Prasanth's blog

Delete duplicate values in a column using MySQL

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 07:10:00 +0000

You could have faced a situation where you have huge number of records and have to remove the duplicate entries (like duplicate email id) from it, if you have worked with data import. Of course you could do it programmatically, but you could do it faster using the Database itself.

Consider you have duplicate data in table 'Users' as below:
----------------------------
| ID | Email |
----------------------------
| 1 | user1@domain.com |
----------------------------
| 2 | user2@domain.com |
----------------------------
| 3 | user2@domain.com |
----------------------------
| 4 | user3@domain.com |
----------------------------

You have to create a new table with the same schema as the table 'Users'.

CREATE TABLE uniqueUsers LIKE Users;

Now you have a new table with the same schema as the table Users. This is the easiest method so that you do not have to create all fields and the constraints to the new table.

Now, we can copy the unique records to the new table.

INSERT INTO

uniqueUsers

(

ID,

)

SELECT ID,Email

FROM Users

GROUP BY Email

By using the Group By statement, you get the unique values for the field and those records get inserted into the new table uniqueUsers. So now you have the unique records in the table uniqueUsers.

Rename Database in MySQL

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 06:42:00 +0000

MySQL had supported renaming Database in some earlier versions, but due to some security issues it was removed. So, if you create a Database, you do not have a command to directly rename it. There is a workaround though so that you need not create and populate all the tables to the new database.

Consider you have a database errorDB and you need to rename it to correctDB.
All you have to do is to create a database with the name correctDB and copy the tables in errorDB to correct DB.

create database errorDB;
use errorDB;
create table users (id int,name varchar(50));
insert into users values (1,'Kumar');
select * from users;

Now you have a Database errorDB with a table users and a record 1,Kumar in it.
Create the new Database correctDB and copy the table to the new DB.

create database correctDB;
rename table errorDB.users TO correctDB.users;
use correctDB;
select * from users;

Now you have the Database correctDB with the table users and the record 1,Kumar in it. You can simply drop the schema for errorDB.

Science at Mobile, Joint Initiative of IGNOU and Vigyan Prasar for Science Popularisation through Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 10:26:00 +0000

IGNOU and Vigyan Prasar have jointly started a new initiative to popularise science through SMS. The services provided by the science@mobile are free of cost to all the users. Interested people can subscribe free of cost mobile content on science and related areas including Science News, Important Days and Events, Science facts, Science Humor, Science Quotes, About Scientists, Health Tips, Green Tips.

There is an option to set SMS delivery on a daily/weekly basis for all sections.

Google changes Blogger address from .com to per country basis

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:02:00 +0000

Google changed the web address of Blogger to per country basis (prasanthkumars.blogspot.com is changed to http://prasanthkumars.blogspot.in). It is learned that this change is for blocking access in individual countries.
More on BBC

BSNL - Adding/Changing friends and family numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:22:00 +0000

For reference

How to add/change friends and family numbers with BSNL (Kerala).

Adding
You can have 5 numbers in the FF scheme of BSNL. For adding 5 numbers to FF, send an SMS to 53733 in the following format:
FFE<space>Number 1<space>Number 2<space>Number 3<space>Number 4<space>Number 5

You need to enter 5 numbers in the SMS. If not the request will be rejected. You will get a confirmation message once the request is accepted. Please save this message as you will need it for reference when changing the numbers.

Changing
You can change the numbers in FF scheme at any time. All you need is to send an SMS in the format specified for Add by replacing the number you want to change. All the other numbers should be the same. That is, if you want to change Number 3 to another number say, Number 10, the SMS will be like below:

FFE<space>Number 1<space>Number 2<space>Number 10<space>Number 4<space>Number 5

So the system will replace Number 3 with Number 10 and you will be charged for one number change. You can replace any numbers by this method.

iPhone users join hands with hackers. What does this mean to us iPhone developers?

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:14:00 +0000

Recently it was in the news that ‘Chronic Dev hacker team’ created an app for intercepting error messages sent from iPhone and send it to their team so that they can dig into them to find some bug. This bug can be utilized to create an efficient Jail break for the iPhone. It is reported that the users response had been overwhelming that "In the first couple of days after CDevreporter is released they received about twelve million crash reports”. Does this mean a good number of iPhone users are willing to have a Jail break iPhone?

