Bin-Blog » Personal http://www.bin-co.com/blog Learn about the latest in Web Development - as soon as I do. Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:55:47 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 BarCamp Kerala 5 Rocked! http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2009/05/barcamp-kerala-5-rocked/ http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2009/05/barcamp-kerala-5-rocked/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 17:48:34 +0000 Binny V A http://www.bin-co.com/blog/?p=265 BarCamp Kerala 5 took place at Technopark, Trivandrum. I attended and even managed to handle a session at the event - here are the slides...]]> Barcamp Logo

BarCamp Kerala 5 took place at Technopark, Trivandrum. I attended and even managed to handle a session at the event – here are the slides…

Development: What They Don't Teach You in College
View more presentations from Binny V a.

Unfortunately, the slides make little to no sense without me in front of them, yapping away. But still, try and enjoy the pretty pictures.

BCK5 Links

]]> http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2009/05/barcamp-kerala-5-rocked/feed/ 1 BarCamp Kerala 5 on 3rd May at Technopark http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2009/04/barcamp-kerala-5-on-3rd-may-at-technopark/ http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2009/04/barcamp-kerala-5-on-3rd-may-at-technopark/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:03:40 +0000 Binny V A http://www.bin-co.com/blog/?p=263 rd of May 2009. At the moment, we have 106 attendees and 16 sessions(includes one by yours truly).]]> Barcamp Kerala Poster

Its BarCamp time again in Kerala. The venue this time is Technopark campus(Trivandrum) – and the date is 3rd of May 2009. At the moment, we have 106 attendees and 16 sessions(includes one by yours truly).

About BarCamp Kerala

BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering rooted in the desire to share and learn in an open and friendly environment. It is an intense yet cool, event with discussions, demos, and strong interactions.

BarCamp Kerala is your best chance to meetup all the coolest techies from Kerala. If you are a techie of any scale, do make it to BarCampKerala!

Official Links

Posts about BarCamp Kerala 5

BarCamp Poster

Poster Credit: Ashwin

]]> http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2009/04/barcamp-kerala-5-on-3rd-may-at-technopark/feed/ 3 Naked Day – Disabling CSS for the Day http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2009/04/naked-day-disabling-css-for-the-day/ http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2009/04/naked-day-disabling-css-for-the-day/#comments Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:30:17 +0000 Binny V A http://www.bin-co.com/blog/?p=253 Naked Day 09

Keeping with tradition, this site will be baring all on 9th April 2009. If you haven’t heard about Naked day, this should be enlightening…

Where did my Design go?

The idea behind this event is to promote Web Standards. Plain and simple. This includes proper use of (x)html, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure, and of course, a good ‘ol play on words. It’s time to show off your <body>.

How to participate

Fill out the naked day signup form, then your website will be included in the official list within the next hour.

Then on April 9th, simply remove all CSS from your website, stripping it entirely of its design.

I have been doing this for a few years now…

I know its kinda pointless – since I use a third party wordpress theme – but I still support the movement.

]]> http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2009/04/naked-day-disabling-css-for-the-day/feed/ 2 My Windows/DOS Applications http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2009/01/windows-dos-applications/ http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2009/01/windows-dos-applications/#comments Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:11:13 +0000 Binny V A http://www.bin-co.com/blog/?p=224 if anyone finds any of these useful, it wont go to waste.]]> DOS Logo

I got into programming before I got into Linux – consequently, many of my earlier programs were targeted for the windows platform. I want to showcase those apps in this post. I no longer use them – but if anyone finds any of these useful, it wont go to waste.

I wrote many programs in my Window days. But most of them are useful only to me – its pointless to list them here. These are the list of programs that others might find interesting.

