Life Goals v2.0 - Promotional Video

Life Goals v2.0 - Backup & Restore Data

Life Goals Data Backup

In version 2.0 of Life Goals we have added the ability to share or back up your goal and task data to any other iOS or Macs you have connected via a LAN.

To start, tap on the Life Goals Sync button at the bottom of the Settings & Backup Screen.

This will bring up the device discovery screen shown below. Any other iOS devices or Macs running Life Goals will be shown here. You will need to tap the Life Goals Sync button on both devices for them to be shown.

Devices also need to be on the same LAN to be discovered. The example here shows the local device name at the top (DS_iPod) and any remote devices discovered in the table below (DS_MacBookPro). Tap the remote device that you want to sync with or the cancel button.

If a successful connection is made you will see the Life Goals Sync screen from which you can import or export data.

Note that all data on the device which imports will be erased and replaced by data from the other device. Data is NOT merged so take care.

Tap the export button to back up data to the remote device. Tap import if you want to restore data from a previous backup.

An alert will appear on the device which is having its data erased and replaced. Tap cancel to stop the process or continue to complete it.

The local device will show a message and the spinning activity indicator until the alert on the remote device is acknowledged (i.e. cancel or continue button is tapped).

There is no undo available, once the Continue button is tapped, the data is over written on the device importing.

On completion of the data transfer, the LIfe Goals Sync screen will slide away on both devices. No further action is required, the data will now be identical on both devices. This includes the Vision if present but not the preference settings.

Visit Reefwing Software for more details.

Vintage 2011 - Tales of Incompetence

Lisa was in charge of the Shiraz harvest and things went very smoothly.

The whites on the other hand were under my purview. Here is the full story...

The day we picked was really hot - it reached 40C by midday. We had about 20 pickers and a few adventures along the way. Picking started at 5:30am and finished at 3pm. I slept in the shed the night before and it must have been about 30C most of the night - I was dripping in sweat and couldn't open the windows because of the mosquito's. The shed was also full of spiders (mostly red backs) because we hadn't been there for a while and this didn't help me sleep either. A large frog has taken up residence in the toilet and jumped on me in the middle of the night. I'm sure you can imagine my reaction.

So with hardly any sleep I got up at 5am to load our 4 empty grape bins on the ute. The wine maker was supposed to have dropped them off the prior week but they weren't there. In retrospect this wasn't a bad thing as there was no way I could have got 4 bins loaded by myself - they are heavy. With picking due to start and no bins to fill, I'm a trifle worried. I eventually get on to the winemaker and find out that the bins are still at Wandin Valley, I was worried they may have been pinched. We don't think that we are going to get enough Semillon to make up a batch so I have arranged to purchase 2.5 tonnes off a friends vineyard. Luckily I arranged the picking to start at his place and he had some bins to get things started.

At 6am I get to Wandin Valley and they load up the ute with 4 empty bins using a forklift. My job is to transport the grapes from the vineyard to the winery, which is only 5 minutes from our place but a half hour each way to my friends place. Worried that I might be holding up things, I take a shortcut down a dirt road and perhaps are going a little quick for the conditions. There is a big wash out in the road ahead and even slamming on the breaks doesn't slow the car enough. I bounce over the wash and one of the bins goes tumbling off the back, fortunately missing the car behind. This is when I discover that there is no way I can lift a bin single handed on top of another bin. Lucky this is the country and I don't have to wait long before a bloke stops and watching my pathetic attempts, asks if I need a hand?

Loaded up again, I decide it may be a good idea to actually tie down the load this time.

Eventually arriving at the vineyard, the first bin is almost full. Our bins (the white ones) are supposed to carry around 500kg, but when weighing them at the vineyard most ended up closer to 600kg. My friend uses the blue bins which weigh about 800kg's full. Loading one of the blue bins on the ute using his tractor (which has forks), I head back to the winery. The ute handles like a pig with this much weight in the back and the clutch makes a funny smell when I go from a standing start. We used about 14 bins in total that day.

On one trip carrying two of our white bins, I took a corner a bit too quick (which is not very quick at all), and both bins slid to one side. It felt like the car was driving on two wheels. Having a degree in physics I worked out that if I turned in the opposite direction at just the right speed I could slide the bins back into the centre of the truck. Quickly working out the vectors, I decided to give it a go.

Of course I over corrected and almost spun the ute as the load shifted. The whole car slid sideways as the load moved. Obviously having a degree in physics doesn't help if you are an idiot! From then on I took it very slowly around the corners.

