Credits : Thehindubusinessline

Distinctly different from other digital initiatives, the new e-auction portal, e-RaKAM, launched jointly by the Kolkata-based MSTC Ltd and Central Railside Warehousing Company (CRWC) Ltd, in New Delhi, will not only help farmers get reasonable price for their produce, but also save them the effort of carting the produce to the mandi.

CWRC, a subsidiary of the Central Warehousing Corporation Ltd, will provide logistics support for sellers and buyers in case they need it.

The initiative builds on MSTC’s earlier experience in providing support to farmers in the North-Eastern States to sell their produce in other parts of the country.

“Our office in Guwahati has been helping farmers’ cooperatives in the North-East sell produce like ginger, pineapple, hill grass and black pepper during the past one year,” said MSTC Chairman and Managing Director BB Singh.

Talks with retailers

“We are in talks with fruits and vegetable retailers like Mother Dairy and Grofers and are encouraging them to participate in our e-auction to procure fruits and vegetables from the North-East. Some of them have shown interest,” Singh said. “We are confident that we can eliminate many layers of middlemen through this online auction process and thus help deliver better price to farmers for their produce,” he said.

The challenge, however, is that vendors want the produce to be delivered to their retail shops in different parts of a city or region.

That requires micro-managing of logistics, he said.

For instance, Mother Dairy was keen to bid in an e-auction for pineapples from the North-East, but wanted them delivered at its 150 outlets across Delhi, Singh added.

Other auction plans

Apart from perishable commodities, e-RaKAM plans to get into online auction of other agricultural produce like cereals, pulses and oilseeds. “In fact, our maiden e-auction – which is still to get final approval – was for pulses that are lying in the warehouses of NAFED. NAFED has a total of 20 lakh tonnes of pulses to be sold off. For a start, we have been able to auction a small quantity of pulses,” Singh said. “This is the first-ever widespread e-market platform for Indian farmers, who have been trapped in a vicious cycle of intermediaries and low margin,” said CRWC Managing Director KU Thankachen. Talks were on with various State governments that have shown an interest in transferring a part of their procurement to e-RaKAM, he said.

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Credits : Reseller

Auckland-based inventory management systems developer Unleashed Software has won $7 million of Series C investment from venture capital company Movac.

Unleashed develops software-as-a-service (SaaS) inventory systems for wholesale distributors and manufacturers.

“We have been building our core product and markets for eight years now and the market now feels like it is really starting to embrace cloud based applications,” Unleashed Software CEO Gareth Berry said.

Although there are a large number of capital providers in the Australasian market, Berry said Movac was the best choice due to their deep SaaS knowledge, experience building global high growth companies and alignment with Unleashed’s core values and strategies.

In 2015, Unleashed raised $4.5 million, partly funded by exiisting investor and MYOB founder Craig Winkler.

Unleashed estimates there are over five million wholesaler-distributors and manufacturers that the business could provide the ‘system of record’ to – it currently services customers in over 88 countries.

The funds will go towards developing of the next generation inventory management software and support the global growth of the company.

Movac partner Mark Stuart, who will now join Unleashed’s board, said the company had been following the progress of Unleashed and been impressed with their proven model and strong customer base.

“They have built a great product and sustainable business with very efficient use of capital, and we are looking forward to working with the team to help them achieve their aspirational goals to be the global standard for inventory management,” he said.

Berry said New Zealand and Australian markets have been early adopters of cloud based software solutions, however, Unleashed is also see opportunities in the UK and the US where businesses are starting to migrate and adopt best in breed solutions to run their businesses.

“This presents an amazing opportunity for us, with a substantial amount of growth in our businesses forecast to come from the northern Hemisphere over the next few years,” Berry added.

Credits : Caixinglobal

Apple Inc. said it is working on a fix for its iPhone X smartphones, after reports that their screens are unresponsive when cold, but did not comment on a green line some have reported seeing on the model’s screen.

“We are aware of instances where the iPhone X screen will become temporarily unresponsive to touch after a rapid change to a cold environment. After several seconds the screen will become fully responsive again. This will be addressed in an upcoming software update,” Apple said in a written statement to Caixin.

The response came after many users, including in China, reported the screen malfunction. A Sina Weibo user who goes by the screen name Dongtiangezhu told Caixin that his iPhone X screen once stopped working for two to three seconds when he was in a northern China city where the temperature was between -1 and -2 degrees Celsius.

