I have always been curious over the number of developers in each country. Recently, out of a need to present this statistics for my work, I went deeper to search for an answer.
StackExchange provided me with data for a few countries. For example, US has a population of 300 million, and has 1 million programmers (that is 0.33%).
I took a lower figure and estimated that around 0.1% of a population are active developers who work on web/mobile. With that, I estimate the number of developers in each country as such:
| Country |
Population |
No. of developers (0.1%) |
| US |
300 mil |
300,000 |
| UK |
61 mil |
61,000 |
| Japan |
127 mil |
127,000 |
| Singapore |
5 mil |
5,000 |
| Hong Kong |
7 mil |
7,000 |
| Australia |
22 mil |
22,000 |
| China |
1,330 mil |
1,330,000 |
Quora also provided me a good answer, adding that around 10% of developers specialize in mobile development. That estimate does relate to the 40,000 iOS and 10,000 Android developers reported in appstorehq in 2010.
September 27th, 2011 in
Interesting | tags:
statistics |
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With Steve Jobs:
Without:
September 23rd, 2011 in
Uncategorized |
No Comments
Last week, I upgraded Google’s App Engine to version 1.5.2.
I was careless and did not perform enough tests, and it turned out there is a bug with App Engine SDK 1.5.2 (I believe same with 1.5.0). There is a memcache error due to missing library.
If you encounter a "javax/cache/CacheException", then you are probably having the same problem. The fix is simply upgrading to the latest version at 1.5.4.
Over that 2 days where the bug infested the SG 4D app, I observed a few interesting behaviors. Here’s what I leant.
Lesson 1: Ads revenue increased 10X
As the app could not display the latest results, users has nothing better to do, so they click the ads.. That resulted in 10X more clicks than usual!
An evil thought: Introduce glitches to drive ads revenue (just kidding!)
Lesson 2: In-app-purchase increased 5X
The in-app-purchase to unlock the premium features increased too! Users thought that the app has “expired”, hence they can’t see the results, hence the purchase.
(this hypothesis is true, and was validated by a couple of emails from users)
Lesson 3: Other 4D apps rise quickly
The effect is immediate. On the first day that my app did not work, users downloaded alternatives. There are 2 other 4D apps, and they were both propelled to top 50!
Surprisingly, my downloads remain the same. That means my downloads are constantly contributed by new users, and is unaffected by the bug.
Lesson 4: Test, test, test!
Remember to test during software upgrade, even when it comes from Google!
September 19th, 2011 in
Development | tags:
AppEngine,
SG 4D |
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I can give you an invite to Quora. Just leave a message with your email in the comments.
I used to think that Quora invite is hard to get, because I have never been invited by anyone. I was wrong. A Quora account can invite as many friends. So I think I never got an invite is just because it is not popular enough. Ah, I got mine because I asked, and I was easily given.
In my opinion, I would say Quora is a great question-and-answer web service. I find it useful for asking good questions. If you have an account, please follow me :)
Slideshare does support all fonts – including custom fonts that you download.
I was told that the slides only support certain standard fonts, but I wasn’t satisfied with the answer, and so I created a slide to verify. The result is:
As you can see, all fonts are shown!
If you have time, take a look and comment on teh presentation I’m currently working on.
I have recently developed a Voice Polling app, which polled users on who is the cutest presidential candidate.
This app was at first created as a demo to a client. But to make it fun, I chose to make use of the current presidential election to conduct a cute poll.
Do try it out! You can also enter your friends’ phone numbers and ask them :)
This marks my first attempt at creating a voice app – a different experience from developing mobile or web app. And surprisingly, it can be done in a short timespan (when you know the right tool).
August 24th, 2011 in
Applications |
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Statistics in the past 12 months:
Clearly, IE is dropping with less than 40% market share.
So dear Singapore government, please improve your sucky websites.
PaC@Gov is a government website for 200,000 Singapore servants to view their pay slips and submit claims.
It is of course a very important website to so many Singapore servants. Yet, the website sucks.
Here is why:
- It is best viewed with IE6, a web browser technology 10 years ago!
- It claims to support IE6 and above, but it definitely does not support the latest IE9.
See my screenshot below on how messed up the website is.
- It does NOT support Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Google Chrome!
That means it is not supporting more than 50% of web users.
- The website is totally unfriendly. It took me (an experience web user) 10 attempts to submit a simple claim.
Screenshot: Screwed-up button in IE9
It needs big change, and big progress. It is such a shame to be a government website.
PaC@Gov, please find a better IT vendor. Please don’t use back NCS.
Disclaimer: I am not working for the Government, and doesn’t need to use PaC@Gov. I wrote this post because I tried to help a teacher to submit her claim. I even attempt to change its CSS to get back the “Make Claim” button, but failed. I was very disappointed with the website so I felt a need to grumble here.
If you are a user of PaC@Gov Website, and has a comment, please leave it below.
August 9th, 2011 in
Uncategorized |
5 Comments
No doubt LinkedIn is the biggest social network for working professionals.
LinkedIn is very useful for finding people with job opportunities, or connecting for business partnership. However, it doesn’t come cheap to use LinkedIn. To be able to send someone a message, it requires a premium account, which cost at least $30 per month (just to send 3 messages).
Follow this to send FREE messages:
- Browse someone profile
- Scroll to the section Additional Information > Groups and Associations
- Join one of his group (it might take time for admin to approve)
- Go to the Group > Members, and search his name
- Use the "Send message"
In the unfortunate event that the person did not join any group, this trick would not work. If that happens, look for clues in his profile such as twitter or website.
August 8th, 2011 in
How-to | tags:
linkedin |
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There are many online websites that helps SMS marketers send thousands of SMS. You have to upload an excel file containing the mobile numbers, then configure to run the campaign.
It was never easy finding and choosing a good web service that does that well.
However, running an SMS campaign actually do not need any web services. All you need is a Google Spreadsheet with all the mobile numbers and messages that you want to send.
I am introducing to you Google Spreader – A Google Spreadsheet app that helps you send thousands of SMS.
The benefits are:
- Use what you are familiar with in SMS Marketing – spreadsheet
- Send thousands, or millions, of SMS directly from the spreadsheet
- Use placeholders such as ${“NAME”} to customize the messages
- Create campaigns and get delivery report in the same spreadsheet
- And all other benefits that Google Spreadsheet brings you!
How to use?
To use, simple open up this spreadsheet template and make a copy.
To make a copy, go to File > Make a copy. If the options is disabled, logout and login with your Gmail account.
Enter the mobile number and SMS messages in the campaign sheet. Once you are ready to blast the SMS, press ACTIONS > Send SMS at the top menu.