Apart from losing a few pickers to heat stroke, the rest of the day was tiring but uneventful. As we don't have a tractor, in our vineyard we pick straight into the bins on the back of the ute. I'm driving the ute, and let me tell you conditions are almost unbearable in the air-conditioned cab, CD playing and a cold drink to hand.

Vintage 2011 - The Shiraz

The 2011 Shiraz Harvest

We ended up with 2.8 tonne of Shiraz this year. Last year we didn't get a crop due to too much rain and the year before (our first crop) we picked 1.8 tonne. We would have had more but the kangaroos and birds probably ate a tonne of fruit.

The urban myth is that one year in five is a good year in the Hunter. It turns out that this might be the year. Early on things were looking dodgy with a lot of rain but we haven't had as much during Jan and Feb as in previous years - I guess it is all up in Qld. This is a good thing. You don't want rain close to harvest. This is the first year that we haven't emptied the irrigation dam, so we were able to keep the drippers going up until picking.

But the ferments haven't finished yet - it wont be until then that we will get a real idea of the quality. One thing is certain, the 2011 Shiraz will be a much bigger wine than the 2009, the grapes were almost raisins by the time they came off so the flavours should be very intense. Of course the Shiraz needs to spend a year in oak prior to bottling so we wont be seeing that until 2012.

Vintage 2011

Vintage 2011

The Semillon and Verdelho

This years harvest has gone mighty well. We ended up with 2.5 tonne from the Verdelho plus 1.5 tonne of our Semillon supplemented by another 2.5 tonne from AJ.

Each of the white bins weigh about 590kg's (including the bin). The blue bin weighs over 800kg. The ute wallows like a cow with 2 bins on the back and if they shift they can make the whole back end swing out. I was driving very carefully.

The top photo shows the Semillon waiting in the winery cool room to be crushed. Our grapes are the 3 bins to the right, you can see they are quite a bit more yellow than AJ's Semillion. This is the first year that we have been able to get a crop off the Semillon so we are very excited. It turns out that Semillon is a bit of bastard to grow, one hot day and it drops its bundle. They hate to be water stressed and have weedy shoots which break easily during training.

Verdelho and Shiraz on the other hand are very hardy.

The fruit is looking much better quality than last year and we are hanging out to do a side by side comparison of the 2010 and 2011 Verdelho.

The folks at Wandin Valley who make our wine have just built a new beaut winery which is filled with awesome gear.

The last photo shows the forklift tipping a bin of Semillon into the crusher / de-stemmer.

If the Shiraz makes it through the next couple of weeks we will harvest it around Valentine's day.

Personality rockets up the charts in Kazakhstan

Great to see that the good people of Kazakhstan are supporting the Reefwing Personality Profile!

See what all the fuss is about - you can download it for FREE at the iTunes App Store. Click on the following:

Download Reefwing Personality Profile

Reefwing Personality Profile

The Reefwing Personality Profile is a tool to gain insight into your character.

Answer just a few quick questions and you will be provided with a description of your personality traits. The App allows you to email the results, so you can share them with your friends.

The results are based on extensive research but are not meant to be taken too seriously.

Instructions:

1. 1.Once the splash screen has disappeared, you will see the first question.
   

2. 2.The dial in the bottom left can be rotated using one finger. On older devices there can be a bit of a delay initially as all the images load.
   

3. 3.The answer is shown to the left of the dial in both picture and word form. Once you have selected the most appropriate answer, tap the [Next] button in the top right of the navigation bar.
   

4. 4.Tapping [Next] will display the next question. Follow the same process as outlined above. Don’t over think your answers, your first instinct is usually the correct one.
   

5. 5.After the last question you will have the results of your personality profile displayed. In addition to using the [Next] button to move between screens, in the results section you can swipe left and right to view pages. Your location is indicated by the white dots at the bottom of the screen.
   

6. 6.At any time you can tap the [Store] button in the top left hand corner of the navigation bar. This will take you to a screen where you can use in-App purchasing to remove all advertising from the App or have a look at other Apps developed by Reefwing Software. Just tap on the icon to select. Note that tapping the other App icons will result in iTunes being loaded.
   

7. 7.On the final page of the Results you will have the option to:
   

1. •Rate the App in the iTunes App Store. I am not currently charging anything for this App so if you enjoyed it and would like to see additional development (e.g. new questions) then please take the time to rate the App in iTunes. Alternatively go the store page by tapping the [Store] button and purchase the Ad free version or try one of our other Apps. Feedback is welcome so drop into the Blog or Forum if you have any suggestions or comments.
   

2. •Email the results of your profile. This is done from within the App, so once you have emailed you will return to this screen and can select from the other options.
   

3. •Restart the Test. Sometimes, there may be a couple of answers which you had trouble choosing between. Go back and try the other answer as this may provide additional insight.

