Reinforcement Learning

Some really cool videos to learn AI and Reinforcement Learning.

Check out.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTmAYxRV7H9NTdgC9bNixvw

Installing Zipline on Ubuntu 14.04

As mentioned on their website Zipline is a Pythonic algorithmic trading library. It is an event-driven system that supports both backtesting and live-trading.
Zipline is currently used in production as the backtesting and live-trading engine powering Quantopian – a free, community-centered, hosted platform for building and executing trading strategies.


I found installing zipline pretty difficult to install because of its dependencies of older versions of libraries like numpy, scipy, numexpr etc.


These are the steps it took me to finally get going 

1. sudo apt-get install liblapack-dev
This ensures that your lapack/blas dependencies are taken care of which is required by scipy


2. sudo apt-get install libamd2.2.0 libblas3gf libc6 libgcc1 libgfortran3 liblapack3gf libumfpack5.4.0 libstdc++6 build-essential gfortran python-all-dev libatlas-base-dev
This would ensure that you now have a fortran compiler on your system for the dfftpack in scipy


3. sudo pip install zipline
This will finally install zipline along with all its dependencies


Have a go at it.

  

Layer 7 Switching + Load Balancing = Layer 7 Load Balancing

                                                                       Image Courtesy : devcentral.com
Oh this is amazing. Read about it today from http://devcentral.f5.com/weblogs/macvittie/archive/2008/08/12/3529.aspx.
Nicely Explained indeed.

 Layer 7 load balancing implies that i can absolutely have customised servers with modified kernels and network configuration which are best at spitting out the data that they are supposed to like Static components (css/js/images/static html) or ASP/PHP(Web handlers/severs) or large blobs (Videos for instance) . All these will definitely have varied filesystem network needs, and Layer 7 load balancing allows to group these types and provide them effectively.

Debugging Kerberos Authentication

Have you guys ever had problems configuring/debugging Kerberos Authentication and scratched your heads and gone all wild figuring out - I did everything right. Why can I still not Sign IN???

Very recently i had got messed up in a similar situation till i came across this tool by Brian Murphy. The features this tool boasts of are

• Supports IIS 6.0 as well as IIS 7.0 (useKernelMode / useAppPoolCredentials)
• Allows adding backend servers of type UNC, HTTP, LDAP, OLAP, SQL, SSAS, and RDP
• Allows chaining of multiple hops (versus only a single backend)
• Performs duplicate SPN check against all trusted domains.
• /Set/SPNs.aspx - Allows adding and removing of ServicePrincipalNames
• /Set/Delegation.aspx - Allows changing Trust for Delegation settings.
• /Set/Providers.aspx - Allows correcting of inadequate NTAuthenticationProviders settings.
• /Report.aspx - Gives a picture of what is right and what is wrong.
• /Wizard.aspx - A set of wizard steps that supports adding more tiers to /Report.aspx.
• /Test.aspx - Allows double-hop tests for webServer-to-Sql or webServer-to-fileServer or webServer-to-webServer

You can find more about the tool at
http://blogs.iis.net/brian-murphy-booth/archive/2007/03/09/delegconfig-delegation-configuration-reporting-tool.aspx

It is also published on IIS.NET and can be downloaded at
http://www.iis.net/community/default.aspx?tabid=34&g=6&i=1887

So free yourself of Kerberos authentication woes now!.

Accessing OData fom Windows Phone 7 - Latest Client Libraries do not have support for LINQ

I had been trying to get OData access to a source using Windows Phone 7 and repeatedly faced roadblocks while following a lot of examples on the web till i realised the difference between the CTP and the Latest production version between the OData client libraries.

A lot of the examples on the web to demonstrate the use of OData using Windows phone 7 target the CTP release of the OData client Libraries which had support for LINQ.

