2012
Happy Birthday Abe!
My wife prayed for me on my birthday and that was most unforgettable moment of my life. Aw! my phone was dead. I forgot to put them for charging. However, I got call from my Sister to my wife’s phone wishing me by 12:04 am on my Birthday. Many tried to reach my mobile and they got upset as they felt I have switched off my mobile (my apologies to them). One among my loved ones prepared Lunch for me at home. I eat tummy full and had a wonderful sleep.
It was decided for me along with my loved ones go to circus show. But my lunch was so heavy that I was not able to get up from bed. Later in the evening, my father came to me and prayed for me on my birthday. Then, I along with my wife and sisters went for shopping and my wife bought me dresses for me.
Totally, I enjoyed every moment on my Birthday. I really thank God for making all this happen. I know he loves me so much.
2012
Oh my God! Programming made easy! Collaborative World!!
As always I am still remembering olden days on how I struggled for debugging and doing some programming and getting some output from the compiler. Now! WordPress, Drupal and tons like he same made website creation easy and fun. I changed my theme again. It is like changing clothes. All happened with in an hour. Collaborative work made this possible.
Looking at the success of blogging software like WordPress, CMS like Drupal one thing is obvious. Doing work as a team will always be helping any thought process successful. Somewhere someone initiated a software like WordPress after lots of seasoning from various hands and people from various walks, it got mature and it is rocking.
I just read above two paragraphs which I have written doesn’t make any sense at all to me. I don’t feel like a programmer any more. Just if I have some level of creativity, that is all required. You will be up and running in 10 mins and you will say “Oh my God! You made programming so easy!”
Yesterday, I updated latest wordpress and changed the themes. Not sure how many people like them. But I liked it.
2012
M-Audio Midi Interface (UNO) – My Collection
Today I have purchased M-Audio midisport uno. The same I have purchased 3 years back. I gave it to one of my friend as I did know the purpose of it. Today, I thought it would be good if get one. I got this interest as I wanted to play around with Ableton Live Lite which came along with my M-Audio Fasttrack pro audio interface. I plugged it into my Roland E-09w Keyboard and it worked like a charm. Wow! I missed this opportunity for a long time. Thank got I got it back and now using them whenever I find time. I bought in a store by name Krish Musicals near my home. It costs INR 3000.
My little tech knowledge is helping me to understand how midi works and how I could use my interface to improvise my music skills. Here is a quick feature list of what M-Audio midi interface UNO has got to offer.
- 1×1 USB MIDI interface
- 16 MIDI input and output channels
- Bbus-powered—requires no external power
- Extremely compact for mobile or desktop use
- Built-in USB and MIDI cables
Totally it is worth the price and offers very low latency when used with Mac. However I find some latency which I guess I need to play around with my audio drivers on Windows 7 64-bit.
2011
Adobe Acrobat Reader X – Sticky Notes
I have seen many people use Adobe Acrobat pirated version only to add sticky notes and comments to the PDF document. When it comes to Mac, Preview gives the luxury of adding / creating new PDF documents. For Windows users there is a good news for people who are looking out for adding comments / sticky notes to the PDF document. The newest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader X is supporting sticky notes and adding notes / comments to the PDF document.
Few features included with Adobe Acrobat Reader X as mentioned on Adobe website:
Simplified user interface
View information more precisely and efficiently. Choose reading mode to fit more content on the screen or two-up mode to view page spreads. Use keyboard shortcuts like print, zoom, and find within the browser.
Enhanced commenting tools
Make notes and share your feedback with others by marking up PDF documents using the Sticky Notes and Highlighter tools.
Comprehensive file searching
Find and retrieve any PDF document or phrase within a document in seconds. Search for words in page content, annotations, bookmarks, form fields, or document metadata within any PDF file on a local computer.
So if you are using Pirated version of Adobe Acrobat stop using them and get genuine. Just a thought.
2011
Facebook Deprecated APIs wont work
I got information that Facebook’s REST based API stopped working. Yes, it was true. Checked few popular apps and everything looks screwed. Mainly when it comes to iPhone it is really a pain to undergo this change and plan a release exclusively for Facebook change. However Facebook says them as part of the road map but most of the developers gets confused or unaware. You can find them on http://developers.facebook.com/roadmap/.
One fine morning developers who gets negative rating because their iPhone facebook sdk (not Facebook iOS sdk) does not work anymore. This brings a public nuisance and mainly for developers. I also think from the Facebook end. Managing and informing all developers to upgrade to their newest SDK is really a pain. However, rather than discussing this topic I would encourage my fellow developers to fix the facebook stuff and release them again to the app store to keep the apple reviewers busy.
