I came across a list of 101 very useful but not very highly known websites that can be very useful for example for sharing your screen over the internet with others, or editing pdf files in the browser, or create nice charts/graphs, and so on.
Check out the links on original post here. You can also download the full article in pdf from the bottom of the original post.
Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Get free email alerts when your website is down
Recently Amit Agarwal of Digital Inspirations posted a nice article on how to get free email alerts when your website goes down. His solution uses Google Docs Spreadsheet with some nice scripting using Google URL Fetch Service, Google Mail Service and Google Spreadsheet API to create a trigger to check for the specified URL at the given intervals. The script logs the status of the test and also emails the specified address with the details when there are issues and also after the site is back.
Check out the details and get the Google Doc Spreadsheet from his blog post here.
Check out the details and get the Google Doc Spreadsheet from his blog post here.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Cloud based app delivery starts heating up
Embarcadero Technologies has come up with its AppWave Store which converts Windows applications into apps and then delivers them through its own AppBrowser, thus removing the need to install applications. It also provides a free AppWave Studio to developers to convert their Windows applications into AppWave apps.
On the other hand, Numecent has come out of stealth mode with a new concept call Cloud Paging where it almost automatically "cloudifies" applications using its' Jukebox Studio tool which is then published to the Jukebox Server from where it is delivered to the client. Looks like a very interesting technology as it provides real time control over licensing, patching & upgrading. It also reduces the footprint by delivering only those pages that are required with an intelligent mechanism to predict and pre-deliver pages before they are required for commonly used scenarios.
On the other hand, Numecent has come out of stealth mode with a new concept call Cloud Paging where it almost automatically "cloudifies" applications using its' Jukebox Studio tool which is then published to the Jukebox Server from where it is delivered to the client. Looks like a very interesting technology as it provides real time control over licensing, patching & upgrading. It also reduces the footprint by delivering only those pages that are required with an intelligent mechanism to predict and pre-deliver pages before they are required for commonly used scenarios.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Full featured hosting for $1.99 per month
For those on the lookout for a good Web Hosting Deal, WebHostingPad.com is now offering full featured unlimited hosting for $1.99/month when prepaid for 4 or 5 years!
For those looking for affordable Linux + Java/JSP Web Hosting, DailyRazor is providing a full featured unlimited hosting including Shared Tomcat for $4.60/month when prepaid for 3 years!
If looking for a regular hosting, DailyRazor is offering a full featured unlimited web hosting for only $2.95/month when prepaid for 3 years.
Use coupon code 15PD for another 15% discount at DailyRazor!
For those looking for affordable Linux + Java/JSP Web Hosting, DailyRazor is providing a full featured unlimited hosting including Shared Tomcat for $4.60/month when prepaid for 3 years!
If looking for a regular hosting, DailyRazor is offering a full featured unlimited web hosting for only $2.95/month when prepaid for 3 years.
Use coupon code 15PD for another 15% discount at DailyRazor!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Useful jQuery Tips
Recently I have started playing around a bit with jQuery and find it quite amazing. To Quote straight from the jQuery site: jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript
In essence, what this means is that if you are not so good at understanding & writing complex JavaScript, use this wrapper/framework to simplify your coding life! This also implies that using jQuery could be slower than rolling your own library if your needs are limited and you can afford to dirty your hands with JavaScript.
But, since I had decided to play with and use jQuery anyways, I started to look around for good articles and found this very useful article by Jon Hobbs-Smith of TVI Design UK.
Here are a few useful cheat sheets:
The visually best one I felt is (a rather big one at 6 pages) JQuery 1.3 Cheat Sheet by Woorkup.
Another good one with nice details is jQuery Cheat Sheet by Matt Kruse - its available in various formats and for different versions as well!
Be sure to check the comments on these posts for other people's observations and also ensure that you use the cheat sheet appropriate for the version of jQuery you are using!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Implement reCAPTCHA with Classic ASP and Validate with AJAX
A friend asked me to help implementing reCAPTCHA with classic ASP which I successfully managed to implement even though I have not dabbled much with ASP - read the implementation here.
So now the expectations rise and he asks me to validate reCaptcha using AJAX - I do not have any experience of AJAX combined with ASP either.
Going through the resources section of the recaptcha.net site did not help much in this regard. So here are the steps that I did to achieve this. Note that most parts of the solution here have been taken from various pages on the net which are listed at the bottom of this post in the References section.
There are 6 parts of the code as follows:
1. JavaScript to create reCaptcha on the page that has the input form
Here is the code that needs to be placed in the ASP file to generate the JavaScript which when called, generates the code for reCaptcha. The generated string needs to be placed in your form where you want the reCaptcha to be displayed.
2. Insert the created reCaptcha in the desired location
Here is how you need to place the code in your form where you want the reCaptcha to be displayed.