The same is detailed in the blog post by Chris Koenig at
http://chriskoenig.net/2010/10/30/odata-v2-and-windows-phone-7/

Additionally the WCF Data Services Team blog clearly states the major differences at
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/astoriateam/archive/2010/10/28/data-services-client-for-win-phone-7-now-available.aspx

LINQ is not supported presently in the client libraries. Period. So beware of the examples out there which target the CTP version.

I have found out a neat sample which actually uses the newest version effectively and have tested it out. You would find it at.

http://phonetocloud.info/2011/03/03/introducing-the-odata-client-library-for-windows-phone-part-3/

Silverlight 5 Beta and WsHttpBinding

Silverlight 5 still supports only the basicHttpBinding and NetTcpBinding for your WCF services.
GO to the link below to find the differences between basicHttpBinding and wsHttpBinding.
http://www.codeproject.com/kb/WCF/httpbinding.aspx.

However the Silverlight 5 release is still in Beta and more may be expected in the final RTM. Let us keep our fingers crossed. There is a talk for support of WS Trust in this version although i havent tried it yet. Will update the post once i test it out completely.

Aptana Studio (Getting autocomplete to work with popular Javascript libraries)

I have been using Aptana Studio lately for my PHP projects. Created on Eclipse as the base, I actually found it pretty good to start with. It has support for other languages too such as Ruby and Python(Aptana RadRails and Aptana Pydev respectively) . Take a look at the great number of Javascript libraries that it supports as well (providing great autocomplete features).

I initially could not get Autocomplete support for Jquery after installing the add on. A little bit of digging in got it working. To enable it go to

Window->Preferences->Aptana(Right column)->Editors->Javascript->CodeAssist

You will see check boxes against all the JS libraries you have installed support for. By default they will be unselected. Check them and you are ready to GO!

A Jquery Treeview Plugin

Take a look at this amazing small Jquery Treeview plugin . 7.4K , uncompressed mind you!

http://jquery.bassistance.de/treeview/demo/

Search Engine Optimization

Are you making a Website ? Sure you do want it to come up on Google Search. The google bots are crawling around all the time .

Image via Wikipedia

The quickest way to get listed in Google is to submit your site at the URL
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
Do also add your sitemap to google using the Webmaster Tools.
Now the more important part- SEO .

Follow the Search Gods guidelines
Webmaster Guidelines
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769 and reap benefits.

Search Engine Optimization Guidelines

Are you making a website ?

Whats New in PHP 5

PHP 5 indeed has a whole new Gamut of features than PHP 4. One of the features which stand out is renewed support for OOP.

I came across this really good comparison link. Only problem is i did not find a Next link (LOL) so you will need to go to the next link by changing the index number in the url from 1 to 2 to 3 and so on.

http://talks.php.net/show/php5_ca/1

Another one is

http://www.ntchosting.com/php/php4-php5-comparison-part1.html

Why Does Email from a domain go into Spam

You will need to have an SPF record defined in your domain for mails to not go into spam.
Find more info here in this forum discussion.

http://www.google.co.uk/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=04b4cb8442611152&hl=en

Cannot Open Silverlight 3 sln in VS 2008 SP1

Installing Silverlight 3 tools from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9442B0F2-7465-417A-88F3-5E7B5409E9DD&displaylang=en

changes the Visual Studio csproj/sln version and you will not be able to open it on another machine in either VS2008 or Vs 2008 SP1 withouth having Silverlight 3 tools installed .

Silverlight Collection Flow

A great Collection Flow
http://silverlight.net/community/samples/silverlight-samples/collectionflow/

Expression Blend 3 - The VSM (GoToState) function

I have been working lately on the Windows 7 multi touch OS on a HP Touchsmart x2 platform trying to rack up a few demo scenarios.

Strangely enough when i tried to work with states in Expression Blend 3 and wire up the code in the code behind for a GoToState with a control, it absolutely dint work.

A lot of msdn'ing' nd googl'in helped me reach this link
http://connect.microsoft.com/Expression/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=509740

It actually will be functional when the "VSM is in the BCL" and for the moment the GoToStateAction behaviour is recommended.

