Mobile Apps

Everyone is talking about mobile apps - especially apps for iphone and android phone. I never got a better opportunity to know about this technology than the one last week when there was a presentation on "Mobile Applications" at our office. It was delivered by a very knowledgeable senior guy Andreas S. He is apparently a seven time Microsoft MVP in the field of mobile apps.

He says mobile applications will be very popular in corporate world in this year, 2011, and coming few years. He compared the evolution of the mobile applications to the evolution of web. Back in the late nineties and early 2000's, people started using web mainly for fun stuff - static pages, cool pages, games, etc. Then came days when enterprises started using for intranets for their day-to-day business. Then it was time when more dynamic web came into existence. Corporations used it for complex user interactions and transactions. The web we see today is an evolved one, which is more transactional and dynamic in nature.

Andreas says, mobile applications are tracing a similar path. They are in that first phase where we see many cool apps, games and other fun apps. If his analogy is correct, that the evolution of mob-app is tracing that of web-app, then very soon we will see enterprises jumping on to the mobile apps band wagon and extending their web apps to the mobile world. Then we will see applications that are transactional and dynamic.

As a result of this big increase in mobile apps there would be a great need for developers, strategists, gurus in mobile applications. That is where I come into play.

I have worked with Microsoft applications for about a decade now. Looking into the demand these mobile applications will be bringing to the job world, I think the market is ripe for developers who have knowledge in that area. Moreover, market is saturated with experienced Microsoft applications developers and probably may continue to be more saturated in this area.

I am thinking of making a switch to developing mobile apps. I feel this is a great decision - as will be able to place myself well in the market as a subject matter expert in mobile app development.

As a first step in the process, I signed up for apple developer program ($99 fee). I got a developer account, downloaded iOS development SDK and now downloaded reading material (and currently reading on iOS (objective-c.. whewww!!) development!!)

I hope I can start writing code in a few weeks and deliver an app by April - at least that is the challenge that Andreas S threw for us and that is what I accepted..

Hope I win the challenge and write about success stories!

Later.

Bizarre hunting ....

Last week was an interesting one. I and my friend ventured into a new task - hunting scorpions. Yes, I was feeling jittery too.

My friend lives in Phoenix, which is very much like a desert, and his house is located less than a mile away from a mountain. Scorpions are galore in the mountain and crawl their way into a cozy home. One can easily find a couple of scorpions here and there daily in my friend's house. With a six month baby boy, who has just started to crawl, my friend had few options at hand than to get rid of the scorpions. He tried several ways to get rid of them - sticky traps, insecticides, etc. Nothing seemed to shun the deadly lizards away!!

Looking for ideas, he stumbled across the concept of black-light - a black-light is an incandescent light that will make phosphorescent object glow in the dark. Scorpions glow under this light. He liked the idea and bought a black-light, along with a pair of gloves, and hammers. He asked my help and I agreed!

We dressed up from tip to toe - full sleeved T-shirts, sneakers, long jeans and gloves - and scavenged the house from inside turning the lights off, turning the black-light on we searched the corners, walls, boundaries and covered areas in living room, bed rooms, halls, bath rooms and closets. To my disappointment and my friend's delight, not a single scorpion was to be found.

At 10.00 PM we ended searching the home, and embarked upon searching outside of the house. We turned the black-light on the walls, grass, containers and covered areas. Even after searching almost three fourths of the outside area, we could not find a scorpion.

In our final round of search, we were looking on a wall that was close to a swimming pool. I was standing on a small basement that was built around an elevated circular area, which had few small plants. Close to my right leg was a small shrub that was dry and almost ready to die. My friend cautioned me that scorpions tend to dwell in wet and damp areas.

In a flash, when my friend moved the black-light towards the shrub, we saw something bright on the sidewalls of the basement. We were reluctant to accept that it was a scorpion. The object was different from others. It was long, wide and grainy looking. It seemed like a spider web. It was not moving. A closer look revealed it's true nature - what was web like were legs. What was long was the tail and wide were the sprawled legs. It was indeed a scorpion. Hurraaa!!

