Quake hits northwest China; 75 dead

(CNN) — Rescue teams are scrambling to reach the site of Monday morning’s strong and shallow earthquake in northwest China that has killed at least 75 people, according to state media.
Another 584 people were injured in the quake which tore through Gansu Province, state media reported.
The quake hit along the border of two counties — Min and Zhang — at around 7:45 a.m. local time, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Emergency services are converging on the area, including the Red Cross Society of China, which is sending 200 tents and other supplies to shelter and sustain those left without homes.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged crews to prioritize the rescue of survivors and minimize casualties.
The original quake and powerful aftershocks caused roofs to collapse, cut telecommunications lines and damaged a major highway linking the provincial capital of Lanzhou to the south, according to the China Daily newspaper.
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More than 300 armed police troops and 64 heavy machines have been dispatched to repair National Highway No. 212, the paper reported. Train services in the area have also been suspended.
Rescue efforts are expected to be hampered by heavy rain that’s soaked the region in recent weeks. More rain is forecast and experts have warned about potential landslides.
According to the Gansu Provincial Seismological Bureau, the quake registered a magnitude of 6.6, however the U.S. Geological Survey said it was a 5.9-magnitude tremor, which struck at the relatively shallow depth of about half a mile (1 kilometer).
The epicenter was eight miles (13 kilometers) east of Chabu and 110 miles (177 kilometers) south-southeast of Lanzhou, the USGS said.
Tremors were still being felt from the quake, Xinhua said, quoting sources within the Min County government. Locals said buildings and trees shook for about a minute.
Residents within the earthquake zone took to Weibo — China’s version of Twitter — soon after to describe how the earth shook.
“This morning at 7:40 I was brushing my teeth, all of a sudden everything shook for a few moments, I thought I didn’t get enough sleep last night and was feeling dizzy,” @wyyy wrote. “Turns out it was an earthquake, sigh, seems that with the huge rain downpour outside, we really don’t know how much longer this planet is going to let us live here.”
Another, @dengdjianjyany, said: “Gansu earthquake. So many natural disasters in so short a time, another flood, another landslide, another earthquake, another something. And it’s not finished, my God ~ is there any safe place left? Wish everybody a life of peace”
@Heidiping: “Another earthquake, life really is fragile, survivors, be at peace!”

 

Annakodi – Review

It was a rather disappointing term, as it took five years and further delay for director Bharathiraja to deliver his next bout of creativity. As he quotes often, across the length and breadth of Tamil Nadu, many of the small towns and villages have a tale of their own, narrating their part of the world with staunch beliefs, faith and customary practices. Known to boldly highlight that which is often either taken for granted or shied away from, Bharathiraja usually ensures that he has left no stone unturned, in each of his movie. This is what guaranteed him six national awards, for his classic yesteryear entertainers.

A journey that began in ’16 Vayathinile’, awarded him a choice award right in his debut. Proceeding on a journey through ‘Kizhake Pogum Rail’, ‘Sigappu Rojakal’, ‘Nizhalgal’, ‘Oru Kaidhiyin Diary’, ‘Tik Tik Tik’ and many more, Bharathiraja became a brand name. With National Award winning films like ‘Mudhal Mariyadhai’ and ‘Karuthamma’, he brought out the best that Kollywood can deliver. Among most of his movies, there has been a fine thread of similarity, that brings out one of the deadliest plague of the society – caste bias and discrimination. Expressed vividly in ‘Alaigal Oivathillai’ and ‘Karuthamma’, the typical Bharathiraja touch has been about love that blooms and flourishes beyond societal stereotypes like caste, creed and money – which, disappointingly, falls emotionless and flat in ‘Annakodi’.

First there was speculation about the name, then the release date and then the movie itself; all this had only increased the expectations movie, for when there is a controversy, there’s bound to a success story. Unfortunately, none of that marketing worked the trick here. First things first – the film is period set, probably close to independence, which is evident in the police’s half pants. Two small villages that nurture the hero and heroine each, and as predictable as it can get, the two populus are eternally at customary loggerheads. And there begins the saga of love. Starting off at a mutual taunting misunderstanding, as it most often happens, the two fall madly in love with one another. There is a bad yet influential man in the village, who composes the rest of the story, and who gets who in the end, is ultimately all ‘Annakodi’ is about. Well, easier said than done.

Bharathiraja has always defined love in new and out-of-the-box the box explanations. This one is also an off-beat portrayal of how the lead pair influence the life of one another and change their lives forever. Set in the backdrop of draught stricken village that thrives on farmer and shepherd population, forms an easy excuse for the love birds to join hands stealthily every now and then. This delivers a definite earthen feeling, where the director scores high, as always. Add to this, there are a lot more twists in the story, than you can ever imagine. However, despite all this, it is quite monotonous.

The second half is quite a balm, but not sure whether it is because there is a much needed break in between, or because there is actually more stuff per scene than the former. The last hour brings out most of what was intended to be a part of the movie – it ranges between love, separation, angst and anger. Going further, the movie gets highly predictable at every frame, and the story is no suspense. As if caught up in a drama competition, running out of time, climax is quite sudden, but comes as an entertaining relief.

