G33K-TRICKS

Sunday, April 15, 2018

Google Android P might have been named Popsicle


Android P was first released in March, but it’s still known as “Android P” . Google has not named it yet, But intrestingly, in recent Instagram post from Google, Google has released sets of new 5 wallpapers to their followers. (Yes, google do like Instagram and has 6.2M followers)
Here is the link to Google Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/google/

These wallpapers are more like other Google's fancy wallpaper but among them, one stands different from other . Hope this does ring bells. That could be a hint from Google about the name of next release.


Google P = Google Popsicle




Or Google is just being witty and trolling their followers :)

Interestingly, Google named it Pie

Monday, October 9, 2017

How to solve "Move`% s` out of conditional. " error.


[SOLVED] How to deal with "Move `% s` out of conditional." error from Rubocop.

Below is the problem statement.
Problem:
Move `% s` out of the conditional.

where %s is a Method name.
As the method call pointed out that %s is redundant, Rubocop throws this as an error.
What it means is that the method that is common under both condition should be moved outside the Conditions as it would be executed in either of case.
Below the simpler way to look at it and how to resolve it.
Solution:
@bad Code
if condition
  do_x
  do_z
else
  do_y
  do_z
end

@good Code
if condition
  do_x
else
  do_y
end
do_z 

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Inception with Firefox Browser


How to open Chrome Browser inside Firefox Browser

I am sure you must have seen the movie Inception by Christopher Nolan. The movie is based on a wild theory of dreaming inside a dream. Though we cannot dream with Firefox but the trick is to open a browser inside Firefox. Yes, you can open a new browser tab in the browser tab. That sounds confusing as the movie was.
Here is a screenshot to simplify your thought.

Firefox Inception
FireFox Inception



This is what you need to do

  • Open Firefox
  • Type chrome://browser/content/browser.xul  in the address bar
  • Press Enter
Baam! Inception.
Please note: That is .XUL which is XML User Interface Language by Mozilla for building user interfaces of applications like Firefox.

Something to wonder here - how must I have got the screenshot of the webpage in this webpage while creating this webpage.

[SOLVED] Desktop does not Refresh Automatically after copy pasting a file


[Solved] File Pasted on Desktop is not Visible


Like everyone else I also had a problem once with my Windows 7. The Desktop was not getting refreshed automatically. I copied and pasted a file to my Desktop and it was not there. I pressed Ctrl+V and Windows says do "There is already a file with same name in this location". I was surprised, if its there why can't I see it.
After few searches over Google, found the answer to it.

Before we start, A word of caution. Please Create a backup of your Registry. In-case you mess-up (I am sure you wont), backup will resolve.
Steps to Backup Registry:
Click Start 
Type regedit in the search box and click regedit item appearing in the list.
Click Continue, if you're prompted by User Account Control.
From the Left Pane, select Computer
Go to File and then Export and save the registry file.
To restore, just do an "Import" of registry in the registry editor.

Here is what you need to do,

  • Press Windows+R and type regedit 
  • Right click on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
  • dont refresh
  • Click "Find"
  • Type dontrefresh in the search box and hit Enter
  • Once search is complete, in the Right pane you will see DontRefresh
  • The Data value will probably be set to '1'
  • dontrefresh
  • Right click on "dontrefresh" and modify the value to '0'
  • Reboot your computer.
That's it, this would resolve the issue 

Monday, March 20, 2017

Difference Between Enterprise Wipe, Device Wipe and Enterprise Reset in MDM



Difference Between Enterprise Wipe, Device Wipe and Enterprise Reset


"Let me do an Enterprise Reset to you device" OR "Let me Wipe your device remotely."You might have heard these words from the IT team if you or your company is using an Mobile Device Management (MDM) application like VMWare AirWatch(older name) or UEM WorkspaceOne.
What does these applications do: They actually provide Mobile Device Management (MDM) service i.e they can manage millions of devices from one place. They can install Customer required applications, files to the device without any intervention required from the device user.
Enterprise Wipe Device Wipe Enterprise ResetSo essentially when a device is enrolled to such service like VMWare AirWatch, it allows the MDM service to access limited area of a phone. 
 [Please note that these services usually don't have any access to the user phonebook, users messages, phonecalls or any personal information. (Moreover, that would be against the Privacy Laws) ] . Once enrolled, a Corporate/Company/Organisation can send Enterprise related data to the devices necessary for their employees to function optimally at the workplace. The data or file , applications would be Enterprise Data and does not belong to user.
And if an employee leaves the Organisation, Organisation has all the rights to delete Enterprise Data and set the device free for user if the device/phone is BYOD(Bring Your Own Device). In this case, The admin of MDM service provider would initiate Enterprise Wipe command.

Enterprise Wipe: 

An enterprise wipe unenrolls the device from MDM service and strips off all enterprise content, including email accounts, VPN settings, Wi-Fi profiles, secure content, and enterprise applications. In this case, Device does not reboot once the Enterprise Wipe is completed. In short, it deletes or removes selective data owned by the company without deleting everything or deleting user data.