I jumped off the basement in one scoop and wasted no time in wielding the mighty hammer - albeit for the first time that night. Intimidated by it I missed the first shot. Scorpion shuffled away, but it was dumb. It retraced the path back to where it was. I took couple more shots at it and finally hit it - bingo!! Our score was one!!

Further search did not unravel any more scorpions. My friend was happy that the whole hunt revealed less trouble in his house in the form of only one scorpion, though I was little disappointed to have ended the hunt at about 11.30 PM with a score still at 1.

Journey begins...

I took my GMAT in Sep '06 and tried my luck unsuccessfully with US b-schools (2-year program). Now I am ready for another round of b-school apps for top 10 b-schools in Europe (1-year program).

Traditionally the acceptance rate for my demographic (Indian IT male) has been high during the first couple of cycles of the admission process. Moreover, I have a decent GMAT score (720), good ECAs and sufficient work ex. As a result, my hopes are high for getting admitted for this year.

My hopes are also on the down side as I feel I lack the 'wow' factor. I am planning to do some heavy self introspection for about month to evaluate my profile from deep down. I am hoping the result of this process will lead to stunning discoveries that will boost my confidence and encourage me to write some stellar essays, as a result.

In any case, I am happy to have started this long and expensive journey towards success - one more time...

Headaches with car registration - Part 2

Okay.. I was hoping to get my car registered over the weekend. Did not happen!!

As I said earlier, the car registration process involves 3 steps. Emissions test, physical car examination and the registration process. My car failed the first step.

The emissions test failed because the engine check light was on, a scenario that indicates a problem with the car. But, the problem itself cannot be solely attributed to emissions. For example, my car had a bad coolant sensor, which triggered the check engine light. I confirmed this fact by getting my car checked at Auto Zone (by getting advantage of their "free check engine light" offer), where I even got a printed document for the check engine light issue. I took that document to the emissions test office.

The guy at the office, however, was adamant and insisted that the check light warrants a failure of the test. Despite my argument that the check light might not be related to emissions at all and showing the printed document from Auto Zone, the guy was not convinced.

I was disappointed. I wanted to get my car registered that day. That's it!!

I stopped at a mechanic shop to ascertain my costs for getting the problem corrected. I was told that the cost would be in the range of couple of hundred dollars and couple of hours. The numbers were not reasonable. I looked for other ways.

I drove my car home and started looking for other options on the internet. I found an article that said the check light could be reset by disconnecting / connecting the car battery. Without much hesitation I rushed to my car, disconnected the battery and voila, got rid of the light. I knew the light would come on if I drive the car a few miles. So, I wasted no time in driving my car straight to the nearest emissions test center.

The feat gets interesting from here.

On my way to the test center, I had switched off the car engine few times, lest it should detect the problem and turn the check engine light on. I reached the test center without issues. I was still reluctant of taking the test, but hoped that my car would pass the test (I wanted to get the dang registration done that day!!!). While I was waiting in the line at the test center, I turned off and on my car's engine to make sure that the car does not turn the check engine light on. In my many trials, the car did not give any warning light. I was confident that the light would not turn on, but was concerned whether that was enough.

While I was waiting for my turn, I glanced constantly at the guys who were performing the test. They were very formal, strict, serious, stringent, thorough and skeptical. From what I observed, I saw them treating the car owners as thieves, criminals, thugs or outlaws. Their looks gave me an impression that they suspect car drivers of misdoings. I did not believe such attitude was required. They could have been more friendlier and willing to help. But, there could be other reasons for them behaving so!! Any way, that is out of context for this topic.

When I was asked to pull over into the alley for the test, I was hoping for a quick turnover and a happy ending. The guy asked to step out of the car. I walked out of the car and handed over the car keys. The guy ran some tests using his computer-reader equipment and handed me, in about a minute, a printed document.

