I Don't Know What it Means but it's Beautiful

I listen to a tech podcast that talks about all thing Macintosh (Apple computer) and the guy always ends the show with a song from someone. I usually skip over them but something made me leave one on and have a listen. Wow, I'm really glad I did.

The song is Adoram Flores by a Brazilian guy named Henrique Amorim. It's in Portuguese I guess and I have no idea what the words mean but the tune is really pretty.

You can have a listen at his website.

Announcing Tranza Software

Well I've been working on this for some time and it's finally time to announce my new company - Tranza Software. I've been working on an iPhone application and I thought it would be more professional if it was from a company instead of just me so I decided to give it a go.

OK, so how do you start a company - assemble a team of lawyers? Meet with a Banker? Hire a Marketing firm? Nah - go down to the Town Hall and fill out a form that says I have a business and pay my $20. Done - That was easy!

You may be wondering what Tranza means and the answer is - absolutely nothing. I was trying to think of a name and I wanted something non-specific so it could be flexible enough to cover lots of things (In hindsight, I probably should have left off the "Software" part for even more flexibility...). I got to thinking about car names that sound cool yet mean nothing. There's a new Toyota called a Venza so I morphed it to Trenza. I Googled that to see if it meant anything - the last thing I wanted was my company name to mean "He who eats babies" in Swahili - and found some definitions in Spanish I think. I changed it to Tranza and got no meaningful hits. Then I went to GoDaddy to see if I could get a domain name using it. Incredibly, nobody had used it so I registered it.

I put together a simple logo in Photoshop, bought cheap web hosting and put up the site and I was in business!

Except that I wasn't. Developing the program for the iPhone is one thing - I basically spent two full weeks from morning till morning over Christmas working on it - but getting it published is yet another. Every iPhone app is sold through the Apple App Store and you have to go through a rigorous vetting process to get it on the store. It has to be tested and reviewed by Apple and I have to setup up all kinds of financial information so that I can get paid for the sales. It's taken about a week and a half for all that to get done. I actually didn't know it was on the store until I got an email from someone who asked me some questions about it. I asked him how he even knew about it and he said it was on the store!

He said that he would buy it so I think I just made my first sale! I'll be checking my bank account for that $0.70 (Apple takes 30% of the 99 cent sales price...).

Wish me luck!

Bee Ess B-eautiful

Deb and I went down to Providence to see Becca and her band (the Becca Stevens Band - BSB) play and we were blown away! She has various versions of the band depending on how many people she lines up and tonight there were three of them. Becca sang and played the guitar, ukulele, and the charango (like a Uke but with 10 strings). Liam played the accordion and sang and Chris played the Bass (big standup Bass). It's a combination that you wouldn't think would go together but it worked beautifully.

Now, I've heard some of her stuff before and, while pretty, was not the kind of style that I was really drawn to. Hearing it live however made me a convert. Her voice was so clear and varied and full of emotion. It's weird but *seeing* a band perform live is so much different than just hearing it and this was no exception. The other guys' voices were also perfect matches and their timing was amazing too. The songs have lots of changes in rythmn and volume - how they were able to come in at the same time with no apparent cue was amazing.

Becca's guitar and uke playing were also fabulous. All the Ukulele playing I've ever heard has been just strumming and it always sounded toy-like. Becca actually - I don't know what you call it - finger picks? - and it sounded amazing.

Of course, we bought a CD after the show and had them all sign it so that when they are all famous and we've exhaused our 401(k)s, we can pawn it for another year of Health Insurance.

Click her picture to go to her web site. From there, you can listen to various tracks and get other information.

Here's a link to a recent article in the Boston Pheonix that sings her praises.

Wow. Just - wow!