On the other hand, everyone is advancing and becoming up to date, and our dear director is no exception to the rule. The bad side of the advancement is exposure and raw details, a glimpse of which was served in the teasers. Although the government cleared the film with U/A at the Censor Board, no adult may want the a child watching it, even under their supervision. Since it is a big director’s movie, Lakshman Narayan, Karthika and Manoj are to get a big break, but their contribution on this regard seems too little. GV Prakash has done a good job with regard to background score and music, and justifies the movie to the best extent possible, from his side of work. Picture is crystal clear, so make up could have taken care of, a little better. If the teaser made you squirm in your seat, then please be informed that it was after all only the teaser, while the whole movie lies ahead of it.

In all, the movie is a hard core love struggle, the burden of which reaches the audience by all means. After all the painful wait and suspense about the movie, the output is not quite satiating; and it is disappointing that this comes from one of the most sought after directors. To savour your earthen tastes, and for your love for the director, you can try and sit through the two hours odd long story once.

Verdict: You may like it for Bharathiraja

Rating: 1.75/5

Facebook introduces video on Instagram

NEW YORK: Facebook is adding video to its popular photo-sharing app Instagram, following in the heels of Twitter’s growing video-sharing app, Vine.

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom said on Thursday that users will be able to record and share 15-second clips by tapping a video icon in the app. They can also apply filters to videos to add contrast, make them black and white or different hues.

“This is the same Instagram we all know and love but it moves,” he said at an event held at Facebook’s Menlo Park, California, headquarters.

Vine, which launched in January, has 13 million users and lets people create and share 6-second video clips. Instagram has 100 million users, up from 20 million when Facebook bought the company more than a year ago. If users like it, Facebook’s move could propel mobile video sharing into the mainstream.

To use the video feature, Instagram users can tap on the same camera icon they use to snap photos. A new video camera icon will appear on the right side. Tap it and a screen with a red video button will let you record clips of sunsets, kids running in parks or co-workers staring at their computer screens.

The app will record as long as your finger is on the red button or for 15 seconds, whichever comes first. Not unlike Vine, taking your finger off the button will stop the recording, allowing you to shoot the scene from a different angle or record something else altogether. Once you have 15 seconds of footage, you can play it from the beginning and post it on Instagram to share with others.

Given Vine’s popularity, “it is perhaps more surprising that Facebook has not introduced video for Instagram sooner. There is no doubt Twitter will move quickly to up the ante on Vine and this could undercut Facebook’s efforts with video on Instagram,” said Eden Zoller, principal consumer analyst at Ovum, a technology research firm.

Step-by-Step guide to Facebook Conversion Tracking

Step 1: Once you log in to your ‘Ads Manager’ tab, click on the Conversion Tracking button on the left side bar.

Step 2: Then click on the ‘Create Conversion Pixel’ tab to begin the process.

Step 3: You will be directed to this pop-up, which will ask you for a:

1. Name: An appropriate name will help you remember what you are tracking. (Example: Lead Generation – GATE Ad)

2. Category: This will help you decide the type of action that you want to track on your site. You can choose from the following:

1. Checkouts

2. Registrations

3. Leads

4. Key Page Views

5. Adds to Cart

6. Other Website Conversions

(For the purpose of this example, we have selected ‘Leads’).

Step 4: You will be able to see a pop-up window with a JavaScript code. This is the code that you will have to add to the page where the conversion will happen. This will let you track the conversions back to ads which you are running on Facebook.

The code should be placed on the page that a user will finally see when the transaction is complete.

Here is the tricky part. The code should not go on all pages. For that matter, it should not even go to the landing page of your product. The code should be placed on the page that a user will finally see when the transaction is complete.

For Example: If you want to track when students register for your GATE coaching, paste the code on the registration confirmation page/thank you page and not on the form that they need to submit.

How do you confirm that your conversion is working properly?

1. Check that the javascript snippet has been placed on the correct conversion page. Visit the page where the pixel has been embedded, right click and go to ‘View Page Source’ to find the pixel. The code should have the tag of the HTML. See image below.

2. Check that Facebook is receiving the conversion events from your website. Go to the conversion tracking tab in your Ads Manager account. There you will see a list of the conversion tracking pixels that you have created. If the conversion tracking pixel has been successfully implemented and a conversion event has been recorded, it will be reflected in the Pixel Status column. If the status shows active, it means that the page which contains the pixel has been viewed by users. If it shows inactive, it means that over the last 24 hours, the page with the pixel has not been viewed.

3.Later, when you  create your Facebook ad , you need to check the track conversions box under the campaign, pricing and schedule tab to enable tracking.

How to create Facebook Ads in 8 Steps

Like Facebook says it, “Over 1 billion people. We’ll help you reach the right ones.”

The ultimate goal for any marketer/business owner is to convert his leads into customers. However, for leads to convert, you need to get hold of them first, right? Running ads on social media biggie, Facebook is a time tested approach to grab attention and get more leads for your business.

There are multiple ways to run ads/promoted posts on Facebook. Today, I will discuss how to create Facebook ads in 8 simple steps. Let us take the example of a GATE coaching institute trying to capture student leads through Facebook. For those of you who don’t know, GATE stands for Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering, and is an all India examination for Engineering in MSc, MTech and PhD programmes. (This article is relevant for Facebook beginners).

Here is how to create Facebook ads

Step 1 – Logging into Facebook

Log into your Facebook account using your personal or business profile and go to the ‘Advertise’ page. You will get this in the drop down menu next to the settings button on your home page.

Step 2 – Start Creating Your Ad

You will be led to this page as shown below. Click on the “Create an Ad” tab to begin the process of creating an ad for Facebook.