Some users have also complained about a mysterious green line that runs vertically along one side their iPhone X’s screen, but Apple didn’t respond to Caixin’s request for comment on this matter.

The iPhone X, which was released Nov. 3 and costs 8,388 yuan ($1,263) in China, is Apple’s first handset to feature an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen, which allows a greater contrast ratio and responds more quickly than a conventional liquid crystal display (LCD). But OLEDs are less stable than their LCD counterparts.

Apple has said that all iPhones can operate properly between 0 C and 35 C, and should be stored between -20 C and 45 C.

“Low- or high-temperature conditions might cause the device to change its behavior to regulate its temperature. Using an iOS device in frigid conditions outside of its operating range might temporarily shorten battery life and could cause the device to turn off,” according to Apple’s website.

Other smartphone-makers have set similar temperature ranges. For example, Huawei’s latest model — the Mate 10 — can work properly between 0 C and 35 C, and users have reported that their phones shut down if it is too cold.

In 2016, the news portal of internet giant NetEase Inc. compared the durability of six smartphones, including iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone 5 and models made by Chinese firms Huawei and Xiaomi. It found that iPhone 6 was the first to shut down at 0 C, within 29 minutes, while Huawei’s Mate 8 model consumed the most power at this temperature.

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Credits : Businessworld

Software development, sales, business management and marketing related jobs are currently the most desirable jobs in the Indian job market, as per the employee assessment report by Aspiring Minds.

Aspiring Minds, the global leader in employability assessments, recently released the Skill Map – India, showcasing demand for different job roles and skill sets in India.

Aspiring Minds analyzed more than 10 lakh jobs openings spread across the country and matched them with 90 job skill sets, spanning cognitive and soft skills.

Commenting on the report, Himanshu Aggarwal, CEO &co-Founder, Aspiring Minds said, “Skill Map – India is a system that reports current job and skill demand. As India transitions its demographic dividend to a 21st century workforce, skill mapping is a key in determining where to invest our efforts and capital. The government skill ecosystem including NSDC, state skill missions and rural development efforts, can use this alarming information to choose the right areas to invest their capital and efforts.”

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Credits : Americanmachinist

Symmedia — a big player in factory digitalization — will offer digitalization capabilities to machine tool builder, buyers.

Machine tool developer and manufacturer GF Machining Solutions is buying Symmedia GmbH, a privately-owned software developer that specializes in machine connectivity systems. Connecting machines with security is “the basis of the future development of industrial processes,” according to GF’s statement, in which it also described the acquired company as “a key player in factory digitalization.”

GF Machining Solutions CEO Yves Sera noted that Symmedia will “allow us to speed up and widen the range of the digital solutions we offer to our customers.”

Related: GF Machining Buys Micromachining System Specialist

The value of the purchase was not revealed.

Other machine tool builders and CNC developers are making similar efforts to customize their technologies’ digitalization functions and capabilities. For example, in addition to developing connectivity programming and devices, Mazak is adapting its manufacturing network to take advantage of the Industry 4.0 initiative.

Related: HP and Deloitte Packaging “Digital Transformation” for Manufacturers

GFMS is widely recognized for its high-performance milling machines and electric-discharge machines. Notably, however, last year it acquired Microlution Inc., a Chicago-based developer of micromachining products incorporating milling and laser technologies. Now, it emphasizes that adding Symmedia is a move “in line with its strategy to digitalize its offering.”

Symmedia has 60 employees, and it has developed program software for more than 15,000 machines over 20 years in business.

It will continue to support and develop connectivity solutions for all types and all brands of machines and factory equipment, and GF Machining Solutions will use Symmedia technology to accelerate its digital transformation by offering complete solutions for factory connectivity in industrial environments.

Symmedia will retain its current management and headquarters in Bielefeld, Germany.

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Credits : sitepoint

The easiest way to learn PHP

PHP & MySQL: Novice to Ninja, 6th Edition is a hands-on guide to learning all the tools, principles, and techniques needed to build a professional web application using PHP & MySQL. Comprehensively updated to cover PHP 7 and modern best practice, this highly practical and fun book covers everything from installing PHP and MySQL through to creating a complete online content management system.

• Install PHP & MySQL on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux
• Gain a thorough understanding of PHP syntax
• Master database design principles
• Write robust, maintainable, best practice code
• Build a working content management system (CMS)
• And much more!

