My android app !!!

              Well, two years back when I stepped in to the embedded development field  , "android" was relatively a new term to me. I managed to google and found the meaning of "android" to be "A robot - humanoid". At that time, only a handful of android handsets were their in the market. Some said, its a crap mobile os from google, while others said the future of mobile technology lies with android. Today I can see that android rules the mobile world. literally, I can say "We are in an android era".   Android has became a very common buzz word today in the tech world. Today many devices starting from mobile, tablets to tv and settop boxes runs android. You can also see android even in cars and in automotive machines as a HMI in the near future. I am happy being a part of this growing android community.

 Okay, I guess its enough about android and its evolution. Lets come to the topic under discussion, my android app. Even though this is not the first of my android development, this app is very special for me as it is the first app  to hit android market under my android developer account. So I thought it is worth dedicating a separate post for it in my blog. I named my application as "Student Tracker" because it helps students to track their progress. I have made it a free app since it is meant for students. I am listing some of the spotlights about my application features below.

★ Student Tracker - An advanced student timetable and grades tracking application.
+ Manage individual semester subjects.
+ Configure timetable for each semester.
+ Customize grade points based on your current institution's grading system.
+ Easy grades assignment and CGPA calculation in one touch.
+ Add exams and schedule pre-exam alerts.
+ Easy switching between different windows with pre-defined menu shortcuts.
+ Transparent and glossy home screen widget.
+ Maintain and track the grades of your friends with different profiles.
+ Simple, efficient and easy to use glossy user interface.
+ Application movable to sdcard.

★ You can download my app from android market directly to your mobile by scanning the below given qr code using some barcode scanner application (Many are available in the android market for free).  

Though this is not the only  android application which offers these functionalities, I can say that, this is the only "free" android app with these many features.  Being the developer, it is really nice to see the download count increasing. You need to be a developer to experience that feel. After all, you get nothing other than the happyness of  helping other when you publish a free app with no add revenue. If you are a android user, sorry.. android student, try this app and don't forget to leave your feedback in the market. Finally I wish to conclude saying just one line.  

"This is just the beginning ... Lots to come !!!"

Think Different !!!

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An Incident !!!

      It was 27^th september 2011, yet another Tuesday with normal day and normal office life. I had the usual weekly client call. I started by 9.20 p.m. from office. My project colleague dropped me at the Velachery, MRTS Railway station. He wondered, at what time I would be reaching home. I made an approximate extimate and told him that I will be reaching home by 10.45 p.m in the worst case.

      The train made it to Chindadripet station by 10.20 p.m and as usual I took my bike from the station parking lot and started my way back to home. It was here I made the first unusuall mistake. I forgot to turn on the bike headlights. I thought I could be able to reach home even before the time I estimated, But things turn out the other way.

      Few thoughts were going though my mind. Just a day before, I visited my friend who was recovering from an unexpected road accident. So I decided to remain caution while I drive and made up my mind not to drive above 45kmph. As I expected, the roads were empty as it was already above 10 p.m.

      Finally I reached, the Langs garden road, where this unexpected thing happened. There were two other two wheelers travelling by my side, one on my left and the other to my right. I was travelling at exactly the same speed as them. Neither did I overtook them, nor  I tried to slowed down. Suddenly I spotted this big ditch ahead of my path. I know I can't stop as the road was a bit sloppy and trying to apply sudden break might be risky. I could not take a turn as I have vehicles on both my side. So I decided to get though the ditch. But to my surprise, the ditch was a bit deeper than I expected. Though the front wheel successfully crossed the ditch, the rear wheel skidded, and I lost balance & fell down instantly.

      Blood starts oozing through my left hand. Both my shirt and pant were torn. As there were no nearby shops and the road was empty, I started again in my bike in hopes that I could reach home and clean up all the mess. But soon after I start, my legs started trembling. I stopped before a shop, and noticed that both my leg knees were badly hurt. I got some water packets from the shop, cleaned the wounds and called my brother for help. The rest is a big story. The funny part was, I finally reached home only by 11.30 p.m.

