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Showing posts from 2015

Double-side Nav Drawer

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Hello guys, this post will teach you how to add both Left and Right Navigation Drawers in your Android App. You may need one Nav Drawer on the right to give your users a different set of options, not to distract them from the main navigation items on the left. I have used  Android Studio 1.5.1 Build 141.2456560 .  So here we go. 1) Navigation Drawer Activity      When creating a New Project, choose Navigation Drawer Activity. This makes things easy. If this option is not available, you can the simply choose Blank Activity and later make the project structure similar to Navigation Drawer Activity. See the layout files here . If you run the app at this point, you will see the Left Nav Drawer.                                           2)   Navigation Views     As you can see I have added 2 Navigation Views inside Drawer Layout...one for left-side and other for right-side. For the Right-side, add android:layout_gravity="end" Other th

LiFi :The next gen WiFi

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In the world where everything is connected and networked , WiFi has played a pioneering role in redefining the scope of reach ability and networking. No matter where you are, you are always connected, be it Internet or your own LAN. Sharing, uploading , downloading data at several Mbps. But what if you can achieve all this and much more at 100 times faster rate. YES 100! That 's exactly what Lifi is. Still in its developing stage, Lifi is a more efficient, faster, possibly more secure version of existing WiFi technology. Tested successfully by company called Velmenni where the results recorded show that the data was transferred at average of 1 Gbps! 100 times more than WiFi. In lab tests, the fastest recorded speed was a unbelievable 224 Gbps !! Lifi is a subset of OCW (optical wireless communications) and is a complement to RF technology. Put forth by Prof. Harold Haas, Lifi is entirely dependent on light. In simplest terms, it uses light to transfer data  rather than

5 things every Android app developer must know

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By : Developers of  VIT Slate 1. Libraries: Well, the whole developer community will agree that without libraries our life would have been hell. But when it comes to using them, you have to customize the functionalities which the library gives you. I agree that the documentation with which a library comes is good. Still, using them will be an effort saving another effort. While developing VIT Slate, the greatest library that I came across is CardsLibrary [verify the name] by Gabriel. It was easy to customize but there were some libraries which literally gave me real pain !!! 2. Hardcoding: We just don’t hard code! Android comes in all shapes and sizes and that’s the reason never hard code any dimension for a UI element. I hard coded an image’s dimensions in VIT Slate and someone came and asked me why is this pic in team section so small. And I was saying to him, “Can you please move, I want to hit my head against the wall because I hard coded.”  3. Be updat

5 Chrome Experiments you must try

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1) 100,000 Stars     http://stars.chromeexperiments.com/ --> by Google Data Arts Team This one is my favorite .  It shows the real location of over 100,000 nearby stars. Zooming in reveals 87 major named stars and our solar system. The galaxy view is an artist's rendition. 2) WebGL Water Simulation      http://madebyevan.com/webgl-water/ --> by Bruno Quintela This is the best in its types.  A pool of water rendered with reflection, refraction, caustics, and ambient occlusion. The pool is simulated with a heightfield and contains a sphere that can interact with the water's surface. 3) GPU Text    http://cabbi.bo/Text/ --> by Isaac Cohen GPGPU Physics simulation using signed distance field text. It adds some crazy effects to the text when you hover or scroll over it. This one is a MUST try. 4) Harmony     http://mrdoob.com/projects/harmony/ --> by Mr.doob Believe me, you will not like

WhatsApp promoting unity in diversity or racism?

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If you are one of those who just updated their WhatsApp app then the talk of town for you must be the variety of features that WhatsApp just introduced. But within the array of features being introduced the one which is getting all the attention is the new set of emoticons. Users can now select face and hand gestures in different skin tones. Associating fairness with beauty and superiority has been a part and parcel of our society though highly de-humanising and fairness creams have long been part of this propaganda but what glued all eyes on the WhatsApp was the segregation of different skin tones on a very popular messaging app like this which introduced its racially diverse emoji update for all users. It has been since facing a lot of criticism for the same, but is it right to criticise? The point to ponder upon is what exactly was WhatsApp thinking about this version? Is it to indicate that a dark tone person should use a dark emoji and vice-versa? However,

Patriotism or Pretence ?

