Here Are 6 Ways To Dual-Booting With Windows 8 And Linux!

Here's how Windows users can try out the 'goodness' of Linux without having to give up on their OS.

You think Linux is not for you and only for the tech savvy and those who are trained? Well, think again! The way things stand right now, laptops and PCs are becoming passé and mobile operating systems are gaining popularity. Linux is being adopted like never before! When it comes to choosing your operating system, you must focus on what your usage is. However, if your using Windows, you can still try out the 'goodness' of Linux without having to give up on your first love!

 1. Install the Linux GRUB bootloader

-Install the Linux GRUB bootloader as the default boot object.

-The catch here is you need to have a UEFI-compatible Linux distribution (openSuSE, Fedora, Linux Mint and Ubuntu).

-When you install a UEFI-compatible Linux distribution and everything works well, you will get the GRUB boot menu after a reboot. You can then choose either Linux or Windows 8 to boot from it.

2. Use the BIOS Boot Select Key

-There's a possibility that doing everything of the above still gets you nowhere, and you're still getting Windows rather than Linux after reboot.

-In that case you can use the BIOS Boot Selection option (activated by pressing a special key that varies between systems during the power-on or reboot process.)

-Pressing the special key will interrupt the Windows boot process and you will get a list of available operating systems (Windows 8 and Linux).

3. Enable 'Legacy Boot'

-Some systems make it difficult to enable Legacy Boot. The option might be well hidden in the BIOS configuration, or require a BIOS password before they will let you change it.

-Legacy Boot allows you to install more or less any Linux distribution, without worrying about UEFI compatbility.

4. Try a workaround

-There is a "next boot" option available, which specifices a one time boot configuration.

-If it is set the system will try to boot that item first, and will also clear that setting so that on the next boot it goes back to using the default boot sequence list.

-The next boot configuration can be set from Linux using efibootmgr -n XXXX, where XXXX is the item number from the boot list.

-Add the efibootmgr command to the Linux startup scripts. Every time you boot Linux, it would reset the value so that it would boot Linux again the following time.

5. Trick the default boot process

-Put the Linux shim.efi (or grubx64.efi) image where the Windows Boot Manager is normally located. This is a cleaver trick to trick the default boot process.

6. Install a different Boot Manager

-rEFInd has the advantage of being able to boot almost anything - Windows, Linux, MacOS. It automatically finds whatever might be on the disk and then presents you with a boot selection list.

Author : Shivam Kotwalia, CodeKill

The Top 10 Greatest Programmers in the World of all Time

Greatest Programmers in the World of all Time 

Dennis Ritchie

Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie was an American computer scientist who "helped shape the digital era". He created the C programming language and with long-time colleague Ken Thompson, the Unix operating system. Ritchie and Thompson received the Turing Award from the ACM in 1983, the Hamming Medal from the IEEE in 1990 and the National Medal of Technology from President Clinton in 1999. Ritchie was the head of Lucent Technologies System Software Research Department when he retired in 2007.

Bjarne Stroustrup

Bjarne Stroustrup is a Danish computer scientist, most notable for the creation and development of the widely used C++ programming language. He is a Distinguished Research Professor and holds the College of Engineering Chair in Computer Science at Texas A&M University, a visiting professor at Columbia University, and works at Morgan Stanley.

Linus Torvalds

Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish American software engineer, who was the principal force behind the development of the Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator. He also created the revision control system Git as well as the diving log software Subsurface. He was honored, along with Shinya Yamanaka, with the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize by the Technology Academy Finland in recognition of his creation of a new open source operating system for computers leading to the widely used Linux kernel.

Tim Berners-Lee

Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee also known as "TimBL," is a British computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He made a proposal for an information management system in March 1989 and he implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the Internet. Berners-Lee is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the Web's continued development.

Brian Kernighan

Brian Wilson Kernighan is a Canadian computer scientist who worked at Bell Labs alongside Unix creators Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie and contributed to the development of Unix. He is also coauthor of the AWK and AMPL programming languages. Kernighan's name became widely known through co-authorship of the first book on the C programming language with Dennis Ritchie.

Donald Kuth

Donald Ervin Knuth is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. He is the author of the multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming. Knuth has been called the "father" of the analysis of algorithms. He contributed to the development of the rigorous analysis of the computational complexity of algorithms and systematized formal mathematical techniques for it. In the process he also popularized the asymptotic notation. Knuth is the creator of the TeX computer typesetting system, the related METAFONT font definition language and rendering system and the Computer Modern family of typefaces.