3. Generic JavaScript to make AJAX call
Here is a generic JavaScript function to make an AJAX call
4. Make AJAX call to Server-side component to validate reCaptcha
Here is the JavaScript "onClick" function that will make the specific call to the server-side component to validate the reCaptcha input.
5. Handle AJAX validation response from server-side component
Here code that needs to be put in the asp file that processes the submitted form.
6. Server side component to validate the reCaptcha
Here code that needs to be put in the asp file that processes the submitted form.
Note:
References:
So now the expectations rise and he asks me to validate reCaptcha using AJAX - I do not have any experience of AJAX combined with ASP either.
Going through the resources section of the recaptcha.net site did not help much in this regard. So here are the steps that I did to achieve this. Note that most parts of the solution here have been taken from various pages on the net which are listed at the bottom of this post in the References section.
There are 6 parts of the code as follows:
- JavaScript to create reCaptcha on the page that has the input form
- Insert the created reCaptcha in the desired location
- Generic JavaScript to make AJAX call
- Make AJAX call to Server-side component to validate reCaptcha
- Handle AJAX validation response from server-side component
- Server side component to validate the reCaptcha
1. JavaScript to create reCaptcha on the page that has the input form
Here is the code that needs to be placed in the ASP file to generate the JavaScript which when called, generates the code for reCaptcha. The generated string needs to be placed in your form where you want the reCaptcha to be displayed.
<%
recaptcha_public_key = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
function recaptcha_challenge_writer(publickey)
recaptcha_challenge_writer = "<script type=""text/javascript"">" & _
"var RecaptchaOptions = {" & _
" theme : 'red'," & _
" tabindex : 0" & _
"};" & _
"</script>" & _
"<script type=""text/javascript"" src=""http://api.recaptcha.net/challenge?k=" & publickey & """></script>" & _
"<noscript>" & _
"<iframe src=""http://api.recaptcha.net/noscript?k=" & publickey & """ frameborder=""1""></iframe>
" & _
"<textarea name=""recaptcha_challenge_field"" id=""recaptcha_challenge_field"" rows=""3"" cols=""40""></textarea>" & _
"<input type=""hidden"" name=""recaptcha_response_field"" id=""recaptcha_response_field"" value=""manual_challenge"">" & _
"</noscript>"
end function
%>
2. Insert the created reCaptcha in the desired location
Here is how you need to place the code in your form where you want the reCaptcha to be displayed.
<%=recaptcha_challenge_writer(recaptcha_public_key)%>
3. Generic JavaScript to make AJAX call
Here is a generic JavaScript function to make an AJAX call
4. Make AJAX call to Server-side component to validate reCaptcha
Here is the JavaScript "onClick" function that will make the specific call to the server-side component to validate the reCaptcha input.
5. Handle AJAX validation response from server-side component
Here code that needs to be put in the asp file that processes the submitted form.
// The function for handling the response from the server
var showMessageResponse = function (oXML) {
// get the response text, into a variable
var response = oXML.responseText;
// act on the result from the server
if (response == "PASS") {
//alert("Captcha Passed ...");
document.getElementById("Form1").action = "process_form.asp";
document.getElementById("Form1").submit();
} else {
// Reload the captcha image if the validation failed & alert the user
alert("Captcha Failed. Please try again ...");
Recaptcha.reload();
}
};
6. Server side component to validate the reCaptcha
Here code that needs to be put in the asp file that processes the submitted form.
'Define some variables to be used on page
dim pubkey, privkey, challenge, form_response, test_captcha, recaptcha_confirm
'Customize your public and private keys and other variables
pubkey = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
privkey = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
' Get the user input
challenge = Request.Form("recaptcha_challenge_field")
form_response = Request.Form("recaptcha_response_field")
' Generate the POST string for reCaptcha
Dim VarString
VarString = _
"privatekey=" & privkey & _
"&remoteip=" & Request.ServerVariables("REMOTE_ADDR") & _
"&challenge=" & challenge & _
"&response=" & form_response
' Make an AJAX call to validate input reCaptcha
Dim objXmlHttp
Set objXmlHttp = Server.CreateObject("Msxml2.ServerXMLHTTP")
if isNull(objXmlHttp) then
Set objXmlHttp = Server.CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")
end if
objXmlHttp.open "POST", "http://api-verify.recaptcha.net/verify", False
objXmlHttp.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
objXmlHttp.send VarString
' Receive response from reCaptcha server
Dim ResponseString
ResponseString = split(objXmlHttp.responseText, vblf)
Set objXmlHttp = Nothing
if ResponseString(0) = "true" then
'They answered captcha correctly
response.write("PASS")
else
'They answered captcha incorrectly
response.write("FAIL")
end if
Note:
- Of course, you need to sign-up for a free reCaptcha account at reCaptcha.net.
- The above steps 1, 3, 4 & 5 can be put in the same script block.
- The above step 2 needs to be put in the place in the form where reCaptcha is to be shown.
- Remember to substitute the public & private keys with the ones that you get when you sign up for a free reCaptcha account.
