https://media.notthebee.com/articles/6418778b6bbe46418778b6bbe6.jpg

Dr. Fauci is on another one of his publicity tours, this time in DC with Mayor Muriel Bowser to guilt poor people into taking his experimental jab.

Not the Bee

https://www.percona.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/lucas.speyer_an_underwater_high_tech_computer_server_a_dolpin_i_9337e5c5-e3c5-41dd-b0b1-e6504186488b-150×150.png

sysbench ./src/lua/windmills/oltp_read.lua  --db-driver=mysql --tables=200 --table_size=1000000 
 --rand-type=zipfian --rand-zipfian-exp=0 --skip_trx=true  --report-interval=1 --mysql-ignore-errors=all 
--mysql_storage_engine=innodb --auto_inc=off --histogram  --stats_format=csv --db-ps-mode=disable --point-selects=50 
--reconnect=10 --range-selects=true –rate=100 --threads=<#Threads from 2 to 4096> --time=1200 run

sysbench ./src/lua/windmills/oltp_read.lua  --mysql-host=<host> --mysql-port=<port> --mysql-user=<user> 
--mysql-password=<pw> --mysql-db=<schema> --db-driver=mysql --tables=200 --table_size=1000000  --rand-type=zipfian 
--rand-zipfian-exp=0 --skip_trx=true  --report-interval=1 --mysql-ignore-errors=all --mysql_storage_engine=innodb 
--auto_inc=off --histogram --table_name=<tablename>  --stats_format=csv --db-ps-mode=disable --point-selects=50 
--reconnect=10 --range-selects=true --threads=<#Threads from 2 to 4096> --time=1200 run

Percona Database Performance Blog

https://theawesomer.com/photos/2023/03/we_didnt_start_the_fire_leo_moracchioli_t.jpg

Link

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide. Leo Morachiolli didn’t start the fire, but he did an impressive job covering Billy Joel’s wordy 1989 hit, adding fuel to the inferno with his hard-edged guitar and gravelly vocals. If you’re waiting for Joel to update the song for the 21st century, don’t hold your breath.

The Awesomer

https://laravelnews.s3.amazonaws.com/images/laravel-valet-version-four.png

php@8.1

php=php@8.1

Laravel News

composer require rakibdevs/openweather-laravel-api

'providers' => [
    // ...
    RakibDevs\Weather\WeatherServiceProvider::class,
],
'aliases' => [
    //...
    'Weather' => RakibDevs\Weather\Weather::class,	
];

OPENWAETHER_API_KEY=
OPENWAETHER_API_LANG=en

	$ php artisan vendor:publish

	return [
	    'api_key' 	        => env('OPENWAETHER_API_KEY', ''),
    	    'onecall_api_version' => '2.5',
            'historical_api_version' => '2.5',
            'forecast_api_version' => '2.5',
            'polution_api_version' => '2.5',
            'geo_api_version' => '1.0',
	    'lang' 		=> env('OPENWAETHER_API_LANG', 'en'),
	    'date_format'       => 'm/d/Y',
	    'time_format'       => 'h:i A',
	    'day_format'        => 'l',
	    'temp_format'       => 'c'         // c for celcius, f for farenheit, k for kelvin
	];

use RakibDevs\Weather\Weather;

$wt = new Weather();

$info = $wt->getCurrentByCity('dhaka');    // Get current weather by city name

// By city name
$info = $wt->getCurrentByCity('dhaka'); 

// By city ID - download list of city id here http://bulk.openweathermap.org/sample/
$info = $wt->getCurrentByCity(1185241); 

// By Zip Code - string with country code 
$info = $wt->getCurrentByZip('94040,us');  // If no country code specified, us will be default

// By coordinates : latitude and longitude
$info = $wt->getCurrentByCord(23.7104, 90.4074);

