We thought about whether we should do a music client for android. We put iTunes on Windows in order to sell more iPods. But I don’t see an advantage of putting our music app on Android, except to make Android users happy. And I don’t want to make Android users happy.

Steve Jobs in his biography

I am near the end of reading Jobs’ biography and I am pretty confident that I didn’t see such hate for any technology other than Android. Its ironical how his own thoughts on Windows and Android sound the same.

Although it never came to my mind earlier,  Apple may at some time start thinking about becoming the content platform by letting Android and Windows Phone devices sync to iCloud. No one except Amazon in books, has a better digital content store than Apple.

A digital content store may become the entry point in to Apple’s ecosystem.

Although services like Kindle, Spotify and Netflix are quickly growing to challenge iTunes Store. It will be interesting to see how a post Jobs Apple takes up this challenge.

Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distro and I will talk about it. The intent behind shifting to Unity may be good, but it is a pain. Switching between windows is a nightmare. Not to say, that stability has gone for a toss. On my current machine with 2 GB of RAM, Ubuntu 11.10 is slow. (Its a highly relative term, but we do understand what slow is – laggy, unresponsive etc) 

Plus, hardware support is still a huge issue. Hibernate never works for me on Ubuntu. And I have spent countless hours making the new ‘zero-cd’ style usb internet dongles work, without much success.

Unless one is developing on something which requires Windows, or is a huge gaming fan, you should avoid Windows. It will have no or lesser support for various projects especially in web development, because most of the community has shifted to Mac and Linux.

For mobile programming, Mac is a clear winner. iOS programming needs a Mac and you can code on Android and Windows Phone too, by installing Windows on it. On Linux and Windows, you are cut off from the most important mobile ecosystem.

Mac will be expensive compared to a similar configuration machine from the likes of Dell and Lenovo. But if you can afford it, go for a Mac. While you are doing your work, you want to focus on that.

There is a disclaimer. Some hackers like to tinker around with the OS at the hardware level. Or see and get involved with the innards of operating system. For such people, Linux is a boon. You are not going to learn more at any other place than Linux. It is up to you to decide whether you are such a hacker.

Right now, I will recommend the 13 inch Macbook Air for the general use case. There are rumors of a larger Macbook Air coming, so you may want to wait for that.

This remains my favorite ad ever.

Text of the ad :

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. – Apple Inc.

You can head to Wikipedia to read more on Apple’s Think Different campaign. Kudos to Steve and the Chiat/Day ad firm for coming up with this.

1. Open Ubuntu Software Center, using the Super (Windows) Key and searching for Software Center.
2. Search for Synaptic Package Manager and install it.
3. Start Synaptic (using the same Super Key + search term method)
4. Click on Settings/Repositories.
5. Click on “Other Software” Tab and click ADD. In the APT line copy this: ppa:ferramroberto/java
6. Click Add Source and then Add Volume and close.
7. Back in Synaptic window, click on reload. Once reloaded, in the quick filter field type java6.
8. Click and Mark for Installation these items: sun-java6-bin, sun-java6-jre, sun-java6-jdk, sun-java6-plugin.
9. Click Apply. Packages will be downloaded and you will have to accept the License Agreement. You are done with installing Sun JDK.
10. Now, go back to the Software Center and search for Eclipse. Click on Install. Alternatively, you can download Eclipse IDE for Java Developers from this link.
    

Now lets install the ADT Plugin for Eclipse. Detailed instructions are provided for doing so on the Android Developer website, but I am copying them here anyways for easy reference.

Downloading the ADT Plugin

Use the Update Manager feature of your Eclipse installation to install the latest revision of ADT on your development computer.<>

Assuming that you have a compatible version of the Eclipse IDE installed, as described in Preparing for Installation, above, follow these steps to download the ADT plugin and install it in your Eclipse environment.

1. Start Eclipse, then select Help > Install New Software….
2. Click Add, in the top-right corner.
3. In the Add Repository dialog that appears, enter “ADT Plugin” for the Name and the following URL for the Location:

   https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/

4. Click OKNote: If you have trouble acquiring the plugin, try using “http” in the Location URL, instead of “https” (https is preferred for security reasons).
5. In the Available Software dialog, select the checkbox next to Developer Tools and click Next.
6. In the next window, you’ll see a list of the tools to be downloaded. Click Next.
7. Read and accept the license agreements, then click Finish.Note: If you get a security warning saying that the authenticity or validity of the software can’t be established, click OK.
8. When the installation completes, restart Eclipse.