Step 3 – Select Facebook Page/Landing Page to Promote 

The words, ‘What do you want to advertise?’ in the next section are pretty much comprehensible. This is where you choose the place, page, app or event that you would like to promote. For example: Here we are advertising a page which is dedicated toward GATE coaching.You can also add your own URL or landing page. Check out how you can create a Facebook Landing Page for lead capture.

Step 4 – Set the Ad Objective

Your next step is named, ‘What would you like to do?’ Here you can choose to:

1. Get more page likes: Drive more Facebook users to your ad/page.
2. Promote page posts: Promote a particular post out of all the posts that you have made on your page, ex. a blog post, picture etc. This will not only enhance your reach, but also your chances to be placed in news feeds – the center column of your home page.
3. See advanced options: Drive traffic to your website. You can configure your advanced creative and pricing options. This is so intricate that you can also bid for the number of clicks on a particular post. (Remember, each category is different and offers different features to help you target your audience better.)

Since our main goal here is to collect leads and get better control over our ads, we will opt for the ‘See Advanced Options’. 

Step 5 – Create the Ad copy 

You begin designing ‘Your ad’ here. FB ads are simple, comprising 25 character headline and a 90 character description. You can also add a thumbnail photograph measuring 100 pixels x 72 pixels here. Make sure to keep it very relevant for your audience. For instance, if you are a GATE institute, this would be a good ad copy:

Looking for Best Coaching for GATE? Join Now – 1 Week Free Trial Period!

You can then set the landing page of the ad. For instance, you can choose to land the visitors on your Facebook Page’s timeline, or a lead capture page (when you are aiming at lead capture, it is recommended that you set a landing page, instead of directing people to the timeline). Here’s how you can create one and the image on your right shows how your ad will look.

*Do go through these guidelines before you create your ad copy.*

Step 6 – Choose your Audience

Next, you narrow down your target audience under the ‘Choose your audience’ category. Before we begin, in the image shown below, see the number of people under ‘Audience’ section before the filters have been set.

This is the most important step, as this is where you choose your perfect target.

1. Location: You can micro target by location (state/city/zip code). Ex: Students on Facebook giving GATE ‘14 exams will be India specific only. If you are a physical institute based in Bangalore, you might want to choose by city: Bangalore, Nelamangala, Hosur etc.
2. Age: You can also target by age. Ex: GATE will mostly include students who have completed/ pursuing their B.Tech – 22-24 years.
3. Gender: You can also choose gender, based on the kind of ad you are advertising. Here, since we are talking about exam specific ads, gender will be categorized as ‘All’.
4. Precise Interests: Under the ‘Precise Interests’ section, you can choose interests that you are looking for in your target audience. In this case, your interests can be Engineering, IIT, studies etc. Once you have entered precise interest, you don’t have to choose the broader interest.

If you have opted for the ‘Advanced options’ under the ad category, you can also detail down to relationship status, languages spoken, college attended and workplace.  By the process of trial and error, you can boil down your audience from a whopping 167 million users in the US to as few as 1 lakh people in India or a particular city.

Now, take a look at the image shown below which shows the targeted audience once the filters have been set.

Step 7 – Campaign Pricing and Schedule Options

This step is ‘Campaign, Pricing and Schedule’ for your Facebook ad.

1. Choose the currency, country and time zone in which you are placing your ad.
2. The ‘New Campaign Name’ should be distinct and definite.
3. Next, choose how much you are willing to spend for your ad campaign. You can choose from a daily budget or a lump sum amount that you will spend for as long as the ad runs. (Payments on Facebook are either pay-per-click – you pay every time someone clicks your ad or per thousand impressions – you pay every time 1000 people see your ad.) We have opted for the Pay-per-click payment service.

Step 8 – Review your Ad

Once you ‘Review your ad’, you will be able to see the details of your ads that you have fed and how your ad will look. Next, you will be prompted to make payments for your ad. You can use a credit/debit card, PayPal or Facebook ad coupon.

Facebook will hold your ad for review for a minimum of 24 hours. Your ad will either appear in news feeds or in the right column of any page in search results.Later, you can use the ‘Ads Manager tool’ to keep track of your ads’ progress.

So, this is how to create a Facebook ad: Basic News-feed ad. Be creative, think outside the box and you are good to go. For further queries, please do visit Facebook’s Help Centre or leave us a comment and we will get back to you ASAP.

 

Important security bulletin for WordPress users

A large distributed brute force attack against WordPress websites is understood to be occurring recently across the internet. A large botnet with thousands of attacking servers is attempting to log in by cycling through different usernames and passwords to get into the WordPress Admin dashboard. This is a global attack which is affecting thousands of servers globally.

To ensure that your websites are secure and safeguarded from this attack, we recommend the following steps to be implemented immediately if you are using WordPress:

1) Update your WordPress installation to the latest available version. If you have any plugins and themes installed under WordPress, please make sure that you update them to the latest version as well.

