I have just released Agathe, an open source software written in Python which, when given a list of Amazon books, produces detailed statistics about them (sales rank, price, average rating and number of ratings on Amazon).

I use Agathe to decide what to read next on my Kindle when I finish a book. The name obviously refers to the gem as the software find the gems in my extensive collection of Kindle books.

Agathe is on Github at https://github.com/avinash/agathe and is released under the Apache license.

2013 is the year of responsive web design according to Mashable and, at Knowledge Seven, we believe they are spot on.

Wikipedia defines responsive web design as “a web design approach aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience – easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling – across a wide range of devices from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones.”

Important aspects of responsive web design include the optimal use of CSS3, fluid grids and images sized in such a way to prevent them from being shown outside the screen. This new way of building websites is a direct consequence of people browsing more and more using mobile devices likes smartphones and tablets with smaller screens than traditional desktops. It would be stupid to show them only part of the content and therefore web designers need to adapt.

Adapt or perish

At Knowledge Seven, we have been providing web design courses for the past three years. And, like everyone else, we also need to adapt. This is why, for our coming Web Design with HTML and CSS training starting on 18 April 2013, we are currently updating the content to better reflect this new design philosophy.

As a reminder, here are the topics we are going to cover: markup and styling, changing text, tables and links, color and images, multimedia, the CSS box model, enhanced navigation, flexible layouts and printing, scripting and forms.

Feel free to call us on 464-7446 to have more information.

To help you boost your business as well as increase the efficiency and productivity of your staff, we are offering a number of MQA-approved training courses in various fields in the coming months:

Techniques de Communication Ecrite pour l’Entreprise : Write reports, minutes of meetings, letters and emails in business French and master French for better communication. This training is designed for administrative and managerial staff who need to deal with French speaking partners and clients. Will be run on demand.

Search Engine Optimisation : Every business needs to be online and easily discoverable through search engines. Boost traffic to your website using white hat Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques such as streamlining the information architecture, using keywords, link building, etc. Starting on Monday 1 April 2013.

Linux Network Services and Security : Use Linux servers to deploy network services such as DNS, DHCP, Web (Apache), Email, NFS and Samba. This training is designed for system administrators who are already familiar with Linux and who need to master advanced techniques as per industry best practices. Starting on Tuesday 23 april 2013.

Web Design with HTML and CSS : Master the latest web standards such as HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript to create beautiful and responsive websites. Make sure that web designs you create are properly displayed on computers and on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Starting on Thursday 28 March 2013.

Web Application Development (using PHP and MySQL) : Create powerful and easy-to-maintain web applications using the latest advances in PHP including sanitisation, validation, templating engines, etc. Increase the performance of your web apps by benchmarking, profiling and optimising MySQL. Starting on Wednesday 20 March 2013. A second batch will start on Wednesday 24 April 2013.

Send us your bookings early to facilitate your HRDC formalities. We look forward to welcome you and your colleagues at Knowledge Seven.

Please share with your friends and colleagues.

Since I decided to quit being a lecturer at the university in 2008, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how bad our education system is, why is it so bad and what can we do about it.

When I read about uneducated Ethiopian kids learning the alphabet by themselves after having been given tablets and no instructions at all,  I immediately thought about my kids, Anya and Kyan, not having to go to school everyday (or, heaven forbid, private tuition) and, instead, spend some of their precious time under a tree with a tablet and learning things that they are passionate about by themselves.

That’s why we’re pivoting at Knowledge Seven. In the coming months, we’ll be less of a traditional training company and more of a startup creating an elearning platform which everyone will love using.

I’m doing that for my kids.

I’ll keep you posted.

Knowledge Seven has been chosen by Orange Business Services to provide a series of training courses on Hardware, Networking, Solaris and Linux for upgrading the skills of some of its IT personnel. The courses were scheduled in January and February 2013.

Vanessa Arokeum, one of the participants from Orange Business Services, has agreed to share her views on her experience at Knowledge Seven with particular emphasis on the Linux training.