Configuring the ADT Plugin

After you’ve successfully downloaded the ADT as described above, the next step is to modify your ADT preferences in Eclipse to point to the Android SDK directory:

1. Select Window > Preferences… to open the Preferences panel.
2. Select Android from the left panel.

You may see a dialog asking whether you want to send usage statistics to Google. If so, make your choice and click Proceed. You cannot continue with this procedure until you click Proceed.

1. For the SDK Location in the main panel, click Browse… and locate your downloaded SDK directory.
2. Click Apply, then OK.

Now, go to Window – Android SDK Manager. Install the Android versions that you want to develop for. Android 2.1 is supported on majority of Android devices and you should target your app to run on 2.1 You can find detailed instructions about working with the Android SDK manager at the Android Developer website. http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing.html

You are now ready to start developing your Android application. You can do a quick Hello World by following this link or go to the Dev Guide. If you are interested in a book to get you started, I will recommend Apress’ Beginning Android 2 (Amazon
/ Flipkart )

UIDAI has been in news with pilot projects being kicked off in various places. When I went back home to Ranchi this summer , I was glad to know that the state government is pushing Aadhar (UID project’s name) heavily by making various student grants available only if the students and their families have UID cards. But, unfortunately, the great Indian red-tape has caught up with UID project. Business Standard reports : 

What a difference two years can make. In 2009, the Unique Identification Project spearheaded by the government’s then golden boy, Nandan Nilekani, was a much publicised and pampered one. Today, it has become everybody’s favourite whipping boy.

The Home Ministry has refused to use / trust the data collected by UIDAI and is insisting that data should be collected by its own National Population Register. This will mean that over INR 1000 crores ($200 million) spent by UIDAI will go waste. This seems much better than the scenario if both NPR and UIDAI go about doing parallel work of collecting citizen data. UIDAI’s estimated cost for the project is INR 18,000 crores ($3.6 billion) while NPR projects a cost of INR 14,000 crores ($2.8 billion) Not only will we be spending twice the money, but we will also end up with two possibly conflicting data sets.  If that is not enough, the RBI now says that a UID number will  not be enough to open a bank account, beating one of the main goals of the project, which is to increase financial inclusiveness.

I hope that the government sets its house in order and stops this embarrassing in-fighting between its own ministries and pushes ahead with this project. UIDAI will be an important step in improving India’s security and governance. Lets hope that the government doesn’t mess it up.

ZDNet is reporting that Microsoft has signed a patent licensing agreement with Samsung for the latter’s Android phones and tablets. As hard as it is to accept, this has proven Steve Ballmer right where he said that “Android is not free. It comes with a patent cost”.  Samsung is not the first to sign such a patent-licensing deal. The other major Android manufacturer HTC and fringe players like Acer and Viewsonic also have similar licensing deals. I don’t know how much HTC or Samsung is paying Microsoft but people have quoted numbers ranging from $5 – $12.50 per device. After Samsung licensing Microsoft’s patents, I wonder whether Motorola Mobility/Google will be able to win the patent litigation case that they are fighting against Android. I hope that Google wins in the patent lawsuit that they are fighting against Oracle, because if manufacturers have to enter into another licensing agreement with Oracle, then Android may become even costlier than Windows Phone 7. Also, I think Microsoft will lower Windows Phone 7 licensing costs to match that of the Android licensing fee, which currently stands at $15 per device to encourage manufacturers to push WP7 more.

All event organizers are henceforth requested to send their event information at vitsocial@gmail.com If you have any queries, you can send me an email or facebook or twitter for any clarification.

One more thing, one of the major attractions of Google Calendar is how well it works on mobile. Do try Google Calendar on your phone.

I hate superstitions. I think they are the easiest way to shy away from your fears. The general assumption is that only the old believe in them. But sadly, as the post below shows, the younger generation, here in India, believes more and more in these superstitions. I will never be able to reason as well as Sandhya Ma’am does here, so am sharing her post and comments. For complete discussion, you can go to the post here.

Are we going backwards? I see pseudo-sciences like Vastu gaining more popularity these days as compared to 20 years ago. We often hear things such as “If this corner protrudes more than a certain other corner, the head of the family will suffer severe losses, the children won’t study well etc.” What correlation is there between the facing of the house to the personality of individuals as Vastu claims? Have there been any studies? Is there any scientific data to prove these baseless theories?