5 Reasons that New Year's Resolutions Fail!

5 Reasons That New Year Resolutions Fail and what to do about it!

As New Year's Eve rolls around we all tend to look back over the last year and score ourself on how well we did. If we met most of our goals then that reaffirms our self worth and encourages us to set new challenges for the next year.

Alternatively, if we didn't do so well in meeting our objectives, we tell ourselves that they weren't that important or we were too busy. Though you have to wonder why we would set ourself goals that were not important to us.

The good news is that there is a fool proof method to achieving your goals. Why goals are not achieved has been studied by many people and this problem has been solved. So why do so many people get to Valentines Day and they have already broken their New Years Resolution?

In my experience the following 10 things are why we don't meet our goals:

1. You didn't write them down. This has got to be the number 1 reason. There is so much going on in our life that you can't possibly hope to remember everything. Writing down our goals starts the commitment process. It is hard to fool yourself if the evidence is right in front of you. The process of writing also forces you to think about what is really important to you, which may come as a surprise. Some of you may have read "The Secret", while I don't agree with the whole premise (see next point), I do believe that clarifying what you want will open you up to opportunities to progress a goal.
2. You didn't do anything. I know "The Secret" suggests that simply focussing on a goal will cause it to be realised, however in my experience things go a lot faster if you take action. For example, one of my goals this year was to release an iPhone App and sell it on iTunes. To do that I broke the goal down and planned what steps I needed to take to get there. I needed to buy a Mac, learn objective C, XCode, Cocoa Touch, sign up for the Apple Developer Program, write code, debug, unravel the mysteries of code deployment and then negotiate the labyrinth which is iTunes Connect. I'm pretty sure if I just wrote the goal down but did nothing I wouldn't now be getting monthly deposits from Apple. So I suggest you break your goal down into tasks and start doing the tasks. It's like the old joke about how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
3. You didn't give up something else. Each day, we all only have so much time (24 hours on Earth). So unless you are near a black hole or travelling at close to the speed of light then we all have the same amount of time each day. Your days are already full so in order to meet your new goals you need to allocate some time to take action (see point 2). Not only do you need to decide what you are going to do, you need to decide what you are going to stop doing. If you aren't willing to give up something (e.g. watching 8 hours of TV a day) then you will fail. A common mistake here is to try and go cold turkey. You don't have to give up all TV, whatever you are willing to do without is time you can spend on your goals. Remember these are your goals, no-one else should determine what is important to you and if the most important thing for you is to watch 8 hours of TV a day then write it down and take action. But if it isn't then allocate some time to what is. As Stephen Covey said, "The key is not to prioritise what's on your schedule but to schedule your priorities."
4. You weren't sufficiently motivated. Related to point 3, you have to be motivated enough to give up something you are already doing. The best motivators are Pain and Pleasure, in that order. So when you write down your goals you need to link them to these motivators and if possible to both of them. To exercise you might need to get up an hour earlier in the morning. Your motivation to get up needs to be stronger than your motivation to stay in a warm bed. This might be the endorphin rush you get after exercising (Pleasure), feeling better about yourself (Pleasure) or not dying early from being overweight (Pain). Habit is your friend - get yourself motivated enough to do this 21 days in a row and it will get easier.
5. You think it will take too long. I hear people say, "I would love to do blah but it will take 5 years." Guess how much older you are going to be in five years time? That's right 5 years. The time will pass anyway so why not spend it doing something that is important to you?

The best news is that all of the above is in our hands, so by all means set your New Year's Resolutions tonight, but make sure you also take the above into account.

Warning - shameless plug follows:

Goals have always been a subject that has fascinated me, which is why my first iPhone App was Life Goals. If you are interested in a goal setting tool which embodies the philosophies above then check it out on iTunes or read more about it the Reefwing Software web site.

An Eclectic Slice of Life

Anthology Launches Today

Two of my stories (Memories and There is No Pain) feature in the Eclectic Slice of Life Anthology which launches today on facebook at 6pm Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time. The link is here if you would like to drop in.

If you would like to buy a hard copy of the book then nip over to Dark Prints Press.

The editor (Craig Bezant) has amalgamated some of the best stories from the first two years of Eclecticism E-Zine and his passion for what he is doing drips from the pages. There are some great stories inside - check it out!

Number Converter Pro v1.0

NumConPro v1.0

Having just spent 4 months on my secret App project, I think I am a broken man!

It is 90% complete but horribly buggy. Perhaps my ambition has exceeded my ability in this instance. I was going for a very flash interface which of course turns out to be damn tricky. I needed a break to restore my enthusiasm for the project.

So...

I have taken a quick detour to finish a small project which has been on my development list for some time. It is a calculator designed for programmers. The Mac comes with one of these but it is absent from the iDevice family.

Like my free program NumCon this App converts numbers between binary, octal, decimal and hexadecimal. I'm quite happy with final product.

In addition to the NumCon conversion ability, you can perform the following operations on any combination of these bases:

• Addition
• Subtraction
• Multiplication
• Division
• AND
• OR
• XOR
• 1's Complement
• Shift Left
• Shift Right

Please drop in to www.reefwing.com.au and let us know if there is additional functionality that you would like to see added to the calculator.

I intend to upgrade the FREE Number Converter to have a similar UI to the Pro version. I will also include the ability to upgrade via In-App purchase.

Calculator Constraints & Operation:

1. Operator precedence is evaluated strictly left to right.
2. Only integers are handled and consequently division remainders are truncated.
3. Shift Right is a logical shift not arithmetic so zeros are shifted in from the left.
4. The largest integer input or result is 28 bits long (i.e. 268,435,455 decimal or FFF FFFF hex).

‘An Eclectic Slice of Life’

If you haven’t pre-ordered your copy of the print anthology, ‘An Eclectic Slice of Life’, this is your last chance to receive FREE POSTAGE/SHIPPING (anywhere in the world).

Representing the best of Eclecticism E-zine’s first two years, the anthology presents 26 works (short stories and poetry) from 14 contributors, including Joseph D’Lacey, Jason Fischer, Simon Petrie, Myra King, and Deborah Sheldon, amongst many other talented individuals. Most authors have contributed new, exclusive work for this anthology – 13 eclectic servings, in fact. 50% new work – that’s worth your money!

Presented in trade paperback, at 280 pages, this beauty only has a limited print run, and copies are running out. I will extend the FREE POSTAGE/SHIPPING offer till the end of the week, and then you will have to pay extra. So don’t miss out – order via the Dark Prints Press website today, only AUD$29.95. You do not need a PayPal account – you can still pay through PayPal with a credit or debit card, or you can e-mail us to arrange a bank transfer.

Visit Dark Prints Press to order: http://www.darkprintspress.com.au/eclecticslice.html

Life Audit v1.2 (FREE) - Available Now!

Life Audit v1.2

By answering just a few questions, our free iPhone App Life Audit will give you a graphical representation of your Life Balance. As the pace of life increases at an exponential rate we sometimes forget to focus on what is important as opposed to what is urgent. Using Life Audit you will quickly be able to see the areas of your life that are getting the most focus and more importantly, the areas that you are neglecting.

The latest FREE version of Life Audit includes:

- 10 new questions

- Support for iOS 4.0 functionality

- Improved User Interface

- Fixed Category question misalignment

You can download Life Audit from iTunes.

Life Audit (FREE) - v1.2 Coming Soon

Life Audit v1.2

The latest version of Life Audit has just been submitted to Apple for approval. It includes:

- 10 new questions

- Support for iOS 4.0 functionality

- Improved User Interface

- Fixed Category question misalignment

Stay tuned for the launch announcement in about a week.

Free App Number Converter

FREE iPhone App

Number Converter

v1.0

Available Now From iTunes.

Download now and don't forget those 5 star ratings ;-)

Latest Reefwing App - Coming Soon!

Number Converter

Version 1.0

My latest App has just been submitted to Apple for approval. It is something that will appeal to 1% of the population (if that) but it's something that I will find useful - and sometimes that's all the excuse you need.

I developed it primarily to try out the new iAd functionality released in iPhone iOS 4.0, so I wont be charging for the Application.

The theory is you get paid via the (*discrete*) Ad at the bottom of the screen. I'm not expecting to retire on the proceeds, to do that you probably need to develop an App that a lot of people want.

I will announce when it is approved and will post details on the Reefwing Software web site.

Bad Writing?

A thirsty gerbil's kiss takes out the best bad writing of 2010 competition

A romance book's opening line about a gerbil has won a bad writing award run by a US College / James Croucher Source: Supplied

AN unseemly sentence that compares a kiss to the union of a thirsty gerbil and a giant water bottle has won the top prize in an annual bad writing contest.

San Jose State University said today Molly Ringle of Seattle was the grand prize winner of the 2010 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which the university has sponsored since 1982.

In her winning entry, Ms Ringle wrote: "For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss - a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil."

The literary competition honours the memory of 19th English century writer Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, who famously opened his 1830 novel Paul Clifford, with the much-quoted, "It was a dark and stormy night".

