Thursday, 29 September 2016 05:11

5 New Features in PHP 7

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SPEED!:- The developers worked very hard to refactor the PHP codebase in order to reduce memory consumption and increase performance. And they certainly succeeded. Benchmarks for PHP 7 consistently show speeds twice as fast as PHP 5.6 and many times even faster! Although these results are not guaranteed for your project, the benchmarks were tested against major projects, Drupal and WordPress, so these numbers don’t come from abstract performance tests.

Type Declarations:-

Type declarations simply means specifying which type of variable is being set instead of allowing PHP to set this automatically. PHP is considered to be a weak typed language. In essence, this means that PHP does not require you to declare data types. Variables still have data types associated with them but you can do radical things like adding a string to an integer without resulting in an error. Type declarations can help you define what should occur so that you get the expected results. This can also make your code easier to read. We’ll look at some specific examples shortly. Since PHP 5, you can use type hinting to specify the expected data type of an argument in a function declaration, but only in the declaration. When you call the function, PHP will check whether or not the arguments are of the specified type. If not, the run-time will raise an error and execution will be halted. Besides only being used in function declarations, we were also limited to basically 2 types. A class name or an array.  

Error Handling:-

The next feature we going to cover are the changes to Error Handling. Handling fatal errors in the past has been next to impossible in PHP. A fatal error would notinvoke the error handler and would simply stop your script. On a production server, this usually means showing a blank white screen, which confuses the user and causes your credibility to drop. It can also cause issues with resources that were never closed properly and are still in use or even locked.

In PHP 7, an exception will be thrown when a fatal and recoverable error occurs, rather than just stopping the script. Fatal errors still exist for certain conditions, such as running out of memory, and still behave as before by immediately stopping the script. An uncaught exception will also continue to be a fatal error in PHP 7. This means if an exception thrown from an error that was fatal in PHP 5 goes uncaught, it will still be a fatal error in PHP 7.

I want to point out that other types of errors such as warnings and notices remain unchanged in PHP 7. Only fatal and recoverable errors throw exceptions.

In PHP 7, Error and Exception both implement the new Throwable class. What that means is that they basically work the same way. And also, you can now use Throwable in try/catch blocks to catch both Exception and Error objects. Remember that it is better practice to catch more specific exception classes and handle each accordingly. However, some situations warrant catching any exception (such as for logging or framework error handling). In PHP 7, these catch-all blocks should catch Throwable instead of Exception.  

New Operators

Spaceship Operator PHP 7 also brings us some new operators. The first one we’re going to explore is the spaceship operator. With a name like that, who doesn’t want to use it? The spaceship operator, or Combined Comparison Operator, is a nice addition to the language, complementing the greater-than and less-than operators. Spaceship Operator < = >

Easy User-land CSPRNG

What is Easy User-land CSPRNG?

User-land refers to an application space that is external to the kernel and is protected by privilege separation, API for an easy to use and reliableCryptographically Secure PseudoRandom Number Generator in PHP. Essentially secure way of generating random data. There are random number generators in PHP, rand() for instance, but none of the options in version 5 are very secure. In PHP 7, they put together a system interface to the operating system’srandom number generator. Because we can now use the operating system’s random number generator, if that gets hacked we have bigger problems. It probably means your entire system is compromised and there is a flaw in the operating system itself. Secure random numbers are especially useful when generating random passwords or password salt.  


There are quite a few other features added in PHP 7, like unicode support for emoji and international characters

example:- echo "\u{1F60D}"; // output :- 



Feature-oriented software development (FOSD) is a paradigm for the construction, customization, and synthesis of large-scale software systems. The concept of a feature is at the heart of FOSD. A feature is a unit of functionality of a software system that satisfies a requirement, represents a design decision, and provides a potential configuration option. The basic idea of FOSD is to decompose a software system in terms of the features it provides. The goal of the decomposition is to construct well-structured software that can be tailored to the needs of the user and the application scenario. Typically, from a set of features, many different software systems can be generated that share common features and differ in other features. The set of software systems generated from a set of features is also called a software product line [45, 101].

