December 27, 2019 in News

WhatsApp self destruct messages are coming soon and here’s the main reason behind it

HIGHLIGHTS

WhatsApp ‘Delete Messages’ is coming soon for group chats.
The option will offer preset time options for self-destructing messages on groups.
The feature won’t make it to individual chats.

WhatsApp has become inseparable and WhatsApp groups have made having the app on your phone a basic necessity these days. To make communication among group messages easier, the WhatsApp development team has kept on adding features and refining the existing ones. We have seen replying to specific messages, restricting control over adding new people, stickers and moreover the course of time. However, WhatsApp is about to get another feature that will change the way we communicate on groups.

According to a recent scoop from WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is bringing the ability to auto-destruct messages on WhatsApp groups. The recent test versions of WhatsApp have received a new feature for both Android and iOS, called ‘Delete Messages.’ Initially, this feature was expected to be available for both individual chats and group chats. However, the feature will be limited to group chats only and it will make it easy for group admins.

The ‘Delete Messages’ feature will be available for group chats and it will make it easy for the admins to manage old messages and chats. WhatsApp messages take up space on devices as well as increase the size of online backups. Since group chats have a lot of exchanges, old messages at times become irrelevant and it becomes sensible to delete them after a while. So far, users had to delete messages manually and that is a tedious process.

However, with the Delete Messages feature, group admins can now select a specific duration for messages on the group and once a message crosses the specified duration, it will be automatically deleted by the app. Users will be able to keep messages for as little as an hour and for as long as a year.

Weirdly, the feature won’t make it to individual chats and that could be a bummer for users. However, for group chats, it can reduce the old message bulk and get rid of all those pesky good morning GIFs and images.

The feature is still currently in testing and it could be a while before the feature makes it to the stable version. Do note that this feature is different from the ‘Delete for Everyone’ feature that already exists for all chats. The ‘Delete for Everyone’ feature will still be available for all messages and users can still use it to delete a text before the receiver sees it.

November 21, 2019 in Laravel, Learning, News

Laravel: The Fantastic 4 Interfaces — Responsable

Credit where is due. Last year I stumbled upon an article of Josip Crnković, in which he walked through some of the useful interfaces the framework has. In it, he discovers some that are used to send a Response to the browser.

After giving them a shot, I have to say these alleviates a lot of DRY problems and slims down multiple lines of code to just a few. In this series of articles I will check them out, as these may help you to code more easily your application.

Responsable

Have you ever wished to lean your Http Controllers full of frankenstein code? Are you tired of creating the Response every freaking time? Then you need the Responsable interface!

November 21, 2019 in Learning, MySql, News

Top 20 Hybrid Mobile App Frameworks

Hybrid Apps Frameworks Introduction :

A Hybrid Mobile Application is like any other application that you should be found on your phone or on your hand-held device. A hybrid mobile application can be viewed as the best (or the worst) of both the Native and HTML5 worlds together.

The frameworks are neither numbered in order of their preference nor by the preference of usage, hence please go through all the frameworks and all the nitty-gritty details about each of these frameworks to make up your mind to choose the one that suits you the best. Without any further delay, let’s get down to business:

Top 20 Hybrid Mobile App Frameworks :

Here is the list of the most used Hybrid Mobile App Frameworks and we have taken a decision to limit ourselves to only 20 of these fantastic frameworks using which you can create the hybrid mobile applications that suit your business requirements without any hassles. We have made an honest attempt to provide as much detail as possible under each of these tools, hence take the time to go through each detail for your decision making:

1. React Native :

One of the main purposes of this framework is to develop native applications over hybrid applications that run on a web-view. The coding for your applications will still be done via React and JavaScript and one of the features of it is that it is not very customized for the beginners but its active community can help you resolve issues (if there are any) at the quickest and the earliest. With its latest release, they have extended their support to Android which is a welcome move as well.

Advantages of React Native:

Numerous ready to use components to speed up the development process
Provides with a provision to copy the code base between iOS and Android
Provides with a provision of hot deployment without the need of the developer to save the changes
Bugs can be identified easily as the programming is carried over in a declarative style

Disadvantages of React Native:

There is still a gap in the form of navigation components that can enable seamless user experience
There is still place for improvement in the hardware areas

2. Xamarin :

Xamarin is one of the key mobile application development frameworks that has been employed in many of the Organizations for a very good reason, more than 1.4 million developers strong community around the world. The Xamarin platform is known to abide by the WORA (Write once, Run anytime) principle. Xamarin is known to make business mobile applications with the native look and feel.

Advantages of Xamarin :

Microsoft has got its back, supporting all the technical aid that a tool can ask for.
More than 70% of the code is reusable between iOS and Android, there by lesser code to write for your own business application.
Easy to run tests on these applications
Xamarin ensures that you get the same level of performance that you rather get from a Native Mobile application.
Xamarin Forms is the tool that provides you with the platform-specific features, over and above the reusable code that you could already use.

Disadvantages of Xamarin :

Comes with a huge cost of the business license ($999)
It provides its support to a specific number of technical components which are available within its own library.
Integration can become a nightmare if applications are created using Xamarin.

3. Onsen UI :

Onsen UI is an open source mobile application development framework that is well equipped to be used without the Angular JS requirement. It also comes with a very nice set of documentation that explains all the nitty-gritty details with examples of the common application structures. It provides the ease of use for the developers to build applications by putting together the native looking components as well.

