I’ve been meaning to do this for a while but am just now getting around to actually make it happen. For a few reasons, I’ve decided to create an LLC to deliver the apps I’ve created. It’s called Zinko Labs and its site is where I’ll be providing updates on my apps going forward. That might very well mean even less updates on this site but we’ll see.

Anyway, you could find the new site at http://zinkolabs.com. It naturally has an RSS feed and I also created a new Twitter account: @zinkolabs. I’ll be releasing new versions of all of my apps under the new branding soon.

TickTalker, an app I released almost four years ago, has seen a pretty decent spike in traffic recently. Turns out it’s primarily due to a quite thorough write-up that’s part review and part documentation and walkthrough. Great to see folks are still finding it useful! Check out the ‘Online Tech Tips’ review here.

The latest version of Calendar Calculator for Windows Phone 7 (specifically 7.1 Mango) is now available. Here are the most notable improvements in this version:

• Live tiles support. More will come around this but initial support allows you to select an event you want to show on the back side of the app’s tile.
• Recurring events. This has been a highly requested feature from users that makes it very easy to track events that recur every year (e.g., birthdays, anniversaries, etc.). Turn this on for any events you want to always have the next and last instance of it in your list of countdowns.
• Fast app switching support. Mango has lots of improvements on this front and this update of Calendar Calculator makes the most of them. Switching back to the app now should be nearly instantaneous in most cases.

In addition, there were a few minor bug fixes but nothing major or really all that noticeable. I’m going to work on updating Meds Tracker next and then will get back to the next set of popular customer requests for Calendar Calculator.

We’ve got a Lexmark Platinum Pro 905 printer that we recently decided to use to print out a lot of black and white photos with. After going through a couple prints, I noticed it wasn’t really pure black and white and realized it was using the color ink cartidges. This didn’t seem ideal so I figured there would be an option to just use the black ink exclusively. Read more →

Been figuring out a few of the songs on Matt Nathanson’s latest album, Modern Love. My 5-year-old daughter turns out to be a big fan of singing some of the songs and dad kind of digs ‘em too. This one’s the tab for Kiss Quick.

I’ve updated the tabs below a couple of times now as it’s become a bit of a group project with a couple of folks over at prettytheworld.com. Some of which have worked hard at getting this song figured out and a new video has shown up that really helps in confirming things. Anyway, here’s my latest version which builds on mannion14′s off PTW. Read more →

It’s almost been eight months since I underwent Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK) eye surgery to finally get rid of my glasses/contacts. It’s similar to the seemingly more common Lasik except for how your cornea gets exposed to the laser (at least that’s how I understand it). That difference leads to pretty different recovery experiences: Lasik patients generally see instant results while PRK patients go through a longer, more gradual recovery process. After weighing the pros and cons of each, I chose PRK over Lasik.

I was very optimistic and excited about being able to see perfectly after dealing with glasses/contacts for 20+ years. That led me to interpret all of the descriptions of the cons and the recovery process in their most optimistic form. While I think it’s near impossible for a doctor to describe to a patient exactly how they’re going to feel during recovery, I certainly had a different experience from what I envisioned it being. My imagination just wasn’t capable of processing how it would feel to have extremely poor vision for as long as it ended up taking for me to fully recover.

I’m finally getting around to write this after weeks of slacking. I read countless posts describing a really large variety of recovery experiences and found each and everyone of them super helpful even though the majority were not all that encouraging. It kind of feels like I owe describing my experience for all of those still to go through similar experiences in the future. I’ll warn you it’s probably the longest post I’ve ever written but I remember reading some long ones when I went through this and appreciated the detail so I’m going to let it flow. Read more →