Jons Bar Blog

Since being made redundant last December I have been struggling to fill my time with anything but looking for new jobs which after so long can get very tedious, so I started looking around for new projects to keep me busy.

I have been thinking about getting into mobile app development for a while and figured as I just got myself a nice new Samsung Omnia 7 Windows Phone I would turn my hand to some WP7 dev.

For my first project I wanted to create my own RSS News Reader as I hadn’t found one in the Marketplace which I liked, I have the hope to take this further in the future and develop a news reader and podcast player for The Digital Lifestyle, (of which I am a podcaster on TDL Mobile).

Anyhow I dont want to go into too much detail yet as to how I developed it but I can say the learning curve has been quite steep as I am not from a development background, but it has also been rewarding and something I am really enjoying.

I just wanted to share some screen shots of the upcoming Xen Reader v1 app and I will post more once I get a bit further along with the project

It has been five months since I left BPP and I am still looking for that next move, I will admit I have been a bit picky about the jobs I have applied for but I am not yet at the stage where I will take anything and continuing along my chosen career path is still at the top of my agenda.

I have my sights on a few great sounding positions so I am hoping one of those will come good in the near future.  Until then I urge any employers or recruitment agencies who might happen across my blog to check out my LinkedIN profile or on-line Portfolio as I may well fit the bill for the experienced IT Support / Service Desk Manager you seek.

Online Portoflio: http://www.jonathandickinson.co.uk

LinkedIN: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/dickinsonj

I am in the process of selling a load of old bits and pieces on eBay to raise funds for an upgrade to my media center system.

I am looking to raise enough money to buy a blu-ray drive (which I have already bought but don’t tell anyone), a Black Gold DVB-T2 tuner ready for the freeview HD digital switchover in my area next month and a decent sound card.  I would also like some additional storage in there as I am running low but that is an after thought if I have enough money left in the pot.

My eBay shop is here if you are interested, there are games and some networking kit on there so far but I will be adding more PC components and random bits and bobs over the coming days.  There will also be a netbook and PC going on there in the near future.

Check it out, get bidding and help me HD up my world!