FOSD aims essentially at three properties: structure, reuse, and variation. Developers use the concept of a feature to structure design and code of a software system, features are the primary units of reuse in FOSD, and the variants of a software system vary in the features they provide. FOSD shares goals with other software development paradigms, such as stepwise and incremental software development [128, 98, 99, 105], aspect-oriented software development [58], component-based software engineering [65, 118], and alternative flavors of software product line engineering [45, 101], whose differences to FOSD we will discuss.

Historically, FOSD has emerged from different lines of research in programming languages, software architecture, and modeling. So it is not surprising that current developments in FOSD comprise concepts, methods, language, tools, formalisms, and theories from many different fields. An aim of this article is to provide a historical overview of FOSD as well as a survey of current developments that have emerged from the different lines of FOSD research. Due to the sheer volume and diversity of work on FOSD and related fields, we cannot hope for completeness. Instead, we provide a personal view on recent interesting developments in FOSD. Also we do not aim at a comprehensive discussion of individual approaches but at highlighting connections between different lines of FOSD research and identifying open issues.


2.1 What is a Feature?

FOSD is not a single development method or technique, but a conglomeration of different ideas, methods, tools, languages, formalisms, and theories. What connects all these developments is the concept of a feature.

2.2 What is Feature-Oriented Software Development?

The concept of a feature is useful for the description of commonalities and variabilities in the analysis, design, and implementation of software systems. FOSD is a paradigm that favors the systematic application of the feature concept in all phases of the software life cycle. Features are used as first-class entities to analyze, design, implement, customize, debug, or evolve a software system. That is, features not only emerge from the structure and behavior of a software system, e.g., in the form of the software’s observable behavior, but are also used explicitly and systematically to define variabilites and commonalities, to facilitate reuse, and to structure software along these variabilites and commonalities. A distinguishing property of FOSD is that it aims at a clean (ideally one-to-one) mapping between the representations of features across all phases of the software life cycle. That is, features specified during the analysis phase can be traced through design and implementation.

The idea of FOSD was not proposed as such in the first place but emerged from the different uses of features. A main goal of this survey is to convey the idea of FOSD as a general development paradigm. The essence of FOSD can be summarized as follows: on the basis of the feature concept, FOSD facilitates the structure, reuse, and variation of software in a systematic and uniform way.


Like it or not, every single product you use on a daily basis is slowly getting smart. First it was your cellphone, then it was your TV, then your lights, thermostat, appliances, and now even the mood-enhancing candles around your home—wait, there’s a smart candle now too?!

The LuDela is another product in a long list of smart devices that consumers really didn’t ask for. But given there are entire stores dedicated to selling candles, there are undoubtedly enough interested parties out there to help make this thing a success.

Using a technology its creators call Wi-Fire, which we’re just going to assume is regular old Wi-fi with a cute name, every LuDela candle in your home can be connected and controlled from a smartphone, not unlike Philips’ Hue smart lightning system. But instead of simulating a candle using something like a flickering LED, the LuDela uses actual fire, for genuine ambiance. Inside the larger candle shell you’ll find smaller wax refills that burn away with a real flame that can be remotely ignited and extinguished.

With a simple screen tap inside the free accompanying app, users can activate all or some of the LuDela candles in their home without getting off the couch, or climbing out of the bathtub. Each one runs on a battery so there are no wires to deal with, and since power is only needed to momentarily ignite a wick, the candle’s can go for a long time before the app lets you know which ones need a charge.

Besides ease of use, and not constantly having to hunt for a lighter, the LuDela candles might also appeal to those who are uneasy about having an open flame in their homes. Proximity detectors can be activated to automatically extinguish the flame when people, or pets, get too close to the candles, and the same thing will happen if the candles ever accidentally get knocked over while lit. The LuDela base also ensures that hot candle wax never drips onto your furniture, or poses a burn risk.