- This is a very basic, no-frills version. You can modularize, clean-up, optimize and add more error-handling. But this should be good enough to get you started!
References:
- This Google Groups post
- reCaptcha resources page
- This post on Jeff Niblack's Blog
- This post on World of Code Blog
- This blog post on Dark Side of Carton.
Syntax Highlighter now available for Blogger
I had been putting off using Syntax Highlighter for quite some time as it required me to host the files somewhere and then use them. Also, using it for a Blogger Blog did not seem to be so straight-forward and did not produce clean results. This was the status when I had last checked it out quite some time back.
So when reviewed a post I wrote with a lot of code in it, I was saddened that I had not add Syntax Highlighter to my blog. So I decided to take a second look and was pleasantly surprised to see both my issues resolved! Now there was an option for using the hosted version of the files and also there was a very neat blogger mode!
So now finally, you don't need to look around for someone to host the Syntax Highlighter files for you - you can use the hosted version of the Syntax Highlighter files. And there is a very good bloggerMode! which helps to integrates very cleanly with Blogger.
So when reviewed a post I wrote with a lot of code in it, I was saddened that I had not add Syntax Highlighter to my blog. So I decided to take a second look and was pleasantly surprised to see both my issues resolved! Now there was an option for using the hosted version of the files and also there was a very neat blogger mode!
So now finally, you don't need to look around for someone to host the Syntax Highlighter files for you - you can use the hosted version of the Syntax Highlighter files. And there is a very good bloggerMode! which helps to integrates very cleanly with Blogger.
Implementing reCaptcha in Classic ASP
A friend of mine was very impressed with reCaptcha and wanted me to help him implement on his website that uses classic ASP! Going through the posts mentioned in the reference below gave me a bit of an idea but the solution was not very clear. Here's how I finally implemented it...
There are 3 parts of the code as follows:
1. JavaScript to create reCaptcha on the page that has the input form
Here is the code that needs to be placed in the ASP file to generate the JavaScript which when called, generates the code for reCaptcha. The generated string needs to be placed in your form where you want the reCaptcha to be displayed.
2. Insert the created reCaptcha in the desired location
Here is how you need to place the code in your form where you want the reCaptcha to be displayed.
3. Server side component to validate the reCaptcha
Here code that needs to be put in the asp file that processes the submitted form.
Note:
References:
There are 3 parts of the code as follows:
- JavaScript to create reCaptcha on the page that has the input form
- Insert the created reCaptcha in the desired location
- Server side component to validate the reCaptcha
1. JavaScript to create reCaptcha on the page that has the input form
Here is the code that needs to be placed in the ASP file to generate the JavaScript which when called, generates the code for reCaptcha. The generated string needs to be placed in your form where you want the reCaptcha to be displayed.
<%
recaptcha_public_key = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
function recaptcha_challenge_writer(publickey)
recaptcha_challenge_writer = "<script type=""text/javascript"">" & _
"var RecaptchaOptions = {" & _
" theme : 'red'," & _
" tabindex : 0" & _
"};" & _
"</script>" & _
"<script type=""text/javascript"" src=""http://api.recaptcha.net/challenge?k=" & publickey & """></script>" & _
"<noscript>" & _
"<iframe src=""http://api.recaptcha.net/noscript?k=" & publickey & """ frameborder=""1""></iframe>
" & _
"<textarea name=""recaptcha_challenge_field"" id=""recaptcha_challenge_field"" rows=""3"" cols=""40""></textarea>" & _
"<input type=""hidden"" name=""recaptcha_response_field"" id=""recaptcha_response_field"" value=""manual_challenge"">" & _
"</noscript>"
end function
%>
2. Insert the created reCaptcha in the desired location
Here is how you need to place the code in your form where you want the reCaptcha to be displayed.
<%=recaptcha_challenge_writer(recaptcha_public_key)%>
3. Server side component to validate the reCaptcha
Here code that needs to be put in the asp file that processes the submitted form.
'Define some variables to be used on page
dim pubkey, privkey, challenge, form_response, test_captcha, recaptcha_confirm
'Customize your public and private keys and other variables
pubkey = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
privkey = "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
' Get the user input
challenge = Request.Form("recaptcha_challenge_field")
form_response = Request.Form("recaptcha_response_field")
' Generate the POST string for reCaptcha
Dim VarString
VarString = _
"privatekey=" & privkey & _
"&remoteip=" & Request.ServerVariables("REMOTE_ADDR") & _
"&challenge=" & challenge & _
"&response=" & form_response
' Make an AJAX call to validate input reCaptcha
Dim objXmlHttp
Set objXmlHttp = Server.CreateObject("Msxml2.ServerXMLHTTP")
if isNull(objXmlHttp) then
Set objXmlHttp = Server.CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")
end if
objXmlHttp.open "POST", "http://api-verify.recaptcha.net/verify", False
objXmlHttp.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
objXmlHttp.send VarString
' Receive response from reCaptcha server
Dim ResponseString
ResponseString = split(objXmlHttp.responseText, vblf)
Set objXmlHttp = Nothing
if ResponseString(0) = "true" then
'They answered captcha correctly
''' Handle Success scenario
else
'They answered captcha incorrectly
''' Handle Failure scenario
end if
Note:
- Of course, you need to sign-up for a free reCaptcha account at reCaptcha.net.
