kirannataraj

[kirannataraj]

Introduction to Javascript.

What is Javascript? What are its uses and how can it be used with other technologies. Come let’s have a brief understanding of Javascript. It was initially developed in the year 1995, by Brendon Eich and it appeared in a popular browser at that time Netscape. It was initially called LiveScript, but since Java was a popular language at that time, it was later named as Javascript as associating with an already popular brand, will enhance its value and more people can relate to it. Now it is an independent entity with its own specification called ECMAScript and it is no longer related to Java. JavaScript can run on popular operating systems such as Windows, Linux and Mac. It needs a simple tool such as Notepad++  or any other text editor to write code and a browser to display the webpages you have developed.  

So what makes JavaScript special? It was initially developed to make webpages more alive and kicking. The programs in Javascripts are called scripts and these are written in the website’s HTML. It runs automatically as the page loads! Scripts are executed as plain texts and they don’t need special permission to run it on a regular basis. Right now, Javascript not only runs on a website, but it can also be used on a server or a device, that has a JavaScript engine. Different browsers have separate codenames such as V8 in Chrome, Opera,  SpiderMonkey in Firefox. For Safari, they have Nitro and SqirrelFish and for different versions of Internet Explorer, the codenames are Trident and Chakra.

JavaScript can do multiple functions such as webpage manipulation, user interaction and the web server in a browser. Find below a list of things an in-browser JavaScript can do.

Add new HTML to a page, modify styles and change existing content.

It also reacts to user interaction, mouse clicks, keyboard presses and movement of pointers.

It is helpful in sending requests over the network to a remote server, upload/download files.

Get cookies and interact with users/asking queries.

The client-side data can be stored in local storage.

JavaScript has it’s own limitations as the syntax of it do not meet everyone’s needs as there are different needs to be met with different people. To overcome this whole new sets of languages have cropped up of late, which are transpired into JavaScript and later it is run in the browser. These new tools are very fast and actually it is helping the developers to code in other language and convert it automatically into a JavaScript. Examples of some of the new languages are CoffeeScript, TypeScript, Flow and Dart. 

So what makes JavaScript unique? Let’s have a look at three things, which makes it special. First one is its ability to do simple things in a more simple manner on a website. The next one, which makes it more efficient is it’s integration with HTML/CSS. Most of the browsers support it and it is enabled by default is what makes it useful. It is also the most extensive tool which is used to create browser interfaces and it can also create servers and mobile apps and that’s why it is the most popular tool for the developers.

[kirannataraj]

What is Machine Translation?

Machine translation (MT) is the most important innovation in the field of technology. It is basically a task which is used to translate a text from one source language to another. It is referred my a short form of MT.  The basic function of MT is performing simple substitution of words in one language to another. It is also used to translate an enormous amount of information, which normally includes millions of words that cannot be translated in a more traditional way. This is widely used by the translation companies to increase the productivity of their translators, it is cost-effective also and they provide post-editing services to their clients.

Machine Translation is not new as it has been existing for a fairly long time. IT surfaced around the 1970s and it surfaced through three ways. 

Rule-based Machine Translations (RBMT): 1970s-1990s.

Statistical Machine Translation (SMT):  1990s - 2010s.

Neural Machine Translation (NMT): 2010s - to date.

 There are a few types of MT, namely Generic MT, Customizable MT and Adoptive MT. In the generic types, there are platforms like Google Translate, Yandex, Bing and Naver. The advantage of these platforms are companies can provide ad-hoc solutions to millions across the world and also connect to their own systems in the form of APIs. In the Customizable MT, it can be used to train to improve the accuracy of the terminology. This is preferred over the Generic ones because of its almost 100% accuracy. The Adoptive MT is the more reformed in the sense of productivity of the translator. It is pipped to challenge the translation memory technology in the near future. 

There are a few approaches which are being used in the Machine Translation. As the translation is based on the linguistic rules, the words will be translated in a linguistic way and mostly it will in the spoken language of the target language.

The types of approaches are Rule-based, Transfer-based Machine Translation, dictionary-based Machine Translation, Statistical based MT, Example-based MT, Hybrid and Neural based MT. 

There are quite a few concerns surrounding over MT like many words will have multiple meanings and that’s why the need of a universal dictionary was mooted so that words having two meaning will be dealt with. Due to its problem over the accuracy, it is not being preferred as a teaching tool. The MT also goes through the evaluation process, and it is being calculated by pages by hour basis. They also go through automated tests. The automatic testing metric is called as BLEU ( Bilingual evaluation understudy) and it shows the translation matches with the human translation of the same text. There are other quality metrics such as METOUR, ROGUE, HYSTER and NIST.

MT is the most important feature to come out, but it has its own set of limitations as translations used on platforms like Google Translate are not confidential as the data can be retrieved by anyone. The other thing is the clients should be informed beforehand if MT is being used during the course of the project which has been given to the translation company.

[kirannataraj]

Introduction to Swift Programming language.

There are many programming languages around the world, which is being used extensively, but some like Swift are more sought after. What makes it the go-to language, let’s find out.

About Swift

Swift is a multipurpose compiled programming language developed for iOS, OS X, Watch OS, tvOS and Linux by Apple. This was created to replace the old C programming language which was the popular language used before by Apple. Swift, is aptly named after the Swift Bird (which is the fastest flier in the animal kingdom). As the name suggests, it was developed as a faster alternative to C-programming, apart from the speed, it has many helpful features such as it’s easy to learn, the security is top-notch, it requires less coding and most importantly it is very interactive. 

