Prasanth's blog

BSNL - Adding/Changing friends and family numbers

2012-01-19T11:52:00.000+05:30

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?

2011-12-17T22:44:00.002+05:30

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.

2011-12-10T11:08:00.001+05:30

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

2011-12-07T11:41:00.001+05:30

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

2011-11-23T10:51:00.001+05:30

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.

2011-10-28T18:51:00.002+05:30

***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

2011-10-28T17:44:00.000+05:30

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

2011-10-13T11:26:00.003+05:30

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

2011-09-29T17:30:00.001+05:30

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

2011-09-02T23:08:00.000+05:30

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

2011-08-27T18:05:00.000+05:30

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

2011-07-24T21:43:00.001+05:30

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

2011-06-21T22:07:00.000+05:30

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)

2011-04-07T22:31:00.001+05:30

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 !!!

2011-04-04T23:41:00.000+05:30

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

2011-04-04T23:23:00.000+05:30

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.

2011-03-14T20:05:00.000+05:30

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

2011-03-10T19:42:00.002+05:30

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

2011-02-10T22:39:00.001+05:30

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

2011-01-10T23:49:00.000+05:30

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)

2010-12-27T22:52:00.000+05:30

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)

CFContent is not creating Excel file

2010-11-09T20:47:00.001+05:30

I am facing a weird problem with my ColdFusion server. I cannot export data to Excel using the <cfheader> and <cfcontent> tags. If I create an Excel file, the content will have all the table, tr, td tags. It had been long time since I tried this so think I must have changed some settings in CFAdmin.

I will try to fix this and post an update. If any of you have an idea on how to resolve this, please comment.

***** UPDATE *****
This was actually not a problem with ColdFusion. The Open Office was the problem. It was not rendering the content correctly.

Unicode font for the new symbol of Indian Rupee

2010-09-03T20:06:00.005+05:30

Finally Indian Rupee (`) got a symbol. On July 15th 2010, the winner of the contest was announced and the new symbol of Indian Rupee was shown to the world. The symbol is derived from a combination the Devanagari letter ‘र’ and English letter ‘R’.

The font can be downloaded here.

Installation instructions

Unzip the zip file to C:\temp folder.
Open Control Panel -> Fonts
Select File->Install New Font...
In the new window, under Folders, select c:\temp
The font will be listed in the 'List of fonts:' box.
Click the font name and click 'OK', the font will be installed in your machine.

Using the font

In MS Word (or other word processing or similar applications), select the font 'Rupee Foradian' in the font list.
To type the character, use the '~' key (top left key above 'Tab').

ColdFusion 8 Decrypt error with CFMX_COMPAT algorithm hotfix

2010-08-28T21:00:00.001+05:30

I was trying with encryption and decryption in ColdFusion for a demo iPhone app using SOAP. Well, the problem was with the ColdFusion end. I tried with default (CFMX_COMPAT) algorithm. I was getting an error "The input and output encodings are not same" while decrypting. After trying to fix this for some time, I googled and found that it was the problem with ColdFusion 8 (bug ID : 75676) and need to apply the hotfix (Cumulative Hot Fix 3 for ColdFusion 8.0.1). I applied it to the server and the error was resolved.

Hot fix can be obtained from here. Cumulative Hot Fix 3 for ColdFusion 8.0.1

Have you heard about the automobile manufacturer 'VALVO'

2010-06-16T21:15:00.000+05:30

I saw this vehicle on the way home, near Kollam. See the 'VALVO' written neatly on the back of this mini bus. They even have a Merc logo on the rear window.

Scientific meaning of Gaytri Mantra

2010-05-06T19:14:00.001+05:30

*** This is the content of a mail forwarded to me. I found it interesting and like to know more. Please let me know if you know other links or related materials. ***

Gayatri mantra has been bestowed the greatest importance in Vedic dharma.
This mantra has also been termed as Savitri and Ved-Mata, the mother of the Vedas.

Om bhur bhuvah swah
Tat savitur varenyam
Bhargo devasya dheemahi
Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat

The literal meaning of the mantra is:
O God! You are Omnipresent, Omnipotent and Almighty.
You are all Light.
You are all Knowledge and Bliss.
You are Destroyer of fear, You are Creator of this Universe, You are the Greatest of all.
We bow and meditate upon Your light.
You guide our intellect in the right direction.

The mantra, however, has a great scientific import too, which somehow got lost in the literary tradition. The modern astrophysics and astronomy tell us that our Galaxy called Milky Way or Akash-Ganga contains approximately 100,000 million of stars. Each star is like our sun having its own planet system.

We know that the moon moves round the earth and the earth moves round the sun along with the moon. All planets round the sun. Each of the above bodies revolves round at its own axis as well. Our sun along with its family takes one round of the galactic center in 22.5 crore years. All galaxies including ours are moving away at a terrific velocity of 20,000 miles per second.
And now the alternative scientific meaning of the mantra step by step:

(A) OM BHUR BHUVAH SWAH:
Bhur the earth, bhuvah the planets (solar family), swah the Galaxy.
We observe that when an ordinary fan with a speed of 900 RPM (rotations Per minute) moves, it makes noise.
Then, one can imagine, what great noise would be created when the galaxies move with a speed of 20,000 miles per second.
This is what this portion of the mantra explains that the sound produced due to the fast-moving earth, planets and galaxies is Om.
The sound was heard during meditation by Rishi Vishvamitra, who mentioned it to other colleagues. All of them, then unanimously decided to call this sound Om the name of God, because this sound is available in all the three periods of time, hence it is set (permanent). Therefore, it was the first ever revolutionary idea to identify formless God with a specific title (form) called upadhi.
Until that time, everybody recognized God as formless and nobody was prepared to accept this new idea.
In the Gita also, it is said, "Omiti ekaksharam brahma", meaning that the name of the Supreme is Om , which contains only one syllable (8/12).
This sound Om heard during samadhi was called by all the seers nada-brahma a very great noise), but not a noise that is normally heard beyond a specific amplitude and limits of decibels suited to human hearing.
Hence the rishis called this sound Udgith musical sound of the above, i.e., heaven. They also noticed that the infinite mass of galaxies moving with a velocity of 20,000 miles/second was generating a kinetic energy = 1/2 MV2 and this was balancing the total energy consumption of the cosmos.
Hence they named it Pranavah, which means the body (vapu) or store house of energy (prana).

B. TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM: Tat that (God), savitur the sun (star), varenyam worthy of bowing or respect. Once the form of a person along with the name is known to us, we may locate the specific person. Hence the two titles (upadhi) provide the solid ground to identify the formless God, Vishvamitra suggested. He told us that we could know (realize) the unknowable formless God through the known factors, viz., sound Om and light of suns (stars).
A mathematician can solve an equation x2+y2=4; if x=2; then y can be known and so on. An engineer can measure the width of a river even by standing at the riverbank just by drawing a triangle. So was the scientific method suggested by Vishvamitra in the mantra in the next portion as under:-

C) BHARGO DEVASYA DHEEMAHI:
Bhargo the light, devasya of the deity, dheemahi we should meditate. The rishi instructs us to meditate upon the available form (light of suns) to discover the formless Creator (God). Also he wants us to do japa of the word Om (this is understood in the Mantra).
This is how the sage wants us to proceed, but there is a great problem to realize it, as the human mind is so shaky and restless that without the grace of the Supreme (Brahma) it cannot be controlled.
Hence Vishvamitra suggests the way to pray Him as under:

D) DHIYO YO NAH PRACHODAYAT:
Dhiyo (intellect), yo (who), nah (we all), prachodayat (guide to right Direction).
O God! Deploy our intellect on the right path.
Full scientific interpretation of the Mantra: The earth (bhur), the planets (bhuvah), and the galaxies (swah) are moving at a very great velocity, the sound produced is Om , (the name of formless God.)
That God (tat), who manifests Himself in the form of light of suns (savitur) is worthy of bowing/respect (varenyam).

We all, therefore, should meditate (dheemahi) upon the light (bhargo) of that deity (devasya) and also do chanting of Om. May He (yo) guide in right direction (prachodayat) our(nah) intellect dhiyo. So we notice that the important points hinted in the mantra are:-
1) The total kinetic energy generated by the movement of galaxies acts as an umbrella and balances the total energy consumption of the cosmos.
Hence it was named as the Pranavah (body of energy).
This is equal to 1/2 mv2 (Mass of galaxies x velocity2).

Working with large numbers in ColdFusion

2010-04-29T19:54:00.002+05:30

I just thought of sharing my friend's experience with managing large numbers using ColdFusion. They got an assignment that will manipulate numbers and things seem good at first. When the numbers started getting larger(20 digits), we had a problem. In CF, the limit of Integer is -2,147,483,648 and 2,147,483,647 (32-bit signed integers) and the calculations started giving unexpected results.

After quite a bit of Googling and posting in forums, they got the solution from a user in the Adobe forums. It is to use the Java Math object and convert the number to BigInteger. Here is the code:

<cfset N1= createobject("java","java.math.BigInteger").init("1")>
<cfset N2 = createobject("java","java.math.BigInteger").init("9999999999999899999999")>
<cfset RESULT = N1.add(N2).toString()>
<cfoutput>#result#</cfoutput>

This code worked perfect.

I have earlier blogged about how to use Jar files in CF, but haven't really studied Java in detail. Seeing this, I think I should study Java in more detail so that I could find a better and easier solutions in such situation.

Adobe Flex launch event at Kochi (KADUG)

2010-04-13T20:59:00.002+05:30

I got the opportunity to attend the Adobe Flex launch event at Kochi, thanks to @Juwalbose, @Jerrydon and others. They made it happen. After the first meeting of GODs a few months ago which I was not able to attend, they should have worked really hard to organize this event.
I was really happy to see my ex-colleagues and of course, my friends at GODs and twitter. This was the first time I met them in person. I got new friends too from this event. It was nice meeting them.

I reached a bit early for the event and got some time to chat with others. @Harish Sivaramakrishnan did the first presentation about Flex. Even though he reached a bit late due to a delay of his flight, the wait was worth. I was amazed to see the new capabilities of Flex builder. The developer does not even have to touch the code to achieve something, and that too like creating a full fledged video player !. Awesome. I had moved away from Flex development around 1 year ago, but seeing his presentation I seriously think of coming back to Flex :-).

Equal amazement was from new Photoshop CS5 from Adobe. @Juwalbose showed a video of new capabilities of Photoshop. The Intelligent fill is fantastic.

@Diana Kulke from Bridge-India who sponsored the event invited us to the Open Coffee event at Kochi. I hope to attend that too.

@Thasleem did a presentation on the new ColdFusion Builder and CF 9. It was nice to know about the new features Adobe has incorporated into their first ever ColdFusion IDE.

Later we had a few presentations on Action script.

I was lucky to get an Adobe Flash Platform T-Shirt after the event. They gave away a few T-shirts, notebooks and few pens. We took a couple of photos before we left.

http://picasaweb.google.com/prasanthkumar.s/KADUGFlexLaunchEvent

This was a nice event and I hope they will organize more such events in future to share knowledge and get in touch with others in IT field.

*** UPDATE ***
This post won the blog contest for Adobe Flash Builder 4 / ColdFusion Builder 1.0 on #KADUG.

My experience with Apple Macintosh

2010-04-08T21:40:00.001+05:30

I had earlier used the Mac in office for a few times for testing. That was for a very short time. For the last one week I had been using solely a Mac after moving to iPhone development. The one I had is a mac mini with Intel processor. Having seen those bulky Windows PCs I always wondered how Apple managed to pack all the stuff like DVD drive, USB, blue tooth, firewire, wi-fi etc in such a small cute box.
It is irrestible to explore the facilities in a mac. The display, animation, performance... everything is awesome. I liked the way the user interface and the applications are managed. The speed each application is launching is something that can be dreamed of in Windows PCs. The Spotlight facility to search is the one MS has copied to its Windows 7.
There is elegance in a mac.

BSNL complaint online registration for Broadband/Telephone

2010-04-03T16:55:00.000+05:30

One of my friends gave me this link to register complaint about BSNL service.

http://mis.bsnl.co.in/pgs/internet/pgwebregn.asp

I had a complaint with my broadband connection that it became slow and started to drop frequently. I registered a complaint in this page and within 1 hr got a call from the exchange. Now, after 2 hours, they came to my home and fixed the problem.
Hope everyone using BSNL could avail this facility.

Windows XP hibernating taking too long

2010-03-26T19:13:00.000+05:30

My Windows XP machine suddenly started taking very long time to hibernate. It was working fine and I was puzzled with the situation. I had not installed and apps and suspected virus infection.

