Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer, TweetDeck - A check on their Cons !

Whether you are a social media manager for multiple businesses or running your own company, social media scheduling tools help make your job easier. It’s difficult to keep up with the latest tools, tricks and trends. But even more tome consuming to create and post content and track the effectiveness of it all. Enter social media monitoring tools to help you get the job done. they offer a one stop place to post, analyze and schedule all of your social media efforts, alleviating the pain of having to log in and out of dozens of accounts and websites regularly.

Why use Social Media Monitoring Tools?

As business owners and/or marketing managers, it’s important to know the return on our investment so we can discern where our efforts are paying off and where they are not. It’s also important to know which channels are performing best, what type of content gets the most engagement and so on so that you can prioritize your efforts and resources. That’s why social media monitoring tools tools has become so popular. And, as the number of channels continues to grow and change, so will the number of services and types of features. Some applications are used more for monitoring and responding to comments, mentions and messages, whereas some have a full-reporting social media dashboard to help you analyze trends. Many programs are a hybrid of the two and some even include the ability to schedule posts for multiple channels at once.

With so many options on the market that incorporate so many different bells and whistles, how do you know which is the right fit for you? Read on to learn more about the best social media monitoring tools you should consider.

Best Social Media Management Tools

Most services offer similar features with slightly different social media dashboards and methods of using them so for that reason it was a challenge picking a winner. Our top 3 are very similar and all do a great job of helping you manage your social media marketing and give you a social media dashboard to track trends and statistics. As active users of SproutSocial for years, our team at We Rock Your Web is a big fan of its functionality and value. In doing research and testing out some of the newer players and giving some of the old classics a chance again, we tried to find a compelling reason not to choose SproutSocial as our top pick but, alas, they still came out on top. While SproutSocial rocks our web, there could be a social media tool that is better suited to your needs so read on to learn more about our winners and the best of the rest.

Sprout Social - Cons

• No free plan and on the pricier side
• No ability to “save” a particular column to track or monitor a trending topic
• Can’t like a Facebook post or plus a Google+ comment
• No integration with Pinterest

Hootsuite - Cons

• No ability to easily tag other brands when composing Tweets
• Dashboard can be a bit overwhelming
• Must use their URL shortener Ow.ly
• Can only connect one service to one Hootsuite account at a time
• Custom reports and other features can be pricey

Buffer - Cons

• No ability to target Facebook posts
• Reports are limited
• No notifications or ability to interact with users

TweetDeck - Cons

• Twitter only
• No stats or reporting
• No ability to assign roles to team members or tasks to respond to

The best advice for anyone looking to try social media management software is to try before you buy. Get your feet wet, test the waters to see which social media analytics tools work best for you and your team, and find a system that meets your specific needs and preferences.

A primer into Home Automation using Arduino or Raspberry Pi

Home Automation, What is it?
Home automation is the use of one or more computers to control basic home functions and features automatically and sometimes remotely. An automated home is sometimes called a smart home .

Home automation can include the scheduling and automatic operation of water sprinkling, heating and air conditioning, window coverings, security systems, lighting, and food preparation appliances. Home automation may also allow vital home functions to be controlled remotely from anywhere in the world using a computer connected to the Internet. Besides the functions already mentioned, remote control can be extended to telephones and answering machines, fax machines, amateur radios and other communications equipment, and home robot s such as automatic vacuum cleaners.


The fundamental components of a well-designed home automation system include a computer (or computers) with the appropriate programming, the various devices and systems to be controlled, interconnecting cables or wireless links, a high-speed Internet connection, and an emergency backup power source for the computer, its peripherals, and the essential home systems.

How to DIY?
Ever wanted to make your home automated? Wanted to control the lights, fan and other appliances from your smartphone? Or wanted a tutorial about connected devices and getting started with it? DIY Android Home Automation will show you how to make your home automated using an android smartphone. 
We've seen a lot of DIY home automation projects over the years, but Instructables user electronichamsters shows off one of the most complete systems we've seen yet. With it, you'll be able to monitor just about everything in your house.

