Favourite Android Apps, Beyond the Usual Suspects - I

I am always on the look out for good Android apps - some for better productivity, some to use in leisure, and some just for the fun quotient in them. But, here is a list of 10 of my favourite Android apps (in no particular order), beyond the usual suspects (email, SM, messaging, streaming), that I use quite regularly on my Android devices. This is just a quick note - I will probably write in details later.

1. Pocket: Great app for offline reading - when you go off the grid or when you want to save on your data usage
2. Minimalistic Text: Fine eye candy for your phone with endless possible customizations
3. Flipboard: A news aggregator service and a place you can create your own magazines, with good social media integration
4. Wallaby: Maximize your credit card reward points - know which credit card to use for which merchant
5. Astro File Manager: A handy file explorer service for your phone's file system with cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, Onedrive) integration
6. Wifi Explorer: Manage your phone's filesystem from a PC over wifi
7. 500 Firepaper: Another eye candy app with a great collection of 500px wallpapers that recycle at easily customizable intervals, from different categories of images
8. Pixlr Express: For some quick photo processing and editing, and for those in-vogue hipster filters
9. Google Play Music: Google's Music service, great for offline playback of your cloud stored music collection, as well as to discover new music
10. News Republic: Another handy news aggregator with nice look and feel, good content and social media integration

What are your favourite phone/tablet apps (Android or otherwise)?

-MT

Space, Sanitation, and Sceptics

The Indian Space Research Organisation, on 24th September 2014, successfully placed the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft in an orbit around Mars.

Two celestial bodies having a heart-to-heart

The flight took 298 days, from the launch to the successful insertion, and every aspect of this celestial journey worked out perfectly, as planned. Mangalyaan (मंगलयान), as MOM is also known as, is not the only spacecraft studying Mars from a 'close' proximity. Regardless, it did fill us Indians with a sense of pride about this significant achievement by our rocket scientists! There were however a few firsts, that MOM was able to achieve -

• India became the first country to successfully reach the Mars orbit on its maiden attempt. NASA, ESA and Roscosmos, the other space agencies to have reached the Mars orbit, had all been unsuccessful in their first few attempts.
• The technology demonstration by Mangalyaan has been achieved with a low cost of ₹ 454 crore (US $ 74 million), the lowest ever for a Mars probe.
• India has been the only Asian country to have been successful in a Mars mission. Russia is part Asia, though.

Mangalyaan is now successfully orbiting Mars and sending data and images to ISRO scientists as part of its other mission objectives.

A clichéd critique

The successful Mars mission brought with it some bouquets, as well as the usual brickbats, from around the developed world, as also from a certain breed of the Indian 'intelligentsia'. The criticism bordered around India's poverty and all the associated woes, more specifically the lack of toilets among India's millions. Sample some of these disapproving voices -

• Should a country with 'one of the highest rankings for childhood malnutrition in the world' be involved in space race?
• The Mars mission 'seems to be part of the Indian elite's delusional quest for superpower status'.
• India's Mars fantasy defies earthly woes.

In fact, this is a template followed by pretty much every media house, after every such technological breakthrough by India, and possibly by any other developing nation. Such stories would always start with a brief about the achievement, followed by the cost involved and then a lesson in poverty 101. India's going nuclear, numerous satellite launches, Chandrayaan, among others, are just a few cases in point. Here is one online enthusiast commenting on similar lines on a similar Al Jazeera article. The gentleman never got back to me.

While not entirely off the mark about India's poverty, such discourse always conveniently omits the cost-effective manner in which India has been accomplishing such technological feats. In fact, one of the primary objective of MOM was to demonstrate the low cost alternatives which India can provide for such interplanetary space probes.

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai's Vision & Narendra Modi's Mission

India's space research and space missions have always been grounded in reality. It has been a means to achieve the upliftment of India's impoverished millions - try solve real problems of man and society. It is not without significant dividends that India has been pursuing its space missions. The vast array of Indian satellites, like those of the developed world, has been able to successfully predict storms, cyclones and monsoon. Chandrayaan-1 was instrumental in the discovery of water molecules on the Moon. And as I mentioned in my comment, ISRO does generate considerable revenue for its own operations by providing cost-effective satellite launch services to various nations of the world, including the developed nations.