Comparing Swift to C-programming, Swift has a simple syntax and it is easily understandable even for beginners or for people migrating from other programming languages.  Swift basically took inspirations from other languages like C-programming, Python, Ruby, Rust, Haskell, CLU, C# and the list goes on. The switch from other languages to Swift is far easier for the developers as they find many similarities in the previous languages they have used.  In the C-Programming, a developer had to maintain two files to code, but that process has become easier with Swift as it uses only one file like other languages like Java, C# and JavaScript. 

Swift is a relatively new language, but its popularity has increased two-folds compared to other languages. It has now become the mainstay for Apple community of developers and more importantly, it can be used for commercial purpose also. It is the most preferred language due to its popularity and it has grown rather quickly than expected when compared to other languages.

Advantages of Swift language.

Easy to learn as it is open-sourced

It’s swift and completely secure

It’s more relatable and familiar with the developers

Swift is the future of Apple and many like Google may follow the suit.

It’s enterprise-ready. 

It can serve both as a language and on the server-side also.

The apps and the server can interact with each other seamlessly.

There are a few limitations in the Swift language which can’t be overlooked like, it’s rather a new language on the block and many people are not aware of it. It can’t perform meticulously with third-party tools and IDEs. It doesn’t support earlier versions o iOS.

Conclusion

With more famous companies like Facebook, Uber looking to shift to Swift, the future looks set for this language. Swift is still evolving and it needs to be seen how far it will go technology-wise. Many famous apps like Linkedin, Yahoo weather, Strava, clear, Hipmunk have been using Swift and there are rumours floating around that Google might soon use Swift language for their Andriod development, which opens up opportunities for developers who have already mastered Swift. Another major benefit of Swift is its portability with other platforms and this, in turn, creates more job opportunities. In case you are Swift developer, fret not you are in the right place at the right time.

[kirannataraj]

Introduction to Cyber Security

With the advent of the World wide web (WWW), people accessing the internet for almost everything has put the world at a greater risk. The main targeted sectors are banks, government and companies around the world. Cybersecurity is a combination of users, the processes involved and the technology. We now have almost every information about the users and that in turn leaves a large vacuum in terms of how secure these things are as it can be accessed by a majority of people thereby putting ourselves under lots of risks. Cyber Security is one such wing working hard towards these untoward incidents.

About Cyber Security

Cyber Security, addressed in two words is about Cyber and security. Cyber is mainly about the technologies, which constitutes system, data, programs and network. While security is about protections and it includes, things like the system security, information security, networks and application security. 

It is basically a combination of things designed to protect networks, devices, programs from a possible attack, theft, damages and unauthorized access. It is also called the Information Technology security. With the over-dependency on the computers, due to which there are tons of information stored over the World wide web, they are prone to threats and Cyber Security is an important shield against such data breaches.  There are three major types of threats to be controlled. 

Unauthorised access

Unauthorized deletion of data

Unauthorized modification.

These three are associated with CIA set, and CIA stands for Confidentiality, integrity and availability. These three are considered as the mainstays of security and most security guidelines of companies around the globe stands on these three main pillars. 

There are numerous ways to implement Cybersecurity, but the three things which stand out are Identify, Analyse and evaluate and Treat. While following these three things, few things have to be kept in mind such as Vulnerability, threat and risks involved. Data breaches are most common around the globe and it involves financial losses, trust with the customers and according to a recent survey, nearly one-third of data breach costs can be felt for years.

Features of Cyber Security

After understanding the basic information on Cyber Security, lets now have a look at the important features of it. These are like your first line of defence against the attacks. 

Good analytics

Proper coverage of external threats

Robust defence against internal threats

Compliance

Manage risk across one’s entire ecosystem

Prevention against threat, detection and response

Monitoring on a regular/continuous basis.

Benefits of Cyber Security

Let's now look at the top benefits of Cyber Security and how it acts as an army for the World wide web.

It protects your business

Our personal information is safe and secure

It allows employees to work securely

It protects and enhances productivity

It prevents Websites from crashing

Detects spyware on a regular basis

It acts as a shield against Adwares

It offers a consolidated solution.

It acts as a support system for the IT experts

 It helps in building rapport with customers/clients.

Conclusion

Organisations around the globe are continuously facing spyware, adware attacks and data breaches. Its effect can be felt for a number of years and it also involves losing the trust of the customers and clients. Cyber Security acts as a shield against such attacks and therefore it should have considered as the mandatory technology to have in any organisation.

[kirannataraj]

Pros and cons of Duckduckgo

Introduction

Do you even remember when you didn’t know the answer to a particular query and you didn’t even know where to find an answer to it? Most of them instantly go to a google search, it has become a favourite medium such as your neighbourhood shop when you want your favourite items in a flash. In such situations like these Google has an upper hand over many of its peers. We will be talking about one such search engine Duckduckgo, which is taking on the giant in the search engine domain Google. 

But alternatives do come with a rider, according to Alexander Von Gernler, VP of Informatics society of Germany, there is nothing really like free search. Search engines are in the process of making money and they do it in two ways, first by displaying relevant ads and then saving your precious data.

