I started off my time with computers with BASIC programming. We never touched a computer in those days (I was on my 7th grade - 1991). I can still remember the one day I touched it for the first time for not for more than a few minutes. I was proud, I was able to use it way more than anybody else from my class (I was the computer teacher's pet student). But my true love and fascination of computers continued. I chose computer science over Biological Sciences after my High School Graduation and my target since that time had been computer sciences engineering. Till then I came across some lame computers in our school lab, nothing capable of doing what I had imagined.
By the time I joined my college, I had been a full-fledged geek who wanted to know in and out of what is done in the graphics industry. I was really fascinated by two movies which made this possible, 1. Terminator 2 - Judgement Day, 2. Jurassic Park. I was just amazed at the level of CGI that was created and wanted to be one of those guys. So when it was time to add computers to my skill portfolio, I gladly chose the one comprehensive course I thought would make me one of those guys. I started studying the Advanced Diploma in Multimedia in Arena Multimedia - Anna Nagar, from my second year in college.
This was the first place where I was conquered by Apple/Adobe. So, practically the first machine I academically or professionally worked with was a MAC system (those Apple G3s and later G4s were adorable) with Adobe's illustrious brand of software products, Illustrator, Photoshop, et-al. I also played around with Macromedia products & 3DS Max. I also worked with Flash in its infancy. The main deal is I became a major fan of Adobe products and MAC OS. Then something for apple dawned, Jobs left and Apple retracted very badly in the market. By 2000 when I finished my college, I became a Java developer @ AdventNet (now Zoho) and almost lost my way on the multimedia path. I used/using/will use my multimedia knowledge extensively for some of the GUI I have developed or helped develop over the past 10 years of my professional life.
Still the fascnination lingers in my mind. That's why I am pissed why Adobe and Apple are fighting pretty publicly nowadays. When Apple lost its way, Adobe retracted most of its products on MAC and has also failed to launch new initiatives on MAC. But the latest iPod, iPhone & iPad wave has actually catapulted Apple back to where it was decades before. Now, the people love the iDevices and have been pouring money on these devices. Not only for the device alone, but also for the service contracts they come with and most importantly the Applications via AppStore. This has now put Adobe in a tighter spot, they had once abandoned (maybe only a little) the platform, but now are in the verge of getting boycotted themselves. What an irony?
And they are thinking about desperate measures right now, like suing. This is way overdoing it. Reportedly, Adobe had been approached by Apple to continue offering Adobe's software products on MAC repeatedly and was given a bad rebuff every time. So, I believe Adobe has lost the diplomatic way to solve things souring with Apple. Even publicly claiming Apple is stifling Adobe's reach to iDevices is not working. Now, the suing part is a last-ditch effort. But I believe Apple has already made up its mind. Adobe cannot be on Apple anymore. No more a friend, not a foe. But definitely not needed in the plans of the future. Adobe thought it had lost a small market share when it lost developers using Adobe's software on MAC. But not it is not the developers or geeks they are about to miss, but the end-consumers, who are a TON when compared to developers.
Some believe this is a better move and will be good for the customers, platform and the developers in the long-run. But most believe this is just another straw in the whole haysack. Apple has always been a closed company, and will continue to be so. May be their closed nature might jeopardize their new found popularity among not but the niche ones, but overall all over the world.
The war is on, but whoever wins or loses doesn't matter in this story, but the common loss is for the developers and some consumers.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Monday, October 05, 2009
Comment: Full Flash on all Smart Phones except iPhone
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-adobe-extends-full-flash-to-just-about-every-phone-but-the-iphone/ - Adobe Extends Full Flash To Just About Every Phone But The iPhone
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/352147/adobe-brings-full-fat-flash-to-mobile-devices - Adobe brings full-fat flash to mobile devices.
No trimming, no brimming just full and fat. With all the glory and richness within an actual computer.
Now what that means, does that mean that everyone will scamper to develop the app in Flash, now that it will be available on all smartphones. There is always a catch Apple's iPhone will not have it.
Why Apple Why ??
'Coz, it won't give a damn about whether Flash uses a lot of battery life or not. Flash on iPhone means that all cool game developers, app developers may move down the Flash way. That would mean that Apple doesn't own the controls on the developer SDK. Whatever flash will be able to access will be accessible for a developer. This is an overall anti-thesis of what Apple is trying to pull-off with its SDK. It has to limit Flash a long way, which would make sure that nobody has access to anything. (OR) everybody has access to everything. Let us wait and see how Apple would play this card, it might still have a trump up its sleeve, just to beat this kind of situation.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/352147/adobe-brings-full-fat-flash-to-mobile-devices - Adobe brings full-fat flash to mobile devices.
No trimming, no brimming just full and fat. With all the glory and richness within an actual computer.
Now what that means, does that mean that everyone will scamper to develop the app in Flash, now that it will be available on all smartphones. There is always a catch Apple's iPhone will not have it.
Why Apple Why ??
'Coz, it won't give a damn about whether Flash uses a lot of battery life or not. Flash on iPhone means that all cool game developers, app developers may move down the Flash way. That would mean that Apple doesn't own the controls on the developer SDK. Whatever flash will be able to access will be accessible for a developer. This is an overall anti-thesis of what Apple is trying to pull-off with its SDK. It has to limit Flash a long way, which would make sure that nobody has access to anything. (OR) everybody has access to everything. Let us wait and see how Apple would play this card, it might still have a trump up its sleeve, just to beat this kind of situation.