This post is a part of a series I am doing on Windows. The other posts in this series so far are…

Command Line Apps

I had an affection for the Command Line even when I was in windows. Due to the lack of tools in DOS, I created a few DOS tools myself. Most of them are done in C++…

bd – ‘dir’ command replacement

BD is a `dir` replacement. This program displays the contents of a specified folder in a colorful and more understandable way. BD displays files of different types in different colours, letting you see at a glance which files are executable, which are documents, directories etc.

BD helps to cross the boundary between the starkness of DOS and the color of Windows and is a perfect utility for anyone who is experienced with Windows but wishes to start working in DOS.
                Completely Free Softwares

Boot Booster

Boot Booster is a program that tries to put the booting time of the computer to good use. It can log the booting time, display a joke or an inspirational message that will change at every booting, display any message, display any reminders you have set etc. Boot Booster can be configured to log the booting time, shutdown time and the time the session lasted etc. Works only in Windows 95/98. It will NOT work on anything newer.

I don’t expect anyone will find this useful. But at the time I created it, it was one of my favorite applications. I have created other apps to parse the result of its log and create some ‘interesting’ graphics.

Batch Programming Helpers

People into DOS will also be into batch programming. I wrote quite a few batch scripts to automate stuff. Since the batch scripting language had very little features, I wrote utilities to improve its abilities…

Batch ToolKit

Batch ToolKit is a collection of 5 programs intended to make batch programming a bit more feature rich…

If you are in windows and you use Batch in a non-trivial way, please switch to linux – you are going to love the features that is provided by bash(Linux shell scripting language). Then after a while, you will hate that too – and will use higher level languages. And thus, a programmer is born.

GUI Applications – Tcl/Tk

I also did some Tcl/Tk programming in Windows to create GUI applications. I continue that even today – as Tcl/Tk is well supported in Linux(even though Tk apps looks very bad in linux). All the Tcl apps I created are available on the Tcl/Tk page.

I enjoyed programming in the Tcl language that I created a tutorial for Tcl/Tk. Later I create the Hello Script for Tcl(for quick reference).

]]> http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2009/01/windows-dos-applications/feed/ 0 New Design – Mimbo Theme http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/10/new-design-mimbo-theme/ http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/10/new-design-mimbo-theme/#comments Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:36:45 +0000 Binny V A http://www.bin-co.com/blog/?p=149 Bin-Blog has a new design. People who are using wordpress will notice that its the well known 'Mimbo' theme. Its a simple, magazine style theme. And its looks nice too - but any thing is better than my old theme.]]> Bin-Blog has a new design. People who are using wordpress will notice that its the well known ‘Mimbo’ theme. Its a simple, magazine style theme. And its looks nice too – but any thing is better than my old theme.

For you RSS readers, here is a preview of the new design. To see it in action, visit my site.

The Old Design

The New Look

Some sites I subscribed to recently updated their theme – so I thought that this is a good time to do the same for my site. I had been putting it off for a LONG time. People have been asking me to change the theme from the very first post on this blog.

I am planning to convert Bin-Co to this style as well – after I am done, I’ll publish the old design as a wordpress theme. But I’ll be very surprised if anyone uses it – because its just too ugly.

Any Problems?

I am sure that the new theme might have broken something or the other on this blog – so please keep your eyes open. If you find something out of place, please let me know. Just leave a comment and I’ll take care of it.

]]> http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/10/new-design-mimbo-theme/feed/ 8 Nexty.org Launched http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/07/nextyorg-launched/ http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/07/nextyorg-launched/#comments Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:59:33 +0000 Binny V A http://www.bin-co.com/blog/?p=121 Nexty is an easy to use To Do list manager created using GTD principles. The core idea behind this software is simplicity. I wanted to make a GTD tool that is the most easy to use. So far, I have released this two times - first when Nexty was created - and then when it was available as a online service. Now, I am giving Nexty its own domain.]]>

Nexty is an easy to use To Do list manager created using GTD principles. The core idea behind this software is simplicity. I wanted to make a GTD tool that is the most easy to use. So far, I have released this two times – first when Nexty was created – and then when it was available as a online service. Now, I am giving Nexty its own domain.