{
  "coord": {
    "lon": 90.4074
    "lat": 23.7104
  }
  "weather":[
    0 => { 
      "id": 721
      "main": "Haze"
      "description": "haze"
      "icon": "50d"
    }
  ]
  "base": "stations"
  "main": {
    "temp": 26
    "feels_like": 25.42
    "temp_min": 26
    "temp_max": 26
    "pressure": 1009
    "humidity": 57
  }
  "visibility": 3500
  "wind": {
    "speed": 4.12
    "deg": 280
  }
  "clouds": {
    "all": 85
  }
  "dt": "01/09/2021 04:16 PM"
  "sys": {
    "type": 1
    "id": 9145
    "country": "BD"
    "sunrise": "01/09/2021 06:42 AM"
    "sunset": "01/09/2021 05:28 PM"
  }
  "timezone": 21600
  "id": 1185241
  "name": "Dhaka"
  "cod": 200
}

// By coordinates : latitude and longitude
$info = $wt->getOneCallByCord(23.7104, 90.4074);

// By city name
$info = $wt->get3HourlyByCity('dhaka'); 

// By city ID - download list of city id here http://bulk.openweathermap.org/sample/
$info = $wt->get3HourlyByCity(1185241); 

// By Zip Code - string with country code 
$info = $wt->get3HourlyByZip('94040,us');  // If no country code specified, us will be default

// By coordinates : latitude and longitude
$info = $wt->get3HourlyByCord(23.7104, 90.4074);

// By coordinates : latitude, longitude and date
$info = $wt->getHistoryByCord(23.7104, 90.4074, '2020-01-09');

// By coordinates : latitude, longitude and date
$info = $wt->getAirPollutionByCord(23.7104, 90.4074);

// By city name
$info = $wt->getGeoByCity('dhaka');

// By coordinates : latitude, longitude and date
$info = $wt->getGeoByCity(23.7104, 90.4074);

Laravel News Links

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMbtjUuceQaJ_JiqGW2aJ7bzET2TPRNs-7O888yvYKFxk8rgzPuhjVvS1eZPFQ7wU55UJIqYmKSoW2iC-CiucemUrlb_T_TTOMLPkEG-fOsKu9tO3hOlHeLWM8xvcFSVIgPSAfQSBchQTrmm6o7MCFkzT-90PlwsI9WVx_xL62ZqR9v5FAjclOFtsO/w400-h254/Elephant%20stew.png

Found on Gab (clickit to biggit):

I had to laugh at the instructions.

I’ve been present when an elephant that was destroying crops was shot near an African village.  The villagers swarmed the carcass, armed with machetes, axes and other edged instruments, and proceeded to have a gigantic meat-eating binge that lasted three days.  They dismembered that carcass from inside and out, literally:  some people crawled inside the belly cavity and cut their way out, while others stood on the ribs and cut their way in.  When an errant machete blade from one side or the other cut into someone on the other side of the skin, there were screams of outrage and anger;  but mostly they were too busy eating (yes, even raw meat!) to care.

At the end of three days, all that was left were the remains of the entrails, and the huge bones of the elephant skeleton.  Sixty-odd villagers had eaten until they bulged (literally):  their stomachs were so distended I was surprised they could still move.  Of course, in African heat, with no refrigeration available, the meat had already spoiled by the third day, but they ate and ate and ate so as to waste as little as possible of the precious nutrition deposited on their doorsteps by the Game Department.

Perhaps they should have tried this recipe . . .

Peter

Bayou Renaissance Man

https://theawesomer.com/photos/2022/03/molten_steel_coiling_t.jpg

Link

Redditor arcedup works in a steel mill and wanted to test out the video capabilities of their phone. While they were at it, they captured this wonderfully satisfying clip of molten hot steel being turned into a coiled rod. Is it wrong that we want to make the world’s largest Slinky with it?

The Awesomer

B.L.U.F. An analysis/opinion of the State’s attempt to move certain arms out from the protection of the Second Amendment.

This is a long running argument from the anti-gun rights people. The gist is always of the “this modern thing didn’t exist in 1791 so it isn’t covered by the second amendment.” These same people are saying this on phones, computers, The Internet, which the firmly believe are covered under the first Amendment, even though those things would not have been known at the time of the founding.

The question is legitimate, so lets take it to an extreme.

Are Nuclear Weapons Protected Arms Under the Second Amendment?

Hagar reported to me that she often times has discussions with anti-gun people and they will ask something like “Well, do you think people should be able to own nuclear weapons!?!?!?”

She reports that most of them are shocked when she replies in the affirmative “Yes, they should be able to legally own nuclear weapons.” There is more to our discussion, I’ll get to that later.