Let us try to dig deeper into this.

The iPhone is the undisputed leader in Smartphone sector which was able to capture most of the market and was able to oust Nokia, the market leader in mobile phone and gave RIM a run for its money. The UI and architecture of iPhone is too good that till now no other manufacturer was able to make a comparable competitor. True, the iPhone is costly, but it is still worth the money. You can buy apps from the App and Games from the App store and use in your phone. But the apps in the App store are scrutinized by Apple so there are quite a lot of applications that fail to get to the App store. If you have a non-jailbreak iPhone you are barred from using these applications. Another major concern is that you usually do not have a trial version/demo version of an app before buying it. As a windows user we are used to different versions of an app like Demo, Shareware so that we can use it and only if we are interested, we can buy it.

So, in the case of App store, you usually do not get this freedom and end up spending your hard earned money for unwanted apps. But once you install an app in your phone, you can use it for ever. Naturally users tend to have a Jailbreak that does not void their warranty so that they can try the apps.

But what does this mean to developers? The scariest part is that in a jail broken iPhone you can run any app that is not even approved by Apple. A story was floating in the net some time before that the company ended up with managing data for hundred times of illegal users than legitimate users. Does that ring a bell? You will end up with apps get pirated and in the wild without you getting a penny from it. All the hard work you spent is in vain. If you are making standalone apps, then it is of great concern. One method to avoid this menace is to have you users verify themselves with your servers each time they login and that involve managing a backend user verification overhead.

If the users are able to easily pirate your apps and that you are not paid for it, will you still hang out with iPhone development? Definitely no. This will eventually affect the whole iPhone ecosystem which could lead to its total collapse.

Apple should come up with a method to totally prohibit Jail breaking of iPhone.

CSV and SYLK file.

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 05:38:00 +0000

We used to export data in the form of .csv file that is one of the easiest formats available. A .csv file can be opened in even Notepad and if it is opened in Microsoft Excel, you can perform calculation with the numbers also.
When you open a certain .csv file, Microsoft Excel may show an error that the file is a SYLK file and confirm to open it. Once you confirm it will show error that 'SYLK: File format is not valid'.
If you try to open the same file in Notepad or Wordpad you will not see any issue with the data.
The problem actually lies with Microsoft Excel. If the first two characters of the file are the uppercase letters "I" and "D", then MS Excel will consider the file as SYLK file and if you try to open it with MS Excel it will show error as the file is not actually an SYLK file.

Solution:
Open the file in notepad and change the first two characters of the file to lower case, if they are I and D. So, 'ID' will change to 'id'.

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3236263

Integrating Open Search to your site

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:11:00 +0000

I had created a demo for integrating Open Search to web pages. Here is the link to the working demo for Open Search.
http://www.prasanthkumars.com/demo/searchdemo.asp

Coldfusion - Using ListFind and Split to get empty elements in a list

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:21:00 +0000

I am working with a lot of data import modules in ColdFusion and there are a lot of issues to handle while doing the import process. The data uploaded will be of different format, different delimiters, empty or null values etc. etc.
Here, I am describing a problem where the delimiter is tab and the first element is null. I had to check whether the first element is null. I tried using ListGetAt(stringVariable,1,Chr(9)). Now, what this returned was the first non-empty element and not possible to check whether the first element was null.

After a bit of googling, I found the string.split() function. This function will convert the delimited string to Array. This perfectly split each element with the delimiter and creates an array.
Syntax:
<cfoutput>#stringVariable.split(chr(9),-1)#</cfoutput>

We will get an array of all elements in the string even if they are empty. In this case, the array had first element empty string and it is easy to check whether it is empty or not.

Chameleon appeared near my office. Not seen before.

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:21:00 +0000

***UPDATE***
I was informed by my cousin that it is a native of Kerala, but itz camouflage is too good that it seldom catches our eye.

I happened to see a chameleon that I have seen only in TV, near my office. Didn't know this existed in Kerala.

