[GiveAway] Win a Google Nexus 4

I wanted a Nexus 4 for development, came across this Giveaway at http://www.techquark.com/2013/10/giveaway-win-google-nexus-4.html

Do check it out!

Failed To Create The Account. Please Try Again Later

I'm an avid Android fan. Also, I love to tinker. So when I bought the HTC One, the first thing I did was to have its Bootloader unlocked and the S-OFFed. This just opened up a lot of opportunities for me to do with the device. So after having converted the device to a Google Edition device and played with the Android 4.3 update, I tried my luck with the new 4.3 Developer Edition RUU which was released for the HTC One. Like and idiot, I relocked the bootloader and flashed the RUU. But after observing some considerable drain in standby mode, I wanted to root the device. Had to generate a new Unlock_token.bin from HTC since it was a new HBOOT at 1.55. Unlocking the bootlaoder resulted in clearing up the entire device. So, in the midst of the setting up the phone, I decide that while the phone is syncing - which would take a while on my slow wi-fi, I thought of disabling the system apps that I wont be using.

So when this activity was done, I configured my Google Apps Mail account which was done in a jiffy. Moving on to the Exchange Active Sync account, which usually takes a minute to sync, kept on giving me the "Failed To Create The Account. Please Try Again Later". Googling for it didnt give me any results, let alone positive ones. It had become annoying. Though today was a Sunday, some work was stuck. Thought of re-installing the RUU or going back to the Google Edition one. I was lost!

Then it happened, somewhere it just clicked! There are 4 options available when we setup the sync for the Exchange Active Sync account. Calender, Contacts, Mail and Tasks. I just realized that I had disabled the system tasks app, which was causing an exception when I tried to set up the sync. So this is something that I experienced and solved. No one online had posted if this was ever the case when they ever faced this particular error. 

Note : Sadly ADB wasn't detecting my device but fastboot is working fine. Hence couldn't analyze an logcat logs. my bad.

The need for AOSP Android

I have a Note II. My wife gave it to me as a birthday gift. To be honest, I was so the one to suggest the Note II as the gift. But having used the original Galaxy S, the S2.... I was aware of what I was getting in to. I'm talking about TouchWiz. What Samsung were now referring to as the Nature UI was something that was smooth, not slick like stock Android, but pretty responsive nonetheless.

Since this was a present from my wife, I had to think twice before tinkering with the device. I am an ex phone flashing addict who would try out different ROMS on his devices and play with them for a while before moving on to something else. This habit had existed right from the days of my first Windows Phone, the Xperia X1.

So one fine morning, getting tired of all the videos of the stock Android on the Nexus 4, I dove in to flash Cyanogen Mod 10.1 onto the Note II. It had some graphics glitches which have been getting sorted out over the course of the last few months. I am a regular updates from the nightlies.

It happened that one of my friends, someone who usually enquires about any device I might have to sell off (since I'm buying a new device) asked me to suggest a new device with his budget around ₹25k. With friends in the UK soon heading down to India on holiday, I suggested that he have someone get the Nexus 4 for him. It would cost him ₹23k (based on the current exchange rate) and would fall well within his budget. The best part was that this was a device well worth the price and effort spent and getting it.
I met him yesterday, after our mutual friend had brought the device. I immediately fell in love with the Nexus 4. I was so excited that I even offered to exchange devices, with him getting my higher spec'd and costlier Note II and me getting his brand new Nexus 4. He said he would love it but he thought the Note II was an unwieldy device and thus the exchange was halted.

But come to think of it, the only thing he has in his favour is that he will get the next Google update when it becomes available. I'll have to wait for mine. Till then, I get the same performance, better pictures and damn good battery life.

I guess I am right to stick with this device and forego any device change till the next Nexus hits the stores.

