Sarwar Faruque

When You Need Software

Sarwar Faruque — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:28:35 +0000

My job as a software consultant is to help get your software made.
I help develop desktop, mobile and web applications. In just 3 steps, I’ll discuss your requirements, put together a team to develop your system, and deliver a complete product.

The 3 Step Process

Sarwar Faruque — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:09:12 +0000

You have a general idea of what they are looking for, so this is where we begin to discuss details. Walk me through a description of what you have in mind. I’ll ask a series of technology-free questions all geared to understanding of your requirements. By the time we end, you’ll have a clear idea of the features the system will have, the people who will use it, what your budget should be and how long it would take to make.

Next comes the development part. Together with my network of programmers and designers I will help create your system. Every week of the process you will be updated on the progress of the work. Along the way, samples of the system will be sent to you to get your feedback to better improve the program.

The last step is to deliver the system. Everything will be setup so you can start using the program immediately. I’ll walk you through the final version before handing everything over. I can arrange training and monthly maintenance agreements as needed.

About Me

Sarwar Faruque — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:11:19 +0000

My name is Sarwar Faruque. I’m currently residing in Manila, Philippines where I consult on a handful of software projects. I’m also a partner with Integritas Data Management Solutions . When I’m not involved in software, I volunteer at Gawad Kalinga to help children learn computer basics.

Contact

Sarwar Faruque — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:18:09 +0000

[contact-form]

Recently Bookmarked Links and Twitter Feed

Sarwar Faruque — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:07:18 +0000

This is a feed from my Delicious account showing the last 5 recent links I’ve bookmarked.

Latest Twitter: No public Twitter messages.

Ubuntu 9.04 and the Webcam on Lenovo Y430

Sarwar Faruque — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:54:43 +0000

I recently installed the webcam on a Lenovo Y430 running Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope).

First thing I did was install Cheese:

sudo apt-get install cheese

It’s not necessary, but its the only program I’ve seen that recognised that I had the Lenovo EasyCamera. Also, it’s helpful to note that sometimes your camera is really off. You can turn it on by pressing Fn + Esc.

After that I opened up terminal and did the following:

uname -r

The response should be:

2.6.28-15-generic

If it’s less than version -15 then download the latest Linux header by typing into terminal:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

Next open a browser and go to:

http://linuxtv.org/hg/~pinchartl/uvcvideo/

And download the tar gz (left hand side). After downloading, extract the files and go to extracted directory using terminal
and type the following:

make

It takes more or less 10 minutes to make the file. Then, still using terminal type:

sudo make install

Followed by:

sudo depmod -a

and finally type:

lsusb

Now try reopening Cheese and your camera should work. If it still doesn’t work try restarting your computer and trying again.
Hopefully this helped anyone trying to install their webcam on Ubuntu.

XML as the Data Format Middle Man

Sarwar Faruque — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:48:06 +0000

After reading Michael E. Driscoll blog posts about How XML Threatens Big Data I wanted to point out that XML on it’s own is probably the best data interchange format around. Yes, I know of CSV (comma-seperated-values) and a few other, and they all got their place. But the beauty of XML is that it’s very human readable.

Just the other day I was running Windows Event logger looking for error logs. It provided both a quick view of the errors and a XML view. I could easily copy-paste the XML output and post it on a forum. It’s easy to edit and flexible enough to create a quick parser around it. Other tools such as HiJackThis! uses XML for reporting allowing users to easily post problems to forums to find system errors.

Big data ported to XML mght not be the best idea, but having a tool to convert data from one format to another is the strenght of XML. While “XML’s expansiveness” costs a huge system footprint, it can be scaled much better for imports. A XML file can be broken into several smaller files and the import can be scaled using cloud services, something that cases a lot of problems using other current day solutions.

To draw a point, XML isn’t a bad interchange format, as long as it know’s it’s place in data conversion and doesn’t become the data access medium.

Opera 9.0+ New Window with Paste and Go

Sarwar Faruque — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:05:05 +0000

Ever since version 9.0 (that I can remember) Opera has removed the keyboard shortcut for copying a URL and the creating a new tab and pasting the URL straight to it and loading the site. To modify it back to its old shortcut do the following:

Open Preferences (Tools->Preferences or Control F12)
Go to the Advanced tab then Choose Shortcuts from the left panel
Under the Keyboard Setup list highlight Opera Standard and click Edit
On the search field type “Paste and Go” (without the quotes)
Under the Actions column, double click the “Paste and Go” text and replace with “New Page & Paste and Go”
Press Ok all the way out and you’re set.

If you want tomake the link load in the background use: “New Page & Paste and Go & Switch to previous page”

How to use front camera on Samsung i780

Sarwar Faruque — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:22:55 +0000

I needed to repost this on the blog to save this helpful tip.

1) Launch camera application
2) Press the Vol button (up/down doesn’t matter)
3) Camera will switch between rear & front

Integritas Data Solutions – Lead Software Developer

Sarwar Faruque — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 07:45:38 +0000

A software solutions company focused on data enabled applications located in Manila, Philippines. Currently partnered as the Lead Software Developer working on multiple web based and desktop applications.