Entries from September 2006 ↓

I was arranging my drawer yesterday and found the Apple Remote. It came with the MacBook and was lying unused because I don’t really use FrontRow. Then I had a presentation this morning and a bulb lit up. Can I not use the remote with OpenOffice for presentations?

So the first thing I did after coming to office today was to Google for it. I found some good software. Downloaded mira and tried it out. It did not seem to work with OpenOffice. Tried RemoteBuddy and that also did not seem to work. Then I was thinking may be I will have to build on top of Amit Singh’s iremoted and make something up. Just then I found iRed Lite. I noticed an action for OpenOffice Impress in the folder and was excited! And it worked! I had to fiddle around a little bit, the software looks buggy (did not save the actions I defined etc) but it worked. I am going to look deeper into it. I hope source code was available. I also think OpenOffice itself is part of the problem - since it works on top of X11. Hope there is a native build soon.

So for anybody who wants to use Apple Remote with OpenOffice Impress, head on to iRed Lite! For others, mira and Remote Buddy are just right!

Your dad found out a calculator that he used while he was in college. It’s still in good shape but a few keys are not working properly. You really like the calculator - it’s unique, runs on solar power and works overall. You also figured out how to solve some of the idiosyncrasies of the machine.

• The 5 digit comes only if you press the 5 key twice.
• If the immediate number after 5 is 2, 5 works on single key press, but 2 requires two presses.
• If you do not press any other key after 1, it keeps taking 1 as input (so 11111111…)
• If the result of the last calculation had 2 and 3 in it, you have to press the Clear button twice to actually clear it

You are comfortable using the calculator now, but you now want to build a simple software that mimics your calculator. More importantly, you want your younger sis to use the software as well. Catch is that she does not know the “bugs” in the calculator that we talked about earlier. So when she is using it, you want to convert her input in a format that your calculator can understand. And then take the result from the calculator and show it to her in a way that she can understand.

Ready for the challenge? Then go ahead and code it up!

Logic Builders are puzzles that you solve using a programming language of your choice. The idea is to improve the logical and programming abilities by solving a fun problem. The puzzles also require use of some data structures so your skills in effective data management also improve. And of course, you have to code for boundary conditions to pass

Something that inspired us, and is on our wall poster now.

• Believe you can change the world.
• Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.
• Know when to work alone and when to work together.
• Share tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.
• No Politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage).
• The customer defines a job well done.
• Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
• Invent different ways of working.
• Make a contribution every day.
• If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage.
• Believe that together we can do anything.
• Invent.

With my growing interest in photography (I think this happens every time you buy a new camera…), I started looking for resources to improve my photography skills. I found Photub one day and felt it was a nice way to keep updated and to see what others are doing. Then today I read some articles on BetterPhoto and learnt about exposure and night shots and thought it’s a good time to get a better tripod!

I am enjoying it!

ChangeThis.com

ChangeThis is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread.

We’re on a mission to spread important ideas and change minds.

There are excellent manifestos out there. Great ideas and some good food for thought. Even the PDF files of the manifesto are stunning! The manifestos are relevant to tech and business guys alike. And a guy like me - who’s a mix of both - would simply love them!