      Today I started wondering how it all happened. I know I was driving with utmost caution but even then I was not able to stop the approching danger. I tried to recollect the sequence of events that led to this incident.

      The first and foremost was, It was a Tuesday, which mean I had client call, and that I could only be able to start by 9.15 p.m. The later it gets, the lesser the traffic and so I will be travelling a bit faster than usual. I was travelling at around 40 kmph when I met with the accident. If I have started earlier , I could have never drove at such speed in that road because of traffic. So this was the first blow.

      Next, I missed to turn on the head lights when I start driving from the parking lot. If I had the lights on, I might have got more chance of spotting the ditch from a distance. So this was the second event.

      And there are two two wheelers travelling at the same speed as mine on either side, which prevented me from taking a sudden side turn. This was the third cause.

      I could recollect, that just a day before, I refilled my bike tyre air pressure. The higher the tyre air pressure, lower is the surface area of contact of the tyre with the road and lower is the road grip and hence more chance of bike skidding. This was yet another hidden event behind the incident.

      And above all, the most important cause was the big ditch in the middle of the main road. If there isn't a ditch, this incident coultn't have happened. The ditch may have appeared natually due to recent monsoon rain or  because of some man made electrical or drainage work. In either case whether it was natural or man made, I am sure that, that ditch was surely a gateway to hell unless taken care of by the government.

      Therefore this incident happened as a result of a sequence of unrelated events that happen at the same time as shown in the figure below. This doesn't mean that they are the only events responsible for this incident. Their could be millions of invisible events contributing to the occurence of the incident either directly or indirectly as subevents but only a few are visible and can be perceived by human mind.

       Finally I wish to conclude saying that an incident happens as a result of countless, unrelated chain of events that occur at the same time, over which we might have very little contol or sometimes no control at all. Many a time, we used to get a feel that things are out of our hands and some external power is controlling us and deciding our forture. But we fail to realize that such external power were none other than the environment and people surrounding us. Just think about it.

                            Think !!! Decide !!! Think different !!!

MyPulsar

          I bought my Midnight Black  Pulsar135LS on 13th November 2010. Initially I was little bit confused between Pulsar135LS and Yamaha SS125 as I got mixed response from my friends. My friend Uday who bought Pulsar135LS six months back strongly backed me to buy this bike. After a detailed market study on all the bikes available in India in 125/135 segment, I finally made up my mind to buy Pulsar135LS and now I am very confident that I have made the right choice.

         The major factors which determine the Value for money of any bike were Power, Mileage, Comfort, Handling, Quality, Reliability, Style and Price. Apart from these normal factors, there is one big factor which I always wish to look upon i.e. "Uniqueness". Here I am just going to brief the performance of MyPulsar in terms of these factors. Lets start with Power. The bikes power is determined basically by two factors, pickup (Torque) and speed (Max speed). The initial pickup of my bike is just awesome. I was able to reach 60 kph from zero in less than 5 seconds. I haven't tested the max speed of my bike and I am neither concerned about it. I am a normal commuter who likes to ride with little style and passion. Also inside Chennai city, you hardly get a chance to drive above 60 kph.

          Next comes the most important concern for every Indian. Mileage ???. I am happy that my bike is able to promise a mileage of 58 kmpl in heavy city traffic conditions. This is the factor most bikes in this segment lacks. But till now, I never drove my bike above 75 kph and this might be one of the reason for the reasonable mileage figures.

          Next comes the Comfort and handling section. Pulsar135LS comes by default with rock hard streets and this raised a big question about comfort. But I managed to fix this problem by stitching custom cushion seats for my bike by spending some 200 bucks. Handling my bike is bit easier because of its light weight. I was able to take sharp corners and cruise through the heavy traffic with easy. This is one of the major reason why I decided to buy Pulsar135LS rather than Pulsar 150 which is 21 kg heavier than Pulsar135LS.

