Here are some of the pictures from Bangalore Android Developers / User group’s dev event.

Theme: Have fun with Arduino and Amarino toolkit
Location: TechJini Solutions
Participants: Sudar (Our kit sponsor), Amrita, Krishna, Sandeep (our guide 2), Anil (our guide 1) and Amit

For next event please sign up at http://www.meetup.com/blrdroid/

Very simple so straight to the point.

BAD:

In your xmls
- <Button android:id="@+id/buy_button" android:text="Buy Me" />

In your java code
- myButton.setText("Second Button");


GOOD:

Define your strings in strings.xml (You can name it anything) and place it in ‘res/values’ folder


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<string name="buy_button">Buy</string>
</resources>


and then


- <Button android:id="@+id/buy_button" android:text="@string/buy_button" />
- myButton.setText(this.getString(R.string.buy_button));


Syntax for using a ‘resource’ in a xml or code is :
package.R.resource_type.resource_name
and
@[package:]resource_type/resource_name

NOTE: package here does not mean ‘java package’ but package == application, so if you are accessing a resource which is defined in your own app you can skip it. Thats why we use @strings/name or directly R.strings.name. Similarly to use resources defined by android we will use @android:string/name or android.R.string.name

For converting R.string.id to String you can either use getString(int) or getString(int, Object…) for adding dynamic values.

This is a quick tip to convert or draw your view on a canvas so that you can either show it as preview or use it for any drag – drop kind of operation. Very simple and self explanatory so just posting the code


View viewToBeConverted;

viewToBeConverted.draw(canvas);


Thats it, now you can use ‘viewBitmap’ as a normal image. You can change a few parameters to create different kinds of image, for eg when you drag your app icon on bring it on the trash can to drop it becomes red etc

I have been using Thunderbird 3 (various beta) for quite some time now. There were quite a few new features but the ones I really liked or have been most useful were ‘tabs’ and new ‘Lightning’ add-ons.

I mostly use tabs to remind me of important emails. One, they are always in front and second when I restart Thunderbird I don’t have to look for them again as Thunderbird remembers/maintains last open tabs. Ofcourse tabs are also very helpful in keeping all open windows clean.
New Lightning addon works well with google calendar. Very helpful when sharing different calendars with different people. It synchs well and also gives reminders.

But thats not what excited me enough to write this article I upgrade to b4 pre today and they have included Gloda search engine based search and conversations. Earlier it was available as an add on and I tried this earlier with b2 but it didn’t work.

Thunderbird 2 has per folder indexing which is not so helpful. You will have several folders and then your replies going into sent items. So what is needed is a tool to search across all folders. Also several times you need to read full conversations which is very very difficult right now. Thunderbird 3 has this powerful search engine ‘Gloda’ which search across all the folders and presents them either as a list or as conversations. WOW!! could it get better?

Now you can search your entire mailbox, rss feeds etc from single place and that too with lot of intelligent options. The result is also displayed very nicely. You have several filters to further refine search/conversations.

Today while generating leads Santosh came across one of the most shocking and ridiculous ways companies seem to be ‘trying’ to do business.

Verna Technologies – I thought a lot but I have no idea what these guys are trying to do. They have copied our site word by word, even the founders name Only thing that is different is their address.

I tried to call the number but it is switched off, tried to contact their domain registrar but they are not working on Saturday. Will evaluate on Monday after talking to them once whether this calls for a legal action or not.

Are they real? or are they really so creative that they can’t even write what they have to offer?
|
|

Yesterday while driving back home I saw Sapna, one of our PHP team members (almost running) to catch probably what was her last bus. I offered her a lift till her stop and then when I was coming back I thought I will write about ‘GEMS’ / ‘Pillars’ of TechJini. People who make TechJini what it is today, our ‘power performers’. Initially I thought we should have ‘performer of the month’ but then I realized I will end up writing about everyone anyways

Sapna was impressive right from the first question of her interview. We have very strict interview process and have history of upsetting recruitment companies (we keep on asking for candidates but no offers). There was not even a single question which I asked her and she had to think. She always had a way to solve the problem instantly, not always the best way but she always knew in which direction to go. Her interview went for 3 hours then I told Shyamal she is really good. He was pleasantly surprised as I have not said that often so he went to talk to her. He talked to her for another 2 hours. Thats a good sign when Shyamal doesn’t send someone back in first 15 minutes.

