Showing posts with label local Web Developers g. Show all posts
Showing posts with label local Web Developers g. Show all posts

Sunday 2 August 2015

Inside the Macworld Vault: A hidden collection of vintage Macs

Indian telecom operators said they are committed to work with the government on tackling the problem of call drops and are keen to undertake the joint exercise with the Telecom Enforcement, Resource and Monitoring (TERM) cells to address the reviews issue.

"At the outset, we would like to submit that all our member operators are committed to work the DoT (Department of Telecom) and are keen to undertake the joint exercise with the TERM cell to address the issue of the call drops," said the Cellular Operators' Association of India and the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India in a joint letter to the DoT. A copy of the letter dated July 30 which is available with IANS.

The DoT wrote a letter to the service providers on July 17 asking them to submit report on call drop issue by July 31.
Though the various speed runs, creative exploits, and super-creative challenges (including cooperative runs and blindfold runs) have been fun to watch over the past week, the crux of Summer Games Done Quick really centers on its fundraising efforts. The gaming marathon officially hit its donation goal of one million dollars on its final day of streaming, and ended up reaching a total of $1,232,747.90/Rs 7.88 crore (thanks to 28,474 donations). The average donation sat at just around $43/Rs 2,750, and the largest donation topped $21K/Rs 13.42 lakh—not bad at all.
"You have helped change the world. Keep helping others," continued Games Done Quick on Twitter.
As for the games, it's hard to narrow down to what we'd consider highlights, given that just about every game played during the seven days had something interested about it as a result of the focus on speed (or other crazy challenges).
But if you’re upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8.1, be aware that one feature won’t be available any more in the new version. Microsoft said earlier this year that Windows Media Center was dead, and indeed, there’s no direct replacement for it in Windows 10.
However, those who used to have Media Center will get a free Windows DVD Player app – although if you ever perform a clean install of Windows 10, you’ll lose the free app, and will have to buy it instead. And considering the new app offers only a small subset of Media Center’s features, we wouldn’t be surprised if some users consider it to be more trouble than it’s worth.
Oh, right, the Macalope and others. How silly. What a crazy thing to say and then say again as if to draw further attention to it. The Macalope regrets over-emphasizing the point that this was entirely knowable before the fact.
Disclaimer: He does not actually regret over-emphasizing that point.
Here’s where it takes a turn, though. Because despite what you might have read in the papers, history didn’t end last year. While Apple continues to sell iPhones like they’re whatever the Chinese equivalent of hot cakes is, Xiaomi’s fortunes are not assured, either.



Monday 27 July 2015

Knowlarity's Super Receptionist Lets SMBs Go 'Mobile-First'

Launched earlier this month, Knowlarity has extended its cloud telephony service with a free app on Google Play, which lets businesses add a virtual receptionist to handle phone queries, track leads and view call records. Dubbed as a 'plug-and-play virtual call center', Super Receptionist provides a free lifetime subscription with every signup. This gives you a business phone number with a limited number of credits to test the service. With basic plans starting at just Rs. 900, this app makes a compelling business use case. Knowlarity is targeting India's 47 million strong small and medium businesses sector, and hopes to scale up to 1 million users in India by the end of the year. Is the app likely to top the charts? We took the app and service for a test drive to find out.
For the uninitiated, Knowlarity reviews is a cloud telephony service provider incorporated in 2009. Their product range includes SuperFax, SuperConference, and SuperCaller. Knowlarity provides IVR (Interactive Voice Response) solutions to enterprises, boasting over 10,000 SME clients and over 500 larger customers in 66 countries. The company is head-quartered in Singapore and has offices in Gurgaon, Mumbai and Bangalore, and raised $16 million in its Series B last year.
It takes literally less than two minutes to sign up for your free forwarding number for your business. The sign-on process asks for your email, and once you're logged in, you get access to a virtual number which can handle about 10 minutes of incoming calls, based on the free credits provided in the demo. Calls from this virtual number can be routed to any phone number; enabling agents can handle customers on mobile phones from the field. Customers are only exposed to the virtual number, keeping personal and professional lives separate. 
Samsung has announced a new pair of monitors today that both feature Qi wireless charging in their stands, allowing you to easily charge your Qi-compatible smartphone on your desk without the clutter of a separate charging plate.

The two displays Samsung has announced have pretty boring names: there's the 23.6-inch S24E370DL and the 27-inch S27E370DS, both of which feature 1920 x 1080 PLS panels. Samsung claims both have a response time of 4ms with 178-degree viewing angles and a typical contrast ratio of 1000:1. As for brightness, you'll get 250 and 300 cd/m2 from the 23.6- and 27-inch models respectively.
These two new monitors also support AMD's FreeSync technology, which allows the display's refresh rate to adapt to the render rate of your graphics card. This is especially useful while PC gaming, as you can experience smoother gameplay across a wider range of frame rates.

Samsung hasn't disclosed the refresh rate range of these new monitors, though it doesn't look like it'll be as wide as some gaming-specific monitors. However you will get a flicker free experience and an "ultra-narrow" bezel, plus three inputs: HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2, and D-Sub VGA.

