Hacking new technology

Our team always used to hit the edge cases quickly... Some technologies might be there for years, but when we start hacking, we'll immediately come across a situation that might faced only by veterans. Our experience with Delphi (one of the coolest technologies), ASP.NET MVC, MonoRail/ASP.NET, iPhone/Android programming proved that. This time, with another new technology... fingers crossed...

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Using Sodexo Meal Pass Card in BigBasket.com - How-to

How to Use Sodexo Meal Pass Card in Bigbasket.com Sodexo started to issue Smart Card similar to Credit Card--instead of their usual paper based vouchers.

I was using Sodexo vouchers for longtime, but it was a big letdown when I can't get some of my unused vouchers renewed. And so, I was somehow happy with their new Meal Pass Card. But, again, it was a big letdown as I can't use it with BigBasket--where I usually use most of my meal coupon vouchers.
SMS message from Sodexo on December 20, 2017 1:18 PM came as a big surprise, as I was waiting for this for longtime:
Great News! Pay with your Sodexo Meal Card for food items ordered from Big Basket. Choose Sodexo in the payment section & pay on delivery.

And so, this month, I tried to use my Sodexo Meal Pass Card in BigBasket.

BigBasket website had not much information; I thought that I have to swipe my Meal Pass Card. Delivery person also didn't have much information; initially he was rejecting my Card! I tried to contact …

Converting PSD with PHP/ImageMagick

After seeing feature rich options in Imagick PECL extension at Mikko Koppanen's (the author) website and also impressed with ImageMagick's features, I have decided to use it for the PSD to XHTML conversion website that I'm architecting and managing.

Since, the team wants programming help for converting PSD images, I have tried it (documentation is sparse on PSD handling)

Converting PSD to PNG/JPEG/etc
Note that, flattenImages() is needed for layered/multi-page PSD file.

<?php
$im = new Imagick('test.psd');
$im->flattenImages();
$im->setImageFormat('png');
$im->writeImage('test.png');
?>

Extracting PSD layers
One by one

<?php
$im = new Imagick('test.psd');
$im->setImageFormat('png');
for ($i = 0, $num_layers = $im->getNumberImages(); $i < $num_layers; ++$i) {
$im->setImageIndex($i);
$im->writeImage('layer' . $i . '.png');
}
?>

Note that, there is a better version below

In a single call with write…

Comparison and review of MacBook cases and brands

Of late, I have worked on the development of AppleOnly.in, a website that sells cases, sleeves, covers, bags, etc for Apple MacBook Air/Pro, iPhone, etc. Because of that, people started to ask questions about cases and their reviews. I'll try to summarize my answers here:

i-Blason Vs iBenzer -- what is the premium brand and why?
Both i-Blason and iBenzer are from the USA. Hence, both are priced around Rs.3,000/- to Rs.8,000/- i-Blason is relatively an established brand (and so, they're popular in social media)iBenzer is relatively new compared to i-Blason. But, cost wise and quality wise, iBenzer is much superior to i-Blason. For example, Hexpact by iBenzer is an award winning design at the CESAt AppleOnly.in, we have not received a single return and complaints for iBenzer. But, many times, we have received complaints and returns from customers for i-Blason.
What MacBook Pro/Air case would you recommend and why? I would personally recommend iBenzer cases without any doubt.

Hexp…