About Duckduckgo

The world had already seen a companion of sorts with Google, which would answer all their queries albeit some personal ones. But once a popular brand gets maximum attention, there are few who want to take a piece of the cake. Duckduckgo is one such brand. It was founded in the year 2008 and is claimed to not store the information of its users. 

Duckduckgo doesn’t spam their users with ads and also don’t store the personal information of its user even in the private browsing mode.  By doing this it was different completely from its peers and that’s what made them stand out in first place.

The Duckduckgo is similar to the market leader Google in many ways, it has similar layouts compared to Google and also has the same search engine landing pages (SERPS) compared to Google. It has also the same number of ads at the start and the bottom of the page, which usually revolves around keywords and relevant topics.

Duckduckgo has a browser, called Duckduckbot, and some multiple other search engines to compile it’s search results. The other search engine includes Bing, Yahoo, Yandex and the popular crowd favourite Wikipedia. The search results are very similar to Google as it offers a knowledge panel like a break-out box, which will have all pieces of information like name, address, phone number and the website, which is taken from the sources like Wikipedia. Google also has search patterns like these. 

Duckduckgo pulls out reviews from providers like Yelp, which has many info regarding the business hours, contact details and many other things. For maps, Duckduckgo relies on Bing, which is by default and it can be changed to other sources like Google maps, HERE maps.

Features of Duckduckgo

Speed, its search is way faster than Google.

It doesn’t have annoying captcha like I am human types.

Bangs

High standard of privacy.

Efficient and reliable search engine

It has grown by 56% in 2018 and has 9.2 billion searches.

Let’s now take a quick look at the pros and cons of Duckduckgo.

Pros

Privacy

User friendly

Gaining popularity quickly.

Cons

It is nowhere close to Google.

Very minimal market search.

Always trying to catch-up with its peers like Google.

Conclusion

Many search engines have made a debut in the market to compete against Google, but many have bitten the dust so far.  Google is a far more robust search engine, which can execute a plethora of tasks without much fuss. It has a vast number of databases and its main feature is the maps, which aids in the business of many companies. Clearly Google is the Goliath of the search engine as it boosts search engine index of hundreds of billions of search pages. It’s also the smartest available in the market right now. 

[kirannataraj]

Top Law Schools in the USA.

So you have aced your last year of school with good grades. Have conquered LSAT (Law School Admission Test), This test is used as the benchmark for colleges all around the world for students to get admission for their favourite colleges. You may also have received a numerous number of emails, that would have flooded your inbox from many colleges. 

Choosing what suits you best is a complex decision one has to encounter. While some may opt for a college due to family tradition, as many from their family would have studied there and you don’t want to break that tradition, while for other, they would want to get themselves admitted to top 5 colleges. There are quite a few top-rated colleges in the USA and let us have a closer look at it.

Below are the top 25 law colleges in the USA:

Harvard University

Yale University

Columbia University

Stanford University

University of Chicago

New York University

University of Pennsylvania

Duke University

Northwestern University

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

University of Virginia

University of California-Berkeley

University of California-Los Angeles

Washington University in St Louis

Cornell University

Georgetown University

University of Texas-Austin

Vanderbilt University

Boston University

University of Southern California

Emory University

George Washington University

University of Notre Dame

Boston College

Brigham Young University

Fordham University

University of Alabama

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

 The universities in the USA have different parameters for the admission process unlike the ones in the United Kingdom. These are the protocols one has to follow you avoid any hiccups during the admission process. 

One should have completed a Bachelor’s degree, though not necessarily specialised in Law.

The candidate should have taken the LSAT test, which is mandatory. These tests determine the student’s analytical and critical ability.

The candidate needs to decide on two-three colleges before applying. 

Let's now look at the types of Law degrees in the USA.

Juris Doctor  (J.D) - This degree is granted by all the public and private law colleges, which is mandatory to practice law in the country. For full-time students, it’s a three-year program, while the part-time student, they need to spend 4 years. 

Master of Laws (L.L.M): This program is taken after the J.D has finished. It is basically a program, which is taken in any one area of specialisation. This also helps the foreign students to get used to the US laws.

Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D): This degree is somewhat similar to the normal PhD program. This course is generally pursued by those looking to make teaching law as their profession.  

During the duration of the course, from the 3rd year onwards, a student has an option to select a specialisation namely International Law, Public Law, Criminal Law, Business Law and Patent law. The law colleges in the USA follow a teaching method, which is popularly is known as the Socrates Method. The famous philosopher believed in different people debating on different philosophies and ideas. The same has been applied by the colleges where students are challenged to analyse and have arguments on different issues of laws. 

Conclusion:

After researching the web about the top Law colleges in the USA, for many a thought would cross their mind, why study and become a lawyer in the USA?  Well here’s the answer, the USA is a vast country and finding career opportunities is not a hard task. The legal system in the USA is the most transparent, challenging and straightforward. The most important factor is the financial rewards the candidate get! A fresher makes around 160000 USD per year and you can be a part of someone’s life-changing situation.

[kirannataraj]

Brain-storming sessions ahead of the Second edition of IndusInd Nagesh Trophy 2019-20

With the multiple World Cups in the bag, The Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI) came up with an ambitious plan to hold a National-level T20 tournament for the Blind in the year 2018 to nurture talents across the country. Fittingly it was to be named after Mr Late Nagesh, the person who gave his all to Blind Cricket. 

