Steam is down and it's a BIG Outage - 23/12/2016

As of the time of writing this post, steam is currently offline for everyone.

Holiday season, winter sales, may be the actual cause for this outage.

As people are connecting and buying games massively on Valve's servers, the servers are unresponsive.

It is still unknown when it will be back up.

Fortunately, you can still go on https://steamstat.us/ to see the live status of steam servers.

The Complete Guide - MCB Juice and Paypal

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1. MCB Juice Application - Installation / Setup

Here is the article I posted previously which can help you get started on setting up the juice application on your smartphone

--> Link here <---

2. Link your MCB Juice Account to PayPal (existing account)

This part is pretty straightforward.

/!\ Before you continue, you should know that linking your existing PayPal account will not get you the $5 Bonus that MCB is offering !!! So it would be better to create a new account!! This is detailed at the bottom of the article. /!\

- Open your Juice app

- Tap the PayPal Icon

- Tap the Manage/Create Paypal Account

- Enter your Email address and then tap on "Submit"

- Your account will then be confirmed and you can proceed to using it.

- That's all ! You are done, you can then proceed to deposit funds on your account.

3. Deposit funds on Mauritius PayPal Account

Top-Up is the MCB Juice function to deposit funds on your account.

- From the main menu, tap the PayPal icon again, and proceed to tap the option for "Top Up my Paypal Account"

A menu like the one on the left should appear.

Just choose your source account, enter the transaction amount.

And for details, just add a narrative.

Note: A narrative is just a description of what was the transaction for.

Good for your own records to know what you did of your money.

- Next you will be asked to confirm your transaction

If everything looks good, you can proceed by tapping on the black "Confirm" button, else go back and change it.

- You will then be asked to proceed by entering your secret mPIN.

- Next you will get a report of the transaction.

All looks good!

- Checking my transactions via the application itself

Everything looks good!

Wait, let's check if the maths is correct.

Scroll down ! :)

4. Paypal Juice Deposit (Top-Up) - Charges and Rates

The charges are calculated from the time of transaction MCB Forex rates.

The URL is here 

It is always on the selling price of the dollar.

At the time of writing selling price was at Rs. 36.87

So let's check how much we are charged:

Amount Deposited: $5

Forex rate: Rs. 36.87 per dollar

Amount to be charged: $5 x 36.87 = Rs. 184.35

MCB Fees : 2% of transaction amount = (2/100) x 184.35 =   Rs. 3.687

So! this is on par with the above screenshot.

MCB is charging the exact amount it is saying it does.

(No one's stealing from us :) 

5. Creating a new PayPal account on MCB Juice

Creating a new paypal account is not very straightforward. Mostly for the verification part.

I will guide you through it.

- From the main menu as usual, tap on the "Paypal" icon, and proceed to the next screen.

 

Tap " Manage/Create Paypal Account"

Go to Create/Link Paypal Account to Juice

Type your email address and tap on "Submit" or "Continue"

You will then receive a verification code on your mobile phone number.

Confirm your details. (Automatic)

Click on confirm when you are done.

If incorrect, use the Update button to edit your details.

You have to share your account details to continue.

Just "confirm"

You will be asked to instantly confirm your PayPal account by credit card.

If you do have one already, go ahead.

Don't have credit card? Click on No

I did it without credit card, so the application sends me to the paypal site. 

Just enter a new password for your PayPal account and then proceed.

"Confirm and create account"

Continue

Choose account from where money will be withdrawn.

Tap continue.

You would think you are done. But no there's more !
You only created a PayPal account.

Now proceed to Part 6 :Verifying and Authorizing your PayPal Account...

6. Verifying and Authorizing your PayPal Account On MCB Juice

Again, create/ link paypal account to juice,

Select your account and continue.

Proceed to next step.

This part is where you authorize MCB to transfer funds to and from your paypal account. 

Select your PayPal password and then tap "Authorize"

At LAST!

You're done.

Someone from MCB should call you to confirm everything.

Then you can start using PayPal on MCB Juice.

7. Unlink your Paypal account on MCB Juice

Simply tap the "Unlink from Juice option"

You will get a prompt that your

"Unlink request has been processed, you will be contacted shortly"

I got contacted the next day by an MCB agent. (I unlinked on Sunday).

The person will confirm with you the unlink request.

You will be asked for your Full Name, Address, Phone number and email that you are unlinking.










Have fun !

Codarren

Creating MCB Juice account without User ID

MCB Juice Application 

The MCB Juice application can be downloaded from 

1. The Google Play Store  (If using an android smartphone) OR

2. The Apple App Store (If using an iphone)

You can find it by typing "Juicebymcb" or "mcb juice"

MCB Juice User ID

MCB Juice user ID is the identifier that MCB provided you when you created your MCB online banking account.

If you have the User ID (6-digits) and password that you got from them, then you can sign in from the MCB juice application directly.

If like me you lost your User ID or forgot your password. Then you can create your MCB Juice account by using your Debit Card or Credit Card account details.

MCB Juice Registration 

Just follow our guide to get your MCB Juice account up and running in less than 5 minutes.

