DEV Community: MADHAV BAHL

Someone Is Selling Your Privacy

MADHAV BAHL — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 17:04:59 +0000

Someone is selling your privacy

For SALE!!! Your Privacy

Overlapping of real life and cyber life in the past decade

In the recent years, there has been an exponential growth in the web based technologies and online businesses. Moreover, the past decade has witnessed a growth of online life so much that now it is impossible to make a clear line of separation between real life and virtual life.

“Line of separation between real life and cyber life if fading”

Real life and cyber life have almost overlapped now, and it has it’s own boon and bane. Today, almost everyone is connected to the web in some way, internet and social media has reduced all the distances. Earlier people used to travel miles just to send a postcard, now we can easily text, call and even video call. But, all these assets come with a huge price that you are paying. All these feature online which look free of cost to us, are actually not free of cost. We are actually being robbed off our privacy for these free services and amenities that we enjoy on our daily basis. Read this amazing article.

What’s more disturbing is the fact that some people think that going incognito or private browsing saves us from this data theft. People have general mindset that if they do private browsing or use incognito mode, then they can’t be tracked or their searches will be private. This is completely wrong. Only duty of incognito mode is to not save the browsing history and cookies. Any website and even your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can easily track your usage. Using the digital fingerprint of your web browser, any website can very easily store and track your usage.

See a simple real time illustration

Open your browser’s Private browsing (Or, Incognito mode)
Go visit this website: Think Incognito
Search anything you want to search on google there
Close that window
Open Private browsing or Incognito Mode (OR, normal browsing would also do)
Again visit the same website: Think Incognito

Think Incognito
_Do you think that switching to your browser's Private browsing mode or Incognito mode will make you anonymous? And the…_think-incognito.herokuapp.com

SURPRISED? Yes, the website can remember what you searched for even though you had visited it via the Private browsing or Incognito Mode.

All our personal information, or one can say our “privacy” is being sold to all the commercial and advertisement companies which use our information to find out what all products and services we like to use and enjoy, and they know them by stalking us on e-commerce websites and google searches. They’re called data brokers, and they are collecting, analysing and basically stealing and packaging our most sensitive personal information and selling it as a commodity, to each other, to advertising agencies, to criminals, and sometimes even the government, often without our direct knowledge. Most of this is the kind of harmless consumer marketing that’s been going on for decades. What’s changed is the volume and nature of the data being mined from the Internet and our mobile devices, and the growth of a multi-billion dollar industry that operates in the shadows with virtually no oversight.[2]

Think Incognito!?

What’s more dangerous is the fact that people have This process of gathering information about customers and potential customers is going on since years, big companies go on collecting their customers’ names and addresses, tracking credit card purchases, and asking them to fill out some forms or questionnaires, so they can offer discounts and send catalogues. But today we are giving up more and more private information online without knowing that it’s being harvested and personalised and sold to lots of different people…our likes and dislikes, our closest friends, our bad habits, even your daily movements, both on and offline. Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill says we have lost control of our most personal information.

“_As you click through the web and view car sites or read about the news, companies, these third parties, will collect your click stream, as you click from site to site to site, to see what you may be reading, what you may be interested in, what types of things you might buy” — _Ashkan Soltani

There is a very interesting quote, ”It’s not about what we know we’re sharing, it’s about what we don’t know is being collected and sold about us.”. One eye opening lesson that one can learn from this quote is that one should always be very careful while surfing on internet, the sooner we realize that the foolproof way of becoming completely private or invisible on internet does not exist, the better it is for us.

However, we can be somewhat invisible through the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). There will be a separate article on VPNs, coming very soon :)

Do see this video

Concluding Words

That concludes this article. I hope you have gained some insight into what it how your privacy is being sold. Be careful about what you search next time.

Do connect with me on GitHub and LinkedIn

References

Dev etiquettes that you must not ignore

MADHAV BAHL — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 02:44:43 +0000

Dev etiquettes that you must not ignore

“Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live”

Ever wondered what we really mean by etiquettes why were they made and why are they necessary in our daily lives?

Okay, I’am about to give a small lecture, please bear with me for 30 seconds after that we will get straight to the point.

“First, solve the problem. Then, write the code.” — John Johnson

Etiquette

“the customary code of polite behaviour in society or among members of a particular profession or group”

Human beings are social animals and it is our prime duty to be considerate towards other people and not annoy them with our illogical and ill-mannered behaviour, therefore even if no one forces you to maintain a code of conduct, it is your duty as a good human being to maintain your polite behaviour, that is, if you do want to live peacefully in this society……

Let’s get to the point

OKAY, Why am I talking about etiquettes?

Yes, it may sound weird to you (if you are a beginner), we coders, too maintain some manners while coding #Coding_Etiquettes. If you want to become a good coder/developer, you must never ignore these etiquettes.

