RajDoshi.com

A-Star Euchre 3D

2009-08-10T03:42:35Z

Yesterday, Dan, Alex, and I released our new iPhone App on the App Store: A-Star Euchre 3D. Check out the Online Video to see it in action.

Picks 2009

2009-03-19T16:11:43Z

And the madness descends upon us once again...

It's that time of year again, where I post my picks for the Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament. Being an annual tradition, it's also a good time to reflect on the past year.

The big event for me was the June, 2008, release of Taco HTML Edit 2, which is the first version of Taco HTML Edit distributed as shareware instead of freeware. Taco HTML Edit 2 had been in the works since about March of 2007. It was a big challenge completing Taco while still working my day job at Cardinal Solutions as an IT consultant. With the success of Taco HTML Edit, I was able to leave my consulting job in January to focus full-time on Taco Software, and I'm now working furiously on the next Taco HTML Edit release, as well as planning future titles that may emerge from Taco Software. I'd like to thank everyone who has supported me through this endeavor, including my family, friends, former co-workers, and Taco Software's customers.

Anyway, here are the picks.

Picks 2008

2008-03-20T02:26:59Z

Well, it's that time of year again, so here are my picks for the NCAA basketball tournament. I didn't realize until now that I picked the same finalists that I had last year.

Picks 2007

2007-03-15T02:40:46Z

My Picks for the NCAA tournament are here! This time, I even have $5 resting on them.

Life

2006-05-04T05:55:54Z

Wow, its been awhile since I last posted. I guess I should try to provide an overview of the past couple months:

My MacBook Pro has been working great. I downloaded Boot Camp, and then installed Windows XP on it. I decided to buy a game, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, which is an awesome game and runs very well on my hardware. So basically, I reboot into Windows whenever I want to play games and use Mac OS X when productivity is desired.
I visited my parents in West Virginia over Spring Break.
In the weeks following Spring Break, I worked frantically on writing my thesis. I defended it a couple weeks ago, and I'll probably be posting the thesis in this journal sometime so that people can find it on Google.
I had one final exam, which was on Wednesday. I'm hoping to never have to take another exam (not that the one on Wednesday was bad or anything; I'm just tired of exams).
On Friday, I go apartment hunting in Cincinnati, where my job will be.
On Saturday, I leave for a trip to Hawaii with my parents.
I bought a 200 GB hard disk for backing up my files and general storage. I just purchased SuperDuper, a utility for automatic backups.
I bought an inexpensive wireless router to use in my new apartment and a new mouse. The Apple mouse I bought from JK several years ago was not working so well any more.
I've been doing some reading; maybe, I'll post a list of books I've read sometime.
I judged at Miami's high school programming contest.
I've been watching the Reds some. Another strong start, but I'm trying to constrain my optimism after previous disappointments.

MacBook Pro

2006-02-22T05:08:32Z

I ordered a MacBook Pro on January 10^th, only a few hours after they were announced by Steve Jobs on stage. Today, the MacBook arrived. Here are the specs:

2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo Processor
2GB DDR2 memory
100GB hard drive @ 7200 RPM
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics card with 256MB memory
Built-in iSight camera
Backlit keyboard
Apple Remote w/ Front Row software

Here are the complete specs.

When my computer arrived, I took the obligatory photos of taking it out of the box. Here we go...

The box. Very nice and much more compact than my PowerBook box was 4 years ago.

After opening the box. Is that a complimentary muffin tray?

The contents. Computer, power adapter, DVI/VGA adapter, Apple Remote. Can't wait to start digging in.

The computer. Isn't it shiny?

A top view. The flash of the camera produced a nice gradient on the aluminum casing.

The bottom. The larger rectangle is the battery, and the smaller one above it is the memory compartment.

The battery and memory compartments. When I ordered the computer, I saved money by only getting 1GB of RAM from Apple and ordering another 1GB chip separately. This image was taken after I installed the second chip.

MagSafe power connector. Apple introduced a very cool magnetic power connector that pulls out harmlessly when the cord is tripped upon.

Opened and ready for ignition.

The Apple Remote. Useful for presentations, DVDs, music, iPhoto slideshows, and impressing your friends.

The Backlight. Now, I can see in the dark.

So, what can I do with all of this advanced technology? Well, here's one thing:

China

2006-02-09T03:24:54Z

Some pictures of China that I enjoyed looking at.

Navs Site

2006-02-04T04:40:50Z

For the past few months, I've been working with some other people from Navigators to redo our web site. I was responsible for the programming part, including the photo albums and calendar and the behind-the-scenes stuff that allows staff to update those. We had a couple of graphic designers to make the site look good. We also had a couple other people involved who helped gather the content for the web site. Anyway, there's a screenshot below, following the aforementioned standards of browser screenshots.

New York, Day 2

2006-01-21T05:43:12Z

My second day in New York was spent visiting some of the popular sites. Here are the pictures with captions:

My first stop was the at the New York Public Library, where they try to keep everything free.

