Metal Gear Solid V : Phantom Pain - Identify the Screenshot 2

Hello gamers! Hope you are having fun with the Phantom Pain - one of the best games I've played in a while. I absolutely love its stealth gameplay and the mind-blowing level of details. Every time I play the game I discover how minutely every detail has been thought about, designed and accounted for. Although at the moment the free roam is not quite exciting, but the various mission areas are just fantastic. The detailing is so very realistic, practical and to the point. Nothing fancy here, just some realtime replicas of outposts and bases.

Another icing on the cake is its haunting soundtrack. Wow! In case you want to listen to it separately, here's the Youtube playlist for In-game soundtrack.

The tracks that I particularly found haunting are :

• Track 62 - Evasion
• Track 68 - Skulls (Before Spotted)
• Track 73 - Afghanistan Caution 2
• Track 102 - Afghanistan Day Enemy Suspicion
• Track 108 - Exfiltrate the Hotzone (Success)

Let me know if I missed any other cool track.

Well, and for today's screenshot of the today, take a look below.

As expected, guess what's the location and the area of operation / mission. Drop in your comments guys.

Oh and in case you missed it, here's the link to MGS V : TPP : Identify the Screenshot : Part 1. Cheers!

Start Stop Jenkins from Terminal on Mac OS X

Ola guys. I hope you came across my previous posts on setting up Ant and Maven with Jenkins. In today's post I'll show you how to start and stop Jenkins from Terminal on Mac OS X machine.

I assume you know how to shutdown Jenkins from console OR restart it from the URL field.

Alright so here we go.

For staring Jenkins from command line, type this in Terminal :

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.jenkins-ci.plist

Give it a few seconds for Jenkins to startup and you can then see the console in the browser. If you still stay executing the startup command again you'll get the following message :

/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.jenkins-ci.plist: service already loaded

In the meantime you can double check if Jenkins has started by checking the process status in Terminal :

ps -ef | grep jenkins

For stopping Jenkins from the command line, type this in Terminal :

sudo launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.jenkins-ci.plist

A rougher way to stop Jenkins is by killing the process ID of Jenkins that you found above with the ps -ef command.

How to setup Jenkins with custom Maven Home

Guys I earlier posted a quick short article on how to setup Jenkins with custom Ant Home. In today's post you'll learn how to similarly setup Jenkins with your custom Maven Home.

As usual go to Manage Jenkins -> Configure System

Scroll down to the Maven installations and untick Install Automatically. Now simply enter details about your custom MAVEN_HOME. Refer the screenshot below for reference please.

Cheers guys! Hope you are having a good time reading my blog. Make sure to dig in to discover more interesting posts.

How to setup Jenkins with custom Ant Home

Ola guys! From today onwards am also including fresh new posts on Jenkins. Jenkins as you know is a popular continuous integration tool where you can setup jobs and define steps to create custom builds. The main advantage of any CI tool is the quick fast feedback. It thereby reduces the overall delivery time and are to able to spot for any errors really fast. I'll post another article on the overall generic advantages of Jenkins later.

In today's post I will start with a very simple basic configuration. I assume you have downloaded Jenkins and set it up on your machine.

Now before we start using Jenkins to perform builds, we need to configure it right. Let's do that.

Go to Manage Jenkins -> Configure System and scroll down to the Ant installations.

If you have already downloaded Ant and set up your custom ANT_HOME and want to use that, then do the following :

Untick Install Automatically and enter the details for ANT_HOME and give it a nice name to identify it. Check the following screenshot for reference.

Now just click Apply. Save. Cheers!

Character Combinations using Shell Script

In today's post we'll look into a very simple entry level bash script in which we form all possible alphanumeric combinations using just 2 characters and save it in a file. You could tweak the program to suit your needs - e.g. all combinations of 6 or 7 or 8 characters or maybe include special characters as well. The file in which all these combinations are stored would be more like a dictionary.