Who are you and what do you do?

I am Vanessa Arokeum, Technical Support Specialist at Orange Business Services, which forms part of France Telecom Group. After completion of a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering at the University of Mauritius in 2011, I joined OBS. So far, I have received on-the-job training on various technologies and now I would like to upgrade my skills.

When Orange Business Services informed us about the possibility to upgrade our skills through this series of Knowledge Seven courses on Hardware, Networking, Solaris and Linux, I seized the opportunity and here I am!

What have you gained from the Linux training at Knowledge Seven?

I already work in a Linux environment at Orange Business Services but I only know the basics. I wanted to learn more about Linux and become more competent and effective in this major operating system for businesses. I have learned about Linux installation, user management, package management, logical storage management using LVM, the boot process as well as file sharing services like NFS.

I thought it was an excellent training and I really liked the practical and pragmatic approach of Avinash Meetoo and the fact that everything which was taught could be immediately tried on the Linux computers at Knowledge Seven.

How do you think this training will benefit you?

I will definitely have more scope in Orange Business Services. I will also be able to help my other colleagues as I have gained a lot.

As a personal achievement, I am now more motivated to learn more and more about Linux and embark on Linux certifications such as the ones from the Linux Professional Institute. For instance, I would love to come back to follow more advanced Linux courses at Knowledge Seven such as the Linux Network Services and Security training which is scheduled for 23 April 2013.

How do you see yourself in five years?

A Linux expert. What else? :-)

Since its initial release in 1996, Squid has become a high-performance and secure web proxy. As Squid includes good caching facilities and is free for use, it has become the most commonly used proxy server on the Internet.

Squid can be installed on Linux distributions like Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Debian. It also runs on other operating systems including Windows. It is licensed under the GNU GPL.

Squid is a caching proxy for the Web supporting HTTP, FTP and more. It reduces bandwidth requirements and improves response time by caching and reusing frequently-requested web pages and resources such as images. ISPs, companies and various organisations rely on Squid to to drastically increase the number of users who can access the Internet at the same time. Squid tends to reduce web server loads.

Squid can also be used to deliver content from around the world – copying only the content being used, rather than inefficiently copying everything – using its advanced routing facilities. Multiple Squid servers can be setup hierarchically to build content clusters which route and load balance requests to web servers.

On Wikipedia, Squid is used to increase scalability. “[The Squid systems] are currently running at a hit-rate of approximately 75%, effectively quadrupling the capacity of the Apache servers behind them. This is particularly noticeable when a large surge of traffic arrives directed to a particular page via a web link from another site, as the caching efficiency for that page will be nearly 100%.” [Wikimedia Deployment Information.]

Technical aspects of Squid

By editing /etc/squid/squid.conf, one can change Squid’s http_port, the default port being 3128. Another important parameter is cache_mem, the amount of RAM Squid uses for caching objects. The default value is 256 Mb but can be increased.

Another important aspect of Squid is that it uses part of the disk for a cache. The cache_dir parameter is used to specify where and how big that disk cache should be. It generally belongs under /var.

Most people use Squid for its security features including the use of Access Control Lists to determine who can browse what websites and when. ACLs are very powerful and useful in a business setting.

Do not hesitate to contact us at Knowledge Seven if you have any web caching needs or you want to implement access control. We can also train your personnel in Squid administration.

Special session for Data Communication Ltd (DCL)

We ran a special session of our Squid training for DCL personnel in December and, while they still have some interrogations (e.g. on how to use Squid to cache video streaming content such as what exists on YouTube and Vimeo), they left us with some positive impressions that they have kindly authorised us to publish.

Novindra Appadoo  liked when we talked about ACL, peering, stats and authentication in Squid. Junaid Balladin mentioned that our explanations were good as well as the practical sessions. Jyotee Kumaree Caullychurn said that the course put emphasis on the practical implementation and configuration of Squid and that this will help her to administer and run Squid in a real world environment.

