How to install Beautiful Soup or BS4 on Windows?

BeautifulSoup is a Python module which is meant for web scraping. That is, using Python, you can fetch an html webpage (using a module such as urllib2), and then obtain meaningful information out of the html file (using the BeautifulSoup module).

Here are the steps to download and install BeautifulSoup on Windows. It assumes you have already installed python and you know how to use an archiving tool such as 7-zip.

1) Download the BeautifulSoup compressed file from the below link:
http://www.crummy.com/software/BeautifulSoup/bs4/download/

In my case, I have downloaded a file named beautifulsoup4-4.2.1.tar.gz.

2) Extract the archive using a tool like 7-zip. Once you have extracted the files, open cmd prompt, and go to directory named beautifulsoup4-4.2.1

3) Run the following command to install BeautifulSoup
C:\>python setup.py install

4) Test the installation with this command :
>>>from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

If you see the python prompt (>>>) in the next line without any errors, then it means BS4 is successfully installed.

A list of cookbooks on computers and technology

Here's a list of technology books- all related to computing. These are purely cookbooks, whose content is generally structured in the form of 'recipes'. For example, a recipe in an O'reilly book would have a problem statement, the solution and then a discussion. A book from PackT publishers would have headings like "How to do it", "How it works", "There's more", "See also", etc.

Though these books are useful for beginners, they are meant for fairly experienced users or developers who want to achieve specific tasks. I have linked each book to its Amazon.com page so that you can check out some reviews or read sample chapters. As much as possible, I have listed books that have a rating of 4+ stars on Amazon (assuming at least 90% of the reviews are genuine). Hope you enjoy it.

Programming - Java, C, Python, Ruby, PERL, R 

• Python Cookbook by David Beazley and Brian K. Jones (May 29, 2013)
• Violent Python: A Cookbook for Hackers, Forensic Analysts, Penetration Testers and Security Engineers by TJ O'Connor (Nov 22, 2012)
• Python Text Processing with NLTK 2.0 Cookbook by Jacob Perkins (Nov 11, 2010)
• NumPy Cookbook by Ivan Idris (Oct 25, 2012)
• Perl Cookbook, Second Edition by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington (Aug 28, 2003)
• R Cookbook (O'Reilly Cookbooks) by Paul Teetor (Mar 22, 2011)
• PHP Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for PHP Programmers by Adam Trachtenberg and David Sklar (Aug 1, 2006)
• Clojure Data Analysis Cookbook by Eric Rochester (Mar 25, 2013)
• Ruby Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) by Lucas Carlson and Leonard Richardson (Jul 26, 2006)
• Java Cookbook, Second Edition by Ian F Darwin (Jun 21, 2004)
• ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook: Solutions for Flash Platform and Flex Application Developers by Joey Lott, Darron Schall and Keith Peters (Oct 18, 2006)
• Java 7 New Features Cookbook by Richard M. Reese and Jennifer L. Reese (Feb 23, 2012)
• C# Programmer's Cookbook by Allen Jones (Nov 26, 2003)
• Java Soa Cookbook by Eben Hewitt (Apr 2, 2009)
• XSLT Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for XML and XSLT Developers, 2nd Edition by Sal Mangano (Dec 21, 2005)

Databases, SQL, NoSQL

• SQL Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) by Anthony Molinaro (Dec 23, 2005)
• Hadoop Real World Solutions Cookbook by Jonathan R. Owens, Brian Femiano and Jon Lentz (Feb 11, 2013)

• PostgreSQL 9 Admin Cookbook by Simon Riggs and Hannu Krosing (Oct 26, 2010)
• MySQL Cookbook by Paul DuBois (Jan 27, 2007)
• Cassandra High Performance Cookbook by Edward Capriolo (Jul 15, 2011)
• HBase Administration Cookbook by Yifeng Jiang (Aug 16, 2012)

Linux, Unix, Bash

• Regular Expressions Cookbook by Jan Goyvaerts and Steven Levithan (Sep 3, 2012)
• CentOS 6 Linux Server Cookbook by Jonathan Hobson (Apr 18, 2013)
• Bash Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Bash Users (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) by Carl Albing, JP Vossen and Cameron Newham (May 31, 2007)
• Linux Cookbook by Carla Schroder (Dec 1, 2004)
• Apache Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Apache Administrators by Rich Bowen and Ken Coar (Jan 11, 2008)
• The Linux Cookbook, Second Edition by Michael Stutz (Aug 2004)
• Linux Networking Cookbook by Carla Schroder (Dec 3, 2007)
• BackTrack 5 Cookbook by Pritchett Willie and David De Smet (Dec 21, 2012)