Pricing might be an issue for some candle fans, though. If you’re used to buying a giant bag of tea candles from Ikea for a few bucks then you might balk at the LuDela’s $99 price tag, which doesn’t include the refills when it ships early next year. However, a discounted refill monthly subscription will be made available that includes scented options to match the seasons, if you’re all about pumpkin spice when September rolls around.



Every aspect of our life is becoming influenced by technology. It has helped the world come closer and thus it is no more a problem to communicate wherever you might be. Your loved ones are just a call away.

We have come closer as people even though we have a lot of differences. Technology has provided us a platform so that we can express our views and thoughts and communicate with a larger, even unknown audience.

Another major advantage that technology has been able to provide us is the ability to store a lot of data that is important to us in any way possible. We have hard drives built in to store all the important data that is required for our use. Offices use high capacity hard drives to store the huge amounts of data that is required for their maintenance and everyday use. Hard drives are used in computers and laptops to store personal information, images, movies and important documents. We keep all this data stored so that it is easy to find and retrieve them when required. The hard drive can be managed in form of folders where we can divide data according to various categories. Offices manage huge chunks of data and use them for analysis. Some of the data is used for maintenance purpose while a lot of data is used for analysis purpose.

Hard drives are either internal or external. Internal hard drives are embedded in the machines while external ones can be used as and when required and can be attached to multiple devices.

As a lot of important data is stored in the hard drives, it is necessary that we keep them safe. But there issues with electronic devices that we need to accept. There are unfortunate events such as hard drive crashes and that is when we are in a soup. The different events that lead to data loss are:

  • Drive Formatted.
  • Broken USB /Flash stick.
  • Deleted Data/Files.
  • Unreadable DVD/CD.
  • Loss of phone data.

There are many solutions to retrieve the data that was there in the hard drive. There are many Professional Hard Drive Recovery services in Perth that provide solutions to hard drive data recovery very efficiently and effectively so that you can get back all the important data. You can search on the internet for the various services that provide such solutions and sign up with one of them to avail their services. Go through what they are willing to offer and do check the customer reviews before deciding which service to sign up with.

The services are generally equipped with very advanced formulae and tools so that they can keep your device and data safe and for Hard drive data recovery. In this age of technology and development , cybercrimes are a great issue too. So it is necessary that the data is kept securely so that no one can snoop into your data. Look into all these major features before choosing the service you would want to take up to keep your data stored in a secure manner.


Saturday, 17 September 2016 04:48

Introduction to the Windows Command Prompt

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Using the Command Prompt or Dos Window

When people refer to the command prompt they may we refer to it in different ways. They may refer to it as a shell, console window, a command prompt, a cmd prompt, or even dos. In order to enter the command prompt you need to run a program that is dependent on your operating system. Below we list the programs that you need to run to enter a command prompt based on the version of Windows you are running.

Operating System Command Notes
Windows 3.1,.3.11, 95, 98, ME This program when run will open up a command prompt window providing a DOS shell.
 Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003  cmd.exe  This program will provide the native command prompt. What we call the command prompt.
 Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003 This program will open up a emulated DOS shell for backwards compatibility. Only use if you must.  


To run these programs and start a command prompt you would do the following steps:

Step 1: Click on the Start Menu

Step 2: Click on the Run option


Step 4: Click on the OK button


Figure 1. Windows Command Prompt



Useful commands






Figure 2. DIR of c:\test



The Copy command - This command allows you to copy files from one location to another. To use this command you would type  copy filetocopy copiedfile. For example if you have the file c:\test\test.txt and would like to copy it to c:\windows\test.txt you would type


copy test.txt test.bak :- Copies the test.txt file to a new file called test.bak in the same directory

copy test.txt \windows:- Copies the test.txt file to the \windows directory.

copy * \windows:- Copies all the files in the current directory to the \windows directory.


move test.txt test.bak:- Moves the test.txt file to a new file renaming it to test.bak in the same directory.

move test.txt \windows:- Moves the test.txt file to the \windows directory.

move * \windows :-Moves all the files in the current directory to the \windows directory.