2) Use a strong alphanumeric password for your WordPress Admin login. You can use a password generator like http://www.strongpasswordgenerator.com

3) Password protect the WordPress admin directory (wp-admin) so that it will have an additional protection. You can do that through cPanel > Security > Password Protect Directories

Note: If it breaks the Ajax functionality or shows 404 errors in the dashboard, you may have to add the following in .htaccess file:
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
Satisfy any

4) If you have a static IP address, you can lock down the WordPress Admin access using .htaccess file with the following rules:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/wp-login\.php(.*)$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/wp-admin$
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^72\.72\.72\.72$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^72\.72\.72\.73$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^72\.72\.72\.74$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ – [R=403,L]

(Replace 72.72.72.72, 72.72.72.73, 72.72.72.74 with your actual PC IPs)

5) Install security plugins like:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/limit-login-attempts/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/better-wp-security/

 

WordPress Tips and Tricks

I have some Wp tips and tricks

• When you do a return in a post or page, you always get a double space. If you want it single, simply press on your keyboard.
• Creating a powerful password for your admin login is the first step in making your site more secure. The second is to change that password monthly.
• To get your readers to click through to your full post, stop it at exactly the spot where they will be most curious to read the next sentence. Every post has such a spot (or it should). To take advantage, stop the post there and insert the “read more” tag.
• If you have unused plugins or themes installed, and have not activated, delete them. This greatly beefs up site security.
• If you are looking for a WordPress developer to create your site, your first question should be: “Do you know php?” If they claim to be a developer (not a designer), but their answer is no,  run!
• Don’t use a widget because it’s cool and shiny. Use it because it is useful to your reader.
• Whether it’s your WordPress blog or website, make sure that people are able to contact you. Don’t hide your contact info in size two font in the footer of the page. Make a separate, highly visible contact page.
• Remember, it’s WordPress. Capital W, capital P, no space between. If you land on a site and they call themselves a WordPress expert, but spell the name wrong, beware.
• When inserting a photo into your post or page, don’t forget the alt (alternate) tag. This is what Google looks for when it’s indexing images on the web and the big G doesn’t like a site with alt tags missing.
• If you have chosen to block search engines in your privacy setting during the construction of your blog or website, remember to turn it back on when you go live. Because that little sucker blocks them good.
• Keeping your plugins up-to-date is just as important as keeping your WordPress version up-to-date.
• Do you want to change your homepage to a static page rather than your blog? Can’t figure out what to do? Create a page for your homepage and one for your blog. Then go to settings >reading and change the settings on the “front page displays.”
• If you are self-hosted, back up your database and all your files regularly. Hear that? Back up, back up!
• Think about the theme you choose for your blog or website. Does it meet all your needs? Does it allow your site to grow as your business grows? Because if you decide to switch themes down the road, chances are it’s not a simple one-click process.
• If you fly off the handle or rant in a blog post, remember, the moment you hit that publish button, it appears on the web and to your RSS subscribers. If you are angry when you write a post, it’s always best to save it as a draft and revisit it later for one last look.
• Use a photo to provoke emotions in your blog post. Not only will you attract more readers, but they will remember your content longer.
• If you have only one row of tools when you are creating a page or post, simply click on the far right button, “show kitchen sink,” and you will get a whole second row of tools.
• If you are still using the default “admin” for your user name, it’s time to get rid of it. Create a new one, then delete the old one, assigning all posts and pages to your new user name. Otherwise you are giving hackers 50% of your login info.
• If you cannot find an option on your edit post or page window, check the tab “screen options” in the upper right corner. That feature may be hidden.
• To expand your editor window, grab the lower right, ridged corner and drag it.
• Be careful when you underline text. Readers still have a habit of thinking any underlined text is a link.
• Remember to turn off your comments on static pages. No one wants to comment on your about or contact page.
• Remove or replace the default blog tagline under your general settings. Otherwise, people will see that generic message that says, “Just Another WordPress Site.”
• And lastly, don’t be taken in by over-promises.  Like most worthwhile things, WordPress has a learning curve.

Export html to ms excel file in php

In this article,I will explain how to export html to excel(.xls) file. we are going to export an HTML table (or any html data) to a MS Excel document as it is displayed on the HTML page.
it is very easy to export HTML data to excel in PHP. Lets see Below code

<!–?php

if(isset($_POST[‘excel’]) && $_POST[‘excel’])

{

# Download Excel (.xls) File…

header(‘Content-Type: application/force-download’);

header(‘Content-disposition: attachment; filename=ExportHtmlToExcel.xls’);

header(“Pragma: “);

header(“Cache-Control: “);

echo $_POST[‘excel’];

exit();

}

?>

<html>

<head>

<script>

function getHtmlData()

{

$(“#excel”).val(‘<table border=”1″>’+$(“#info”).clone().html()+'</table>’);

return true;

}

</script>

</head>

<title>Export HTML to Excel in PHP</title>

// <![CDATA[
src=’http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js’&gt;
// ]]>

</head>

<body>

<form method=”post” onSubmit=”javascript:return getHtmlData()”>

<table border=”1″ id=”info”>

<tr>

<th>First Name : </th>

Last Name :

</tr>

<tr>

Test First Name

<td>Test Last Name</td>

</tr>

</table>

<input type=”hidden” id=”excel” name=”excel” value=””>

<br><br>

<input type=”submit” value=”Export HTML to Excel”>

</form>

</body>

</html>

 

Today RAJINI’S BIRTHDAY 12-12-12

English: Rajinikanth at the audio release of Enthiran (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Superstar Rajinikanth celebrates his 60th birthday today and he will be spending the day with his family. Rajini’s birthday is no less than a festival for his fans the world over.