Ken Thompson

Kenneth Thompson commonly referred to as ken in hacker circles is an American pioneer of computer science. Having worked at Bell Labs for most of his career, Thompson designed and implemented the original Unix operating system. He also invented the B programming language, the direct predecessor to the C programming language, and was one of the creators and early developers of the Plan 9 operating systems. Since 2006, Thompson works at Google, where he co-invented the Go programming language.

Guido van Rossum

Guido van Rossum is a Dutch computer programmer who is best known as the author of the Python programming language. In the Python community, Van Rossum is known as a "Benevolent Dictator For Life" (BDFL), meaning that he continues to oversee the Python development process, making decisions where necessary. He was employed by Google from 2005 until December 7th 2012, where he spent half his time developing the Python language. In January 2013, Van Rossum started working for Dropbox.

James Gosling

James Arthur Gosling is a Canadian computer scientist, best known as the father of the Java programming language. James has also made major contributions to several other software systems, such as NeWS and Gosling Emacs. Due to his extra-ordinary achievements Gosling was elected to Foreign Associate member of the United States National Academy of Engineering.

Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, programmer, inventor and philanthropist. Gates is the former chief executive and chairman of Microsoft, the world’s largest personal-computer software company, which he co-founded with Paul Allen.

Author : Shivam Kotwalia, CodeKill

Free eBooks On Microcontrollers

You can learn a lot about microcontrollers with these free ebooks. 

Here's an assorted list of 8 free ebooks that will not only guide you through the basics but will also help you learn programming. Meant for both beginners and pros. Happy reading!

1. Introduction to Microcontrollers
by Guenther Gridling, Bettina Weiss - Vienna University of Technology, 2007
As the introduction of the book says, "This text introduces undergraduate students to the field of microcontrollers -- what they are, how they work, how they interface with their I/O components, what considerations the programmer has to observe in hardware-based and embedded programming."

2. PaulOS: An 8051 Real-Time Operating System
by Paul P. Debono - Bookboon , 2013
As the introduction of the book says, "This book is intended for undergraduate Engineering and/or IT students studying micro-controllers and embedded systems. It covers mainly the 8051 family of micro-controllers starting with the basic architecture and then moves on to assembly language."

3. What's a Microcontroller?
by Andy Lindsay - Parallax Inc. , 2003
As the introduction of the book says, "This book is a first-step BASIC Stamp 2 tutorial, introducing the essentials electronics and programming side by side. You will write PBASIC programs and build both simple and advanced breadboard circuits with LEDs, pushbuttons, light sensor, etc."

4. PIC Microcontrollers: Programming in Basic
by Milan Verle - mikroElektronika , 2010
As the introduction of the book says, "This book will help you learn more about programming PIC microcontrollers in BASIC with practical, common-sense instructions, real projects, clear illustrations and detailed schematics. All you need to know about designing and building PIC devices."

5. Architecture and Programming of 8051 Microcontrollers
by Milan Verle - mikroElektronika, 2010
As the introduction of the book says, "The book contains details of 8051 microcontroller architecture and practical examples, useful program routines, instructions on handling the programmer for Atmel 51 series, and the guide on using the development systems for Atmel microcontrollers."

6. PIC Microcontrollers - Programming in C
by Milan Verle - mikroElektronika , 2009
As the introduction of the book says, "What are microcontrollers? Electronics built in one single chip capable of controlling a small submarine, a crane or an elevator. It's up to you to decide what you want them to do and dump a program containing appropriate instructions into the chip."

7. PIC microcontrollers, for beginners too
by Nebojsa Matic - mikroElektronika , 2003
As the introduction of the book says, "The purpose of this book is not to make a microcontroller expert out of you, but to make you equal to those who had someone to go to for their answers. It contains many examples, assembler instruction set, appendix on MPLAB program package, etc."

8. PIC Microcontrollers
by Milan Verle - mikroElektronika , 2008
As the introduction of the book says, "It's high time to learn what the microcontrollers are and how they operate. Numerous illustrations and practical examples along with detailed description of the PIC16F887 will make you enjoy your work with the PIC microcontrollers." 

Author: Shivam Kotwalia, CodeKill

Add-Ons For Raspberry Pi That You Should Know About

You didn't buy a Raspberry Pi to simply show it. You would want to make the best use of it, won't you? 

Since its launch, the open source board Raspberry Pi has proved to be a godsend. There have been tons of uses found for the device. Moreover, there have been thousands of add-ons created for it. Some of these, though amazing and very useful, are lesser known. Here are 10 such lesser known ones.

