Outrageous comments made by Indian politicians

There are too many outrageous comments made by Indian politicians, here are some recent comments, which made my blood boil.

“Poverty is just a state of mind” Rahul Gandhi

“Women who are participating in candle-light vigils and those who are protesting have no connection with ground reality. These pretty ladies coming out to protest are ‘highly dented and painted’,” Abhijit Mukherjee

“If there is no water in the dam…Should we urinate into it?,” Ajit Pawar

“To my understanding, consumption of fast food contributes to such incidents. Chowmein leads to hormonal imbalance evoking an urge to indulge in such acts,”Jitender Chhatar

“Rapes happening because men and women are interacting more freely” West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

“Even today in Mumbai city, I can have a full meal at Rs.12. No no, not vada paav. So much of rice, daal sambhar and with that some vegetables are also mixed.” Congress leader Raj Babbar

“In Rs. 600, he would get dal, rice and wheat…A family of five can easily complete their needs,” Sheila Dikshit

*** This was originally posted by me on Quora, here is the link to the original answer: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-most-outrageous-things-that-have-been-said-by-an-Indian-politician/answer/Prashant-Gonga ***

March 16, 2016

Why does cracking your knuckles feel good?

Ever wondered why cracking your knuckles feels good?

Cracking your knuckles feels good because it stretches the joint and stimulates the nerve endings found there. Synovial fluid present in our joints acts as a lubricant which contains the gases oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. When you crack knuckles, you stretch the joint capsule which releases the gas and the gas forms a bubble and it collapses and pops.

Here is a short video for better explanation

***This was originally posted by me on Quora, here is the link to the original answer: https://www.quora.com/Why-does-cracking-your-knuckles-feel-good/answer/Prashant-Gonga ***

March 6, 2016

Simple Location Tracker Script

Simple location tracker script using PHP and API

We are going to track user information such as IP Address, City, State, Country, Capital City, Timezone and much more information using our simple Location tracker script. I will try to keep things as simple as possible for beginners to understand. By the end of the post you will realize how easy it is to make this location tracker script work.

In case if you need more explanation please do leave your questions in the comment section and I will try to answer you at the earliest. This post is for beginners with a little bit understanding of programming. If you are already an expert programmer then, you may skip this post or leave your valuable feedback, which will be highly appreciated.

Now as you are ready, let’s get our hands dirty!

Step 1 : Building our index.php page

This is how it should look like on your browser.

<?php
//The below line of code is written to connect to functions.php page where we have written the code for the API
include("includes/functions.php");

//The below line of code is used to detect the IP address from which the user is viewing the current page.
$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
?>

<html>
	 <head>
		  <title> Get User Location </title>
		  <script src="js/script.js" type="text/javascript">
		  </script>
	 </head>
 <body>
		 <form name="location" action="location_action.php" method="POST" accept-charset="UTF-8">
			<h2>Get User location</h2>
			<table>
				<tr>
					<td>Your name</td>
					<td><input type="text" name="name"></td>	
				</tr>
				<tr>
					<td><input onclick="return validate()" type="submit" name="button" value="Get Location" /></td>
					<input type="hidden" name="ip" value="<?php echo $ip; ?>">

				</tr>
			</table>

		</form>
 </body>
</html>

<?php

//The below line of code is written to connect to functions.php page where we have written the code for the API

include("includes/functions.php");

//The below line of code is used to detect the IP address from which the user is viewing the current page.

$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];

<html>

<head>

<title> Get User Location </title>

</script>

</head>

<body>

<h2>Get User location</h2>

<table>

<tr>

</tr>

<tr>

</tr>

</table>

</form>

</body>

</html>

Lets see what is actually happening in the above code…

At the very beginning we have included functions.php page where we have written the code for the API, we will get to it shortly.

Next we are using a built in PHP function $_SERVER[‘REMOTE_ADDR’]; which is used to detect the IP address of the user system accessing this page.

To keep this simple I have added only one input box where the user will fill his name, I have also added a simple Javascript validation to check if the field is empty.

Next we are sending the IP address of the user that we received from the above step to the next page using the below code.