But then I remembered disabling "Enable write caching on the disk' for my hard-disk few days ago. I enabled the option. Bingo. Problem solved.

Steps:

Right click on My Computer -> select 'Properties'
Select the 'Hardware' tab from the Pop-up window.
Select 'Device Manager' and from the 'Disk drives', right click your hard-disk -> select 'Properties'.
In the 'Policies' tab, check the 'Enable write caching on the disk' and click OK.

Adobe released ColdFusion builder.

2010-03-22T19:43:00.000+05:30

Adobe released ColdFusion builder. See the link http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/buy/#cfb
It comes lot of facilities and support for ORM with ColdFusion 9.
You will also get a complimentary copy of Flash Builder 4 Standard with this version.

Using .jar (Java Archive) file with ColdFusion

2010-03-18T20:12:00.000+05:30

"Java is running under the hood of ColdFusion and it is easier to use Java / Java Archives" with ColdFusion. I have been hearing about this since I have started studying ColdFusion. So I decided to take a look at it. I have studied Java only during my course and does not have much experience with it. Now, with the help of Eclipse, it is very easy to create a Java project and export it as archive.
The first "Search" application. I started with a new Java Project in Eclipse. Created the first search.java file with the package name “org.prasanthkumars.search”. I wrote a new "public function" that simply returns the passed key appended with a random number and called it from the main function. I did this for testing the code.

package org.prasanthkumars.search;
import java.util.Random;

public class Search {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println(searchResult("hello"));
}

public static String searchResult(String key){
Random randomGenerator = new Random();
return key+" "+randomGenerator.nextInt(500);
}
}

I ran the code and, you know (no, no error this time :-) ), got the result displayed to console.
That is it. Now, I need to package this file into an archive. Of course, Eclipse will do that for me.

Go to File -> Export -> JAR file.
In the next Pop-up, select the Search.java file and also give the destination for the JAR file.
Select Next and select the required options.
Select Next and select the Main Class (in our case it is ‘Search’).
Click Finish and you have the org.prasanthkumars.search.jar saved to your system.

Just check whether the .jar file is working correctly.

In the windows Command Prompt, go to the folder in which the .jar file is exported.
Type java -jar org.prasanthkumars.search.jar and click enter.

You can see the result in the console.

So, our .jar file is working fine. Now go ahead and register this .jar file in ColdFusion server.

Go to CF Administrator -> Server Settings > Java and JVM.
Enter the path of the jar file under “ColdFusion Class Path” (eg: "C:\JavaProjects\search\org.prasanthkumars.search.jar". Add additional paths separated by Commas).
Click “Submit Changes”.

* Remember to restart CF server after registering new .jar files. Otherwise, you will not be able to access them.

Now you can access this jar file from ColdFusion code.

<cfset javaobj="CreateObject("java","org.prasanthkumars.search.Search")" />
<cfoutput>javaObj.searchResult("hello world")</cfoutput>

This will output the string “hello world” and a random number.

Backup and restore settings, DSN from your ColdFusion server

2010-03-16T20:09:00.002+05:30

When you have to re-install the Operating System or re-install Adobe ColdFusion server in your machine, you think of the tedious task of having to re-do all the settings and create the datasources again. Using the ColdFusion Archives available in the ColdFusion Administrator, you can backup and restore the settings from your ColdFusion server. The settings are stored as .car files and can be used to port the settings.

Create Archive
For using this feature, log on to Coldfusion administrator (should be available at http://localhost/CFIDE/administrator/index.cfm) and go to Packaging & Deployment -> ColdFusion Archives. There you can create an archive (.car) by giving an Archive Name and then clicking the 'Create' button. Now, the Archive will be listed in the "Current Archive Definition List ". You can open the 'Archive Wizard' by clicking the 'Edit' icon (left most icon in the row of the Archive listing) and this will open a Pop-up. You can select the configurations and datasources that should be backed up. After selecting, close the window. Now you can create the archive by clicking the 'Create Archive' button (middle button in the row of the Archive listing). This will open another Pop-up and you can specify a file name (should have the extension .car) for the backup and click the 'Next' button to create the Archive.

Restoring Archive
In the same section in ColdFusion Administrator, you can choose to deploy an Archive by specifying the path of the archive file and selecting 'Deploy'. This will open a Pop-up and show the details of the settings that will be restored. Click 'Next' to confirm and then click the 'Deploy' button to restore the settings.

Analyze ColdFusion code for errors and code compatibility using ColdFusion Administrator

2010-03-16T20:00:00.001+05:30

ColdFusion Administrator gives the facility to analyze your code for compatibility with current version of ColdFusion and also for errors. To start the Code Analyzer, go to ColdFusion Administrator (should be available at http://localhost/CFIDE/administrator/index.cfm) and go to 'Debugging & Logging' -> 'Code Analyzer'.
You can give the path of the folder which contains the code to be analyzed. Check the 'Analyze subdirectories' check box if you want to traverse all sub folders inside the directory. You can also give the type of files (*.cfm, *.cfc etc) to be analyzed.
'Advanced Options' will let you choose options like Tags and Functions to be analyzed, validate CFML etc.

Once you have completed setup, click the 'Run Analyzer' to check the code for errors. This will analyze the code and show you the results along with the details of files in a tabular format. Click on the left most icon to each error to see the details of the error.

Avalanche Breakdown (Semiconductor)

2010-03-05T22:49:00.000+05:30

IBM researchers invent a device that uses light to help computer chips to communicate. What I found interesting in this is the phenomenon of Avalanche Breakdown in Germanium.

From Wikipedia : "Most of the time, the electron and hole will just move to opposite ends of the crystal and stop. Under the right circumstances, however, (ie. when the voltage is high enough) the free electron may move fast enough to knock other electrons free, creating more free-electron-hole pairs (ie. more charge carriers), increasing the current. Fast-"moving" holes may also result in more electron-hole pairs being formed."

That is, in Germanium, an incoming light pulse frees a few charge carriers that, in turn, free others until the original signal is amplified many times.

More details:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v464/n7285/full/nature08813.html
http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_projects.nsf/pages/photonics.index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalanche_breakdown

View debug/log information inside Eclipse with NTail

2010-03-04T19:20:00.000+05:30

Implementing Debugging and Logging functionality in your application will help you a lot when tracing the details of an error - while developing and also after deployment.
There are lot of libraries out there like log4j, which you can integrate with your app for easier log management. Log4j/log4net have the provision to either log the information to a file or send email.
So, will it be helpful if you can directly see the logs in Eclipse that will get updated whenever the log file gets updated ?

