Troubleshoot the 'Invalid Package' error on Android APK installation

When you try to manually install an Android APK on your phone, you are typically stuck with an error similar to this: Stack Overflow is filled with posts like this, this and this one but apparently, there seems to be no consensus regarding the cause or even a generally accepted...

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Intro to DOMPDF - light and simple PHP library to generate PDF documents

Generating PDF documents from your HTML output is a very common requirement and there are several open source libraries to accomplish this in PHP. I came across this need for my project recently and I evaluated many popular ones such as TCPDF, mpdf, FPDF, etc. But the one that truly...

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We are not creating the "right" kind of AI

Arts, crafts, literature, even things like computer programming have been the domain of humans since time immemorial. Machines were historically meant to do menial tasks where the human couldn’t afford the time or resources. The classic example here is the type-writer, a remarkable machine that helped humans draft letters in...

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Unpopular opinion: desktop GUI is the most efficient and fulfilling way of human-computer interaction

In many ways, the classical paradigm of the “WEB” as a mere portal or information resource was the most likable and valuable one in the utilitarian sense. These were the earliest days of the Internet when most of the actual Human-Computer interaction took place in the form of a Windows...

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Managing drafts in Jekyll while writing blog posts

The conventional wisdom of maintaining draft posts in Jekyll is to store them in _drafts directory. Drafts are posts without a date in the filename. They’re posts you’re still working on and don’t want to publish yet. To get up and running with drafts, create a _drafts folder in your...

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How to allow Ping (ICMP) requests through the Windows Firewall

The ping.exe is a great tool provided by the Windows operating system to check and ensure if we are connected to another computer located across the Internet or even our own local LAN through the ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol). However, it often happens that even if the remote machine...

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How I made my web pages load 10x faster

Update: As of 17th June, 2024, I have also started using font-awesome and google-fonts which goes directly against my principle of “no-cruft”! And while the point of this article still stands in theory, I came to learn that there are pragmatic limits to how far you can stretch minimalism. At...

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The power of minimalism: Why ecommerce and corporate websites need to de-clutter

In the digital age, ecommerce and corporate websites often overwhelm users with cluttered designs and excessive elements. But as consumers gravitate toward simplicity, adopting a minimalist approach can not only improve user experience but also enhance site performance. Here’s why minimalism is the future of web design. Why Minimalism Matters...

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"API first" apps are the future

Apps tend to become very complex beasts, especially when they start to scale. Part of the complexity is due to the fact that the users could be a diverse set of people with multitude of tastes and preferences which could all be conflicting. A classic example here is this recent...

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Kiwixotherapy: A weird but working therapy for introverts suffering from sleeplessness

If you’re an introvert who is suffering from both sleeplessness and also low self-esteem or impostor syndrome, I want to suggest you this therapy which I recently landed upon myself and seen many people recover from their insomnia or sleeplessness problem using it, and leading much happier and energized days...

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