Swype - don’t type!

Raj Madhuram    technology     technology

I’ve never been excited about typing text on my mobile, but a new technology called swype well might change that, and I bet is going to revolutionize the way we all input text on mobiles. Unlike tapping a series of softkeys, you enter text by “connecting” keys. You should check out the demo videos! When I first saw it, it was a “why didn’t anyone think of that before?” moment!

Character recognition has been around for a while, and I have used it on my Palm and iPaq devices previously, but this is a very smart idea. What would take like 6 to 7 strokes for a word using character recognition can be done on a single stroke with swype! This is a game changer. In computer science terms, it is like optimizing from O(n^2) to O(n)!

I was a bit disappointed to see they did not have one for droid, but taking hint from a tech video, I googled it and bingo! there was one unofficial pre-release available. So inspite of the “It might burn down your house or eat your dog” caveat, I downloaded and installed on my droid, and I’m in so love with it!

Now I wonder what will happen if these kids gets a hand on one of these!

Profanity in Eclipse Plugin!

Raj Madhuram    eclipse, technology     eclipse

I was trying to associate specific file type with PHP editor when I noticed some profane text in Eclipse! There is a content type called “s**t happens”, tied to .sql files. Can you believe it? See screenshot.  I traced it to DBEdit plugin.

I like humor in code, but I am strongly against profanity, even in its mildest form. Please let us keep it professional!

Update: Initially I thought it was part of PDT distro, but thanks to Wayne, who pointed out it could not be, I verified that it was not by downloading and checking the plugins. I apologize for the error.

Let It Snow! v1.0 Update - Thank You!

Raj Madhuram    Uncategorized    

With your support for Let It Snow! application, we were able to raise USD 750 for Myrtle! This will go a long way in supporting the educational expenses of many underprivileged kids, and also raise HIV/AIDS awareness in rural Chennai. Thank you, thank you!

Also, the number of application downloads is 1042 as of today. Glad to have crossed the 1000 mark :)

Let It Snow! v1.0 for Android Phones

Raj Madhuram    Uncategorized, eclipse    

v1.0

Do you live near the Tropics and wish you had snow? or live in the Northern hemisphere and had enough of it? Don’t worry, this application will let you enjoy falling snow within the comforts of your home on your Android powered phone. Let it Snow! is a fun Android application for the Christmas holidays. It simulates falling snow over a winter landscape. There are three different landscapes available. It works in both portrait and landscape modes. You can also select a picture and have snow fall on your head or a friend’s!

This application is a socialware. It is free to download and use. It is available from Android Market. If you enjoyed it, I invite you to consider helping a worthy cause mentioned below. Your donation, however small or large will make enormous difference in the lives of many people.

Update: This has been tested on droid, and on emulators with HVGA. Please let me know if it works on other devices. The app might crash when you use with pictures.

Screenshots:

The Cause:

I’ve been associated with an organization called Myrtle Foundation in India, who does tremendous work with children, especially those who are affected by HIV/AIDS. They raise awareness of this deadly disease in the rural areas in a unique way by making use of puppetry.

One of their projects is called “Sathya Children’s Educational Sponsorship”, under which the foundation paid the educational expenses for 16 precious children in 2009 who are affected by HIV/AIDS (affected meaning one or both parents infected or the child itself is infected). Some of these children’s background:

• Yamini (12 years old) - When she was 2 years old, on 02/19/01, her father (27 yrs old) committed suicide by kerosene fire. After seeing this, she never laughed or spoke for the next 3 years. Now she is living with grandma.

• Nisha Rani (10 years old) - Mother is PLWHA (Person living with HIV/AIDS), father died of AIDS.

The organization is run by Mr. Williams (aka Venkatesh) along with a team of volunteers. He feels that this is his calling, and is full time into the project, and does not take any salary. He takes care of his family with his wife’s modest income. Our family has been supporting this project, and we could see that the  funds went directly to the children, and were properly utilized.

The need:

We need funds to support these children next year (2010), and also some more kids like them. Also, there is a need for a “campaign vehicle” that can be used for spreading HIV awareness.

How you can help:

• - You can spread the word by telling about the software and Myrtle to your friends. You can use the links for sharing below this article.
• - You can partner with us by contributions in cash or kind. Every dollar counts! The Myrtle web site is outdated, and they can’t accept credit cards at this time.
  • - If you are in the US and would like to make a donation, please contact me at rmadhuram@yahoo.com. I will send out details for Paypal/check. I will transparently make the collection details available to all donors.
  • - If you are in India or elsewhere, you can directly contact Mr. Williams (aka Venkatesh) at 9840096022 (mswn1@yahoo.com) for contributing.

Downloading the App:

The application is available in the Android market. Search for “snow”, download and enjoy!

Christmas is the season of giving when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, who is the ultimate gift of God for mankind. Let’s spread the cheer! Merry Christmas!!

Freeware, Shareware, Vaporware and now Socialware

Raj Madhuram    technology     socialware, software, technology

You would have all known about  freeware, shareware and vaporware. I’m experimenting with a concept that I call Socialware - that is using software to help with social causes.

While shareware is used by the developer to fund their developments, all proceeds gained by a socialware should go to a charitable cause. In addition,

• All socialware should be freeware, in the spirit of giving back to the community. There should be no trial periods or multiple level unlocking. It is totally up to the receiver of the software to contribute to the cause or not.

• The software can be freely distributed, as long as it is accompanied by the email/URL of the software home page.

• Regarding source licenses, I’m pretty open. It should be upto the developer to release the source code, and if he/she does, with the license they choose.

If you are a software developer, I’d love to hear from you. Your ideas and opinions would be very valuable!

I’m going to release my first socialware, an Android application just in time for the Christmas holidays in a couple of days. Stay tuned!

Reached Level 2 on Project Euler!

Raj Madhuram    Uncategorized    

I’m very happy to have reached level 2 in Project Euler by solving my 50th problem last week! It was problem #55, counting the number of Lychrel numbers less than 10000.

Although I had a goal of reaching level 3 this year, I’m glad I could reach 2nd level by end of this year. I hope I can reach that milestone in 2010!

Special Date - 09/09/09

Raj Madhuram    Uncategorized, eclipse    

When written in the form mm/dd/yy, we get only 12 such dates in a century! The odds of seeing such dates this century is 12/36525 = 0.033%. Also, the odds are so much skewed towards the earlier part of the century.

Another interesting fact about last such date - On 08/08/08, the Chinese decided to open the Olympic Games at 08:08:08pm!

Kevin’s Birthday

Raj Madhuram    Uncategorized    

On the 12th June, 2009

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Robotic Spider and Jenga Fun!

Raj Madhuram    Uncategorized, eclipse     jenga, kids, spider

Recently, Kevin’s uncle Selva bought him a remote controlled robotic spider from Dubai. Myself and Kevin immediately put it into action by having it negotiate a track made of Jenga blocks, and also knocking down Jenga towers! My task was to capture the action with my camera. Following are the results:

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Project Euler Widget

Raj Madhuram    php, technology     php, projecteuler, xss

Here’s a little widget I developed to show the ProjectEuler score on any web page, like the one seen on the right side of this page. To use it on your web page or blog, all you have to do is to insert the following snippet.

<script src="http://www.geekraj.com/euler/euler.js"
         type="text/javascript"> </script>
<script>
   var es = new EulerScore('rmadhuram');   // replace with your id.
</script>

How does it work?

The script first generates the HTML markup required for displaying the score (including the “loading..” image). After that, it communicates with my server (geekraj.com) to get the score for the specified id. read more