Priyank

Google Reader’s UI Issue Fixed

February 22nd, 2012 | by | technology

Feb
22

In my last post, I have showed, how the new Google Reader’s user interface is so unfriendly, wasting more than 40% screen space. I came across, some user defined CSS to solve the Google user interface issues. I have modified the CSS by Ingmar Hupp to provide more reading space for news items. I am using Stylish addon for Firefox, to load the user CSS.

Google Reader's UI Layout Issue Fixed
Google Reader’s Fixed GUI

vs

Google Reader's Stupid GUI
Google Reader’s Stupid GUI

I am not a CSS expert, and this CSS has lot of issues, and it interferes with GMail and other Google products. So, I just disable it, when I am not using the Google Reader. The idea here is to show Google: how their GUI needs to be user friendly. Google Reader is basically a reader for RSS feeds, and any reader’s first priority should be to use the screen real estate efficiently.

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How to remove Visual Source Safe binding from Visual Studio projects?

January 19th, 2012 | by | technology

Jan
19

Just wrote this script to remove the VSS source safe bindings from old visual studio projects, so that I can move to GIT repository. I just run these commands using the Cygwin shell, from the solution root folder, and it removes all traces of the source control of the Jurassic era.

find . -type f -name *.dsp -print0 | xargs -0 -r perl -p -i.vssbak -e 's/^.*Scc_ProjName.*$//g'
find . -type f -name *.dsp -print0 | xargs -0 -r perl -p -i.vssbak -e 's/^.*Scc_LocalPath.*$//g'
find . -type f -name *.dsw -print0 | xargs -0 -r sed -i '/begin.source.code.control/,/end.source.code.control/d'
find . -type f -name *.sln -print0 | xargs -0 -r sed -i '/GlobalSection(SourceCodeControl)/,/EndGlobalSection/d'
find . -type f -name *.*proj -print0 | xargs -0 -r perl -p -i.vssbak -e 's/^.*SccProjectName.*$//g'
find . -type f -name *.*proj -print0 | xargs -0 -r perl -p -i.vssbak -e 's/^.*SccLocalPath.*$//g'
find . -type f -name *.*proj -print0 | xargs -0 -r perl -p -i.vssbak -e 's/^.*SccProvider.*$//g'
find . -type f -name *.vssbak -print0 | xargs -0 -r rm -f
find . -type f -name *.*scc -print0 | xargs -0 -r rm -f

Now its easy, to create a GIT repository on top of it.

git init

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Flashing STM32 MCU using ST-Link Command Line Utility

January 18th, 2012 | by | technology

Jan
18

You can directly download your compiled HEX file from the Keil µVision 4 IDE or any other IDE to your STM32 value discovery kit or any other STM32 microcontroller, using the command line ST-Link utility. That means, that you don’t need to manually search the HEX file and use the ST-Link Utility GUI to flash the MCU. Just a press of download button in the IDE, will be enough to load your new program to the STM32 MCU and reset it also.

You need to go to the Utilities tab in the project options (ALT + F7) and select the “Use External Tool for Flash programming“. Browse to the path of the “ST-LINK_CLI.exe” program and give the command line arguments as: ‘-c SWD -p "$H@H.hex" -Rst -Run‘.

Flashing STM32 MCU using ST-Link Command Line Utility

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Digital Frame implementation using STM32 Cortex M3 processor and FatFs

January 9th, 2012 | by | technology

Jan
09

My first try at implementing Digital Frame using STM32 Cortex M3 processor. Using Keil IDE and STM32VLDISCOVERY as ST-Link for programming. The prototype device is HY-Smart STM32 board. The FAT 32 file system on the SanDisk 8GB card is read using FatFs library. Luckily, most of code is just copied from the sample code provided with the board.

