fun stuff Archives - {5} Setfive - Talking to the World

If I went back in time 5 years and told myself that I would eventually work toward a bachelor’s degree in math, I never would have believed it. All throughout high school and even my freshman year of college, I had the same thought in every math class I took: “When would I ever use this in real life?” It was not until my first course in differential equations that I realized how useful and applicable mathematics can be to solve real life problems. However, these problems mainly involved physics and finance, neither of which are of interest to me. I enjoyed all my computer science classes but with a BS in computer science I was not going to graduate on time after transferring my freshman year. Choosing a concentration in computing allowed me to take a class on scientific computing — a class teaching you how to utilize computer science to write efficient programs that solve complicated systems of linear equations as well as estimate differential equations that cannot be solved exactly by any known methods.

A system of linear equations is a set of two or more multivariable equations, involving the same variables. For example: 2x + 2y = 4, 3x – y = 2, where x represents the same value in both equations as does y. A system of two linear equations, both involving only two variables can be solved simply by solving one for y, and plugging that y value into the other equation:

2x + 2y = 4 → 2y = 4 - 2x → y = (2 - x) …. 
3x - y = 2 → 3x - (2 - x) = 2 → 3x - 2 + x = 2 → 4x = 4 → x = 1 …. 
y = 2 - x → y = 2- (1) = 1 ….

The solution is therefore x=1, y=1.

When you have many more equations as well as more variables than 2, solving by hand becomes less practical and can be virtually impossible in a system of 200 equations involve 200 variables.

To combat this, you can use represent the system of equations in a matrix, and solve through a process called Gaussian elimination. In Gaussian elimination, you can manipulate and reduce a matrix to a form where only the diagonal and everything above consist of numbers while everything below is 0. From there, the system is easy to solve. This can be simple for 3 x 3 matrices, but when you increase the dimensions it becomes impractical. The solution is to implement Gaussian elimination in a coding language. The course I took on scientific computing utilized MATLAB because MATLAB is built for numerical computations through matrices. As a challenge, I worked on implementing Gaussian elimination in Typescript. Using the math.js library to create and manipulate matrices as well as some help from Martin Thoma’s website at https://martin-thoma.com/solving-linear-equations-with-gaussian-elimination/, I was able to create a working program that can solve a system of equations of the form:

1x - 3y + 1z = 4
2x - 8y + 8z = -2
-6x + 3y -15z = 9

The above gives the exact solution x = 3, y = -1, and z = -2.

Implementing this in typescript was challenging at first, as matrix manipulation through the math.js library is much more complex than my experience in MATLAB. However, it was interesting to apply something I learned in a university course to a real world work situation. Since I am looking toward a career somewhere in the computer science field, a lot of the math courses I take are not fully relevant to what I will do later in life — though they really help when it comes to problem solving and thinking outside the box. Utilizing topics I have learned in class to make programs such as these makes the difficulty of majoring in mathematics well worth it!

Check out the code at https://github.com/Setfive/ts-base/blob/master/src/GaussElim.ts and a live demo below!

Learning to learn to use Linux can be challenging, as everything from its reputation to general look can be intimidating. Having never used it before, instead using Windows both at home and for school I always saw Linux as something that was in the realm of true veteran software engineers and computer programmers.

During my first few weeks at Setfive I’ve had the chance to begin learning Linux and I have found it to be a useful and powerful tool. After learning some common and not so common commands I’ve really started to appreciate the flexibility and ease of use of the command line.

Here are 10 easy Linux “one liners” that allow us to accomplish some everyday tasks in a simple and efficient manner.

1. Sort a file

$ sort myfile.txt

This will sort the given file in numerical and alphabetical order:

Here a file, num, is being sorted alphanumerically, resulting in a sorted list.

2. Delete duplicate lines within a file

$ sort myfile.txt | uniq

This small addition to the sort command will not only sort the file but will remove any duplicates found within the file:

Here we can see the same num file being sorted, however this time the duplicates are being removed leaving us only with 1 of each entry.

3. Convert .mp3 and .wav files

$ ffmpeg -i input.mp3 output.wav

With this example we convert an .mp3 file to a .wav file, and it can be done the other way as well converting .wav to .mp3.

