![]() Most of his trial lawns contain a mixture of over 30 different plant species that can tolerate mowing. For several years, he has developed a number of trial lawns using a wide variety of plant species, most of which are flowering ground covers, such as chamomile, thyme, yarrow and selfheal lawns. One of the leaders in the “ grass-free” lawn movement is Lionel Smith, Ph.D., of Reading University in England. Naturally, I had to look into this, and my research led me beyond grass-free lawns to “no-mow” yards, “freedom lawns” and “tapestry lawns.” Did someone say “no-mow” and “freedom” in the same sentence as YARDS? Yes! So while you’re on your winter hiatus from grass-tending and mowing, you may want to take a look at these alternative lawn concepts. Hey, I thought, I’ve already got one of those! What really got my attention, though, was that Kessler seemed to be saying that a grass-free lawn could actually be a desirable thing - and trendy, too. ![]() “Even if you turn off the personality completely, you’ll still get the fun animations and features.The term “grass-free lawns” came up at a recent Master Gardener presentation by Ben Kessler of C’ville Foodscapes. “I wanted an option for people who were more interested in the cool professional features - or maybe for the people who don’t want the ‘Oh, Carrot wants to kill you,’ kind of thing” he laughs. “People are tweeting me all the time how they get their news from a weather app,” he laughs.Īnd yes, if so moved, you can even mitigate the darker sides of Carrot’s personality. There have been upgrades on the sarcastic side too: Mueller regularly updates the app’s text to reflect current events, which means he can respond to current events - everything from political headlines to console releases - within minutes. You can record customizable weather reports replete with sassy teleprompter dialogue, or have Carrot taunt you in augmented reality. The app now offers a fully customizable interface for those who want to craft their perfect weather app. Today, the Carrot universe comprises seven iOS apps and an iOS sticker pack, as well as Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Mac versions of Carrot Weather. “That’s how I started learning how to solve design challenges.” “I’d spend an hour or so sketching and figuring out how to fit things in,” he says. But over time, people started asking for more metrics: cloud cover, wind speed, pressure. “It was a cool, gimmicky kind of thing, and people liked it,” he says. Carrot Weather began strictly as an entertainment app - one that leaned in entirely on Mueller’s digital doppelganger. His fitness app shames you for slacking off. His alarm clock mocks you for sleeping in. His to-do list yells when you fail to complete a task. With his robot ready, Mueller began releasing a series of apps - Carrot To-Do, Carrot Fit - all with the same distinct approach to motivation. ![]() Sometimes she gets annoyed by that, but she’s a lot funnier than I am.” “Every time my wife says something funny, I write it down. “A lot of the dialogue for Carrot is drawn out of stuff that we’ve actually said to each other,” he says. (Sister Beth, for instance, commemorated Carrot’s Apple Design Award win by emailing him the following: “You’re probably getting lots of congratulatory messages, so I just wanted to remind you that you are the worst.”) Her dark, devious personality, however, comes from those closest to Mueller: his mom, sister, and wife - all of whom tease one another relentlessly. “That was basically the extent of what I could do in Core Animation in iOS at the time.” Instead, he popped into Photoshop, drew a simple pattern of three circles, and then began playing around with animation, eventually landing on a nefarious-looking pulsing red light drawn straight from the HAL and GLaDOS school of evil sentient robots. But it was way too hard for me to animate a cartoon dog.” “The dog’s name was Sir Waffles, and he had a top hat and monocle,” Mueller laughs. In a matter of months, Mueller had his first title, a to-do list app called Grailr whose mascots were an Indiana Jones-type character and his cartoon dog sidekick. But it wasn’t anywhere near as over my head as I thought, so I just started building.” “I got a book on iOS development, mostly so I could flip through the vocabulary and not sound like a complete idiot. “I figured if I was going to build an app, I’d just hire someone to do it for me,” he says. “I love to write and create characters and tell stories, but I had no real idea of what I would do with my life.” He found the idea of apps intriguing, but had no experience to draw from. “I’m an English major with a creative writing minor,” Mueller says. It’s a long way to go for a guy who started developing on the side seven years ago while pursuing a full-time career as - not entirely surprisingly - a screenwriter.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |