mAadhaar & Unlocking your Aadhaar Biometrics

We all now have to accept the fact that Aadhaar has become the defacto method used for e-KYC for Mobile subscriptions and many other e-commerce matters. The introduction of the mAadhaar App has also ensured that we can display our Aadhaar Card through our Smart Phones without carrying a physical copy of the Card. Very recently it is also being accepted as an ID proof for entry to Indian Airports.

The mAadhaar App provides a unique feature / option to keep your Biometrics locked and only unlock it when you want to get yourself authorized for any kind of Aadhaar linked transactions. So if you have suddenly realized that your Aadhaar authentication was declined recently, its not due to your fingerprints (lol), but because your Biometrics are locked out.

The screenshot on the right (see bottom left hand corner) shows you how your mAadhaar App will display when your Biometrics are locked. On clicking "CLICK TO UNLOCK", your Biometrics will get unlocked for 10 mins, during which you can perform any number of Aadhaar related authorizations.

I learnt it the hard way when I had to spend 15 mins at Vodafone store without realizing why my Biometric authentication was getting declined.

While I have now got accustomed getting my Biometrics unlocked before I visit any store, the latest trouble is with heavy load on Aadhaar Servers. I faced a tremendous issue last Sunday while collecting my Jio Phone from Reliance Digital Express, since my Biometrics were not getting unlocked as the mAadhaar App kept flashing "Server Not Responding" or "Check your Internet connectivity".

Finally after applying some logic and looking across on Internet, I found that you can Unlock / Disable your Biometric lock directly from the UIDAI Biometric Link - https://resident.uidai.gov.in/biometric-lock .  

So in future if you see that you are unable to unlock your Aadhaar Biometrics using the mAadhaar App, don't panic, just visit the Portal above. Login using your Aadhaar number and OTP, and post login you will find 2 options - either to temporarily UNLOCK your Biometric Lock (for 10 mins) or permanently DISABLE the Biometric Lock.

Tech Review: Logitech K480 Bluetooth Multi-Device Keyboard

My Notebook started to behave erratically from past few months and I was urgently looking out for some device which could help me in leveraging the existing Tab's which I had at home and give me a Notebook experience.

What better to use than Logitech's K480 Bluetooth Multi-Device Keyboard . I had been keenly tracking this product on e-commerce portal's from past few months and went I found a lightning deal (effective price of INR 1,600) on PayTM Mall, went for it.

While the device might look small on pics, it comes in the size of an A4 size paper. Mind you, though it might not be that sleek, but definitely after using this product for few days, you will fall in love with it. By using this Bluetooth Keyboard with an iPad you can surely get most of your Desktop Publishing jobs done.

Features & Pros -

1. Solid build quality and Sturdy.

2. Cradle with Silicone coating which can hold - 1 x iPad Mini + 1 x 5' Phone or 1 x iPad 9.7' or 1 x iPad 12'. While I speak about iPad, you can use any Tab of similar size.

3. Good Tactile Keys and sufficient space between keys reduces chances of mis-typing. 

4. Can pair with devices of all known Platforms - Apple - iOS/MacOS, Android, ChromeOS and Windows.

5. Works with a pair of AAA batteries with advertised Battery life of 2 years.

6. Shortcut keys for Search, Home Screen, Frequent Apps, Media Control for all Platforms.

7. Dial Switch to connected with 1 of the 3 paired devices.

8. Dedicated keys to pair with with Androis/Windows/ChromeOS and iOS/MacOS.

9. A solid replacement for the soft touch On-Screen Keyboard to convert your Tab into a full-fledged PC.

10. Due to Dial Switch you can keep both a small Tab and your Phone on the cradle and switch typing from one device to another just by turning the dial.

Cons -

1. Power Switch at bottom.

2. Slightly heavy than expected.

3. Since this is a Bluetooth keyboard it will deplete the paired devices' Battery faster.

You may also visit the link which I have shared above and understand all features in detail from Logitech's Portal. It comes in 2 x colors - Black and White. I bought both and gifted one to a friend. If you have a Silver iPad, I would suggest going for the White Keyboard and if you have the Space Grey iPad, I would suggest going for the Black Keyboard.

If you were always planning to go for a Bluetooth Keyboard, look no further. Get yourself a Logitech K480 this Diwali and share your feedback with me.

DIY: Custom-made Smart TV using non-functional Notebook Screen

Its that time when your old Notebook after repeated trouble, conks off and you discover that the Motherboard is fried and getting a new Motherboard is not the solution owing to the price.

I met with a similar fate last year my HP Pavilion DV6 Notebook (bought in 2011) died due to overheating of AMD processor. I then found out that rather than disposing off the Notebook for a cheap price you can re-use its functional parts, one among then was its HD LED screen. That's how it struck me to build a Smart TV out of the functional screen.

Method to build the TV -

1. You begin with first dismantling your Notebook and detaching the screen from the base (search on YoutTube to learn more on this for the specific model of your Notebook). 

2. Now you need to remove the frame from the screen's bezel and carefully detach the LED screen. If you look at the back of the screen, you can find the screen's specific model number. In my case I had this screen with model number "AU Optronics B156XW02 V.2 HW4A Laptop LCD Screen 15.6 WXGA Glossy".

