Creating a “Hello, World !” Kindle Fire app using App Inventor – it’s easy, it’s free !

I was browsing the Amazon app store today morning, looking for an app for my Kindle Fire, but unfortunately I just couldn’t find one that looked as sleek as the iPad counterparts. I even upped my budget from FREE to 0.99$, but in vain. So being a developer, I did what came naturally to me [...]

Google Chromebook – better or worse than a laptop ?

I was reading this article today at the NY Times, which offered an amusing introduction to Google Chromebook – the new laptop by Google. The article itself and a lot of comments that followed didn’t seem too impressed. Maybe you like it, maybe you don’t, but you will definitely agree that it is different. How [...]

When ‘homemade’ no longer means ‘your’ home

“He who depends on himself will attain the greatest happiness” reads a Chinese proverb. So it comes as no surprise that everything today is ‘Made in China’ ! Unfortunately, no one really loves mass produced factory-made goods and advertisers were the first to realize this. Advertisers are always the first to realize everything. Labels like [...]

Solving KenKen – ASP.NET hobby project

Were you bad at math in school? Did your childhood nightmares involve floating ÷ ? If so, your math teacher was unfortunately not Tetsuya Miyamoto. Tetsuya Miyamoto, a very intelligent math teacher from Japan is the inventor of the logic puzzle KenKen1. Tetsuya believed in the art of teaching without teaching and learnt how not [...]

What’s on the menu? Strawberries and cream – 15¢ only !

Mahabaleshwar and strawberries go hand in hand, mostly the hands of tourists flocking this town in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra. Few memories remain of my first visit to the plateau, which was more than a decade ago, but the one that does is of my father being rather gluttonous with the fresh strawberry cream [...]

Keeping tradition – Dancing on the streets !

2011 Cricket World Cup victory celebrations for India under my apartment ! It is interesting how the celebrations start out in the town square and slowly move onto the streets :) “Let us all gather in the town square to celebrate peacefully.” “Hmm, something doesn’t feel right. I wonder what?” “I’ve got an idea – [...]

Customer Service and Vodafone – The sticky ‘ex’ story

For a country that swallowed customer service jobs across the globe, slapped multi storied towers on acres of land building call centers, and made people work through the night, you’d have thought they got one thing right – Customer Service! “I will give you my personal number” said the lady at the Vodafone store on [...]

IMPROVE YOUR VOCABULARY – Without reaching for the dictionary !

THE PERFIDIOUS NEPHEW – by Dr. N. C. Edul A story written deliberately using uncommon words which are explained in the course of the story – so no running around for the dictionary. Method: The words in italics indicate the meaning of the word in bold print just preceding. The first pair has been highlighted [...]

Desire is the root of all (shock) happiness !

When we read Buddha’s quote, “desire is the root of all suffering” we nod in agreement. It all comes back to us in a flash. Fancy college degrees, our first lost love, that perfect figure, the perfect salary *sigh*. All desires that surfaced, burned and eventually dwindled leaving us with a scar in our heart [...]

.NET Vs Java – The F5 puppets

This is more of a rant than a useful discussion, so if you’re expecting the later go write yourself a Hello World ;-) In 2002, for a class project I had the option of working with either Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) or Java. After having worked with Windows SDK in the last semester, the decision [...]