You will need:

1. Your smartphone (of course ! :) )

2. The MCB Juice application installed on your smartphone.

3. Your Credit or Debit Card at hand

4. Your NID (National Identity Card) at hand

Step 1: Open the MCB Juice application

You should see this screen

Proceed to tapping on the "Create Juice Account button"

Step 2: Create MCB Juice Account

Select either via Debit Card Details or via Credit card Details.

Your Debit Card is just the standard card that MCB provides to deposit and get cash from the ATM.

Your Credit Card, is uh! well your credit card that you are paying additional yearly fees for.

Both methods are basically the SAME.

Step 3: Via Debit/Credit card details

1. Card Number : the 16-digit numbers that are on your card.

2. Expiry Date: EXP END: On your card

3. PIN: Your secret PIN code that you use everyday to get cash from ATMs. (Note: This is not the same as the mPIN)

4. NIC/Passport: Your NIC Card number (14 -Characters). 

This is usually 1 Letter followed by 13 digits. 

5. After entering everything. Just proceed and tap on the register button!

Step 4: Register MCB Juice Account

Almost done ! This is the Welcome Screen of MCB.

Proceed on tapping on "Continue"

Step 5: Confirm Mobile Number

1. The application should have automatically captured your mobile number.

2. If it did not, type it manually. 

Don't forget the 5 ! (Doesn't need to contain +230)

3. Tap on "Confirm" after you finished

Step 6: MCB Juice Activation

This part will prompt the MCB SMS server to send you an SMS containing a code.

I have SMS previewing, so i can drop down find the code without leaving the MCB Juice application.

If it's not the case, simply open your newly received SMS and then switch back to the MCB Juice application to enter the 6-Digit code.

Finally, Tap on Continue.

If you were too slow to enter, you can still "Resend Code" to get another SMS.

Step 7: Enter your mPIN and Confirm your mPIN

You will then be asked to enter your mPIN.

The mPIN is a 4 digit number that you can choose to do ALL transactions on the MCB Juice Application.

Step 8: You're DONE!

I created this guide as people asked me this question.

I hope this will help a lot more people ! :)

For an overview of Paypal in Mauritius, click on this link

MCB Juice hotline: 2025010
Email: juice@mcb.mu

Quick Overview - Mauritius- Paypal on MCB (New MCB Juice Feature)

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Paypal and MCB : A Brief History

We have been using paypal to buy from ebay amongst other sites for quite a long time. For those who were, we were making use of our credit cards! MCB did not support paypal before.

So we were forced to link our credit cards to our PayPal account, so for each transaction, our credit card would be charged a particular amount.

1. MCB Juice : What's new then?

MCB (Mauritius Commercial Bank) now natively supports PayPal.

2. MCB + Juice + Paypal 

- No more credit card needed. 

We don't need credit cards now to use paypal. So you can throw it away (provided you were using it only for paypal!)

3. Getting Started

Well, you can do everything directly from your MCB account now (already seeing some SBM customers rushing to MCB just for that feature)

All you need now is:

1. An MCB account (Savings or whatever)

2. A Juice account - for making transactions

3. A PayPal account - to be linked to your mcb account

3. Benefits of using your MCB account from PayPal 

- Credit card rate: 

No more of that per annum rate to pay pay for the credit card (think it was 2.5%) and whatever credit card fees do not apply

- Expenses:

 You can now instantly see how much has been deducted from the card for refilling your account (Normally credit cards doesn't give immediate bank balance updates, your balance and bank statement is updated every 3 days)

- Paypal Balance:

You now have a paypal balance (It used to be zero all the time and piss me off) - it's cleaner now i guess :)

- Withdrawal and Selling on PayPal : 

You can now withdraw money from your paypal account directly to your MCB account and start using the money right away! You can become a seller on ebay, sell things and receive money on your account directly.

4. The fine print

- Top Up and Send money to another Paypal user - Charges - 2% of transaction amount

- Withdraw funds from paypal to MCB bank account - Charges - 1.5% (minimum amount Rs.100)

Thats like Rs.1.50 for each Rs.100 you withdraw

5. Already have a PayPal account ? Link it with MCB Juice !

Just link your account to PayPal via the MCB juice application and start spending like crazy (I'm sorry, start buying stuff) 

6. Don't have PayPal account? 

Better yet!

MCB offers a $5 free opening balance for each new paypal account. So you're in luck!

Create your Paypal account via MCB juice application on android or IOS.

7. Don't have MCB juice?

Download it from the Play store (Android) or Apple Store (IOS/Iphone).

That's all folks!

Enjoy PayPal native support in Mauritius! (Long overdue)

Useful projects on Raspberry Pi - Smart Dehumidifier (Episode 101)

Model: Raspberry Pi 1 B+
Features: 4xUSB, 1xEthernet, HDMI


Today, like yesterday and the day before, I have been working on a little project that is very important to me.

Before I start writing about that project. To understand my point deeper, you need a little background.

My mother is a soapmaker. We make our own home-made artisanal soap, with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, Virgin Organic Coconut Oil, and essential oils.