It is reported that his family and close friends have organized a Shashitabadapoorthi puja (60th birthday celebrations) at the famous Tirukkadiyur temple near Tiruchi. However, it should come to no one’s surprise that Rajini’s fans will be lining up for special poojas and welfare activities for their favourite idol.

Shivaji Rao Gaekwad was on December 12, 1949 and had very humble beginnings. He served as a ticket collector in a local shuttle bus in Bangalore when he was discovered by the legendary K. Balachander who renamed him Rajinikanth.

The year has been exceptional for Rajini. Breaking all box office records Endhiran has emerged as the biggest hit ever. There have also been two new additions to his family. Daughter Aishwarya Rajinikanth, who is married to actor Dhanush gave birth to a baby boy and his other daughter Soundarya Rajinikanth got married to industrialist Ashwin Kumar.

selvabalaji.wordpress.com  wishes Rajinikanth a very happy birthday!

Related articles

• SUPERSTAR RAJINIKANTH – For the Day We Were Waiting 12.12.12 (ktrmurali.wordpress.com)
• Super Star is his First Name: Happy Birthday Rajinikanth (kanaamedia.com)
• ‘Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography’ released next week (digitalspy.co.uk)
• It was a small role, but people would remember him (thehindu.com)
• Thumbing through the superstar’s life (thehindu.com)

 

Watch Thuppakki Movie Online HQ (youtube)

Vijay’s Thuppaki Review – First Day First Show Report

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One of the key reasons for Thuppaki’s sky high expectations is because the movie marks the beginning of Vijay’s strategy to working with top rung directors (barring Shankar’s Nanban which was a faithful remake of 3 Idiots). This is probably the best line-up of crew members and technicians for a Vijay movie. On the casting side, Kajal Aggarwal, Vidyut, Sathyan, Jayaram have provided the required support for Vijay to showcase his talent.  Does the script keep you engaged throughout the running time of 2 hour 45 minutes? Will Thuppaki uplift the festive mood this Diwali? Definitely, Yes.

The story opens in Mumbai with a bomb blast in a public bus. Jagdish (Vijay) is on a mission to find the terrorist gang and people behind the blast. There are twists and unexpected turns along the way. The story has enough ammo to fire up Vijay’s fan base.

Thuppakki is Vijay; Vijay is Thuppakki

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Vijay has carried the movie from start to finish with his self-assured confidence and trade-mark style. The script makes frequent switch-overs from intense sleeper cell scenes to commercial love/comedy scenes. Vijay was able to make some bumpy transitions look convincing with his acting abilities. As always, Vijay dances effortlessly and comedy comes to him naturally. Vijay’s costumes, pleasant looks and mischievous expressions will surely win him more female fans. Vijay looks fit and younger in his toned muscular physique.

Story, Direction and Screenplay

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AR Murugadoss’ engaging story is narrated in gray tones balanced with commercially colourful compromises. The movie may have minor similarities to Ramana which has worked out well again. Murugadoss has done his homework by consulting ex-CBI chief Karthikeyan and the details are blended in nicely while dumbing it down for audience. AR Murugadoss has intentionally slowed down the pacing and narration in critical scenes (e.g., Hospital security chief conversation in the terrace) to get the message across. The dialogues about common people’s (un)willingness to put their life at risk to fight terrorism are well written and delivered by Vijay. Also, the hero putting his sister in a high-risk operation provides the impetus and emotional connect with the audience.

It is interesting to note that the villain (Vidyut) tracks down the hero instead of other way around, which is usually seen. Another aspect which is told subtlely is Vijay’s undercover act passing off as a common man similar to the way terrorist sleeper cells operate. Vijay’s exterminating the sleeper cell operations in Mumbai is not revealed to his lover, family or others (except his cop friend Sathyan). This aspect could have been underlined a bit for additional impact and stronger appreciation for Jagdish’s character.

The love/comedy scenes and songs definitely stick out like sore thumb since they are not integrated well with the story line. It is understandable why AR Murugadoss had to make these compromises. We are pointing this out without really complaining since such intrusions have become essential to satisfy the fan base and common audience with diverse set of expectations.

Highlights 

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• Stylish portrayal of Vijay in anti-terrorism operations have a perfect closure with mass elements. For instance, scenes such as simultaneous execution of 12-for-12 sleeper cell killings at precisely the same minute, sister rescue scenes with sniffer dog, and the final scene where he symbolically blows up the ship with his hand gesture and subsequent punch dialogue before villain killing are sure treats for fans.
• AR Murugadoss seems to have taken a tip from his association with Aamir Khan in Ghajini Hindi remake. Upon Aamir’s insistence, some emotional scenes involving Asin’s memory were added after climax action sequences in Hindi version. AR Murugadoss has used similar finish in Thuppakki giving a nice emotional touch and meaning to the movie by extolling the virtues of army.
• Kajal has done her role exceptionally well in perking up the lighter moments with her expressions, dance moves in songs and chirpy love scenes laced with humour. Kajal has good scope in both “Antarctica” song (interesting concept) and “Alaika Laika” (showcasing her dance moves). Kajal’s presence enlivens the scenes and songs for people looking for relief from action scenes.
• Santhosh Sivan‘s Cinematography and Sreekar Prasad‘s editing keep the narration tight despite relatively long running time. The candid capture of Mumbai adds to the style and character of the city. Santosh’s fast working style is critical to the successful shooting of scenes in real locations in Mumbai. Harris scores big in the final minutes with his song (“Poi Varavaa“) dedicated to army jawans which is sure to leave a lump in your throat. Harris’ BGM keeps up the pace and makes the operations look convincing with his theme track.