Using NTail, you can achieve this. The content of the log file will be shown in a window inside Eclipse which will automatically get updated.

Steps:

Download latest version of NTail from the website http://www.certiv.net/downloads/ntaildownload.html.
Now copy the .jar file to the 'Plugins' directory inside the Eclipse installation folder.
Open Eclipse
Go to Window -> Preferences.
In the Preferences window you can see the 'NTail' section (If NTail is not listed there, your version of Eclipse may not have support for the version of NTail).
Expand the NTail section and select 'Define Viewers'.
Click 'New' and give the details of the log file and a name.
Click 'OK' and you have successfully setup the NTail to watch a file for changes.
Now, go to Window -> Show View -> Other.
Select NTail from Logging -> NTail. Alternatively, you can type 'NTail' in the filter text box on top of the window.
Click 'OK'.
The NTail window should open inside your Eclipse.

Now, whenever the file gets changed, it will be shown inside the NTail window.

Crystal ball juggler at Oberon Mall, Kochi, Kerala

2010-03-03T01:47:00.004+05:30

I saw an amazing maneuver of crystal balls at the show in Oberon Mall, Kochi. I had my digital camera with me and recorded some moments from the show. See them below.

Crystal ball juggler at Oberon Mall Part I

Crystal ball juggler at Oberon Mall Part II

Good article about IT workers and excuses

2010-02-28T22:27:00.000+05:30

I found this article very good. All, not just IT workers, should remember these points.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=31279

Funny parking sign for two wheelers, from Ernakulam

2010-02-27T09:51:00.002+05:30

A Two Wheeler parking sign from Ernakulam, Kerala, INDIA. Seems they did not had enough space for putting "H".

From Prasanth's blog

Create a Zip file and make available for download using Coldfusion 8

2010-02-25T20:55:00.002+05:30

Coldfusion 8 has the tag CFZIP by which we can zip/unzip a folder in the server. For creating a file download, that is, the user will be prompted for saving the file, we can use CFHEADER tag. We can use CFCONTENT tag to deliver the content in an unpublished directory (not mapped to web server) to the user.

Now, let us begin with cfzip.

The "action" attribute tell the server to 'zip' the contents of the folder specified in "source" attribute and output the zip file as specified in the "file" attribute. So, the files in "C:\myfiles\myphotos" folder will be zipped and saved as "c:\download\myphotos.zip".

We can additionally specify the CFZIPPARAM inside the CFZIP tag to filter only the files matching the filter for the process.

Now we have the zip file in the server in an unpublished directory. We need to make this file available for download.
The tag we use here is CFCONTENT. This tag serves the file in the server storage area to the browser.

This code specify that the file specified in the "file" attribute should be served to the browser and the "deletefile" attribute specify whether to delete the file after this operation.

In some cases like serving text files, some browsers tend to render the content to the page itself instead of downloading or some may not know the action to perform on the file. To guide the browser to show a download prompt, we can use the CFHEADER tag. This tag will create appropriate header for the data served to user's browser.

Put this code above the CFCONTENT code.
This code tell the browser to accept the content as downloadable and show the download prompt.

Note: The folders specified as source and destination should be valid or else the Coldfusion server will show an error.

Find details of mobile operator from the number

2010-02-23T20:14:00.001+05:30

Just came across this wikipedia page showing the list of allocated numbers to different mobile operators in India. If you get the first four digits of the mobile number, then you can go through the chart in the page to find out the operator and the state.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_telephone_numbering_in_India

Free SMS service for Calicut University Exam notification

2010-02-20T21:20:00.004+05:30

We have a free SMS service for exam notifications from Calicut University, Kerala, INDIA. Anybody in India with a Google Account can sign-up for this service. This is an unofficial service, but we will try to keep the service updated. This service is Ad free.

Steps for signing up:

Go to http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/. You may have to first register your Mobile Phone on the site.
Search for the channel "CalicutUniversityExam".
Subscribe for the channel.

The SMS notification will be sent once the notification section is updated and will contain information about the first few new notifications.
Hope this service will be helpful for those who study under Calicut University.

*Note: The delivery of SMS will depend on the service providers and the peak timings. Please do not solely depend on this service.

JavaScript coding patterns

2010-02-16T23:13:00.002+05:30

Another post on JavaScript coding. This time I like to introduce the coding patterns that helps you to make variables and functions on your code less vulnerable to overwriting by other's variables and functions on the same page.

SINGLETON
MODULE PATTERN
REVEALING MODULE PATTERN

Among these, I found the "Revealing Module Pattern" as a good pattern to follow. See a sample code below:

< script language="javascript">
var myCar = function(){
var startEngine = function(){
  alert('Engine Started');
}

var turnKey = function(){
  alert('Key turned');
  startEngine();
}

return{
  turnKey:turnKey
}
}();// the parenthesis just after closing braces cause the function to execute and return.

myCar.turnKey();
myCar.startEngine();

Here, I have declared "myCar" as an anonymous function. All the functions and variables inside this function are now private. That is, they cannot be called from outside this function. Now, we will create the references of the functions that should be made public and return them. Here, we only made the "turnKey" function public.

Note the pair of parenthesis next to the closing of the anonymous function "myCar". This parenthesis cause the function to immediately execute and return. So, when the code is run, we will have the "myCar" function available in the page.

So, I can call the myCar.turnKey() function. If I try to call the myCar.startEngine() function, this will create and error as the function is private to "myCar".

Photo of plane taking off from Nedumbassery Airport, Cochin, taken from Satellite

2010-02-14T19:05:00.001+05:30

See the picture of a plane taking off from Nedumbassery Airport, shot from satellite. See the photo from Google maps. Search for Nedumbassery Airport in http://maps.google.com and see for yourself.

Restrict mails from Google BUZZ in your inbox.

2010-02-13T19:11:00.002+05:30

Google Buzz is a great tool to view the updates for your friends in your GMail. But the mails are clogging our inbox with updates. You do not want to disable Buzz, but just the mails.
I tried the following steps and found it helps to redirect the mails from Inbox.

1. Go to GMail -> Settings -> Filters.
2. Create a filter with "From:" and "Has the words: buzz".
3. Click "Next Step >>".
4. Select "Skip the Inbox" and "Delete it" check-boxes.
5. Click "Create Filter".