- The code in step 3 above needs to be put in the top of the file which processes your submitted form - the asp file that is mentioned in the action of this particular form. The above code needs to be executed before anything else in that file.
- It's regular processing steps should be put in the if block (line 37) that has the comment that the user answered the captcha correctly.
- Error message display logic should go into the else block (line 40) that has the comment that the user answered the captcha incorrectly.
- Remember to substitute the public & private keys with the ones that you get when you sign up for a free reCaptcha account.
- This is a very basic, no-frills version. You can modularize, clean-up, optimize and add more error-handling. But this should be good enough to get you started!
References:
- This Google Groups post
- reCaptcha resources page
- This post on Jeff Niblack's Blog
- This post on World of Code Blog
Thursday, April 8, 2010
URL Rewrite very slow on IIS7
My friend has an ASP shopping cart running on Windows 2008 Server + IIS7 + SQL Server. This cart does not support SEO / user friendly URLs and apparently due to that, his site was getting very low rankings on the search engines. He called me in to help him out implement URL Rewriting to resolve this. Here is my experience with this problem and finally how I went about resolving this.
So the first step was to install the URL Rewrite Module 2.0 for IIS. Next was to configure the rewriting of the URLs - the cart produced URLs of the form store/listItems.asp?cat=123&item=456. The item id number and the corresponding category id number changed for different items so putting in a generic regular expression would not work. So we would need to create static rewrite maps to achieve our goal.
So I created a rewrite map with entries like /store/listItems.asp?cat=123&item=456 mapped to /Item1 and /store/listItems.asp?cat=123&item=457 mapped to /Item2 and so on. This worked but the page did not come up properly. Investigation revealed that this was due to the HTML having relative URLs for CSS, Image & JavaScript files. I changed paths to absolute paths and lo-behold it was working fine! However, when using the user-friendly URL, the pages would come up quite slow compared to the page display using the old URLs.
In fact the pages came up so slow that we had to scrap this idea and look for other alternatives. Finally, after a lot of investigation, we fixed on the ages-old method of creating static HTML index files in folders named by each category. The header, footer & navigation menus would be common and kept in common folder. I know that this is not such a good idea and will result in creation of hundreds of folders with only an index file. But what the heck - it is simple, it works and it gets the job done!
So the first step was to install the URL Rewrite Module 2.0 for IIS. Next was to configure the rewriting of the URLs - the cart produced URLs of the form store/listItems.asp?cat=123&item=456. The item id number and the corresponding category id number changed for different items so putting in a generic regular expression would not work. So we would need to create static rewrite maps to achieve our goal.
So I created a rewrite map with entries like /store/listItems.asp?cat=123&item=456 mapped to /Item1 and /store/listItems.asp?cat=123&item=457 mapped to /Item2 and so on. This worked but the page did not come up properly. Investigation revealed that this was due to the HTML having relative URLs for CSS, Image & JavaScript files. I changed paths to absolute paths and lo-behold it was working fine! However, when using the user-friendly URL, the pages would come up quite slow compared to the page display using the old URLs.
In fact the pages came up so slow that we had to scrap this idea and look for other alternatives. Finally, after a lot of investigation, we fixed on the ages-old method of creating static HTML index files in folders named by each category. The header, footer & navigation menus would be common and kept in common folder. I know that this is not such a good idea and will result in creation of hundreds of folders with only an index file. But what the heck - it is simple, it works and it gets the job done!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Cheap Webhosting Deals
It seems that April is the month for Cheap Web Hosting Deals!!!
Here is a round-up of the cheapest (but not necessarily the best) web hosting deals I found out.
However, my personal favorite is always BlueHost for their excellent support & fast servers. Check out my post on the same here.
NOTE: No guarantees on the validity of the offers or the quality of the services. I am in no way connected to any of these hosting companies and the links provided are direct links (no affiliate tracking code). I do not gain in any way from you clicking on any of these links and/or signing up for any of these offers!!!
Lifetime Webhosting for $79
HostSure is offering a full featured lifetime web hosting for only $79 where most companies offer that for $60-$100/year.
Facade Host
Facade Host is offering shared web hosting packages for as low as only only $0.85/month where most companies offer that for $2-$5/month. Use coupon code april for a further 20% discount!
Cookie Host
Cookie Host is offering shared web hosting packages for as low as only only $5/year where most companies offer that for $60-$100/year. Note that the promotion starts on April 7th 2010 and is valid only for new hosting accounts. The good thing is that they do not automatically rebill you at the end of the first year and you will be given the option to renew at the then prevailing regular price.