1. Jason Barnett's MotorPiTX board

This is an integrated servo or motor board and integrated power supply for Raspberry Pi. You can use it for various projects, like building your own robots/.

2. Cosma Pabouctsidis Smart IO Expansion Card

Here you will find a smart I/O card that can be stacked on top of a single board Raspberry Pi computer.

3. Pi Supply's Fish Dish

This is an add-on board for your Raspberry Pi that lets you add three LEDs, a switch and a buzzer to it.

4. Pi Supply's Pi Crust (Mounted on Pi)

Want to make your Raspberry Pi easier to connect with other electronics? This is the board to go for.

5. GeekRoo's Fairywren Mini-ITX Motherboard

If this list were set in the order of preference then this add-on would be at the top of the list. It allows you to turn your Raspberry Pi into somewhat of a CPU hub, making it a full-fledged computer.

6. Grasping Hand's SweetBox, Heatsinks & ScorPi

Sweetbox is the smallest case for your Raspberry Pi, while Scorpi is a camera board holder.

7. MausBerry Circuits' Power Supply Ignition Switch

Did you know about this one? This is a car power supply for Raspberry Pi. It is capable of sensing the ignition and then shutting down the Pi safely.

8. Ciseco's Pi Light Bright White LED Display

This one has a series of white LEDs, which can work as a variety of things. These include being a marquee that scrolls for weather information, Twitter feed etc. In addition, it is also capable of displaying static information, like time etc.

9. OpenElectronics' Pi-Pan Tilt Kit

This one provides tilt and Pan movements for your Raspberry Pi-based camera. You can use this add-on to pan the camera from left to right, which means at an angle as big as 180 degres.

10. Alex Eames's HDMIPi HD Screen Prototypes

This is an effort at creating an HDMI screen that is not of sub-standard quality and neither are they expensive. It creates a small HDMI screen using the Raspberry Pi.

Author: Shivam Kotwalia, CodeKill

Raspberry Pi Projects That Will Blow Your Mind

Raspberry Pi can be used to do some pretty amazing things. Here are some of the best that have been done.

Raspberry Pi, the tiny open source computer, is a neat little device. It has been used by many users to build innovative microcomputers that can come in handy for a variety of purposes. Here are some of the best models that we saw.

1. Build a Nice-Looking Cardboard Raspberry Pi Case

Being a completely stripped down device, you need to build a case for your Raspberry Pi board. You can either build the case or buy one.

2. Build a Raspberry Pi-Powered Computer

You can make an entire computer that is powered by Raspberry Pi. This includes simple and easy to make machines to full all-in-one desktops.

3. Set Up a Personal Web Server

If you’re good with programming then you can use a Raspberry Pi to build you own web server. It won’t be able to deal with major traffic, but you can use it for various other purposes, like hosting a small file sharing network for free.

4. Raspberry Pi Home Automation

Raspberry Pi boards have been used for home automation in multiple innovations by users all around the world.

5. Make a Solar-Powered Raspberry Pi

You can also utilise solar power for running your Rapberry Pi. It makes for a very good DIY option.

6. Camera Pi – DSLR Camera with Embedded Computer

How about installing a computer in a DSLR Camera? Raspberry Pi gives you the power to do it.

7. Use a Raspberry Pi to Automate Time-Lapse Photos

This is an instructable that teaches you how to build a time-lapse dolly using the Raspberry Pi.

8. Hack a Kindle Into a Minimal Computer with a Raspberry Pi

Did you know you could use the Kindle as a monitor for your Raspberry Pi unit? All you need is a keyboard, some USB cables, the Kindle and the Pi.

9. Build an Automatic DeviantArt Picture Frame

You can build a photo frame that is powered by the Raspberry Pi. This allows you to download and put up a slideshow of pictures from Deviant Art.

10. Build a Raspberry Pi-Powered MAME Arcade Table

In this project, the Pi has been used in order to build a slimline version of the arcade cocktail cabinet. You can also use the cabinet to browser the internet, write emails etc.

11. Build a Virtual Analogue Synthesizer Using Raspberry Pi

This comes from one of the members of the Raspberry Pi Foundation forums. The member, Omenie, was working on a synthesizer using the Rapberry Pi microcomputer.

12. Raspberry PI in a Game Boy Case

Want handheld PC for yourself? All you need to do is put in a Raspberry Pi computer within the old school Nintendo Game Boy.

Author : Shivam Kotwalia, CodeKill