Now all the mails from Buzz will be deleted without clogging your inbox.

Warning: This trick is undergoing testing and the Author cannot be held responsible for any damages caused due to following the above instructions :-).

Give footer for CFPresentation Slide

2010-02-12T22:40:00.005+05:30

You can create presentations using CFPresentation in ColdFusion 8. It is very fast and gives the developer a lot of options like showing notes, outline and search. You can include text, Image and swf movies to a presentation.
But, if you want to create a footer section, that is not readily available. To create a footer section, you can put a div inside the CFPresentationSlide and align such that the content is always displayed at the bottom. Use the code below to show the footer section in the presentation.

<div style="position:absolute;top:70%">
<font style="font:verdana;font-size:8px;">© Prasanth Kumar.S</font>
</div>

Binary checksum does not consider more than 255 characters in Microsoft SQL Server

2010-01-01T20:10:00.001+05:30

Binary checksum in Microsoft SQL Server is a good function to compare strings in data base without affecting performance of queries. The function Binary_CheckSum() will genreate a checksum for the string entered in the specified column and it will be easier and faster to compare that integer value rather than comparing the strings. The benefit of using Binary_CheckSum() instead of checksum() is that it is case sensitive as it uses the ASCII value of each character and calculates the Binary_CheckSum().

But think twice before using these functions for large strings. These functions will consider only 255 characters. If the character length exceeds 255 characters, the check sum will reset and start again and consider characters greater than 256 only. So, for example, the computed Binary checksum of the single character 'a' will be same as that of a 257 character string whose last character is 'a'.

Array functions in JavaScript

2009-12-30T22:50:00.004+05:30

Here are some of the functions useful for array operations

Push() - Appends one or more elements to the end of an array

var data = [ "A" ];
data.push( "B" );
data.push( "C" );

Result
data = ["A","B","C"]

Pop() - Pops out (removes) one element from the end of an array

var data = ["A","B","C"];
data.pop();

Result
data = ["A","B"];

Unshift() - Adds one or more elements to the beginning of an array

var data = [ "A" ];
data.unshift( "B","X" );
data.unshift( "C" );

Result
data = ["C","B","X","A"]

Shift() - Removes one element from the beginning of an array

var data = ["A","B","C"];
data.shift();

Result
data = ["B","C"];

Splice() - Removes elements specified number of items from the starting index and also optionally allows insertion of items on the start index.

// array.splice(start Position,number of elements,[elements to be inserted])

var data = ["A","B","C","D"];
console.log(data.splice(1,2,"x","y"));
console.log(data);

Result
["B", "C"]
["A", "x", "y", "D"]

Thanks to Ben Nadel for sharing this useful piece of information.

Generate Fibonacci series using recursion with ColdFusion

2009-12-23T21:58:00.004+05:30

Recursion is a method which has been popular from the earlier age of computing. In simple terms, recursion is the process in which a function/method calls itself again and again till a condition is satisfied. It is mainly used to generate or find the sum of series of numbers like Fibonacci series.
I seldom had chance to implement the recursion in programming. Lately I had to create a dynamic menu structure using Ext JS and I found recursion was the answer. I was able to neatly create the menu dynamically to 'n' levels.
As the creation of menu includes Ext JS and other dependencies, I will try to explain the concept with generating Fibonacci series numbers in ColdFusion.

As noted before, recursion is the process of a function calling itself again and again. It is infinite, so we will restrict our demo to values till 50 .

Let us first look what a fibonacci series is. The series propagates in a manner such that a number in the series is the sum of two preceeding numbers and the series starts with 1 and 1.

Fibonacci series:
1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,...

We need to create a function which calls itself again and again to generate fibonacci numbers and also to find the sum of those numbers. Let us call it 'doRecursion'.

The logic is, the function will receive two numbers as arguments. It should add up the two numbers to get the third number. But the sum of second number and third number is the fourth number and so on.

For example,
Step 1: we get two numbers 1 and 1. so the third number is
1+1=2
Step 2: fourth number is 2nd + 3rd number, i.e, 1+2 = 3.
Step 3: fifth number is 3rd + 4th number, i.e, 2+3 = 5.

That is, we get two numbers, whose sum is third number. But the second one among the two numbers and their sum adds to give fourth number, and the series goes on.

So, our function will take two numbers as arguments and instead of simply adding the two, add the first number to the recursive call whose input will be the second number and the sum of first and second number. The return value of the function is the first argument itself.

Code:

doRecursion(1,1); //Initiating the call

function doRecursion(value1,value2)
{
if(value2 LTE 50) //A simple condition to restrict the loop
{
/* Adding the first number with the return value of recursive call to the doRecursion function with the arguments as the second number and the sum of first and second number */
writeoutput(value1 + doRecursion(value2,value1+value2)&" ");
}
return value1;
}

First we call the function doRecursion with the arguments 1,1. Now the function will try to add the value1 with the return value of the call to function doRecursion by passing the parameters value2 and sum of value1 and value2. This function will return the first argument so that it will get added to the value1 in the main function.

Now run the code and see the result.
55 34 21 13 8 5 3 2

and... what happened? the series is in reverse...
Ok, let me explain this.
When we call the function, it will try to add the value1 to the result of another function call and so the control is never returned to the calling function until... the value2 greater than 50. In this case, the call to the function is not performed and it will return the first argument as return value to the called function which in turn completes the calculation. So, the value 55 gets displayed first because at that instance the value1 = 34 and value2=55 and value2 is greater than 50. So, the function will return the first value (34) to the calling function which was waiting to add it with it's first argument 21 and that function returns it's first argument ie, 21 to its calling function and so on.

So, the values gets displayed in reverse order.

Now make a small change in the function.

if(value2 LTE 50) //A simple condition to restrict the loop
{
writeoutput(value1&" ");
doRecursion(value2,value1+value2);
}

Now, the result will be
1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21

Hope the logic is clear.

Create shortcut for restarting ColdFusion 8 server

2009-12-09T19:40:00.002+05:30

While developing applications in ColdFusion we may have to restart the CF server occasionally. We have to go to "Windows Services" and then restart the server. This can easily be achieved by creating a shortcut for the restarting process so that you can just click and restart the CF application server without going to the windows services window.

