Android - Forgot your lock screen pattern \ password?

1. Boot up an alternate device - laptop / tab
2. Visit the DeviceManager 
3. Click on the lock icon ->
4. Set a password.

Your android device should have internet connectivity for it.

Run your chrome browser in Android / iPad mode on a windows machine

Change the user agent of your chrome browser in Windows 7

Good for testing your web application quickly for mobile domains.

iPad

C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0(iPad; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B314 Safari/531.21.10"

Android

C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; Nexus One Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1"

How to: Install the Android SDK

Download the latest Android SDK (preferably the zip file not the exe).

Unzip the package to the root of C:\.

NOTE: This will output a folder called "android-sdk-windows".

Open up the android-sdk-windows folder and launch the SDK Manager.

When you launch the SDK Manager for the first time it will ask for which packages to install. The only package we are concerned with at this time is "Android SDK Platform-tools, revision 3". You can reject all the others if you are not interested in them.

Once that is finished, you will need to install the USB drivers included with the Android SDK.

1. Click on"Available Packages" on the left.
2. Expand "Third party Add-ons".
3. Expand "Google Inc. add-ons".
4. Check "Google Usb Driver package, revision 4".
5. Installed Selected.

Once that's finished installing, you can close the SDK Manager.

Go to the Control Panel, and select the System Properties (Windows XP) or System (Windows Vista/7).

Select the Advanced settings;

• Windows XP: Click on the Advanced tab.
• Windows Vista/7: Click on Advanced system settings on the left.

Click on Environment Variables.

Under the "System variable" section, you will look for "Path". Double-click on it.

In the "Variable values" section, add at the very end the location of the tools & package-tools folder, with a semicolon separating these two paths from the rest, e.g. %SystemRoot%;C:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools;C:\android-sdk-windows\tools.

On the device, ensure that USB Debugging in enabled (Settings » Applications » Development).

Plug the device into the computer via USB cable. The computer will attempt to install the drivers automatically.

On success, open the command prompt on the computer, and type in the following command to sure everything is setup properly:

adb devices

If it lists any devices, everything is fine and you are finished. If not, the drivers may not be installed correctly, please continue.

Open the Device Manager.

1. Right-click on My Computer (Windows XP) or Computer (Windows Vista/7).
2. Click on Manage.
3. Click on Device Manager on the left.

You will probably see Unknown Device with ADB listed under it with a yellow exclamation mark.

Right-click on ADB.

Click on "Update Driver Software".

Click on "Browse my computer for driver software".

Click on "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer".

Click on "Have Disk".

Click on "Browse".

Navigate to "C:\android-sdk-windows\extras\google-usb_driver" and select "android_winusb.inf".

Click on "Android ADB Interface".

NOTE: You will get an Update Driver Warning, click on "Yes".

Once finished installing the driver, open the command prompt on the computer, and type in the following command to sure everything is setup properly:

adb devices

If it lists any devices, everything is fine and you are finished. If not, you may have further issues and will have to do further research on your own.

USourceIT

USourceIT - Risk Free Out Sourcing ... Check it out might be the future of outsourcing in India !!!

Build something simple

Build something simple (which you can define in a single line) and then enrich it with features.

Google Chrome theme bug :P

Yes it does say the themes are only for Google Chrome 3.0 and above but still lets you download the file from your old browser , that fair enough but after downloading try opening the .crx file it gives using an older version of google Chrome :P it goes into an infinite loop hehehehehe I has such high expectations from them :P check it out at your own risk :P

Idea for a startup !!

Are we always in search of an IDEA ?

Yes as a popular brand has its tagline "An IDEA can change your life.". It surely can. I would say the human brain is the least tapped, under utilized natural resource ever. We can think of anything anywhere anytime of the day or night. And still I come across people, even me at times asking for a million dollar idea. Maybe thats it ..maybe we really are over rating it.

Actually being in the IT industry its quite easy to be disillusioned in to over hyping it. We all have seen rather assumed that ideas make money. All we need is one out of this world extra ordinary idea to make it big in the industry. Naaaaaa I dont think so thats the case , yeah few of the major hits in the industry are good ideas but I dont think when they were actually put to table in the first meeting they looked even close to what they ended up becoming. The market changes to frequently , that even if your idea is even worth something when you think about it by the time you implement it :P .

No I am not trying to discourage working on the million dollar idea you think you have but yes what I am discouraging is thinking it over and over again. Start with it , maybe 10 steps and you might loose interest in it or realize that its not worth that much but atleast you would have done something about ti and LEARNT out of it. Youll make sure your next idea passes through this new learning , and over time your ideas get so filtered and tested in your head that youll get better, more concrete ideas popping up next time.

Over the years (not many :P) Ive realized few things/ ways to test them out :-

1. Skin it - Take out the feathers that is making the idea fly so high in your head. Everyone in the world needs this.If I make this Ill have about half the world signing up for it and the other half asking for sign up invitations - No get to ground reality and then start thinking about it, because at times it hinders our logical way of thinking.
2. Self grilling - Imagine that the idea popped out of the person you hate/detest the most and you have to fail it no matter what. Come up with good logical reasoning for it , and not that my mom wont be able to use it so its not a good idea.
3. Friendly test - Once it passes the self grilling put it up infront of your friends you trust and most probably would end up working with on the idea. Most of the ideas would go down here, there could be 2 reasons for it.
• The team I chose was wrong (90% people would think this way). They dont get the big picture.
• The team was right.
  
  But if you could not sell the idea to a bunch of people you know , then forget convincing the world for it. Drop it start thinking again.
4. Acid test -get in a few industry people , the industry you targeting or the target audience of your idea. Ask them would they use it ?
5. Mom test - ask your mom :P explain her the whole scenario and then your idea. See if she accepts it :P.
6. Ok we can skip the last test but yeah it does help at times.
7. Get to work - Gather the team you plan to work with most likely the ones in step 3. They should be enthu enough that you can start.

Keep small targets , follow what most people do - release small features, release more frequently. This will keep your target audience interested too.

to be continued later...

As if Ive been through all this :P