Just Host
Just Host is offering a full featured unlimited web hosting with free domain for the life of hosting for only $3.45/month when prepaying for 2 years. Use coupon code 50OFF for a further discount to bring down the price to $2.95/month when prepaying for 2 years!
Fat Cow
Fat Cow is offering a full featured unlimited "green" web hosting with free domain for the life of hosting for only $66/year!
Dream Host
Dream Host is offering a full featured unlimited "green" web hosting with free domain for the life of hosting for only $9.24/year with coupon code 777!
Daily Razor
Daily Razor is offering a full featured unlimited web hosting for only $2.95/month. Use coupon code 15PD for another 15% discount!
NOTE: Not all of these plans may suit your needs
Here is a round-up of the cheapest (but not necessarily the best) web hosting deals I found out.
However, my personal favorite is always BlueHost for their excellent support & fast servers. Check out my post on the same here.
NOTE: No guarantees on the validity of the offers or the quality of the services. I am in no way connected to any of these hosting companies and the links provided are direct links (no affiliate tracking code). I do not gain in any way from you clicking on any of these links and/or signing up for any of these offers!!!
Lifetime Webhosting for $79
HostSure is offering a full featured lifetime web hosting for only $79 where most companies offer that for $60-$100/year.
Facade Host
Facade Host is offering shared web hosting packages for as low as only only $0.85/month where most companies offer that for $2-$5/month. Use coupon code april for a further 20% discount!
Cookie Host
Cookie Host is offering shared web hosting packages for as low as only only $5/year where most companies offer that for $60-$100/year. Note that the promotion starts on April 7th 2010 and is valid only for new hosting accounts. The good thing is that they do not automatically rebill you at the end of the first year and you will be given the option to renew at the then prevailing regular price.
Just Host
Just Host is offering a full featured unlimited web hosting with free domain for the life of hosting for only $3.45/month when prepaying for 2 years. Use coupon code 50OFF for a further discount to bring down the price to $2.95/month when prepaying for 2 years!
Fat Cow
Fat Cow is offering a full featured unlimited "green" web hosting with free domain for the life of hosting for only $66/year!
Dream Host
Dream Host is offering a full featured unlimited "green" web hosting with free domain for the life of hosting for only $9.24/year with coupon code 777!
Daily Razor
Daily Razor is offering a full featured unlimited web hosting for only $2.95/month. Use coupon code 15PD for another 15% discount!
NOTE: Not all of these plans may suit your needs
Monday, March 22, 2010
Install WordPress on IIS7
A friend of mine wanted me help him install WordPress on his website - no big deal as WP is famous for it's 5 minute installs and so I figured this should be a cake walk for me. Little did I know that my friend's web-server was IIS7 on Windows Server 2008 and this would translate to a 5 hour install :(
Google, pointed me to a very good site that helped me out - trainsignaltraining.com.
Here are the components that you need to download:
Here are the Installation steps:
However, here are a few "gotchas" that need to be taken care of:
Note: I am assuming that IIS7 is already installed. If not, then there's a good tutorial for that as well here!
Google, pointed me to a very good site that helped me out - trainsignaltraining.com.
Here are the components that you need to download:
Here are the Installation steps:
- Install & configure PHP
- Install & configure MySQL
- Install & configure PHPMyAdmin
- Install & configure URL Rewrite Extension
- Install & configure WordPress
- Configure Search Engine Friendly URLs on WordPress
However, here are a few "gotchas" that need to be taken care of:
- For PHPMyAdmin to work, you may need to change in config.inc.php
$cfg[$i]['host'] = ‘localhost’; to
$cfg[$i]['host'] = ‘127.0.01’; or
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = ‘127.0.0.1′ - For PHPMyAdmin to work, you may need to change in config.inc.php
controluser = ‘pma’ to
controluser = ‘root’ - For PHPMyAdmin to work, you may need to change windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file:
Remove the comment (#) in front of the line 127.0.0.1
Comment out the line ::1 localhost - Read the comments in all the pages as they have solutions to a lot of common problems
Note: I am assuming that IIS7 is already installed. If not, then there's a good tutorial for that as well here!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wearable Computers to have a "Sixth Sense"!
Wearable computers have a Sixth Sense - imagination or reality? Pranav Mistry of MIT Media Lab has created a device to exactly fit this bill!
Pranav Mistry is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT's Media Lab. He has invented a wearable system made out of off-the-shelf components that augment the way the wearer interacts with his environment. It consists of a web-cam, a small projector with a mirror, a connection to the cell phone (for internet connectivity) and four different colored finger caps for the gestures. He has named it SixthSense. According to him, it costs about $350 to build the hardware. The source code for the software has been put in the open by him releasing it under GPL.