Space research and working towards better sanitation with poverty alleviation in a country of 1.25 billion people doesn't have to be a zero-sum game. The Prime Minister of India Mr Narendra Modi, for one, has been consistent in pushing the message of cleanliness and proper sanitation from all platforms in India, and abroad. In fact during the electioneering an year ago, he raked up controversy by asking us Indians to build toilets before building temples. In keeping with the goal for a cleaner India and a toilet in every home, a Swachh Bharat Mission ensues from 2nd October 2014. He has asked for a commitment from every Indian to give some time towards a clean India. I have my own plans for contributing to the cause. And as with many other areas that have benefited, I am sure our scientific and technological prowess would contribute to the success of this mission.

PM Modi after the successful Mangalyaan insertion said, "When you are trying to do something that has not been attempted before, it is a leap into the dark. Humanity would not have progressed if we had not taken such leaps into the unknown. And space is indeed the biggest unknown out there." There still will be naysayers, but, let us push our boundaries, and then push some more, push some more.

-MT

Moto X 1.0, an year later

This has been a long time in the making. In fact if you follow technology news, more specifically the smartphone market, you'd know that this Moto X review is one version too late. Motorola Mobility just announced the release of the next avatar of its flagship smartphone Moto X. I waited too long for getting camera ready to post a YouTube review, but figured it's going to be a while before that happens.

I bought the 1st Generation Moto X a couple of months after its release, once I was reasonably sure that it was a good Android phone. I was intrigued from the very first day its ads started appearing. The range of customization offered for the look and feel, and then the standard specs that the phone came with were reason enough for me to get hooked.

It wasn't without pitfalls that I settled on the current Moto X device that I have with me. The first one that I ordered was with the Royal Blue back panel, a Black front and Lemon Lime trim.

My First Moto X - the Royal Blue

The Royal Blue back panel had a soft matte, non slip finish; made of scratch resistant material. I like my phones without any sort of protective casing; they diminish the visual appeal of the phone for me. So, as it turns out, after a few weeks of regular usage, it started darkening on the edges of the back panel. There was no way to get the back panel cleaned. Post a few discussions on online forums and chatting with the customer care folks, I decided to return the phone, for a full refund. I still wanted the phone, but being a visual person, the aesthetics were important to me. So, I waited until Motorola made the wood back panels available some weeks after I mailed this one back. And that is what I am currently using, for almost an year now.

The Motomaker website has got to be one of the best things about the Moto X devices. It is a simple, intuitive, visually appealing way to get your Moto X customized to your liking and then complete the purchase.

My Moto X on Motomaker

I designed mine with the Ebony Finish wood back panel, the Black front and the Metallic Cherry trim (on the buttons and the camera). Then topped it off with the custom engraving on the back panel. I went for the 32 GB storage and the screen film protector from Power Support.

So, I have been using Moto X for about an year now. Besides the fact  that it is an Android device, there are more reasons for which it has been the favourite Android device I have owned till date.

Here are my top 3 reasons to love the Moto X -

1. The aesthetics bit has been the most favourite aspect for me on the Moto X. Android, you'd know, is all about customizability, about the user being in control. Motorola took this a step further with Motomaker, providing the user an ability to customize the phone's appearance - the back panel, the front, the accents, the custom engraving. The phone has got a sturdy build (survived a few drops!) and the form factor is just perfect for what I look for in a phone.

2. The stock Camera app is my next favourite - actually the usability aspect of it. The camera app can be launched with just two flicks of the wrist holding the phone. I am no expert in photography and do not dwell much on the technical specifics of the camera. But having this feature around means that you can get ready to make a quick capture in less than 3 seconds, whenever you are in a click-worthy moment! 

My Moto X, an year later

This is one feature which I end up using almost on a daily basis, at home, or during my commute to work. For what it's worth, this Moto X has a 10 MP camera with 4x digital zoom.

3. The Active Display is one unique addition to the Moto X. It takes care of the need of having to activate your screen and/or unlock your phone to look at new notifications - an email, a text, a calendar reminder, a social media notification. Any type of notification of your choosing gets displayed on the screen, without actually activating the screen, saving battery life. The AMOLED display of the phone makes this possible. The phone knows when it is inside my pocket, face down or lying face up - knows when to deliver the notifications. The active display also shows the current time, again quite handy for those who use the phone to look up time.

These are but just 3 of my most favourite reasons for liking the Moto X. There are several other handy features which are built into the Moto X without the resource-hogging, latency-inducing bells and whistles that some other Android phone manufacturers introduce over the vanilla Android. The Motorola version of Android being used in Moto X is lightweight even with the added features, and that is another reason it has clicked with me. MKBHD has a review out there you may want to look, if this phone interests you.

I am keenly following the 2nd Generation Moto X reviews and talks, and by the end of this year if I have some money left after my vacation, I will probably end up gifting myself one! But my Moto X still has quite some life left in it.

