Thursday, November 6, 2014

Three parts of a web page

As far as I see there are three components of a web page:

1. HTML
2. CSS
3. Javascript

There are different libraries, frameworks and gems dealing with these three aspects. So far, in each of these three areas, I have identified following things that I need to learn, step by step:

HTML: HTML5
CSS: Sass, bootstrap
Javascript: jquery, coffee script

I will keep adding other stuff to this list as I realize or as I come across them.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Re learning RoR

I did web development using RubyOnRails for a year after I graduated in 2006. Back then there was not a lot of documentation about it and we had to learn lot of stuff using trial and error. I havent lot of development in RoR since then but now I want to do some serious web development and RoR seems an obvious choice since it is very popular and because I know it a little. So I have started re-learning it. I am going through Ruby On Rails Tutorial book and I intend to finish it. Many things are new and at times it feels too much to even remember all the different frameworks/libraries that keep poping (Saas, bootstrap, coffee script, jquery and etc) not to mention all these gems being used but hopefully I will get the hang of it soon. 

Monday, September 8, 2014

Common RVM commands


  • Installing RVM

$>​ curl -L https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable
$> rvm autolibs packages
          If you dont have curl you can install it using
$> sudo apt-get update
$> sudo apt-get install curl

  • Install specific ruby version:

          Installing version 2.0.0
$> rvm install 2.0.0
          Installing version 1.9.2
$> rvm isntall 1.9.2

  • Use a specific ruby version

$> rvm use 2.0.0

  • Use a specific ruby version and make it the default

$> rvm use --default 1.9.2

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Android: Open Facebook official app from your own app with different intents

Opening Facebook's official android app from your own app is really easy. You just need to create an intent with correct uri and start and activity with that intent. The app will open with the right page, group, picture, video or etc.

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(uri));
startActivity(intent);

where uri could be any of the following:

fb://root
fb://feed
fb://feed/{userID}
fb://profile
fb://profile/{userID}
fb://page/{id}
fb://group/{id}
fb://place/fw?pid={id}
fb://profile/{#user_id}/wall
fb://profile/{#user_id}/info
fb://profile/{#user_id}/photos
fb://profile/{#user_id}/mutualfriends
fb://profile/{#user_id}/friends
fb://profile/{#user_id}/fans
fb://search
fb://friends
fb://pages
fb://messaging
fb://messaging/{#user_id}
fb://online
fb://requests
fb://events
fb://places
fb://birthdays
fb://notes
fb://places
fb://groups
fb://notifications
fb://albums
fb://album/{%s}?owner={#%s}
fb://video/?href={href}

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Android game engines

I want to try my hand at game development for smart phones. I am familiar with Android and own 4-5 Android devices so the platform choice is straight forward. But I cant seem to decide which game engine to start with. I have tried googling a lot and there is no clear winner. The most popular game engines seem to be Unity, Corona and Cocos2D. Cocos2D is the only one of these which is totally free. So I think I will start with Cocos2D. If someone has other suggestions please let me know.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Email from Google+ circles - No thanks.

Just received an email from Google touting the new FEATURE of GMail:
Starting this week, when you're composing a new email, Gmail will suggest your Google+ connections as recipients, even if you haven't exchanged email addresses yet.
Until today I have never been worried about random people adding me to their circles on Google+. I mean who cares if some random guy from some country you never heard of added you to their circles. Doesn't matter. Right? They couldn't see my status, posts, pictures or anything that I share with my circles except  for what is shared publicly. But not now. Now (s)he can send me an email. Sure they can send me just one email and can't start another conversation with me unless I respond to their first email but my inbox is already too littered as it is and I don't want even a single unwanted email coming in my direction. And even if you limit the number of unwanted email from one account to just one, what is stopping spammers from creating new accounts for just one email per person?And if I want someone to be able to talk/email to me, I will share my email address with them, so stop forcing Google+ on me. Microsoft is already making a good case for their email service with really nice interface and no spam (so far).

Those of you who share this sentiment, nip it in the bud. Turn it off. For doing this just go to your gmail account, then go to Settings. Under general tab you will find a setting for Email Via Google+. Turn it off.


And for fan of memes, here is something that pretty accurately describes my feelings at the moment.


Friday, January 3, 2014

I am so tired of Unity: Part 2 AKA I like Kubuntu/KDE

I have been trying Kubuntu for last week or so and so far I am really liking it. I must say that I am impressed. KDE looks a lot more polished and stable than Unity or even GNOME 3 for that matter. The UI is really sleek and stylish. The effects are good looking and so are fonts and icons. The text in title bars, buttons, menus and everywhere else is thinner and a lot more smoother than it is in Ubuntu. And most importantly I really like Kate. I am used to Notepad++ and Gedit always felt so ancient in comparison. But Kate seems like a good replacement. I think I will stick around for a while.