3. Now search "B156XW02 LED driver card" in Aliexpress. I had a seller who sold what I required. The kit consists of the LED Driver Board, 5 Key Keypad and LVDS cable (to connect to the screen). Just be sure to order the driver card specific to the screen model number, else your screen will not work and you may end up damaging your screen.

4. Once the LED Driver kit arrived, I detached the the old LVDS cable and connected the new LVDS cable with the LED screen and the LED driver board. I also attached the 5 Key Keypad with the LED driver board.

Adaptive approach towards Project Management

In today's fast-paced Business, Project Manager's play a pivotal role in the success and failure of projects. Theoretically Project Management encompasses multiple modules like Planning, Scheduling, Cost Management, Resource Management (and more..) and also involves various artifacts like Project Charter, Risk Register, Status Reports, etc. However when you talk of Project Management in IT, not all projects are of the same magnitude and complexity, and hence one needs to have an adaptive approach towards Project Management to fine tune the amount of efforts an assigned Project Manager / Delivery Project Manager spends in a project. 

In today's projectized world working on a Global Delivery Model, you will generally find one or many of the following Project Mgmt related roles depending on the size of the projects -

1. Program Director.

2. Program Manager.

3. Lead Project Manager.

4. Regional Project Manager.

5. Project Coordinator.

6. Service Transition Manager.

Best Out of Waste - Legacy Peripherals as Raspberry Pi / Kodi Media Centre Remotes

I am pretty sure that at some point in time you feel like throwing off your old Keyboards, Mouse and other legacy Peripherals. But if you have just bought a Raspberry Pi like me, think again! 

Your legacy input devices may turn out to be some useful remotes for Raspberry Pi Media Centre.

There are multiple tools through which you can have a Media Centre running on a Raspberry Pi - you have OSMC, OpenElec and LibreElec. While they all sound different, they eventually turn out to be Operating Systems to run the main Media Centre Application named KODI (earlier known as "XBMC").

OSMC and LibreElec are offered as part of the NOOBS menu(multi-boot OS loader for Raspberry Pi). I tried out both OSMC and LibreElec but finally settled with LibreElec as I found it to more lightweight and fast as compared to OSMC.

While you can use a USB Keyboard and Mouse (or a Wireless USB Keyboard and Mouse) to do the main LibreElec setup, but once all's done, you will no more require a Keyboard to operate it. In this post I share with you my experience about re-purposing legacy peripherals as remotes to operate the Media Centre.

Selecting the right Case, Power Adapter and GPIO Cable for Raspberry Pi 3

While my last post on Raspberry Pi 3 was mainly aimed towards making a custom-made Case to begin your initial Pi 3 setup, in this post I would share my experience on selecting the right Case, Charger and GPIO Cable for the Pi.

1. Case - 

Pi 3 being a niche product, its difficult to find a case in a nearby Electronic store and hence you are left to choose only from the e-commerce portals like eBay, Snapdeal, FlipKart, etc. Though there are numerous options available online, you need to concentrate on some key features before you order the case -

• Availability of a Cooling Fan and Heat Sink -  While many in the forums would say that you neither need a fan or heat sink, but after having experimented with the Pi 3 for nearly a week now I would say that it is always recommended to have both to keep the Pi 3 running cool. I found the idle temperatures of the Pi 3 without fan + heat-sink in Indian conditions to over around 45 - 50 deg C. Post using fan + heat-sink, the idle temperatures are found around 38 - 42 deg C. I would say that the fan + heat-sink cools the Pi 3 by almost 10 deg C
• Access to GPIO Pins - As you know that the Pi 3 is not just meant for Server-based computing but also for Robotics and other Engineering projects, hence a case which provides easy access to the GPIO pins without compromising the protection of the Pi 3 board is required
• (Optional) Access to the On-board Camera Port - Similar to the GPIO pins, a case with easy access to the Camera Port is preferable. But this is only required if you plan to buy a Camera manufactured for Pi
• Easy mounting case - A case where the Pi 3 board can fit with minimal screws

After keeping in mind all the above key features I went for the Case shown above bought from Amazon.

DIY: Initial Raspberry Pi 3 experience & Making a low-cost Pi Case with 250gm Butter Case

New year brought some good news for me after I finally bought a Raspberry Pi 3 to build some hobby projects (Server based and Engineering) which I had read on the Net from long. After ordering the Pi 3 I was also prompted to buy a Case with a fan since some articles and videos showed that the CPU of Pi really gets hot sometimes. 

Within a short span of 24 hours I roughly completed 3-4 projects - 

1. Using the Pi as a Portable NAS (Network Attached Storage) Server.

2. Using the Pi as Webcam Server using a legacy Desktop Webcam.

3. Connecting the Pi to Internet using a TATA Photon Plus Internet dongle.

4. Booting the Pi using a small-sized Micro SD card and a large USB Thumb Drive.

I also managed to play streaming using (using Gaana.com) and also watched HD videos on YouTube. Do note that by default the Pi neither plays Music using the Analog Audio Port, nor through HDMI. So you need to run the "raspi-config" utility (Advanced Options -> Audio) to fine tune your Pi. I also learnt that the Pi doesn't have any BIOS and hence its start-up is controlled using the "/boot/config.txt" file.