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Smart Computing Talk at VESIT

 Presentations  No Responses »
Apr 022012
 

Last weekend, I was invited to VESIT to speak at their Technical Festival, IMPACT. VESIT is one of the premier Engineering Colleges in Mumbai University and I took it as a great opportunity to get back to college :-)

My talk was focused on Smart Computing and I spoke about it from the Cloud + Mobile + Social angle. I believe that these 3 factors are a disruptive force in our industry and they are giving rise to not just challenges for existing providers and users of Applications but also opening up huge opportunities for developers worldwide. As an example, I used the retail sector to drive home my point of how Social+Mobile+Cloud could completely help rejuvenate the retail sector by several orders of magnitude. Personally I believe that even in a country like India, we have huge opportunities now staring us in the face but along with these opportunities the main challenge will be two pronged : investment in bandwidth and workforce reorientation. Consumerization of IT is anyways going to make it impossible for businesses to ignore what is happening and being demanded from them.

Take a look at my slides from the talk.

It would be only fair if I spoke a bit about my experience in interacting with the organizing team of the IMPACT festival at VESIT. My primary contact with the organizing team was Sangeetha Krishnan, who came across as a sharp organizer. The team knew exactly what they wanted, they were direct in terms of the schedule and the most important quality that I liked about them was that they were responsive. Emails were replied to within no time. They can easily put some of the people I know in the software industry to shame with their precise emails and responsiveness.

At the event, I could not help notice the infectious enthusiasm that the organizing team had in them. The way they conducted themselves, overcoming small hiccups along the way and still retaining their humour just made it clear to me that the new generation is several steps ahead if I pictured myself during my Engineering days almost 20 years back. I am extremely encouraged that they have enough leadership skills already to take the next leap.

Some photographs from the VESIT event:

 Posted by at 8:28 PM

Android and HTML5 Webinar Presentations

 Presentations  No Responses »
Apr 022012
 

I conducted 2 webinars recently via Spanedea, a upcoming marketplace that brings tutors and students together. The webinars are a starting point for me to spread the Mind Storm brand but more importantly, to spread quality information among interested folks.  These webinars are typically held on a Sunday afternoon, they last an hour including some Q&A at the end.

The first webinar was on Android and the goals of the webinar were:

  • Introduce the participants to the Android ecosystem
  • Cover the Java based tools that Google provides to begin Android development
  • Demonstrate how a Hello World in written for Android using Eclipse Project wizards and in the process show the Android Emulator too.
  • Code walkthrough for a simple dictionary application that retrieves word definition from the excellent Wordnik API

Take a look at the Android webinar slides below:

The second webinar was on HTML5. HTML5 is such a vast topic and popular topic today. My intent was to cram into an hour, the different APIs that HTML5 brings to the table to help us write web applications that are powerful and mirror their desktop cousins in more ways than one. During this webinar, I covered the Canvas, Geolocation, Forms, Storage and Audio-Video APIs with examples and code samples.

Take a look at the HTML5 webinar slides below:

I am encouraged with the participation and hope to do more such webinars in the future. If you would like me to speak at your organization or college about any of these topics, just drop in a line at romin.irani@mindstormsoftware.com and we can get started.

FYI – I also conduct 2-day Hands On Courses on Android, which has been attended by 100+ folks in the last 6 months. A 2-Day Hands On course for HTML5 is coming soon.

 Posted by at 8:10 PM

Smart Computing : Social + Mobile + Cloud

 Presentations  No Responses »
Mar 302012
 

I will be speaking at VESIT College in Mumbai tomorrow as part of their technical festival. My topic is going to be “Smart Computing” in which I provide my own definition of what it is and how a combination of Cloud, Mobile and Social is disrupting businesses today. I will also discuss the opportunities that developers have today.

My slides are given below:

 

 Posted by at 1:20 PM

Why Kingfisher Airlines should not be bailed out?

 Personal  No Responses »
Mar 092012
 

Kingfisher Airlines has been in the news lately for defaulting on its payments. Most experts say that it is likely that they will fold up. There are reports that Kingfisher has asked for favorable terms from the government in terms of rules, taxes and whatever else to get out of this situation. What this possibly means is a Government bailout.

I am not expert in these matters however the concept of a “bailout” does not go down too well with me, especially when you want to play by the rules and let the market forces decide what happens. On Twitter today, I got hold of an excellent article titled “Nassim Taleb’s Big Idea: Transforming Debt into Equity” written by John Aziz. The article contained a section that struck me as the answer that I would give on why Kingfisher or for that matter, no one should be bailed out.