Arduino, Raspberry Pi

• Arduino Cookbook by Michael Margolis (Dec 30, 2011)
• Raspberry Pi Networking Cookbook by Rick Golden (Mar 7, 2013)

Android , iOS

• iOS 6 Programming Cookbook by Vandad Nahavandipoor (Dec 25, 2012)
• The Core iOS 6 Developer's Cookbook (4th Edition) (Developer's Library) by Erica Sadun (Dec 13, 2012)
• Android Cookbook by Ian F. Darwin (Apr 27, 2012)
• AndEngine for Android Game Development Cookbook by Jayme Schroeder and Brian Broyles (Jan 15, 2013)
• Android Native Development Kit Cookbook by Feipeng Liu (Mar 26, 2013)
• The iOS 5 Developer's Cookbook: Core Concepts and Essential Recipes for iOS Programmers (3rd Edition) (Developer's... by Erica Sadun (Jan 28, 2012)
• The Android Developer's Cookbook: Building Applications with the Android SDK: Building Applications with the Android... by James Steele and Nelson To (Oct 27, 2010)

Web

• The Web Game Developer's Cookbook: Using JavaScript and HTML5 to Develop Games by Evan Burchard (Mar 31, 2013)
• RESTful Web Services Cookbook: Solutions for Improving Scalability and Simplicity by Subbu Allamaraju (Mar 11, 2010)
• HTML5 Graphing & Data Visualization Cookbook by Ben Fhala (Nov 23, 2012)
• Web Developer's Cookbook by Robin Nixon (Mar 27, 2012)
• HTML5 Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) by Christopher Schmitt and Kyle Simpson (Nov 26, 2011)
• HTML5 Developer's Cookbook (Developer's Library) by Chuck Hudson and Tom Leadbetter (Dec 16, 2011)
• jQuery Cookbook: Solutions & Examples for jQuery Developers (Animal Guide) by Cody Lindley (Dec 3, 2009)
• Rails Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) by Rob Orsini (Jan 16, 2007)
• Ext JS 3.0 Cookbook by Jorge Ramon (Oct 20, 2009)
• YUI 3 Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) by Evan Goer (Jun 14, 2012)

Enterprise Technologies -  Oracle, SAP, IBM

• Oracle SOA Suite 11g Developer's Cookbook by Antony Reynolds and Matt Wright (Dec 26, 2012)
• Oracle Essbase 11 Development Cookbook by Jose R. Ruiz (Jan 24, 2012)
• Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Administration Cookbook by Dhananjay Papde, Vipul Patel and Tushar Nath (Mar 15, 2013)
• InfoPath 2010 Cookbook: 101 Codeless Recipes for Beginners by S.Y.M. Wong-A-Ton (Feb 1, 2011)
• Oracle E-Business Suite R12 Integration and OA Framework Development and Extension Cookbook by Andy Penver (Mar 26, 2013)
• SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook by David Lai and Xavier Hacking (May 23, 2011)
• InfoPath 2010 Cookbook 4: 101 Code Recipes for VB Developers by S.Y.M. Wong-A-Ton (Aug 11, 2012)
• InfoPath 2010 Cookbook 3: 101 Code Recipes for C# Developers by S.Y.M. Wong-A-Ton (Mar 2, 2012)
• IBM Cognos 8 Report Studio Cookbook by Abhishek Sanghani (Jun 1, 2010)
• Oracle JDeveloper 11gR2 Cookbook by Nick Haralabidis (Jan 24, 2012)
• IBM DB2 9.7 Advanced Administration Cookbook by Adrian Neagu and Robert Pelletier (Feb 24, 2012)