You Only Live Once

Life is once!!!!!!!!Learn every moment and enjoy the same Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of good or bad luck. Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of your soul. Without these small tests, if they be events, illnesses or relationships, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere. If someone hurts you, betrays you , or breaks you heart, forgive them. For they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to who you open your heart to. If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but because they are teaching you to love and opening your heart and eyes to things you would have never seen or felt without them. Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take from it everything that you possibly can, for you may never be able to experience it again. Talk to people you have never talked to before, and actually listen. Hold your head up because you have every right to. Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you don't believe in yourself, no one else will believe in you either. You can make of your life anything you wish. Create your own life and then go out and live it. The dirt at home is there to build you, so allow it to do it's purpose because your wisdom grows from your past.

- A mail forward

How in IT we pitch to a client

 This one is from a forwarded mail: 

Programmer to Team Leader:

"We can't do this proposed project. **CAN NOT**. It will involve a major design change and no one in our team knows the design of this legacy system.

And above that, nobody in our company knows the language in which this application has been written. So even if somebody wants to work on it, they

can't. If you ask my personal opinion, the company should never take these

type of projects."

Team Leader to Project Manager :

"This project will involve a design change. Currently, we don't have any

staff that has experience in this type of work. Also, the language is

unfamiliar to us, so we will have to arrange for some training if we take

this project. In my personal opinion, we are not ready to take on a project

of this nature."

Project Manager to 1st Level Manager :

"This project involves a design change in the system and we don't have much

experience in that area. Also, not many people in our company are appropriately trained for it. In my personal opinion, we might be able to do the project but we would need more time than usual to complete it."

1st Level Manager to Senior Level Manager :

"This project involves design re-engineering. We have some people who have worked in this area and others who know the implementation language. So they can train other people. In my personal opinion we should take this project, but with caution."

Senior Level Manager to CEO :

"This project will demonstrate to the industry our capabilities in

remodeling the design of a complete legacy system. We have all the necessary skills and people to execute this project successfully. Some people have already given in house training in this area to other staff members. In my

personal opinion, we should not let this project slip by us under any

circumstances."

CEO to Client :

"This is the type of project in which our company specializes. We have

executed many projects of the same nature for many large clients. Trust me

when I say that we are the most competent firm in the industry for doing this kind of work. It is my personal opinion that we can execute this project successfully and well within the given time frame.

In the Club

So as I just sit around in the club, not even trying to enjoy myself, I can't help but wonder, why did I even cone here. The way the holiday season has panned out, this is probably the last weekend I get to go out with my colleagues. And after the multitudes of parties that I have attended over the last few days, I gotta say, I'm making the most of this last weekend. And by last weekend, I mean the last weekend in UK as I head back to India. So on the coming weekend, the Christmas weekend, I'll be busy packing my bags and clearing my stuff from the apartment.
It also is a testament to my time spent here in the UK, all this while I have been alone, roaming around uk, all alone, mostly by choice though. So now finally coming back to my question to myself, I guess I just wanted to see for one last time THE club scene in UK...  and as another Rihanna songs bellows from the speakers, I sign off. Hope my friends are as bored as I am.

Blogger and Google Plus integration

I am not an avid Blogger user. But have been using it pretty regularly for the last few months and am very much impressed by it. I also happen to be a Google plus user who usually posts pictures on his profile but no so much of good posts. These posts are something I reserve for my Blogger account. But, so it seems, I have a big enough audience on Google plus as well. So I was wondering why isn’t blogger and google plus thoroughly integrated.

Google Plus and Blogger are both Google products, though one was bought by Google and the other was created in-house. The kind of integration that I am expecting is that I want my blogger posts to be immediately posted on my Google plus page as well. I know, I can just copy the link of the blog and paste it on my timeline, or click the share button on the blog and share it here, or just copy the text from the blog post, right before I post it and put it on Google Plus. Well, I don’t mind doing all that but then when I want to post pictures, how do I exactly do that? Because posting picture on Blogger isn’t as easy as it is on Google plus. I know this is something that only a lazy person would want but it doesn’t make sense that something like this isn’t already there.

I love all the Google products and very much have all my internet history in them, somewhere or the other, so I would love the tight integration that most of them currently experience with each other to be present in Blogger, because it is such an awesome blogging service/tool. Just my 50 cents.