For this, you have to first find out the location of jrunsvc.exe. You can find this by going to Services window (by running services.msc) and open the ColdFusion 8 Application Server. Take the whole path from "Path to executable" along with quotes. Also take the "Service name" (this should be "ColdFusion 8 Application Server").

Now, open a notepad and enter two lines as below.

<"Path to executable"> -stop <"Service name">
<"Path to executable"> -start <"Service name">

and save the file as a batch file with a name of your choice (I prefer restartCF.bat).

So, the content of the batch file as per the example will be :

"C:\ColdFusion8\runtime\bin\jrunsvc.exe" -stop "ColdFusion 8 Application Server"
"C:\ColdFusion8\runtime\bin\jrunsvc.exe" -start "ColdFusion 8 Application Server"

Just double click this file and your CF Application server will be restarted.

Dr. SMS – a m-Health Information System for Kerala

2009-11-16T21:58:00.000+05:30

I just saw information about this useful service from Kerala Government.

Dr. SMS – a m-Health Information System for Kerala

You can send SMS to 9495949000 in the following format to get information about hospital facilities.

More details are on the original link of Kerala IT Mission (Click here). I tried the link for Dr.SMS and it was not working. So thought of posting this in my blog.

The format for SMS are :
1. Find Hospital : Input - > Health <Pincode> <facility>
Output : <Hospital Name, Address, phone>
2. Hospital Facilities : Input - > Health <Hospital name>
Output: <Hospital phone No, Major facilities>

and send SMS to 9495949000.

Of course, the facility is working but only during day I assume. My SMS at 10 P.M was replied at 9 A.M next morning.

Location-Aware Browsing in Firefox 3.5

2009-11-11T20:36:00.002+05:30

   Firefox 3.5 have incorporated the facility to let the websites identify the location of the site visitor. The technique is that, when the user browse a site that use location-aware browsing, Firefox will ask for user consent and send details like IP address to Geolocation service providers and get the location. This may not be accurate in India, but they were able to point out my location accurately to the city :-)

   More details are in Firefox site http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/geolocation/ where you can also see the demo.

   I will do a demo and post the code on my site later.

Gartner Research note on Adobe ColdFusion

2009-10-09T08:19:00.000+05:30

See the research note by Gartner on Adobe ColdFusion Past, Present and Future.
http://www.adobe.com/enterprise/pdfs/Adobe3112.pdf

Adobe released ColdFusion 9 at Adobe Max

2009-10-06T21:33:00.002+05:30

Folks, for your information, Adobe has officially released Adobe ColdFusion 9 at Adobe MAX today.
http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/

Create a twitter reader using JQuery

2009-09-08T23:30:00.008+05:30

The year of JavaScript has come and JQuery is one of the powerful JavaScript libraries out there. We could perform a multitude of tasks using these libraries. I have created a twitter reader that displays a user's timeline using JQuery. The implementation is very simple.

See the code below.

<html>
<head>
<title>Twitter Reader</title>
<script src="jquery.js" language="javascript"></script>
</head>
<body align="center" bgcolor="#181C21">
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
$.getJSON("http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/prasanthkumars.json?callback=?",
function(data){
$.each(data,function(i, item){
$("<div style='color:#865833'>"+item.text+"</div>").appendTo("body");
});
$("div").filter(function(index){
return (index % 2 == 0);
}).css("background","#1FC8FE").css("width","30%");
$("div").filter(function(index){
return (index > 0 && index % 2 != 0);
}).css("background","#CBF2FF").css("width","30%");
});
});
</script>
<div id="twitterResponseDiv" name="twitterResponseDiv" style="font-family:verdana;color:green;background-color:#CBF2FF;width:30%">
Twitter Response Div
</div>
</body>
</html>

I have included the jquery.js file to the page and then used the getJSON method to load JSON data using an HTTP GET request. On receipt of data, it is looped and the text is displayed in different divs which is attached to the body element.

For showing different colors for alternating divs. I have used the filter function available with JQuery.

References :

http://docs.jquery.com/Getjson
http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-API-Documentation

Remove unnecessary blank lines from the ColdFusion output

2009-08-13T21:45:00.004+05:30

ColdFusion outputs blank lines on the data sent to the browser which can sometimes get higher that it will be many times higher than actual output lines. In some cases this will eat into the bandwidth. To avoid this, check the 'Enable Whitespace Management' under 'Settings' in ColdFusion Administrator. This will remove many of the extra spaces, tabs, and carriage returns that ColdFusion might otherwise persist from the CFML source file. Enabling this could lead to a minor performance issue with the CF Server, but compare with the bandwidth gain and decide to use this feature.

OpenSearch - enabling your site with OpenSearch

2009-07-17T22:06:00.004+05:30

You must have seen list of search engines in mozilla search bar (usually to the right end after address bar). There are a list of sites like Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia on the list from which we can choose the default search engine. These sites are OpenSearch enabled. The Mozilla browser can directly send search queries from the search bar to these sites. There are lot of sites which are OpenSearch enabled. We can easily identify a site is OpenSearch by looking at the arrow icon on the search bar in Mozilla.

If the site is OpenSearch enabled, there will be glow for the arrow icon

You can click the arrow to see the option "Add " so that the search the site will also get listed in the search engine list. You can search that site by directly entering the search term on the mozilla browser search box and selecting the site from the list of search engines.

More details, the demo and how to enable OpenSearch on the following link http://www.prasanthkumars.com/searchdemo.asp.

Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT)

2009-07-05T16:33:00.001+05:30

SAAS and other online free services - How to save your data remotely and access from anywhere?

2009-07-05T10:16:00.005+05:30

The new model of software application development cannot ignore the methodology of SAAS that is beneficial for both the customers and companies. In SAAS method, you only pay for what you use, unlike buying the whole suite of applications in which you rarely use options other than a few. If you get MS Office as a SAAS app, you can pay for the Excel or Word and only for the time you use.

Coming to the main point of this blog post, “How to save your data remotely and access from anywhere?” I remember the time around 10 years back when I bought my first PC. The Internet was available only for the elite community at a premium and that too dialup. We have to literally pray for the connection to get successful and pray more for not getting disconnected in between. With a little over 8 kbps max speed, you can browse a lot of static sites and check your mails. Hotmail was the free service that give you 2 MB which was more than enough, and who was out there to spam you?

Things have changed with Google entering the email arena with unlimited storage space. By that time broadband came down to households. Now you have thousands of MP3, hundreds of movies and hopefully very little useful data on your hard disk.

