The Pi 3 – Boot up !

Posted: August 3, 2017 in Pi3 B, Raspberry Pi
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whatsapp-image-2017-08-03-at-21-57-17.jpeg

 

Ah… here I am again … Well I recently shifted and once again its a shared accommodation (Same story different place) and once again I didn’t wanna be put up with doing a headless install on the Pi2 B. Also this time, I’d saved up a bit (skipped beer for about 3 weeks) and was feeling itchy about spending so I went up on Amazon and ordered the Pi 3. And then while I was at it – decided to get myself a monitor as well.

 

So after shifting into my new digs and unpacking – I decided it was time to fire up the new Pi 3 B. And behold, I dove right into the pile of the bits and bobs (the usual suspects – USB cables, flash drives, memory cards , adaptors and stuff )  and finally found an unused SanDisk 64GB Micro SD Card (Class 10) and I was elated.

So I proceed to format and flash the SD card and loaded the latest version of Raspbian from the Pi Web site. And just when I thought that the Pi3 B was now up and ready for the taking – bang, there it came up with the boot up problem. Seems like there was an issue with the Panel files in (~/.config/lxpanel/LXDE-pi). After wasting about 90 minutes, I decided to just re-flash the SD card with NOOBS.

Here are a key points to note:

  1. If you are using an SD card upto 32GB – the Windows Disk Formatting utility allows you to format the SD card with the File Format as either NTFS or FAT32 (Most of you would already know this).
  2. What’s interesting is that if the SD Card is larger than 32GB – then the default Formatting Options available are NTFS and exFAT – FAT32 is not supported by the Windows Disk Formatting Utility.
  3. Now,  but now NOOBS didn’t fire up and I was once again flustered. A bit of digging around led me to the fact that for NOOBS to work as a bootable CD, the SD card needs to be formatted with the FAT 32 option as the Raspberry Pi does not support exFAT.
  4. To get out of this I used EaseUS Partition Master (The Free version of course) and finally booted up the Pi3 B.

 

One of the biggest advantages of the Pi3 B over the Pi2 B is the inclusion of on-board Bluetooth and WiFi support. This frees up 2 Additional USB Ports on the Pi3 B or the USB hub which I preferred as I had a couple spare lying around (Damn, I’ve got way too much stuff, I thought to myself, but hey it did come in handy and so I silenced my inner voice of reason).

So after the “sudo apt-get updated” , “sudo apt-get upgrade” and “sudo apt-get clean”  and a reboot , it was time install VNC Server. But wait! – Hold the presses, this just in, the latest version of Raspbian comes with the VNC server ! Yippee!!! All you’ve gotta do is enable it from the Raspberry Pi Configuration Settings. The same goes for the SSH Interface as well.

WhatsApp Image 2017-08-03 at 22.35.16

 

So that’s me booted up and running the Pi3 B.

 

WhatsApp Image 2017-08-03 at 22.44.12

Next up on the docket is see if Bluetooth works as flawlessly as expected or whether I need to enable a few packages / install a few dependencies and stuff like that.

Exciting Times Ahead!

 

Techno-stu!!!

 

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Raspberry Pi 2 – Whetting my appetite.

Posted: August 2, 2017 in Pi2 B, Raspberry Pi
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I’ve been using the Raspberry Pi  Generation 2 Model B for over a year and half now. Trust me when I say the journey so far has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride, filled with a lot of learning, fun, enjoyment , frustration (yeah when shit doesn’t work) and the innate satisfaction that follows when you’ve cracked that nagging problem.

All this while, though, I worked on the Pi2 B without a monitor / TV (didn’t have one) and so had to start with the headless installation. Now this was particularly challenging because :

  1. No Monitor – which means you need to SSH / Telnet into the Pi from your PC using Putty. (Thank God for Simon Tatham).
  2. The Pi2 B does not have WiFi – however, this can be overcome by building a bridged connection from your PC
  3. I have the New Dell XPS 15 and it did not have an Ethernet port (and I wasn’t feeling too rich to spend on a Dell Thunderbolt hub).

Instead I got a Netgear PR200 N300 Trek and used it as WiFi Extender / Hotspot and connected the Pi2 B via Ethernet cable and it worked like a charm! (I could of-course connect the Pi 2 B to the home router – however due to my shared accommodation situation and a bit of a nagging Room-mate – I decided the above approach was much less stressful).

The Pi is really a gift to this generation! the computing capabilities, it offers are immense and great tool for anyone with a hunger to learn and tinker around.

Not to mention, if you cannot afford to buy a Wireless network drive, but really wanted one, you could just build yourself a Low Powered Network Storage Drive using the Pi  – all you need is the Pi, an Internet connection and any spare flash drive or USB hardrives you already have.