What could have been better?

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• Song picturizations look low-budget. Almost 4 out of 5 songs solely rely on Vijay’s dance moves, which gets a bit repetitive for general public. AR Murugadoss and Santhosh Sivan have pulled out some of the old tricks of picturizing the songs in big stadiums, by using bright incandescent lights in the background to make it look richer. Vijay’s introduction song “Kutti Puli Kootam” and opening fight scenes are speed breakers right after the word “go”.
• Screenplay could have been tighter. Even though the individual scenes were riveting, the bigger purpose required to latch the audience interest lacks full conviction. The objective of killing the head of sleeper-cell (Vidyut) lacks macro-connection resulting in lack of depth for Vijay vs Vidyut’s clash. Some of the lengthy climax fight sequences in the ship could have been trimmed. The final 10+ minutes of man-to-man combat scenes with Vidyut led to some chatter among audience.

Bottomline

---

With right promotions and word of mouth reaching out to neutral and family audience, Thuppakki is well positioned to get tagged along with Ghilli and  Pokiri.

Reviewer Rating – 

 

Login with Google Account OAuth

We covered almost all the Open Authentication (OAuth) login systems for Facebook, Twitter, Google plus and Instagram, but unfortunately I missed most important Goolge Open Authentication login. Today I want explain how to implement this for your web project, this script is very quick and sure it helps you to increase your web project registrations.

Database
Sample database design

CREATE TABLE users
(
id INT PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
email VARCHAR(50) UNIQUE,
fullname VARCHAR(100),
firstname VARCHAR(50),
lastname VARCHAR(50),
google_id VARCHAR(50),
gender VARCHAR(10),
dob VARCHAR(15),
profile_image TEXT,
gpluslink TEXT
)

Step 1: Domain Registration
Add or register your domain at click here.

Step 2: Ownership verification
Verify your domain ownership with HTML file upload or including META tag.

Step 3: OAuth Keys
Google will provide you OAuth consumer key and OAuth consumer secret key.

Step 4: Google APIConsole
Create client ID OAuth Console here.

Step 5:
Create client ID.

Step 6
Here the application OAuth client ID and client secret.

config.php

You can find this in srcfolder, here you have to configure application OAuth keys, Consumer keys and redirection callback URL.

// OAuth2 Settings, you can get these keys at https://code.google.com/apis/console Step 6 keys ‘oauth2_client_id’ => ‘App Client ID’, ‘oauth2_client_secret’ => ‘App Client Secret’,’oauth2_redirect_uri’ => ‘http://yoursite.com/gplus/index.php&#8217;,// OAuth1 Settings Step 3  keys.
‘oauth_consumer_key’ => ‘OAuth Consumer Key’,
‘oauth_consumer_secret’ => ‘OAuth Consumer Secret’,

google_login.php
Google plus login system. Just include the file in index.php

<?php require_once ‘src/apiClient.php’; require_once ‘src/contrib/apiOauth2Service.php’; session_start(); $client = new apiClient(); setApplicationName(“Google Account Login”); $oauth2 = new apiOauth2Service($client); if (isset($_GET[‘code’])) { $client->authenticate(); $_SESSION[‘token’] = $client->getAccessToken(); $redirect = ‘http://&#8217; . $_SERVER[‘HTTP_HOST’] . $_SERVER[‘PHP_SELF’]; header(‘Location: ‘ . filter_var($redirect, FILTER_SANITIZE_URL));}if (isset($_SESSION[‘token’])) {
$client->setAccessToken($_SESSION[‘token’]);
}

if (isset($_REQUEST[‘logout’])) {
unset($_SESSION[‘token’]);
unset($_SESSION[‘google_data’]); //Google session data unset
$client->revokeToken();
}

if ($client->getAccessToken())
{
$user = $oauth2->userinfo->get();
$_SESSION[‘google_data’]=$user; // Storing Google User Data in Session
header(“location: home.php”);
$_SESSION[‘token’] = $client->getAccessToken();
} else {
$authUrl = $client->createAuthUrl();
}

if(isset($personMarkup)):
print $personMarkup;
endif

if(isset($authUrl))
{
echo “<a href=”$authUrl”>Google Account Login</a>”;
} else {
echo “Logout“;
}
?>

home.php
Contains PHP code inserting Google plus session details into users table.

<?php
session_start();
include(‘db.php’); //Database Connection.
if (!isset($_SESSION[‘google_data’])) {
// Redirection to application home page.
header(“location: index.php”);
}
else
{
//echo print_r($userdata);
$userdata=$_SESSION[‘google_data’];
$email =$userdata[’email’];
$googleid =$userdata[‘id’];
$fullName =$userdata[‘name’];
$firstName=$userdata[‘given_name’];
$lastName=$userdata[‘family_name’];
$gplusURL=$userdata[‘link’];
$avatar=$userdata[‘picture’];
$gender=$userdata[‘gender’];
$dob=$userdata[‘birthday’];
//Execture query
$sql=mysql_query(“insert into users(email,fullname,firstname,lastname,google_id,gender,dob,profile_image,gpluslink) values(‘$email’,’$fullName’,’$firstName’,’$lastName’,’$googleid’,’$gender’,’$dob’,’$avatar’,’$gplusURL’)”);
?>

db.php
Database Configuration file.