The tournament Nagesh Trophy 2018-19 was an instant hit right away and it had caught the eye of many sponsors, Cricket associations and vendors who were part of it, some didn’t charge anything. The pressure and the excitement of staging the second season were high after the stupendous success of the inaugural season. We also had an extra team (Tripura) participating and that added to the excitement and the pressure.

The inaugural season had few guidelines for the association, like General, financial guidelines. These things needed some tweaking and the work ahead of the second season started some 2-3 months before the start of the tournament. We had innumerable sessions over a countless cup of beverages and biscuits deciding upon the guidelines and coming up with a schedule which was to be hosted in 12 different cities across India. The scheduling of resources, who will travel to which place, the check-lists to be followed in each venue. The co-ordinations with teams regarding the travel, for instance, Uttarakhand were playing their opening matches in Agartala and they had to travel close to 60 hours in the train all were planned in advance to avoid last-minute hiccups.

Ahead of this season, we decided to have a new jersey material for the players and selecting the right fabric, design and quality, took us over a month and getting it printed and shipping it across to various centres was daunting indeed! As the inaugural match was held in the North-eastern part (Tripura) of India, shipping to these centres was tough as it would take close to a fortnight to get things delivered by road. This is where we decided that shipping jerseys through the air were viable, as for the opening round of matches it had to be shipped to seven centres and thus Zhipon Logistics Pvt Ltd came to our rescue and the first set of parcels were delivered within 3 working days, including to far-away centres like Tripura.

The toughest part of the season, the deliveries of jerseys were over, we now changed our focus on areas like live streaming of matches, which we wanted to have for most of the matches this season. This had its own set of challenges as the inaugural matches were to be held in Tripura, which had connectivity issues and tackling that was a huge challenge altogether. The branding and printing also were challenging due to time-constraint and of course the weather. The rains posed a lot of problem in Tripura, as flights got cancelled and were postponed indefinitely due to bad weather, thus leaving us little time to travel to the next venue. 

Finally the day of the inaugural match i.e 7th November 2019 arrived and it was indeed a great start to the tournament, which was to be held over the period of 3 months in various centres across India and the brain-storming sessions which we had over 2 months finally paid price and one icing on the cake was the presence of the wife of the Tripura Chief Minister in Agartala, who had the privilege of watching some exciting Cricket played, including a Super-Over!

[kirannataraj]

Use of Youtube, live telecast and LED boundary boards

Basking on the success of the first season of the Nagesh Trophy 2018-19 where coverage of some matches was streamed live on the Cricket Association for the Blind in India youtube channel, this year we decided to cover maximum matches through youtube streaming and live telecast with an audio commentary with is a basic requisite for the Blind community.

The inaugural match of the second season of the Nagesh Trophy 2019-20 was to be held in the North-eastern part of India, Agartala and that proved to be quite challenging as the internet connectivity was flaky. We zeroed in on a vendor from Kolkata, who arrived a day before the match to set things up. Although the situations were challenging, we managed to pull off the live streaming.

As the tournament was held in different parts of the country, the connectivity issue was a major deterrent. To overcome these hurdles, we had to zero in on vendors, who had proven abilities in these difficult circumstances and that was quite challenging. We streamed matches live in some places where the internet connectivity for live streaming was not ideal. The other places where we found it difficult was in Faridabad as the ground where we played had some logistical issues. The live streaming of the league matches was done with and now the business end of the tournament, i.e the Quarters, Semis and the final was ahead of us and we had to go out of our hand to make this a success.

The four Quarter-finals were held at Faridabad, Bengaluru, Guntur and Kota. Live streaming on all the matches had to be planned as this was knock-out matches and catering to the Blind users was of high priority for CABI. The Semis and the Final were held in Bengaluru and logistics wise and connectivity wise it was feasible. 

The Final was decided to be held in the iconic M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru and along with the live streaming, we had the match live telecasted in Doordarshan Chandana channel. We also had a new addition to this year’s edition fo the Nagesh Trophy as we decided upon to have digital LED boundary hoardings. Earlier in the first edition and most of the second edition, we had this static boundary boards and this addition was indeed a welcome change to Blind Cricket.

All these technological assistance are nothing without the support of our esteemed vendors and I would like to thank each one of them for pitching in under difficult circumstances to make this event a grand success. I would like to offer my thanks on behalf of the Cricket Association of Blind in India to our valuable vendors Worldcricketdotcom, MazeYou Solutions, Sports Ikka, Just Cricket, Pitch Invasion and Doordarshan Chandana for your esteemed support for making the season two of the Nagesh Trophy 2019-20 a mega success.

[kirannataraj]

Introduction to Internet marketing.

Gone are the days when, marketing was just limited to print, television and newspaper ads. From social media to google ads, we now have access to many more affordable forms of marketing are readily available to companies such as internet marketing or online marketing. The small and medium businesses are also benefited by this as they are finding new ways to compete against the bigger entities.

So what exactly is Internet/online marketing? Come let’s have a closer look at it.  Internet marketing usually refers to any form of advertising on the web. This is done in the form of promotions across various social media platforms, paid advertisements and emails which will be displayed on the search engine. As the age-group of persons using the internet has been on the younger side, the companies have shifted to this form of marketing as they can reach to a maximum number of users, more relevant users at a much lower cost compared to the traditional form of marketing. 

