth their weight in gold, or at least 10 [joelonsoftware.com]-28 times their weight in bad programmers. [utexas.edu]
Anyone could hire some teenage VB6 script kiddie out of school to bodge up something similar to what they were thinking for dollars an hour, max. The trick is in finding someone who'll take on your vague idea[1] and develop it into something beautiful, functional and usable that you can take credit for.
That is neither easy nor cheap to outsource.
Footnotes:
[1] I'm sorry, but if long experience developing has taught me anything, it's this: If you don't know how to code, and have no experience of coding, you have no idea what you want.
You might have the vaguest inkling of what you desire, but you won't have considered 90% of the edge cases, it'll be wrong in at least three ways and the whole requirement will need re-writing by the developer once he understands what you actually do want.
Parent
Non-coders aren't the problem... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Yeah, but programmers usually tend to think things through before implementing something. It's what they've been thaught. I'm not trying to diss on customers, it's often the programmer's fault for not asking closer, but who has never experienced the dreaded "Oh, I forgot something when we wrote the specs, just a small change" feedback after you've delivered beta X and the customer suddenly figures out that he f
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I have to disagree here, if only about the way you express this. It's not that you don't know what you want it's just that you don't know how to express it in a way that a developer will understand. Customers talk in vague high-level terms and we talk in terms of testable cases and conditions. It is such a terrible terrible m
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I agree, the fault often lies with the engineers since they're the ones who should actually know better. But that doesn't change the fact that customers don't know what they want until they get something which they know they don't want :-)
Anyway, I found that lots of short iterations which leads to early feedback helps a ton.
Don't architect your application too strictly to what you think the customer wants. Either you misunderstood, or he'll change his mind sooner or later.
Actually, I'm not, you just didn't read right (Score:2)
That's funny. I make a trip into the real world of software development every morning except on saturdays and sundays.
...but we're not talking about those ideas here, now are we? We're talking about a freaking contest where people send in their ideas about new apps. Here's a hint: You have an idea which you think is great? There's a 99% probabilit
Ideas: worthless if you can't do anything with 'em (Score:2)
Uhm, we're talking about software here, not ads.
I would tend to agree that advertising is a bit different. But even so: If you were to go out on the street and ask 100 people for their advertising ideas, you'd get 99 crappy ideas and maybe one which could be de
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Re:So much for Appley originality (Score:5, Informative)
I for one am gonna take off my cynical hat, put on a "this could be cool" hat and wait and see what happens.
Parent
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Idea 1b (Score:3, Funny)
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mmm, apple jack.