To  jumpstart my learning curve, I downloaded the Stanford iOS App Development course from iTunes and watched first couple of lectures. That was enough for giving me basic understanding of the Tools and things required to build my first App.

The course in its first two lectures demonstrated and taught to build a simple Calculator App. I duly followed the instructions and Voila ! within couple of hours I had my first Calculator App up and running on a iOS simulator.

Taking cues from the Calculator App, I decided to build my own app for calculating the weight watchers points for my wife.   I found out the formula they use from their WiKi entry and started coding to get it realized.

Spent 3-4 hours on trying to find out various API’s and their uses . However the result @ the end of these 4 hours was extremely heartening. I successfully wrote my first app right from the scratch. (though the idea was not original).

Now I have to think of an original idea to further enhance my App Development skills and possible write an App for the App Store.

BAM !! I blowed my Grub settings and thus my PC refused to boot up in Windows any more. I just got the GRUB minimal prompt with no way to boot up in windows.

After some research on Internet, browsing through some forums, I figured out a way to atleast get from grub to Windows. I used following commands to atleast boot in windows ::

1) rootnoverify (hd0,1)

2) chainloader –force +1

3) makeactive

4) boot.

But then whenever I restarted my PC , I would still end up with GRUB prompt and I had to manually enter these commands to get my windows working.

However for some reason now my Windows refused to boot up saying skipping AutoCheck and crashing to Blue screen of Death.

Still trying to figure out a way to recover this

On installing this, I found the typical app store icon displayed on the docking area. Having launched the App store, I was greeted with a familiar App store screen that we are used to see in iTunes, iPhone/iPad app stores. With some of the featured apps and noteworthy apps making it to the front page. I decided to give a try to some of the apps. The first app I tried was Twitter. The installation was ease, having asked for iTunes username/password, the Twitter App was installed in seconds.  The app itself manifested in iPhone size like screen when launched, with latest feeds and options to post statuses etc.

Then I installed Evernote. I was wondering if that would also open like a iPhone-like app  but to my surprise Evernote installed like a full fledged desktop app. I did not individually review any app to see what features were present. The installed apps were present, both on the docking area as well as on the top status bar.  There are quite a few Free apps in the app store which are genuine utilities / software programs.

Overall I liked the concept of Mac Osx App store, making it easy to have individual apps / programs directly installed. But one thing I kept on thinking that we already have iTunes, managing the complete App store for iPhone/iPad then why can’t iTunes itself handle Mac Osx Apps. i.e. Why do we need a separate App Store as such for Mac when it could have been integrated into iTunes ??

I guess the reason is that it would have become too confusing managing all the apps for different devices in place. Especially for guys like me who have iPhone, iPad and now Mac Osx to install apps on. I will definitely try out more apps from the App store later this evening and update the post. But so certainly liked the “Mac Osx App Store”.

With 2010 behind us now, and a start of a new year I hope I will be able to keep up to my resolution of updating this blog more frequently.

2010 was a good year overall for me, There were lot of good things that happened in 2010 and I hope 2011 is even better.

I wish everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous new year !!!

This time its GOOGLE AUTOPILOT and the CADIE.

Read more here

Hats off

May be they should have MIND READER plug-in to enhance the automatic responses

Update :: I just checked the page on Google Chrome 3D ..I love it. I am just thinking of a list of websites that I would surely watch in 3D. LOL …Any guesses ?

Enjoy !!

Budapest was my first destination for my two week long meetings in August. Located on banks of river Danube, Budapest is indeed a very beautiful city. I was in love with the city right away.  After a longhaul from SFO to Budapest, I reached here on Sunday evening. After checking into the hotel, i just went for a walk across the famous bridge on Danube. There was some kind of fair on the bridge with people just chilling out. there was music, food, plenty of beer and lots of liveliness in the place. The atmosphere was just rocking.

After a short walk, I along with couple of colleagues from the meeting, went to a Hungarian restaurant.  Restaurants with patio style dining, common of all europe, just add to the liveliness of the place.

For the whole week i was stuck in the long meetings. This time the meetings lasted from 8AM to almost 9.30PM giving no time to even see the sun . But on Wednesday we finished early mainly to enjoy the Hungarian National Festival.  August 20th was some kind of national holiday in hungary. People gathered out on the banks of Danube to enjoy. There was air show / air race, some other musical events throughout the day. At night, they had a spectacular fireshow on the main bridge. I have not seen a fireshow like this in my life. it was truly amazing.

On friday evening, i did a mini sightseeing tour of budapest. Just walked along Danube river, went to the top of the castle. I also wanted to try the “public baths”, one of the major attractions in Budapest, These baths are some kind of spas and they have a lot of historical significance.  But i didn’t have swimming costume with me too bad i could not try it.

I had a flight early morning out of Budapest going to Nice, France.

PS:: this is very hastily written blog post. i will post some pics soon.

I literally feel helpless without all these apps. Toooo bad i cannot have them back !!

Day 1: Monday: Day of fruits only.
My day started with eating a bowl of watermelons and cantaloupes at the office. During lunch time I just picked couple of plums from the office cafeteria. By afternoon, I already started feeling hungry and bit weak but I decided to hang on. I had an apple and a pear in the afternoon and then felt a bit better. After going home from office, I had 2 bowls of  the “Wonder Soup” described in the program. I was feeling so weak by the end of the day but somehow manage to hold on.

Day 2: Tuesday : Day of vegetables only
Day 2 was not that bad I started my day with a baked potato for breakfast. For lunch I had a plate full of salad.  I did not feel as tired and weak as Day 1.  For dinner i ate some boiled vegetables.  I checked my weight today and to my surprise it was 5 pound less than what i started with. LOL (I think the scale must be bad)

Day 3: Wednesday : Day of fruits + vegetables
On this day I had a bowl of watermelons for breakfast. For lunch I was satisfied with a plate of salad. In the evening too I had a bowl of salad and some soup.

Day 4: Thursday:  Bananas and Milk only
I thought that living through this day was the toughest one however for some reason this day passed without much issues. I had 2 bananas and a glass of milk for lunch and a banana and milk in the evening.

Day 5: Friday : Beef and Tomatoes
I was so happy to resume the normal diet. This day i ate some chicken (beef substituted with chicken) and lots of tomatoes.

Day 6 and Day 7: Saturday and Sunday : These were the easiest of all as you are allowed to resume your normal diet.

Finally i weighed myself at the end of the Day 7  and i had only 1 pound decrement from day 2   but still overall I had lost almost 6 pounds of weight.  So atleast my efforts were not completely in vain. I hope i can maintain the lost weight