Blog/September 2014/Sep 5th

September 5th (See this week's devar torah)

Hi, again!

It’s been a long, hot summer — and we’re just about done with it: shabbat should be somewhat cooler. Sarah and Dinah are still touring the British Isles, so they missed this year’s Jerusalem Wine Festival (though they managed to tour Scottish distilleries). Esther and I made up for them, and had a nice time at the wine festival. It was not as crowded as in years past, possibly because we went on an ‘off’ day.

On the international scene, the so-called “Islamic State” tells Putin they are coming after Russia. I do hope they go for it! Putin will hand them their family jewels on a plate, and that will be the end of the IS, and good riddance.

Esther and I have been working furiously to get ready for the “beta” release of our software product. We sent out invitations to a select list of people, and expected maybe a fifth would join up. But more than half of the invitees expressed an interest in joining the beta program, so we are hopeful that bodes well for the future of our product! I was certainly surprised by that response.

The product (as you probably know) is a cross-platform development tool, and the tricky part is making sure things work the same (as far as the end-user is concerned) on all the platforms. So the only platform we are still waiting to get settled is “iOS”, which is the iPhone and iPad (and iPod, iSuppose). But Apple is a peculiar beast, wery wery peculiar.

In order to actually test a product on an iPad (say), you need a “developer’s certificate” from Apple. To get that, you have to join their developer program. To do that as a company, you have to provide them a DUNS number, and prove you are a legitimate representative of said company, with the right to sign contracts. It’s a process, and not a simple one.

We got past the DUNS check (I had no idea we had such a number, but we do). Then they called me and verified that I actually answered the phone… they didn’t do any verification beyond that. Then I was able to proceed to the “pay for the program” part, which I did; after that, they sent me an email saying my request would be processed within two business days.

Four days later (one of which was, to be fair, a business holiday in the US), I sent a query their way asking if my payment had gotten lost in the shuffle. Almost immediately I got a reply saying that due to very high volumes of requests, it was taking longer than usual and that I should get a reply within a day or so. But, they cautioned, the “activation code” could take up to seven more days to generate, and I would need to be patient. Needless to say, I was underwhelmed by the procedure.

However, I’m happy to note that the day after that mail, I received another one giving me my activation codes; so now I (well, Aaron High-Tech, Ltd) am officially in the “Apple Developer Program”. That is to say, I will be once I finish clicking through the links they sent me. The upshot of that is that the iOS version of our product will be ready within a couple weeks, assuming no major problems occur, B”H.

So we’ve got our work cut out for us over the next weeks and months, indeed we do!

We are looking forward, as usual, to a quiet and peaceful shabbat. We do have guests for lunch, but other than that it will be just Esther and I manning the fort. Sarah and Dinah are still overseas, as you know. Our guests can expect:
schnitzel, zucchini kugel, rice, beet salad, coleslaw, corn salad, meat chickpea and potato cholent, ice cream and fruit salad

Until next week,
shabbat shalom!

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