Microsoft

• Windows PowerShell Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Scripting Microsoft's Command Shell by Lee Holmes (Jan 17, 2013)
• Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Cookbook by Edvaldo Alessandro Cardoso (Mar 25, 2013)
• Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Manager Cookbook by Samuel Erskine (MCT), Steven Beaumont, Anders Asp (MVP) and Dieter Gasser (Oct 26, 2012)
• Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Cookbook by Leandro Carvalho (Nov 23, 2012)
• Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager: Administration Cookbook by Mason Brian and Ramsey Greg (Sep 25, 2012)
• Windows Presentation Foundation 4.5 Cookbook by Pavel Yosifovich (Sep 25, 2012)
• Microsoft System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection Cookbook by Andrew Plue (Oct 4, 2012)
• Microsoft Exchange 2010 PowerShell Cookbook by Mike Pfeiffer (Jul 25, 2011)
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: Dashboards Cookbook by Mark AuCoin (Jan 18, 2012)
• Access Data Analysis Cookbook by Ken Bluttman and Wayne S. Freeze (May 21, 2007)
• Windows Server 2012 Automation with PowerShell Cookbook by Ed Goad (Mar 26, 2013)
• ADO.NET 3.5 Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) by Bill Hamilton (Apr 4, 2008)
• Excel Scientific and Engineering Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) by David M Bourg (Jan 24, 2006)
• Microsoft Windows Communication Foundation 4.0 Cookbook for Developing SOA Applications by Steven Cheng (Oct 20, 2010)
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Development Cookbook by Mindaugas Pocius (May 4, 2012)
• Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Cookbook by Mark Polino (Jul 5, 2010)
• Microsoft Windows Server AppFabric Cookbook by Hammad Rajjoub and Rick G. Garibay (Jul 26, 2012)
• Active Directory Cookbook, 3rd Edition by Laura E. Hunter and Robbie Allen (Dec 26, 2008)
• Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Programmer's Cookbook (Pro-Developer) by Matthew MacDonald (Jun 4, 2003)
• Visual Studio 2012 Cookbook by Richard Banks (Sep 5, 2012)

Miscellaneous

• JIRA 5.x Development Cookbook by Jobin Kuruvilla (Apr 25, 2013)
• Selenium Testing Tools Cookbook by Gundecha Unmesh (Nov 23, 2012)
• OpenGL 4.0 Shading Language Cookbook by David Wolff (Jul 26, 2011)
• OpenStack Cloud Computing Cookbook by Kevin Jackson (Sep 25, 2012)
• Nmap 6: Network exploration and security auditing Cookbook by Calderon Pale Paulino (Nov 23, 2012)
• Programming ArcGIS 10.1 with Python Cookbook by Eric Pimpler (Feb 22, 2013)
• Nmap Cookbook: The Fat-free Guide to Network Scanning by Nicholas Marsh (Jan 27, 2010)
• Puppet 2.7 Cookbook by John Arundel (Oct 24, 2011)
• Avid Media Composer 6.x Cookbook by Benjamin Hershleder (Dec 20, 2012)
• Nagios Core Administration Cookbook by Tom Ryder (Jan 25, 2013)
• OpenCV 2 Computer Vision Application Programming Cookbook by Robert Laganière (May 23, 2011)
• Cisco IOS Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) by Kevin Dooley and Ian Brown (Dec 29, 2006)
• Photoshop Fine Art Effects Cookbook: 62 Easy-to-Follow Recipes for Creating the Classic Styles of Great Artists... by John Beardsworth (Feb 28, 2006)
• Vaadin 7 Cookbook by Jaroslav Holan and Ondrej Kvasnovský (Apr 24, 2013)
• Mathematica Cookbook by Sal Mangano (May 12, 2010)
• Junos Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) by Aviva Garrett (Apr 25, 2006)
• Web Security Testing Cookbook: Systematic Techniques to Find Problems Fast by Paco Hope and Ben Walther (Oct 24, 2008)
• Data Mining Cookbook: Modeling Data for Marketing, Risk and Customer Relationship Management by Olivia Parr Rud (Nov 3, 2000)
• Articulate Studio Cookbook by Robert Kennedy III (Nov 23, 2012)
• FreeSWITCH Cookbook by Anthony Minessale (Feb 23, 2012)
• ScreenOS Cookbook by Stefan Brunner, Vik Davar, Joe Kelly and Ken Draper (Mar 4, 2008)
• Pentaho Data Integration 4 Cookbook by Pulvirenti Adrián Sergio and Roldán María Carina (Jun 23, 2011)
• Node Cookbook by David Mark Clements (Jul 25, 2012)
• Jenkins Continuous Integration Cookbook by Alan Berg (Jun 21, 2012)
• Moodle 2.0 Multimedia Cookbook by Silvina P. Hillar (May 19, 2011)
• MDX with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Cookbook by Tomislav Piasevoli (Aug 9, 2011)
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8: Expert Administration Cookbook by Tanner Ezell (Mar 30, 2012)
• Cisco Cookbook by Kevin Dooley and Ian Brown (Jul 31, 2003)
• Moodle JavaScript Cookbook by Alastair Hole (Apr 26, 2011)
• Snort Cookbook by Angela Orebaugh, Simon Biles and Jacob Babbin (Apr 5, 2005)
• OData Programming Cookbook for .NET Developers by Steven Cheng (Jul 25, 2012)
• Torque 3D Game Development Cookbook by David Wyand (Jan 25, 2013)
• Jakarta Commons Cookbook by Timothy M. O'Brien (Nov 23, 2004)
• Drools Developer's Cookbook by Lucas Amador (Jan 3, 2012)
• Processing 2: Creative Programming Cookbook by Vantomme Jan (Sep 20, 2012)
• Play Framework Cookbook by Alexander Reelsen (Aug 8, 2011)
• Flex 4 Cookbook: Real-world recipes for developing Rich Internet Applications (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)) by Joshua Noble, Todd Anderson, Garth Braithwaite and Marco Casario (May 27, 2010)
• PostScript Language Tutorial and Cookbook by Adobe Systems Inc. (Oct 3, 2007)
• CryENGINE 3 Cookbook by Dan Tracy and Sean Tracy (Jun 23, 2011)
• gnuplot Cookbook by Lee Phillips (Feb 24, 2012)
• Apache Solr 3.1 Cookbook by Rafal Kuc (Jul 22, 2011)
• WordPress Plugin Development Cookbook by Yannick Lefebvre (Jul 26, 2012)
• Yii 1.1 Application Development Cookbook by Alexander Makarov (Sep 25, 2011)
• Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook by Mihaela Jurkovic and Rigel Di Scala (Apr 26, 2011)