Steve Lynch of San Marcos, California, won the detective category: "She walked into my office wearing a body that would make a man write bad (cheques), but in this paperless age you would first have to obtain her ABA Routing Transit Number and Account Number and then disable your own Overdraft Protection in order to do so."

Linda Boatright of Omaha won the Western category: "He walked into the bar and bristled when all eyes fell upon him - perhaps because his build was so short and so wide, or maybe it was the odour that lingered about him from so many days and nights spent in the wilds, but it may just have been because no one had ever seen a porcupine in a bar before."

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/a-thirsty-gerbils-kiss-takes-out-the-best-bad-writing-of-2010-competition/story-e6frfkyi-1225886273210#ixzz0sJZ4QaIH

Dark Print Press

MEDIA RELEASE

Announcing the arrival of a new small press publisher!

DARK PRINTS PRESS

Shining a light on dark fiction

Dark Prints Press is a brand new Australian independent publisher who aims to publish works of dark fiction (encompassing crime, thriller, speculative fiction (horror, dark fantasy) and dark comedy). Its initial focus is on an adult market, with the desire to also venture into the young adult market in the future.

The small press is a partnership between West Australians Avril and Craig Bezant, who aim to provide another, much-needed avenue for a range of printed fiction, including short story collections, novellas, and novels. Their publications will range from lavish trade paperback editions to small, pulpy works, depending on the relevance to the story and its genre. Digital publications (e-books) of the publisher's list are forecasted in the future.

The first publication for Dark Prints Press will be an anthology of the best stories from the online magazine Eclecticism E-zine, an e-zine that has been shortlisted for 2 awards, is archived in the National Library of Australia, and has established a dedicated readership and subscription list over the past 3 years. The anthology is titled ‘An Eclectic Slice of Life', available for pre-order from 06/06/2010 via the website. Read more about this exciting new venture at:

www.darkprintspress.com.au

E: info@darkprintspress.com.au

---------------------------------------------------

‘AN ECLECTIC SLICE OF LIFE’

Featuring the best short fiction and poetry from the first 2 years of the award-nominated Eclecticism E-zine, plus exclusive new work by most authors, including:

Joseph D’Lacey, Jason Fischer, Myra King, Deborah Sheldon, Simon Petrie, Alice Godwin, Mark McAuliffe, Julia Brannigan, Keith Nunes, Jacqui Dent, Brian G Ross, Eril Riley, David Such & Simon James.

C Format Trade Paperback, 280 pages, AUD$29.95 ISBN: 978-0-646-53641-5

Pre-order from 06/06/2010 via the Dark Prints Press website: www.darkprintspress.com.au

or through Eclecticism E-zine: wwww.eclecticzine.com

Publication Date: 12/12/2010

Contact: orders@darkprintspress.com.au

WRITING QUOTES - From CS Weekly

Some more aggregated quotes:

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."
- William Wordsworth

"Ink and paper are sometimes passionate lovers, oftentimes brother and sister, and occasionally mortal enemies."
- Terri Guillemets

"Drama, instead of telling us the whole of a man's life, must place him in such a situation, tie such a knot, that when it is untied, the whole man is visible."
- Leo Tolstoy

"I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody's head."
- John Updike

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
- Jack London

"Fantasy's hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it."
- Lloyd Alexander

"Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong."
- Neil Gaiman

"Increase your word power. Words are the raw material of our craft. The greater your vocabulary the more effective your writing. We who write in English are fortunate to have the richest and most versatile language in the world. Respect it."
- PD James

"The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it."
- Elizabeth Drew

"There was never a good biography of a good novelist. There couldn't be. He is too many people if he's any good."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying."
- John Updike

"If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water."
- Ernest Hemingway

"Measure your mind's height by the shadow it casts."
- Rex Stout

"It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does."
- William Faulkner

"Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it."
- Truman Capote

"A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others."
- William Faulkner

"When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence."
- Samuel Butler

"Ink on paper is as beautiful to me as flowers on the mountains; God composes, why shouldn't we?"
- Terri Guillemets

"Every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future."
- Jorge Luis Borges

"There is no longer any such thing as fiction or nonfiction; there's only narrative."
- E.L. Doctorow

"The drudgery of being a professional writer comes in trying to make good days out of bad days and in squeezing out the words when they won't just flow."
- Benjamin Cavell

"No one is asking, let alone demanding, that you write. The world is not waiting with bated breath for your article or book. Whether or not you get a single word on paper, the sun will rise, the earth will spin, the universe will expand. Writing is forever and always a choice -- your choice."
- Beth Mende Conny

"To me the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the music the words make."
- Truman Capote

"I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions."
- James Michener

"It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop."
- Vita Sackville-West

"The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible."
- Vladimir Nabakov