Here we have the short of it [w]eapons of offence, or armour of defence.Id, citing Samuel Johnson’s dictionary of 1773

Are “nuclear weapons” weapons of offence? Yes, by the clear text of the Second Amendment supported by multiple sources at the time of the ratification of the Bill of Rights.

But nuclear weapons were not in existence at the time of the founding and the Founding Fathers could not have anticipated the horrific destructive power of such weapons. Again, Justice Scalia answers us.

Under the instructions given by the Supreme Court in Heller it is clear that nuclear weapons are arms.

But the argument goes on that the arm must be “bearable” to be considered covered under the Second Amendment. We know from historical fact that this was not the understanding at the time of the founding. We know this because many civilians owned cannon and even warships. In fact the US Government was known to issue sanctions to warship owners to have them engage in combat on the high seas with the enemies of the United States.

Justice Scalia addresses this issue. He is addressing the question in Heller in regards to individual right vs. collective right so his analysis is not a direct answer for us.

This leaves the question slightly open as to the question of size limitations on arms that are protected by the Second Amendment. We know that Heller clearly states that pistols and other handguns are. This has been extended to the sorts of long guns and shotguns that can be shouldered. It has been extended to weapons that are too heavy to shoulder but can be fired by one man from a bipod. I.e. a .50 cal semi-auto or bolt action rifle.

What about crew served weapons? Is a 60mm M224A1 mortar covered? How about the 81mm M252A1? How about the 120mm M120/M121, are they covered?

If those are covered are the M119 105mm Howitzer covered and the M777 155mm Howitzer? Or even the M110 Self-Propelled Howitzer. Those are huge. Are they covered?

The answer to all of that seems to be “yes”. The text of the Second Amendment does extend to “arms” that can not be carried by just one man but must instead have some other way of conveyance. It seems clear that a 16″ 3 Gun turret from a Wisconsin class Battleship would be covered arms.

From this, it seems clear that nuclear weapons are covered under the Second Amendment.

What laws are constitutional in regards to nuclear weapons?

According to the Constitution the answer is shall not be infringed According to the Supreme Court, there are acceptable regulations and limitations on the right to keep and bear arms.

…is neither a regulatory straightjacket nor a regulatory blank check… which leads to the question of when it the analogical reasoning within the limits? That is not relevant here.

This allows the state to raise the question of what laws are consistent with Nation’s historical tradition of firearm(arms) regulation.

So far the state has not been able to produce any law, in my opinion, from the correct time period that supports the banning of a class of weapon.

What they have been able to do is to find multiple laws regarding fire safety in regards to gunpowder. I submit that since the possibilities of a radiation mishap does exist and that does not infringe on your ability to keep and bear the nuclear weapon, that the state could have storage requirements that are for safety purposes.

Note, when I say “safety purposes” that doesn’t mean stuff like “It must be kept disassembled with its fissionable materials in a different county.” It means things like radiation sensors that are tested and monitored. Containers that are designed to low radiation leakage to a reasonable level and so forth.

In my opinion this type of safety law would fall within the text, history and tradition requirements of both Heller and Bruen.

Currently, the Supreme Court has put another limitation on what arms are covered within the scope of the Second Amendment.

[T]hose in common use for lawful purposesHeller is the phrase that much of our current litigation is founded on. If an arm is in common use for lawful purposes then that arm is not “Unusual”.

This links back to …finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons.Id. at P. 2786 is the other part of this.

What this means is that nuclear weapons fail “in common use for lawful purposes” so they are unusual weapons and they are also “dangerous” which means that laws from the founding that prohibited carrying “dangerous and unusual” weapons can be used to justify carry regulations in regards to nuclear weapons today.

More to come.

Gun Free Zone

http://img.youtube.com/vi/RjNcTBXTk4I/0.jpg

There was a time when movies based on video games tried to distance themselves from their source material. "This ain’t no game," bragged the poster for the 1993’s live-action Super Mario Bros. film. Times have changed: The final trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie by Illumination leans hard into its origins. This is absolutely a game, it says. See? Here’s a scene that looks like New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, and another one that looks just like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

If you were hoping to hear more of Chris Pratt’s Mario voice, you won’t find much new here — but the final trailer does give viewers a clear look at the tone the movie is going for. We watch Bowser list off an army of familiar video game enemies. We watch Mario and Donkey Kong use power mushrooms and fire flowers as they run through a training course that looks like a traditional Mario level. We see Mario and Peach race through a brightly rendered Rainbow Road. It looks familiar. It looks fun. And it looks like a game, but with better graphics.

