Ashis Kumer Biswas

Ashis Kumer Biswas

Assistant Professor

Blog posts

2024

Managing SSL Certificates with Amazon AWS Lightsail instance with Apache2 webservice

This post is for enabling a SSL certificate for free from Cloudflare.com. Say, you purchased a domain name (e.g., example.com from Godaddy). Now, you want an inexpensive way to host your website. Again, say you hosted the website at Amazon AWS Lightsail (either $3.50/mo or $5.00/mo as of the time of writing) with configuration like: {Platform: Linux/Unix, blueprint:Os only, OS:Ubuntu 22.04}. You then bind a AWS provided static IP with the instance and create a DNS zone with couple of DNS records like: {A records:[Record name:example.com,Route traffic to:1.2.3.4],[Record name:*.example.com,Route traffic to:1.2.3.4]}. Also assign the created DNS zone to the instance. Finally, copy the AWS provided list of Name servers into Godaddy’s Nameservers management page for your purchased domain while removing existing ones. And, you host your website files with Apache2 in your Lightsail instance. Here is a post I wrote on how to configure a site with apache2.

Jupyter Notebook to pdf/html file

If you would like to create a pdf/html from your jupyter notebook, you can use the handy nbconvert tool of jupyter. Here is how you can use it.

Github command line with new authentication

Since 2021, github underwent a major change in their platform is removing password based authentication (in both web and command line). This blog is going to re-iterate their instructions on how you can do what you did before this overhaul with the new access mechanism in-place in the platform.

2023

Changing the Box drive sync directory (in Windows 10)

As of today, Box drive only provides support for Windows and Mac operating systems. Yet, some of its users (including me) may be experiencing issue in Windows 10 to not being able to change the directory where the files will be synced to. That means, the default box directory, which is the boot drive could not be changed through the installed Box application.

Basics of Laravel – A PHP Framework

Laravel is an open-source PHP web framework that follows the model-view-controller (MVC) design pattern. It hosts two major tools: i) composer and ii) artisan. The Composer includes all the dependencies and libraries. It allows a user to create a project with respect to the mentioned framework (for example, those used in Laravel installation). Third party libraries can be installed easily with help of composer. All the dependencies are noted in composer.json file which is placed in the source folder. Artisan includes a set of commands which assists in building a web application. These commands are incorporated from Symphony framework, resulting in add-on features in Laravel 5.1+.

Install and Configure PHP, MySQL, Apache2 on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

If you would want to use your Ubuntu 22.04 LTS system for web development and are looking for installation and configuration instructions all over the Internet, this blog post is an effort to summarize the basic steps you may follow.

Install and Configure PHP, MySQL, Apache2 on MacOS Ventura 13.5.1

If you would want to use your Macbook with MacOS (Ventura 13.5.1) for web development and are looking for installation and configuration instructions all over the Internet, this blog post is an effort to summarize the basic steps you may follow.

Install and Configure Julia

In this blog post (in progress) I will show you few steps to install and configure Julia so that you can start programming in it, and in Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VSCode).

Setting up your Ubuntu 22.04 to work with Tensorflow 2 and PyTorch (+GPU support) in VSCode, Jupyter Notebook, and Jupyter Hub (optional)

Configuring Ubuntu/Linux operating system for experimenting Deep learning / Machine learning problems is simple enough. Here below are few steps / suggestions you can take to do the following: i) Install Python, ii) Install Microsoft Visual Studio Code (aka VSCode), iii) Install Tensorflow 2.0 with GPU support, iv) Install Pytorch with GPU support v) Setting up Jupyter hub. For those of you who would just want to install Tensorflow 2.0 without GPU support, you can skip the GPU setup part below.

Setting up your Windows 10 to work with Tensorflow 2 (with GPU support)

Configuring Windows 10 operating system for experimenting Deep learning / Machine learning problems may seem challenging at first. But, you can live with it. Here below are few steps / suggestions you can take to do the following: i) Install Python, ii) Install Microsoft Visual Studio Code (aka VSCode), iii) Install Tensorflow 2.0 with GPU support. For those of you who would just want to install Tensorflow 2.0 without GPU support, you can skip the GPU setup part below.

LaTeX template for CU Denver CSE Graduate project report or thesis or dissertation

I have created this template to help graduate students in Computer Science @ University of Colorado Denver students to prepare their project report / thesis / proposal / dissertation and become successful. Please note, this template is a good start, but there is no guarantee that using this template will produce a document passing the graduate school format review. Please consult with your advisor and share the PDF with her/him to confirm the template is following the committee prescribed template.

2022

Autograding programming assignments with nbgrader

nbgrader is a tool that facilitates creating and automatic grading assignments in the Jupyter notebook. It allows instructors to easily create notebook-based assignments that include both coding exercises and written free-responses. nbgrader then also provides a streamlined interface for quickly grading completed assignments.

Setting up multiple python versions and virtual environments in Mac, Windows, Ubuntu

Say, someone told you to work on a python project build on python 3.7.x and gave you all the project files, and a requirements.txt file listing package versions used. In this case, it’s a good idea to have the specific python interpreter version and a virtual environment using that specific interpreter setup in your own workstation. Here below are the steps. Please understand the steps may need to be changed based on your current system configurations – lots of unknown do exist when I was writing this blog post.

Stories of common words (part 1)

I have been reading Garrison’s book: Why you say it whenever I get some spare time. It’s fascinating to learn stories behind common words that you say, or write or hear everyday. Here is an effort to pull few interesting stories.