This brings up a few technical questions:
And a few questions which are not so technical:
It's very difficult to correctly & satisfactorily answer these questions. But while we ponder on the possible answers, check out this video that demonstrates the Sixth Sense Device at TEDIndia held at Mysore, India in November 2009.
The demo is just awesome - imagine what the final device/system will be when it is fully mature!
Pranav Mistry is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT's Media Lab. He has invented a wearable system made out of off-the-shelf components that augment the way the wearer interacts with his environment. It consists of a web-cam, a small projector with a mirror, a connection to the cell phone (for internet connectivity) and four different colored finger caps for the gestures. He has named it SixthSense. According to him, it costs about $350 to build the hardware. The source code for the software has been put in the open by him releasing it under GPL.
This brings up a few technical questions:
- What is the hardware platform that is doing all the intensive computation?
- What language(s) have been used to create the software platform?
- How about the battery - all the devices require a lot of juice. Is it feasible to get good battery life over extended periods?
- What happens in cases where connectivity to internet is lost?
- Does it have ample local storage & intelligence built in, to work in offline mode and go online only when necessary?
- Does it sync up it's knowledge (stored locally) to & from the base computer?
And a few questions which are not so technical:
- Will this device ever be commercially available since the software has been GPL-ed?
- Will we become so dependant on such devices for our interaction with our immediate environment that we loose our human touch & OUR sixth sense?
- Would he have been able to create something as good had he continued his education in India?
- What else lies in future - will we become Humanoids?
It's very difficult to correctly & satisfactorily answer these questions. But while we ponder on the possible answers, check out this video that demonstrates the Sixth Sense Device at TEDIndia held at Mysore, India in November 2009.
The demo is just awesome - imagine what the final device/system will be when it is fully mature!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Creating good HTML emails
Creating good HTML email is a totally different ball game! All the rules/concepts that apply to creating good web pages do not necessary apply to creating good HTML emails at all.
In fact, none of the theories for creating good HTML web pages holds true for creating good HTML emails!
In this article, David Greiner gives a good idea what should and shouldn't be done. Incidentally, this validated most of the stuff that we had already been doing based on our experience with various webmails & HTML email blasts/campaigns that we worked on.
Here are the summary of points given by him:
And now, some more considerations for mobile emails:
Read the full article by David Greiner on 24ways.org for the details and the code here.
In fact, none of the theories for creating good HTML web pages holds true for creating good HTML emails!
In this article, David Greiner gives a good idea what should and shouldn't be done. Incidentally, this validated most of the stuff that we had already been doing based on our experience with various webmails & HTML email blasts/campaigns that we worked on.
Here are the summary of points given by him:
- Use tables for layout and as containers for background colors
- Use nested tables instead of margins & alignments
- Set the width of each cell instead of at the table level
- Use pixels instead of percentage widths
- Use inline CSS always
- Design with the assumption that images will not be visible by default
- Use "alt" text for images
- Aviod spacer images
- Always use image widths & heights explicitly
- Prefer JPG & GIF images
- Test, Test & Test more with various clients...
And now, some more considerations for mobile emails:
- Keep the total width to less than 600 pixels
- Be aware & design with consideration that text may be resized
- Test, Test & Test more with various devices...
Read the full article by David Greiner on 24ways.org for the details and the code here.
Beautiful Forms using HTML5 and CSS
Even though HTML Forms are very boring & repetitive work requiring a lot of effort, they can be made really beautiful using the new features of HTML5 and a bit of advanced CSS.
First off, the Disclaimer:
Now that we have all those points out of our way, lets start with the actual stuff.
In this article on 24ways.org, Yaili explains in great detail how to use HTML5 and advanced CSS with CSS3 features to create really great looking forms.
Here are the most important points:
Here is the output as I see it in FF3.5.7 and IE7 on WinXP Pro - the differences are clearly noticeable. Also, the placeholder text does not show up at all!
Read the full article by Yaili on 24ways.org for the details and the code here.
First off, the Disclaimer:
- HTML5 is still a Draft and in the "Last Call" state in the WHAT Working Group.
- Not all browsers support HTML5 equally well - so expect varying results across browsers even for the same element
- Not all browsers support all elements/features yet
- Check out the list of differences between HTML4 and HTML5 here
- Check out the new features of HTML5 Forms here
- Wikipedia entry for HTML5 is here
Now that we have all those points out of our way, lets start with the actual stuff.
In this article on 24ways.org, Yaili explains in great detail how to use HTML5 and advanced CSS with CSS3 features to create really great looking forms.
Here are the most important points:
- Use
fieldsets to for enclosing and grouping input elements. - Use
ordered liststo group eachlabel+inputpair of elements - Use automatically generated counters using
:beforeand:afterpsuedo-elements - Dollops of CSS styling to make the form & its elements look really kewl
Here is the output as I see it in FF3.5.7 and IE7 on WinXP Pro - the differences are clearly noticeable. Also, the placeholder text does not show up at all!
| FF 3.5.7 | IE 7 |
|---|---|
 |  |
| Note the missing placeholder text, rounded edges and credit card images | Note the missing placeholder text, pointed edges and missing credit card images |
Read the full article by Yaili on 24ways.org for the details and the code here.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Full Version of Software for a Buck?!