Ravi Jeetun also liked the explanations given while Shah Nawaaz Toonah found the introduction on HTTP, TCP and Apache very useful for a proper understanding of Squid.

Finally Vishaal Ramessur made us very happy when he said he liked everything! Thank you all.

Dear all, we are urgently looking for a replacement lamp (a RLC-035) for a ViewSonic PJ513D projector. We have called a number of suppliers but they do not currently have the RLC-035 in stock.

Call Liliane or Navind on 464-7446 if you are selling one and you have it in stock now. Thanks.

Solaris was originally developed by Sun Microsystem as a proprietary operating system:

• Successor of SunOS (which was based on BSD UNIX)
• Released in 1992 (based on AT&T UNIX)
• Known for its scalability and technologies like DTrace and ZFS
• Runs on SPARC and x86 hardware
• Uses GNOME for the desktop (same as Linux)

In 2005, Sun released the source code of Solaris to the opensource community as OpenSolaris, the reference version of Solaris. Sun then released Solaris 10 with contributions from the OpenSolaris community.

When Oracle purchased Sun in 2009, they decided to stop contributing patches to OpenSolaris and continue the development of Solaris 11 as a closed project. This led to the departure of some the most eminent Solaris developers, e.g. the inventors of DTrace, ZFS, Zones & Solaris Networking, to create illumos, a foundation whose mission is to create and popularise OpenIndiana, a better Solaris than Oracle’s Solaris.

OpenIndiana is opensource and the latest release is dated October 2012. As a fork of OpenSolaris, the stated aim of the project is to become the defacto OpenSolaris distribution installed on production servers where security and bug fixes are required free of charge.

At Knowledge Seven, we provide Solaris compatible training courses to major clients using OpenIndiana. Feel free to contact us if you have similar requirements.

“The fundamental problem is that many products are created to be sold, not used.”  — Sori Yanagi

This is something that we have come to realise over the years. A lot of sellers are only happy to sell, they don’t really care about how you are going to use the products. For this reason, I’ve been telling people that we do not sell training courses at Knowledge Seven. We make people more skillful so that they can have a more productive and happy life.

Since launching Android Mauritius, we have also realised that quite a lot of people buy smartphones and tablets because, well, marketers have a lot of persuasion power. Unfortunately, quite a lot of those buyers find it difficult to use their new devices and this is why we are keen to try something : we are proposing a 2 hour training course on how to become a power user of your Android smartphone or tablet.

Call us on 464-7446 if you are interested. Feel free to share with your friends and family.

Knowledge Seven, in collaboration with Mozilla, hosted the first Mozilla Webmaker event in Mauritius open to all. Olivier Yip Tong, Software Engineer at Mozilla delivered a hands-on presentation of Webmaker tools, namely X-Ray Googles and Thimble, on Thursday 20th December 2012.

Mozilla Webmaker is a set of fun and easy tools to learn the Web using HTML, Javascript and CSS. The objective is to foster the next generation of web makers. With X-Ray Googles, one can explore the different components of a web page, change them, remix them and publish the changes online. Thimble provides user-friendly tools for creating one’s own web page. A wide range of templates are available for starting quickly.

The participants who were journalists, software developers and educators at various levels (primary, secondary and tertiary) are now very keen to use the Webmaker tools in their day to day activities. Nausheen, an ICT support teacher in a ZEP school is enthusiastic: “Webmaker is a great tool to use in the classroom. The kids will love it.” David, a Physics teacher, is convinced that “these tools can be easily integrated into programs because colleges already have computer labs and audio-visual facilities.”

Mozilla is a non-profit organization, based in the USA and with offices worldwide, dedicated to empower people through the Web. The global community of Mozilla users, contributors and developers work to innovate by providing software such as the world class Firefox browser. At Knowledge Seven, we strive to share expertise and knowledge with all. Like Mozilla, Knowledge Seven promotes openness, innovation & opportunities on the Web.

You may click here to view more photos of the event.

We wish you all a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year 2013. We hope to serve you better next year.