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Jawaharlal Nehru’s words on the midnight of 14 th August 1947, gave the country called India a new life. It was transformed from being a “sone ki chidiya” to “azad panchi”. The whole country men were requested to serve the nation, take a pledge to contribute their part as an individual to serve the society and everyone happily swore to it. But somewhere down the road people have actually forgotten the meaning and essence of all those pledges. As the 69 th Independence Day just passed away and all the social networking sites and media proudly professed about our freedom and independence, I wonder if these feelings are genuinely patriotic or just a pretence to blend with the crowd and go with the ‘trend’? Majority of people if given an opportunity would like to find an escape route to abroad and happily leave the so called beloved ‘motherland’ behind without any signs of remorse or sadness. Why is our patriotism just reduced to a status which is expressed on partic

World Photography Day

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“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” – Dorothea Lange Everyone today is celebrating photography as it is the world photography day, which is all about the appreciating the importance of pictures and photography in our life. Irrespective of whether one is a professional photographer, an amateur  or just a photo lover, there is no stopping for sharing pictures today. However it is also essential to understand how this day did came to being celebrated as the world photography day. It all started in 1837 when Daguerreotype photographic processes were invented and developed by Joseph NicephoreNiepce and Louis Daguerre. However on 19 th August 1839, the French Government finally announced this invention as the first practical gift to the world. And this is the story of the birth of photography day! The most amazing thing is that in today’s world we cannot even imagine an era when photography didn’t exist. We live in a techno d

Sad demise of the Missile Man- Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam

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Extremely sad news reaches our nation today as the 11 th President of India, Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, passed away today in Shillong due to cardia arrest. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was present at IIM – Shillong to address the audience. He tweeted this earlier today regarding the same, Going to Shillong. To take course on Livable Planet earth at iim. With @srijanpalsingh and Sharma. – APJ Abdul Kalam (@APJAbdulKalam) July 27, 2015. He collapsed during the lecture and was taken to Bethany Hospital nearby. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and was declared dead by the hospital authorities at 7:45 pm. Many popular leaders have been tweeting about the sad demise and the Indian Government has declared 7 days of national mourning following APJ Abdul Kalam’s death. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam had been a very popular president and a renowned scientist. He was also a Bharat Ratna recipient and was loved by the entire nation for his great ideas and non- political mindset. His “

Selfie With Daughter – A new platform for change

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#SelfieWithDaughter is an initiative by PM Narendra Modi to bring about a social change, a change in mind sets of millions of people, to break the attitudinal wall covering the opinions and thinking of the majority in our nation.  It is a campaign to stop sex selection abortions, in this campaign the PM has requested fathers to post selfie’s with their daughters and post it with #SelfieWithDaughter.  It is a different way of bringing change, a method that would bring change by elements within the dominant forces in the society rather than the usual ones where outside forces are used. It does not instigate any kind of rebel or protest but is a simple way of looking at a girl child through the lens of respect, love and care by the society. It asks people to care, nurture and love their girl child and fills everyone’s heart with emotions. Unlike earlier initiative’s to protect a girl child or for educating a girl child which was depicted as a necessity for a developing nation

The Victim Card

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How many times in life have you played the card of being a victim? There have been incidents in our lives that have left scars on our souls that cannot be healed and does not even fade away with passage of time, scars that are deep buried down slowly but can be refreshed again with a little remembrance and these are the scars that make people believe they are different from others. A belief, a notion that they are victims due to these particular incidents and they just can’t get over with it. People build a safe wall around them, they construct a strong layer and won’t let anyone break that wall and enter the nice warm nest they inhabit. But mostly very conveniently they put the victim card in front and blame those certain incidents in their life for all the shortcomings and failures they face in the future. They think their cocoons make them special and they can keep blaming everything on their regressive or dark past but it is not true. Everyone has been a victim

Discriminating Reservations - Caste based policy

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Going through the newspapers these days I am taken back to time two years back when like all the students I was also hooked to cut offs and checking eligibility criteria for my college admissions. With the sky rocketing cut offs of Delhi University which is the headline of almost all the nation daily I couldn’t help but notice the ridiculously high cut offs of some courses and more importantly the wide gap between the cut offs of different categories. This reservation implies that higher education institutions, public sector units and government bodies must reserve 22.5 % of available seats for students belonging to Scheduled Castes (15%) and Scheduled Tribes (7.5%) and an additional 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes. Just to fulfil this criteria colleges release cut offs with relaxation up to 10% or more for students applying from reserved categories. Initially the system of reservation was established to uplift the condition of ST, SC and OBC(s) bu

Deconstructing Arranged Marriage

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The East is always looked upon by the world for its culture, morals, values and ethics. People have been travelling to east since time immemorial in search of their true self, their pure soul and enlightenment and India always tops the chart as the  favorite  destination for all these hunts. The institution of Arranged Marriage is the high held trophy that Indians are proud to show the whole world. Arranged Marriage is considered one of the greatest forms of marriage beholding all the values a sacred marriage possesses. It’s not only a ceremonial tying of knot between two people who promise to be together in sickness and health but also for  both the families. However this much praised form of marriage is becoming hollow from within with time. The ancient logic has clearly failed to live through modern times. The parents lay all the ground rules for the marriage with a little or no say from their children who are actually getting married. Arranged Marriage has been