I help her out whenever I can of course :)
We make the soaps the old-fashioned way, and we leave the soaps to cure at least 2 months before actually using it. (cold-processed)
For the soaps to cure in optimal conditions, I recently bought a dehumidifier.

But how would I know when to turn the dehumidifier on or off ? What I needed was some kind of sensor. So my project's aim is to make a 'smart' dehumidifier assembly that has to :
- Detect the relative humidity in the room
- And turn on whenever the humidity levels are too high
- And off to save current of course :)

So here is my assembly:
1. 1x Raspberry Pi 1 Model B +
2. 1x DHT11 (humidity and temperature detector) -ebay cheap!
3. 1x Dehumidifier
4. 1x 5V 220V Relay -ebay cheap
5. 1x USB Wifi module -ebay cheap

The relay's job is to control the mains via the raspberry pi, so everything is automated and I don't need to bother about humidity anymore.

So, till now I have managed to make the detector work, and still waiting for the relay to arrive (yes i bought from china on ebay)

Its detecting the temperature (in degrees celsius) and relative humidity(in percent) and all this is done in real time!

I will blog about the project again when its done in a DIY fashion so that everyone can do it the easy way.

I have to admit, that all these little devices are serious fun !

Codarren

- In case you want to take a look at our home-made soaps, feel free to visit
this link

- I'd love to get other's input on projects they would love to have in their homes (useful ones). 

- So please feel free talk about your useful project in the comment in the section below :)

Making MariaDB work on musl for Alpine Linux

First of all, I wish to thank the father of MariaDB, Michael Widenius commited my code to MariaDB.

It has been a long journey to making MariaDB  musl compatible and we've finally done it. 

>>MariaDB commit link<<

The world of lightweight, portable and secure distros

Alpine Linux :

Alpine linux is a security-oriented distro based on musl libc and busybox.

Portability: The image itself is an 82 MB iso file. So, as you may guess, no bloatware, virtually no vulnerabilities 

and very portable. Heck! that thing can run from my oldest 128MB thumb drive.

Resource efficiency: And don't forget also that this tiny distro is resource efficient too. You might need around 8-256MB of RAM to get it up and running.

Security: Quoted from the official website itself  "The kernel is patched with grsecurity/PaX out of the box, and all userland binaries are compiled as Position Independent Executables (PIE) with stack smashing protection. These proactive security features prevent exploitation of entire classes of zero-day and other vulnerabilities. "

Musl libc :

We've already talked about musl libc in a previous post. For those who weren't following, please refer to: this article

So, how do i use it ?

I'm glad you asked ! Well for starters, you can run MariaDB on Alpine Linux by compiling MariaDB from source.

The way its done is by downloading MariaDB from the most recent source tree.

And compiling it using your favourite compiler.

But for it to be compatible with musl we need to disable TokuDB.

Of course, TokuDB compatibility under musl is still a work in progress and will be available in no time.

Commands to get MariaDB to run with musl :

cd to source directory

cmake . -DWITHOUT_TOKUDB=1

make

There you go ! You are now running MariaDB on a secure box using musl libc :)

Switching to Fedora 23

My first post of February. Been a long time. I have been quite busy preparing for my new job.

I've switched from Debian to Fedora Core 23 as my main on my personal laptop.

A few things that i had to adapt to on the way...

Yum...mmm - Package Manager ==> DNF

No more apt-get. We're yumming everything now. Btw yum is obsolete now. We're dnfing it out.

Well, you're still allowed to yum it out but it passes the commands to dnf automatically. So, I

switched to the more powerful and intelligent dnf. 

dnf syntax is easy - same as every other package manager i would say.

#dnf install PACKAGENAME

But why was yum crushed and thrown to oblivion ?

1. Undocumented Yum API

- Because of this, all ongoing development to yum, was very slow. Developers like you and I, when we saw bugs on yum, were like 'huh...broken package manager. sad. Lets try another distro'

Soon, maybe i'll get a patch to dnf's tree. Already seen a few annoying bugs :-(

2. Python 3

- Here comes the good part. Fedora moved to native python 3. yum was doomed. DNF supports both Python 2 and 3.

So yeah, yum had to go.

What we're now getting using the yum command is a warning :

Yum command has been deprecated, redirecting to '/usr/bin/dnf install api'.
See 'man dnf' and 'man yum2dnf' for more information.
To transfer transaction metadata from yum to DNF, run:
'dnf install python-dnf-plugins-extras-migrate && dnf-2 migrate'


OpenStack

Openstack public cloud recommended Ubuntu or Fedora/RedHat. I've already tried ubuntu, but been a long time since i used Fedora. So why not?

I'm trying out a few mini images.

I'll post about OpenStack once i get the hang of it.

Fedora - Resource consumption - 

Fedora's resource management is impressive. My laptop's uptime is 8-10 hours of usage when on battery. I used to clock around 5 hours max on my Debian machine.

+1 for Fedora

Fedora Representative

A few friends suggested that I become the Mauritius Fedora Representative, and that they would back me up too =) . So I gladly accepted.

Feel free to contact me for any questions on Fedora :-) 

My profile : https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Codarren