A strategy for Google for a better Plus.

It has been a while since Facebook grabbed the social networking sovereignty from Google owned Orkut. Thenceforth google is persevering to recapture the realm. They withdrew Orkut and introduced a new platform there - the Google Plus. Unfortunately plus too did not work well.

So what is the problem?
Somebody famously quoted once - "The only way to be successful is to solve the pain or deliver a delight. Even solving a pain is the flip side of delivering a delight." Facebook already delivered that delight. Now what remains there for Google is to solve a problem ( if any ). Google Plus is a replica of Facebook in many ways - particularly how it works. Users has to have a better reason to switch to Plus when all their friends and family is in Facebook.

Again, start from the beginning.
As of now google is the most popular search engine. It has evolved at a time when there was a demand for an optimized as well as impartial search engine. Google literally vanquished other search engines of that epoch. All of that happened because google was solving a pain. Facebook is such a brilliantly designed application that it is difficult to find out a problem with it. It is a platform evolved gradually.

So how to conquer the platform back. The solution is to start from Google hangout - but one step at a time. Recently google made its hangout a separate unique web app google.com/hangouts which is a best place to kick off. Google has a user base which is much bigger than Facebook. 

• Hangout is not a popular word in some countries like India. It would be better to change it to a simple name. (How about the classic old name GTalk ?)
• Remove the hangout from Gmail and Plus and make it available only on GTalk app.
• Release clients for web, Chrome ext, Mozilla, android, iPhone and blackberry. 
• Let the users create a contact card in GTalk and let them set permissions to each field ( such as Public, Only me, Friends, Selected groups, Specific persons, Don't share with etc.), so that they can share their contact card to others who has GTalk installed.
• Let users create their public profile like http://gtalk.com/username for self branding. ( Like about.me ).
• Do not list strangers in GTalk search and no options in settings to enable it. This is very important.
• Searching strangers can be added in the timeline search.
• Never sync their personal contact with this app. Fetch user's contacts who has Gmail and suggest the user to add as friend in GTalk.
• List out GTalk contact details in a new address book.(Not google contacts) 
• Let the users create groups (open and closed).

Give time and let it flourish to a sophisticated chat application. 

Now comes the most important part of the social networking - the timeline. On almost all chat applications there is a provision to forward updates to another friend or group. Extend it to send it to your own time line. This is the idea. Share from chat to timeline. 

The timeline will have updates from our friends and family.

Now the application has three tabs namely chats, timeline and profile. While releasing make it available on all the platforms.

• Let users create pages and add authors - This will be useful for media. Only authors can post but any body can see it.
• Collaborate with mobile internet service providers to have a chat plan for a small amount ( something like Rs: 50 per month for 200MB ).

Current time in terminal - debian

Create a file 'now' and copy paste the following into it.

#!/bin/bash
date '+%A %D %X'

then save it and give executable permission to that file.

chmod +x ./now

Now copy that file to any of the system path. (echo $PATH gives the system paths)

cp ./now /usr/local/bin

that is it, next open a new terminal and type now and press enter. It will give the current time

Thursday 12/11/14 16:28:08

With a bit formatting we can have this printed in different colors.

#!/bin/bash

now=$(date '+%A %D %X')

red='\033[0;31m'

NC='\033[0m' # No Color

echo -e "${red}$now${NC}"

Check this for a list of color codes http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5947742/how-to-change-the-output-color-of-echo-in-linux

Solve rubik's cube

Here is my demo,.

Solve the rubik's cube..
 * F' U L' U' - to make a white cross

White in bottom and other colors are opposite
  * R' 2D R D - brings white right then
  * R' D' R - do this if white is already right
  * D' R' D R

Middle layer: (top middles without yellow)
  * Top mid to right:
     U R U' R' U' F' U F
  * Top mid to left
     U' L' U L U F U' F'

Top Layer:
Ignore the corners and look at the center
* To create a cross:
  *  F R U R' U' F' which creates a  bar
  * try above until it creates a bar
  * then keep the bar horizondal
  * try the same above algorithm until you getcross

* Line up atleast two
  * Either line on side and back, or lines front and back
  * R U R' U R 2U R' U
  * Find out one that is lined up. It doesn't need to be oriented
  * Keep that in top right
  * U R U' L' U R' U' L - try until proper positions.
  * R' D' R D

Programming arduino uno with avr pocket programmer

Make the setup as shown in figure.

Image credits to https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/installing-an-arduino-bootloader

1. Select 'Power Target' in 'AVR Pocket Programmer'.
2. git clone https://github.com/arunkumarv31/rtos
3. cd compile 
4. Edit Makefile. Comment avrdude line with option arduino and uncomment line with option usbtiny in burn section.
5. make
6. sudo make burn
7. sudo (or be root) is mandatory. Because linux may not show error as permission denied, instead it will show initialization failed, rc=-1. 

If you have your own code and hex file. Burn the hex with this command -

• sudo avrdude -F -V -c usbtiny -p atmega328p -D -b 115200 -U flash:w:main.hex 

This same procedure can be used with other boards.

For Arduino mega2560 sudo avrdude -F -V -c usbtiny -p atmega2560 -D -b 115200 -U flash:w:main.hex 

Edit inc/common.h and Makefile in rtos if you are using my codes.

upload bootloader to mega2560 using Uno

Run arduino ide (arduino 1.5.7 is required. won't work with older versions of software )
Connect the uno board to USB.
Open arduino ISP from examples.
Compile it and upload to uno board. (Board:Uno, Programmer Arduino as ISP)

Now make the following connections with the mega board. It is basically interfacing boards through SPI (MOSI, MISO, SCK) and SS(UNO) to RESET (MEGA2560)

UNO       MEGA2560
10 --------> 53
11 --------> 51
12 --------> 50
13 --------> 52

+5V --------> +5V
GND -------> GND

Select Board: Mega2560
Processor: 2560
Programmer: Arduino as ISP and then Tools > burn bootloader.Thsi time don't click upload.

Now connect mega2560 to PC and open a blink program. Compile and upload the program.

Install debian iso with usb

Creating a startup disk is simple in linux. No third party apps like start-up disk creator or unetbootin is required. Linux base command dd is enough.

• Download a debian version from this site https://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/#stable
• Mine is i386 so I downloaded http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/7.5.0/i386/iso-cd/debian-7.5.0-i386-CD-1.iso
• Open a terminal and run sudo dmesg -c to clear kernel logs
• Connect the usb and then recheck dmesg in terminal (This time without -c option)
• there will be something like sdc sdc1 or sdbs db1 in the log.
• Replace the x with c or b in the following command and execute it. 
• dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx && sync

That is it. A base kernel will get installed. While installing provide an internet connection so that it will automatically fetch required packages online. The installation will check for available connections ( Ethernet/WiFi ) while installing.

I think this works with almost all main linux distros

Ref: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Putting_installation_media_on_a_USB_key

Some tech reminiscence

Was formatting my PC and I got some old docs.
Btech final year project report: Secure Wireless Communication System
and
DESD ( CDAC ) seminar report: PageRank