“In Code We Trust”

Let’s have a look at some popular dev etiquettes that will help make your code much more readable, well structured, (obviously more good looking than before) and help you get some self-respect in developers’ community.

Write good quality code, stay happy :)

Proper Indentation

I have seen tons of beginners, while writing their code they just start writing without keeping in mind proper spacing and indentations. Generally their code looks something like —

#include< iostream.h >
using namespace std;
void main() 
{
int a,b;
cout<<"Please enter a: ";
cin>>a;
cout<<"Please enter b: ";
cin>>b;
.
.
.
if(a < b)  
cout<<"a+b = "<< a+b;
else   
cout<<"a-b = "<< a-b;
}

These are only 14 lines of code, so it doesn’t matter much. But now consider that some time has passed and they are given a project. That project may include 2000 lines of code. Just think about it, how messy the code would look like. I get scared even by the thought of it.
So, according to me, the first and foremost thing that teachers should teach after Hello, World! program is how to write a neat code. Have a look how beautiful a code with proper indentation looks like. It becomes like a nicely written poem, which the programmer can read and understand easily.

“How beautiful a neatly written code looks like”

How beautiful this code looks like, isn’t it?
Yes, so let’s take a decision, “We the coders, will always give proper indentation”. Giving 2 or 4 spaces in each structure is a general indentation practise nowadays. Furthermore, there are many other reasons why you should write properly indented code.
A proper indentation will make your code easier to read, understand, modify and maintain.

Tree Like Directory Structures

Whenever you take up a project, keep one basic thing in mind that you are not going to write the whole code in a single file. You have to use different files for different purposes. It is a good practise to maintain proper tree like directory structure as shown in the diagram.

Maintaining a good directory structure makes coding much more efficient. When you are doing a big project, maintaining such good structure will save you time in searching for the files you need.

Comments PLEASE!

According to me, this is one of the most important coding etiquette. Many times it happens that people just go on writing the code finish it in a haste and when they come back after some time (say, 1 month) they have no idea what the code was all about.

“Dont understand your own code? GREAT!”

It is a very good practise to write comments for each and every function or module you write. Doing this helps a lot in debugging the code in case of errors. If you have comments for every particularity of code, it helps understand where the code went wrong, in case there are bugs.

“Good code is self-documenting.”

Have a habit of writing comments because they help anyone (including your future self) to maintain, refactor, or extend your code.

Document your code

When you are a developer, never ever forget to make a proper documentation for your code. Documentation comments are intended for anyone who is likely to consume your source code, but not likely to read through it.

ALWAYS document your code.

Lets take an example, say you are a back-end developer, and you just made an API (Read more about APIs here) and a front-end developer likes to use it for some specific purpose. Now he has to read and go through the whole code if you don’t write a proper documentation for your code, which becomes useless wastage of time. To prevent this, it is the moral duty of the developer of API to create and maintain proper documentation for the working of his code.
For example, see the following screenshot, it is taken from mongoosejs library, it has got amazing documentation

See how the docs of mongooseJS here

Don’t just foobar everywhere

Well if you are a complete beginner, you might not be aware of what foobar is, the terms like foobar, foo, bar, and baz are common placeholders which are used when you cant think of a proper name for a variable or a file. These terms can be used to represent any part of a complicated system or idea, including the data, variables, functions, and commands.
Using such random names is a very bad practise, whenever you write a code always keep in mind that the name of your variables and functions must represent clearly their respective functions.

Your name represents your purpose.

Using such random names can create a huge problem while testing and debugging phase. No one would want to waste their time in finding what foo was used for and what bar was used for.

Meaningful File Names

Never give random names to your files, just like variable names, your file names must also represent the purpose for which they were created.

Your file names should be understandable

Actually, there exist several file naming conventions, which are recommended and you should follow them. But even if you don’t follow them exactly, at least keep the file names in such a way that they are understandable to you. Never keep filenames such as: xyz.md or abc.txt

A file naming convention (FNC) can help you stay organised by making it easy to identify the file(s) that contain the information that you are looking for just from its title and by grouping files that contain similar information close together. A good FNC can also help others better understand and navigate through your work. Read more here

Select your case type

Following a typography for naming your variables is always a good practise. Select your case type and always write names in that case so that they become more clear and readable. For example, I always use camel case.

Have a look at some popular case types:

Capitalization — Writing the first letter of a word in uppercase, and the rest of the letters in lowercase.
PascalCase — Words are written without spaces, and the first letter of each word is capitalized. PascalCase is sometimes also called the UpperCamelCase.
camelCase — A variation of Pascal Case in which the fist letter of the word is lowercase, e.g. iPhone.
snake_case — Punctuation is removed and spaces are replaced by a single underscore. Can be done with either upper or lowercase, but whichever is used should continue to be used.