<?php
$mysql_hostname = “localhost”;
$mysql_user = “username”;
$mysql_password = “password”;
$mysql_database = “databasename”;
$bd = mysql_connect($mysql_hostname, $mysql_user, $mysql_password) or die(“Could not connect database”);
mysql_select_db($mysql_database, $bd) or die(“Could not select database”);
?>

Related articles

• PHP OAuth API (phpclasses.org)
• basic_oauth 0.1.5 (pypi.python.org)
• How to store sensitive userdata in mysql using php (stackoverflow.com)

India soon to be the biggest source of PHP developers?

The number of Indian PHP developers has been growing at a large pace in the last few years, when compared to other countries. A few years ago, India was just one of the top ten countries with more PHP developers. Now India is number 2 and is almost surpassing United States, which is still number 1.

While it is difficult to take such broad conclusions seriously based on member statistics of a single community, PHPClasses does have a large user base and can arguably be considered representative. Any article tagged India and software these days attract the usual crap about how Indian developers are the worst and how everybody who outsources to India never does it again. So I was surprised when some of the usually ‘silent’ majority of the client base who continue outsourcing development to India came out to defend their decision.

I did come away with a very interesting statistic; Indian developers have won most awards this year for their contribution against sizable competition. Most Indian developers I meet have difficulty understanding the concept of giving back to the community, so it’s always refreshing to see a number of people doing exactly that.

WP Google Drive Plugin

We are Released New wp google drive plugin to make back of your wordpress site files to google drive.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-google-drive/

Exclusive tutorial on How to Backup your WordPress blog to Google Drive. It is always recommended to backup your WordPress blog, which includes files (themes, plugins etc) and SQL tables (all your blog posts, comments, drafts etc are stored as tables in database).

Whenever your blog is gone (due to unsecured activities or some other reasons), these backups will help to get back your blog. In some cases, using 3rd party plugins and themes can also lead to malfunction of your blog, here also these backups helps to retain back your blog.

Reasons to Backup WordPress Blog to Google Drive

• Its a Google Product and is free to use up-to 5GB.
• Can get access to backups on any of the devices like Smartphones, Tablet PC’s, Laptops etc.
• Backups will be uploaded in quite less time (sometimes based on internet connection also).
• Highly Secure and reliable service, so there wont be any loss of data in the process.
• Backups can be shared with your blog partners (if have any) with a single click of mouse

How to Backup WordPress blog to Google Drive

Download and Install Google Drive for WordPress plugin from official WordPress plugin repository.

Google Drive for WordPress Plugin »

Here is the step-by-step guide that helps to backup your WordPress blog to Google Drive. Brief list of things you have to do in this tutorial:

1. Login to Google API and create a Client ID in it.
2. Authorizing the Plugin by using Client ID and Client Secret.
3. Setting up the plugin frequency to take backups.

• Follow this link Google APIs Console and login to your Google Account.

• Go to “API Access” tab and click on “Create an OAuth 2.0 client ID”

• Follow this link Google APIs Console and login to your Google Account.

• Go to “API Access” tab and click on “Create an OAuth 2.0 client ID”

• In the pop-up window, give a product name and upload logo before clicking on “Next” button.

• By default “Web Application” will be selected and don’t change it.

• In “Your site or hostname” section, click on “More Options” to expand link sections.

• Now, paste the link in the “Backup Settings” page here. Enter domain name in “JavaScripts” origin field.

• Click on “Create Client ID” and you have successfully created a Client ID using Google API Console.

• Copy the Client ID and Client Secret from API dashboard and paste them in “Backup Settings” page.

• You have to authorize the plugin by clicking on “Allow Access” button.

• Allow Access to the Plugin and the entire setup has been successfully installed.

Check Out : WordPress Plugin

How to automatically Backup WordPress blog to Google Drive

• Now, you can configure this plugin further by entering the custom folder ID of your Google Drive.
• Also define the maximum number of backups (use any positive integer in that field).
• Set the frequency of backup and everything will be automatically stored in your Google Drive.

Related articles

• 6 Tips For Hosting WordPress On Rackspace Cloud Sites (rackspace.com)
• 7 WP Plugins For My Content Curation Blog (contentcurationdesktop.com)
• How to Move WordPress Site to New Host: Zero Downtime (shoutmeloud.com)
• WordPress Plugins: The Best of the Best (boldlygoing.com)

Facebook buys facial-recognition startup

Image via CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

Facebook Inc (FB.O) is paying $55 million to $60 million to buy Face.com, according to people familiar with the matter, acquiring the company that provides the facial-recognition technology used by the world’s largest social network to help users identify and tag photos.

The deal bolsters one of Facebook’s most popular features — the sharing and handling of photos — but the use of the startup’s

has spurred concerns about user privacy.

The No. 1 social network will pay cash and stock for Face.com, potentially paying as much as $60 million, two sources with knowledge of the deal said. Media reports in past weeks have pegged the transaction at $80 million to $100 million.

Neither Facebook nor Face.com disclosed terms of the deal, which is expected to close in coming weeks.

Facebook, which will acquire the technology and the employees of the 11-person Israeli company, said in a statement that the deal allows the company to bring a “long-time technology vendor in house.”

Face.com, which has raised nearly $5 million from investors including Russian Web search site Yandex (YNDX.O), launched its first product in 2009. The company makes standalone applications that consumers can use to help them identify photos of themselves and of their friends on Facebook, as well as providing the technology that Facebook has integrated into its service.