With the right strategies and even on a limited budget, small and medium entities are taking on the bigger ones. They are also able to get creative, effectively reach customers at each and every stage. Imagine a user searching something on Google, in each stage of his search, before he checks out with the final product, your brand will appear in each and every stage, hence increasing your visibility.  Next, we will look at why is Internet marketing important? In the World wide web, there are users waiting for just to discover any new thing that is coming on the internet. This is where a brand will stand out by using data analysis and optimisation tools, this, in turn, helps in reaching out to most relevant and qualified customers. With computer algorithms and tools doing most of the required work for you, reaching out to customers comes at a lower cost. This result shows in your business spending and it will generate a higher rate of return on your marketing investment, (ROMI).

There are different types of Online marketing strategies such as content marketing, display advertising, email marketing, paid search advertising or PPC, search engine optimization and social media marketing. However, online marketing strategies vary from type of business and the goal. But one thing is over a period of time, online marketing has become a go-to medium, in fact, a necessity as it connects you to most relevant customers at a relatively lesser cost. The main advantage of online marketing is you don’t necessarily have to be an expert to get started with, you just have to start understanding the internet marketing and how it can be incorporated in your business. There are few things which you need to emphasise on like right keywords as this will help you in search engine optimization (SEO), and relevant content related to the nature of the business. Finally, once you have a right online marketing strategy in place, you know you have arrived as it will instantly help your business flourish!

[kirannataraj]

What is Machine Translation?

Machine translation (MT) is the most important innovation in the field of technology. It is basically a task which is used to translate a text from one source language to another. It is referred my a short form of MT.  The basic function of MT is performing simple substitution of words in one language to another. It is also used to translate an enormous amount of information, which normally includes millions of words that cannot be translated in a more traditional way. This is widely used by the translation companies to increase the productivity of their translators, it is cost-effective also and they provide post-editing services to their clients.

Machine Translation is not new as it has been existing for a fairly long time. IT surfaced around the 1970s and it surfaced through three ways.

Rule-based Machine Translations (RBMT): 1970s-1990s.

Statistical Machine Translation (SMT):  1990s - 2010s.

Neural Machine Translation (NMT): 2010s - to date.

 There are a few types of MT, namely Generic MT, Customizable MT and Adoptive MT. In the generic types, there are platforms like Google Translate, Yandex, Bing and Naver. The advantage of these platforms are companies can provide ad-hoc solutions to millions across the world and also connect to their own systems in the form of APIs. In the Customizable MT, it can be used to train to improve the accuracy of the terminology. This is preferred over the Genric ones because of its almost 100% accuracy. The Adoptive MT is the more reformed in the sense of productivity of the translator. It is pipped to challenge the translation memory technology in the near future. 

There are a few approaches which are being used in the Machine Translation. As the translation is based on the linguistic rules, the words will be translated in a linguistic way and mostly it will in the spoken language of the target language.

The types of approaches are Rule-based, Transfer-based Machine Translation, dictionary-based Machine Translation, Statistical based MT, Example-based MT, Hybrid and Neural based MT. 

There are quite a few concerns surrounding over MT like many words will have multiple meanings and that’s why the need of a universal dictionary was mooted so that words having two meaning will be dealt with. Due to its problem over the accuracy, it is not being preferred as a teaching tool. The MT also goes through the evaluation process, and it is being calculated by pages by hour basis. They also go through automated tests. The automatic testing metric is called as BLEU ( Bilingual evaluation understudy) and it shows the translation matches with the human translation of the same text. There are other quality metrics such as METOUR, ROGUE, HYSTER and NIST.

MT is the most important feature to come out, but it has its own set of limitations as translations used on platforms like Google Translate are not confidential as the data can be retrieved by anyone. The other thing is the clients should be informed beforehand if MT is being used during the course of the project which has been given to the translation company.

[kirannataraj]

There are many programming languages around the world, which is being used extensively, but some like Swift are more sought after. What makes it the go-to language, let’s find out.

About Swift

Swift is a multipurpose compiled programming language developed for iOS, OS X, Watch OS, tvOS and Linux by Apple. This was created to replace the old C programming language which was the popular language used before by Apple. Swift, is aptly named after the Swift Bird (which is the fastest flier in the animal kingdom). As the name suggests, it was developed as a faster alternative to C-programming, apart from the speed, it has many helpful features such as it’s easy to learn, the security is top-notch, it requires less coding and most importantly it is very interactive. 

Comparing Swift to C-programming, Swift has a simple syntax and it is easily understandable even for beginners or for people migrating from other programming languages.  Swift basically took inspirations from other languages like C-programming, Python, Ruby, Rust, Haskell, CLU, C# and the list goes on. The switch from other languages to Swift is far easier for the developers as they find many similarities in the previous languages they have used.  In the C-Programming, a developer had to maintain two files to code, but that process has become easier with Swift as it uses only one file like other languages like Java, C# and JavaScript. 

Swift is a relatively new language, but its popularity has increased two-folds compared to other languages. It has now become the mainstay for Apple community of developers and more importantly, it can be used for commercial purpose also. It is the most preferred language due to its popularity and it has grown rather quickly than expected when compared to other languages.

Advantages of Swift language.

Easy to learn as it is open-sourced

It’s swift and completely secure

It’s more relatable and familiar with the developers

Swift is the future of Apple and many like Google may follow the suit.

It’s enterprise-ready.

It can serve both as a language and on the server-side also.