          Another important factor to be considered for any bike was the bike's Quality and Reliability. Thought most Bajaj bikes lacks quality, I strongly believe that Pulsars are an exception. The brand Pulsar came as a result of an extensive R&D by Bajaj. Here I wish to quote the inspiring words of Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto.

"We were telling our people that there are 15 guys who have never made a bike but are going to come together to do that. They are going to do that on their own, and not with Kawasaki. They are going to do a 200cc bike when we couldn't make a 100cc one. They are going to make the fastest motorcycle when we couldn't make a mass motorcycle. And they are going to make a huge amount of profit when we were making a loss. This seemed like nonsense. But they proved it wrong."

Courtesy : "http://www.2wheelsindia.com/2007/08/inspiring-story-of-birth-of-bajaj.html"

         Today, We can say they really did it. It is their R&D team which made it possible. Today in India every second bike sold in performance segment is Pulsar which is enough to show its dominance in Indian market. Many people doubt that was the Pulsar produced by Bajaj Auto.

          I should surely comment about the the Looks and Design of my Pulsar135LS. Though most pulsars look similar, my Pulsar135LS looks different from the rest of the Pulsar models. Also it has all latest gadgets like LCD Display and LED tail lamp which makes it an eye turner for everyone for sure. Another feature of the Pulsar135LS was its 4valve Technology which is not available in any other bikes in its segment in India. Not only it looks different, but also it sounds different from the rest of the bike. This is mainly because of its unique 4valve technology. This demonstrates the "Uniqueness" of Pulsar135LS when compared to rest of the Indian bikes.

           Summing up everything, I would say that Pulsar135LS was the best in its segment available in the market with real Value for money. I would recommend this this bike to anyone who wish to be a stylish commuter like me without emptying their pockets. If you are about to buy a new bike in 125/135cc segment, don't forget to checkout the latest Pulsar135LS.

                                         Think !!! Decide !!! Think different !!!

Human thinking - In Software Perspective

        Everyday in my day to day life, I have been observing people listening to music while at work. I wonder weather they really work ??? and if they are really dedicated to work , the next question is , are they really enjoying the music ??? I would say "NO" to both. Let me justify.
Here I compare our human brain to a computer processor. Even thought it seems like our personal computer is running different application at the same time, It actually schedules all the application processes in quick succession to make the user experience good. Likewise our human brain can only concentrate on only one voluntary action at a time. We can perform more than one action at a time provided the other actions are involuntary (Reflex actions).
For those who don't know about voluntary/reflex actions, let me cite a very simple example. You slapping some stranger is a voluntary action. And That stranger instantly slapping you in response is an example for involuntary or reflex action :-p
Now consider an example. Assume you are driving your car in a busy street for the first time with the music system on. I am sure that even though you have the music playing in your car, you can only hear it playing but you cannot actually listen to it as you will be busy concentrating on handling the busy traffic. Now driving is a voluntary action and you cannot enjoy music simultaneously which is another voluntary action. And as days goes on you will get used to driving in that same street and slowly it will turn into an involuntary action. Now you will slowly start enjoying the music as driving has became an reflex for you !!!. The worst case comes when you are listening to music while riding your bike. In this case you leave very little time for your brain to concentrate on driving and this leads to accidents most of the time.
It also depends on the nature of work to some extent. If your work requires too much of logical thinking(Software Engineers), it will remain as a voluntary action even if you get used to it and you cant even think about listening to music while working. On the other hand if your work hardly lets you to think, as days pass on you start to do it with your reflex and hence you are free to go a head and enjoy music as you can. So my conclusion is that people listening to music while working were either pretending to be working or just pretending as if they are listening to music. If you used to listen  music while working, just think in which category you fall.

                                          Think !!! Decide !!! Think different !!!