$ ffmpeg -i input.wav output.mp3

4. Recursively creating a directory structure

$ mkdir -p new/directory/structure/example

Using mkdir we are able to create subdirectories, however with the -p option we can tell it to create the subdirectories but also any parent directories that don’t already exist. Allowing an entire directory tree to be created with one line:

Here we can see an entire directory tree “/new/directory/example/setfive” being created.

5. Extract specific pages from a PDF

$ pdfjam pdf1.pdf 2-4 -o 2.pdf

Using the pdfjam command we are able to take pages 2, 3 and 4 from the pdf pdf1.pdf and save them in a separate file, here called 2.pdf.

6. Create a thumbnail image for a PDF

$ convert -thumbnail x80 file.pdf[0] thumb.png

Here we are using convert to create a thumbnail for a pdf, with the [0] indicating that the thumbnail will be made using the first page of the PDF file.

7. Make all file names lowercase

(Assuming you have a bash like shell)

$ for i in *; do mv "$i" "${i,,}"; done

This command will loop through the directory and use the built in case modification extension that comes with Bash to change all the file names to be lowercase.

8. Create an animated gif

$ convert -delay 20 -loop 0 *.jpg myimage.gif

This can be accomplished using the imagemagick package, which can be installed with “sudo apt-get install imagemagick”. This allows for full image manipulation including conversion and editing.

9. Create a file with some text

$ echo "a new string" >> file

It appends the string into the file, followed by a newline, if the newline is wanted then by adding the -n flag after echo will append the string without the following newline.

10. Split up a file

$ split -b 50MB verylargemovie.mp4

Split will break up a large file automatically to whatever sizes you need. Here we’re breaking up our big movie file into 50MB chunks.

Bonus: Rerun the last command, replacing part of the command

This allows for an easy method to rerun a command with the swapped string which can be useful with long commands where finding and altering a single string by hand would be tedious.

Using the convert example from above:

$ convert -delay 20 -loop 0 *.jpg myimage.gif
$ ^myimage^newimage
convert -delay 20 -loop 0 *.png newimage.gif

Will re-run the command and create an image named “newimage.gif”

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple of years, it’s clear that smartphones are kind of a big deal. Today there are close to 2.6 billion subscriptions globally, and this number stands to grow rapidly as less developed markets turn into substantial electronic consumers.

With new applications and games hitting app stores daily, it’s no surprise that people are spending more and more time with their eyes glued to the glass screens of these compact, universal media agents. Phones have single handedly changed the way that people live, becoming pivotal for people to communicate, go online, and access and share information.

The ubiquitous nature of the smartphone has opened the floodgates of opportunity, creating new markets in the process and forcing pre-existing ones to modernize or be strangled at the hands of innovation. One market in particular that has been significantly impacted by the mobile revolution is the advertising and marketing industry.

The rise of the Internet era has led to a rapid decrease in the effectiveness of traditional forms of advertising media, and have forced the hand of the industry to take the plunge into to more digital forms. Marketing companies have to continuously find new and improved ways of reaching their targets in a world where TV and print simply will not do. One unique strategy that companies have used to connect with the masses and promote brand awareness is branded Apps. Smartphone users spend close to 90% of their time on devices using apps so they offer an incredible opportunity to connect with consumers.

Recently here at Setfive we have taken a look at building some brandable tools for mobile, and looked for the most original branded apps out there for some inspiration. Here are some of the most interesting apps that we found during our quest for inspiration.

Pop Secret Perfect Pop App

This app uses your phones speakers to listen to the pops coming from the bag of popcorn in your microwave, and tells you the precise moment when your bag of popcorn is a peak popped-ness.

Charmin SitOrSquat App

This app uses a map to display available public restrooms in your area and lets you know how clean they are (hence the name SitOrSquat). Additionally this app utilizes crowd sourcing, letting users to rate and write reviews about the public bathrooms that they use.

The Snow Report by North Face

So what has the North face been up to besides making incredibly epic TV commercials? That’s easy, they’ve been building a location based mobile app that helps users check the condition on powder before they head to the slopes. Check the status of runs around you or the 10 top slopes globally.