“Just because you can write a program doesn’t make you a good programmer, writing a code which even a layman can understand is what makes you a good programmer”

Keep your code DRY

What is DRY code? DRY is an abbreviation for don’t repeat yourself. If you have to copy and paste code several times while making a project or a software, you are not at all a good developer. Repeating same lines of code many times is considered a very bad practised in coding.

I will not repeat myself :)

Code can be kept DRY, with the extensive use of functions. whenever you see that you are repeating the same lines of code, make it a function. Keeping your code DRY has many advantages like it keeps your code clean and reduces the chances of bugs.
“Bugs love a wet mess” — unknown

Dry code maintains modularity You can even divide the main purpose of the program into several smaller functions and do them individually. It helps to manage big programs.

How about choosing some common coding conventions?

Coding conventions are a set of guidelines for a specific programming language that recommends programming style, practices, and methods for each aspect of a program written in that language.
Choose a coding convention for your projects and stick to it… ALWAYS Find more about coding conventions here.

Have Fun!

Now this is the most important part of programming, whatever program you write, whatever software you develop, always have fun. Coding is amazing, make it your daily habit and you will find how amazing it is.
If you don’t have fun writing your code, it will clearly reflect in your code :)

Concluding Words

I hope this article helped you, we can connect on GitHub or LinkedIn and I would more than happy if you send your feedbacks, suggestions or ask queries. Moreover, I love to make new friends and we can be friends, just drop me a text :)
Just in case you wish to be a web developer, have a look at this article, I wrote it to provide a clear road map of how to start and proceed with web development. We also have an open community to bring together developers so that we can learn and grow together, join the Slack Workspace today.

Want to read this article on medium? Click Here

Thanks a lot for keeping your calm and reading till end.
Now you know what all practises to adopt to have a write good code,
All the best and Happy coding!
You can contact me in case of any doubts or if you need any assistance:
Email: madhavbahl10@gmail.com
Web: http://madhavbahl.ml/
Github: https://github.com/MadhavBahlMD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhavbahl/

A practical approach to web development.

MADHAV BAHL — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 07:18:55 +0000

A practical approach to web development.

“There are three responses to a piece of design — yes, no, and WOW!
Wow is the one to aim for.”
-Milton Glaser

Read this short, to the point article as it guides you through how you should approach towards web development.

This article is linked to my medium article -- WebDev Guide

So you are a beginner having no knowledge about this field.
No Problem. This article will remove all your doubts regarding how you should start web development. It is written in an easily understandable language and practical steps which can help you start with web development.

Why do I write?

The main reason is that I am also a web developer, willing to help all the aspiring web-developers out there who want to step into this community of developers, but need a mentor. I committed many mistakes when I was a beginner, and I don’t want anyone else to make the same mistake which I made.

“You don’t have to be great to start,
but you have to start to be great.”

Let’s Start This Awesome Journey Of Web Development.

ROADMAP

1. CODER’S TOOLKIT

Probably, at this stage, you are an absolute beginner to coding or development and you need to know what to do first, and how to start.
Before we begin, there are some tools that you must have which will make your life as a web developer much more easier.

A Laptop — that is the basic need
A good web browser — chrome, chrome or maybe chrome
A text editor — Atom, VS Code, Sublime Text, Notepad++ or any IDE
FTP/SSH Tool (Filezilla, Putty, gFTP) — you will require these in later stages of development
Cloud Storage (Optional) — Dropbox, Google Drive etc.

2. Lights! Camera! Code!

At this stage, you have already got a good toolkit which contains everything you will need. Now you must start coding.

HTML5 (Get yourself familiar with all these and code)
- Tags
- Attributes
- Links
- Images
- Tables
- Layouts
CSS3 (Learn the basics of css, selectors, declaration, property and value) Right now you are capable of making some nice and visually attractive websites, but your web sites are not yet dynamic and user friendly. Basics of any design software (choose any one, will help you a lot)
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
- GIMP (for linux users) etc.
Basic Javascript get to know the following things.(Javascript will bring life to your web pages)
- Basic JS (Dont jump into Node.JS and frameworks for now)
- Datatypes: String, Number, Arrays, Objects etc.
- Functions, Conditionals, Loops, Operators, etc.
- Event handling
- JSON
- jQuery (Only if you feel really comfortable with JS)

3. Three! Two! One! DEPLOY

Congrats, you are a web designer now. You now have HTML, CSS and JavaScript in your hands, you can make basic websites, you also know the basics of one design software, you know how to build static websites and front end, you can call yourself a web designer.
Before going any further you must do some more things.