That’s no surprise. According to directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, Illumination has worked closely with Nintendo to make sure the film feels right. The directors also say that Illumination has improved its lighting and rendering technology to help push Super Mario Bros. Movie to the next level "beyond anything Illumination has ever done."

As for that Mario voice? You’ll finally be able to hear the full performance when the film hits theaters next month. The Super Mario Bros. Moviereleases on April 5, 2023.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-final-trailer-for-the-super-mario-bros-movie-looks-more-like-a-game-than-ever-231926362.html?src=rssEngadget

https://harrk.dev/content/images/2023/03/QR-Code-Generator-in-Laravel-10-Tutorial.webp

In this post, we will look at generating QR codes within your Laravel applications.

First, we will need to require the simple-qrcode package that provides first-party support for Laravel. The package itself wraps the Bacon/BaconQrCode package which itself is a port of the ZXing library but for PHP.

If you wish – you may directly interact with the BaconQrCode package without using simple-qrcode. However, simple-qrcode provides a better developer experience when used with Laravel. Additionally, with out-of-the-box support for overlaying images on QR codes.

With the context blurb out of the way. Let’s dig in!

Step 1: Setting Up

Spin up a new Laravel 10 project (or step over this if you already have a project ready).

$ laravel new qrcodegenerator

Set up your database connection as per your own preference. Then install the simple-qrcode package via Composer.

$ composer require simplesoftwareio/simple-qrcode "~4"

Optional! If you want to create QR codes in .png format. You will need to install the imagick extension. In most cases, all you need to do is install via pecl with pecl install imagick. If that does not work for you, then Google is your friend here as it goes beyond the topic of this article.

Step 2: Creating The Controller

Now we need to wire up a controller and route before we can pull back a QR code in our browser.

Create a new QrCodeController.

$ php artisan make:controller QrCodeController

And then reference the controller in our routes/web.php file.

<?php

use App\Http\Controllers\QrCodeController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::get('/', [QrCodeController::class, 'show']);

Opening up the URL in our browser gives us a blank page at this point. Also as I’m using Valet here, I only need to enter the foldername.test to view the project in my browser. Your setup may be different so you do you, whether that’s php artisan serve or something else.

Step 3: Generating QR Codes

At the very bare minimum, you can call the QrCode facade alongside generate with something to render. And you’ll get a QR code back.

In my QrCodeController I am creating a QR code with all the default settings with the following content “Hello, World!”.

<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use SimpleSoftwareIO\QrCode\Facades\QrCode;

class QrCodeController extends Controller
{
    public function show()
    {
        return QrCode::generate(
            'Hello, World!',
        );
    }
}

Refresh the page in the browser and…

Step 4: Customising the Generated QR Code

Alright so how about something a little more interesting? A splash of colour? Let’s use a couple of methods that allow us to change the background colour, foreground colour, and margin.

public function show()
{
    return QrCode::size(200)
        ->backgroundColor(255, 255, 0)
        ->color(0, 0, 255)
        ->margin(1)
        ->generate(
            'Hello, World!',
        );
}

And here’s the result:

Let’s try something that makes our QR codes stand out. And I’m not talking about colours anymore.

We can actually modify the style and eye (the three corners) of the QR code. Try this out:

return QrCode::size(200)
        ->style('dot')
        ->eye('circle')
        ->color(0, 0, 255)
        ->margin(1)
        ->generate(
            'Hello, World!',
        );

Result:

Before closing this section. One more on colours: gradients.

$from = [255, 0, 0];
$to = [0, 0, 255];

return QrCode::size(200)
    ->style('dot')
    ->eye('circle')
    ->gradient($from[0], $from[1], $from[2], $to[0], $to[1], $to[2], 'diagonal')
    ->margin(1)
    ->generate(
        'Hello, World!',
    );

By specifying a from and to colour, alongside a type of gradient (vertical, horizontal, etc). You can create something really cool!