For example the command dir >




Batch Files



cd< cd \test dir cd \ If I was to run the test.bat file I created I would have output that looks like the following:

Figure 3: Example of a batch file running. As you can see from the figure above, my batch file executed each command in my batch file in the sequence they were written in the batch file.

Console Programs


Wednesday, 14 September 2016 05:10

ERP - enterprise resource planning

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ERP Software






Top 4 ERP Trends


Mobile ERP


Cloud ERP


Social ERP

There has been much hype around social media and how important – or not -- it is to add to ERP systems. Certainly, vendors have been quick to seize the initiative, adding social media packages to their ERP systems with much fanfare. But some wonder if there is really much gain to be had by integrating social media with ERP.

Two-tier ERP


ERP Vendors

Depending on your organization's size and needs there are a number of enterprise resource planning software


  • Large Enterprise ERP (ERP Tier I): The ERP market for large enterprises is dominated by three companies: SAP, Oracle and Microsoft. (Source: EnterpriseAppsToday; Enterprise ERP Buyer's Guide: SAP, Oracle and Microsoft; Drew Robb)
  • Mid Market ERP (ERP Tier II): For the midmarket vendors include Infor, QAD, Lawson, Epicor, Sage and IFS. (Source: EnterpriseAppsToday; Midmarket ERP Buyer's Guide; Drew Robb)
  • Small Business ERP (ERP Tier III): Exact Globe, Syspro, NetSuite, Visibility, Consona, CDC Software and Activant Solutions round out the ERP vendors for small businesses. (Source: EnterpriseAppsToday; ERP Buyer's Guide for Small Businesses; Drew Robb)






Three Things to Keep in Mind

And, just as digitization represents a massive shift in how companies operate, implementing end-to-end IT services is a significant change for IT teams. Introducing an end-to-end model should follow a phased and iterative methodology, and all IT teams should keep three things in mind early-on in their transition.






Friday, 09 September 2016 07:02

The Importance of Algorithms

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Runtime Analysis




Approximate completion time for algorithms, N = 100


10-7 seconds



10-6 seconds



10-5 seconds



10-4 seconds



3 Minutes



1014 years.



10142 years




Wednesday, 07 September 2016 05:19

Google Teaches kids to code with Project Blocks

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(Image Credit: Google)

Google has launched a new open hardware platform called Project Bloks for developers, researchers, and designers to build physical coding-based experiences for teaching kids how to program.

The project highlights that kids play and learn using their hands; which makes an open hardware platform to learn an increasingly essential skill like coding a perfect medium in which to do so. On the project's website, Google claims it wants "to enable kids to develop computational thinking from a young age through coding experiences that are playful, tactile, and collaborative."

A reference kit has been created by design firm IDEO to show how Project Bloks hardware can be created. The goal, however, is to provide a platform that others can use to build their own devices. At the moment, Google's team for Project Bloks says it won't be releasing its own retail units.

Some of the hardware which Google examples as can be released through Project Bloks includes;

  • Sensor Lab - This kit would allow you to experiment with sensors and map an input to an output, like switching on a light if the temperature dropped.
  • Music Maker - With the Music Maker you could compose a track using computational thinking by inputting different instruments, layering and looping sounds, and then playing it through a wireless speaker.
  • Coding Kit - With this kit you could put physical code together to send instructions to toys around you — like controlling a robot to create some art.

At the base of Project Blocks is a Raspberry Pi Zero-based "Brain Board" which functions as the CPU to provide the power for the whole system. This central board interacts with "Pucks" which represent the physical programming language of Project Blocks.

Each of the Pucks do not have any active electronic components and could have interactive elements such as a dial, or even be just a piece of paper with some conductive ink. The individual pucks represent the basic commands such as "turn on/off", "move left", "play sound," etc.

Project Bloks was brought to life by team lead Jayme Goldstein and tech lead Joao Wilbert in collaboration with the Google Research and Education teams, IDEO, and Paulo Blikstein, the Director of the Transformative Learning Technologies Lab at Stanford University.



Saturday, 03 September 2016 05:11

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services

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Website SEO Audit


On-Page SEO



Link Development (Link Building)




SEO Content Writing







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