Automate Tortoise SVN update in Windows

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:14:00 +0000

As a developer you will be experienced with SVN for source control in collaborative development environment. One of the popular clients for SVN in Windows is Tortoise SVN. You can right click in the SVN folder and update the contents of the folder from SVN.
But, when you have a number of SVN folder, will it be a good idea to automate the SVN so that your files are in sync always.
You will need to create a batch (.bat) file for this process.
It is very simple.

Create a batch file in your convenient location.
Edit the file.
Add the location of the TortoiseSVN program path and the SVN folders in your machine as below.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TortoiseProc.exe /command:update /path:"C:\Projects1\dev" /closeonend:1
TortoiseProc.exe /command:update /path:"C:\Projects2\documents" /closeonend:1
TortoiseProc.exe /command:update /path:"C:\Projects2\dev" /closeonend:1

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The TortoiseProc.exe is the TortoiseSVN app. It is a GUI app, but will accept command line also. As this is a GUI app, when the batch file is run, it will briefly show the update window and then close after completion of update process. The '/closeonend:1' make this happen. If the value of closeonend is 0, the update window will not be closed automatically.

If you like to run the update at regular intervals, you can use the 'Task Scheduler' of Windows to run this batch file.

Create multiple website in IIS 5 using command (adsutil.vbs) in Admin Scripts

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:56:00 +0000

I am blogging this for my reference. I had spend almost a day to find this. In newer versions of IIS you do not need the help of this command, you can right-click a website on the IIS and create a new website.
If you are using IIS 5, you will find this command helpful to clone a website.
Steps

Go to '\Inetpub\Adminscripts' folder.
Type the command : adsutil.vbs COPY W3SVC/1 W3SVC/2

This will create a copy of the default website in your machine.
Now you can configure your new website.
Keep in mind that you can only run any one instance of these websites in your server at a time. If you need to switch to another server, you must stop the running instance.

JavaScript 'open' function show 'Error: Invalid argument' in Internet Explorer

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:00:00 +0000

JavaScript 'open' function can be used to open a webpage from inside another page.
The syntax is :open(url,'name','height','width');

If this function does not work and you get a 'Error: Invalid argument' when using Internet Explorer, check for space in the 'name' argument (eg: 'Prasanth Kumar'). If there is space between the 'name' argument, IE will show this error, but in FireFox it just works fine.

MySQL default value to integer fields with LOAD DATA from CSV file import with dynamic fields

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:38:00 +0000

I was confronted with a problem while loading data from file to the MySQL table. The table have some Integer and Varchar fields and the data is loaded from CSV. Normally the data loading process goes well, but in case the data does not exist for a Integer field, the import breaks and show error like :

Incorrect integer value: '' for column 'ID' at row 1

The fields are dynamic that I can determine the fields in run-time only.

So, I devised a solution for this.

I have created the query such that for all the fields with Integer type, I add a '0' with it.

Here are the steps.

<cfquery name="qryTblDefinition" datasource="<datasource>">

DESC <table_name>

</cfquery>

<cfquery name="qryIntKeyList" dbtype="query">

SELECT

FIELD

FROM

qryTblDefinition

WHERE

TYPE like 'int%'

</cfquery>

<cfset intHeaders = valueList(qryIntKeyList.Field) />

Now, you have a list of fields which are of type INT.

<cfloop list="#intHeaders#" index="i">

<cfif listFindNoCase(colHeaders,i)>

<cfset colHeaders = Replace(colHeaders,'#i#','@#i#') />

</cfif>

</cfloop>

<CFQUERY NAME="add_records" DATASOURCE="<datasource>" result="qryResult">

LOAD DATA INFILE <cfqueryparam value="<file path>" cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar">

INTO TABLE <table>

FIELDS TERMINATED BY '\t'

OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'

lines terminated by '\r\n'

IGNORE 1 LINES

(<colHeaders>)

<cfif listLen(intFields)>

<cfloop list="#intFields#" index="i">

<cfset intFields = Replace(intFields,i,"#i#=@#i#+0") />

</cfloop>

SET #intFields#

</cfif>;

</cfquery>

So, what I have done in STEP 4 is that we have prefixed an '@' for all field names of type INT so that they are now variables.

In Step 5, we are creating the query with the new field names and additionally a SET statement for these variables. In the SET statement, I am adding a 0 to the value so that if the value is a valid integer, the value does not change, but if it is not, then it will be 0.

