PNRStatusApp v3 (for Android)

And thus the long awaited major update to PNRStatusApp (for Android) is nearly here. In the midst of very hectic work schedule, with new features and a new look the version 3 is almost completed. However taking advantage of the latest APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) provided by the Android platform, this version is only supported from Android Honeycomb (3.0) and above. The old version supported from Android Froyo (2.2) and above.


The newest feature added is the ability to search the message inbox for messages from IRCTC regarding booked tickets and displaying detailed information. This part still requires some more tweaking on.

The Messages are displayed in a 'StackView' that lets the user scroll through the list of messages.

More information coming soon...

Top 5 Most Influential Directors

This is a post about the most influential directors (for me). I think I can safely say most people may not agree with this list. The list will be updated every day with each director and a set of recommended works that I have seen.

Top Directors: No 1 – David Lynch

The controversial No.1 spot on my list has to go to David Lynch. Lynch is known for his surrealist, noir  and neo-noir films. He has developed his own cinematic style, which is often dubbed as “Lynchian”. Most of his films exhibit a non-linear narrative, which is not easy to comprehend for a first time watcher but is similar to what you can find in films of Nolan, Tarantino and the likes. Other distinctive traits of “Lynchian” films are the dream imagery, apt sound design, extreme use of symbolism and mysterious nature.

“Mulholland Drive” was the first Lynch film that I have seen. The brilliantness of this film is that although it seemed like any normal film, the last part of the film really work me up and I had to see it a couple of times to fully understand and notice all the intricacies portrayed in it.

So it’s safe to say that from Lynch’s films only, that I started to clearly notice everything in a film, even a minor object or dialog could help in understanding the film. Lynch doesn’t tell a story through a film, rather give some suggestions and let the viewer to interpret the story in their ways. As such most Lynch films can have multipleinterpretations and it doesn’t help when Lynch never comments on the meaning or symbolism of his films. DVD releases of Lynch film’s do not have chapters as Lynch believes, one should watch his films from end to end.

A 25 year old Lynch began studying film making at the AFI Conservatory in 1971 (he was studying for a career as painter before this). After five years of work, his first film (aided by grant from AFI and money raised from friends and family) “Eraserhead” was released in 1977. It is a surrealist horror film depicted in black and white.

Next up was mainstream success through the film “The Elephant Man”, based on true story. This film starred Antony Hopkins and achieved huge critical and commercial success. The film was also nominated in eight categories for Academy Awards.

The most different film by Lynch is “The Straight Story” -An old man makes a long journey by tractor to mend his relationship with an ill brother based on a true story. Lynch comments that this is his most experimental movie. It is strikingly a linear film, even shot in chronological order based on the actual route taken by ‘Alwin Straight’.

After that came “Mulholland Drive” in 2001 which earned Lynch the Best Director prize at the Cannes film festival.

His next film, “Inland Empire” from 2006 went one level higher from the previous film. A three hour long film, much like “Mulholland Drive” and “Lost Highway” did not follow a traditional movie structure. Titled ‘A woman in trouble’, takes the unsuspecting viewer on for a journey of their lives.A highly nonlinear film with multiple stories / dreams / realities intertwining. It was shot with actors getting freshly written dialogue each day!

Recommended Films: Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man, Inland Empire and The Straight Story.

He also co-created a TV Series called “Twin Peaks” and a follow up film “Twin Peaks: Fire walk with me”.

Top Directors: No 2 – Stanley Kubrick

Perfectionist.

That’s how you describe arguably the greatest director of all time. His films are noted for their unique cinematography (Kubrick started out as a Photographer), attention to detail and usage of innovative techniques and technologies. In his almost 50 year career as a director, it is an astonishing fact that he has directed only 13 feature films. It is mostly due to the fact that he does most of the research, screenplays, editing and other aspects of a film. He has the complete artistic control over films that he makes. And in those films he has covered a wide variety of genres which includes war, satire, romance, horror, epics etc.

The most famous of Kubrick’s films should be the epic science fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Released in 1968, it was a very innovative film with ground breaking special effects, portrayal of future, philosophical content, human evolution, artificial and extra-terrestrial intelligence.This film is truly a modern masterpiece and epic.

At this rate, I would have to write about each and every one of his films and the specialty and finesse on them. So I will cut short on that.A most fact to add is for the film “The Shining”, Kubrick was satisfied after around 150 takes for a certain scene. So much is Kubrick’s demand for perfection and attention to detail.

He has only one Oscar award to his name – Best Special Effects for “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Sadly, at the age of 70, four days after the screening of a final cut of his last film “Eyes Wide Shut”, Kubrick passed away from a heart attack on March 7, 1999.

Recommended Films: 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Shining, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, Dr. Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket

Top Directors: No 3 – Ingmar Bergman

The great Swedish director-writer is next on my list. Of almost his 40 films, I have but seen only 3 up until now. But they are excellent examples of the quality of this great film artist. His values film as an art rather than a commercial point of view.

The first film that I’ve seen was “The Seventh Seal” which tells the story of a medieval knight and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death. The film explores themes of God, faith, and how everyone becomes equal before death. There is a great artistic touch to the film in each scene. Thisfilm helped Bergman establish himself as a world-class director.