I quote the section from the article:

“If bad companies can succeed just as easily as well-run ones, then the market mechanism is rendered meaningless. Why innovate and create when instead you can run on government largesse? Why seek efficiency when inefficiency gets you cash just as easily? Furthermore, this government largesse starves new businesses of opportunities and cash. Every dollar taxed to pay for bailouts is a dollar that could have instead been invested in a startup. And every juggernaut that is saved is a hole in the marketplace that could instead have been filled by a new and better company.”

Enough said.

 Posted by at 10:49 PM

Daily Idea Generation

 Personal  No Responses »
Mar 062012
 

I write for ProgrammableWeb regularly where I cover API related news. While researching what news to cover next, I came across this interesting API called the Numbers API. It gives very interesting trivia about numbers, dates, years and so on. All you need to do is give it some number and it throws up trivia that is really interesting at times. Do check out the site to get a taste of what the Numbers API is about.

However, this blog post is actually not much about the Numbers API. The Numbers API was authored by David Hu and Mack Duan. I typically spend some time with any of the blogs that I find interesting and a natural instinct was to click on David’s blog and learn more about him. One blog post caught my particular attention “My Experiment in Daily Idea Generation“. David did a very simple thing but something that we tend to overlook. He spent one month in which he noted down any idea that came to his mind. Typically these ideas can be converted to full fledged products, if given enough time, resources and passion.

The number of ideas that David has generated and which he is kind enough to provide as is at his site is amazing:

286 ideas over 29 days

Take a look at all the ideas. David calls it a crap load of ideas but I beg to differ. There are gems in there if you are willing to look and understand them. Some of them are ideas that most of us get on a daily basis but the essence here is the concept of “Daily Idea Generation”.

What if each one of us also spent the next 7, 10 or 30 days to note down every single idea that comes to our mind. Forget how ridiculous the idea might sound. Don’t even think for a moment that each of the ideas could be made into a business or not. I believe it might lead to wonderful things. A possible accumulation of ideas, something you can share and discuss with others and who knows what it could lead to.

At the end of the day, ideas are a dime a dozen and it all depends on how well you execute but the ideas need to be put down first and a simple technique that has been demonstrated by David could possibly be followed by some of us and who knows what it could lead to. Everything has to begin with a small step or should I say, a notepad and pencil/paper.

So what are you waiting for? Start your Daily Idea Generation now …..

 Posted by at 10:19 AM

ProgrammableWeb – My Articles – February 2012

 APIs  No Responses »
Mar 032012
 

My writings for ProgrammableWeb in February 2012

Google App Engine Now Supports A/B Testing 02/29/2012
Great API Documentation Seen As Key To API Success 02/27/2012
PowerInbox Wants You To Stay In Your Inbox 02/24/2012
An API to Hack the Gibson 02/21/2012
$100K in Prizes Awarded to Students in Stock API Contest 02/17/2012
Automate Language Translation by Humans in the Cloud 02/15/2012
RunKeeper Sprints Away to Success With More Apps and Devices 02/07/2012
Frequent Google App Engine Releases to Continue in 2012 02/02/2012
 Posted by at 4:09 PM

Android Developer Workshop : February 25 – 26 2012 Mumbai

 Android, Mobile  2 Responses »
Feb 272012
 

After Dubai in early part of February, the 2-Day Android Developer Workshop was back in its home city of Mumbai. The latest edition of Mind Storm Software‘s 2-Day Android Developer Workshop was held last weekend on February 25-26 in Mumbai.  This has been our 4th Developer Workshop of Year 2012 and we thank everyone who has participated in the workshop. I am glad to announce that we have crossed the magical mark of 100 developers who have taken this workshop now.

We had a good mix of participants this time, including Java Server side developers and mobile developers. It definitely made the task of getting across most Android Java APIs easily to the audience. The first day saw us put up in a smaller room and all of us quietly plugged away at learning what Android, the massive opportunity it presents to developers, Hello World (how can we do without this one!), Activities, Built In Intents and List Activities. On an average, this batch asked me the most questions and that was a very good thing. Here is a pic of our training room for the first day just before “Android” took over:

The next day we got the Garden View conference room and we kicked it off by looking at Android Menus and various kinds of Alert Dialogs. Just before we broke for lunch, we learnt about various persistence mechanisms in Android like Files, Shared Preferences and Databases.

The afternoon session started off with Networking (REST based Services), GPS + Maps Programming and then an overview of a complete Android application that the participants can study in detail. The Networking session once again made use of NodeJS  to help in delivering the server side service responses. NodeJS found some good vibes from the participants, who were impressed with its simplicity and already there were ideas bubbling inside them on how they could go back and use NodeJS. I am glad I could introduce this nifty platform on the side as part of the Android workshop.