#!/bin/bash

# Program to print all possible 2-character combinations

echo {a..z}{0..9} > /Users/ironcladzone/Documents/xyz.txt

echo {0..9}{a..z} >> /Users/ironcladzone/Documents/xyz.txt

Here's the output of xyz.txt :

a0 a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 a7 a8 a9 b0 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7 b8 b9 c0 c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 c6 c7 c8 c9 d0 d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 d6 d7 d8 d9 e0 e1 e2 e3 e4 e5 e6 e7 e8 e9 f0 f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7 f8 f9 g0 g1 g2 g3 g4 g5 g6 g7 g8 g9 h0 h1 h2 h3 h4 h5 h6 h7 h8 h9 i0 i1 i2 i3 i4 i5 i6 i7 i8 i9 j0 j1 j2 j3 j4 j5 j6 j7 j8 j9 k0 k1 k2 k3 k4 k5 k6 k7 k8 k9 l0 l1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 l7 l8 l9 m0 m1 m2 m3 m4 m5 m6 m7 m8 m9 n0 n1 n2 n3 n4 n5 n6 n7 n8 n9 o0 o1 o2 o3 o4 o5 o6 o7 o8 o9 p0 p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 q0 q1 q2 q3 q4 q5 q6 q7 q8 q9 r0 r1 r2 r3 r4 r5 r6 r7 r8 r9 s0 s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 s6 s7 s8 s9 t0 t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 t7 t8 t9 u0 u1 u2 u3 u4 u5 u6 u7 u8 u9 v0 v1 v2 v3 v4 v5 v6 v7 v8 v9 w0 w1 w2 w3 w4 w5 w6 w7 w8 w9 x0 x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 x8 x9 y0 y1 y2 y3 y4 y5 y6 y7 y8 y9 z0 z1 z2 z3 z4 z5 z6 z7 z8 z9
0a 0b 0c 0d 0e 0f 0g 0h 0i 0j 0k 0l 0m 0n 0o 0p 0q 0r 0s 0t 0u 0v 0w 0x 0y 0z 1a 1b 1c 1d 1e 1f 1g 1h 1i 1j 1k 1l 1m 1n 1o 1p 1q 1r 1s 1t 1u 1v 1w 1x 1y 1z 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f 2g 2h 2i 2j 2k 2l 2m 2n 2o 2p 2q 2r 2s 2t 2u 2v 2w 2x 2y 2z 3a 3b 3c 3d 3e 3f 3g 3h 3i 3j 3k 3l 3m 3n 3o 3p 3q 3r 3s 3t 3u 3v 3w 3x 3y 3z 4a 4b 4c 4d 4e 4f 4g 4h 4i 4j 4k 4l 4m 4n 4o 4p 4q 4r 4s 4t 4u 4v 4w 4x 4y 4z 5a 5b 5c 5d 5e 5f 5g 5h 5i 5j 5k 5l 5m 5n 5o 5p 5q 5r 5s 5t 5u 5v 5w 5x 5y 5z 6a 6b 6c 6d 6e 6f 6g 6h 6i 6j 6k 6l 6m 6n 6o 6p 6q 6r 6s 6t 6u 6v 6w 6x 6y 6z 7a 7b 7c 7d 7e 7f 7g 7h 7i 7j 7k 7l 7m 7n 7o 7p 7q 7r 7s 7t 7u 7v 7w 7x 7y 7z 8a 8b 8c 8d 8e 8f 8g 8h 8i 8j 8k 8l 8m 8n 8o 8p 8q 8r 8s 8t 8u 8v 8w 8x 8y 8z 9a 9b 9c 9d 9e 9f 9g 9h 9i 9j 9k 9l 9m 9n 9o 9p 9q 9r 9s 9t 9u 9v 9w 9x 9y 9z

Metal Gear Solid V : Phantom Pain - Identify the Screenshot

Hello Gamers! How's it going? These days am currently hooked to playing MGSV : Phantom Pain over the weekends. Its quite an exciting tactical shooter which obviously rewards stealth over mindless shooting. I particularly like its Base Management System which unfolds and unlocks new features slowly as per the progress of the missions.

Check out the screenshot of the day. It features one of the platforms of your Mother Base.

Can you guess which platform is it? Drop in your comments guys.

Area & Circumference of a circle - Shell script for Mac OS X

Guys in todays post let us look into a simple basic Mathematics problem. Let us automate the calculation of area and circumference of a circle, using a simple bash script. It's an easy script useful for learning some basic shell scripting.