Strange!

How do you disable Websense ?

Websense:- Ughhhh.. that funny little service that just wouldnt let you visit your favourite social networking sites and check your private mail.
A week back i was bugged by this little "non"sense when i realized that somehow i needed to fix this thing up (or rather down). I rate myself as a fair enough "Googler" but couldnt come up with suitable help. I conluded - 'God helps those who (atleast try to) help themselves. A little bit of system searching told me that that Websense ran as a service .
Now how do you disable that if you dont have admin rights on your system.
Simple - Go to the Websense folder in Program files and copy out all the files from there into another safe folder so that you can restore if something goes wrong (Do not panic if u get an error message that all files cannot be copied). Just press ok. Restart your machine and BINGO! No more websense. How does this work. Ah! simpler still . How would the service start if it dint find its related library files . It simply doesnt start up when you restart the machine next time.
Free bird! Felt great to find the hack. Do let me know if this worked.
Tada. See you soon wid sumthin new.

jQuery - The 2nd best thing to happen to Javascript

The first reaction would be ..which is the first best thing? AjAX of course.

The beauty of jQuery lies in its simplicity and small footprint. Javascript indeed should have been the jQuery way right from start. There will be countless developers who must have been waiting in the shed to jump onto javascript but only for the complexities of handling the DOM through JS ( gees. I dont like the word). jQuery beautifully abstracts this complexity of DOM through extremely useful functions and a CSS style compatible syntax. CSS compataibility means developers who know even a bit of CSS would have no probs adopting this framework!

Its been a week now that i have been playing around with it and can praise this to no end. I would suggest you have a look too.

http:\\www.jquery.com

And some starting guide.

Rick Strahl's guide to jQuery

Surf FREE! - Tunnel HTTP through SSH

Wanting to break free from surfing rules is always an interesting topic. Just how could you evade the prying eyes of the firewalls , the site name checkers placed in the DNS and the administrator's doting eyes.

Here I provide an infamous way of surfing free!. Some smart work is required which is a trait common to all sorts of "nerdy" mischief!

The method is common to POSIX(Read Linux) and Windows systems. I evangelise Microsoft at Office. At home i luv tinkering around with Linux. OK! Lots of TP talk . Lets get down to the core.

Software you would need :-

1) Putty - a SSH client

Alternatives :- any SSH client software would do. I suggest Putty for it is easy to use, and small to download too.

2) OpenSSH - a SSH server software.

Alternatives :- again any SSH server would do

3) Firefox

I do not support IE in this because i could not get this method to work with IE. You could try and tell me if it worked for your case.

Now this is what you need to do. Follow the steps as if they were etched in gold and u will attain nirvana!

1. Install OpenSSH on the machine u have net and u want to tunnel through into. This would ideally be a machine out side your firewall policies but to which you can ping into.

2. U must consider that OpenSSH inherits the usernames and the password windows already has on the local machine. Try and get preferably an admin account on this machine. Its easyy to say this..but this is the toughest part of the job-To break into this machine to get an admin account.
I will put in another post on how to successfully get an admin account on the windows machine if you are not a authorized administrator. In fact chances are you might now be allowed to install OpenSSH too if u are not the admin. More on this in a later post.

3. Now you need to set up SSH i.e. add users from the windows machine into OpenSSh so that somebody can remote logon.
Fire up the command promp and type in the following

mkpasswd -l -u username >> ..\etc\passwd
Substitute -l with -d to add a domain user info into the passwd file of SSH.
Eg.
mkpasswd -l -u jack >> ..\etc\passwd

You could add a group with the mkgroup command
mkgroup -l >> ..\etc\group

Once this is done you are done with setting up OpenSSH.

now fire in this command
c:\> net start opensshd
This starts off the service and it now waits for incoming connections via port 22. You could change the port configuration by changing the sshd config file.