Merging Images

To overlay an image in a QR code – we’ll need to change the way we do a few things.

To prepare for this I have dropped an image (twitter.jpg) in my storage/app folder. Then by calling ->merge($filepath), simple-qrcode will load that image and overlay it onto the QR code.

If you want to pull in the image data yourself, you can replace merge with mergeString. Eg: ->mergeString(Storage::get($path)).

Merging an image is only supported with png QR codes, so we need to specify the format on this, too.

public function show()
    {
        $data = QrCode::size(512)
            ->format('png')
            ->merge('/storage/app/twitter.jpg')
            ->errorCorrection('M')
            ->generate(
                'https://twitter.com/HarryKir',
            );

        return response($data)
            ->header('Content-type', 'image/png');
    }

Then the result of all this:

You may have noticed the line in regards to errorCorrection. When we overlay an image, part of the QR code’s data becomes obscured.

By default, the errorCorrection is set to the lowest value (‘L’). If you attempt to scan your QR code like this, it’s likely that the QR code will not scan. To remedy this we adjust the errorCorrection level up a notch until our code is scannable.

The various levels are:

• L: Low (7% correction)
• M: Medium (15% correction)
• Q: Quartile (25% correction)
• H: High (30% correction)

The higher the correction level, the more “noisy” the QR code becomes. Preferably you want the lowest correction level alongside a scannable QR code for the sake of keeping up appearances.

Downloading Generated QR Codes

To return a download response, you can either store the QR code as a file and return the path with return response()->download($path); or stream the contents of the QR code without using the filesystem.

An example of using streamDownload to do this:

public function download()
{
    return response()->streamDownload(
        function () {
            echo QrCode::size(200)
                ->format('png')
                ->generate('https://harrk.dev');
        },
        'qr-code.png',
        [
            'Content-Type' => 'image/png',
        ]
    );
}

Generating QR Codes in Blade

Since we’ve been using a Facade all along, generating a QR code in Blade is as simple as repeating the above steps. Call the facade, customise as required, and call generate.

{!! QrCode::size(256)->generate('https://google.com') !!}

Or another approach, encode the data within an image tag manually. For example, if you need to change the image type for whatever reason.

<img src="data:image/png;base64, {!! base64_encode(QrCode::format('png')->size(256)->generate('https://google.com')) !!} ">

QR Code Data Types

Alright, so we’ve been using URLs in these examples. Mobile devices are clever enough to figure out how to handle these when scanned, but we can go a step further.

If you want to read the long version of this. Check out the ZXing’s Wiki page.

To summarise: simple-qrcode has a couple of helpers to specify the data the QR code will contain. You can replace the generate method with any of these.

Here are a few examples:

Email

Open a blank email addressed to “hello@example.com”.

QrCode::size(200)->email('hello@example.com');

Open an email with a predefined subject and body.

QrCode::size(200)->email('hello@example.com', 'Hello World', 'This is a test message.');

Phone Number

QrCode::size(200)->phoneNumber('555-555-5555');

SMS Text Message

Send an SMS text message to 555-555-5555 with a prewritten message, “Hi!”.

QrCode::size(200)->SMS('555-555-5555', 'Hi!');

Wi-Fi

Share Wi-Fi credentials for your visitors.

QrCode::size(200)->wiFi([
    'encryption' => 'WPA/WEP',
    'ssid' => 'SSID of the network',
    'password' => 'Password of the network',
    'hidden' => 'Whether the network is a hidden SSID or not.'
]);

Geolocation

Share a location by providing a latitude and longitude.

QrCode::size(200)->geo(51.378638, -0.100897);

Conclusion

To see more advance options for QR code customisation, refer to the documentation for simple-qrcode.

As for some real world examples of this package in action. I use simple-qrcode for generating QR codes for my QR code tracking SaaS.

QRMetric – Your Dynamic QR Code Buddy

Create Dynamic QR Codes that can be modified without requiring you to redistribute a new QR code. Can be changed any time, any place, anywhere.

Otherwise, if generating QR codes with Javascript is your thing. Consider checking out the node-qrcode library. I use this for generating QR codes on a static site, without any server involvement altogether.

Random QR Code Generator

RandomQR is a QR Code Generator for those times when you just need a random QR image and nothing more. Simple, easy, and fast.

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