But if one day, your hard disk breaks down or your OS gets corrupted. All the data and customizations you made are lost!!! No. you have a 500 GB backup hard drive and you keep a backup of everything you do in that. You can simply restore everything from the backup. Good idea, but you always have to sync the data, keep the versions and also carry it everywhere you go.

The other way is to store everything, at least your documents, to the web and access from anywhere, anytime, but with an internet connection.

The applications / services noted below can be accessed with Mozilla, which is available on Windows, Linux and Mac.

1. Google Docs and Gears engine (http://docs.google.com)

Create, edit and save your documents using Google Docs. It has a word processor, spread sheet and presentation support. We can also share these documents with friends and track the changes. Also, export them to different formats like pdf, ods, doc etc.

If you are a frequent traveler and don’t get access to net while traveling, you can enable Google Gears support to Google Docs so that the documents are available offline and are synced when we get online.

For using Google Docs you need a Google account.

Similar Services:

a. Adobe Acrobat

2. X-Marks – bookmark sharing (http://www.xmarks.com/)

x-marks provides synchronization facility for your bookmarks automatically. For using x-marks you just need to install the plug-in for FireFox and create and x-marks account. Now you can access your bookmarks from any machine and synchronize it. You also can view the bookmarks online at x-marks site. The add-on is available for IE and Safari too.

3. Online storage

x-Drive was one of the popular online free storage service provider, but have been closed recently after being acquired by AOL. There are more players out there, one is Adobe Acrobat. By creating an account on Adobe, you can get a multitude of features like word processor, free storage, desktop sharing, and file sharing using the Adobe Acrobat AIR application that gets automatically installed along with Adobe Acrobat 9.

4. Calendar

Online calendars are a best place to track your appointments. Google Calendar offers facilities like sending SMS reminder, sending email reminders, XML import and sharing calendar with friends. If you are using Thunderbird with Lightning (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/) plug-in, you can add the Google calendar to your Thunderbird. But you should be online while using this feature. For MS Outlook, Google is providing a free synchronization application (http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=98563) that will synchronize the GCal data to Outlook. Additionally, if you own a Nokia Mobile, you can synchronize the data with all these services using PC Suite.

25 Reasons Why Someone Should Join Twitter

2009-06-06T17:41:00.001+05:30

One of my friends tweeted these links

25 Reasons Why Someone Should Join Twitter

The Ultimate List of Twitter Tools

Y! = why not = Yahoo

2009-06-03T23:34:00.003+05:30

Just came to my mind the Y! that is usually seen in Yahoo sites. Does that mean Why Not ? I'm not sure... but that will be nice to find out.

How to show blurry images first and then progressively show clear image

2009-04-29T22:30:00.007+05:30


Interlaced	Normal

We have a slow net connection and when we browse our site we can see that the images are loaded line by line from top to bottom. We can change this behaviour by saving the image as Progressive (jpeg) or Interlaced (gif). We can achieve this using GIMP or there are lot of free image editing softwares out there.

The Interlaced image will have a bit more size than normal image, but the user will have a better experience.

Try loading the two images in different window and see the difference.

The Interlaced image will first load the whole image, but the image will be blurred. This will get sharper and finally the clearer image will be displayed.

In case of normal image, the section of image loaded will be sharp, but the whole image will not be loaded at once.

Sava CMS - first impression

2009-04-08T22:01:00.005+05:30

I tried setting up SAVA CMS standard in my machine. The installation was very easy. Just gave the required setup mappings in the ColdFusion administrator and DataBase and the site was up.

The WYSIWYG editor is cool to use. I tried creating inner pages and links. They are displaying very nice. It even creates a bread crumbs.

Try uploading items to Gallery. It will display very neatly. Click on the item, you can see the implementation of Shadow box.

The team have surely done a nice work in bringing SAVA CMS.

Free ColdFusion CMS

2009-04-08T07:19:00.000+05:30

Sava has released a free CMS in ColdFusion. More details after I try it...

Even adobe don't test site properly

2009-04-02T08:41:00.002+05:30

See the screengrab from http://www.adobe.com/misc/training.html on April 02, 2009. The commented out code is not proper....

A construction in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala that is visible from sky.

2009-03-25T06:50:00.005+05:30

The Photos of Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple from Google Earth.

Easily viewable wallpaper

2009-03-19T22:32:00.006+05:30

Sometimes the icons on your desktop will not be easily recognizable due to the color of wallpaper. Just try this method to blur the part of wallpaper where the icons appear. You can easily view the desktop icons without much effect on the wallpaper. Using Photoshop or GIMP, select a rectangular area where the icons come and apply Gaussian Blur. Now use this image as wallpaper and see the difference.

Eco friendly printing

2009-03-19T22:12:00.003+05:30

Why not save ink while printing? Here is the Eco friendly font that is designed specially to save ink. It is free to download and use. http://www.ecofont.eu/ecofont_en.html Tip: If you are using mono laser printer, another way to save ink is to change the font color to red. This will reduce the amount of ink used while printing.

Printer friendly page

2009-03-19T21:39:00.002+05:30

Usually we see links in web pages to show another version of page that is printer friendly. But, we can create a page such that it will display correctly in browser, but while printing, we can decide which all content to be printed. This is achieved with CSS. The method is simple. You create a style sheet such that the content that you do not want to appear in print will be given the attribute 'display:none'. This style sheet is add to you page with an additional attribute media="print". So, when the user choose to print the page, this style sheet will be considered and the content that are given the display:none attribute will be hidden. http://envisionic.com/webtips/user_experience/printer_friendly.php

'Simple' difference between Proprietory and Free software

2009-03-19T21:20:00.006+05:30

See the two images from Visual Studio and Eclipse. While Studio tells 'Close all but this', Eclipse simply tells 'Close Others'.

IT magazine stops print edition

2009-03-16T21:30:00.005+05:30

The magazine I.T from the efy group had sent out his last print issue. In the editorial of the Mar 2009 issue they have informed the subscribers about their decision to stop print and move entirely to web which will be available for free.

The existing users will get an option to get a refund of the remaining subscription amount or switch to another magazine from the group.

Flash Movie always on top in browser

2009-03-10T21:19:00.003+05:30

If you happen to embed a Flash / Flex .swf file in a HTML page and also put a full screen Div over the content, you could probably see that the flash file is on top of the Div even though you set the z-index of the Div. The solution is simple. Add the wmode param while setting the swf Object to the page.
This will make the flash file appear below your Div.