Advantages of Onsen UI :

Onsen UI is easy to use a framework that finds its inspiration from Web Components
It is compatible with both jQuery and also with AngularJS
One of the biggest advantages is that it is free and open-source
This tool comes with enough number of features like the Font Awesome, built-in Theme Roller, Screen Transition and many more

Related Page: AngularJS vs. JQuery

Disadvantages of Onsen UI :

A template upgrade if decided for can kill a lot of time
Non-availability of templates created through this tool on repositories like GitHub is another big disadvantage.

4. PhoneGap:

PhoneGap is yet another open source mobile application development framework and is also considered the simplest cross-platform framework. Creating applications with this tool is done all with Web APIs, which in other words is that it develops these applications under a wrapper native app shell and then implements them in the native stores for various available platforms. It also comes with the provision of a cloud service named “Build” that compiles applications without the requirement of any SDKs installed on the environment.

Advantages of PhoneGap:

Any individual with basic hands-on with JavaScript, CSS and HTML5 can deliver in PhoneGap development from the first day itself.
Compatible with Windows 7, Android and iOS.
Multiplatform validation can be comfortably skipped and the focus can be devoted to just UI

Disadvantages of PhoneGap:

There is a definite gap of more UI widgets in the framework
Performance is not the best when compared to the other set of tools that we are looking at.

5. Ionic :

Ionic is a very prominent framework and also considered as the preferred choice of most of the developers. CSS portions of the framework are enough to develop native looking applications. The complete potential of Ionic framework can be put to use if it is paired up with AngularJS. With the command line interface that we get along with Ionic, there are a lot of features that we get as like the integrated emulators and Cordova based app packages.

Advantages of Ionic :

Develop once and put them across all supported platform at once
Rich and robust applications can be built using it along with AngularJS
As the reliability is more on CSS, JavaScript and HTML – the code is more maintainable and also assures quicker development.

Disadvantages of Ionic :

App performances are not as good as applications that were built for a specific environment
Tagging along AngularJS creates a skill gap in the budding JavaScript developers
Complex in-app navigation at present

6. Framework7 :

Like the other frameworks, this is by far the most stable and independent framework – as this doesn’t have any dependency on React or AngularJS. Even with this, there is a good chance that we can make our applications look native with nice animations, fine styled components. This tool also requires just the CSS, JavaScript and HTML knowledge for active development.

Advantages of Framework7 :

Customization is very easy to achieve
Helps in creating native applications without the external dependencies of React or AngularJS.
Provides many UI widgets and elements that help in developing feature rich mobile applications.

Disadvantages of Framework7 :

For any package emulation or to provide any mobile application builder, this has to be put along with either PhoneGap or Cordova
A necessity to work with F7 MVC framework for mobile application development
It is not compatible with all the possible mobile platforms.

7. Intel XDK :

Next on our list is the Intel XDK, which allows an individual to develop cross-platform applications for different available stores. This includes all the services ranging from web services to plugins for rich content, interactive mobile apps, and responsive apps which are known to run on any kind of device. It is a framework that is known to help developers with almost all the tasks ranging from development to emulation, to testing and to debugging. In the recent times, there was a major change in support for all the functionalities that one would love to build mobile HTML5 applications using either Apache Cordova or any other of choice for Android, iOS and Windows 10 UAP.

Advantages of Intel XDK:

Provides a lot of developer-friendly features and also acts as a one-stop shop for all development activities
Newer releases extend its support to Android, iOS and Windows
The tool also allows users with live preview option on the connected device when you are still in the stages of development in an integrated environment with other tools.

Disadvantages of Intel XDK :

There is a drag and drop feature that an individual could use but it creates loads of code, which is not required.

8. Appcelerator Titanium :

Appcelerator Titanium is indeed a better solution to create hybrid mobile applications and to get started with this tool, you can go ahead with downloading the Titanium studio. The Titanium SDK is strong enough with all the rapid development features of mobile applications. Alongside to that, mobile applications that are created with Alloy are also easy to use across different applications and hence the development time is reduced by many folds and so is the number of lines of code to achieve this. In the end, the compiled code is a combination of both the native and JavaScript which further improves performance for mobile hybrid development.

Advantages of Appcelerator Titanium:

This tool provides a mixed development environment experience of tools as like Xamarin and PhoneGap.
Mobile applications that are created in conjunction with Alloy, enables ease of reuse across different applications and platforms.

Disadvantages of Appcelerator Titanium :

All applications that are written in JavaScript would still require to use custom XML and also Appcelerator’s API in order to support few of the native features.
Though this framework is called a cross-platform framework with full support for Android, iOS – it doesn’t include CSS and HTML along with itself.

9. Mobile Angular UI :

Mobile Angular UI can be considered a framework built with Bootstrap and AngularJS very comfortably. With this framework, you are assured to get the best of the Bootstrap 3 and also from Angular framework, in order to build nice HTML5 mobile apps. It can also be considered as an extension to the existing Bootstrap 3 without the dependencies of BootstrapJS libraries or jQuery. All you need here is to have some AngularJS directives to make beautiful mobile applications..

Advantages of Mobile Angular UI :

For the best mobile experience, this framework comes with fastclick.js and overthrow.js
One of the greatest advantages that one could think of Mobile Angular UI is that it is available for free and is also an open source framework.