Tide Stain Brain

When stains happen, StainBrain gives you simple solutions on the spot. Blot or soak? Cold water or hot? Get the scoop on how to rid yourself of more than 85 different stains with on-the-go tips and easy, step-by-step washing instructions from the laundry pros at Tide.

Bosch Unit Converter: Professional converter for over 50 units

The Bosch Professional Unit Converter turns a smartphone into a universal unit converter. The ideal app for quick conversions on the building site or in the workshop. Completely free of charge and ads.

Picture the scene, it’s Friday night, you’ve got friends over and everyone wants to listen to some great music. The problem is everyone wants to jam to something different and you’re not thrilled to sit by your laptop all night. Enter, the TxtyJukebox.

TxtyJukebox lets you setup an event which creates you a unique number which users can text in song requests to. As TxtyJukebox receives song requests, it searches YouTube for music videos and then places the videos into your event’s queue. And then if you hook up TxtyJukebox to a TV you’ll be able to jam to videos on a big screen with big room sound. But wait, there’s more! If you have a Chromecast you can connect TxtyJukebox to your Chromecast via our app. The Chromecast app will launch from within http://jukebox.setfive.com/ so there’s nothing to download or setup.

So how does TxtyJukebox work under the hood? Well sit tight, technical details lay ahead. The webapp itself is a standard Symfony2 app along with the usual suspects – Bootstrap, Underscore, and a sprinkling of jQuery. Along with that, we’re using Twillio’s REST API to handle SMS along with a “webhook” from Twillio to the webapp to recieve messages. In addition, we’re leveraging the YouTube API to search and load videos which are then loaded into an iframe. Finally, the Chromecast app is HTML/CSS/JS powered by jQuery and underscore.

Building TxtyJukebox was a lot of fun and we’re thrilled that it’s been positively received. An awesome surprise was that Ryan over at Makeusof.com found it and incldued it in his post of How to Share Music from Multiple Devices to a Chromecast. As always, let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Labor day has come and gone so summer is officially over. We sat down with our intern Phil to chat about his time interning at Setfive.

Favorite Part About Interning At Setfive?

My favorite part about interning at Setfive was being introduced to so many different programming tools, and having the ability to increase my programming skill set. This summer I learned about PHP, the Symfony 2 Framework, MYSQL, I improved my JavaScript skills, learned some Angular.js, and even learned how to write unit tests. I was exposed to so many new things that everyday was fun and no two days were ever the same.

The environment here encouraged questions, and allowed me to ask and receive answers to anything I wanted to know more about. Some of the guys would even go out of their way to send me related documentation about something if they felt that they couldn’t confidently answer it themselves.

Working under the guys here was an incredible experience, I was given the freedom to make mistakes and figure out problems on my own, but at the same time was given sufficient structure to make consistent progress. It was awesome to have the comfort of knowing I had a smart, qualified person to guide me in the right direction if I ever got too stuck on any one problem.

Most important thing that you learned?

The most important skill that I learned was definitely an improved conceptual understanding of MVC, and that while sometimes using this pattern slows down your programming, in the long run it helps you create readable, modular code.

I also learned that installation is just the worst.

Most Memorable Moment?

The most memorable moment of the summer was the first time we used the Txty Jukebox in the office. It didn’t quite work the first time around, however, watching people use and get enjoyment out of something that I helped to create was something that I’ will never forget.

Where do you want to go from here?

From here I definitely want to continue building custom applications. I’ve spent the last part of the summer teaching myself objective-c, and the skills that I’ve learned here will definitely help me make the transition into developing iOS applications.

Top 5 Things To Eat

Buffalo Soulja – Darwins (Only available on Thursdays)
Mango Bubble Tea – Dosa Factory
Steak Sammy – Orinoco
Burger topped with shortrib meat – Charlies Beer Garden
Chicken Pad Thai – Thelonious Monkfish
Honorable Mention: Cuban Sammy – Plough and Stars

Tag: fun stuff

TypeScript: 15 minutes of Gaussian Elimination

10 Linux “one liners” to impress your friends