Risky

It looks like this is becoming a technical blog about trying to speed learn Java, Javascript, PhoneGap, Parse etc.

By this afternoon I could take no more and have put my brain on hold the usual way (it is Friday).

A technical odysssey

I've spent a lot of this week and last looking at Java, Android Studio and the JavaScript, CSS and HTML combo.

But I really wanted a simple way to connect to a back-end (not in the Carry On sense missus) and discovered parse.com

It can work with PhoneGap which should make lean development simpler.

But as I have never done anything like this before simple and simpler doesn't come into it.

The odyssey reference is that I started with Android Studio, gave up because it needed Java, moved to PhoneGap so leant up JavaScript, got fed up and went back to learning Java. Then found out about Parse so started back on JavaScript (not least as it seems PhoneGap will allow quicker development).

AGBC takeaways

Despite being neither American or German I am a member of the local American German Business Club.

The Crazy Chicken does, however, possess one of those nationalities.

Yesterday there was a meeting which we both attended and we talked to a couple of angels/PE investors whilst we were there.

Some takeaways:

• During the talk on cyber security a tale was related of a German venture which was turned down by a PE investor as being too expensive. Then the venture was badly hacked resulting in the price dropping significantly. Imagine their surprise when the PE came back with a lower offer - which they accepted. But one of the founders had engaged a cyber forensic review which eventually discovered that the attack had come from Israel and seemed - it was alleged - to have been commissioned by the PE investor. Very naughty.
• Whilst quite a few people have been saying, recently, that it is easy, even beneficial, to get financing from Munich rather than the USA, one guy, with venture experience, to whom we spoke felt that the contrary was true. This was partly down to the tax situation in Germany for shareholders (losses can't be transferred into subsequent years) and the general approach to investment risk in the US.
• This guy also said he takes about a 3% to 13% cut in the companies which he is supporting (as an angel) with around 7% being the usual case.
• Also, he never invests when there are just two founders. One is ok, three is great but not two. And he strongly recommended dealing with this - either get someone else on board or find an arbitrator before there are problems - something we agree with. Incidentally another startup investor said, a few weeks ago, that he never, ever invests in a single-founder startup.
• Another angel investor told us that normally seeding happens after the app has at least been prototyped. Wireframes are not enough.

Still ill

This man flu is now a cold and cough. But i really have no energy.

The business plan - in my opinion - is almost ready but i can only do an hour's of so's work per day.

And this week I wanted to do more coding.

I am hoping I am well enough to go to a business network meeting tomorrow evening.

But I did, with some trepidation, update my Mac to the latest version of El Capitan and this time there were no glitches.

De-teching

The problem with speed learning JavaScript, CSS and HTML5 is that you speed forget it.

By yesterday, having finished going through the tutorial for these I tried to write some apps, using PhoneGap.

It's a slow and painful process going from tutorial to actually writing stuff - even basic stuff - that works.

Today the Crazy Chicken and I met up for over an hour and went through what needs to be done to complete the business plan.

We want it to be ready for next week.

But tomorrow morning I am going to a former colleague's wedding in the morning. I am not sure when the celebrations will end and when I write "when" I mean which day.

Oh, and I have a dose of man flu.

TechDaze

Just returned from a TechDay event in Munich. It started at 10am and there is now a party.

However, I am not convinced that a group of cyber security techies are the sort of party animals I am used to.

As well as cyber security there was also talk about startups so it was reasonably useful.

But tiring, not least as nearly all of it was in German. After the first hour of listening to speeches in German I do tend to get a bit tired.

Learning

Since Tuesday I've been learning JavaScript using a rather good tutorial from w3school.com

I had been going through another online tutorial a few weeks ago but this one better suits me.

Next I will go through their tutorials on CSS and HTML5  - hopefully this will be more of a revision.

Why?

Well I found a solution called PhoneGap which allows the creation of mobile apps using JavaScript (rather than Java as required by Android Studio). Learning up JavaScript will be quicker than learning Java.

And it's a break from the business plan (which I kinda dumped on the Crazy Chicken).

Now off to a TechDays event for techies and startups.