Note : Value of pi used is a constant value rounded off to 3.142

#!/bin/bash

#program to calculate area and circumference of a circle

echo "=========================================="

echo "Area & Circumference of Circle Calculator"

echo "=========================================="

pi=3.142

echo "Please enter the radius of the circle : "

read radius

circumference=`expr "2*$pi*$radius"|bc`

echo "Circumference of circle : $circumference"

area=`expr "$pi*$radius*$radius"|bc`

echo "Area of circle : $area"

Output :

./AreaOfCircle.sh

==========================================

Area & Circumference of Circle Calculator

==========================================

Please enter the radius of the circle : 

5

Circumference of circle : 31.420

Area of circle : 78.550

Also do check out my previous post on Simple Interest Tool for additional scripting reference.

Script to check if a server / machine is up and running

Guys you might often come across some situations where you want to check if a server or machine is physically up and running. Quite obviously you would use the ping command to do so.

But in today's post let us write a simple bash script to automate this.

#!/bin/bash

#program to check if a server/machine is up and running

ipaddr=192.168.1.34

ping -c 4 $ipaddr >> /dev/null

if [[ $? -ne 0 ]]

then

echo "FAIL: Server seems to be down and not responding" 

else

echo "SUCCESS : Server is up and running"

fi

Note : $? is a special Unix variable to check if the previous command was executed successfully or not. It returns a numerical value - either 0 or 1. If the command was executed successfully, it returns 0, else if not, it returns 1.

In above script, simply replace the variable 'ipaddr' value to your server's ip address and check.

Also note that by redirecting the output of the ping command to /dev/null, we are suppressing and silencing the output i.e the ping o/p will not be shown on terminal. If you want to see the exact output of ping, remove the ">> /dev/null" part.

Output :

./PingServer.sh

SUCCESS : Server is up and running

Cheers!

Simple Interest Calculation : Shell Script for Mac OS X

Guys, today we'll look into a very basic simple shell script to calculate the Simple Interest. For this we need 3 essential details :

Principal Amount
Rate of Interest
Period i.e No. of years

Here's the bash script to calculate the Simple Interest.

#!/bin/bash

#program to calculate simple interest

echo "================================"

echo "Simple Interest Calculation Tool"

echo "================================"

echo "Enter principal amount : "

read principal

echo "Enter Rate of Interest : "

read roi;

echo "Enter No. of years : "

read years;

simple_interest=`expr "($principal*$years*$roi)/100"|bc`

echo "Simple Interest = $simple_interest"

Output :

./SimpleInterest.sh

================================

Simple Interest Calculation Tool

================================

Enter principal amount : 

5000

Enter Rate of Interest : 

9.5

Enter No. of years : 

5

Simple Interest = 2375

If you note, we have used the bc command to evaluate our expression i.e the Simple Interest formula. More on bc can be read here.

How to identify available shells on Mac OS X

Guys you may be aware that you can find your current shell in Mac OSX or any Unix machine by typing the following in Terminal.

echo $SHELL

/bin/bash

But to identify the available shells on Mac OS X type the following :

cat /etc/shells

# List of acceptable shells for chpass(1).

# Ftpd will not allow users to connect who are not using

# one of these shells.

/bin/bash

/bin/csh

/bin/ksh

/bin/sh

/bin/tcsh

/bin/zsh

Also, if you ant to change your default shell, type this :

chsh

Changing shell for ironcladzone.

Password for ironcladzone: 

Hope it helps. Cheers!

GRE GMAT CAT Wordlist - TurboPack 8

Hi there! Hows it going today? Hope the previous TurboPacks are helping you in a small and efficient way in your preparations. Well let me know your valuable suggestions and comments to improve the quality and/or overall experience.

For now, let's continue with the latest TurboPack 8 for the day.

supple : flexible, bending and moving easily, limber
mogul : powerful person
lofty : very high
wholesome : healthful
indigence : extreme poverty
aspersion : slanderous remark, attack on someone's reputation
archetype : prototype, a typical example
gorge : narrow canyon, narrow valley, throat
putrid : foul smelling, decaying or rotten smell
simulate : imitate, pretend

Folks, more TurboPacks are on the way. Make sure to check for my previous TurboPacks 1-7 for reference. Again let me repeat that try to work on small batches of words at a time and focus on them thoroughly. Hope it helps. Ciao!