Instead of concentrating on the simple things like lights or automated blinds, elecronichamsters goes all in. With his system you can monitor for water leaks, see if the garage door is open, check for new mail, watch for movement, sense for gas, and even see how the dog is doing. The system uses both an Arduino and a Raspberry Pi alongside a ton of various sensors to monitor the house. You can set up the system to send you alerts when something happens or just monitor everything from your phone.

Check this classic DIY ... Uber Home Automation w/ Arduino & Pi

A simple DIY here using Arduino alone and controlling it using a free Android app...
DIY Android Home Automation with free Smartphone Application

Which is best for building a home automation system? Raspberry or Arduino?

As predicted, it is impossible to define a winner for all domains. You need to find the right board for your applications. If you have small home automation projects, and you want a cheap and easy solution, you can probably go with all Arduino. But if you want to build a larger project and don’t want any typical computer to be involved, I would suggest to take a Raspberry Pi board to act as the “brain” of your project, as it can be programmed as your own computer and can easily be connected to the web.
Arduino vs Raspberry Pi: which platform is the best for home automation ? - Open Home Automation

Blind Spot - an interesting app with lots of 1 star rating !

BLINDSPOT is a fun anonymous messaging app that allows you to express yourself freely with friends.

Whatever you send, wether it is text, photos, videos, or voice-notes, no one will ever know that it’s really you, until you decide to reveal your identity. We believe in being open and honest, providing a safe environment for people to chat freely without worrying about being judged.

What would you say to people you know if you were anonymous?

• Chat one-to-one with your friends anonymously

• Whatever you send no one will know that it’s really you
• Your name and contact details will always be hidden, until you decide to reveal your identity
• Express yourself freely to one another
• Share text, photos, videos and voice-notes instantly
• You can always block anyone that annoys you

Forbes says "The Next Big Messaging App"

Let’s get real for a minute. In a world where your social media posts, text messages, and other digital communications can potentially be seen, and judged, by anyone, how honest are you?

Don’t you ever wish you could say what’s on your mind without everyone knowing it was you?

How it works.

After downloading the app and giving it access to your contacts, you can send text messages, videos, voice-notes, or photos to anyone you’d like without them knowing the message came from you. You can then be more open and honest in your communication, or just have fun, knowing your secrets are safe until you decide to unmask your identity.

Potentially dangerous and interesting app, but as of now the app has got lot of negative ratings in Google Play store.

Coolpad Note 3 lite and Redmi 2 prime, Which one is worth buying ??

Coolpad’s new smartphone offers more RAM than other smartphones in the same price range.

The design
The Note 3 Lite has the same pebble design as its bigger sibling. However, it feels much better in the hand due to its compact form factor and the soft matte texture on the back panel. Despite the plastic body, the phone feels solid and well-built. There is a fingerprint sensor on the back panel that is more accurate and scans faster than the fingerprint sensors in many expensive smartphones. At 142g and 8.9mm thickness, it is not very heavy either. The Xiaomi Redmi 2 Prime also measures 8.9mm but is slightly lighter (133g). However, it offers a 4.7-inch display while the Note 3 Lite has a 5-inch display. 

The UI
The Note 3 Lite runs Android 5.1 (Lollipop) with a heavily customized user interface. There is no app drawer—the apps are arranged on the home screen itself. The icons look different too: They are square shaped like the MIUI in the Redmi 2 Prime. What gives the Coolpad phone an upper hand is that the Redmi 2 Prime still runs on Android 4.4 (Kitkat) OS. 

The Battery
The Note 3 Lite’s 2,500 mAh battery provides over a day’s backup when used as a primary device. This is better than the Redmi 2 Prime, which comes with a 2,200 mAh battery and barely managed a day’s backup, but it has removable battery.

The Cameras
The 13-megapixel camera is good when it comes to detail reproduction but tends to oversaturate colours for effect. This gives white colours a slightly yellowish tint, while yellow looks orange-y. Low-light shots tend to be blurry and washed out. The Redmi 2 Prime handles colours better and is on a par with the Note 3 Lite when it comes to detail. Its low-light shots are average, but overall, it has a better camera than the Note 3 Lite.