Features

Some features that make nexty special…

Easy to Use
Using Nexty is very simple – you can start using it without any trouble
FREE!
Its ‘gratis’ – you don’t have to pay to use it.
Open Source
Its ‘libera’. Since Nexty is published under the BSD License, you can download and modify the code to fit your need.
Calendar
See all your tasks, reminders and due dates in one centralized location.
Next Actions
Focus on one single task at a time using this feature.
Search
For Projects, Tasks and Reminders that you have created.
And the Usual Stuff…
Nexty has everything you would expect in a GTD system – Projects, Contexts, Reminders – you know – the works.

Free Software

If you are using Nexty as a locally installed application, there is no need to worry – the source is available for download – and its still in the BSD license. That will not change.

But if you are looking for a free online GTD tool, try Nexty.

Support

Further development details and announcements of Nexty will appear on its own development blog.

If you need any support for using Nexty, post a query on the Nexty Support Forum.

You can also post your suggestions there as well.

Publicity

I am trying to get some publicity for Nexty and its launch – if anyone has any suggestions about this, your comments are welcome.

]]> http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/07/nextyorg-launched/feed/ 6 New Version of URL Lister Firefox Add-on http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/06/new-version-of-url-lister-firefox-add-on/ http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/06/new-version-of-url-lister-firefox-add-on/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:22:46 +0000 Binny V A http://www.bin-co.com/blog/?p=115 URL Lister Logo

Following the release of Firefox 3, I have updated my URL Lister firefox Add-on. Now it works in Firefox 3 – and I have added a new feature.

For those unfamiliar with URL Lister, its a firefox add-on that shows the URLs of all the open tabs in a textarea so that it can be copied easily. It is my first firefox add-on.

URL Lister Screenshot

Unfortunately, there is a problem with the mozilla add-ons listing page – I cannot install the extensions using that page. I am getting this error…

Firefox could not install the file at 

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/file/32487/url_lister-1.1-fx.xpi

because: Invalid file hash (possible download corruption)
-261

However, you can right click the ‘Add to Firefox’ button and choose ‘Save Target As’ and download the file without any issues. Then you can install the extension by dragging the downloaded file into a firefox window. That works perfectly – but not the direct install method.

]]> http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/06/new-version-of-url-lister-firefox-add-on/feed/ 6 Alertle Launched http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/02/alertle-launched/ http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/02/alertle-launched/#comments Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:22:43 +0000 Binny V A http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/02/alertle-launched/ Alertle Screenshot

I am one of the geeks behind Alertle. Its a web based RSS Reader. I am responsible for a good amount of the JavaScript areas of this app :-)

Features

Single Page Application
The entire application is contained in a single page – everything is done through Ajax. I will not advice that you make something like this(its a maintenance nightmare) but I can say one thing about it – its Cool. With a capital ‘C’.
Keyboard Shortcuts
I got the idea of creating a Keyboard Shortcut Library for JavaScript when I was working on this feature.
Autoplay
You can view articles as you are viewing a slideshow if you enable this.
Feedpacks
You can bunch a group of feeds together into a feedpack – and see all the posts from such a group together.
Sharing
You can share your feedpacks with other users

Perfect for High Volume Feeds

There is one major feature that sets Alertle appart from other RSS readers – it does not tell you if a post is read or not. Yeah, first you will think its a missing feature – but its not. I have used a lot of feed readers – once you subscribe to a couple of high volume feed – like say, BoingBoing or Slashdot or something, you can say goodbye to your sanity. It creates so many new items that the only way of staying away the mess is to click on the ‘Mark all as read’ button once every four seconds. You know what I mean – I am sure you have unsubscribed from many feeds for this reason.

With alertle, you can subscribe all these high volume feeds. And there is no pressure to view all the posts.

