Of IceCream Sandwich and Jelly beans

Fandroids know of Ice Cream Sandwich and Jellybeans and they usually prefer the heady binary kind.
For the non-familiar,the non-edible Ice Cream Sandwich and Jellybeans are versions of the Android Operating System namely Android 4.0 and Android 4.1

Android phones are popular and are most sought after. These phones run on the Android Stack which comprises key applications. What attracts one to Android phones? Most are sleek,yes. Android also happens to be hot! (and cool too!). Android users swear by their phones and can be usually seen hooked to applications or as they are popularly called, Apps.Apps can be downloaded from 3rd party sites (such as www.appup.com  and www.androidzoom.com)or one can buy them from online stores such as Google Play [erstwhile Android Market].

Versions of Android
-Astro
-Cupcake
-Donut
-Eclair
-Froyo
-Gingerbread
-Honeycomb
-Ice Cream Sandwich
-Jellybean

Android 4.0  

The Android 4.0 is named Ice Cream Sandwich and has 14 to 15 APIs including but not limited to android.media (this API provides classes that allows several levels of audio and video interactions),android.gesture(this API provides classes that allows us to create,load and save various gestures). This means you get more features and added functionality.

Whenever Google releases a new OS,it releases what they call the Stock Android experience. This lets the manufacturers of handsets take the OS,run it and fiddle with the Stock.

For Android 4.0,the Stock User Interface was a big change from the previous versions of Android..!

1] One could control what icons can be placed on either side of the launcher.
2]Folders could be created by dropping one icon on top of the other  In a drag and drop style.
3] Colour schemes across the UI were changed. The colours scheme was changed to simple colours.
4] The camera could be accessed from the lock screen



The SDK(which basically provides tools and APIs for application development using java) for Android 4.0 is based on Linux kernel 3.0.1,an excellent upgrade from the previous version,Honeycomb (that has a Linux kernel 2.6.x).

Android 4.0 handsets have virtual buttons rather than capacitive buttons.It also has great functions like integrated screenshot capture capability. Screenshots can be taken by pressing the power and volume down button together.Handsets have good real time speech to text transmutation.Android 4.0 has a built in Android Beam. Android Beam enables data communication and sharing between handsets in proximity.Ice Cream Sandwich has a new typeface,a clean and modern font,Roboto and has a smoother screen rotation as compared to previous version of Android and gives better Camera performance

In some Android 4.0 handsets,few functions differ such as screenshot capture in Samsung Touch Wiz is not the usual press down of power and volume down buttons. Folder creation also differs. In Touch Wiz,folders had to be first created after which icons could be dragged and dropped in.

Android 4.1

Google announced Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at the Google I/O conference on June 27,2012. It released Jelly Bean to AOSP on July 9,2012.

Android 4.1 is based on Linux kernel 3.1.10 and has 16 APIs! It is an incremental update with the objective to enhance the user interface in performance and behaviour.
The progression to boost the performance informally termed as "Project Butter" brought about touch anticipation,triple buffering,extended vsync timing and a fixed frame rate of 60fps to create a "buttery" smooth User Interface.

Comparing the Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean,

• Flipping through applications appears smoother in Android 4.1...Much like turning pages in a book.
• Galleries loaded with Picasa and Google+ content load faster in Android 4.1
• The homescreen is more flexible
• Jelly Bean provides higher functional and expandable notifications
• Gives an option to open links the same way every time or just once.
• Project Majel : Much like Apple's Siri-an evolution of existing voice services. The actions include question and answer communication with your Android along with graphics such as the answers you seek are presented to you on a business card on your phone along with Google search results that match your answer.
• Face unlock is here. You can unlock your phone with the facial recognition software pre-installed. Eye blinking maybe required to tell the software that you're the live person registered and not a photo.
• Android 4.1 also brings Gapless playback for you.This ends your annoyance with the usual playback latency

Yeah,Android 4.1 also has improved security and browsers with better HTML5 and fantastic user experiences.

You know you're hooked and falling in love with Android when you know you can rely on the apps for your day-to-day activities. There are a million apps that range from cosmetic guides (the kind that suggest which eye shadow will look great on you,matching with your clothes) to the Runkeeper app (that tells you how much distance have you jogged/walked/trolled in your current session).
It only gets better! With incremental upgrades,you are bound to get more out of it.
You never know which app will be flung your way.

I'm looking forward to one that will tell me precisely how sleepy or how hungry I am and suggest the accurate and required dietery intake or number of minutes of slumber that needs to be undertaken just to restore myself to my non-hungry,non-sleepy state.

Do you want Jelly? 

Project Website

I have always wanted to build a website and I learnt and built it with a little bit of experimentation,struggle,lots of patience and support of my project mates.

Visit our project website : www.hmads.in

HMAD-ITS? That's the project we have been working on! It's our final year project and I have learnt a lot from the project and from my project mates. Its been a great time for all of us filled with highs and lows,fights and struggles but all the while involved dedication, hardwork and lots of patience. Our learning curve went soaring upwards and we hope to take this project ahead after our final year is done.

Internet- Telemedicine System entails uploading Php forms and databases onto the website. These forms might be to Add Patients or Add Doctors or Add a study.
This can be uploaded by a Technician who has the permission to add content by filling these forms.

The screenshot above shows the PHP form we have developed to Add a Study (can upload an ECG file or ElectroStethoscope file or Pulse Oxymeter file in the form) to the HMAD-ITS database.

Consider the technician wants to add an ECG study,he or she will login into www.hmads.in and  click on Add Study and fill out the PHP form we built and uploaded on our website.

Patients and Doctors registered with HMAD-ITS have unique IDs and can login into our website and view their details as per permissions allocated to their IDs.