Learn about GIT (or, any other version control)
SSH
Learn basic Terminal usage (or, Command Prompt in windows)
Get a shared hosting account (Hostgator, InMoton, 000webhost, etc)
Learn Cpanel basics (Email, FTP Setup)
Upload your project via FTP
Register a domain name and link to your hosting account

Web Designer! you’ve got opportunities out there

Build simple, attractive websites for startups
Build UI’s for Web Applications
Do Internships
PSD to HTML/CSS conversions
Work for a company or be a freelancer

4. Time for decisions (IMPORTANT DECISIONS)

Now is the time you will have to ask yourself where to go. You can continue and go deep in frontend development or you can go for backend developer.
Choose where to go next……

Frontend HTML/CSS frameworks (Bootstrap, Foundation, Bulma, Materialize etc…)
Server side programming (PHP, Ruby, Django, NodeJS..)
JavaScript Front end Frameworks (React, Angular…)
Databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Hadoop, Mongo….)

4a) So you choose to develop your skills in front end

Learn any one(or more) of the following frameworks, this will make your life very easy.

Bootstrap
MaterializeCSS
Zurb foundation
Skeleton
MUI
Pure

4b) So you got some coding skills? Try Backend!!

Choosing to be a backend developer sure is a wise option at this point. Now you should learn some some server side scripting language. Choose any one (or more, though there is no need of learning more than one!)

PHP — Not the best language but is rock solid and not going anywhere for years.
Node.JS — New, Exciting, Powerful, Amazing Developer Community. (I personally prefer you to choose this)
Ruby on Rails — Great framework, but not so popular and has levelled off
Python — Easy to learn but not at all popular

4c) Since you have stepped into backend, try learning databases

Relational Databases

MySQL
PostgreSQL

NoSQL databases

MongoDB
CouchDB

Pick one to focus on (I recommend this):

PHP/MySQL
Node.JS/MongoDB

4d) Move your dev skills to a next level

Learn the frameworks that are highly in use today.

Angular
React [Flux/Redux]
Apollo Client ( A fully-featured, production ready caching GraphQL client for every server or UI framework)
Vue.JS
Express/Sails
If you code with PHP, learn
- MVC
- Routing
- Database Mining
- Helpers
- Data Binding etc..

5. Side Technologies To Learn (no matter you do frontend or backend)

To work in a professional environment, you must need to know about the following

GIT (or any other) Version control & GITHUB
SSH & Basic Command Line
CSS Precompilers — SASS/LESS
APIs/REST Services
HTTPS/SSL

Deploying your applications

Now you have much more knowledge than before, and probably you have started making your own web based applications, now use these technologies to get your app online.

Dedicated Server/VPS
App hosting — Heroku, Digital Ocean, AWS
Deploy tools
Linux command line
Maintenance & Updates

6. Web Developer! you’ve got opportunities out there.

Congratulations! You can finally call yourself a Web Developer and you have got some exciting opportunities out there.

Create simple to advanced web applications
Build backend API’s
Teach fellow developers
Work with servers
Work with databases
Work with network security
Get a great job
Do freelancing
Start your own buisness

7. Move one step forward

Learn about content management systems (CMS) like wordpress, Joomla, Drupal etc. They are great for working, offer fast deployment, there are thousands of plugins/addons/templates, and they offer great maintenance.
Mobile App Development
Now that you have come to this level, why limit yourself only to web? Mobile Applications are the future. All in all there are two types of applications, Native and Hybrid.
A Native application is the one which is (as the name says) native to the operating system. For example, say I am an android developer, therefore I make native applications using JAVA, XML, or KOTLIN etc.
A Hybrid application is the one which is (as the name says) not native, but built on another platform. This is where the great thing comes, as a web developer, you can even make your own mobile applications.

Progressive Web Apps are the future
You don’t need to learn JAVA/Kotlin/Swift/Objective C….
JUST JS!!! Javascript is enough to make your own hybrid applications. Use the frameworks like React Native, Ionic, Cordova…

NOW WHAT?

Keep Learning and exploring
Focus on your career
Make good profile
Go back and learn another stack
Learn about other domains (like Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Deep
Learning, AI, Competitive Coding etc.)
Keep yourself up to date with new technologies
Do some research
Learn some high level languages (C#, Java etc.)
Increase your social circle, follow great people, get inspired and keep learning.

We can be friends…

I hope this article helped you, we can connect on GIT-HUB or LinkedIn and I would more than happy if you send your feedbacks, suggestions or ask queries.
Moreover, I love to make new friends and we can be friends, just drop me a text :)

Thanks a lot for keeping your calm and reading till end.
You know what to do and how to proceed, All the best!
You can contact me in case of any doubts or if you need any assistance:
Email: madhavbahl10@gmail.com
Web: http://madhavbahl.ml/
Github: https://github.com/MadhavBahlMD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhavbahl/

ROADMAP — Frontend Developer?

ROADMAP — Backend Developer

Reference

https://github.com/kamranahmedse/developer-roadmap