In the library's lobby.

One of the library's study rooms. The other study room, which had computers, seemed much more popular.

Grand Central Station: I got some food inside.

Empire State Building: I waited about 1.5-2.0 hours to go to the top.

Looking south from the top of ESB. My roommate, Alex, wanted a picture of the Statue of Liberty. Well, the Statue is in this picture; it's about 2 pixels tall. You might be interested to compare this picture with this one.

Still looking south, but downward. The street that cuts diagonally across everything is Broadway.

Looking north, the greenish patch in the middle of the city is Central Park.

So that sums up my trip. I'm sorry that I didn't try to be a story teller this time, but I can only be creative 3 times per year, and I didn't want to waste 2 instances on this New York trip.

New York

2006-01-15T06:39:26Z

So, I went to New York City about a week and a half ago for a job interview. Fortunately, I had some time to explore the city, so I can tell you a little about my excursion. We start off on the night of January 3rd, when I arrived at my hotel and took the elevator up to my room on the 7th floor. To my surprise, I was greeted in my room by three women.

I thought it might be fun to lie on the bed and take a picture of myself in the mirror. This is the only picture I took of myself during the trip.

It was late, and I was hungry, so I headed South down MacDougal Street and stumbled upon a small Mexican restaurant. I ordered myself a burrito plate and tried to get some mango juice, but they had run out. The burrito plate turned out to be quite large, but I ate it all, which I may have started to regret as the night wore on.

After my meal, I decided to go North. I passed through Washington Square Park, encountering a large Christmas tree under an arch and a man who wanted me to buy him a hot dog. I only have a picture of the former.

I continued northward up to Union Square, where they have a farmers' market three days each week. The picture below (which, unfortunately, is a bit blurry) was taken from the middle of the lot where the farmers' market is held. It depicts a Barnes and Noble bookstore, my next stop on my journey.

The Barnes and Noble store was quite large, spanning four stories, and I made the obligatory stop at the computer book section, spotting a book that makes mention (with a screenshot) of Taco HTML Edit. Considering that it was getting late, I decided to return to my hotel, the Washington Square Hotel, and watch the conclusion of the Penn State game. During the return trip, I strolled into a nearby Starbucks coffee shop, hoping to warm up by drinking one of their cold hot chocolates. I arrived at the hotel and crashed into bed after a long day, uneasy about sleeping under the gaze of three strange women. I knew that tomorrow would bring its own curiosities.

To Be Continued...

MacBook Pro

2006-01-13T04:30:48Z

This is my first week back at school. I'm basically taking one real course (Artificial Intelligence), a couple one-hour courses, and a bunch of research hours. On Tuesday, I ordered one of the new MacBook Pros from Apple. I got a pretty high end model (with the extended warranty; seems like new computer model with new chipset architecture is more liable to have problems). They're not scheduled to start shipping until February, so it'll be some time before its in my hands. Maybe, I'll engage in the common Mac-user practice of taking digital photographs of the unpackaging of a new Mac when it arrives. Last week, I went to New York City for a job interview. I'm going to try to post pictures of my travels soon.

West Virginia

2005-12-24T01:14:14Z

Well, I made it through final exams, and now I'm hanging out in West Virginia with my family. Tomorrow, we're heading up to Pennsylvania to see relatives for Christmas. During the past week, I had the pleasure of moving my web sites to a new host. My old host is, I guess you could say, going out of business. My new host is HostGator. HostGator has seemed pretty good so far.

N

2005-10-30T04:33:10Z

Last week was a very busy one for me. I did my thesis proposal, which went pretty well. I've also been spending quite a bit of time on a multi-agent systems group assignment. What have I been doing in my free time? I've been playing a game called N. The game is in part inspired by Lode Runner, but it definitely has some unique aspects (besides, I really liked Lode Runner anyway). I encourage anyone interested to download N. It's free!

Job II

2005-10-21T04:04:06Z

Today, I received the job offer in the mail that I was expecting. I decided to cancel the Cleveland interview. I picked up some Taco Bell after Bible study. I'm sleepy.

Job

2005-10-11T00:59:09Z

Lately, I've been job hunting, which means a lot of time spent doing interviews and attending information sessions and stuff like that. I had two on-campus interviews and a phone interview last week. On Friday (a day that Miami doesn't have classes for Fall break), I'm headed to Cincinnati for an interview with a relatively small technology consulting company (looks like a good place to work!). Monday, I have another on-campus interview. The Friday after that, I've been invited to an interview in Cleveland (a follow up to one of the on-campus interviews). Hopefully, I'll get a decent job offer soon and not have to worry about doing so many job interviews.

Here's a question for the casual reader:
How many interviews can you wear a suit to until it needs to be washed?

I've been doing some fun things lately too. I went on a late-night hike on a trail near Miami with some friends. I played some Skittle wars (like Capture-the-Flag?).