This book is suitable for beginner level web developers. No prior PHP experience is needed.

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Credits : Dealstreetasia

The Riverside Company has invested an undisclosed sum in Energy Exemplar, an Australia-based developer of integrated simulation software for electric power, water, gas and renewables, the company said on Tuesday. Along with the investment, Riverside will utilise its global resources and operating team to support the Australian firm’s international expansion. Currently, Energy Exemplar has more than 150 customers in 47 countries and over 90 per cent of its revenue is generated outside Australia. Riverside Partner Steven Spiteri said, it plans to invest in R&D so management can retain and strengthen its competitive edge while boosting sales and marketing efforts in international high-growth markets. Riverside has extensive experience in software investing and it plans to source and integrate complementary add-on acquisitions throughout the hold. “Riverside’s global resources will support Energy Exemplar and PLEXOS in keeping ahead of the curve in a world where simulation and co-optimization of resources across many industries is increasingly important,” said Energy Exemplar’s founder Glenn Drayton. “Their industry experience, operating track record and international capabilities will combine to sustain rapid growth for our company.” As a private equity firm, The Riverside Company has focussed on businesses valued at up to $400 million. It has invested in more than 480 transactions and has over $6 billion in assets under management.

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credits : Infoq

Key Takeaways

• “The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide” was written for all levels of software developers to answer most of the most common questions software developer have, regarding getting starting, getting a job, learning technical skills, succeeding in the workplace and advancing their careers.
• The technical skills a software developer must possess to succeed in today’s software development environment are immense, but fortunately, there are plenty of resources out there to learn them.
• Not all developers should start their own companies, because the risks and lack of stability is not something everyone is comfortable with, but just about all software developers can benefit greatly from working on side projects.
• Today, more than ever in the software development world, teamwork is critically important.
• The best way to advance your career as a software developer is to become useful, by creating value in your team and outside of your team and to learn how to build a personal brand and market yourself.

The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide answers questions that new and experienced developers often have in advancing their careers. Topics covered vary from learning technical skills, getting a job, and dealing with managers, to doing side projects or starting your own company.

InfoQ readers can download an extract of the Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide.

InfoQ interviewed John Sonmez about the technical skills that software developers need to master and how to develop them, if software developers should start their own company or do side projects, how DevOps is impacting the role of developers, what developers can do to work effectively with testers and vice versa, and which are the do’s and dont’s for developers if they want to advance their career.

InfoQ: Why did you write this book?

John Sonmez: The software development industry is confusing – especially for developers just starting out with their careers.

It’s not very obvious how to get started as a software developer.

Should you go to college, go to a bootcamp, learn on your own, and what do you study, how do you study?

And when you “finish” studying, how do you get a job?

And when you get a job, how do you get a raise, how to do you succeed, what more do you need to know?

Constantly software developers familiar with my blog and YouTube channel would ask me these questions, and I realized I had no where to point them to.

I wrote the “Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide” because I couldn’t find one comprehensive source or guide to answer all these questions and to help a software developer to be successful in their career.

I wanted to answer just about every question that new and experienced developers had about their careers in software development and I wanted to do it all in one place.

InfoQ: For whom is this book intended?

Sonmez: Really, the book is intended for software developers at any level – and I would imagine a good deal of non-software developer would benefit from the general career advice in it as well.

I wrote the book in such a way that each chapter is small, concise and stands on its own.

I did this so that the entire book would be accessible to you no matter what stage of your career you are in as a software developer. You can read the whole book or just the chapters that are relevant to the struggles you are currently facing.

The idea is that “The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide” is a book that you can use to get started in software development and continue to utilize throughout your career.

I wanted to create an evergreen book that would have lasting value.

InfoQ: What are the technical skills that software developers need to master?

Sonmez: The problem is there are far too many to list.

I mean if you want to be a web developer, think of all the things you need to know.

First, you need to know some programming language, then you need to know HTML and CSS so that you can make the actual user interface of a web application.

You need to know JavaScript to make the front-end interactive – possibly a JavaScript framework.

You need to understand the web itself and how data flows over the internet: HTTP protocol, statelessness, web servers, clients, browsers.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

You’ll want to work on a team with other developers, so you’ll need to understand some kind of source control system.

How to check in and check out code, merge, branch, etc.

You’ll need to know about build system and continuous integration.