Disadvantages of Mobile Angular UI :

There are internal dependencies in Bootstrap3 as well which can cause a lag

10. Sencha Touch :

Sencha Touch is yet another enterprise-grade framework that is used for building cross-platform web applications with the help of HTML5 and JavaScript. It is one of the premium choices of mobile app development frameworks in the commercial space and that too mostly constituting the enterprises. ExtJS, one of the most powerful and popular JavaScript frameworks backs Sencha Touch platform. This in turn creates high-performance applications with close to native application experience. Sencha is also known for a drag and drop HTML5 visual application builder, it has tons of ready to use mobile app templates. You can also create custom components and add them to the library to reuse in various applications.

Advantages of Sencha Touch:

Sencha Touch rates high in the ranking against its competitors as it provides native look and feels across all the platforms that it extends its support to.
It is the premium choice for all the enterprise application developments
It packs widgets which are ready to use from the word go with offer native look and feel for all the popular platforms like iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows.

Disadvantages of Sencha Touch:

Though the frameworks like Ionic, Onsen UI or Framework7 will serve the purpose Sencha Touch is for the enterprise application development alone.
Alongside that, it is a commercial framework for hybrid mobile application development, the tools that it works with hand in hand all come with a fat price tags.

11. Kendo UI :

Kendo UI is yet another hybrid mobile application development framework which is also an HTML5 framework that is widely used for cross-platform mobile application development. It is powered by Telerik. There is a strong dependency on jQuery and has around 70+ ready to use jQuery mobile app widgets from the word go. This can be integrated with AngularJS and Bootstrap UI frameworks very easily

Advantages of Kendo UI:

One of the greatest advantages of using Kendo UI is that it is not very difficult to learn, as most of the developers are already familiar with jQuery.
The second advantage is that it is an open source framework which is available free for usage.

Disadvantages of Kendo UI:

Since that it is an open source technology to use, it comes with a limited set of features.
Not just that, it also has a limited community team of developers to provide any further technical support.
Most of the commonly used widgets are under commercial license.

12. jQuery Mobile :

When most of the hybrid mobile application development frameworks lean towards providing a native look and feel to the applications built in these, jQuery Mobile has taken a totally different approach in delivering generic applications which perform in a consistent manner in any of the given platforms (Symbian, Windows, Blackberry or the others). jQuery Mobile is a wonderful framework for organizations that believe in the ideology of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) as it provides its support for various operating systems. This tool also enforces on the belief that not every other developer is an iOS or an Android fan.

Advantages of jQuery Mobile:

Since its inception, jQuery Mobile has undergone various changes and it is considered a stable environment to work upon comfortably.
With the help of ThemeRoller, we can create our own themes without writing any additional code
With jQuery Mobile, screens are responsive with the size and also different devices
Development is pretty easy, as it is in HTML5 and JavaScript
Provides easy to add collapsible menus for your applications
It makes it pretty easy to create a client product page and the other custom pages without any hassles

Disadvantages of jQuery Mobile :

jQuery Mobile works fine for simpler designs but when we have a custom design, there is a lot of code that has to be overwritten.
Custom HTML themes will end up with loads of CSS related issues
.NET interaction with jQuery Mobile is one of the biggest troubles, especially with the update panels.

13. Mobincube :

Mobincube is a wonderful application interface that provides its users the ease of developing any kind of mobile application. Mobincube is the best possible tool that is available to build native mobile applications for Android, iOS and Windows platforms. The ease of use of this tool is super awesome with just adding screens and adding elements you can build the core of your application.

If you are pretty new to this arena of development, there are a 100% pre-built templates that could be used to make the dream application for your business all by yourself with almost no possible coding. There is a possibility that the developers can create applications for businesses, educational institutes, entertainment industry and healthcare industry – so on and so forth. If you want to flaunt your technical expertise, you could showcase your development skills by adding your own masterpieces of HTML, JavaScript for additional functionality and also interaction.

Advantages of Mobincube :

There is a provision to create mobile stores to enhance sales
Provides very good third-party integrations within the application
Provides customization to the lowest level possible within the application
Provides free account offerings to try out the features available
Provides unlimited storage and also provides multi-platform compatibility

Disadvantages of Mobincube :

There is a limitation on the push notifications
There is also a limitation on the analytics that can be applied

14. Longrange :

Longrange is yet another native mobile application development framework, which has components as like navigation tabs, form views and commands. The mobile application development framework is basically based on two principles – the mobile app development and also the shorter maintenance process. With the help of existing development tools as like RPG, CoBoL or CL along with LongRange – we can develop a mobile application for a user community as quickly as possible. As LongRange is a native mobile application it doesn’t rely on HTML, CSS or JavaScript as like a traditional hybrid application.

Advantages of Longrange :

Development can be carried out with the current level of programming expertise
Ability to build native applications using RPG, CL and DDS
Provides rock solid reliability and also runs these native apps faster
Programming knowledge of JavaScript, HTML or CSS is not required for developing apps here

Disadvantages of Longrange :

Has a broader dependency of existing tools for better applications to be developed in a shorter span of time

15. Qt:

Qt is a cross-application SDK which offers cost-effective design, development and deployment framework. This tool can be comfortably used by developers to deliver best possible user experience across a wide variety of handheld devices. Qt is a solution that enables you to connect all the gaps across various platforms and also between the online, physical experiences. It also enables you to deploy applications on Android, iOS and Windows platforms. It also provides you an opportunity for contextual and personalized interaction with the customers outside of the core product itself.