An example of the output for STEP 5 will be as follows :

LOAD DATA INFILE 'F:\\data.txt' INTO TABLE users

FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' ENCLOSED BY '"'

LINES TERMINATED BY '\r\n'

IGNORE 1 LINES

(@ID,Name,Address)

SET ID = @ID+0;

Here, the field ID is of type Integer. I have added a 0 to the ID in the SET statement. Similarly, any number of fields can be used.

If this code help you, please comment.

Macromedia still in the heart of Adobe ColdFusion

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:35:00 +0000

I have been using ColdFusion from version 7 MX. Now, in the ColdFusion 9 also, if you try to browse a cfm page without starting the ColdFusion service, you get this error.

Server Error

Either the Macromedia application server(s) are unreachable or none of them has a mapping to process this request.

I am not sure why Adobe have not removed this reference. May be Adobe kept it as such so that others think it is Macromedia's fault, not Adobe's :-)

Adobe is shutting down AIR market place

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 16:13:00 +0000

I received the following mail from Adobe regarding shutting down AIR market place.

Thank you for using Adobe AIR Marketplace. When we established Adobe AIR Marketplace three years ago, there were few distribution opportunities for AIR developers. There are now several app stores on desktops, mobile devices and tablets that service AIR developers including Apple App Store, Android Market, BlackBerry App World, Intel AppUp center, Samsung Apps, and Toshiba App Place.

After careful consideration, Adobe has decided to discontinue development and support of Adobe AIR Marketplace. We are, therefore, not accepting any new applications into Adobe AIR Marketplace. The Adobe AIR Marketplace will be shut down on August 31, 2011. We encourage you to use these newer popular app stores to distribute your applications. As before, Adobe will continue to provide the best technologies and solutions so that developers and publishers can create, distribute and monetize content.

FAQs:

My application was free and distributed to users through Adobe AIR Marketplace. Will users continue to use the application?
If users have downloaded and installed your free application, then these users can continue to use the application even after Adobe AIR Marketplace is shutdown. If users have not installed the app before August 31, 2011, users will not be able to install from the Adobe AIR Marketplace and use the application.

My application was not free and there are users who purchased my app. Will they be able to continue to use the application?
If users have installed and paid for your application before August 31, 2011, then these users can continue to use the application even after the Adobe AIR Marketplace is shut down. If your application was using try and buy, then applications can be tried or purchased on or before August 31, 2011. Applications cannot be purchased after August 31, 2011.

Will users be able to purchase my paid application going forward?
After August 31, 2011, users will not be able to purchase your application through AIR Marketplace. You must find an alternative method to distribute and sell your application. One of the options is to use Intel AppUp to distribute and sell your desktop applications.

Can I distribute application upgrades?
You will not be able to distribute application upgrades through Adobe AIR Marketplace.

What will happen to settlements?
For all the applications sold, you will receive your pending settlements for apps sold before August 31, 2011 soon after that date.

I submitted my application directly through AIR Marketplace. How do I download analytics?
After you log into your Publisher Account on AIR Marketplace, you will find “Reports” tab. Reports for AIR Marketplace will be available until August 31, 2011 (please remember to log in before this date).

I'm slowly regaining my online life

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:37:00 +0000

I have been inactive for a while in the Internet. This was not just because I was busy with work, but because of some ideas that I'm trying to implement and achieve. Hope I will be successful in it.
I am trying to regain my online life and getting support from the community on my new venture.
I will post more details soon.

Create Database Stored Procedures to search fields in any combination (MS SQL)

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:01:00 +0000

Consider a table tblStaff as follows

id	name	age	departmentID
1	Prasanth	30	1
2	Martin	25	5
3	Abdul	30	7
4	Kiran	30	1

We can write stored procedues to get the details according to any of the fields or a combination of the fields.

But the problem occurs when some of the values should not be considered.
For eg: you have a stored procedure to search for ID and departmentID.

CREATE PROCEDURE usp_getStaff
    @id int = 0,
    @departmentid int = 0
AS
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;
SELECT
    *
FROM
    tblStaff
WHERE
    id = @id
AND
    departmentID = @departmentid

Then, you have to pass both the parameters.

exec usp_getStaff 1,1

That is, you cannot use this SP to search either id or departmentID. You will need different SPs to search ID and departmentID independently.
Now, I will try to explain a method using which you can write SP that can be used to search fields in any combination.