We rounded off the training with the “Packing your Application for the Android Marketplace” session, where participants race against each other to be the first to upload a valid APK to the Android Marketplace. I also received great feedback that I shall incorporate moving ahead. Our trusted venue, Residency Hotel did a great job as usual and have always been very receptive to our needs in all the workshops that we have conducted over there.

A few pictures of our 2nd day and the entire batch beaming their broad smiles after conquering the basics of Android.

 

It has been 6 months since Mind Storm Software kicked off its basic 2-Day Android Developer Workshop. Here are some interesting statistics till now:

  • Total of 9 Workshops Held
  • 100+ participants trained
  • One of the workshops was held overseas in Dubai. Read the report here
  • Participants have included working professionals and Engineering college students
  • Participants had a broad knowledge of technologies before learning Android including participants who had never programmed before in Java

The time is good now to focus on our strength and introduce two new courses. One of them will be an Advanced Android Workshop on similar lines of the 2-Day Developer Workshop that we have been conducting so far. This course will be well suited to participants who have taken our 2-Day Workshop and wish to take their Android skills to the next level. Experienced Android Mobile Developers can also benefit from the course.

The other course we are planning is a 2-Day HTML5 Developer Workshop that shall introduce participants to the possibilities that HTML5 brings to the table with the usual mix of APIs, hands-on exercises and mobile web applications that you can create today using HTML5. We are on track to launch these courses in April. We will continue to offer our most popular course, the 2-Day Android Developer Workshop.

Contact us to get notified of dates, when the new Developer Worskhops are announced. Till then, stay tuned…

 Posted by at 10:45 AM

Thakur Village Declared Official Satellite Township of the Moon

 Personal  No Responses »
Feb 202012
 

February 20, 2012

Thakur Village residents have erupted in joy. In an unprecedented declaration, the International Group, Astronomy Divine, that has the sole responsibility of all lunar affairs on earth has declared Thakur Village as the first officially sanctioned recipient of the tag “Satellite Township” of the Moon.

Various other neighborhoods were in the fray for this honor, but Thakur Village beat them hands down. Mr. Dig-It-All-Kar, the chief supervisor of the civic work currently in Thakur Village said “I took the responsibility personally to ensure that I do not let the residents of this locality down. I could sense that there would be tough competition from other neighborhoods, so I ensured that we got along a few extra diggers and we took inspiration from the Shiv Sena slogan for the BMC election “Karun Dakhavla”. The Congress Party however has taken exception to the fact that the supervisor got inspiration from the Shiv Sena slogan. They have in fact hijacked it by saying that their symbol the hand was what the workers used to dig and dig and dig. And hence they want the credit.

The Chief Minister has congratulated the neighbourhood on this stupendous achievement and is confident that with this achievement, Maharashtra will be able to get additional Foreign Investment. When a puzzled reporter asked him why, he was quick to retort that various countries have expressed their interest in setting up the Space Training centers in Thakur Village. There are already proposals from various countries to setup their moonwalk practice sessions for their astronauts who are working on the “Mission Moon” program for their respective countries. In fact, Mr. Limbstrong, one of the foreign astronauts had even come down and done a test run. “I have practiced the walk in so many simulators but I must say this ranks right up among all of them”. Speaking to reporters backstage, Mr. Limbstrong even remarked to a few reporters in private that he fears losing his job to outsourcing. He said that he found Thakur Village residents walking so skillfully in and around the giant crater sized holes and that too without any formal training, that he feared that his space program may terminate all of them and simply outsource it to any local resident of Thakur Village, given their skills at walking and dodging anything without even a hitch.

As a pleasant side effect of this development, Parents have noted that their children are revolting against the idea of a white-skinned “Bob The Builder” in their favorite television serial. They have now got together and are going to petition the Cartoon TV Network to introduce an Indian looking Bob the Builder and some of them have even clicked the local supervisors as possible makeover faces for the popular character. One of the residents, Mr. TodFodWala remarked that in protest his kid has stopped watching TV and that allows him to watch the channels that he wants to see.

This is not all. This sudden achievement has also fostered innovation among various local entrepreneurs. Mr. Physicaldas, who owns a Fitness Gym in the neighborhood has just announced his latest fitness plan called “Reduction-Guaranteed” which is ideal for lazy people who wish to shed their extra kilos. The fitness plan involves walking up and down the main stretch of Thakur Village for 30 minutes in which you will end up consuming around 100 grams of dust subconsciously. Once that set of exercises is complete, it is rounded off by sitting without any seat belts in a 1980s Maharashtra State Transport Bus, which they have specially acquired. This bus will make the rounds of Thakur Village and will ensure that it gives every part of your body a wholesome exercise and best of all, you only have to sit.