How would you like to have a licensed copy of a Full version of a software for 99 cents ?!
While scanning SD for deals, saw a post mentioning that the full version of WinPatrol PLUS will be available for just 99 cents on January 29th 2010! This lead me to the blog Bits from Bill written by Bill Pytlovany who created WinPatrol.
While this in itself is a very good deal for those still using Win platforms, the blog post contents got me thinking deeper. His blog points towards a paradigm shift in the Business Model - Songs are being sold for 99 cents a pop from the likes of Amazon, many iPhone apps are being sold for 99 cents each too. This banks on the human psychology/thought process of "what the heck - its only a buck..." to trigger impulsive buying and increasing sales. The same guy would have contemplated a hundred times had the price tag been say even $5! Could this be an industry saving business model?! Only time will tell ...
But in the meanwhile, make the most of it by taking the WinPatrol PLUS 99¢ license only on Friday, 29th January - note the icing on the cake that this license will be good for life! And read more about Bill's views on his 99 cent software experiment, the results of which will also be published on his blog over the weekend. I am all for this software pricing model as it is in the interest of the consumers!
While scanning SD for deals, saw a post mentioning that the full version of WinPatrol PLUS will be available for just 99 cents on January 29th 2010! This lead me to the blog Bits from Bill written by Bill Pytlovany who created WinPatrol.
While this in itself is a very good deal for those still using Win platforms, the blog post contents got me thinking deeper. His blog points towards a paradigm shift in the Business Model - Songs are being sold for 99 cents a pop from the likes of Amazon, many iPhone apps are being sold for 99 cents each too. This banks on the human psychology/thought process of "what the heck - its only a buck..." to trigger impulsive buying and increasing sales. The same guy would have contemplated a hundred times had the price tag been say even $5! Could this be an industry saving business model?! Only time will tell ...
But in the meanwhile, make the most of it by taking the WinPatrol PLUS 99¢ license only on Friday, 29th January - note the icing on the cake that this license will be good for life! And read more about Bill's views on his 99 cent software experiment, the results of which will also be published on his blog over the weekend. I am all for this software pricing model as it is in the interest of the consumers!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Where is a Website physically located?
We were discussing about how the physical location of a webserver impacts the access speeds for end-users.
During this discussion, I stumbled upon a very good site InfoSniper which gives a very good idea of the physical location of the website.
Here is the tool if you want to test ride it!
During this discussion, I stumbled upon a very good site InfoSniper which gives a very good idea of the physical location of the website.
Here is the tool if you want to test ride it!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The "Right" way to Code
In the days before Google, I had formulated the CTP theory which I proposed as the "Right" or better way to Code for Junior Developers. With the advent of Google, this theory transformed to the GCTP theory.
CTP:
Before Google came up, junior programmers often used to copy & reuse existing code which was written either by them or someone else they knew or they had somehow got hold of the relevant code.
This caused a lot of problem when I was managing a team of such developers, so I formulated the CTP Theory.
The first thing I did was to encourage them to use their imagination & creativity to solve the problem themselves. If required, they could look-up the code base that most of the consulting companies already have to gain insight into ways the problem could be solved, and then come up with their own solution.
However, if there was a time crunch and/or it was felt that reinventing the wheel provided no benefit, then CTP should be applied.
C : Copy - find & copy the portion of code / routine you want
T : Transform - transform/change the code to suit your needs - this step was missed most often
P : Paste - paste the changed code in the right place
If CTP was used diligently, it provided greater success to the project
GCTP:
However, with the arrival of Google, everyone started to just google the solution and so I had to come up with the next version of the theory which I named GCTP.
Again, the first thing I did was to encourage them to use their imagination & creativity to solve the problem themselves.
However, if there was a time crunch and/or it was felt that reinventing the wheel was of no benefit, then GCTP should be applied.
G : Google the problem - google the problem
C : Copy - find & copy the portion of code / routine you want from the google results
T : Transform - transform/change the code to suit your needs - this step was missed most often
P : Paste - paste the changed code in the right place
If GCTP is used diligently, it will provide greater success to the project and quicker coding maturity to the junior developers with the least amount of hand-holding/supervision.
Note that the emphasis on both these methods is first to try to use your own brain. But in case these need to be used, then the emphasis in on T - Transform as that is where I found the junior developers making most of the mistakes most probably because either they did not understand the real problem or the way the solution had been coded.
CTP:
Before Google came up, junior programmers often used to copy & reuse existing code which was written either by them or someone else they knew or they had somehow got hold of the relevant code.
This caused a lot of problem when I was managing a team of such developers, so I formulated the CTP Theory.