Consider the modified SP below

CREATE PROCEDURE usp_getStaff
    @id int = 0,
    @name varchar(50) = '',
    @age int = 0,
    @departmentid int = 0
AS
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;
SELECT
    *
FROM
    tblStaff
WHERE
    (@id = 0 OR id = @id)
AND
    (@name = '' OR name = @name)
AND
    (@age = 0 OR age = @age)
AND
    (@departmentid = 0 OR departmentid = @departmentid)

END
GO

This SP requires all the four parameters to be passed, but you can specify which all values should be considered by passing the default values.

eg:
    exec usp_getStaff 0,'',30,0

will return all the records with age = 30

1    Prasanth    30    1
3    Abdul        30    7
4    Kiran         30    1

similarly,
    exec usp_getStaff 0,'',30,1

will return all records with age = 30 and departmentid = 1
1    Prasanth    30    1
4    Kiran         30    1

Here, we have modified the WHERE condition. We are grouping conditions for each fields such that if we pass the default value, the condition for the field is discarded.
eg: we are passing '0' for ID. In the WHERE condition, we are first checking whether the passed value is '0'. And, if the value is '0', the first part of the 'OR' condition is success and it does not consider the second part where the actual checking with DB value is taking place.

I would like to hear from you if this really helped and saved your day.

Google chopped off J&K from INDIA !!!

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:11:00 +0000

I was really shocked to see that J&K was not included in the map of INDIA that Google show in Analytics. The state is not given to any other country, thank God. Some time before, a part of the state was shown as disputed territory. Now, they have totally cut-off them from INDIA. This is the screen shot of what I saw just now in "http://www.google.com/analytics/" site.
I believe the Government should ask Google to stop showing these type of maps.

Map of INDIA without J&K

MONEY IS YOURS BUT RESOURCES BELONG TO SOCIETY

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:53:00 +0000

This is from a mail forward I got from my friend. I'm not sure if this is real, but the idea is not fun. We are living in a world where you mostly judge people by their appearance and their behavior. I have seen many group of people wearing all sorts of modern fashion (let them believe it...) and creating noise in public places. But when you single out a person and ask, he might be from a not-so-high-funda family, but showing all this stuff just to be in the company of one or two of their millionaire friends... In their company they do all sorts of mischief, knowing that it is wrong. They race their cars in public roads, spend money unnecessarily, waste food and like.
But, coming to the point, wasting resources, we also do this, knowingly or un-knowingly at some point. Try to limit your resource utilization, because there are many out there who are not able to get food at least once a day. now read on...

Below is a note written by an Anonymous visitor to Germany.

I thought the message in the end is very meaningful that we can inculcate in our lives ‐ Germany is a highly industrialized country. It produces top brands like Benz, BMW, Siemens etc. The nuclear reactor pump is made in a small town in this country. In such a country, many will think its people lead a luxurious life. At least that was my impression before my study trip. When I arrived at Hamburg, my colleagues who work in Hamburg arranged a welcome party for me in a restaurant. As we walked into the restaurant, we noticed that a lot of tables were empty. There was a
table where a young couple was having their meal. There were only two dishes and two cans of beer on
the table. I wondered if such simple meal could be romantic, and whether the girl will leave this stingy
guy. There were a few old ladies on another table. When a dish is served, the waiter would distribute the food
for them, and they would finish every bit of the food on their plates. We did not pay much attention to
them, as we were looking forward to the dishes we ordered. As we were hungry, our local colleague
ordered more food for us. As the restaurant was quiet, the food came quite fast. Since there were other
activities arranged for us, we did not spend much time dining.
When we left, there was still about one third of unconsumed food on the table.
When we were leaving the restaurant, we heard someone calling us. We noticed the old ladies in the restaurant were talking about us to the restaurant owner.
When they spoke to us in English, we understood that they were unhappy about us wasting so much food.
We immediately felt that they were really being too busybody.
"We paid for our food, it is none of your business how much food we left behind," my colleague Guy told the old ladies.
The old ladies were furious. One of them immediately took her hand phone out and made a call to someone.
After a while, a man in uniform claimed to be an officer from the Social Security organization arrived.