The price
Both are now priced the same at Rs. 6999

The verdict
Go for Coolpad Note 3 lite

To buy Coolpad Note 3 lite, visit here and register now... Coolpad Note 3 Lite

For instant product comparison before shopping please visit SmartPrix.com Smartprix - Best Online Comparison Shopping

Reverse Osmosis water purification - may not remove Bacteria and Viruses

Osmosis

To understand the purpose and process of Reverse Osmosis you must first understand the naturally occurring process of Osmosis.

Osmosis is a naturally occurring phenomenon and one of the most important processes in nature. It is a process where a weaker saline solution will tend to migrate to a strong saline solution. Examples of osmosis are when plant roots absorb water from the soil and our kidneys absorb water from our blood.

Below is a diagram which shows how osmosis works. A solution that is less concentrated will have a natural tendency to migrate to a solution with a higher concentration. For example, if you had a container full of water with a low salt concentration and another container full of water with a high salt concentration and they were separated by a semi-permeable membrane, then the water with the lower salt concentration would begin to migrate towards the water container with the higher salt concentration.

A semi-permeable membrane is a membrane that will allow some atoms or molecules to pass but not others. A simple example is a screen door. It allows air molecules to pass through but not pests or anything larger than the holes in the screen door. Another example is Gore-tex clothing fabric that contains an extremely thin plastic film into which billions of small pores have been cut. The pores are big enough to let water vapor through, but small enough to prevent liquid water from passing.

Reverse Osmosis is the process of Osmosis in reverse. Whereas Osmosis occurs naturally without energy required, to reverse the process of osmosis you need to apply energy to the more saline solution. A reverse osmosis membrane is a semi-permeable membrane that allows the passage of water molecules but not the majority of dissolved salts, organics, bacteria and pyrogens. However, you need to 'push' the water through the reverse osmosis membrane by applying pressure that is greater than the naturally occurring osmotic pressure in order to desalinate (demineralize or deionize) water in the process, allowing pure water through while holding back a majority of contaminants.

Below is a diagram outlining the process of Reverse Osmosis. When pressure is applied to the concentrated solution, the water molecules are forced through the semi-permeable membrane and the contaminants are not allowed through. 

How does Reverse Osmosis work?

Reverse Osmosis works by using a high pressure pump to increase the pressure on the salt side of the RO and force the water across the semi-permeable RO membrane, leaving almost all (around 95% to 99%) of dissolved salts behind in the reject stream. The amount of pressure required depends on the salt concentration of the feed water. The more concentrated the feed water, the more pressure is required to overcome the osmotic pressure.

The desalinated water that is demineralized or deionized, is called permeate (or product) water. The water stream that carries the concentrated contaminants that did not pass through the RO membrane is called the reject (or concentrate) stream.

As the feed water enters the RO membrane under pressure (enough pressure to overcome osmotic pressure) the water molecules pass through the semi-permeable membrane and the salts and other contaminants are not allowed to pass and are discharged through the reject stream (also known as the concentrate or brine stream), which goes to drain or can be fed back into the feed water supply in some circumstances to be recycled through the RO system to save water. The water that makes it through the RO membrane is called permeate or product water and usually has around 95% to 99% of the dissolved salts removed from it.

It is important to understand that an RO system employs cross filtration rather than standard filtration where the contaminants are collected within the filter media. With cross filtration, the solution passes through the filter, or crosses the filter, with two outlets: the filtered water goes one way and the contaminated water goes another way. To avoid build up of contaminants, cross flow filtration allows water to sweep away contaminant build up and also allow enough turbulence to keep the membrane surface clean.

What will Reverse Osmosis remove from water?