GRE GMAT CAT Wordlist - TurboPack 7

Hi guys! hows it going? Hows your verbals preparation coming along. Hope the previous TurboPacks are useful in some way. Kindly do post your valuable comments and suggestions guys.

Here's another small batch of 10 Turbo words for the day.

encircle : surround
armada : fleet of warships
garish : overbright in color, gaudy, showy
exhume : dig out from ground
ferret : hunt out of hiding, assiduous search for something
arid : dry, barren
jetsam : things thrown from a ship usually to lighten it
oust : expel, drive out
paragon : model of perfection, a perfect example, of perfect quality
exquisite : very finely made, very beautiful and delicate

And incase you missed it, here are the links to previous TurboPacks

TurboPack 1
TurboPack 2
TurboPack 3
Turbopack 4
TurboPack 5
TurboPack 6

GRE GMAT CAT Wordlist - TurboPack 6

Ola fellas! como estas? How you guys doing? Hope the TurboPacks are aiding your preparations. Let me know your valuable comments and suggestions and if any more assistance needed.

So the TurboPack 6 is as follows :

rebuke : scold harshly, sharply criticise
mischance : ill luck, bad luck
ineffectual : weak, not effective
shirk : avoid/neglect work or responsibility
petty : trivial, unimportant
respite : relief, time for rest
parable : short story with a moral or lesson
shrewd : clever, astute
mirage : unreal reflection, optical illusion
astral : relating to the stars

The TurboPack 7 will be posted tomorrow. Stay tuned folks.

GRE GMAT CAT Wordlist - TurboPack 5

Thanks guys for the good response for my previous TurboPacks. Well, as I said before more TurboPacks are in the pipeline and would be posted at regular intervals. Am really encouraged to post more Packs like these. Again let me reiterate that the USP of TurboPacks is the random non-alphabetical sequencing of words. I think it helps in improved memorisation. Hope it helps guys.

In the meantime, I suggest you cut a cardboard or simply a blank page into 10 mid-sized rectangles. Create your own 10 flash cards the moment you come across the new words in TurboPack. On one side of the rectangle write the word and on the other side write the meaning/synonym. Perhaps a rectangle of the size of the logo below. What say? You could refer to them throughout the day, whenever you wish to. Just target this small batch of 10 words and focus on them thoroughly.

Ok so here we go again. Here's the TurboPack for today.

mortician : an undertaker, a funeral director
biennial : every two years
pyromaniac : person with an obsessive desire to set things on fire
canard : baseless unfounded rumor or story
onslaught : fierce attack, a vicious assault
philanderer : womaniser, a flirt, faithless lover
churlish : rude or boorish
rebate : discount, partial refund
doze : nap, short light sleep
residual : leftover, remaining

Mac OS X - Hidden Gems : Part 3

Guys in today's new gem, we'll see how to play the hidden game Tetris on Mac OS X which comes bundled by default for FREE. Didn't you even know that? I bet you didn't!

Allright! So to play Tetris on Terminal, do this :

• Open Terminal
• Type emacs
• Now hit the Esc button and immediately press x

• When you see the M-x prompt, just type tetris. Now simply relax and play a cool game of Tetris. How cool is that?

GRE GMAT CAT Wordlist - TurboPack 4

Guys, I have seen many people trying by-heart the dictionary all at once while trying to prepare for the verbals of these competitive exams. In my opinion, its wiser to take small batches of words and work on them regularly. Hence the name TurboPack which is essentially a small batch of 10 random words in non-alphabetical sequence. I will try to post some word-sets like these at regular intervals. Make sure you bookmark them for future references.

Also, in case you missed, here's the list of previous TurboPacks.

TurboPack 1
TurboPack 2
TurboPack 3

Tip : Learn the meanings of these words and try to use them in any sentences. For starters, you could add a comment to my blog post with a sentence including a word you just learnt from the TurboPack. Try to have a conversation with someone and use these words randomly. I bet this approach will significantly boost your memorisation.