//We are using input type ="hidden" to prevent user to see his IP getting displayed anywhere on the screen
<input type="hidden" name="ip" value="<?php echo $ip; ?>">

1 2	//We are using input type ="hidden" to prevent user to see his IP getting displayed anywhere on the screen <input type="hidden" name="ip" value="<?php echo $ip; ?>">

STEP 2: Building our functions.php page

<?php
//We are going to use this below function to track user's location
function getGeoLocation($ip)
{
	$json = file_get_contents("http://api.codehelper.io/ips/?php&ip=".$ip);
	$json = json_decode($json,true);
	return $json ;
}

?>

<?php

//We are going to use this below function to track user's location

function getGeoLocation($ip)

{

$json = file_get_contents("http://api.codehelper.io/ips/?php&ip=".$ip);

$json = json_decode($json,true);

return $json ;

}

functions.php page is exactly where the magic is happening. It’s a very simple API code that we are going to use in our location tracker script. All we are doing here is adding the user’s IP address that we had captured from the index.php page to the link presented below.

http://api.codehelper.io/ips/?php&ip=”.$ip

This is how it will look like once the IP address is added

http://api.codehelper.io/ips/?php&ip=58.182.129.31

Try inserting your own IP address at the end of the URL by replacing the dummy IP. You can check your IP address here.

Once you hit the above URL in your browser along with your IP address, you will see some unformatted text which is nothing but JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format, which we will be inserting into our PHP variable and nicely format it in the next section.

STEP 3 : Building our action.php page

<?php
//We have included functions.php page in the below code to access the values from the API in this page
include("includes/functions.php");
//We got the below IP from our index.php page
$ip = $_POST['ip'];

//We got the user's name from our index.php page
$name = $_POST['name'];
//We are calling getGeoLocation function to this page from functions.php page
$location = getGeoLocation($ip);
//Here we are adding all our desired values in $location array 
$city = $location['CityName'];
$state = $location['RegionName'];
$country = $location['CountryName'];
$flag = $location['Flag'];
$capitalcity = $location['Capital'];
$callingcode = $location['CallingCode'];
$currency = $location['Currency'];
$timezone = $location['LocalTimeZone'];

//Once we got all the variables we need in an array we will then echo it in our HTML code as per our convenience.
?>

<html>
 <head>
  <title> Location Tracker </title>
 </head>

 <body>
  <center><h2>Location Tracker </h2></center>

  <table border="1" bordercolor="#53a1b8" width="50%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" align="center">

	<tr>
      <th COLSPAN="2">
         <h3>Hello <?php echo $name;?></h3>
      </th>
    </tr>

	<tr>
		<td>Your IP Address</td>
		<td><?php echo $ip;?></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>City</td>
		<td><?php echo $city;?></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>State</td>
		<td><?php echo $state;?></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Country</td>
		<td><?php echo $country;?></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Capital City</td>
		<td><?php echo $capitalcity;?></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Calling Code</td>
		<td><?php echo $callingcode;?></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Currency</td>
		<td><?php echo $currency;?></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Timezone</td>
		<td><?php echo $timezone;?></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Flag</td>
		<td><img src = "<?php echo $flag;?>" ></td>
	</tr>
  </table>
 </body>
</html>

<?php

//We have included functions.php page in the below code to access the values from the API in this page

include("includes/functions.php");

//We got the below IP from our index.php page

$ip = $_POST['ip'];

//We got the user's name from our index.php page

$name = $_POST['name'];

//We are calling getGeoLocation function to this page from functions.php page

$location = getGeoLocation($ip);

//Here we are adding all our desired values in $location array

$city = $location['CityName'];

$state = $location['RegionName'];

$country = $location['CountryName'];

$flag = $location['Flag'];

$capitalcity = $location['Capital'];

$callingcode = $location['CallingCode'];

$currency = $location['Currency'];

$timezone = $location['LocalTimeZone'];

//Once we got all the variables we need in an array we will then echo it in our HTML code as per our convenience.

<html>

<head>

<title> Location Tracker </title>

</head>

<body>

<center><h2>Location Tracker </h2></center>

<tr>

<h3>Hello <?php echo $name;?></h3>

</th>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Your IP Address</td>

</tr>

<tr>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>State</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Country</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Capital City</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Calling Code</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Currency</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Timezone</td>

</tr>

<tr>

</tr>

</table>

</body>

</html>

To fetch the JSON values from our API we need to include functions.php in our code. All we need to do is store all the values we need in an array and then echo (print) it in our HTML code. This is how your output would look like.