If you are an info junkie, I can guaranty that your will get lost for hours in Alertle.

Problems

IE is not Supported

We are still working on this – and due to deadline constraints, we decided to release Alertle without IE support. So if you are an IE user, I am sorry – but What in the World are you Doing? Ditch that terrible browser and get a real browser right now!

If we can get a few people to switch to firefox before we add support for IE, I will say that Alertle gone beyond and above the call of duty to make the web a better place! ;-)

Posts don’t have a Read Flag (pun unintended)

Um., yeah, I know – this is both an advantage and a disadvantage. This will prevent me from using Alertle for all my feeds. For my must-read feeds, I will still be using Google Reader. For the high volume stuff, I will use Alertle.

Getting to Know Alertle

So, what are you waiting for? Head over to Alertle and sign up for an account. Its FREE!

But if you are still unconvinced, here is a demo…

Links

]]> http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/02/alertle-launched/feed/ 14 BarCamp Kerala 2 http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/02/barcamp-kerala-2/ http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/02/barcamp-kerala-2/#comments Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:06:17 +0000 Binny V A http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/02/barcamp-kerala-2/ Barcamp Logo

The second Kerala BarCamp was a success. The presentations were very informative and the people were interesting. What more do you want?

Sessions

Xtend IVR – A RAD Toolkit for Telephony

by Jayakrishnan K

This was a demo for an IVR toolkit called Xtend IVR. This is a fairly comprehensive IVR toolkit – it supports Indian languages and had its own simple scripting language. A demo is available here.

Mobile Social Networking in 25 days

By Vishnu Gopal

This was an introduction about how to create a web application. Its a real life case study of what went into building MobShare. Slides for this presentation is available at slideshare.

JavaScript: The most underestimated, undervalued and misunderstood language

By Your’s Truly

A introduction to the power of programming in JavaScript. Its a bit about the functional programming aspects of javascript and an appeal to start using for other things than validation. Slides are available online.

Develop a webservice in 5 minutes using nuSoap library

By Sanil

How to use the nuSoap PHP library to connect to and create Web Services.

Game Development Using Flash

By Eldhose, Juwal and Anish

This presentation was about the simplicity of creating a game in Flash. They also showed how to port the game into FlashLite so that it can be used in Mobiles. To know more, visit their website – CSharks (WARNING: Sounds)

The People

An advantage of such events are that you meet a lot of like minded people…

More Links about Kerala BarCamp 2

]]> http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/02/barcamp-kerala-2/feed/ 4 Kerala BarCamp 2 – In Cochin http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/01/kerala-barcamp-2-in-cochin/ http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/01/kerala-barcamp-2-in-cochin/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:05:15 +0000 Binny V A http://www.bin-co.com/blog/2008/01/kerala-barcamp-2-in-cochin/ Barcamp Logo

Following the success of the first barcamp in Kerala, we are organizing a second one. This time it will be at Cochin. The date and venue has not been decided yet – we want it to be decided by the community.

For those of you who don’t know what a BarCamp is, here is the Wikipedia definition…

BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences – open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants – often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats.

Attending

If you are in or around Cochin at the end of January 2008, consider coming to the event. If you wish to attend, please add your name to this wiki page.
BarCamp Kerala 2. You can do that by filling out the following form…






Sessions

The sessions are decided and presented by the members themselves – here is a list of the proposed sessions(so far)…

Visual Programming Language, Demo
by Kenney Jacob
Search Engine Marketing
by Mani Karthik
Xtend IVR – A RAD Toolkit for Telephony
by Jayakrishnan K
Visual Studio 2008 – What’s in it for me?
by Jadeja Dushyantsinh
SAAS – Software As A Service
by Linoy Joseph

There are some more proposed sessions.

People

I hope I can meet my fellow Cochin bloggers at this event. Anand and Mani Karthik has promised to come. I hope Nirmal will be there too.

More Details Available at…

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