She is spontaneous – Always has a solution
She is VERY hard working – Travels daily for 2 hours (one way) in ‘local transport’ and usually one of the last ones to leave office. And yes mostly among early comers too.
Extremely dedicated – She is one of few persons I have never seen taking a break.
Desire to learn – Never settles with the solutions, she always wants to know why? how?
Dependable – If any work is assigned to her, you can be sure it will be done and she will not rest until its done.
Proactive and Responsible – Even when she was over loaded she volunteered to take up second project.
She is very emotional – She scared everyone on her first day when she started crying during our group lunch. She was missing her colleagues from old company.

We thought she was a very serious person until we went on our river trip. It was so difficult to get her out of the water Sapna is one of our ‘jinis’

This is how we at TechJini define good code
- Code that fulfills customer requirement. This is the most important of all, no matter how you have coded, what process you have followed if it doesn’t do what is expected of it, its useless. Ofcourse has to be bug free.
- Easily maintainable code. Do not write thinking that you are responsible only for version 1.0. Think ahead, code should be very easy to maintain. Easy maintenance include – easy for new team members to understand, easy to test, easy to change/add features, well documented etc
- Reusable. Code which can be transformed into components and reused.
- Thoroughly tested, test cases should have full (maximum possible) code coverage.
- Future and change ready.

There are several things we can do to ensure that we write ‘good code’, one of the way is to start with good design. Understanding and having ability to correctly utilize OOP concepts and design patterns. To ensure that everyone in our company is a master we have formed and started TechJini Design Patterms study group. We had our first class yesterday which covered introduction of OOP concept and healthy discussion covering real life examples trying to model real life problems. Its clear that everyone has good base and is an expert in analysing and applying OOP concepts, so we expect to have good discussions in future.

Next session is about Abstract Factory Pattern. Looking forward to it.

UPDATE 18th Aug 2009:

Finally fastboot problem of perfected SPL is taken care of. We were able to flash new ROM on our android. Google Maps, Android Market, Gmail, Quickoffice, youtube etc are available.

We also tested our application Aw’ Shugs, need some tweaking.

Following links were extremely useful.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=548218
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=4335330#post4335330
How to create GoldCard

All credit goes to xda-developers guys.
————————————————————————————
We bought HTC Magic India’s first and only android phone hoping to test our applications but it has been a total let down. Complete waste of money.
- Cannot root it. SAPPHIRE PVT 32A SHIP S-ON H, HBOOT-1.33.0010 (SAPP10000) CPLD-12 which cannot be rooted.
- There is no android market
- There are no applications by default for eg google maps.

All you get is an expensive touch phone with normal features and no useful app.

We called at least 30 dealers before purchasing and none of us any idea what is android market and whether handsets will have it or not. Only response was buy it to find it. I contacted HTC support asking them how to install google maps, they gave me long instructions on how to use android market to install google maps Anyway, it took 3-4 emails and then they realized this handset does not have android market with no immediate plans to release it.

If you are planning to buy HTC magic (India) for development, don’t.

Images after upgrade:

|

We have these open sessions regularly in our company where everyone talks about why they chose TechJini, what they like here, what should be changed, we share company’s vision, goals and make everyone understand how they are part of it.
Today’s session was to decide ‘appraisal policy’ i.e. on what criteria company should judge performance. Following are the inputs and will form the basis of our policy.