IIS very slow after ColdFusion 8 service is stopped.

2009-03-03T20:44:00.003+05:30

This is a technote from my experience. I had ColdFusion 8 server installed on my machine. After I stopped ColdFusion service (change to start manually) and restarted the machine, IIS was responding very slow. I was not aware that CF8 had created this issue. I tried to find the reason using the tools provided by Microsoft (DebugDiag.msi and ApplicationVerifier.x86.msi) and found that the JRun of CF server is making the IIS unresponsive.

The solution was simple. Just start the CF server service on the machine and IIS will be back to normal.

Danger from Space Debris

2009-02-17T22:18:00.002+05:30

As man had reached to outer space, so do the waste. Now the amount of space debris had reached to a serious level that UN had issued a warning about them causing danger to space flights. Space debris often are created by the remains of rockets, parts of satellites and even defunct satellites. Recently, an Iridium communication satellite had collided with a defunct Russian satellite above Sibera. The Iridium communication satellite was a part of the 66 satellites that are used to provide satellite communication.

The debris that fall to earth usually get burned out in outer atmosphere itself, but some metals like Ti will not be burned out and can cause damage to earthly objects. In years to come the amount of debris will only increase which will create considerable safety problems to the ISS.

Relaunched my site

2009-02-14T22:03:00.003+05:30

Finding time for updating my site was a bit difficult. But I have completed the homepage and projects page of my new site and uploaded as per schedule.

If we have to find time for something, then you will. After all, all the great achievers had 24 hours a day.

QR (Quick Response codes)

2009-02-05T23:17:00.002+05:30

You have seen about barcodes. They provide with basic information about a product. Now comes the QR (Quick Response) code that can store lot more information.

QR code is having a matrix structure or can be called as a two-dimensional barcode.

QR code is open and we can create one by visiting one of the free code generating sites.

PSLV and GSLV

2009-02-02T20:47:00.004+05:30

I just had a quick search on the Polar satellites and Geo stationary satellites.

PSLV is used to launch satellites to Polar orbits. That means the satellite passes above or nearly above both the poles. Also, these satellites passes over a point in earth at the same local time. for eg:, the satellite passes over any point in earth at 1 P.M local time. They are usually used for earth mapping, observation and some weather data collection.

GSLV is used to launch satellites to Geo stationary orbits. Geo stationary orbits means the satellite's orbit will be directly above the equator and will have a period or revolution equal to the period of rotation of earth. The orbit will be roughly 35,786 km above equator. They are usually used for Satellite communications, weather data collection and GPS.

Google's explanation to the "This site may harm your computer" on every search result error that occurred yesterday

2009-02-01T16:04:00.002+05:30

Google's explanation to the "This site may harm your computer" on every search result error that occurred yesterday

2009-02-01T14:40:00.000+05:30

a good feature in live.com search. Want wallpapers that fit your current resolution ? Search images in live.com and refine search by size -> Desktop.

Hello World!

2009-02-01T14:15:00.000+05:30

Hello World! Wow! The same old Hello World!. So, I have started blogging.... :-) more to come...

Prasanth's blog

BSNL - Adding/Changing friends and family numbers

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

CSV and SYLK file.

Integrating Open Search to your site

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

Chameleon appeared near my office. Not seen before.

Automate Tortoise SVN update in Windows

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

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

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

Macromedia still in the heart of Adobe ColdFusion

Adobe is shutting down AIR market place

I'm slowly regaining my online life

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

Google chopped off J&K from INDIA !!!

MONEY IS YOURS BUT RESOURCES BELONG TO SOCIETY

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

ICE (In Case of Emergency) numbers in Mobile phone

Stereogram and how to decode it

Enable JavaScript debug menu in Safari in Mac OS

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

CFContent is not creating Excel file

Unicode font for the new symbol of Indian Rupee

ColdFusion 8 Decrypt error with CFMX_COMPAT algorithm hotfix

Have you heard about the automobile manufacturer 'VALVO'

Scientific meaning of Gaytri Mantra

Working with large numbers in ColdFusion

Adobe Flex launch event at Kochi (KADUG)

My experience with Apple Macintosh

BSNL complaint online registration for Broadband/Telephone

Windows XP hibernating taking too long

Adobe released ColdFusion builder.

Using .jar (Java Archive) file with ColdFusion

Backup and restore settings, DSN from your ColdFusion server

Analyze ColdFusion code for errors and code compatibility using ColdFusion Administrator

Avalanche Breakdown (Semiconductor)

View debug/log information inside Eclipse with NTail

Crystal ball juggler at Oberon Mall, Kochi, Kerala

Good article about IT workers and excuses

Funny parking sign for two wheelers, from Ernakulam

Create a Zip file and make available for download using Coldfusion 8

Find details of mobile operator from the number

Free SMS service for Calicut University Exam notification

JavaScript coding patterns

Photo of plane taking off from Nedumbassery Airport, Cochin, taken from Satellite

Restrict mails from Google BUZZ in your inbox.

Give footer for CFPresentation Slide

Binary checksum does not consider more than 255 characters in Microsoft SQL Server

Array functions in JavaScript

Generate Fibonacci series using recursion with ColdFusion

Create shortcut for restarting ColdFusion 8 server

Dr. SMS – a m-Health Information System for Kerala

Location-Aware Browsing in Firefox 3.5

Gartner Research note on Adobe ColdFusion

Adobe released ColdFusion 9 at Adobe Max

Create a twitter reader using JQuery

Remove unnecessary blank lines from the ColdFusion output

OpenSearch - enabling your site with OpenSearch

Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT)

blog of Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT)

SAAS and other online free services - How to save your data remotely and access from anywhere?

25 Reasons Why Someone Should Join Twitter

Y! = why not = Yahoo

How to show blurry images first and then progressively show clear image

Sava CMS - first impression

Free ColdFusion CMS

Even adobe don't test site properly

A construction in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala that is visible from sky.

Easily viewable wallpaper

Eco friendly printing

Printer friendly page

'Simple' difference between Proprietory and Free software

IT magazine stops print edition

Flash Movie always on top in browser

IIS very slow after ColdFusion 8 service is stopped.

Danger from Space Debris

Relaunched my site

QR (Quick Response codes)

PSLV and GSLV