Reverse Osmosis is capable of removing up to 99%+ of the dissolved salts (ions), particles, colloids, organics, bacteria and pyrogens from the feed water (although an RO system should not be relied upon to remove 100% of bacteria and viruses). An RO membrane rejects contaminants based on their size and charge. Any contaminant that has a molecular weight greater than 200 is likely rejected by a properly running RO system (for comparison a water molecule has a MW of 18). Likewise, the greater the ionic charge of the contaminant, the more likely it will be unable to pass through the RO membrane. For example, a sodium ion has only one charge (monovalent) and is not rejected by the RO membrane as well as calcium for example, which has two charges. Likewise, this is why an RO system does not remove gases such as CO2 very well because they are not highly ionized (charged) while in solution and have a very low molecular weight. Because an RO system does not remove gases, the permeate water can have a slightly lower than normal pH level depending on CO2 levels in the feed water as the CO2 is converted to carbonic acid.

Reverse Osmosis is very effective in treating brackish, surface and ground water for both large and small flows applications. Some examples of industries that use RO water include pharmaceutical, boiler feed water, food and beverage, metal finishing and semiconductor manufacturing to name a few.

Bacteria and other microorganisms are removed from water through disinfection. This means that certain substances are added to kill the bacteria, these are called biocides. Sometimes disinfection can also be done with UV-light.

Spot International space station from your city !! How?

The International Space Station (ISS) is the most complex international scientific and engineering project in history and the largest structure humans have ever put into space. This high-flying satellite is a laboratory for new technologies and an observation platform for astronomical, environmental and geological research. As a permanently occupied outpost in outer space, it serves as a stepping-stone for further space exploration.

The station flies at an average altitude of 248 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth. It circles the globe every 90 minutes at a speed of about 17,500 mph (28,000 kph). In one day, the station travels about the distance it would take to go from Earth to the moon and back. The space station can rival the brilliant planet Venus in brightness and appears as a bright moving light across the night sky. It can be seen from Earth without the use of a telescope by night sky observers who know when and where to look. The ISS AstroViewer website tracks the orbit of the space station in real time. 

Five different space agencies representing 15 countries built the $100-billion International Space Station and continue to operate it today. NASA, Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are the primary space agency partners on the project.

Facts about the International Space Station

• The ISS solar array surface area could cover the U.S. Senate Chamber three times over. 
• ISS has an internal pressurized volume of 33,023 cubic feet, or equal that of a Boeing 747. 
• The solar array wingspan (240 feet / 73 meters) is longer than that of a Boeing 777 200/300 model, which is 212 feet (64.6 m). 
• Fifty-two computers control the systems on the ISS. 
• More than 115 space flights were conducted on five different types of launch vehicles over the course of the station’s construction. 
• The ISS is almost four times as large as the Russian space station Mir, and about five times as large as the U.S. Skylab. 
• Some 3.3 million lines of software code on the ground supports 1.8 million lines of flight software code. 
• About 8 miles (12.8 km) of wire connects the electrical power system. 
• In the International Space Station’s U.S. segment alone, 1.5 million lines of flight software code run on 44 computers communicating via 100 data networks transferring 400,000 signals (e.g. pressure or temperature measurements, valve positions, etc.). 
• Main U.S. control computers have 1.5 gigabytes of total main hard drive storage in the U.S. segment. Modern PCs have about 500-gigabyte hard drives. 
• The entire 55-foot robot arm assembly is capable of lifting 220,000 lbs., which is the weight of a space shuttle orbiter. 
• The 75 to 90 kilowatts of power for the ISS is supplied by an acre of solar panels. 

How to spot ISS from my city?

International Space Station captured as it soars over Hamilton with Tim Peake on board

Just visit http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/ and choose your country and city to get the listings / timings & location details for the week ahead.

Check the following link, if you are from #Chennai , India +Chennaiyin FC 

Spot The Station


And here's how Winter storm Jonas looked from ISS !

IoT - What the *&$# is this? Hype?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects, devices, vehicles, buildings and other items which are embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data.

One more definition ...
Internet of Things (IoT) or Internet of Everything (IoE) refers to devices or objects that are connected to the Internet, like your smartwatch, Fitbit, or even your refrigerator. These devices are able to collect and transmit data via the Internet, contributing to our big data world.

Build on what you have

The Internet of Things starts by building on the infrastructure you already have in place, using familiar devices and services in new ways, and incorporating the right technology to ultimately help you use data to create insights and make more informed business decisions. It’s not just for billions of devices and sensors in the future, it’s what you use today. It’s the Internet of Your Things.