The apps and the server can interact with each other seamlessly.

There are a few limitations in the Swift language which can’t be overlooked like, it’s rather a new language on the block and many people are not aware of it. It can’t perform meticulously with third-party tools and IDEs. It doesn’t support earlier versions of iOS.

Conclusion

With more famous companies like Facebook, Uber looking to shift to Swift, the future looks set for this language. Swift is still evolving and it needs to be seen how far it will go technology-wise. Many famous apps like Linkedin, Yahoo weather, Strava, clear, Hipmunk have been using Swift and there are rumours floating around that Google might soon use Swift language for their Andriod development, which opens up opportunities for developers who have already mastered Swift. Another major benefit of Swift is its portability with other platforms and this, in turn, creates more job opportunities. In case you are Swift developer, fret not you are in the right place at the right time.

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England v Sri Lanka, 3rd ODI: Preview

After the drubbing they got at the hands of Sri Lanka in the 2nd ODI, England would want to start afresh in the third ODI. After a superb show in the 1st ODI, England crashed to their lowest total at home against Sri Lanka after being bundled out for a paltry 99 in pursuit of 257. All their batters, barring Eoin Morgan fell to some superb bowling by the Sri Lankans. The conditions were overcast and after opting to bowl first, the English bowlers disappointed by spraying the ball around during the initial spell. The Sri Lankan seam bowlers used the conditions perfectly and led by Nuwan Kulasekara they bundled out the hosts for a paltry score. The forecast for the third ODI isn't great with AccuWeather predicting loads of rain for Manchester on Wednesday during the day. Some of it should clear towards the evening, but it looks like it might be one of those stop-start days. England: Their team looked settled during the 1st ODI, but they had a bad day at office during the 2nd ODI. They have had two days to recover from the drubbing and are still contemplating over the fitness of their captain Alastair Cook, who was ruled out of a groin injury in the second ODI. Morgan was honest in his post-match presentation, where he admitted that it was one of the worst performance he had ever been part of. Their bowling also lacked depth as they leaked too many runs at the death and helped Sri Lanka cross the 250-run mark. Chris Jordan, who starred with an all-round performance in the 1st ODI, couldn't repeat his fine performance and ended up with figures of 1/56. Only two batsmen crossed the double figure mark, with only Morgan scoring more than 12 runs.  Sri Lanka: After coming up with a dismal performance in the 1st ODI, they came back well to level the series 1-1 in the 2nd ODI. Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Ashan Priyanjan had a good match, but Lahiru Thirimanne's form has been a worry for them as he has not fired in the 2 matches so far. Dilshan missed out on a well deserved hundred, while Sanga played well under overcast conditions and along with Dilshan added crucial 96 runs for the second wicket which consolidated SL after they had lost an early wicket. Priyanjan and Angelo Mathews provided the late assault and helped Sri Lanka post a competitive total. Their bowling also looks impressive at the moment, with Kulasekara swinging the ball both ways at the start. Malinga has been expensive during the 1st two matches and he will look to improve on that. Senanayake was superb in the 2nd ODI, where he troubled the England batsmen with his guile and flight. Even though they won the 2nd match convincingly, they were far from their usual self. Suranga Lakmal has been ruled out of the entire ODI series after sustaining a grade-two hamstring tear in the first ODI. Rangana Herath has been drafted into the side as his replacement and it has boosted their bowling line-up. Quotes: "We wanted to bat as long as possible then we can go for our target. That was the aim for us. "The conditions suited the bowlers, especially in the first 10-15 overs when it seamed around and they bowled really well. "After a few overs we knew 230-240 would be a good score. The main target was to bat long partnerships and I think it worked. "I was a little bit disappointed (not to score a century) but it was a very good ball," Man-of-the-Match Dilshan told Sky Sports. "That is as badly as we can bat. It was one of the worst performances that I have been part of. I cant explain why. It was just terrible. The wicket was a bit tacky but we should have been good enough to cope. In fact it was the sort of pitch that we would like to play sides like Sri Lanka on. But weve been outplayed," said the stand-in captain Eoin Morgan.

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Chennai vs Hyderabad, 50th Match, Pepsi IPL Preview