The Doctor can view the patient's(only of the patients assigned to them) form and related ECG,ElectroScope readings and Pulse Oximeter Readings attached to their form and give their opinions and diagnose the patient as per the readings.

The Technician and Doctor can access the Patient details as per the permissions assigned to them. Patients have the permission to view only their listings and doctor's comments (if any)

An effective Internet Tele-medicine can improve the access to Doctors and improve healthcare and add transparency to the whole process,making it organised and efficient and above all cost-effective.

I feel good

I feel good and there is no reason as to why I shouldn't.

Life is fair and I love every bit of it. Sometimes things don't go the way we expect or they are not good enough for our liking...but hey! the efforts we put in to get things in our favour are good but not as good enough as to get us what we want. So we try harder and become stronger. Take each day as it comes and accept things for what they are. No point kidding ourselves.

Sometimes things go in our favour but very few of us would appreciate what we have in life. We all have ourselves to thank when things go right but we have no business in blaming others when things go wrong. If we do that it means we absolve our responsibilites. That's not right and why give others a right over our lives? We owe ourselves a lot more than we owe others. Doing others a favour is cool but lets not get into that right now. This is about feeling good about ourselves.

So what happens when we feel low? We don't feel good about ourselves then. It might result in us harbouring regret/guilt or feeling sad about something. It doesn't mean we will stay in that mood for long. We can look for solutions to overcome the bad mood and go back to happy-state and thus maintain a healthy equilibrium.

I feel good about myself and I love life. I have no time to pull others down nor do I have the inclination to gossip. I don't want to get into fights. Friendship means quite a lot to me but there has to be a balance somewhere.. A threshold that shouldn't be crossed.. If it does,the friendship might go awry or result in one or both parties letting it stay on their minds...letting it affect them.
A carefree attitude helps develop a thick-skin and I wouldn't mind wearing an extra sheath ;). Sure friendship is good for us but I'd rather have my self-respect and peace of mind rather than try to sacrifice my good mood ..

So chin-up buddy! If you have had a bad day,you need not feel bad about it anymore. Look for solutions to end that bad mood and let that smile spread across your face. There's a reason people look better in photographs when they are smiling :).

A smile takes just 14 muscles;A frown-72!
Go figure!

The dog that followed...All the way!

A few days back, I decided to walk back from Bandra station to Santacruz. Having left a few books at Ollwyn's for overnight xerox ( 35p/copy ),my bag felt considerably lighter. My shoulders felt light and it was barely 4pm. It was a lovely evening and I felt like walking.

Along the way,on SV road-Turner Road junction I bought a bottle of water. A friendly stray came and nuzzled her head against my leg.  I played with her for a few and then I went and bought her a Parle-G packet. I played with her,patted and taught her how to "give a paw".

Then I started walking along SV Road again. A few minutes later,I felt something wet on my ankle.. When I turned,I saw it was the dog. I kept walking and gave her occasional pets. She was very friendly.. Along the way,many dogs came sniffing at her but she kept following me.

At Khar,I thought she would stop because she met with a big dog and they were playing with each other.
I was happy she made a friend and I continued to walk. A few meters down the road,I felt a familiar warmth and rubbing against my ankle.. Yeah,it was her.

She walked with me,all the way to Santacruz-No kidding!
While walking in the crowds,she would get a little disoriented but she kept looking for me and when she saw me,she darted towards me. So much love just 'cause I cared for her.

At Santacruz,I got a call from my aunt and she asked me to come to Andheri. I had to go by train and I thought the dog would stop following at some point. But no,she came with me to the ticket counter and followed right up the stairs on the bridge. On the bridge,it was very crowded and she lost me(so,i thought) in the crowd and I was relieved 'cause I didn't want her to come onto the platform. I was very surprised when I saw her come down the stairs towards me,inspite of losing me in the crowd. There were so many exits to that bridge but she came behind me.

I played with her for a few more until my train came. When my train came,I got in. I turned back and her eyes were gloomy. I felt sad but I had no choice.

She was an ordinary stray with regular brown/black patches with ears that pointed outwards..
I never saw her after that day but I know she loves making friends and I hope to see her soon ! :)

Gimp

My friends know how I love taking pictures and editing them. I have been using Picasa to edit my pics until recently. We have a subject called "Image processing" in our syllabus this semester. To understand and enjoy tinkering with it,my friend suggested I start using Gimp.

Now,Gimp is an image processing tool. Gimp actually stands for GNU Image Processing program.
It is freely available and runs on all platforms(windows,linux,mac os).

1. I downloaded Gimp from PortableApps.com
http://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_pictures/gimp_portable

2. After I installed it, I opened it in a new folder and i saw the following folders along with the Gimp app.

3. After double-clicking on the Gimp app,I went into the options file and clicked on open and opened a new image.

The image i used was taken at versova and shows three kids playing on the beach.

3.Gimp has various options. Its got options like filters. We can use various filters to edit an image.

4. Its also got a channel mixer. Basically an image has 3 modes: RGB,Greyscale and indexed.
Assuming you want to work on the RGB mode ie with colours Red,Green,Blue and want to adjust the presence of each colour in an image. You can vary that using the in-built channel mixer.

5. A particular filter that caught my fancy was the edge detection filter. Under edge detection,we can use filters like laplace,robert,sobel etc. Sobel filter was one of the filters i wanted to use on this particular image. So i used it in the vertical direction (yes you can filter it in horizontal as well as vertical)

6. Although,we did get the desired filtered output image,i wasn't happy with it. Another edge detection filter i wanted to try out was Difference of Gaussian.

7. Another filter i wanted to try out (not under edge detection) was the one that said animation. So i tried using the spinning globe effect under the animation filter

Yeah,Gimp is easy to use and fun too!