Sequim Vacation Rental photos

Dear Sequim visitors,

It was fun to publish a few of our 'Bell Hill View' Sequim Vacation Rental guestbook comments in our last post. Here are a few of the latest glimpses of our Sequim house near Carrie Blake, Carrie Blake Park photos and Sequim town.

Actually, today we have another update for our Sequim vacation rental guests. The private outdoor sitting area next to the vacation apartment received a remodeling job by Keoki. He added a nice little concrete platform for underneath the outdoor furniture which he surrounded by little pebbles. Looks really very inviting for sitting outside on a warm summer day.

We didn't have too many warm summer days yet but when we took the photos, Sequim town was blessed with blue skies and warm sunny weather.

Enjoy Sequim in Spring with our latest Sequim photos

Our Irises along the side of the house are in full bloom.

Keoki enjoys a moment of relaxation from his yard work.

Sequim Vacation Rental downstairs

Our visit Alder Wood Restaurant for lunch

Keoki with our Sequim best friends Sue and Bob at Alder Wood Bistro

Photo of snow-covered Olympic Mountains taken on our walk through the park

Couple of Canadian geese with their new babies

Canadian geese dad watches very carefully for eagles or other predators

AppSender BETA Version 1.5 Now available

A friend just informed me that AppSender does not run on Android 2.1 today. After a bit of research, I found the lame bug. There was a minor file system change between Android 2.1 and 2.2 and cause compatibility problems for my app. The bug is now fixed and tested on both Android 2.1 and 2.2 emulators as well as actual Android devices.

The new build (version 1.5) is now available on Android Market

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If you are running Android 2.1 and had problems in the past, it would be greatly appreciated if you can try this new build. Once again thanks for all that have send feedback about AppSender. I hope I can continue to make it better.

AppSender BETA Updated to v1.4

I made a small enhancement to AppSender.

The app list will now be displayed in alphabetical order. I should have done this when I first wrote the app.

This fix is in AppSender BETA 1.4, now available on Android Market. BTW, if you find any problems with my app, please let me know. I will try to fix it. Feel free to post comments in this blog to report problems. Thanks.

[Link to AppSender on Android Market]

How to install APK files to your android device

I was surfing the web today and it seems many people are asking questions about how to install APK files. I would like to give my 2 cents on this topic.

As you probably already know, Android applications have APK file extensions (i.e. game.apk).

Many pre-installed apps are located in /system/app folder.
For example:
Calendar app: /system/app/Calendar.apk.
Contacts app: /system/app/Contacts.apk

When you install new apps, its installed under /data/app folder.
For example:
Dropbox app: /data/app/com.dropbox.android-1.apk
Evernote app: /data/app/com.evernote-1.apk

The easiest way to install such app (APK file) is simply to visit android market and download/install the app. But how do you install APK file thats posted on a web site?

If you are an android developer, you already know how to do this with "adb install". Thats how I typically do it too to test my apps. But most people do not have android sdk installed and need alternative method. I have been using either dropbox or Gmail.

Dropbox app: You can use "Dropbox" on your android. I simply copy the APK into dropbox storage on my PC or Mac. Then I access the APK using Dropbox on my android. Just click on the APK in Dropbox and it will install the app. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dropbox.android

Gmail app: Email the APK file as an email attachment to your android. Make sure to open it with "Gmail" app. Some mail clients will only offer to save the attached APK file to your SDCARD. But if you are using Gmail app, the APK file attachment will have an "Install" button. Just click "Install" (see pic below). Hope this helps!!!

AppSender BETA Updated

AppSender BETA just been updated. It received an facelift.[DOWNLOAD AppSender]

The main user interface that displays all installed apps now displays product icon. It looks so much nicer now. As always, you can simply click on the App name to send it as an email attachment. The updated version is now available on Android Market. Support English and Japanese languages.

[DOWNLOAD AppSender for FREE from Android Market]

AppSender BETA now available at Android Market

AppSender BETA - Select and send an installed App from your Android

[FREE DOWNLOAD from Android Market]

AppSender BETA version is available for FREE until Sept 1, 2011. I hope some of you find the tool useful. I hope to enhance the tool as time goes...

Here's some background. This app was originally intended for developers who need to extract/copy apps from their Android device to other Android device or PC. On PC, you can simply drag and drop attachments to an email, but its not that simple on Android device.

If you are an Android developer, you can extract/copy apps using Android SDK "adb pull" command along with the apps "install path" name. Since the install path information is not available from default Android GUI, AppSender can be used to help identify the install path name. But to make things much easier, AppSender can automatically attach the selected app to an email on you Android device. Just pick an app from a list and AppSender will do the rest (send the app via email attachment). BTW, path name will also be included in the email body.

Hope you enjoy this tool. If you find a bug or have feedback, please email me at moto.android.software@gmail.com.



App will be available from Android market shortly. I'm planning to release it for free for limited time. More info shortly...

[FREE DOWNLOAD from Android Market]

Learnt Cheese making on a Holiday

I did not get an opportunity to stay at Acres Wild while on my visit to Coonoor in April 2011 but I did make it a point to meet Manzoor Khan, the man behind Acres Wild. One thing I liked most about Manzoor, is his accessibility be it on e-mail or phone call. On reaching Coonoor I called him up at around 10am and he was more than happy to meet me and my family to show us around his vast property that includes a cheese making unit. We met him at around 10:30am while he was already in the midst of introducing the geese near a small lake, to some school children from nearby Coimbatore who had come for a tour of Acres Wild property. Unfortunately his better half Tina was missing in action that day but he did admit that she was the brain behind the cheese making unit at Acres Wild.

He met me as if we had known each other for ages. We had only interacted over e-mail and phone calls in the past. The children were scrambling around to get his autograph, for his earlier successful role as a leading Bollywood producer and director of well known hits with his cousin Aamir Khan. But now he has settled down for a quiet life in the hills surrounded by nature far away from the glamorous life he led at Bombay.

Manzoor was proud to admit that he learnt cheese making after coming down to Coonoor from his wife, Tina. He first showed us the natural biogas plant that he setup, which uses cattle manure as the only raw material to generate eco friendly energy. From here he took us to the cheese making unit and explained the entire cheese making process. Who says he is not an expert :) He took questions from everyone of us and meticulously explained each and every process. It was a great lesson on cheese making for me. I never imagined cheese making was an art before meeting Manzoor. Cheese and Wine manufacturing are so similar, where both are valued by its age and pedigree. There are so many varieties of cheese available and he explained most of them while taking us to the dark, cool cellar where cheese is stored to age. Later he invited us to taste the cheese prepared at the unit. It was given alongwith a biscuit and that was my first cheese tasting experience in my life.

Acres Wild also featured in HOMP hosted by my favorite foodies Rocky and Mayur (NDTV Good Times) and I did trail them here too.

I wished Manzoor good luck in his new venture and am sure he will be as successful here as he was in his previous Bollywood avatar. Maybe next time I will plan a stay at Acres Wild and learn cheese making in more detail......