Advantages of Qt :

Provides wonderful workarounds for buggy SSL servers
Provides support for IPv6 and dual mode networks
Provides support for opaque Private keys
An additional implementation providing parser and compiler optimization on the tool itself

Disadvantages of Qt :

Usage of metaobject compiler adds the extra layer of complexity to the whole build process as such
Qt development team is driving it away from C++ which is not a welcome move in the customer base

16. Alpha Anywhere :

The Alpha Anywhere is a low code and a rapid mobile application development/deployment framework which enables the quickest way to build offline-capable web and mobile applications. It can also be used to build cross-platform web and mobile business applications as well. It can be easily confronted as a one-stop shop for all your desktop application development, web application development, mobile application development and also SaaS application development

Advantages of Alpha Anywhere :

Provides data encryption with HMAC and SSL support
Provides enterprise-grade mobile data security as mentioned in the above point
An abundance of pre-built sample applications for cross verification
Provides comprehensive backend data access

Disadvantages of Alpha Anywhere :

Web application development is not as simple as creating a desktop application
There is no built-in drag and drop feature in the form of designer
Limited to no technical support on any project obstacles

17. NativeScript :

NativeScript lists the next on our list of top 20 hybrid mobile application development frameworks, to talk about it – this is an open source framework that can be used to build pure native mobile applications with AngularJS, TypeScript or even with JavaScript. To be on the same page, you can write applications in TypeScript which further compiles to JavaScript and hence can be done. All that said, it provides a wonderful feature of writing and deploying mobile applications for iOS and Android applications from a single codebase.

Advantages of NativeScript :

Enables the acceleration on the learning curve by the skills used in the development of native mobile applications.
True native mobile applications can be built using web skills as like AngularJS and CSS.
The NativeScript team has 3 complete real-world application implementations by default

Disadvantages of NativeScript:

As not all plugins are available, there is a definite need for the additional plugins to be downloaded.
The application sizes are larger when compared to React Native and Ionic2.
Since there is no in-built support for HTML, DOM in NativeScript – there is a definite learning curve in learning other UI components to build applications.

18. Firebase :

Next in the list of our top 20 hybrid mobile application development frameworks, Firebase which is yet another mobile application development platform which supports web, iOS, iOSX and Android clients. It holds the capability to cut down the time that is spent in the development phase and also ensures messing around servers, data storage

Advantages of Firebase:

Provides a cloud service which doesn’t require any further setup on it.
Data storage is done in the form of native JSON and hence the feasibility to see how it is stored.
Data storage is assured as it requires 2048-bit SSL encryption for all data transfers
File storage is backed by Google’s cloud storage
Provides a wonderful integration strategy with AngularJS, hence it also enables the creation of applications in a very short span of time.

Disadvantages of Firebase :

Storage format is JSON, hence makes it difficult for normal SQL type of migration
Standard reporting tools that use traditional SQL won’t be applicable anymore.
There is no on-premise installation available

19. Swiftic :

Next in the line is a tool named Swiftic, which is a dedicated iPhone app development software. This tool provides an easy to use and navigate interface which allows any developer to create an application based on the outlaid business requirements. This tool is an abundance of features that make the business application more useful and also easy to use for your hands and your eyes.

Advantages of Swiftic :

Provision to create any custom application and to publish them on leading stores
Catch the attention of your consumer base with your push notifications
Customers are always round the corner as keeping in touch with them is not a difficult task.

Disadvantages of Swiftic :

Tends to limit itself to certain kinds of applications that can be developed from this tool
Only supports iOS platform as of now

20. VuForia :

Last but not the least, VuForia is an augmented reality software development kit. That allows developers to create applications based on augmented reality (AR) technology. This also brings in the usage of Computer Vision technology to recognize and also to track images, 3-dimensional objects. This not only ensures robust and reliable experience in a variety of environments but also acts as a means to cross-check the functionality seamlessly.

Advantages of VuForia:

VuForia has the ability to recognize and track a broader range of objects
It extends its support to most of the available high-end handheld devices
It provides the ability to create the basic most AR experience which works for all major devices
Ability to create virtual buttons which the application can see and respond to
Provides video playback support
3dimensional experience can be built with VuForia Mobile Vision platform.

Disadvantages of VuForia :

Skill gap in people to get themselves drenched into a totally different set of a technology stack
Moves away from the traditional Hybrid Mobile application to an AR-based application

November 18, 2019 in News, Ubuntu

just empty the file with:

sudo truncate -s 0 /var/lib/ubuntu-release-upgrader/release-upgrade-available

November 16, 2019 in Health Care and Wellness, News, Only Happened In India

Fraud Awareness: Stay informed about Phishing!

Paytm/SBI/AADHAR/PAYZAP/PHONEPAY/HDFC/AXIS/ICICI/YES BANK/MOBIKWIK/Any Bank or Account Department never asks for your Password/OTP/UPDATE KYC/Account Block over calls, SMSes or emails.

Phishing is a type of fraud that involves stealing personal information such as Customer ID, IPIN,OTP,AADHAR CARD NUMBER, Credit/Debit Card number, Debit/Credit Card expiry date and CVV number among others.

Here are a couple of baits fraudsters often use to cheat unsuspecting consumers:

*Dear PAYTM customer your paytm KYC has been expired .Paytm office pH 6290985948 immediately.your account will block within 24hr.Thank you PAYTM TEAM

1. “Hi Sir/Ma’am, you have won an exclusive offer reserved for our top customers only. Please share your credit/debit card details so we can transfer the gift money to your bank account.”