 

Some might say that the Pi has its limitations – with ARM architecture, you cannot install a few big applications /software (Oracle Database being one) , but you need to understand is that the Pi wasn’t built to please the power hungry , capacity hogging, heavy configuration giants. It was built to please those who wanted to do a lot but with very little !

So, come on, get your feet wet, your hands dirty with some programming and fun and you have a world to explore.

Visit: https://www.raspberrypi.org/ for more information !

 

 

Techno-stu!!!

 

 

Become an Excel Master with Excel Keyboard shortcuts

Posted: September 18, 2015 in Features
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Ever wondered, how that one guy in the office preps up spreadsheets so quickly? He’s barely touched the mouse and he’s still zapping away through the lines of data, updating them in bulk.

Do you ever get that feeling, wish you too could display your prowess ?

Well look no further –  below is the list of Excel Short-cuts. A list of key combinations and what they do.

Now You too can impress others around you !

KEY ACTION
ENTER Complete a cell entry and move down in the selection
ALT+ENTER Start a new line in the same cell
CTRL+ENTER Fill the selected cell range with the current entry
SHIFT+ENTER Complete a cell entry and move up in the selection
TAB Complete a cell entry and move to the right in the selection
SHIFT+TAB Complete a cell entry and move to the left in the selection
DELETE Delete the character to the right of the insertion point, or delete the selection
CTRL+DELETE Delete text to the end of the line
Arrow keys Move one character up, down, left, or right
HOME Move to the beginning of the line
F4 or CTRL+Y Repeat the last action
SHIFT+F2 Edit a cell comment
CTRL+SHIFT+F3 Create names from row and column labels
CTRL+D Fill down
CTRL+R Fill to the right
BACKSPACE Edit the active cell and then clear it, or delete the preceding character in the active cell as you edit cell contents
CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER Enter a formula as an array formula
ESC Cancel an entry in the cell or formula bar
CTRL+A Display the Formula Palette after you type a function name in a formula
CTRL+SHIFT+A Insert the argument names and parentheses for a function after you type a function name in a formula
CTRL+K Insert a hyperlink
ENTER (in a cell with a hyperlink) Activate a hyperlink
F2 Edit the active cell and position the insertion point at the end of the line
F3 Paste a defined name into a formula
SHIFT+F3 Paste a function into a formula
F9 Calculate all sheets in all open workbooks
CTRL+ALT+F9 Calculate all sheets in the active workbook
SHIFT+F9 Calculate the active worksheet
= (equal sign) Start a formula
ALT+= (equal sign) Insert the AutoSum formula
CTRL+; (semicolon) Enter the date
CTRL+SHIFT+: (colon) Enter the time
CTRL+SHIFT+” (quotation mark) Copy the value from the cell above the active cell into the cell or the formula bar
CTRL+` (single left quotation mark) Alternate between displaying cell values and displaying cell formulas
CTRL+’ (apostrophe) Copy a formula from the cell above the active cell into the cell or the formula bar
ALT+DOWN ARROW Display the AutoComplete list
ALT+’ (apostrophe) Display the Style dialog box
CTRL+1 Display the Format Cells dialog box
CTRL+SHIFT+~ Apply the General number format
CTRL+SHIFT+$ Apply the Currency format with two decimal places (negative numbers appear in parentheses)
CTRL+SHIFT+% Apply the Percentage format with no decimal places
CTRL+SHIFT+^ Apply the Exponential number format with two decimal places
CTRL+SHIFT+# Apply the Date format with the day, month, and year
CTRL+SHIFT+@ Apply the Time format with the hour and minute, and indicate A.M. or P.M.
CTRL+SHIFT+! Apply the Number format with two decimal places, thousands separator, and minus sign (–) for negative values
CTRL+SHIFT+& Apply the outline border
CTRL+SHIFT+_ Remove outline borders
CTRL+B Apply or remove bold formatting
CTRL+I Apply or remove italic formatting
CTRL+U Apply or remove an underline
CTRL+5 Apply or remove strikethrough formatting
CTRL+9 Hide rows
CTRL+SHIFT+( (opening parenthesis) Unhide rows
CTRL+0 (zero) Hide columns
CTRL+SHIFT+) (closing parenthesis) Unhide columns
F10 or ALT Make the menu bar active, or close a visible menu and submenu at the same time
TAB or SHIFT+TAB (when a toolbar is active) Select the next or previous button or menu on the toolbar
CTRL+TAB or CTRL+SHIFT+TAB (when a toolbar is active) Select the next or previous toolbar
SHIFT+F10 Show a shortcut menu
ALT+SPACEBAR Show the program icon menu (on the program title bar)

OCR with One Note

Posted: April 2, 2015 in Features
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Has it ever happened to you – that you’ve requested a piece of information from your colleague, manager, client, etc and they’ve just sent you a screen grab (an image ) of the piece of information.