There is no word on how many these monitors will cost, although judging by the specifications we should expect a relatively entry-level price point. Samsung says both displays will hit the market by the end of the year, with more information to come at IFA in September.



ObjectRocket by Rackspace adds managed Elasticsearch



Try before you buy
To give DBAs and developers hands-on experience pairing the capabilities of Elasticsearch with their databases and data platforms, ObjectRocket is offering a free service for 30 days for a two data node, 256MB RAM and 2GB Disk instance.
"Most businesses utilse multiple types of databases to meet the specific needs of modern applications, but this diversity can bring complexity," said Nik Rouda, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group.
"Standardising on a bullet-proof, cloud-based infrastructure can simplify delivery without compromising quality. Rackspace has built a versatile yet tailored 'polyglot' platform to satisfy the most demanding requirements."
Rackspace is telling us that with the addition of Elasticsearch, the firm continues to expand the breadth and capability of its portfolio of managed databases, including Elasticsearch, Hadoop, Spark, MongoDB, Redis, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Percona, and MariaDB.
Customers have the flexibility to deploy across private, public, bare metal and hybrid clouds with options to automate and reduce the time and money needed to scale, manage and help ensure the availability of production database applications.
ThinkPad users got excited about Lenovo's idea to produce a new "ThinkPad Classic" that would provide all the best features of this long-running premium brand. But with the results of the second survey, and the launch of the third survey, it looks like going wrong. Perhaps we need not one "Retro ThinkPad" but two: a lightweight X version for road warriors, and a T version for power users.
When I wrote about the project last month, I suggested that the highly-mobile X220 would be the best place to start, and in the survey, I voted for a 12.5 inch screen. However, it turns out that I'm in a minority of only 14.3 percent (graph above). More than half of the 6,555 respondents want a 14.1 inch or 15.6 inch screen, which might well eliminate me as a potential buyer.
In today's "Retro ThinkPad" blog post, Lenovo's David Hill says: "Related to that, we've been really good at being able to fit a 14.1 inch display in the footprint of a 13.3 inch ThinkPad."
That could tempt me, but I'd rather have a 13.3 inch screen in an 11.6 inch form factor - which is pretty much what you get with the Dell XPS 13 (2015).
The third survey may show a similar split between people who want a fast quad-core processor (even if it has a high TDP) and a low voltage battery-saving dual-core processor. Again, we're talking different use-cases. The power users want a workstation processor, while the road warriors want a thinner ThinkPad with a longer battery life.
It's hard to predict how this one is going to come out. Will Dave Hill be able to find a compromise that suits both camps, or will a compromise spec disappoint both camps, potentially leading to financial disaster?
Personally, I'd like to see the project result in two different Retro ThinkPads, each version optimized for its specific market. If not, then I'd recommend Lenovo go for the workstation market and ignore people like me. There are, after all, dozens of lightweight laptops and Ultrabooks already on the market.


Wednesday 22 July 2015

Ask the audience: How crowdsourcing can help you tailor your messages

I'm giving a presentation on WordPress to our local Web Developers group in a few weeks. In the past I've given 60 min. talks geared towards users, but this is aimed at a more technical audience. I'd like to cover installation, theme development, plug-ins and other functionality, but I also realize that 90 min. isn't really enough time to cover the breadth and depth of the WordPress Codex. So I want to focus on whatever points would be most useful to a Web developer (someone comfortable with HTML, CSS and a bit of PHP) who is about to do his/her first WordPress site.
If you're thinking about using WP and haven't yet, what would be helpful to you? Or if you're already comfortable with WordPress, what do you wish someone had told you before you did your first WordPress installation? Thanks for your input!
In return I received 13 answers suggesting topics including:

  •           Security
  •          Search Engine Optimization
  •         Parent/Child Themes
  •         Theme Frameworks
  •         Spam prevention
  •         Hosting Requirements
  •         Theme Customization
  •         Client Training
  •         Categories
  •         Plug-ins


Trying your hand at a little Web development work? The task probably seems pretty daunting, as experienced developers are typically entrenched in a sea of scripting languages that make the layperson wrinkle their eyebrows in utter confusion. But hey, anyone can do it if they set their mind to it—and if you set your mind to learning one language at a time, it’s more than do-able for the average tech enthusiast who has an ample amount of fortitude.
Fortunately, the same technology that has made Web development such an essential part of the world today has also made it possible for skilled development gurus to share their tactics with the world at large through blogs. And there are plenty of developers who have chosen to share their hacks and tricks for the benefit of newbie developers. We’ve rounded up 25 of the most useful resources for beginning developers which include tricks, step-by-step instructions and a plethora of other essential information. Most of these blogs talk in easy-to-understand language, so even if you’re not up to par with developer lingo and you’re trying to figure out how to code a specific project, you can probably follow along. Listed in no particular order of importance, here are 25 blogs we suggest for beginner developers. Oh, and a little bonus section with five useful tutorial sites.