"Wow... so quick...good or bad.." I thought!! He said, in a very strong voice (as though he caught the bad guy!!), that my car was NOT ready for the test. What car-not-ready meant was a subject for the manager, who sits in the corner office. Only after a couple of seconds, I realized my car failed the test. Manager said that the on-board computer diagnostics (OBD II) was not responding and that it can reset by driving the car a few miles (unknown mile).

Finally the day ended with disappointment and embarrassment. The car, however, unregistered even after lots of hassles. (A quick introspection told me that the disconnecting of the battery reset the OBD II computer, a process that inhibited the readers to read it properly.
)

The gist of the story, I told myself, is not to mess with computers. Computers are here for good and for catching bad guys!!

Headaches with car registration

I moved from LA to AZ a few months ago. Moving is not fun, and neither is registering a car from out-of-state.

My car was decorated with warning notices couple of times already. The notice said that the car's being operated in AZ and bears a license plate from out of state. It has to be registered in AZ for drivers residing in the state. Of course, the notice goes on to explain the definition of a resident and how I can get tickets and court notices for not registering the car. What an offense, I thought!!

Today morning I started gathering information required for the registration process. I learned that the car needs to pass an emission test and a physical evaluation (???...) and that I need the original title and registration document. Not to mention, I lost my title during the moving process. In addition to this issue of not having the title, I have my dashboard lit with the "check engine" light... This is show-stopper for emission test, 'coz the car would fail the test when the light is on...

So, I have two issues now... title and "check engine" light.. I said to myself, nothing comes as easy. I will have to take the car to a mechanic, dole out some money, get the check-engine light fixed, take it to the registration office and try my luck for registering without a title...

This seems to be a too tedious, boring and simply irritating process. But, not much I can do. Car has to be registered and there are limited ways to accomplishing it..

Tomorrow (Saturday) will be dedicated for setting my car free. Let us see how things will roll out.. Best..

Almost...... ran into the car....

Like any morning, this morning was a sunny bright day. I started a little late to work today too. I was cruising on sparsely populated road at decent speeds and was enjoying the early morning drive.

After driving for about 10 minutes on the local roads, I merged onto a freeway. As soon as I hit my accelerator pedal, I realized that my car came too close to the vehicle in front of it. It took a couple of seconds to sink in my mind that the traffic has come to dead stop. My speedometer, however, was rushing to 65mph and above. 65 is a decent speed, but not in a situation with stalled traffic. Blood gushed towards my brain and I knew its time for an instant action. Panic stricken, I raised my foot and rushed it, in as much speed as my car was traveling, towards the brake. I pushed it so hard that my car started wobbling and moving like a serpentine.... bhuuuuzzzzzz... trying to come to a squeaking halt... Good for me that I was driving in the right most lane that I had leeway to suddenly maneuver my car into the right most lane (that cops and ambulances use for rush delivery!!). Though I stopped at a comfortable distance from the other car, my heart was still busy pumping loads of blood and brain still coming to grips. My eyes were fading and my legs were shaking.

After a few moments I realized I was safe and my car was ok. I slowly pushed the accelerator pedal.... this time very cautiously and looking around few times for any jammed traffic, drove slowly thinking about what could have happened. After about 20 minutes I reached my work safely.

In hindsight, I could have been diligent and drive safe in that strip of the highway, for I knew that the strip was dangerous. I have seen at least two accidents at the very same location and glad to not see myself the source of the third one!!.

Now I know where to use my driving skills and where to be a little safe. I am happy to be writing this blog on this very same day...

After almost an year, I started to write something... but that's ok.

Things have changed a lot.

One disappointment is that I applied for b-schools, but failed to convert interviews to admits.... and thinking of other options now. Other options such as starting a company, moving to India or doing nothing.

It is easy to rule out the third option. The other two options have a (remote possibility) partner - to try for b-school one last time. Have not decided anything yet...

If I succeed in getting my permanent residency at least this year, I will seriously pursue the option of starting a company here. Else, it will be either moving to India and/or applying (and getting admitted) to a b-school.

BTW, my headache has not gone away. It had not set me free. Now, I strongly believe that I am a victim of migraine headaches...

That's the gist of the last year.

Will write on a constant basis now..

Later..