That’s it!

P.S : This code will not work correctly in case if the user is using a Proxy Server to access your page.

Hope you liked this post, Cheers!

September 18, 2013

Simple JavaScript Form Validation

A simple JavaScript form validation script

I have written a simple JavaScript form validation code, which is easy to understand and implement. Please note that this code is written for absolute beginners with little to no programming knowledge, if you are already an expert user you can skip this post or provide your valuable input which will be highly appreciated.

Before jumping head first to the code let us understand a little bit about data validation.

Data Validation in a nutshell:

Data validation means checking the correctness or accuracy of the data before entering the same in the database thereby rejecting incorrect or bad data.

There are basically two types of data validation, one is the client side (browser) and the second type is the server side validation which happens at a server level. JavaScript is commonly used for client side data validation and languages such as PHP can be used for server side validation. Data Validation if done correctly can prevent spamming to a larger extent.

Importance of Client Side data validation:

Consider a situation where we rely only on server side validation, after the user had entered all necessary data and then pressed the Submit button. If some of the data that had been entered by the user had been in the wrong form or was simply missing, the server would have to send all the data back to the user and request that the form be resubmitted with correct information. This is an extremely lengthy process which also puts unnecessary burden on the server and might also irritate your user.

This is where client side validation comes into picture, here the validation is done at your user’s browser and the form is submitted only once data is validated. For better accuracy we can add data validation at the server end too, just in case if the client side validation is bypassed the data will still be validated at the server thereby rejecting the bad data.

Always make sure to have client side as well as server side data validation as client side validation can be bypassed easily.

Now as you have a little bit understanding of Client Side and Server Side data validation, let us have a look at the code.

Below is the simple HTML contact form that we will be validating, this is how it should look. Once our HTML form is ready we will then add our Simple JavaScript form validation code in our “script.js” page.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
  <head>
	  <title> Simple Javascript Validation </title>
	  <script src="script.js"></script>
  </head>
 <body>
	 <form name="contactus" method="post" action="success.html">
		First Name: <br> <input type="text" name="firstname"><br>
		Last Name:  <br> <input type="text" name="lastname"><br>
		Phone:	    <br> <input type="text" name="phone"><br>
		Email:	    <br> <input type="text" name="email"><br>
		Comments:   <br> <textarea name="comments" cols="30" rows="4"></textarea><br>
		<input type="submit" name="button" value="Submit" onclick="return validate()"  />
	</form>
 </body>
</html>

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<html>

<head>

<title> Simple Javascript Validation </title>

</head>

<body>

First Name: <br> <input type="text" name="firstname"><br>

Last Name: <br> <input type="text" name="lastname"><br>

Phone: <br> <input type="text" name="phone"><br>

Email: <br> <input type="text" name="email"><br>

Comments: <br> <textarea name="comments" cols="30" rows="4"></textarea><br>

</form>

</body>

</html>

All we did here is created a simple HTML form, added “script.js” file under the <script></script> tag. “script.js” is the file where we will be writing our JavaScript code. Here an “onclick” JavaScript event will be triggered once you click on the submit button which will validate our form before submitting.

Simple JavaScript Form Validation

//This function allows users to input only numbers
function allnumeric(text)
{   
	var numbers = /^[0-9]+$/;  
	if(text.match(numbers))  
		return true;  
	else  
		return false;
} 

//This function allows users to input only alphabetic character
function allLetter(text)  
{   
	var letters = /^[A-Za-z]+$/; 
	if(text.match(letters))  
		return true;  
	else  
		return false; 
}

//This function checks the email address format
function validEmail(emailaddress)
{   
	var reg = /^([A-Za-z0-9_\-\.])+\@([A-Za-z0-9_\-\.])+\.([A-Za-z]{2,4})$/;
	if(reg.test(emailaddress))  
		return true;  
	else  
		return false;
} 

//This function is used to validate our HTML form
function validate()
{
	var frm = document.forms['contactus'];
	var emailaddress = frm.email.value.trim();
	//trim() alerts the user if there are any blank spaces in the input
	var phone_number = frm.phone.value.trim();

	if(frm.firstname.value.trim()=="")
	{
		alert("Please enter your first name");
		frm.firstname.focus();
		return false;
		//This block of code checks if the first name is filled.
		//.focus() is used to get the cursor on the respective field once the validation fails. 
		//return false; stops the browser from processing the rest of the code
	}
	else if(!allLetter(frm.firstname.value))
	{
		alert("Please enter a valid first name");
		frm.firstname.focus();
		return false;
		//This block of code returns an alert if the user has entered anything other than alphabets.