Even top apps on the app store suffer this damage. Some of them were CNN, Weather Channel …
A note to the users to the above mentioned app. Dont rate the app negatively, rather intimate the developers to they can find the right fix for the same.
Hope this helps to my fellow iOS developers.
2011
Sync your Bookmarks – Google Chrome
You will be able to sync your bookmarks with Google Chrome. Wherever you browse and add bookmarks you will be able to add them to your Chrome Bookmarks. The best part is that you will be able to sync them with your google account. I know this information is not new for many people. I have found handful of my friends who struggled to organize the bookmarks.
Try to sync your bookmarks today. Kindly ignore if you know this trick already.
2011
Korg microStation – Addition to my Collection
I have a new member to my collection. It is Korg MicroStation. Here are the main features of the Workstation.
- Lightweight, compact, and equipped with 61 mini-keys, the microSTATION travels easily and fits effortlessly into any home, stage, or studio workspace.
- EDS-i (Enhanced Definition Synthesis-integrated) sound engine delivers high-quality sound in the tradition of KORG’s flagship synthesizers.
- Enjoy 480 outstanding, ready-to-use sounds – including keyboard sounds, synth sounds, drums, leads, basses, etc. Tweak, edit, create and save up to 512 sound Programs.
- 256 dynamic Combinations place different sounds on different areas of the keyboard, or layer multiple sounds together for exciting performances – right out of the box!
- Find the right sound fast with eight quickly accessible categories; hundreds of Audition Riffs allow you to preview each sound.
- A full General MIDI level 2 compatible soundset allows commercial and pre-made MIDI files to be played perfectly and instantly.
- Designed for comfort and accuracy, our 61-key Natural Touch Mini Keyboard is highly expressive and supports serious playing.
- Whether performing or composing, the on-board sequencer can be anything from an extra set of hands or a powerful drum machine up to a full-blown MIDI production suite.
- Loop Recording, Grid Sequencing, Dual Arpeggiators, Template songs, and Auto Song Setup features make it easy for anyone to achieve professional results.
- SD/SDHC card slot for convenient storage or your custom sounds and songs.
- USB Type-B connector offers a direct MIDI connection to your computer.
- Includes both stand-alone and plug-in microSTATION software for detailed sound editing on your computer; plug-in software is VST, AU, and RTAS compatible.
2011
Weird bug during Software Update – Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.x)
Err is human. I know most of us make mistakes. As far as I saw and heard about Apple was really great to hear. First time in my lifetime on Mac I started to see issues. May be it is known for longtime users. But still I love using my mac. This morning I tried to update my mac, I saw a weird bug. You also have a look at the same below:
Finally it is not the end of the world. Apple should have some good people like me to showcase the issues what I face day-to-day in life using a mac.
2011
Mobile Apps Usability Review (iPhone / Android)
I am not an usability guru or an expert in usability arena. But I would like to share my thoughts when I had an application which my team developed for review with few iPhone users. Surprisingly, I could see lot of things on how people react to the usability of the application. The group ranged from sparse users to best users of iPhone.
I had to admit that I was unable to digest all the feedback given by the users. But still I feel all the points given by the users has got a huge value. I would like to quote some examples from the review. The application had barcode scanning, the user took the iPhone device and started to place the camera of the iphone to very close to the barcode. However, after sometime the user managed to scan a barcode. I felt the necessity of placing a help mechanism to get the users right at the first time. Again that is subjective to the users whether they opt of reading through the help.
Another issue on usability was throwing a registration screen in front of the user. We had a registration screen and users did not know how to navigate through it. If we wish maximum number of people to use our application we should cater to the weakest or dumbest request of the user.
Learning is fun. I understood that the touch screen users try to use their click click mind on a touch and expect it to work as they do in desktop. This needs to be kept in mind of the designers / developers of mobile application. Hope this might add 2 cents to someone who needs something about usability on mobile phones.
2011
Cool App for Macintosh :: Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac
I wanted to give a shot on how Microsoft Office 2011 looks. I was blown by the rave reviews from various Journals published on the site. Interestingly, I downloaded it and saw it to be true. First in my list was Word 2011 and I was blown out by how the Notebook Layout looks.
Here is something about Powerpoint where you can insert video / audio stuff.
So finally Microsoft Office 2011 has got lot of cool features. Check it out yourself 