With Sunrisers Hyderabad peaking at the right time and Chennai Super Kings suffering back to back defeats at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders, the game at Ranchi is being looked at as an even contest. The scenario at the business end of the Pepsi Indian Premier League has suddenly caught every one's attention. Even though Chennai have qualified for the play-offs, they have many things to worry about in their line-up and they would want to set things right pretty quickly. On the other hand, Hyderabad made an inspiring change in the last match against RCB by promoting David Warner at the top and he took the RCB bowlers apart. Shikhar Dhawan also found some form and got to his first IPL fifty and things are looking brighter for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Chennai Super Kings: The most consistent team in the history of the Pepsi Indian Premier League are struggling with some major lapses in the field, with their fielders dropping crucial catches at the start. Although, what is hurting them most is the that the batsmen surviving dropped chances are going on to play match-winning innings.  They have been experimenting with their bench strength and will look to lock in a perfect eleven before the play-offs. Suresh Raina has been their go-to man this season as he has been consistent so far, but their concern will the form of Faf du Plessis, who has not got enough runs under his belt. The opening combo has worked well for the thus far, but with Brendon McCullum missing this game, the onus will be on Dwayne Smith to shoulder more responsibility. On the bowling front, they have covered all their bases, with R Ashwin bowling well in the powerplays and Ravindra Jadeja stifling things in the middle. Mohit Sharma has been the pick of the bowlers for them having taken 18 wickets at an impressive average of 15.22. He is currently the 2nd highest wicket-taker in this edition. Sunrisers Hyderabad: Despite having won their last few matches and being required to win their remaining two matches, Sunrisers Hyderabad must bank on other sides' results for a place in the play-offs. They made Darren Sammy as captain after Shikhar Dhawan's form was affected by the added responsibility of leadership. That move seemed to have helped them as Dhawan notched up his 1st fifty in this IPL in the last match against Bangalore. The move to promote David Warner also paid rich dividends as the maverick Australian opener gave them a strong start and got to his 5th fifty of the season. Warner's magnificent aggregate of 434 runs at an average of 48.22 in 12 matches is a record by a Hyderabad batsman in the IPL.  They have the best bowling line-up at their disposal. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been exceptional at the start and is currently leading the bowling charts for the season. They also have the fiery Dale Steyn in their ranks, but the South African speedster is yet to make his mark this season. Karn Sharma has done well for them in the middle overs and overall their bowling looks like a million bucks. Quotes: "It was a bad toss to lose as the wicket became slightly better to bat on. The bowlers created the opportunities but our fielders couldn't take it," Dhoni said after the loss to Kolkata "We have quality spinners in the ranks, and irrespective of the pitch they perform, and I want to mention Umesh and Cummins as well, they don't get mentioned as often as they should," Gambhir was all praise for his bowlers

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Rajasthan v Mumbai, 44th Match: Preview

Mumbai Indians' poor run in this edition of the Pepsi Indian Premier League has forced them out of the tournament and they can only play party-poppers now as the qualification of other teams for the play-offs will also be dependent on the matches they play. On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals have found the right combination and are sitting pretty in the points table. They would look to strengthen their hold in the top-four. With the Royals firmly in the hunt for a place in play-offs, it will be tough for Mumbai Indians to stop them. Surprisingly, these two teams will clash for the first time in this edition and it is also the final home match of the season for Rajasthan. Mumbai Indians: It has been a forgettable year for the defending champions. They had a disastrous outing in the first leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the UAE, but found some form when they returned to their fortress, Wankhede stadium. Their batters have failed to string partnerships on numerous occasions. Rohit Sharma's form also has not helped them. They had bolstered their batting by taking Corey Anderson (currently holds the record for the fastest century in ODIs) during the auctions, but he has failed to deliver the goods when the chips were down. It has also been a mixed season for Keiron Pollard, but after having been Mumbai Indians' saviour on numerous occasions in the past he will be bitterly disappointed with his show in this edition. Only Lendl Simmons and Ambati Rayudu have been in the thick of the form, notching up fifties and delivering the goods. Rohit Sharma is yet to find consistent form in this tournament so far and that has added to Mumbai Indians woes. On the bowling front, Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga, who presently is the 3rd highest wicket taker in this season with 16 wickets, has left to join the Sri Lankan side ahead of their T20I match against England. It will be interesting to see who between Marchant de Lange and Krishmar Santokee gets the call to fill in the big boots of Malinga. Harbhajan Singh's bowling has improved by leaps and bounds. He has very often given them the breakthroughs in power-plays and has stifled the run flow in the middle.  Rajasthan Royals: They are the team with the right combination and are performing according to the expectations. Some lesser-known Indian players have contributed in a huge way for the success of Rajasthan Royals in this edition. Karun Nair, Sanju Samson have been a revelation for them and they have supported Ajinkya Rahane perfectly at the other end. They experimented a lot in the previous match against Chennai Super Kings, where their batting frailties were exposed. Only Shane Watson could score freely against the two-time champions and barring his fifty there was no other significant contribution. Stuart Binny has had an ordinary tournament so far and they need the Karnataka all-rounder to find some form before the qualifiers.  Their bowling looks settled at the moment, with Pravin Tambe shouldering the responsibility well and helping bolster the Rajasthan attack. He is currently the 4th highest wicket-taker with 15 scalps in the tournament and the 42-year old would be keen on adding to his tally. He has been enormously consistent so far and that has helped the other bowlers as well. They also have the experience of Rajat Bhatia, who with his dibly-doblies has arrested the run flow in the middle. James Faulkner also has bowled well at the death and on the bowling front Rajasthan have covered all the bases. Quotes: "I wouldn't say I am a specialist batsman. At the moment, I haven't bowled at all in this tournament. But you never know, at times I might get called upon and take a few wickets and keep the runs to the minimum." Steven Smith feels he could add teeth to the Rajasthan's strong bowling line-up.