Now if the requested information is large or has data with numbers, then this just only increases the task of you having to manually type down each piece of information / number and double or even triple check to ensure that you’ve not missed out anything or incorrectly typed / transposed the digits / characters. And there you are at your wits ends – (of course you could once again ask for the data to be sent in a required format – however that may put you in an awkward position). At such times you just wish you were simply able to copy & paste the data from the screen grab (image ) – this would make life so much easy. Well – this is where OCR – comes into play.

 

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) – as defined on Wikipedia  is the mechanical or electronic conversion of images of typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. To put it in layman terms – the ability to copy typewritten or printed text from images and then be able to paste it into any other application like word, excel, email clients etc.

 

Now there are various software available in the market / online which provide OCR – however you will have to buy these and then there is always the cost factor.

Here is where the Microsoft® OneNote® comes in handy. Bundled as part of the Microsoft Office Suite, this is an extremely power packed tool for note taking, collaboration and collating data.

Amongst the various features available with OneNote – its OCR feature “Copy Text From Picture” is fantastic.

one_note_Ocr1

 

And here is the text:

CASE_ID DESCRIPTION
52 Boss monitor cracked
54 Tea samovar defect
53 Vacuum server inside
51 Printer toner cartridge
56 Switch mouse to USB
55 Coffee machine defect

Again, the field of OCR is an evolving one and hence at times depending on the Font of the text or the clarity of the character in the image file – an “O” could be replaced with a “0”, an “l” for a “1” and so on and so forth. No system is perfect and OneNote does get a majority of the work done.

 

The second key feature of OneNote that impressed me a lot and one which I use so frequently is its ability to take screen grabs aka the Print-Screen function.

This feature can be activated by starting up One-Note and then Clicking the Windows Key(windows_key)and S.

The moment you do this the Screen is covered by a transparent layer and a cross-hair (+) is displayed. Then all you do is keeping the left mouse key pressed – you drag the cross-hair (+) to select the part of screen which you want to Grab. The moment you release the left mouse key – it takes a snapshot of the screen over which you have dragged the cross-hair.

If you are doing this for the very first time – then OneNote gives a pop-up window asking you the section/book into which you want to save the screen grab or do you want to just keep it on the system clipboard and then make the image available to be inserted (pasted) into any word/ excel / rich text editor / email editor etc.

Learn more on What’s new in OneNote 2013 !

 

Techno-stu!!!

Excel Add-ins : Un-Hide All Sheets

Posted: August 20, 2014 in Excel Add-Ins
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Hey There…

Well, Excel is one of the most widely used tools and spreadsheets are the back bone for every business these days. I use excel for almost everything thru out the day.

Many a times the spreadsheets which are used for daily reporting end up with multiple sheets and at times you need to have to hide or unhide the sheets as required.

Now Microsoft has provided us with the option to Hide Multiple sheets at a time – however there is no option to Un-Hide all the sheets at once.

Well – no need to fret , for my very first Excel Add-in – I humbly present to you the “Un-Hide All Sheets” add-in.

This Add-in gives you a separate Tab and Group in Excel – with the button to Un-Hide All Sheets.

Un_Hide_Sheet_Custom_RibbonWell – here’s the attached zip file with an installation SFX file – which will install the add-in for you.Excel Add-ins – UnHideAllSheets

Hope you find this useful –

Do let me know your thoughts, opinions, issues, bugs – anything feedback is welcome.

Techno-stu!!!

Welcome !!!

Posted: August 20, 2014 in Uncategorized
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Well !!! Hello there !!!

I’ve been told that I’m a nerd, a geek, a techie – be it issues with the office PC’s / Laptops, phones, you name it.

You’d perhaps be wondering whats with the blog name or the domain.

To be honest it started off as mere joke a few weeks back – being referred as “Technology Baba” while I was sharing my views on some discussion over mobile phones “giving gyan” as they called it – .And as a wild fire spreads – this Tag Stuck on in the office and among friends.

So here it goes – Finally – the Very First Post from “Technology Baba”. 

The purpose of this blog is to share tid-bits, tips n tricks which would be handy for the various day to day software we use.

Through this blog or website – I would be featuring plug-ins , add-ins , utilities for the most commonly used tools like Word, Excel, Power-point etc.

And if you would like an add-in / plug-in developed, it would be a great opportunity for me to do this for you and at “No Cost!!!”

So do share this blog post as much as you can –

So once again Welcome!!!

Techno-stu!!!

 

P.S.: A very special thanks to Dinesh Makhija for the nick-name and Amit Bakshi for a huge amount of coaxing which led me to eventually start this blog!