	}
	else if(frm.lastname.value.trim()=="")
	{
		alert("Please enter your last name");
		frm.lastname.focus();
		return false;
		//This block of code checks if the last name is filled.
	}
	else if(!allLetter(frm.lastname.value))
	{
		alert("Please enter a valid last name");
		frm.lastname.focus();
		return false;
		//This block of code returns an alert if the user has entered anything other than alphabets.
	}
	else if(frm.phone.value.trim()=="")
	{
		alert("Please enter your phone number");
		frm.phone.focus();
		return false;
		//This block of code checks if the phone number is entered.
	}
	else if(!allnumeric(frm.phone.value))  
	{  
		alert("Please enter a valid phone number");  
		frm.phone.focus(); 
		return false;
		//This block of code returns an alert if the user has entered anything other than numbers.
	}
	else if(phone_number.length < 8 || phone_number.length > 15)
	{
		alert("Please enter a valid phone number");
		frm.phone.focus();
		return false;
		//This block of code checks if the number that has been entered is greater than 8 digits and less than 15 digits.
	}
	else if(emailaddress=="")
	{
		alert("Please enter your email address");
		frm.email.focus();
		return false;
		//This block of code checks if the email address is entered.
	}
	else if(!validEmail(emailaddress))
	{ 
		alert('Please enter a valid email address');
		frm.email.focus();
		return false;
		//This block of code checks for the format of the email address that has been entered.
	}
	else if(frm.comments.value.trim()=="")
	{
		alert("Please enter your comments");
		frm.comments.focus();
		return false;
		//This block of code checks if the comment section is filled.
	}

}

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//This function allows users to input only numbers

function allnumeric(text)

{

var numbers = /^[0-9]+$/;

if(text.match(numbers))

return true;

else

return false;

}

//This function allows users to input only alphabetic character

function allLetter(text)

{

var letters = /^[A-Za-z]+$/;

if(text.match(letters))

return true;

else

return false;

}

//This function checks the email address format

function validEmail(emailaddress)

{

var reg = /^([A-Za-z0-9_\-\.])+\@([A-Za-z0-9_\-\.])+\.([A-Za-z]{2,4})$/;

if(reg.test(emailaddress))

return true;

else

return false;

}

//This function is used to validate our HTML form

function validate()

{

var frm = document.forms['contactus'];

var emailaddress = frm.email.value.trim();

//trim() alerts the user if there are any blank spaces in the input

var phone_number = frm.phone.value.trim();

if(frm.firstname.value.trim()=="")

{

alert("Please enter your first name");

frm.firstname.focus();

return false;

//This block of code checks if the first name is filled.

//.focus() is used to get the cursor on the respective field once the validation fails.

//return false; stops the browser from processing the rest of the code

}

else if(!allLetter(frm.firstname.value))

{

alert("Please enter a valid first name");

frm.firstname.focus();

return false;

//This block of code returns an alert if the user has entered anything other than alphabets.

}

else if(frm.lastname.value.trim()=="")

{

alert("Please enter your last name");

frm.lastname.focus();

return false;

//This block of code checks if the last name is filled.

}

else if(!allLetter(frm.lastname.value))

{

alert("Please enter a valid last name");

frm.lastname.focus();

return false;

//This block of code returns an alert if the user has entered anything other than alphabets.

}

else if(frm.phone.value.trim()=="")

{

alert("Please enter your phone number");

frm.phone.focus();

return false;

//This block of code checks if the phone number is entered.

}

else if(!allnumeric(frm.phone.value))

{

alert("Please enter a valid phone number");

frm.phone.focus();

return false;

//This block of code returns an alert if the user has entered anything other than numbers.

}

else if(phone_number.length < 8 || phone_number.length > 15)

{

alert("Please enter a valid phone number");

frm.phone.focus();

return false;

//This block of code checks if the number that has been entered is greater than 8 digits and less than 15 digits.

}

else if(emailaddress=="")

{

alert("Please enter your email address");

frm.email.focus();

return false;

//This block of code checks if the email address is entered.