And I sure hope you are testing the code you wrote, so you’ll definitely need to know about testing and most likely unit-testing.

Oh, and let’s not forget about the software development life-cycle and Agile or Scrum.

And while we are at it, I suppose you should know SQL and how databases work, since you’ll most likely need to store some data …

Yeah, it’s a lot. It can be overwhelming.

Again, another reason I wrote the book; I wanted to catalogue all of these things in one place, so that any developer could see what they need to know and get at least a gist of all these concepts, without being totally confused or overwhelmed.

InfoQ: How can they develop those skills?

Sonmez: Fortunately, today, learning and developing the skills isn’t the difficult part.

I’m not saying it’s not a challenge to develop some of these skills, but the hard part today is knowing what to learn, rather than learning itself.

Today there are a ton of resources out there for learning just about any technical skill you can think of – in fact, a good number of these resources are completely free.

The hard part is knowing what skills you need to learn and knowing about those skills to know where to look to develop those skills.

I find that people do really well finding their way when you give them a map and a compass and show them how to use them.

InfoQ: Why should software developers start their own company?

Sonmez: Honestly, most shouldn’t.

Entrepreneurship is not for everyone.

I would love if more software developers became entrepreneurs and started their own companies – and I would love to help them do it – but the hard truth is that for most people freedom is a burden.

It’s much easier to be told what to do than to figure out what you need to do and bear the entire burden of responsibility on your own shoulders.

With that said, the benefits of striking out on your own are enormous.

And I’m not just talking about risks versus rewards.

There’s an intangible benefit and feeling of accomplishment in knowing that you made your own way in life and that you figured things out for yourself – created something of enough value that people are willing to pay you for it.

InfoQ: What about doing side projects?

Sonmez: This one I can recommend wholeheartedly for ALL software developers.

Side projects are valuable for many different reasons.

One of the biggest reasons is that working on a side-project is a great way to gain valuable experience and use new technologies you might not be exposed to at work.

It’s a great way to increase your experience well beyond what you would achieve in the same amount of time, workly solely at a regular job.

Plus a side project often gets you exposure to the elements of software development you might not be used to dealing with.

It’s quite an experience to design, create and ship something yourself.

It also teaches you discipline and perseverance.

And the career benefits are immense.

Many side-projects become full time jobs or end up creating a very impressive line to put on your resume, which says that you are serious about your work and that you are passionate as well, willing to put in hours into your craft on your own.

And there is also the chance of making some money from the whole ordeal – which could be life changing, or at the very least, life enhancing.

InfoQ: How is DevOps impacting the role of developers?

Sonmez: DevOps is blurring the line between software development and infrastructure or IT teams.

In the past, software developers wrote code and that was their primary responsibility. They didn’t really need to know how the code was going to be deployed or anything about the servers it was being deployed on.

But, as practices like Agile and continuous integration became more popular, this kind of siloed working had to change, so DevOps was born.

DevOps bridges the gap between writing code and deploying code and supporting deployed code.

This means that developers need to not just understand how to write code but how to package, deploy and maintain the code when it’s deployed in the wild.

Not all of these skills are new to developers, as many developer are familiar with setting up and configuring servers and deploying code, but there might be some difficulties for the purist programmer who just wants to write code.

At the least, developers today should invest some time learning about the operating system and servers their code will be deployed on, how the builder system and continuous integration works and how to analyze and troubleshoot production issues.

InfoQ: What can developers do to work effectively with testers, and vice versa?

Sonmez: The biggest thing is to understand the testing process and the intention of it and to focus on communication.

Agile has helped with this by viewing the entire team as a single purposed team who is responsible for ultimately creating and shipping the software.

So, developers need to embrace this mindset and realize that everyone is in this together.

It may seem like testers are just trying to break your code – and some of them are – but, the bigger picture is that everyone is working together to create a quality product.

The biggest breakdowns I see in working together with testers and vice-versa, is assuming things and acting in passive aggressive ways, rather than communicating directly and overtly.

It’s much more efficient to work together to determine why something is broken and quickly fix it than it is to file a bug report, send the bug report to a developer who can’t reproduce the problem, who eventually sends it back to QA, and so on and so on until the bug if finally fixed and retested.

Sometimes five minutes of communication can save hours or days of work and eliminate unwarranted hostility.

We are all on the same team, we all have the same mission.

There is no us versus them.

