Gaurav Verma's Blog

Why I Hate Android

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:40:23 +0530

Most people ask me why I hate Android, I don’t. I actually started making Android application when Android was taken over by Google. Initially I even promoted it to fellow developers but slowly slowly things got change and now ecosystem of Android is at a state where I don’t appreciate it. I don’t appreciate what Samsung & Motorola do in the name of ‘Customization’, as a developer I don’t like fragmentation issue that Android faces and I certainly don’t like the complexity of API. Just look at the simplicity and power of iOS API and you will understand that developing Android application means having to deal with many over-engineered API by Google engineers.

I couldn’t have written it what is wrong with Android but thank goodness someone did, please go and read this wonderful article:

parislemon:

Why do I hate Android? It’s definitely one of the questions I get asked most often these days. And most of those that don’t ask probably assume it’s because I’m an iPhone guy. People see negative take after negative take about the operating system and label me as “unreasonable” or “biased” or worse.

I should probably explain.

Believe it or not, I actually don’t hate Android. That is to say, I don’t hate the concept of Android — in fact, at one point, I loved it. What I hate is what Android has become. And more specifically, what Google has done with Android.

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Making of 'Antithesis' painting

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:34:00 +0530

Some of my friends have already seen my unique style (as far as I am aware of), where I use lines to draw a complex shape. See following picture (By the way, this was just something I draw on whiteboard with a marker while in a meeting):

So when I was presented the idea of including this pattern in a painting, I was not sure how it will look. But then again, thought whats the harm in trying. We thought many ideas, some involving brain others involving trees etc. But ultimately idea that we decided was having a yin-yang painted and on top of yin-yang these complex patterns will be there.

To validate the idea, we draw the concept on a chart paper and it certainly was looking very good. Now main issue that we had to solve was how to draw these complex pattern

so that it looks good on painting. Obvious one was that we can paint the lines in different colors, but that seemed very simple approach and we was looking for some nice experiment. First idea that came to mind was to use threads, dark color threads for one half on yin-yang and bright colors for other. We brought some threads and paste it on top of patterns but soon realized that this will not fly. It will take lot of effort in dying threads of different colors and then sticking it to the canvas. Also, texture was not looking good. Next obvious choice was wool, and man, was that looking beautiful. Final decision was that we would use wool for giving texture to the painting.

Next step was to create yin-yang and we did that without much hassle and painted one half with yellow (half with bright colors on top) and other half with gray (half with dark colors).

Next came the most important part. Sticking wool on canvas and in process creating a complex yet simple looking pattern. We started with a small part and this was the end result,

For pasting wool to canvas, we mixed water with fevicol and used that mixture. But that seemed like a daunting task, covering whole yin-yang with wool but we were sure that once done it will look amazing.

And then started the process of ‘wooling’, initially it was very difficult but with practice things got easy.

I had already drawn lines by using a pencil on canvas as guideline on where to stick wool, and whole team worked with dedication and passion. It was manual and tiring task but everybody was contributing some time and slowly slowly painting was filling up,

and final touches were the background. We took a picture of painting and used photoshop to figure out which radial gradient will look best and decided that radial gradient going from white to dark blue will look best. It took more than three coating of acrylic paint to get the desired effect.

And, with some more filling and final touches, here is the final painting on display.

This painting would not have been completed without passion, dedication and hard work of Swati, Piyush, Sonalika, Sumit, Madhusmita, Nadia. Thanks team, we really created something worth praising. I had a great time doing this. Thank you again.

Teapot (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:11:28 +0530

Teapot (Taken with instagram)

WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST HUMAN MEMORY?

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:56:00 +0530

many, but confused which one happened first. Best memory that I have is - me going to school first time :)

Candle (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 07:50:56 +0530

Candle (Taken with instagram)

Perspective. (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:23:00 +0530

Perspective. (Taken with instagram)

It rained heavily today in Mumbai (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 16:25:07 +0530

It rained heavily today in Mumbai (Taken with instagram)

Complex painting by Me :) (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 06 May 2011 17:51:48 +0530

Complex painting by Me :) (Taken with instagram)

Powai lake (Taken with instagram)

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 17:42:54 +0530

Powai lake (Taken with instagram)

Guess …what is this ? (Taken with instagram)

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:15:05 +0530

Guess …what is this ? (Taken with instagram)

Water fountain in middle of Hiranandani Powai (Taken with...

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 23:26:42 +0530

Water fountain in middle of Hiranandani Powai (Taken with instagram)

Beautiful keypad (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:11:36 +0530

Beautiful keypad (Taken with instagram)

An old lamp near a tree, alone. (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 22:15:06 +0530

An old lamp near a tree, alone. (Taken with instagram)

:) Yes I have gone mad. Happy valentine day again. (Taken with...

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:33:48 +0530

:) Yes I have gone mad. Happy valentine day again. (Taken with instagram)

Happy Valentine day to everybody. (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:47:24 +0530

Happy Valentine day to everybody. (Taken with instagram)

New food experiment. (Taken with instagram)

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 18:46:16 +0530

New food experiment. (Taken with instagram)

When I found a crack in time space continuum :) (Taken with...

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 10:47:39 +0530

When I found a crack in time space continuum :) (Taken with instagram)

Happy Republic Day to Everybody. Tom singing Jana Gana Mana on...

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 03:21:00 +0530

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Happy Republic Day to Everybody.

Tom singing Jana Gana Mana on Indian republic day. Some quality time spent on “Talking Tom” iphone app & iMovie. If only app supported recording whole anthem in one go it would have been much easier.

Didn’t knew watching Mumbai traffic can be pleasing. ...

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 19:37:26 +0530

Didn’t knew watching Mumbai traffic can be pleasing. (Taken with instagram)

For me, an omelet a day keeps doctor away (Taken with instagram)

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:06:22 +0530

For me, an omelet a day keeps doctor away (Taken with instagram)