I’ll be jury during the coming Code Challenge 2013, to be held this week-end, 6-7 July 2013, in the premises of the Ebène Accelerator.

Team of participants  will need to create a mobile application during a 24-hour time span (a prototype). The theme will be communicated on the day of the competition. Participants will develop for iOS, Android, Windows Phone or Blackberry. At the end of the competition, participants will need to present a demo of their app in front of a panel and members of the panel, which includes yours truly, will choose one of the teams as the winner!

Good luck to everyone. Have a lot of fun. And, most importantly, surprise us!!!

L’Association des Utilisateurs de Linux de Maurice (LUGM) organise un meetup technologique au KMC Hall à l’Escalier le samedi 15 juin à 10:30. Cette rencontre, ouverte à tous, a pour objectif de faire decouvrir les logiciels libres tels que Linux et Android aux habitants de la région.

Durant le meetup, Avinash Meetoo, Directeur de Knowledge7, fera un exposé sur l’importance des logiciels libres à Maurice, en particulier Linux et Android. Logan Velvindron et Selven Cheenaramen, pour leur part, présenteront d’autres aspects du monde des logiciels libres. Ces présentations interactives seront suivies de démonstrations de smartphones, de tablettes et autres gadgets.

Ce meetup à l’Escalier est le premier organisé par LUGM dans cette région de l’île. Les membres de l’association espèrent organiser des meetups dans d’autres endroits de l’île dans les mois à venir. Selon les responsables, il est important d’inclure tous les Mauriciens dans le processus de développement technologique.

Les membres du public sont cordialement invités. L’entrée est gratuite.

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 Knowledge7, 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 Knowledge7, 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 5834-9001 to have more information.

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 Knowledge7. 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.

Knowledge7 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 Knowledge7 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 Knowledge7 courses on Hardware, Networking, Solaris and Linux, I seized the opportunity and here I am!

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 Knowledge7.

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 Knowledge7 such as the Linux Network Services and Security training.

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 Knowledge7 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.