The parcel didn’t include any sort of manual except a couple of sheets with tips and tricks.

Here you can see more pictures.

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I wrote a review of the first part of the course in this post.

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Hello, Android

By Ed Burnette

Regarding books, one of the things I appreciate the most is an honest relationship between title and contents. Unfortunately it’s quite common to find books out there promising things they don’t fullfill.

“Hello, Android” meets perfectly the commitment of its title. Don’t buy it expecting a reference manual of Android because it’ just an introduction to this platform, and I must admit that it does the work gracefully. It’s quick and brief so it tells you the essential and gives you resources for further research such as the sample projects that can be free downloaded from the book website.  A nice aspect to highlight is the hands-on approach, throughout the book concepts are illustrated with lots of code. Furthermore a Sudoku game is parcially developed during a couple of chapters.

So I basically recommend this book for beginners mainly for two reasons:

1. Starts from the Scratch: Nothing is assumed so it’s a good point to start out as Android developer.
2. Brevity: I don’t have time for an eight-hundred-pages book to start to develop. I’ll deal with the ins and outs as I go, not before.

Of course, like any book about Android, Java (or C++, C#, etc) basic understanding is recommended.

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• Activities.
• Basic Interface
• Database (SQLite)
• Location and Google Maps API.

You could take a look at the contents table in the course page. By the way, the course was given by Tony Hillerson. You can check out his profile here.

In a nutshell:

Pros:

• Completely free.

• Hands-on approach. Most of the time developing the “Task Manager” sample project let the audience get down to the nitty-gritty.
• Publishing the source code of each session in advance. It helps to focus on Tony’s lessons.
• Really good organization. And it wasn’t easy: live audience in Seattle, instructor in Denver and a number of online attendees. Actually, it was possible to ask questions to Tony (thanks to Ruth and Beth).In short, O’Reilly and CreativeTechs did a great work.
• A forum was set up for posting homework, technical questions and all that stuff.

Cons:

• A tiny thing. I missed one hour of the last session because the Daylight Saving Time in US starts two weeks before Europe. Course Organizers could have warned online attendees about it.

In Short:

I’d do it again so I recommend it. Five out of Five.

Update (03/20/2010)

Good news! I’ve received an email from O’Reilly with a couple of great announcements:

1. It’s gonna be a second part of the course this Spring.
2. They are giving free phones (Motorola DROID or Nexus One phone) to attendees who meet some conditions (take a look at the terms of the registration page for further information).

Update (03/23/2010)

Another email from O’Reilly telling that I’ll receive a free phone (hopefully a Nexus One) from Google for attending this Android Course. I just can say: THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

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It’s quite surprising the huge difference between Apple Store and the rest of competitors.

Source: Android-Spa

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This is the Copy button code:

// Copy EditCopy text to the ClipBoard
private void copyToClipBoard()
{
ClipboardManager ClipMan = (ClipboardManager) getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
ClipMan.setText(editCopy.getText());
}

and the Paste button source:

// Paste ClipBoard Text to EditPaste
private void pasteFromClipBoard()
{
ClipboardManager ClipMan = (ClipboardManager) getSystemService(Context.CLIPBOARD_SERVICE);
editPaste.setText(ClipMan.getText());
}

Simple, right? By the way, editPaste and editCopy are both EditText class objects. In case you need it, the whole project can be downloaded from my GitHub repository.

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You can check out the source code and download de APK visiting my GitHub repository. Feedback will be appreciated

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Since I wanted more, I signed up for this O’Reilly Training Course. For the time being I’ve attended (online) the first day (consists of five) and it’s being pretty useful. So if you’re interested, you’re still on time to sign up here for the remaining sessions. It’s free.

By the way, this is my new phone …

…until I get one of these.

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Even though 3D Realms was a highly talented and groundbreaking developer company, when it comes to the Duke Nukem Forever, they totally failed. Actually, they coined the dreadful sentence: “It’ll be done when it’s done” which represents the principle that drove this neverending project. It worths reading the whole story that has been told in a splendid article published by Wired Magazine:

Learn To Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem

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]]> http://victorcaveda.com/2010/01/24/duke-nukem-forever-when-enough-is-not-enough/feed/ 2 caveda 3D Realms http://victorcaveda.com/2010/01/04/%c2%bfpor-que-las-cebras-no-tienen-ulcera/ http://victorcaveda.com/2010/01/04/%c2%bfpor-que-las-cebras-no-tienen-ulcera/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:00:34 +0000 caveda http://victorcaveda.com/?p=271 ]]> ¿Por qué las cebras no tienen úlcera?

De Robert M. Sapolsky

Tengo por costumbre de leer de cuando en cuando algún libro científico que no tiene nada que ver con aquello que me da de comer. Creo que es bueno saber bastante de una materia (básicamente para poder comer de ella) pero también hay que conocer un poco de todo lo demás. En este caso me ha parecido que no era mala idea saber algo del Estrés que todos mejor o peor sobrellevamos. Aunque parece haber miles de libros sobre el asunto en cuestión, fue fácil encontrar el libro adecuado porque no me interesaba un manual de autoayuda sino algo que explicase el porqué desde el punto de vista físico… y de estos últimos hay pocos.

Principalmente este libro se divide en dos partes: por un lado se explican las causas y consecuencias fisiológicas del estrés en lo relativo a las diferentes funciones del cuerpo (circulación, digestión, sexo, memoria, sueño, etc) para finalmente tratar los factores psicológicos y socioeconómicos.  Este último muy interesante explicando la relación entre estrés y desigualdades económicas, exponiendo  que no sólo ser pobre es un factor estresante (quizás el mayor de todos) sino también sentirse como tal. El libro se remata con un capítulo dedicado a las estrategias de control y mitigación del estrés…sin recetas mágicas pero científicamente demostradas.

Uno de los aspectos más memorables es el estilo divulgativo e informal del Robert Sapolsky. Se menciona una gran cantidad de estudios citados (y explicados con sorprendente sencillez) que avalan cada una de las afirmaciones, lo cual es más o menos normal en cualquier ensayo científico…pero lo novedoso es que cuando las cosas no están claras, también se explica por qué no están claras. Para alguien no-científico como yo, hay que decir que las 500 págs. se hacen duras por momentos (debido a toda la terminología científica: hormonas, neurotransmisores, receptores, etc) pero sólo por momentos porque es casi siempre interesante y está aderezado con partes hilarantes (por ejemplo las dedicadas a los babuinos).

Tras su lectura, realmente uno llega a entender la razón de que alguna decisión importante te altere el sueño o el apetito, mientras que irte a correr media hora por el parque o una cerveza con los amigos te haga olvidarte por completo de un estresante día de trabajo.

Robert Sapolsky fue entrevistado por Eduardo Punset para el programa Redes, este es el vídeo emitido:

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