Aditya's Blog

dargan Apps Update 6

Aditya — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:50:09 +0000

Currently reading “Java for dummies” and “Android Development for dummies”. I am trying to understand the structure of java and the logic behind object oriented programming before attempting to write an Android Application

dargan Apps Update 5: Getting user input

Aditya — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:42:45 +0000

EditText is the variable type I will use to accept input from the user. It can be configured in various ways to accommodate for the information being entered. A person’s name, an email address, or a phone number requires different “EditText” settings. I will use one on the main screen, and then a few on the other activities in the app. “Spinner” is different type of variable that can be used for input as well. I will look into voice recognition after I get the input mechanism working.

(darganApps Update 4) Creating Activities and using different variables

Aditya — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:20:07 +0000

An android app consists of several activities. Activities are screens that the user sees when interacting with the app. I have seen how to start activities from other activities by using the “intent” method and defining the activities in the Android manifest file. I will have to create a few variables as well as screens for my app. Now I am learning how to take input from the user and use it as a variable.

(darganApps Update 3) Linking buttons to variables

Aditya — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 05:04:48 +0000

I am currently learning how to link objects on the user interface with id’s that can be used to reference them in the activity source code. Also experimenting with methods and functions, as well as importing packages that come pre-installed in the Android SDK

(darganApps Update 2) Experimenting with app interface

Aditya — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 03:46:06 +0000

I am currently playing around with Eclipse and the Android SDK and creating various buttons, text boxes, and such through configuring XML. Next I will learn how to link these buttons into the code so they function and something happens when they are activated. Working on a “splash” screen as well

(darganApps) Learning how to make app interface

Aditya — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:02:19 +0000

Through tutorials and guides on the Internet, I have been exploring and experimenting with the procedure to make a user interface for Android Apps. Most of this development takes place in the xml files

Cubegeek.net has been updated

Aditya — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:29:44 +0000

After a few hours of tinkering, cubegeek.net has finally been upgraded. The site is now better organized, faster and looks better. The Houston Cubing Association pages have been now put on the cubegeek.net site. I designed a new front page with a slidshow effect with pictures. Go check it out! Any suggestions or feedback on the site and its design are appreciated

3 years after the crisis; will it happen again?

Aditya — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 05:17:53 +0000

Its been 3 years since the crisis occured in late 2008. The Dow Jones had reached a low point of about 9,000 in 2008. The economy seems to be improving and prospering; the Dow Jones has blown past 12,000 in recent weeks. Unemployment levels are lower than before. Will something like this ever happen again? It probably will, according to Peter Thiel, Paypal’s co-founder and hedge fund manager. This time its not going to be related to your house, your car, or your private jet. Thiel is predicting that the next “bubble” will be in the area of education; as kids we have always been told that if we work hard and excel in school and then you will get into Harvard. Essentially, its been said that your set for life after graduation from college. But are you really? Investing in a college education has been always been one of the best investments that anyone could make, despite the fact that you may need to get loans. It has been getting easier and easier to get loans for a college education, simply because you have to pay it up no matter what happens. To me this looks exactly like the mortgage crisis; cheap and easy credit. American students have to now compete with candidates from other countries for the same jobs. What will happen if Ms. Sally cannot pay her $100,000 college loan because she can’t get a job at a financial firm? Defaults will occur and another panic will happen. Lets just hope its not any time soon ( I would say 5 to 6 years would be a good time, personally).

Why are some activities considered sports and others aren’t

Aditya — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 23:24:40 +0000

Its been a while since I last posted. School has really been tough and just getting through my assingments has been a struggle. Anyway, I was talking to someone about sports and what not, and an interesting point came up; why are some things called sports and other things not? For example, almost everyone ( by that I mean every single person in the entire world which might end due to global warming and stuff) agrees that soccer is a legitimate sport. Players run around and kick the ball into the goal. Its not really a hard concept. On the other hand if you tell someone that chess is a sport or that speedcubing is sport, people usually have a big grin on their face and laugh at you thinking its a joke or something. Why is soccer/football/baseball/whatever considered a sport but other activities are not? Is it based on how popular the “activity” is? Quoting from Wikipedia, a sport “ is an organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful activity requiring commitment, strategy, and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective means. It is governed by a set of rules or customs.” In that case, chess should be considered a sport since its entertaining, skillfull and an organized activity. Speedcubing should be as well. Heck, even computer programming competition, paper airplane competition, and eating competitions can be considered sports. People gibe at saying that table tennis, one of my many hobbies, is a sport. It is as equal a sport as is football or something. So no matter what sport you guys might do, even if its not that popular in the US (in my case, I like playing cricket, but its not really big in the US), just keep doing it. You do sports to have fun and lose weight, not to please other people by playing the “right” sports.

A look inside the world of Forex

Aditya — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 21:04:54 +0000

What is the biggest trading market in the world? Stocks? Options? Futures? Not exactly. Trading currencies is actually the biggest trading market in the world. In fact, trillions of dollars are traded everyday by speculating on the prices of currencies. What is interesting to see is that you can trade a whole lot for just a little in the currencies market, thanks to the extremely high leverage ratio of 1 to 100, meaning you can control 100 dollars of something with only a 1 dollar. Here is how it works: you pick a currency you like or want to trade. I will be using the US dollar, since its familiar to me. In the currency or the Foreign Exchange ( “Forex”, get it?) market, you trade one currency against another currency; basically you trade in pairs meaning you sell one currency while simultaneously buying the other. So for example, you could trade Euro:USD . If you “bought” this pair you are buying Euro and selling the dollar. If you “sell” this pair, it would mean that you are selling the Euro and buying the Dollar. Quotes for this example would be displayed as EURO:USD 1.4569 meaning in the market 1 Euro is worth 1.4569 dollars. Profit and loss in the forex market is determined by how many “pips” the currency pair price has moved. A “pip” is usually 1/100 of a percent or 0.0001 change. Calculating the profit or loss is actually very simple. Lets say you buy 100,000 euros ( you arent actually buying anything in real life though) for $145,690 ( you get that number by multiplying 100,000 euros by the 1.4569 euro-dollar factor I made up). If the currency pair price increases by 20 pips, the new price would then be EURO:USD 1.4589. Your 100,000 euros ( remember you actually have not bought anything for real) are now worth $145,890 meaning that if you sell your euros you would have a $200 profit. What makes forex particularly exciting to me is that you can buy the 100,000 euros for practically a really small fraction of the price. Often times, the margin levels are extremely low; in some cases to actually buy the $145,690 worth of euros would only require a tiny amount such as 2,000 for intial margin. So in this case the $200 gain would be quite a gain; you would have a 20 percent gain on your investment, which is not bad at all.