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Kolkata Knight Riders v Mumbai Indians, 40th match: Preview

Both teams struggled to get going at the start of this season of the Pepsi Indian Premier League but have made progress after that. As the teams enter the business end of the tournament, they will look to secure a win to be in the reckoning for the qualifiers. This encounter promises to be an even contest after both teams registered convincing win in their respective last matches and are slowly getting into the groove.  Kolkata Knight Riders: KKR's fortunes swung in sync their captain's form. Gautam Gambhir started with 3 consecutive ducks, but once he shot back to form, this team got the much needed impetus and they were back to winning ways. Robin Uthappa's promotion to the top has also paid rich dividends as the maverick Karnataka player has been in an imperious form and that took the pressure off under-fire captain. Gambhir, who has now scored 2 consecutive fifties to help them register 2 wins. Manish Pandey also got some runs under his belt and their top order looks much settled now.  Kolkata's bowling also got a boost when they included Piyush Chawla and Morne Morkel in the last match. The two bowlers shared 5 wickets between them but they have largely gone with a 'horses for courses' policy. The presence of mystery spinner Sunil Narine will be a constant threat and MI will be wary of him. The KKR bowling unit can also take a lot positives from their last game against Kings XI Punjab, where they restricted a strong, in-form batting line-up to just 149. Mumbai Indians: Defending champions Mumbai Indians had a tough start during the UAE leg of the Pepsi Indian Premier League, but they found their winning ways as soon as they started playing at their fortress, the Wankhede Stadium. They tried a number of combinations to open the innings and it has probably come to rest after Lendl Simmons impressive 68 against SRH in their last game. Ambati Rayudu has been a star with the bat for Mumbai Indians, scoring 277 runs at an average of 30.77 this season. The men in blue will be backing him to extend his good run of form and pile on the runs. Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard are making sure Mumbai are not deprived of big shots at the death and are chipping in with vital knocks to keep them in contention for the play-offs. Mumbai Indians' bowling has been a concern for them in this edition, with only Malinga being amongst the wickets. Harbhajan has bowled brilliantly for them, but wickets have eluded him so far. With Zaheer's absence their bowling looks unsettled and the inclusion of Pragyan Ojha also backfired in the last match as he went for plenty of runs. They need their bowlers to step up and fire in unison if they are to string together the wins they need to qualify. Quotes: I want to score a half-century every game and get my team off to a flier at the top of the innings - Lendl Simmons exudes confidence Robin (Uthappa) has taken a lot of pressure off me since he started opening - Gautam Gambhir compliments his partner

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Delhi flair versus Rajasthan efficiency, Delhi, May 03rd, Preview by Kiran Nataraj

Delhi and Rajasthan lock horns, but this time in familiar conditions in India in the second leg of the Pepsi Indian Premier League at Feroze Shah Kotla, Delhi. Rajasthan Royals, who were almost unbeatable at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur will not be playing their home matches at Jaipur in this edition any more and they will have to move out of their comfort zone. Delhi Daredevils are languishing at the second last place in the points table and will be looking to turn their fortunes around at their own fort at Kotla.

Delhi:

Delhi signed off their UAE sojourn with a thumping win over Mumbai. Their batting has been strengthened with the arrival of Kevin Pietersen, returning after a hand injury, and with JP Duminy, Murali Vijay and Dinesh Karthik also amongst the runs in the 5 matches they have played so far, the side is reliable with the bat. But a lot more will be expected from Quinton de Kock, Ross Taylor and KP in the matches coming up in India.

Their bowling also has been up to the mark, with Jaidev Unadkat and Shahbaz Nadeem bagging 6 wickets and 4 wickets respectively. They need their other bowlers to fire if they are to compete against the best teams. KP will want their pacers Mohammad Shami and Wayne Parnell to step up a bit and they need another good spinner to support Nadeem as Duminy's off-breaks have not been successful so far and he has been leaking runs in the middle overs.

They are seeking Imran Tahir, who was one of South Africa's main wicket-takers in the recently concluded World Twenty 20 bagging 12 wickets at an economy of 6.55 as a replacement for Nathan Coulter-Nile, but nothing is official as yet and that move could pay rich dividends for them as he could be a perfect foil along with Nadeem in the spin department.

Rajasthan:

They are one of the teams to beat as they are on a roll, winning back to back matches and they would like to continue their dream run in the second leg of the league in India. In the last match against Kolkata, they held their nerve to clinch the nail-biting thriller in which the match was tied twice and they won on the basis of the boundary count.

Shane Watson's boys have been a cohesive unit and they have always contributed as a team. Ajinkya Rahane has been rock solid at the top but he needs a good opening partner to give Rajasthan a strong start. The experiment to send Abhishek Nayar and Karun Nair to open the innings has backfired as the duo have not been able to set the ball rolling from the word go and it has also put pressure on Rahane at the other end.

Their middle order bears a more solid outlook, with Sanju Samson, Watson, Steve Smith and Stuart Binny controlling the innings, but consistency has been the issue and they would want that to change immediately.

Their bowling department is much more organised with veteran spinner Pravin Tambe and seamer Kane Richardson amongst the wickets. Senior all-rounder Rajat Bhatia too has stuck to his role of containing the rival batsmen in the middle overs, his slower deliveries are very difficult to pick while James Faulkner has also shone with three wickets in a single over against Kolkata in their last match after being carted all over the park in the previous matches.

Pitch and conditions:

It will be very hot during this time of the year and the pitch at Kotla is generally on the slower side, but the short boundaries could make it an exciting contest in this format of the game. The local boy, Rajat Bhatia will be ideal on this pitch after having toiled hard on this pitch all through his career and this should be a testing time for the big hitters of Delhi.

Quotes:

Frankly speaking, I didn`t meet or interact with KP before this IPL. But people had said a lot of stuff about his ego and so on. But I have not seen that part of him - Quinton de Kock does not believe the rumour mills about KP.

Every guy is a superstar in our team. That's one of the reasons why they have been picked - Rajat Bhatia, on the Rajasthan Royals.