1. Initiative / pro-activeness – Do I wait for work to be assigned to me? Even after seeing/knowing about a bug do I wait for someone to raise it?
2. Following deadlines Following deadlines in itself is not a sign of ‘good performance’ that’s what we are ’supposed’ to do anyways but its considered as good performance if you are given something completely new and you ‘learn and deliver’ or you have a completely untrained team or in any other special scenario.
3. Commitment / ownership – Accepting the bottom line of any work you do. One of the examples given was if I go on a leave I will ensure that none of my project/customers/work is affected, I will do the needful (without someone telling me) to transfer knowledge and if some urgency happens I will be taking out time from my vacation to help the new/replacement team.
4. Doing more than what was assigned – Have I worked on projects/tasks which were not part of my regular work? Do I also participate in other activities which do not fall in my job description?
5. Customer Oriented – Do I always think of what is best for the customer? Do I keep in mind which feature, technology, code will help improve performance and will benefit customer in long run? Do I always point out issues before customer does? Do I get nervous and excited with the customer?
6. Domain Understanding – At the end of the project do I completely understand the domain?
7. Knowledge sharing – Am I contributing to company’s body of knowledge? Am I taking sessions or writing articles to share my learning? Am I being approached by team members to solve issues?
8. Acquiring knowledge – Am I learning only enough to finish the task or at the end of project I am capable of becoming a tech lead for similar technologies?
9. Homework / spoon-feeding – Am I always finishing my homework before asking for help? Do I ask questions the smart way? Do I need spoon-feeding?
10. Then there are other good to have skills like general behavior with others, influencing/persuading skills, communication

We also had very interesting discussion on what we think is ‘hard work’.

Right from the heart, this is what we ‘jinies’ (I just invented that term ) have to say about life at TechJini.
So here is what we like and what we would like to change:

1. Exposure – We get exposed to different kind of work, something we will get to do in 2 years in a big organization we get to do it in first few months only. – Nuwas
2. Good Learning – With so many new projects and all with different technology there are new challenges and lot to learn almost every day. – Akshi
3. More responsibility – Our work is not limited to what is assigned and just coding or testing or designing. We do almost everything and very early in our career. – Everyone
4. Different technologies – Exposure to different technologies and very easy to shift/learn. We get all the help but are also encouraged and showed how to do quick self learning. This acts as a big confidence boost. – Vipindas
5. Flexible timings – Flexible working hours in true sense. No enforcement of mandatory working hours, can work from home, if I work on holiday I am given a compensatory off or cash – Everyone
6. Friendly environment - Very very friendly environment, there are no bosses (absolutely no hierarchy), feels like a small family, even policies are made after open discussions – Everyone
7. Technical Challenges – We get to face more technical challenges which is making us better programmers. – Everyone
8. Neelima – Very friendly and helpful person, someone we will not have anywhere else – Sapna
9. No bureaucracy or politics – Cant be more democratic and fair then in TechJini – Everyone
10. Open to do whatever I want – I get enough opportunity, time and space to do whatever I want other than my regular work. I was able to finish a certification (which company is happy to pay for) and I can interact with everyone in the company – Arun
11. No bench – We have never seen anyone without work. There is absolutely no bench and so many product ideas to work on.
12. My product – Only place where I am encouraged and given full opportunity to work on my own idea and the best part is I don’t have to work alone, everyone in the company will work on my idea.
13. Formal corporate culture – Culture here is too relaxed, we are serious in what we do but we do not get to see a very formal corporate culture which also has lot to teach.
14. Brand Name – All the benefits of working for a big brand name.
15. Company conveyance – hmm….
16. 6 days a week – Sometimes it pinches that our friends are having fun but we work on Saturdays too. Even though we do not do regular work (extra learning or activities) but still.
17. Good Office building – We need to move to an attractive address soon, guys are finding it difficult to call prospective in-laws
18. Website – NEED to change website.

Update:
- Website changed

Update (3rd June 2011):
Saw this post after such a long time
- We changed to 5 days a week almost 1.5years back
- We also shifted to a good office. And will soon shift to another bigger office.