Beware that you are being deceived in the name of ‘Science’. ‘Science’ deals with body of facts or truths. To call something a fact or truth, one has to prove it. I often hear the pseudo-scientists defend themselves by saying “All that you can’t prove is not necessarily untrue”. While there is truth in that statement, we also can’t accept all that is not yet proved as ‘truth’. Vastu is a superstition and not science. It may have started as an attempt at science to lay down some basic guidelines for construction but educated people like us have to question those rules and use our common sense and knowledge and decide whether to believe those rules.

A huge portion of our population is gullible when it comes to pseudo-sciences. Insecurity is the root cause. The attitude of “Why take a chance? May be, what they say is true” is killing us. I think we are knowledgeable enough to question, verify and accept / reject the statements made. Have faith in your own knowledge and don’t give into the feeling that ‘Elders have stated these for generations. So, they must be true’. It’s possible that those elders may not be that wise after all. There was a time when people thought that the earth was flat. If we always believed our elders without looking into the substance or the proof, we would be still thinking that the earth is flat.

Today’s Vastu has gone beyond the basic rules that prevailed before. Ridiculous concepts such as ‘if the bathroom faces this way, there will be more fights between husband and wife’ are extended. There are remedial suggestions by the so-called ‘Vastu experts’ such as put these spices, money or twigs in that corner and the fights will lessen. These quacks are deceiving many people and are making a fast buck.

Please don’t believe something just because it is popular or because your grandparents did. Please don’t put your ‘faith’ in dumb things such as these. You have a brain. Use it. Don’t believe quacks. I’d trust your common sense more than the Vastu consultants.

Comments (edited)

(To a comment that knowledge of science is incomplete)

If you don’t want to refuse something based on incomplete knowledge, I can live with that. But how can you (or others) accept something based on incomplete knowledge? Also, let’s use common sense. You can’t possibly believe in things such as “If this corner protrudes, the head of the household will die soon”. Well, I guess it depends on how ‘soon’ is soon Eventually, any outcome may happen. Eventually, I may pass a subject I have failed in many times. That may be due to my hard work and may not be due the vastu remedy I have done.

(To a comment that Vaastu is a traditonal Civil Engineering)

Vastu seems to be an ancient attempt at Civil engg. However, we can’t blindly follow the rules. I don’t think you’d follow the rules in your civil engg texts blindly even tho’ they have been vetted by various scientists. I’d love it if there is an explanation for the Vastu rules. A lot of it is BS. You need not be a scientist to see that there is no correlation among most of those theories. Even worse, there is no agreement among the various Vastu scientists.

(To a comment that north-east direction, supposedly held good, in Vaastu has been proven in success of the eastern part of US)

It is also found that as one progresses towards the North-East in the United States of America the land becomes richer and richer”… Some statements like these are confidently made misguiding the readers. The richest tycoons of America are found in Seattle, California, Arkansas etc. They are not north-east. Besides, the north-east land is not richer. Wallstreet happens to be in the north-east but mind you that wallstreet’s investments are all over America and even around the world.

(To a comment that Vaastu is traditional knowledge and must be revered)

Knowledge is grown through generations. Our grandfathers and grandmothers have taught us so many good things. They have imparted knowledge to us through generations. Among our grandfathers are scientists and quacks also. Our forefathers are not always 100% right. But they have given you common sense to judge what is correct and what is not. We need to use that sense. I agree with you that we have to analyze, discuss, prove or disprove something if we can. All I’m saying is that don’t take it at face-value. Analyze it, experiment with it, verify it and accept or reject if you believe it is something worth while. But use your common sense first as that will tell you what’s worth experimenting with and what’s not.

– end –

Before calling something science, lets go back to grade 1 and study what is science.

View Science and over 3,000,000 other topics on

But, Palm slagged off and the might of iOS and Android pushed it into obscurity. Palm ran into financial woes and then was acquired by HP.  There was a lot of positive energy and everyone was optimistic what webOS will do with the financial backup of HP. In hindsight, they didn’t do much. I wonder how HP can use webOS now. Windows 8 is itself moving into touch territory so there is no room for another touch-friendly OS alongside it. Apparently, HP will push webOS into appliances and cars. I am not very hopeful.

There are two things I wonder about:

• HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion. This experiment failed and they have no foothold at all in the mobile market. Every other desktop manufacturer is invested in Android and/or Windows Phone. Pretty smart management huh !
• There were rumors that Palm will be bought by Nokia. They desperately needed each other. Only if Nokia would have fired CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo earlier.