So here is the latest TurboPack for the day.

diadem : a jewelled crown
amazon : female warrior
cataract : a large waterfall, an eye abnormality
facsimile : copy
contusion : bruise, an injury
encumber : burden in such a way that movement is restricted
kernel : a central or vital part, core
maxim : proverb, a short statement of general truth
noxious : harmful, unpleasant, poisonous
orator : an eloquent/skilled public speaker

That's it for now. Will try to post more exciting and interesting TurboPacks very soon. In the meantime make sure to post an instant comment with some random sentence making use of the above words. Ciao!

GRE GMAT CAT Wordlist - TurboPack 3

The TurboPack 3 wordlist for today is as follows guys. Also do checkout TurboPack 1 and TurboPack 2 for reference.

apparition : ghost, phantom
buccaneer : pirate
nomenclature : terminology, the system of naming things
modicum : small amount, limited quantity
fallacious : based on a fallacy or mistaken belief, misleading
ewe : female sheep
cessation : stoppage, bringing to an end
pragmatic : practical, in a realistic way
recline : lie down, lean back
forlorn : sad and lonely, desolate

Upgrade Subversion on Mac OS X using Homebrew

Hi guys, in today's article we will see how to upgrade Subversion on Mac OS X using Homebrew. Subversion i.e SVN as you know is a popular centralised version controlling system.

First of all check in Terminal, the default pre-loaded version of Subversion that comes packaged with OS X.

svn --version

svn, version 1.7.20 (r1667490)

Now lets install Homebrew on the machine. For that just type the below command as mentioned on Homebrew's homepage. Btw for those who may be unaware, Homebrew is a free open source package management solution.

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Now it will begin the installation process and will change/update the owner and permissions of the following folders.

==> This script will install:

/usr/local/bin/brew

/usr/local/Library/...

/usr/local/share/man/man1/brew.1

==> The following directories will be made group writable:

/usr/local/.

/usr/local/bin

==> The following directories will have their owner set to ironcladzone:

/usr/local/.

/usr/local/bin

==> The following directories will have their group set to admin:

/usr/local/.

/usr/local/bin

Once Homebrew is installed, we need to install Subversion using it. First of all lets get some information about svn installation. Type this in terminal :

brew info subversion

subversion: stable 1.9.3 (bottled)

Version control system designed to be a better CVS

https://subversion.apache.org/

Not installed

From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/blob/master/Library/Formula/subversion.rb

==> Dependencies

Build: pkg-config ✘, scons ✘

Required: sqlite ✘, openssl ✘

Optional: gpg-agent ✘

==> Options

--universal

Build a universal binary

--with-gpg-agent

Build with support for GPG Agent

--with-java

Build Java bindings

--with-perl

Build Perl bindings

--with-python

Build with python support

--with-ruby

Build Ruby bindings

==> Caveats

svntools have been installed to:

  /usr/local/opt/subversion/libexec

You see there are some dependencies that Brew will install along with Svn. Dependencies like sqlite, openssl etc. Proceed with the installation now and be patient for a while till it finishes.

brew install subversion

==> Installing dependencies for subversion: readline, sqlite, openssl

==> Installing subversion dependency: readline

==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/readline-6.3.8.el_capitan.bottle.tar.gz

######################################################################## 100.0%

==> Pouring readline-6.3.8.el_capitan.bottle.tar.gz

==> Caveats

This formula is keg-only, which means it was not symlinked into /usr/local.

.

.

.

==> Caveats

svntools have been installed to:

  /usr/local/opt/subversion/libexec

Bash completion has been installed to:

  /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d

==> Summary

🍺  /usr/local/Cellar/subversion/1.9.3: 148 files, 11.1M

Just check which svn versions are installed on your machine. I mean the locations of svn.

which -a svn

/usr/local/bin/svn

/usr/bin/svn

Now after the installation is complete, if you check svn --version you will still see the older version of svn. Hey but it should be 1.9.3 the latest version right?

svn --version

svn, version 1.7.20 (r1667490)

To fix this we need to add a line to ~/.bash_profile

sudo vi ~/.bash_profile

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"

Now type : source ~/.bash_profile

Check the svn version now and it will show the latest one.

svn --version

svn, version 1.9.3 (r1718519)

Cheers! You just upgraded Subversion on Mac OS X. Hope it helps guys!