Download code: Digital Frame using STM32 Cortex M3 and FatFs

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Stuff’s that I love: Motorola DC800 Bluetooth Stereo Gateway and S9-HD Bluetooth Headphone

January 8th, 2012 | by | personal

Jan
08

Motorola DC800 Bluetooth Stereo Gateway and S9-HD Bluetooth Headphone

Motorola DC800 Bluetooth Stereo Gateway and S9-HD Bluetooth Headphone

Motorola Bluetooth Home Stereo Transceiver by streaming music to your the Bluetooth Stereo Headphones, the Bluetooth Home Stereo Adapter turns audio devices such as home stereos and MP3 players into wireless music systems. Just plug the DC800 into your home stereo or MP3 player with an included RCA cable or 3.5mm cable and you are ready to go. You can even hook up to your RCA capable TV!

The Motorola MOTOROKR™ S9-HD Stereo Headset delivers style, performance, and remarkable sound for your iPhone, iPod, or other stereo-capable Bluetooth device. This lightweight headset lets you make hands-free calls and wirelessly listen to music, and it features noise-isolating ear buds, so you’ll get high-definition surround sound for all of your calls and tracks.

The Motorola DC800 Bluetooth Stereo Gateway and S9-HD Bluetooth Headphone are excellent products and works amazingly great in combination. The best part that I love is: zero setup. Now, I can watch the TV, without disturbing my wife. But, I use it mainly with my computer to listen to video lectures, watch YouTube, etc. The reason, I don’t use the Motorola Headphone directly with the laptop is, that, it is tiresome to pair it with my laptop. Also for long lectures, if I pause it in between, and want to put my headphone on charge, I can’t switch the audio playback device, without reloading the online flash videos. Now, I can just sit on my bean bag, and enjoy the videos, no messy long cables, superb audio quality, no background noise.

BTW! Motorola DC800 Bluetooth Stereo Gateway can be used as a Bluetooth receiver also, to extend the wireless audio range.

WARNING: Don’t buy Motorola S9 HD, from eBay. All the Chinese version, or as they call themselves original OEM editions are complete waste of money.

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Stuff’s that I love: Nook Color

January 7th, 2012 | by | personal

Jan
07

Nook Color:

The Nook Color has a 7-inch 1024×600 resolution multi-touch touchscreen LCD display. The Nook Color uses a Texas Instruments ARM Cortex-A8 processor running at 800 MHz. The device has 8 GB of internal memory supplied by Sandisk, but only 5GB is user-accessible and can store an estimated 6,000 books or 100 hours of audio. As with the original Nook, microSD and microSDHC memory cards can be inserted to expand the Nook Color’s memory up to 32 GB. Unlike the prior Nook, the Nook Color’s rechargeable battery is not user-replaceable and is expected to last for 8 hours of continuous use with the wireless turned off. The device includes a built-in speaker and a universal 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack. VividView technology is used to enhance image quality when viewing in direct sunlight.

In addition to rooting the stock operating system, complete versions of Android are available that can fully replace the firmware and provide functionality similar to any other Android device. Perhaps the most popular such replacement is CyanogenMod 7. CyanogenMod is a community-developed firmware replacement that can be downloaded for free. It can be installed to the internal storage or started via a microSD card, which typically will not affect the internal installation. Neither replacing the stock operating system nor running the operating system from a microSD card requires rooting.

With CyanogenMod 7, VividView technology multi-touch touchscreen LCD, 8+ hrs of battery life, WiFi, expandable memory up to 32 GB, millions of android apps like: Swype keyboard, ezPDFReader, Google apps, Dolphin Browser, Read It Later, Loquendo TTS Voice, Launcher Pro, DocumentsToGo, RealCalc, PowerAMP, Talking Clipboard, Screen Filter, etc. it makes an completely indispensable part of your life.

It’s amazing, my whole reading experience of reading books, news, emails, etc is redefined now. I am loving it.

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Computer Vision Syndrome

January 4th, 2012 | by | fun & entertainment, personal

Jan
04

God gives it to everyone, everyday for free. Still, I have to pay for it and get synthetic version, while everyone gets natural one. The irony is that, I can’t pray to GOD, to give me also more…tears.

That’s the beauty of synthetic tears eyes drop for geek’s (Computer Vision Syndrome) dry eyes.

Why don’t they sell “Refresh Plus Tears” in India? The “Refresh Tears” bottle once opened, is no good, after 1 month, even if you had just used it for 2 days. I think, I know the answer, $$$.

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