2. “Hi, I’m calling from Paytm. We have launched a KYC drive across India. Doing KYC would mean you can accept up to INR 1 lakh in your Paytm Wallet. However, I would need some proof of identification and your credit/debit card details.”

3. “Hi, I’m calling from Paytm. We are happy to let you know that you have won an additional Rs. 5000 cashback on your latest purchase. Please share your credit/debit card number so we can credit the money directly into your bank account.”

4. “Congratulations! You have been nominated as a ‘Top Paytm Merchant’ in your locality and are now eligible for a Special Booster Pack. This will further upgrade the limits of your Paytm Wallet. Please share some proof of identification and your credit card details to avail this great offer.”

Whenever you receive such suspicious calls, messages or emails, please adhere to these precautionary measures:

DOs

•Disconnect immediately and share the fraud number with us by calling our helpline number — 0120 3888 3888.

•Call us immediately if you have mistakenly revealed your Paytm Wallet details to someone.

DON’Ts

Never share confidential details when you receive such unsolicited calls, SMSes or emails.
If you get a SMS/call asking for sensitive information, kindly do not provide these details.
Don’t open or forward these suspicious links via email, SMS or chat.

At Paytm, we constantly strive to ensure your safety against online frauds. Write to us at paytm.com/care or call us back on 0120 3888 3888 immediately after disconnecting any such incoming calls.

SUBSCRIBE YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Email : adityaypi@yahoo.com, Mobile : +91-9555699081

October 31, 2019 in News, Ubuntu

install composer globally ubuntu

Composer is a dependency manager for PHP (similar to npm for Node.js or pip for Python). Composer will pull in all the required PHP packages your project depends on and manage them for you.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to install and use Composer on an Ubuntu 18.04 machine. The same steps can be used for Ubuntu 16.04.

Prerequisites

Before continuing with this tutorial, make sure you are logged in as a user with sudo privileges and you have PHP installed on your Ubuntu 18.04 system.

Installing PHP Composer

To install Composer on your Ubuntu system, perform the following steps:

Before downloading and installing Composer, first update the packages index and install the necessary requirements:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install wget php-cli php-zip unzip

2. Now that we have php cli installed on our machine, we can download the composer installer with:

$ php -r "copy('https://getcomposer.org/installer', 'composer-setup.php');"

The command above will download the composer-setup.php file in the current working directory.

3. Next, we need to verify the data integrity of the script by comparing the script SHA-384 hash with the latest installer hash found on the Composer Public Keys / Signatures page.

We will use the following wget command to download the expected signature of the latest Composer installer from the Composer’s Github page and store it in a variable named HASH:

$ HASH="$(wget -q -O - https://composer.github.io/installer.sig)"

Now run the following command to verify that the installation script is not corrupted:

php -r "if (hash_file('SHA384', 'composer-setup.php') === '$HASH') { echo 'Installer verified'; } else { echo 'Installer corrupt'; unlink('composer-setup.php'); } echo PHP_EOL;"

If the hashes match, you will see the following output:

output:

Installer verified

If the hashes don’t match you will see Installer corrupt. In this case you will need to redownload the Composer installation script and double check the value of the $HASH variable with echo $HASH. Once the installer is verified, you can continue with the next step.

4. The following command will install Composer in the /usr/local/bin directory:

$ sudo php composer-setup.php --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

output:

All settings correct for using Composer
Downloading...

Composer (version 1.8.5) successfully installed to: /usr/local/bin/composer
Use it: php /usr/local/bin/composer

The composer is installed as a system-wide command and it will be available for all users.

5. The last step is to verify the installation:

$ composer

The command above, will print the Composer’s version, commands and arguments.

output:

______
/ ____/___  ____ ___  ____  ____  ________  _____
/ /   / __ \/ __ `__ \/ __ \/ __ \/ ___/ _ \/ ___/
/ /___/ /_/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ (__  )  __/ /
\____/\____/_/ /_/ /_/ .___/\____/____/\___/_/
                    /_/
Composer version 1.8.5 2019-04-09 17:46:47

Usage:
    command [options] [arguments]

October 25, 2019 in News

ग्रीन पटाखे क्या हैं, कहां और कब मिलेंगे

सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने मंगलवार को देशभर में पटाखों की बिक्री पर पाबंदी लगाने से इनकार करते हुए कुछ शर्तों के साथ दिवाली पर आतिशबाज़ी की छूट दी है.

दिवाली पर सिर्फ़ दो घंटे के लिए रात 8 से 10 बजे तक पटाखे जलाए जा सकेंगे. इसके साथ कोर्ट ने यह भी आदेश दिया है कि त्योहारों में कम प्रदूषण वाले ‘ग्रीन पटाखे’ ही जलाए और बेचे जाने चाहिए.

जस्टिस एके सीकरी और जस्टिस अशोक भूषण की पीठ ने कहा कि प्रतिबंधित पटाखे बेचे जाते हैं तो संबंधित इलाक़े के थाना प्रभारियों को ज़िम्मेदार ठहराया जाएगा और उन पर अवमानना का मामला चलेगा.

सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने जिस ‘ग्रीन पटाखों’ की बात की है वो आखिर होते क्या है और पारंपरिक पटाखों से वे अलग कैसे होते हैं?