}

else if(!validEmail(emailaddress))

{

alert('Please enter a valid email address');

frm.email.focus();

return false;

//This block of code checks for the format of the email address that has been entered.

}

else if(frm.comments.value.trim()=="")

{

alert("Please enter your comments");

frm.comments.focus();

return false;

//This block of code checks if the comment section is filled.

}

The above JavaScript code is used to validate our HTML form. All we did here was tried to check if a particular field is empty and if it is not empty then check if the provided data is valid or not.

You can have a look at the demo here

You can download the code from here

P.S : Make sure to perform your data validation server-side as well. You can never trust client-side validation, which can be bypassed more easily. Use Client-side validation in the sense of providing a better User Experience (UX), so the user doesn’t have to submit and reload a page because of some invalid values.

September 11, 2013

Get Free Online Courses From Top Universities

Enroll For Free Online Courses With Top Universities

MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses is taking the world of E-Learning by storm. MOOC’s are free online courses which are provided by some elite universities like Stanford, MIT, Harvard, UC Berkely to name a few.

MOOC’s provide high quality educational content for students all over the globe. The best part of MOOC is to let students learn at their own pace. And unlike traditional courses here you can revisit the course contents as many time as you want. You can also download videos, PDF, slideshows etc, from their website and can study offline too.

All you need is passion for learning and a computer with decent internet connection.

These free online courses offers subjects ranging from Engineering, Mathematics, Programming, Psychology the list is endless. The teachers teaching these free online courses are some of the best authors and pioneers in their respective fields.

You have to spend an average of 4-5 hours per week learning the contents depending on the course you have enrolled, which you can learn as per your convenience. Forums are a great way for students from different parts of the world to ask questions and learn through collaboration.

There are some interactive assignments and quizzes which makes learning fun and it also helps you to keep track of your progress. You also get a course completion certificate for some courses which you can also add to your resume or Linkedin profile.

You can simply drop out of a course if anytime you feel like you are getting bored and jump to another course without getting penalized.

Below is the list of websites which provides such free online courses.

1. Coursera

Coursera is one of the best MOOC platform which provides free online courses. It lets you choose from 300+ courses in over 20 categories created by 62 Universities from 16 countries. There are wide array of courses ranging from Arts, Science, Mathematics, Medicine and Artificial Intelligence.

2. edX

edX offers free online courses from best professors and universities. Their forums is more like a social learning tool which you use to connect to thousands of like minded students from around the globe. They offer subjects ranging from law, history, science, engineering, business, social sciences, computer science, public health, and artificial intelligence (AI).

3. Udemy

Udemy offers free online courses along with paid courses. Learn everything from programming to photography to design to yoga and more.

4. Udacity

Udacity caters wider audience by providing free online courses for high school, college students and professionals as well. Get a course completion certificate after you successfully finish a course (for selected courses only).

5. MIT OPEN COURSEWARE

MIT OPEN COURSEWARE is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content, which is accessible to everyone for free. This site contains 2000+ free online courses ranging from business, fine arts, engineering and medicine.

6. HARVARD EXTENSION SCHOOL

HARVARD EXTENSION SCHOOL provides 200+ courses including college lectures. They also have an extensive list of language courses ranging from Japanese, Italian, Latin, Greek, German etc .These courses are free and available for everyone.

7. Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University Open Learning Initiative is helping masses by bridging the gap between educators and students. Apart from high quality text and video contents, they also provide students with practice activities, self-assessments, and graded assessments. Students can also track their progress from an interactive learning dashboard.

8. University of California Berkeley

University of California Berkeley records tons of courses every semester and provides them for free to the students. They record courses in audio and video formats and make it available through UC Berkeley’s YouTube and iTunes-U distribution channels.

9. Open Yale Courses

Open Yale Courses provides free online courses ranging from molecular biology to astronomy. You can start taking the course without any need for registration. No certificate is currently available through the Open Yale Courses website.

Hope you liked this post, and benefit from it!

Gonga's Blog

Just an ordinary guy…

Author Archives: admin

Outrageous comments made by Indian politicians

Why does cracking your knuckles feel good?

Simple Location Tracker Script

Simple location tracker script using PHP and API

Simple JavaScript Form Validation

A simple JavaScript form validation script

Get Free Online Courses From Top Universities

Enroll For Free Online Courses With Top Universities