Facebook uses the technology to scan a user’s newly uploaded photos, compares faces in the snapshots with previous pictures, then tries to match faces and suggest name tags. When a match is found, Facebook alerts the person uploading the photos and invites them to “tag,” or identify, the person in the photo.

Responding to inquiries from U.S. and European privacy advocates, Facebook last year made it easier for users to opt out of its controversial facial-recognition technology for photographs posted on the website, an effort to address concerns that it had violated consumers’ privacy.

The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions by Facebook in recent months, including the $1 billion acquisition of mobile photo-sharing service Instagram. U.S. antitrust regulators are undertaking an extended review of the Instagram deal, which Facebook expects to close by the end of the year.

Shares of Facebook, which continue to trade below the price at which they were offered during the initial public offering in May, closed Monday’s regular session up 4.7 percent at $31.41.

Related articles

• Facebook buys Face.com facial recognition company (huffingtonpost.com)
• Facebook to buy facial-recognition startup (business.financialpost.com)
• Even bigger Big Brother: Facebook purchases Israeli facial recognition company Face.com (EndtheLie.com)
• Facebook buys facial recognition startup Face.com (venturebeat.com)
• Facebook buys facial-recognition startup (stuff.co.nz)

Microsoft‘s tablet no threat to iPad: analysts

Image via CrunchBase

Microsoft Corp‘s new tablet computers are no threat to Apple Inc‘s iPad, given the lack of enthusiasm among developers to create applications that run on the new Windows operating system, analysts said.

Microsoft introduced its own “Surface” line of tablets on Monday, taking on Apple as well as its own hardware partners including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Hewlett-Packard Co.

“Though pricing details are unclear … Microsoft will need to significantly undercut the iPad to be competitive,” Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said.

The Surface tablet will come in two versions, one running Windows RT, based on the same chip designs that power most tablets, and a higher-performance version running Windows 8 Pro.

“The most important factor in the success of a tablet is its ecosystem. Based on our discussions with developers, we find the lack of enthusiasm concerning,” Misek said.

Misek said he expects Windows 8 tablets to struggle to compete with the iPad, which offers over 225,000 apps, and to a lesser extent with Google Inc‘s Android-based tablets, such as the Galaxy Tab.

Microsoft’s lighter, thinner version of the Surface tablet would compete directly with the iPad, while the second, heavier tablet, aimed at the new generation of lightweight laptops, would compete with larger PC makers.

But selling two versions of the tablet in the same retail channels will confuse consumers, said analysts at Jefferies, Forrester Research and ThinkEquity.

“Choice is a key tenet of Windows, but too much choice is overwhelming for consumers,” Forrester Research said. “Apple gets this, and limits iPad options to connectivity, storage, and black … or white.”

However, a keyboard that doubles up as the tablet cover and aggressive pricing could help Microsoft gain market share, some analysts said.

“The keyboard, a simple accessory, is what makes the device most compelling, as it preserves traditional interface that we believe many users appreciate (and will demand) with the subtlety of a cover, something most users will want anyway,” said Citi analyst Walter Pritchard.

Morgan Stanley’s Adam Holt said the cover keyboard, compatibility with Microsoft Office, integrated USB ports and features optimized for Skype would help Microsoft differentiate itself from other tablet makers.

Microsoft shares edged up 19 cents to $30.03 on Tuesday before the bell. They closed at $29.84 on Monday on the Nasdaq.

Related articles

• Microsoft’s tablet no threat to iPad, analysts say (business.financialpost.com)
• Microsoft Surface no threat to iPad: Analysts (ibnlive.in.com)
• Microsoft’s new Surface tablet will not threaten iPad’s dominance, analysts say (mercurynews.com)
• Microsoft Introduces a Challenger to the iPad (InnovationToronto.com)
• The Surface Tablet is Hopeful, Oxymoronic, & Pitiful (jivingjackalope.com)

Mozilla launches Thimble, a new tool that makes creating a website simple

In 1997, making a website seemed like the simplest thing in the world. Of course, it wasn’t — there was all sorts of HTML code involved, and making a professional-looking site took almost as much work then as it does now. But there were tools available to make it seem easy — Tripod and Geocities had templates and tutorials, and Netscape Navigator had a decent WYSIWYG web creation tool built in.
Fast forward 15 years, and creating a website seems like an endeavor best left to the professionals. But Mozilla, carriers of the old Netscape crown, wants to change that perception with Thimble, a web-creation tool that promises to make the act of creating a website easier than ever.
Aside from a basic page creation tool, Thimble has a number of interesting tutorials built in to help teach you HTML, and by extension, how to create your own page. One of the tutorials, called Hack a Map, gets you started by showing you some pretty advanced code. But the tutorial isn’t about learning the advanced code, it’s about learning the basic errors that are causing the page at the left to show up incorrectly. Thimble will show you exactly where the website is broken — say, in showing you where a missing HTML tag should go. Even though you’re doing light work, you’re doing that work on a complicated page. The whole process feels far more enjoyable than your usual tutorial, as if you’re learning by doing something important. Even if that something important is a map filled with a Minecraft pig, CatBread, and a triple rainbow.
If you’re curious, you can check out Thimble over at the Mozilla website. And who knows, while playing around with pictures of cats, you might actually wind up learning something.