InfoQ: What are the do’s and dont’s for developers who want to advance their career?

Sonmez: Ultimately, advancing your career comes down to two main things:

1.    Being as useful as possible.
2.    Getting the exposure, so people know how useful you are.

Unfortunately, both of these things are easier said than done.

Being as useful as possible means being effective yourself by learning how to write good code and how to solve problems efficiently – essentially developing your technical skills – but, it also means much more than that.

The most useful developer is one who makes the other developers and the rest of the team more useful.

Often this involves taking on responsibility and ownership. This means being a leader and learning how to communicate effectively with others as well as how to persuade them to join in your efforts.

Ultimately a developer – or anyone – who provides the most value to the most people, will in turn receive the most value.

Zig Ziglar said it best when he claimed “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

Now, just being valuable and providing value alone is not enough, because you could be the most valuable gem in the world, but if you are buried under rock and earth, you’ll never shine.

“Shining” is all about learning to market yourself and build your personal brand and reputation.

You have to get noticed – and the most successful software developers make sure they do.

This doesn’t mean you have to be arrogant and excessively brag about your accomplishments or skills to anyone who will listen.

But, it does mean that you have to actively manage your career and personal brand and work on building a name for yourself and reputation.

You need exposure, whether in the workplace or to the world at large – preferably both.

Some great ways to do this are ways which also provide value to others.

Write blog posts, write books, make video tutorials, mentor people, organize meet ups, create podcasts.

There are a ton of ways of creating exposure if you think about how you can take what you have learned and what you know and give other people value by sharing it.

When you combine these two elements together, creating value and gaining exposure, success is sure to follow.

It’s just that most developers don’t have the patience for it and they don’t stick to the road long enough, or they severely underestimate the power – and essentiality – of marketing themselves.

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Credits : Forbes

Software developer Tuukka Ojala recently posted about how he works without the benefit of sight. Ojala, who is almost totally blind, explains how he does his work with the help of a braille keyboard and display, and synthetic speech.

His situation is not unique. A Stack Overflow thread asking how blind people program includes responses from people all over the world, complete with thoughts on which tools are best suited to blind programmers, as well as technology under development.

That particular thread is a few years old and surely outdated now, but much more has been published in the meanwhile, like Parham Doustdar’s Tools of a Blind Programmer, and Saqib Shaikh’s YouTube video demonstrating how he programs.

Software developers don’t always show a lot of interest in accessibility. It’s something you might not appreciate until you encounter a blind user deftly navigating your program or website.

When I shared Tuukka Ojala’s post on LinkedIn, it drew more attention than just about anything else I’ve shared. It’s an uplifting story of living a productive everyday life in spite of an extraordinary challenge.

It’s also a nice success story for software accessibility and how it opens the door to computing for many people. This is no edge case: worldwide, 39 million people are blind, and 246 million have low vision.

For me, though, these stories are also a reminder of an inspiring tech industry success story from my college days.

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CUPERTINO, CA – SEPTEMBER 12: Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi introduces the new iPhone X during an Apple special event at the Steve Jobs Theatre on the Apple Park campus on September 12, 2017 in Cupertino, California. Apple is holding their first special event at the new Apple Park campus where they are expected to unveil a new iPhone. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP

There was a rather popular feature in iOS 9 and iOS 10 that allowed 3D Touch users to access the app switcher by long pressing on the left edge and then swiping right, instead of double tapping the home button. However, that feature was later removed without any explanation, and hasn’t arrived with the latest iOS 11 update as well (wasn’t in beta either). Replying to a user complaint, Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi has now confirmed that the app switcher gesture feature was removed due to technical constraints, and should be back in a future iOS 11 update.

MacRumors reader Adam Zahn wrote an email to Federighi complaining about the absence of the feature, to which the Apple executive replied, “We regretfully had to temporarily drop support for this gesture due to a technical constraint. We will be bringing it back in an upcoming iOS 11.x update.”

This is obviously good news for all the users who used this feature quite a lot. Users with a 3D Touch iPhone running on the old iOS 9 or iOS 10 software can use this feature by long pressing on the left edge, and then swiping right, as shown in the video below.

iOS 11, meanwhile is now available to download for iPhone 5s and above devices, and this big software update comes with a lot of exciting new features, like a redesigned App Store, new and improved Control Centre, a new Files app, iMessage improvements, screenshots and screen capture get new features, and live photos gets new cool effects as well.

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