दरअसल ‘ग्रीन पटाखे’ राष्ट्रीय पर्यावरण अभियांत्रिकी अनुसंधान संस्थान (नीरी) की खोज हैं जो पारंपरिक पटाखों जैसे ही होते हैं पर इनके जलने से कम प्रदूषण होता है.

नीरी एक सरकारी संस्थान है जो वैज्ञानिक तथा औद्योगिक अनुसंघान परिषद (सीएसआईआर) के अंदर आता है.

नीरी ने ग्रीन पटाखों पर जनवरी में केंद्रीय विज्ञान एवं प्रौद्योगिकी मंत्री डॉक्टर हर्षवर्धन के उस बयान के बाद शोध शुरू किया था जिसमें उन्होंने इसकी ज़रूरत की बात कही थी.

ग्रीन पटाखे होते क्या हैं?

ग्रीन पटाखे दिखने, जलाने और आवाज़ में सामान्य पटाखों की तरह ही होते हैं, लेकिन इनसे प्रदूषण कम होता है.

सामान्य पटाखों की तुलना में इन्हें जलाने पर 40 से 50 फ़ीसदी तक कम हानिकारण गैस पैदा होते हैं.

नीरी के चीफ़ साइंटिस्ट डॉक्टर साधना रायलू कहती हैं, “इनसे जो हानिकारक गैसें निकलेंगी, वो कम निकलेंगी. 40 से 50 फ़ीसदी तक कम. ऐसा भी नहीं है कि इससे प्रदूषण बिल्कुल भी नहीं होगा. पर हां ये कम हानिकारक पटाखे होंगे.”

डॉक्टर साधना बताती हैं कि सामान्य पटाखों के जलाने से भारी मात्रा में नाइट्रोजन और सल्फ़र गैस निकलती है, लेकिन उनके शोध का लक्ष्य इनकी मात्रा को कम करना था.

ग्रीन पटाखों में इस्तेमाल होने वाले मसाले बहुत हद तक सामान्य पटाखों से अलग होते हैं. नीरी ने कुछ ऐसे फ़ॉर्मूले बनाए हैं जो हानिकारक गैस कम पैदा करेंगे.

कैसे-कैसे ग्रीन पटाखे

डॉक्टर साधना बताती हैं कि उनके संस्थान ने ऐसे फॉर्मूले तैयार किए हैं जिसके जलने के बाद पानी बनेगा और हानिकारक गैस उसमें घुल जाएगी.

इन ग्रीन पटाखों की बेहद ख़ास बात है जो सामान्य पटाखों से उन्हें अलग करती है. नीरी ने चार तरह के ग्रीन पटाखे बनाए हैं.

पानी पैदा करने वाले पटाखेः ये पटाखे जलने के बाद पानी के कण पैदा करेंगे, जिसमें सल्फ़र और नाइट्रोजन के कण घुल जाएंगे. नीरी ने इन्हें सेफ़ वाटर रिलीज़र का नाम दिया है. पानी प्रदूषण को कम करने का बेहतर तरीका माना जाता है. पिछले साल दिल्ली के कई इलाक़ों में प्रदूषण का स्तर बढ़ने पर पानी के छिड़काव की बात कही जा रही थी.
सल्फ़र और नाइट्रोजन कम पैदा करने वाले पटाखेः नीरी ने इन पटाखों को STAR क्रैकर का नाम दिया है, यानी सेफ़ थर्माइट क्रैकर. इनमें ऑक्सीडाइज़िंग एजेंट का उपयोग होता है जिससे जलने के बाद सल्फ़र और नाइट्रोजन कम मात्रा में पैदा होते हैं. इसके लिए ख़ास तरह के केमिकल का इस्तेमाल होता है.
कम एल्यूमीनियम का इस्तेमालः इस पटाखे में सामान्य पटाखों की तुलना में 50 से 60 फ़ीसदी तक कम एल्यूमीनियम का इस्तेमाल होता है. इसे संस्थान ने सेफ़ मिनिमल एल्यूमीनियम यानी SAFAL का नाम दिया है.
अरोमा क्रैकर्सः इन पटाखों को जलाने से न सिर्फ़ हानिकारण गैस कम पैदा होगी बल्कि ये बेहतर खुशबू भी बिखेरेंगे.

कहां मिलेंगे ग्रीन पटाखे

ग्रीन पटाखे फ़िलहाल भारत के बाज़ारों में उपलब्ध नहीं हैं. यह नीरी की खोज है और इसे बाज़ार में आने में काफी वक़्त लग सकता है.

इसे बाज़ार में उतारने से पहले सरकार के सामने इसके गुण और दोष का प्रदर्शन करना होगा जिसके बाद इसे बाज़ार में उतारने की अनुमति मिलेगी.

फ़िलहाल भारत के बाज़ारों में पारंपरिक तरीके़ से पटाखों का निर्माण हो रहा है. हालांकि कुछ केमिकल पर प्रतिबंध लगने के बाद कई तरह के पटाखों का निर्माण बंद हो चुका है.

नीरी ने भले ही ग्रीन पटाखे बनाए हों, लेकिन इसके निर्माण की ज़िम्मेदारी भारतीय बाज़ारों पर ही होगी. ऐसे में बिना बेहतर प्रशिक्षण के इसे बनाना चुनौती होगी.

दुनिया में कहा-कहां ग्रीन क्रैकर्स जलाए जाते हैं

सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने जिस ग्रीन पटाखों के बारे में बात की है उसका इस्तेमाल दुनिया के किसी देश में नहीं होता है.