Now come back to the PC which is behind shackles(read firewall)
Run putty.

Set up a session as shown in the pics below
But before you set up the session you must configure putty for dynamic port forwarding.

Drill down into the connection tab on the left list of items and go into SSH -> Tunnels. Enter the port number you want to forward. Be sure that this outgoing port is not blocked on your system.

Mark the dynamic selection and now go back to the putty main page and enter the IP address of the OpenSSH machine and select SSH as the mode of remote login.

Save this session for future use. Give it a name. Now click on open.
Enter the credentials as required. When connecting for the first time you will be asked for a RSA fingerprint verification. Just click yes. You may not worry. You may not read. For digging deep into it you may look out for information on SSH authentication.

Cool now ! If you see a command prompt, you have been able to log into the machine! Give yourself a pat on the back. If not put down your problem below and i will be happy to help you out.

But there is little more to be done before you can surf free.

Bring up Firefox. You need to be making a few connection setting changes.
You need to configure the proxy settings and allow remote DNS resolving. Things should start working thereafter.

First the connection setings change to enable connection through the SOCKS proxy you just set up!
Click on the setting tab after you have reached to the settings window of Firefox above from Tools->Options.

Now to plug in the settings.

Select SOCKS v5 and put in the same port number you put into the putty config.

Next click on OK and firefox is almost set. Just on last thing and this is the golden tip that will set u free

write about:config into the firefox URL box and press enter. Halloa! a hidden firefox config page comes up.
Scroll down to network.proxy_socks_remote_dns setting and set it to true.
DONE!

Restart the Firefox browser and surf in glory.
Do post in you queries. Will be happy to resolve. Till then adieu.

StarK!..thats the name

I havent been able to contribute for quite some time now . Point is am too caught up with MM for this years techfest at IIT Powai-2009. Things are going great..am enjoying every second of it.

Have finished with the board.

Check Motors- Running Fine.

Check Sensors - Running fine.

Check microcontroller - Running fine.

Presently working with the code.

Enjoy this pic of this years MM. Will be contributing it to the Open Source Hardware and Software community once i am done with it.

After all I must give back something from where i have learnt soo much.

This is what my mouse config speaks about.

Motors - Steppers phase resistance is - 4 ohm. They are real small motors

Wheels - 5cm Diameter

Sensors- T.R.I. micromouse sensors.

Motor Drivers- A3983SLPT (Allegro Microstepper and chopping motor drivers). GOSH! these drivers work like a charm. I am one of the few in the community of people who have been able to get these drivers to work withouth problems.
Am at the present using these in the full step mode. Will soon be getting down to the quarter step mode.
Incase you need help in driving these motors you could get to me at nilavghosh@gmail.com

Microcontroller - The ever trustwothy Atmega series . I am specifically using the SMD version of ATmega88. Running his small monster at a lowly 8Mhz internal oscillator

Code - Am working on it. A modofied version of the flood fill with some more put in. Ill share this too.

While making all this 3rd time in a row i learnt a big lesson courtesy Apple. If you really want to make a good device, "If u really want make good software its important that you make the hardware for it too.!"

Astalavista folks. I would be bak with a complete description of my mouse in the following entries.. meanwhile you could have a look at pics.

For further info u could visit my blog dedicated to Micromouse- micromouse.blogspot.com

The MysTical Maze

I just realised , I had a fundamental flaw in my flood fill algorithm that i had been implementing over these years. How could i ignore it..shucks!. Quite similar to the Y2K limit bug found almost a decade back.

Todays office hours were dominated by talks of Satyam's debacle and Raju Ramalingam's resignation and the 5k crore fraud! Not much to do except a lot of reading .

Learnt about Bruce lee's famous one inch punch and John Titor - The man who claims to be from 2036. Yes! He claims of time travelling. Strange!

With time I am gaining confidence in handling SQL Server tuning issues. Must look forward to give a couple of certification exams.