Have you heard of Windows 10 IoT ? (or) Windows 10 for Raspberry pi?

Windows 10 IoT Core is a version of Windows 10 that is optimized for smaller devices with or without a display, and that runs on the Raspberry Pi 2, Arrow DragonBoard 410c & MinnowBoard MAX. Windows 10 IoT Core utilizes the rich, extensible Universal Windows Platform (UWP) API for building great solutions.  

Windows 10 IoT Core brings the power of Windows to your device and makes it easy to integrate richer experiences with your devices such as natural user interfaces, searching, online storage and cloud based services

Check this... Microsoft projects

Some unknown facts for you:

1. The majority of people (87%) have not heard of the term ‘Internet of Things’.
2. ATMs are considered some of the first IoT objects, and went online as far back as 1974.
3. some predict that by 2020, the number of Internet-connected things will reach or even exceed 50 billion. Now its around 4.9 billion.
4. The IoT will connect many of the devices we have in our homes, from smart thermostats to smart fridges. Companies like Google GOOGL +2.43% and Samsung understand this. Google bought smart thermostat maker, Nest Labs, for $3.2 billion, and Samsung purchased connected home company SmartThings for $200 million.
5. Having a connected kitchen could save the food and beverage industry as much as15% annually.

IoT will grow beyond your imagination in next 5 years. Get on with it ! This is not a hype !

Yes, you would have heard about Raspberry pi Zero, BeagleBone black and now BBC-Microbit and more coming up in the list of super cheap computers !!

High quality Solar Light

"A finely designed inflatable Solar lamp." -- It's Luci

Features:

• Light weight.
• Inflatable.
• Completely Solar.
• Get up to 12 hours of light.
• Battery status indicator

It comes in different variants, such as,

1. Luci Original
2. Luci Color
3. Luci Lux
4. Luci EMRG
5. Luci Outdoor

Mpowerd Luci Original Inflatable Solar Lantern: Amazon.in: Home & Kitchen

WiFi range extender, You may need this !

 I had to share a network between 2 apartments not far apart. 

I decided to build this antenna "at no cost" by connecting it to one of the two access points.

Things Needed

• 50 inches of 7 gauge or thicker copper wire
• Wire cutters
• 2 Needle-nose pliers
• Copper wire mesh 6 inches by 4 inches

Step 1

Cut two lengths of copper wire to 6 inches long and two lengths of wire to 4 inches long. Cut six more lengths of wire to 5 inches long.

Step 2

Lay the two 6-inch pieces parallel to each other, 4 inches apart. Lay a 4-inch piece on each side to create a rectangle of copper wire.

Step 3

Connect the corners of the rectangle by twisting the two ends of wire together with two turns of your wrist. Repeat for all four corners.

Step 4

Connect four pieces of 5-inch wire equidistant from each other parallel to the short sides of the rectangle. Bend one-half inch of the wire around each of the long sides of the rectangle and then twist the wire to hold it in place. Repeat for all four pieces.

Step 5

Bend a loop in the middle of the remaining 5 inch pieces that just fits around the antenna of your Wi-Fi router. Using two sets of pliers, loop the wire once around the antenna, so that it can just barely slip off the end. Repeat for both wires.

Step 6

Curve the rectangle so that it forms an arc with the short-side wires that are one in from the left and the right the same width apart as your loop wires. Bend and twist the ends of one of the loop wires over short-side wires 1 inch from the top of the rectangle on both sides. Repeat with the remaining loop wire 1 inch from the bottom of the rectangle.

Step 7

Wrap copper wire mesh over the back side of the arced rectangle. Slide the loops over the antenna and point the dish in the direction you want to boost the signal.

Or you can buy any one of the below.

Amazon vs Google vs Microsoft in Cloud

The competition is heating up in the public cloud space as vendors regularly drop prices and offer new features. In this article, we will shine a light on the competition between the three giants of the cloud: Amazon Web Services(AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft’s Azure.  While AWS has a significant head start on the others, Google and Microsoft are far from out of the race. They’ve both got the power, money, technology, and marketing to attract individual and enterprise customers. Let’s compare these three big players by service category: compute, storage, networking, and pricing structure.