डॉक्टर साधना कहती हैं कि ग्रीन पटाखे का आइडिया भारत का है और अगर इसे बाज़ारों में उतारा जाता है तो हम दुनिया को एक नई दिशा दे सकते हैं.

वो बताती हैं कि इस दिशा में संस्थान का शोध पूरा हो चुका है और अब मामला सरकारी एजेंसियो के पास है. डॉक्टर साधना कहती हैं, “हमलोगों ने अप्रूवल के लिए पेट्रोलियम तथा विस्फोटक सुरक्षा संगठन (PESO) को लिखा है. उसकी अनुमति मिलने के बाद इसे बाज़ार में उतारा जा सकेगा.”

October 18, 2019 in Learning, News

Some basics of MBR v/s GPT and BIOS v/s UEFI

MBR

A master boot record (MBR) is a special type of boot sector at the very beginning of partitioned computer mass storage devices like fixed disks or removable drives intended for use with IBM PC-compatible systems and beyond. The concept of MBRs was publicly introduced in 1983 with PC DOS 2.0.

The MBR holds the information on how the logical partitions, containing file systems, are organized on that medium. Besides that, the MBR also contains executable code to function as a loader for the installed operating system—usually by passing control over to the loader’s second stage, or in conjunction with each partition’s volume boot record (VBR). This MBR code is usually referred to as a boot loader.

The organization of the partition table in the MBR limits the maximum addressable storage space of a disk to 2 TB (232 × 512 bytes). Therefore, the MBR-based partitioning scheme is in the process of being superseded by the GUID Partition Table (GPT) scheme in new computers. A GPT can coexist with an MBR in order to provide some limited form of a backwards compatibility for older systems.

GPT

GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a standard for the layout of the partition table on a physical hard disk, using globally unique identifiers (GUID). Although it forms a part of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) standard (Unified EFI Forum proposed replacement for the PC BIOS), it is also used on some BIOS systems because of the limitations of master boot record (MBR) partition tables, which use 32 bits for storing logical block addresses (LBA) and size information.

MBR-based partition table schemes insert the partitioning information for (usually) four “primary” partitions in the master boot record (MBR) (which on a BIOS system is also the container for code that begins the process of booting the system). In a GPT, the first sector of the disk is reserved for a “protective MBR” such that booting a BIOS-based computer from a GPT disk is supported, but the boot loader and O/S must both be GPT-aware. Regardless of the sector size, the GPT header begins on the second logical block of the device.

GPT uses modern logical block addressing (LBA) in place of the cylinder-head-sector (CHS) addressing used with MBR. Legacy MBR information is contained in LBA 0, the GPT header is in LBA 1, and the partition table itself follows. In 64-bit Windows operating systems, 16,384 bytes, or 32 sectors, are reserved for the GPT, leaving LBA 34 as the first usable sector on the disk.

MBR vs. GPT

Compared with MBR disk, A GPT disk can support larger than 2 TB volumes where MBR cannot. A GPT disk can be basic or dynamic, just like an MBR disk can be basic or dynamic. GPT disks also support up to 128 partitions rather than the 4 primary partitions limited to MBR. Also, GPT keeps a backup of the partition table at the end of the disk. Furthermore, GPT disk provides greater reliability due to replication and cyclical redundancy check (CRC) protection of the partition table.

The GUID partition table (GPT) disk partitioning style supports volumes up to 18 exabytes in size and up to 128 partitions per disk, compared to the master boot record (MBR) disk partitioning style, which supports volumes up to 2 terabytes in size and up to 4 primary partitions per disk (or three primary partitions, one extended partition, and unlimited logical drives). Unlike MBR partitioned disks, data critical to platform operation is located in partitions instead of unpartitioned or hidden sectors. In addition, GPT partitioned disks have redundant primary and backup partition tables for improved partition data structure integrity.

BIOS

In IBM PC compatible computers, the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), also known as System BIOS, ROM BIOS or PC BIOS, is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface. The name originated from the Basic Input/Output System used in the CP/M operating system in 1975. The BIOS software is built into the PC, and is the first software run by a PC when powered on.

The fundamental purposes of the BIOS are to initialize and test the system hardware components, and to load a bootloader or an operating system from a mass memory device. The BIOS additionally provides abstraction layer for the hardware, i.e. a consistent way for application programs and operating systems to interact with the keyboard, display, and other input/output devices. Variations in the system hardware are hidden by the BIOS from programs that use BIOS services instead of directly accessing the hardware. Modern operating systems ignore the abstraction layer provided by the BIOS and access the hardware components directly.

UEFI

The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) (pronounced as an initialism U-E-F-I or like “unify” without the n) is a specification that defines a software interface between an operating system and platform firmware. UEFI is meant to replace the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) firmware interface, present in all IBM PC-compatible personal computers. In practice, most UEFI images provide legacy support for BIOS services. UEFI can support remote diagnostics and repair of computers, even without another operating system.

The original EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) specification was developed by Intel. Some of its practices and data formats mirror ones from Windows.] In 2005, UEFI deprecated EFI 1.10 (final release of EFI). The UEFI specification is managed by the Unified EFI Forum.

BIOS vs. UEFI

UEFI enables better use of bigger hard drives. Though UEFI supports the traditional master boot record (MBR) method of hard drive partitioning, it doesn’t stop there. It’s also capable of working with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), which is free of the limitations the MBR places on the number and size of partitions. GPT ups the maximum partition size from 2.19TB to 9.4 zettabytes.