Finally, the happiest among the Thakur Village residents are the kids. They are finally convinced that if there is any place that all the Ben10 Aliens shall call home, then it has to be Thakur Village. They are waiting for them to land …..

Note: All organizations and persons mentioned in this blog are fictional and are the result of the author’s poor imagination. In case your name has been mistakenly quoted in this blog post, be happy that you have finally made it.
 Posted by at 10:32 PM

Android Developer Workshop : February 7,8,9 2012 Dubai

 Android, Mobile  4 Responses »
Feb 172012
 

MindStorm Software took its popular Android Hands-On Workshop across the seas for a change. This time the city was Dubai and the Hands-On Workshop was conducted for DCode Mobility, a leading provider of Enterprise Mobility solutions, headquartered in UAE and serving the entire Middle East.

DCode Mobility had seasoned developers who have been delivering enterprise mobility solutions for several years. They have primarily used the Windows 6.x Enterprise devices and their development platform of choice so far has been the Microsoft Tools. With the advent of Android, which is a game changer of late, DCode wants to be leading the game when it comes to providing solutions on the Android handsets also. Most of the existing Handset manufacturers in the Enterprise space are releasing newer handsets that run the Android operating system, chief among them being Motorola, which has brought out its latest enterprise device, the ET1 Tablet that runs the Android Operating System.

The Developer Training kicked off with the usual introduction to Android. A healthy mix of sales and marketing folks were also present during this session to help them understand what Android has to offer, its various capabilities, the kind of applications that it can enable, the current Enteprise mobile space and so on. We then proceeded with the setup and the quintessential “Hello World” project, which is a tradition as far as we programmers are concerned. The afternoon saw a deep dive into activities, explicit/implicit intents and User Interface creation along with Layouts and the default Android ListActivity. The Hands On Exercises kept the participants busy and everyone was itching to get the applications running on the ET1 tablet that was available during the training.

The next day proceeded with Menus, Persistence options like databases and Alert Dialog. Once through with that, we got through some REST based Networking, Google Maps and GPS Programming. The focus then shifted to working with the ET1 Tablet. Participants were able to build the Android application (.APK) and transfer them over the ET1 Tablet to see their application in action. Since the participants were from an enterprise mobility background and they had already written several Windows Mobile applications that did scanning, we did an interesting experiment over there. We integrated the ZXing library, which is a top of the line bar coding library from Google. We integrated that into our Android application and used the ET1 back facing camera to scan various 1D, 2D bar codes and decode them. That went off really well and gave everyone the confidence that yes they can write Android applications with all the scanning and other bells and whistles into it.

The Motorola ET1 Tablet is a cool device, in fact a rugged device that runs the Android OS. It runs version 2.3.4 (Gingerbread) Android OS. The device is fairly rugged, has both front and back facing camera and can be augmented by external hardware like a bar code reader, etc. With the purchase of Motorola Mobility by Google, the ET1 and its eventual successors present a great set of choices to organizations that are evaluating different options to replace the Microsoft 6.x Enterprise devices.

The training experience was good. Lots of questions asked, especially from the business side of things, so that the Android Devices and the applications that it can enable can be positioned across the Enterprise space. I am quite excited at the opportunities that exist in that region vis-a-vis training and Android development and I look forward to frequenting the place again in the near future. If you are looking for a serious 2-3 Day Hands-On course on Android in the Middle East, give me a shout and we can get this rolling along for you.

Our next workshop is scheduled for the coming weekend, February 25-26 , 2012 in Mumbai. The response has been encouraging and I look forward to training this specific batch of students, who will help me reach the milestone of 100+ individuals that I have coached individually to get them started in their Android Development Journey.

Thank you to all who have given me the support. Expect interesting things in the weeks and months ahead. As a teaser — How about an Advanced Android course?

 Posted by at 3:32 PM

ProgrammableWeb – My Articles – Jan 2012

 APIs  No Responses »
Feb 172012
 

My writings for ProgrammableWeb.com in January 2012 are listed below:

Calling European Devs to GOTO Copenhagen 01/30/2012
AllTrails Drops Google Maps in Favor of NatGeo’s TOPO 01/27/2012
Stripe, a Payment Service by Developers for Developers 01/24/2012
Go Local and Win Big at YellowPages Developer Challenge 01/20/2012
50 Twitter Visualizations, Including the TwitSprout Beta 01/19/2012
Suitts Me Trumps 70+ Applications to Win at API Mashup Contest 01/12/2012
Build Science Apps in Springer API Challenge 2.0 01/10/2012
When APIs Play Spoilsport? 01/06/2012
Stack Exchange V2 Goes Beta, Launches Contest 01/04/2012
 Posted by at 2:37 PM
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