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Organization & Tables
I believe you all have practiced the family table example. Before we get into more defining authorities in data, we shall see why we need data modelling.
Let us try one thing first, take a sheet of paper and write all the family members of your family with name, age, sex, occupation, role in family. Now try writing the names of family members of your friends.
Now try to take the relevant information of your mother - what is her age & occupation. I believe you will find it difficult to read out the information - but you will do fine. Assume you have written names of all your friends, immediate relatives, and information about their families too (take some 100 pages of data). Will it be easy to fish out some specific information from it. No, not definitely.
That's where the power of organization comes in. If you organize such raw data, then you can easily collect information. One sample is organize the data by drawing a table matrix to represent the data in separate rows which are relevant with families. The above statement is nothing but representing the data in table format. Now the fishing out of information becomes lot more easier - but not as easy as such (U have to still search 100 pages).
Our brain itself has information stored in a manner similar to this. When you want to remember the name of your friend's mother, it actually looks up into all the relevant persons you know along with your friend - narrows it down to his/her mother and gives you the result. Brain being so powerful in search is very efficient in getting back things from your memory. But in physical case, you need a powerful tool to store data and a easy search to get your data as information. This tool is your Database & Query. Sounds very familiar right.
Similar to our question to our brain - the query to a database needs to be in a specific language - the one the database understands. That language is the 'sql'. The 'sql' has a simple set of grammar which you should follow, such that it is valid 'sql' statement. Simply to say 'sql' is the language you speak with your database (storage). You can say the database how to create the tables with what columns etc., - it takes care of organizing and storing the data in the computer.
PS: Difference between Data & Information - Data is nothing but raw data you get. Just a name of a person (some YYY/ZZZ data). Information is a processed data which specifies the Name is of this person working in this field etc. You always store raw data in Databases and use your application to process this raw data to create information - to be used. Simply, Information is nothing but meaningful data.
Let us try one thing first, take a sheet of paper and write all the family members of your family with name, age, sex, occupation, role in family. Now try writing the names of family members of your friends.
Now try to take the relevant information of your mother - what is her age & occupation. I believe you will find it difficult to read out the information - but you will do fine. Assume you have written names of all your friends, immediate relatives, and information about their families too (take some 100 pages of data). Will it be easy to fish out some specific information from it. No, not definitely.
That's where the power of organization comes in. If you organize such raw data, then you can easily collect information. One sample is organize the data by drawing a table matrix to represent the data in separate rows which are relevant with families. The above statement is nothing but representing the data in table format. Now the fishing out of information becomes lot more easier - but not as easy as such (U have to still search 100 pages).
Our brain itself has information stored in a manner similar to this. When you want to remember the name of your friend's mother, it actually looks up into all the relevant persons you know along with your friend - narrows it down to his/her mother and gives you the result. Brain being so powerful in search is very efficient in getting back things from your memory. But in physical case, you need a powerful tool to store data and a easy search to get your data as information. This tool is your Database & Query. Sounds very familiar right.
Similar to our question to our brain - the query to a database needs to be in a specific language - the one the database understands. That language is the 'sql'. The 'sql' has a simple set of grammar which you should follow, such that it is valid 'sql' statement. Simply to say 'sql' is the language you speak with your database (storage). You can say the database how to create the tables with what columns etc., - it takes care of organizing and storing the data in the computer.
PS: Difference between Data & Information - Data is nothing but raw data you get. Just a name of a person (some YYY/ZZZ data). Information is a processed data which specifies the Name is of this person working in this field etc. You always store raw data in Databases and use your application to process this raw data to create information - to be used. Simply, Information is nothing but meaningful data.
Monday, July 26, 2004
Art of Data Modelling
What is data modelling - creation of tables to store data. Like, the Family Table can contain columns of
FamilyMemberName|Age|Sex|RoleInFamily(Father/Child/GrandFather)| Occupation(Student/Teacher/Professional)|... etc.,
This is a fun game - you can easily try to populate the table with actual data and find flaws in your design. The key is not to let some data repeated lots of times.
The data modelling is the basis of organization you will ever need. You can be easily organized and get accolades if you model your life using the data available. Now try modelling the information of your Friends. Storing all relevant information about friends is a must. 'Coz that's how U will learn a lot.
See Ya..
FamilyMemberName|Age|Sex|RoleInFamily(Father/Child/GrandFather)| Occupation(Student/Teacher/Professional)|... etc.,
This is a fun game - you can easily try to populate the table with actual data and find flaws in your design. The key is not to let some data repeated lots of times.
The data modelling is the basis of organization you will ever need. You can be easily organized and get accolades if you model your life using the data available. Now try modelling the information of your Friends. Storing all relevant information about friends is a must. 'Coz that's how U will learn a lot.
See Ya..
Introduction
This intro is a must.
First I thought I could make others aware of something I learnt along the way. But now I feel, that the part of the learning experience is to do those damn mistakes I was able to do. This actually enables a lot inside a developer or a hobbyist to become who they are. So now I have decided to use this blog as a source of information which I find on the web. Looking back this can become an archive of tid-bits I learn over time, and this may help somebody who is searching for those same answers.
Take care,
First I thought I could make others aware of something I learnt along the way. But now I feel, that the part of the learning experience is to do those damn mistakes I was able to do. This actually enables a lot inside a developer or a hobbyist to become who they are. So now I have decided to use this blog as a source of information which I find on the web. Looking back this can become an archive of tid-bits I learn over time, and this may help somebody who is searching for those same answers.
Take care,
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