Upon knowing what the dispute was, he issued us a 50 Mark fine.
We all kept quiet. The local colleague took out a 50 Mark note and repeatedly apologized to the officer.
The officer told us in a stern voice, "ORDER WHAT YOU CAN CONSUME,
MONEY IS YOURS BUT RESOURCES BELONG TO THE SOCIETY. THERE ARE MANY OTHERS IN THE WORLD WHO ARE FACING
SHORTAGE OF RESOURCES. YOU HAVE NO REASON TO WASTE RESOURCES.
Our face turned red. We all agreed with him in our hearts. The mind set of people of this rich country put all of us to shame. WE REALLY NEED TO REFLECT ON THIS. We are from country which is not very rich in resources.

To save face, we order large quantity and also waste food when we give others a treat.
THIS IS A LESSON TO THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT CHANGING OUR BAD HABITS.

User types in the wrong address. Your site generates a 404 error, and calls your custom coldfusion 404 handler.

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 14:35:00 +0000

I found an interesting topic in Raymond Camden's blog. This is about "Better handling of missing files with your web application". Here is the link to the page http://bit.ly/ed8NOf.

ICE (In Case of Emergency) numbers in Mobile phone

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:12:00 +0000

We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends. We often store the numbers in nicknames or abbreviated forms, which makes it difficult for a stranger to find the right person in cases of emergencies.

If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? That is where it is important to store your ICE (In Case of Emergency) numbers.

It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name "ICE" ( In Case Of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as "ICE."

Ø Ensure that you have more than one ICE number so that in case one of the numbers could not be reached, alternative numbers could be tried. For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. It is advisable to store the primary ICE number of the person who could access you at the quickest like your room mate, colleague (in case you are staying away from home) or your closest family member.

Ø For security purposes many mobile phone owners now lock their mobiles requiring a passcode to be entered in order to access the device. This hinders the ability of first responders to access the ICE phone list entry. In response to this problem many device manufacturers have provided a mechanism to specify some text to be displayed while the mobile is in the locked state. The owner of the phone can specify their "In Case of Emergency" contact and also a "Lost and Found" contact.

Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our Mobile phones today!

Stereogram and how to decode it

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:09:00 +0000

Stereogram is one of the interesting stuffs I found in my school days. One of my cousins got a book that has high quality print of different cross-eye stereogram. I took couple of hours trying to find out how to decode it and now I can decode most of them in seconds.
I thought of writing about this as most of my friends had not seen this or are not aware of how to decode it. Today I checked the net and I found a lot of stuff regarding this and even an online Stereogram creator !.

Well, to make it simple, quote from Wikipedia says "A stereogram is an optical illusion of depth created from flat, two-dimensional image or images.". That is you have a image with patterns. If you look at it in a special way, you can see a three-dimensional object that is created using this pattern.

How to view stereogram

To view a stereogram image you need to look beyond the picture! Make sure your head is straight and your eyes are level with the picture. You then need to de-focus your eyes whilst imagining that you are trying to view an image that is twice as far away. ie: look through the picture.

A good way to practice is to hold up one finger in front of a wall. Focus on the wall and you will eventually see two fingers. You may also find it helpful to hold your head close to the stereogram picture and slowly move away.

here is a cross-eye stereogram from Wikipedia that has the image of a shark embedded in it.

Enable JavaScript debug menu in Safari in Mac OS

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:19:00 +0000

Apple Safari in Mac does have a hidden Debug menu that is useful for finding out the JS errors in the page. But, this is disabled by default. You can easily enable this using the following command in the terminal when Safari is not running.

Terminal

% defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1

Now, open Safari and you can see an additional menu on the top.

You can always disable this menu by replacing the 1 at the end of the command with 0 and executing again.

Converting a number in ColdFusion to specified base (binary, hexadecimal etc)

noreply@blogger.com (Prasanth Kumar S) — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 17:22:00 +0000

Just a quick post on converting numbers to different base using ColdFusion. The FormatBaseN can be used to convert a number to a different base.

Function Syntax
FormatBaseN(number, radix)

Parameter Description
number Number to convert
radix Base of the result (2, 10, 16)