The first thing I did was to encourage them to use their imagination & creativity to solve the problem themselves. If required, they could look-up the code base that most of the consulting companies already have to gain insight into ways the problem could be solved, and then come up with their own solution.
However, if there was a time crunch and/or it was felt that reinventing the wheel provided no benefit, then CTP should be applied.
C : Copy - find & copy the portion of code / routine you want
T : Transform - transform/change the code to suit your needs - this step was missed most often
P : Paste - paste the changed code in the right place
If CTP was used diligently, it provided greater success to the project
GCTP:
However, with the arrival of Google, everyone started to just google the solution and so I had to come up with the next version of the theory which I named GCTP.
Again, the first thing I did was to encourage them to use their imagination & creativity to solve the problem themselves.
However, if there was a time crunch and/or it was felt that reinventing the wheel was of no benefit, then GCTP should be applied.
G : Google the problem - google the problem
C : Copy - find & copy the portion of code / routine you want from the google results
T : Transform - transform/change the code to suit your needs - this step was missed most often
P : Paste - paste the changed code in the right place
If GCTP is used diligently, it will provide greater success to the project and quicker coding maturity to the junior developers with the least amount of hand-holding/supervision.
Note that the emphasis on both these methods is first to try to use your own brain. But in case these need to be used, then the emphasis in on T - Transform as that is where I found the junior developers making most of the mistakes most probably because either they did not understand the real problem or the way the solution had been coded.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Geo-Locate your Server!
Found a very good website which allows you to lookup where your web server is really located geographically.
Check out infosniper - it provides a good API, XML interface, lots of related free scripts, and lots of simple to use features!
This is a very good tool if you want to verify whether the server is actually located where the hosting company claims it to be!
Or it can be a fun tool just to put up on your website/blog just for the heck of it!
Check out infosniper - it provides a good API, XML interface, lots of related free scripts, and lots of simple to use features!
This is a very good tool if you want to verify whether the server is actually located where the hosting company claims it to be!
Or it can be a fun tool just to put up on your website/blog just for the heck of it!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Reasonably priced Web Hosting
Recently I discovered two very good, but very reasonably priced Paid webhosting services BlueHost and HostMonster that both provides all the following features (and a lot more):
* Unlimited Data transfer
* Unlimited Disk Space
* PHP5, Perl, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Cron
* cPanel Control Panel
* POP3 & IMAP Email with Webmail access
* Free Domain or Host your own Domain
* FTP Access and Web Based File Manager
* Secure Shell Access
* Unlimited Add-on Domains
* Unlimited Sub-domains
* Unlimited Email Addresses
* 100 MySQL, PostgreSQL Databases
* 24X7 Telephonic Support
* Loads of readily available tools & software
* And a lot lot more ...
I have personally used them to host the websites for my friends and found their support to be absolutely fantastic and really very helpful.
So check out BlueHost - their reviews have been very good and they have also been ranked quite good by many websites that review hosts!
Similar to them is HostMonster - they have also received good reviews and rankings as well.
Best of all, these hosting services are very reasonably priced, especially given the fact that they have a very good in-house 24X7 telephonic support!
* Unlimited Data transfer
* Unlimited Disk Space
* PHP5, Perl, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Cron
* cPanel Control Panel
* POP3 & IMAP Email with Webmail access
* Free Domain or Host your own Domain
* FTP Access and Web Based File Manager
* Secure Shell Access
* Unlimited Add-on Domains
* Unlimited Sub-domains
* Unlimited Email Addresses
* 100 MySQL, PostgreSQL Databases
* 24X7 Telephonic Support
* Loads of readily available tools & software
* And a lot lot more ...
I have personally used them to host the websites for my friends and found their support to be absolutely fantastic and really very helpful.
So check out BlueHost - their reviews have been very good and they have also been ranked quite good by many websites that review hosts!
Similar to them is HostMonster - they have also received good reviews and rankings as well.
Best of all, these hosting services are very reasonably priced, especially given the fact that they have a very good in-house 24X7 telephonic support!
"Free" WebHosting!
Recently I discovered a very good FREE webhosting service that provides all the following features:
I seriously wonder how they manage to do it without taking any fees or any advertising, but what the heck! It's a darn good service with loads of features and that too for Free!!!
- 100 GB/Month data transfer
- 1500 MB Disk Space
- PHP5, MySQL, Cron
- Zend & Curl Enabled
- cPanel Control Panel
- POP3 Email with Webmail access
- Free Subdomain or Host your own Domain
- FTP Access and Web Based File Manager
- Instant Setup
- Absolutely No Ads at all
- Easy to use Website Builder with over 500 free website templates
- 5 Add-on Domains
- 5 Sub-domains
- 5 Email Addresses
- 2 MySQL Databases
I seriously wonder how they manage to do it without taking any fees or any advertising, but what the heck! It's a darn good service with loads of features and that too for Free!!!
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