Computing

AWS’s EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) provides Amazon’s core compute service, allowing users to configure virtual machines using either pre-configured or custom AMIs (machine images). You select the size, power, memory capacity, and number of VMs and choose from among different regions and availability zones within which to launch. EC2 also allows load balancing (ELB) and auto scaling. ELB distributes loads across instances for better performance, and auto scaling allow users to automatically scale available EC2 capacity up or down.

In 2012, Google introduced their computing cloud service: Google Compute Engine (GCE). Google Compute Engine lets users launch virtual machines, much like AWS, into regions and availability groups. However GCE didn’t become available for everyone until 2013.  Since then Google has added its own enhancements, like load balancing, extended support for Operating Systems, live migration of VMs, faster persistent disks, and instances with more cores.

Also in 2012, Microsoft introduced their compute service as a preview, but didn’t make it generally available until May 2013.  Azure users choose a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk), which is equivalent to Amazon’s AMI, to create a VM. A VHD can be either predefined by Microsoft, by third parties, or be user-defined. With each VM, you need to specify the number of cores and amount of memory.

Storage and databases

AWS provides ephemeral (temporary) storage that is allocated once an instance is started and is destroyed when the instance is terminated. It provides Block Storage that is equivalent to hard disks, in that it can either be attached to any instance or kept separate. AWS also offers object storage with their S3 Service, and archiving services with Glacier. AWS fully supports relational and NoSQL databases and Big Data.

Google’s Cloud Platform similarly provides both temporary storage and persistent disks. For Object storage, GCP has Google Cloud Storage. GCP supports relational DBs through Google Cloud SQL. Technologies pioneered by Google, like Big Query, Big Table, and Hadoop, are naturally fully supported. Google’s Nearline offers archiving as cheap as Glacier, but with virtually no latency on recovery.

Azure uses temporary storage (D drive) and Page Blobs (Microsoft’s Block Storage option) for VM-based volumes. Block Blobs and Files serve for Object Storage. Azure supports both relational and NoSQL databases, and Big Data, through Windows Azure Table and HDInsight.

Pricing

AWS charges customers by rounding up the number of hours used, so the minimum use is one hour. AWS instances can be purchased using any one of three models:

• on demand – customers pay for what they use without any upfront cost
• reserved – customers reserve instances for 1 or 3 years with an upfront cost that is based on the utilization
• spot – customers bid for the extra capacity available

GCP charges for instances by rounding up the number of minutes used, with a minimum of 10 minutes. Google recently announced new sustained-use pricing for compute services that will offer a simpler and more flexible approach to AWS’s reserved instances. Sustained-use pricing will discount the on-demand baseline hourly rate automatically as a particular instance is used for a larger percentage of the month.

Azure charges customers by rounding up the number of minutes used for on demand. Azure also offers short-term commitments with discounts.

THE VERDICT

If you have a lot of cloud knowledge in-house, no public cloud can compare to the offerings of AWS. If you’re mostly in need of PaaS, you want seamless hybrid cloud, and you’re already using a lot of Microsoft services, go with Azure. If you’re a major data analyzer, Google’s data storage and analytics tools are simply fantastic.

• Amazon and Azure provide the lowest latency, while Google provides the highest throughput, for both uploads and downloads. This means that AWS and Azure excel for smaller files, while GCE excels for larger files, and this highlights the importance of benchmarking with data that are comparable in size to what your application uses.
• The substantial limitations on AWS EC2 network throughput must be taken into consideration when designing high-speed data processing systems.
• Google's unique multi-region buckets keep costs down when working with data from multiple datacenters in the same region (e.g. continent).
• Object storage scales automatically to provide high aggregate throughput.
• Finally, note that I’m only showing data from API access (which is the exact same boto code for AWS and Google), and I have unsurprisingly observed substantial differences in performance from different clients (the vendor-specific CLIs, node.js API package, cURL’ing URLs, etc.).