Cheers, MT.

On Reading

A friend recently prodded to share my favourite reads as part of the #BookListChallenge whereby friends and acquaintances are sharing their 10 most favourite books. I did tell him that my list of good reads is not 'suitable' for sharing, for there are impressionable minds on Facebook.

I haven't really done serious 'book reading' for a while now. Looking back, it is possibly more than a decade now since I read a book in its entirety. It was "Lost Horizon" that I read last, and it has been one of my best reads from among the small number of books I have read. The book was part of our rapid reader curricula in high school.

Contrary to what I might have had you believe, I am actually a voracious reader. I read, read a lot - blogs, magazines, newspapers, technology trends, and just about anything that suits my palate of interests, on the interwebs and in print. I read these at home, at work and during my daily commute to work. I read them in flight, on the bed when I am not sleeping, in the loo, and I read during my lunch hours.

Patience may be the key ingredient missing when it comes to me spending enough time reading a book, cover to cover. I am glad that some of these good books are actually being made into good movies and television soaps, these days. Just have to spend enough time to get the highlights and the best parts of the story. Avid book readers would probably cry blasphemy, but suits me just fine! The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Bourne Series, A Song Of Ice And Fire, The Lord of The Rings, महाभारत, among others, have all seen such wonderful adaptations on screen.

Speaking of lists though, here is a list of my unfinished reads, good books which I have been intending to finish reading, for quite some time now -

1. বাৰেবৰণীয়া অসম (Baareboroniya Axom) - A book on the history, culture and people of Assam, by Dr. Harinath Sharma Doloi (reading since 2006)
2. অনুৰাধাৰ দেশ (Anuradhar Desh) - A romantic Assamese novel by Phanindra Kumar Dev Choudhury (reading since 2006)
3. Game of Thrones - First in a series of 7 books by George R. R. Martin (reading since 2011)
4. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information - by Edward Tufte (reading since 2008)
5. The Accidental Prime Minister - by Sanjaya Baru (reading since April 2014)

[Image source: http://0-gate.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/room-of-books.png]

All said and done, this #BookListChallenge is for sure a treasure trove for avid book readers, probably one of the better things out there on Facebook. I would some day want to spend a lot of time in my very own Shangri-la, a room full of books, reading and learning from all the fine books in the world.

In the interim, I'd probably go ahead and participate in some other 'list challenges' which will soon appear on my social media feed - #WorkoutSongsListChallenge, #AndroidAppListChallenge, #NewsWebsiteListChallenge, #PhoneListChallenge, #WhatYouWatchingNowListChallenge, #WebsiteYouSpendHalfYourLifeOnListChallenge, #WhatsInMyLunchListChallenge, et al.

So long, fellow readers. Valar dohaeris. ~~ MT

Towards India 2.0

वन्दे मातरम् | A great decisive mandate for NDA, specifically in favour of Narendra Modi and definitely in favour of a Congress Mukt Bharat. As the incumbent PM steps down from office, and by extension the fake-Gandhis too, this becomes another Independence Day for us Patriotic Indians.

This decisive mandate gives the Bharatiya Janata Party and Modi the opportunity to chart a new course for 1.25 billion Indians. Expectations are high, for it has been a decade of decay. But, I think, to start with, all that we Indians want are the very basics - health, water, sanitation, food, electricity and shelter. It's a pity that the Indian National Congress still considered these as luxury, after having ruled the country for 50+ years.

Let us hope that our soldiers and security personnel do not lose life at times of peace, and any other time. Let us hope that the women in our country are really empowered, and are safe. Let us hope that RTI and social activists do not lose their life, for doing what is right. And let us keep contributing for a change, in whichever small way we can.

Congratulations India, for this very successful exercise in democracy. Best wishes to Mr. Narendra Modi. A big shout-out to like minded Indians, for staying the course. More power to us.

जय हिन्द | जय भारत |

PDFTK, the Swiss army knife for managing PDFs

Merging and splitting of PDF documents and pages is something that I do quite regularly; for myself and for others who reach out to me to do my ninja thing with their PDFs. It's really not rocket-science though, to overuse an old adage.

The PDF Tool Kit is my application of choice for appending, merging and splitting PDF files. The most common situation I find myself using his tool is when I have disordered scanned pages, that needs to be arranged.

Here is an example with my passport, my resume and a few pay stubs, all in the PDF format. I need to send a few pages of each of these documents stitched together in a single PDF, to my HR department, for whatever  reason they want this information from me.