UEFI may be faster than the BIOS. Various tweaks and optimizations in the UEFI may help your system boot more quickly it could before. For example: With UEFI you may not have to endure messages asking you to set up hardware functions (such as a RAID controller) unless your immediate input is required; and UEFI can choose to initialize only certain components. The degree to which a boot is sped up will depend on your system configuration and hardware, so you may see a significant or a minor speed increase.

Technical changes abound in UEFI. UEFI has room for more useful and usable features than could ever be crammed into the BIOS. Among these are cryptography, network authentication, support for extensions stored on non-volatile media, an integrated boot manager, and even a shell environment for running other EFI applications such as diagnostic utilities or flash updates. In addition, both the architecture and the drivers are CPU-independent, which opens the door to a wider variety of processors (including those using the ARM architecture, for example).

However, UEFI is still not widespread. Though major hardware companies have switched over almost exclusively to UEFI use, you still won’t find the new firmware in use on all motherboards—or in quite the same way across the spectrum. Many older and less expensive motherboards also still use the BIOS system.

Converting from MBR to GPT

One of the more unusual features of gdisk is its ability to read an MBR partition table or BSD disklabel and convert it to GPT format without damaging the contents of the partitions on the disk. This feature exists to enable upgrading to GPT in case the limitations of MBRs or BSD disklabels become too onerous—for instance, if you want to add more OSes to a multi-boot configuration, but the OSes you want to add require too many primary partitions to fit on an MBR disk.

Conversions from MBR to GPT works because of inefficiencies in the MBR partitioning scheme. On an MBR disk, the bulk of the first cylinder of the disk goes unused—only the first sector (which holds the MBR itself) is used. Depending on the disk’s CHS geometry, this first cylinder is likely to be sufficient space to store the GPT header and partition table. Likewise, space is likely to go unused at the end of the disk because the cylinder (as seen by the BIOS and whatever tool originally partitioned the disk) will be incomplete, so the last few sectors will go unused. This leaves space for the backup GPT header and partition table. (Disks partitioned with 1 MiB alignment sometimes leave no gaps at the end of the disk, which can prevent conversion to GPT format—at least, unless you delete or resize the final partition.)

The task of converting MBR to GPT therefore becomes one of extracting the MBR data and stuffing the data into the appropriate GPT locations. Partition start and end points are straightforward to manage, with one important caveat: GPT fdisk ignores the CHS values and uses the LBA values exclusively. This means that the conversion will fail on disks that were partitioned with very old software. If the disk is over 8 GiB in size, though, GPT fdisk should find the data it needs.

Once the conversion is complete, there will be a series of gaps between partitions. Gaps at the start and end of the partition set will be related to the inefficiencies mentioned earlier that permit the conversion to work. Additional gaps before each partition that used to be a logical partition exist because of inefficiencies in the way logical partitions are allocated. These gaps are likely to be quite small (a few kilobytes), so you’re unlikely to be able to put useful partitions in those spaces. You could resize your partitions with GNU Parted to remove the gaps, but the risks of such an operation outweigh the very small benefits of recovering a few kilobytes of disk space.

October 9, 2019 in News, Ubuntu

add swap space ubuntu

I increased/add the swap size to 8 GB with the following sequence ( If you look at your system monitor swap space you will see Ubuntu emptying out your swap space as you run the first command):

sudo swapoff /swapfile
sudo fallocate -l 8G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile

Verify it:

 sudo swapon --show
 free -m

Make it permanent:

echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

August 24, 2019 in News, Ubuntu

Usefull Commands for UBUNTU / APACHE

Conventions

# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Example 1

Open incoming TCP port 10000 to any source IP address:

$ sudo ufw allow from any to any port 10000 proto tcp

Example 2

Open incoming TCP port 443 to only specific source IP address eg. 10.1.1.231:

$ sudo ufw allow from 10.1.1.231 to any port 443 proto tcp

Example 3

Open incoming UDP port 53 to source subnet eg. 10.1.1.0/8:

$ sudo ufw allow from 10.1.1.0/8 to any port 53 proto udp

Example 4

Open incoming TCP ports 20 and 21 from any source, such as when running FTP server:

$ sudo ufw allow from any to any port 20,21 proto tcp

UFW blocking port 8001 until I login to ubuntu

What I would recommend doing, just to make sure we get the correct setup, is running

ufw disable

Then

ufw reset

The above stops ufw and then resets all rules. With a clean slate, we setup our default policies first.

ufw default deny incoming \
&& ufw default allow outgoing

With those rules in place, we then add the rules we need to work for whatever our purposes are. To start, I recommend allowing SSH in first.

ufw allow 22/tcp

We can then allow application-specific ports, such as 80, 443, 8001, etc. I’ll start with those three.

ufw allow 80/tcp \
&& ufw allow 443/tcp \
&& ufw allow 8001/tcp

We could also run just one command (copy and paste directly)

ufw disable \
&& ufw reset \
&& ufw default deny incoming \
&& ufw default allow outgoing \
&& ufw allow 22/tcp \
&& ufw allow 80/tcp \
&& ufw allow 443/tcp \
&& ufw allow 8001/tcp

Now, if you need to add any other ports, now’s the time to go ahead and add them. If nothing more needs to be added, we can then run

ufw enable

When prompted to confirm, type y, hit enter, and ufw is active once again.