The second film that I saw was “Wild Strawberries” which is about an old man recalling his past. The film investigates questions about life and thought provoking themes like self-discovery and human existence. There are instances of the past and present co-existing as if reliving a memory which are quite extra ordinary.

And the film that made the greatest impression on me, yet,  is titled “Persona” – one could conclude that this is a simple film owing to being just 83 minutes running time, and only 4 characters of which only 2 appear for more than a minute of which one does all the speaking. It would seem to be boring, but is considered to be Bergman’s most important work. 

“A nurse is put in charge of an actress who can't talk and finds that the actress's persona is melding with hers.”-is what imdb says as a description for the film. The film follows a three act structure.The main characters can be seen as representing extremes. Both deliver stunning performances and there is brilliant cinematography by Sven Nykvist, a long term collaborator of Bergman’s.

There is extreme contrast in the imagery of most scenes. There is strong use of duality and symbolism throughout.

Recommended films: The Seventh Seal, Persona, Cries and Whispers

Top Directors: No 4 – Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan has to be an under rated director in the modern times (as in under rated by the Oscar Committee). The first film which I’ve seen directed by Nolan is “Memento”. It was my introduction to the unusual narrative in films, most notable non-linear. I had to see it multiple times, stop and think about the story lines that progressed in parallel and in reverse to make out the story. He went one better with “The Prestige” which is my favorite Nolan film.

What I like so much about Nolan is the way the stories and characters are developed and introduced to the viewer. Intricate plot elements are introduced to the viewer in subtle ways such as in “Inception”.

The dialogues play an important part in his films and the actors casted always play their roles to perfection. He frequently casts some actors in most of his films, like Sir Michael Caine. His brother, Jonathan Nolan is involved with the story for most of his films. 

Nolan leaves some part of the film for the user’s imagination and interpretations (e.g.: Ending of Inception, Dark Knight Rises). Nolan is simply one of the most talented and exceptional film makers in working today.

Recommended films: Memento, Inception, The Prestige, Batman Trilogy

Top Directors: No 5 – Sir Alfred Hitchcock

I will start my list with the master of suspense. In his career spanning almost six decades, Alfred developed a very distinctive directorial style. Apart from his earlier works including silent films and early films depicting drama and romance, he is well known for his films featuring suspense, mystery, twist endings and his cameo appearances in most of his films. His films sometimes contained plot devices termed as called “MacGuffin” or decoys to serve as thematic elements.

His most famous work has to be the psychological thriller “Psycho”. Although I felt a few of his films had similar plot like “Strangers on a Train” and “Dial M for Murder”.

He made around fifty films and is regarded as the greatest British filmmaker.

Recommended Films: Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, and Rope.

Change Splash Screen of Eclipse

A splash screen is the screen that some software show when started while it is doing some loading in the background. Now, I did some research on changing the splash screen for the Eclipse IDE, which I use quite frequently.

First step is to go to the "plugins" folder of your Eclipse installation.
Inside that look for a folder name that starts like "org.eclipse.platform_x.x..."
There you should be able to see a file called "splash.bmp".

All you need to do now is take a backup of it and create an image of the same size and place it in the same location. The next time you start your Eclipse, you can see this take effect.

PNRStatusApp V3 for Android

A complete rewrite for the PNRStatusApp for Android is going on. This one will be based on the Android Jellybean (4.1) API. The rewrite includes a new layout and using Fragments instead of Activities.

PNRStatusApp Class Diagram

Just created a class diagram for the PNRStatusApp for Android project using a plugin for Eclipse.

Here just the MainActivity and the Service classes are described.

Pnrstatusapp for Android 2.1

Some bug fixes later, the pnrstatusapp for android is working!

PNRStatusApp for Android

    The PNRStatusApp for Android, which was not working because of broken Service Providers interface has been fixed. The app is still not available in the Google Play Store and is under Alpha testing phase. Following are some screen shots of the app in action.

Home Screen to add PNRNumbers

Detailed Status of the PNRNumber

About the App Screen

As mentioned in the About screen, this application does not store any information retrieved about the PNR number and also is not commercial in nature.

This application is a part of self learning to the Android Application development. The following details were explored in this application.

• Skinning applications, buttons etc
• Custom Adapter for a List View
• Calling a web service and parsing the response
• Check if Internet connection is available
• Moving between activities
• Passing custom objects between activities
• Sharing content
• Different layouts used in Android (and how to optimally use them)

That's a good number of features to learn using a simple application. 

Designing the PNRStatusApp Promo Poster

In the following post, I will describe my designing experience for the Promo Poster for the PNRStatusApp.

Step One as always will be to make a drawing on paper, preferably with pencil, though I used a Pen here. The layout, elements, white spaces are all mentioned in a rough manner. It is important that the design does not look busy or over crowded. We would not be thinking about colors or font faces at this point. And I made this mockup for the promo.

 Next step is to fire up a graphics program, in my case I am comfortable with Adobe Fireworks. It is quite easy to learn and work with especially for doing designs like this and also for web developments.

You can digitize the drawing if you want and keep it in a background layer of the application as a reference or visually look at your drawing for reference.

Once you start with the digital tool, it's important that you choose and use few fonts and colors. The colors used for the promo poster here are taken from the application itself, a shade of blue. Limit the use of fonts, usually one for headings and another one for body. And that's pretty much that for this design :)