Tata aig transaction

Oracle SQL Query to print Unix Timestamp

The actual query is available in http://jehiah.cz/a/oracle-date-to-unix-timestamp , but here is a slightly modified version which strips the decimal points and prints only the elapsed seconds.
---
SELECT abs(to_number(((sysdate - to_date('01-JAN-1970','DD-MON-YYYY')) * (86400)))) as dt FROM dual;
---

New Laptop - The Essential softwares list

List of softwares that should be installed on my new windows env without further thought!

• Notepad ++ :  http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download
• 7ip :  http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
• Foxit PDF reader :  http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/
• Cygwin :  http://www.cygwin.com/install.html
• PUTTY - http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
• WinSCP - http://winscp.net/eng/index.php
• Python (Enthought distribution) :  http://www.enthought.com/products/epd_free.php
• VMWare Player :  http://www.filehippo.com/download_vmware_player/
• VLC (64 bit) :  http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/last/win64/
• Gtalk :  http://www.google.com/talk/
• Tortoise SVN :  http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads.html#
• Git -  http://git-scm.com/download/win
• JDK - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

Ubuntu Linux - Change from GUI mode to Command line / Text mode

Simple stuff - just documenting my learnings

So here's how we change Ubuntu from its usual GUI mode to the Command line mode (black screen / text mode)

Note : If"sudo" is used before a command, then you will have to enter root password.

• Open the Terminal, and cd /etc/default
• Open the "grub" file in vi editor as root : sudo vi grub
• Change the property GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT from "quiet splash" to "text". See below
• ========
• #GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT = "quiet splash"
• GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT = "text"
• ========
• Run this command to update grub : sudo update-grub
• Reboot Ubuntu : sudo /sbin/reboot

On reboot, you should be able to see the command-line screen instead of GUI.

Automate Sphinx - Create rst files automatically from a list of topics

You have lots of topics to document using Sphinx, but bored of creating each .rst file manually? Not to worry at all. Here is a script that will just automate the file-creation task for you. Here we go:

First, download the zip or gz package from https://github.com/thyag/SphinxAutomation/downloads

And read the below to get your stuff donne :