[mrigs@localhost ~]$ pdftk A=Passport.pdf B=Resume.pdf C=PayStubs2013.pdf cat A1 A18 B C11-12 A10 A14 A8 output Mriganka_HR.pdf

This is being run on a Mageia 4 Linux system. In this command

• A=Passport.pdf is my Passport with 18 scanned pages
• B=Resume.pdf is my resume of 4 pages
• C=PayStubs2013.pdf is a PDF of my 2013 pay stubs, 1 for every month
• cat is the command for concatenating PDFs together
• A1 & A18 extracts the 1st and the 18th page of the passport, respectively
• B extracts the whole resume and appends to the new PDF
• C11-12 extracts my November '13 and December '13 pay stubs and appends to the new PDF
• A10, A12 & A8 are my Visa pages from the passport that gets appended to the end of the new PDF
• output Mriganka_HR.pdf is the final document that I need to send out to my HR

Quite simple, I'd say, and really very fast too, for completing this merge. For even easier use, there is also a GUI version of the tool available for the Windows platform.

From the pdftk man page on Mageia, here is a list of everyday PDF housekeeping that you can do with PDFTK.

• Merge PDF Documents or Collate PDF Page Scans
• Split PDF Pages into a New Document
• Rotate PDF Documents or Pages
• Decrypt Input as Necessary (Password Required)
• Encrypt Output as Desired
• Fill PDF Forms with X/FDF Data and/or Flatten Forms
• Generate FDF Data Stencils from PDF Forms
• Apply a Background Watermark or a Foreground Stamp
• Report PDF Metrics, Bookmarks and Metadata
• Add/Update PDF Bookmarks or Metadata
• Attach Files to PDF Pages or the PDF Document
• Unpack PDF Attachments
• Burst a PDF Document into Single Pages
• Uncompress and Re-Compress Page Streams
• Repair Corrupted PDF (Where Possible)

Play around and you'd find quite some different usage of this Schweizer Offiziersmesser of PDF management.

Cheers, MT.

Social Media and 2014 Elections in India

In the campaigning for the 2014 Assembly Elections in India, Social Media surely is neck and neck with the mainstream media (MSM). There are dedicated IT cells of every major party and especially of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, who have been steadily building up the social media offensive over the past several months. And now with just a few more weeks before the election process comes to a close on 16 May, it's an all out blitzkrieg, with ad agencies, party workers, loyal supporters and volunteers providing equal amount of firepower. And all this for building up favourable opinion among friends, family, followers and the occasional passer-by (page visitor), who form a large chunk of the Indian electorate.

Even MSM has jumped on to the Social Media bandwagon, for airing and publishing election stories and debates. Hashtag wars on Twitter are being used by MSM during debates and interviews, as well as for providing bytes of viewers' opinions during these programs. Facebook is being used for promoting articles, hashtags playing a lesser role here. Facebook is also being used for organizing and promoting interviews by MSM channels. Then there are Hangouts on Google+ which are being used for interviewing party candidates or for interaction with the voters, which are aired live.

Besides the major three SM networks, there are the usual blogs, YouTube videos, ask-me-anything (AMA) sessions and several more ways in which the interwebs is influencing the 2014 mandate in India.

One important message everyone is airing is for the voters to go out and vote. Polling numbers have been encouraging in the first 3 phases, and is expected to be a lot better than earlier elections in the remaining 6 phases.

This election in India is being fought as much online as it is being fought in the minds of the voter, and in the real world!

Taking backups on Linux

With RSYNC around, who needs any other backup software on Linux!

I have found rsync to be quite the handy tool for backing up my data on external storage devices.

Here is one of the commands that I use regularly on my Mageia system, for backing up my movies from one external hard disk drive to another -

[mrigs@localhost ~]$ rsync -azv --delete /run/media/mrigs/TheGrid/yemt/ /run/media/mrigs/TOSHIBA\ EXT/yemt/

where

-a is for

• Recursive mode
• Preserving symbolic links
• Preserving permissions
• Preserving timestamp
• Preserving owner and group

-z is to enable compression

-v is for verbose

--delete is used for deleting files in the target directory that are not present in the source directory

/run/media/mrigs/TheGrid/yemt/ is my source directory in external hard disk 1

/run/media/mrigs/TOSHIBA\ EXT/yemt/ is my target directory in external hard disk 2

Like any other Linux command, there are several ways to use this command for your varied needs. "How to Backup Linux? 15 rsync Command Examples" is an excellent resource for finding some of the most frequently used rsync scenarios.

Then there is GRSYNC, for those who prefer the GUI way to do things.