Monday, December 24, 2018

low cost desktops for billing counter etc

An idea for low cost desktops for applications like billing counter etc - Found this,
https://eltechs.com/product/exagear-desktop/
for running Windows software on the Pi.

Cost of full fledged Pi system would be < Rs. 4000 including software and HDMI to VGA convertor which would enable use of old monitors.

Sunday, December 23, 2018

building Matlab-like gui programs on GNU Octave

I did not know about the gui capabilities of Octave - some old gui programs I had made with GUIDE on Matlab more than a decade ago had refused to run, so I thought it did not have that capability. But now I see that I only have to avoid nested functions - ie. sub-functions inside another function.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47298509/how-to-manually-convert-matlab-guide-gui-code-to-octave-ui-components

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43519040/how-to-code-a-slider-in-octave-to-have-interactive-plot/43536882#43536882

A nice example -
https://github.com/octave-de/macgyver_utils/blob/master/demo_uicontrol.m

On Matlab, gui creation guide,
https://in.mathworks.com/videos/creating-a-gui-with-guide-68979.html



Tuesday, December 18, 2018

issue with server-hosted mp3 played on Android app

There was a query from one of our sister institutions about their Android app having issues playing audio from server1 but playing audio from server2 without problems.

For Audio files that are present in server2 we are able to download/stream, for all the android devices (including Android 4.4 version devices also) . But Audio files present in server1 is not downloading/streaming for few android devices (like Android 4.4 version devices etc). 

Links from both the servers are mentioned for your reference.
http://server1/path/1.mp3 (not working in all the devices) Same links we have tested for https also. 
http://server2/path/1.mp3  (working in all the devices)
Kindly suggest us how to go about this issue.

Excerpts from my reply:

The only difference I can see is that server1 is auto-redirecting to https
So, if the devices are not capable of handling https, [Edit: or http to https redirects] they will fail with server1.
 
server2 is not doing the auto-redirect to https - so, http works as-is on that server.

If the devices are capable of https, perhaps you can just give the https link instead of http link, so that the redirection is not required - in case the redirection is what is causing the failure.

Saturday, December 15, 2018

incomplete instructions - SBI debit card

SBI is updating their debit cards as per RBI mandate to chip-based cards, and I received a mailer with my updated card. Getting it to work was a bit of a struggle. 

1. First tried the 'send SMS, get one time PIN' method. Did not get any response. So, tried the next - Netbanking method. 

2. Set the first two digits of the PIN, AA, and then the next two digits BB are sent via SMS. Then AABB would be the PIN. 

Then, I received the one time PIN from step 1. So, that was probably the reason the card was declined when I tried to use it at the Canara bank ATM. 

Then, tried

3. Changing the PIN from SBI ATM - went to the SBI ATM early in the morning to avoid crowds. Used the Generate PIN from the first screen. That sent me a one time PIN. But apparently, that was for one-time use only. "You must change the PIN before use." But the change PIN menu item is not immediately obvious. For that,

4. Again swiped the card, used the one time PIN, went into Banking menu, and there, found the Change PIN option. Changed, now the card works.