Enterprise Reset:

ER enables you to reset a device similar to an enterprise wipe, but with one important difference. Applications,Profiles and files/actions which are set to persist on a device are not removed and automatically get reinstalled on a device following the first reboot after an enterprise reset. Device gets automatically re-enrolled as it was earlier. Its available only on Zebra and Motorola, Honeywell Rugged devices. Consumer devices like Samsung, LG does not usually support this feature. This feature would be used when you want to factory reset the device but you still want to keep the data that was there before resetting.


In Short, Enterprise reset will factory reset your device but will persist the MDM enrollment.

Device Wipe:

Device wipe essentially means - Wiping the Device. 
A Device Wipe reboots the device and removes all data ( includes all personal user information ), email, profiles and MDM capabilities and the phone returns to a factory default state. Its same as that of doing a Factory Reset to your phone from Settings > Personal > Factory Reset.
Once the device is wiped old data on the phone OR the data before enrollment does not exist on the device due to factory reset. Usually, corporate dedicated devices are wiped so that they can be given to the new user.

Please note, device does not actually means a phone. Here, a Device can be a Android Phone, iPhone, Mac systems, Windows systems, Rugged devices.

Update:
Google has come up with new model called A4W/AFW (Android For Work). If you have enrolled your device with Android for Work (Android Enterprise) then on sending the Enterprise Wipe command would un-enroll the MDM agent from the device and performs Factory Reset which would delete everything from the device and makes a device clean like out of box.
Furthermore, there are different enrollment types when you enroll device to MDM in modes like  DA (Device Admin) , AFW - DO (Device Owner), AFW - PO Profile Owner i.e Work Profile , COPE (Corporate Owned Personally enabled), EWP (Enhanced Work Profie)
If you need to understand more about the Work Managed Device and Work Profile Device. You can check here

Update 2.0:
Google now has recommended to their partners to push down the companies and customer to move away from Legacy Device Admin mode. 

Update 3.0:
With all above still available, Google has come one up AMAPI (Android Management API) which is Cloud Platform API from Google that can integrate Google Android UEM functions with different EMM Clients. In Android Enterprise Setup, you can enable the Android Management API framework to manage Android Enterprise devices without the need to have a client app to be installed on the devices for device management. Refer: https://developers.google.com/android/management for more info.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

[SOLVED] WIFI not working after replacing /editing /modifying the wpa_supplicant.conf file


How to solve WIFI not working if WPA_supplicant.conf is modified or changed.

I ran into the problem one day when I was just playing around my Android phone's wpa_supplicant.conf file.
I happily rooted my phone and went to /data/misc/wifi folder and edited the file using root explorer and saved it. Till this point it was all looking so easy. I rebooted my phone and I was surprised after the phone came back from boot.
My Wifi was not at all switching On after replacing the wpa_supplicant.conf file.
Tried many things but did not solve the issue. I was going to factory reset my phone but after long search
 I found the solution to WIFI not working.

The reason was, when we edit the wpa_supplicant.conf file while saving the ownership to file changes, as we will be editing the file as a root.


You can see from the screenshot, the ownername and ownergroup are changed to "root" instead, they should be "wifi"

Resolve WiFi not working wpa_supplicant.conf

Below are simple steps to resolve wifi not working:

$ adb root
$ adb -d shell

# cd /data/misc/wifi
# chown system.wifi wpa_supplicant.conf
# reboot


Hope you find this useful information.
Checkout other tricks in this blog.

Saturday, December 31, 2016

What are the Best ways to make money (Contd.)


Make money by joining LEAPFORCE

Leapforce is a company which provides you an opportunity to work from Home. Yes, you heard it right, you can work from home and earn money. Its an US Based company which provides is to help Search Engines like Google. Your job will be to work as "Personalized Search Engine Evaluator'
There is no joining amount you need to pay to work with leapforce.
But remember Leapforce is independent company which has its own rules and regulations which you need to adhered to.  Leapforce takes contracts from Search engine companies like Bing, google, yahoo and help them to evaluate there search algorithm and inturn help the search engine user with a proper search result match. The search algorithm itself are powerful enough but to judge the actual result what algo returns can be more optimized when a real person evaluates the query.
So, you will be given tasks and instructions on how to perform the task and you need to analyze , research the results provided by a search engine for a particular query.
Queries can be for from Maps, Location, one line questions or misspelled questions which user usually asks.

Skills Required:  People with analytical thinking and good websearch abilities.
You must be having knowledge of Google's product like Google+, Youtube, Google play.


To get hired as Leapforce agent, you need to fill up a form and upload your resume, Then you need to pass some qualification exam to be able to get shortlist for a task or assignment.
If you fail the exam, you still get the second chance to clear it.
Leapforce pays for per hour work and it varies. Its around 13$/hour for US citizens and others can get 7$.hour and payments are done via cheques .

Website: www.leapforceathome.com

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

What are the Best ways to make money (Contd.)


2. Join the Survey websites or Survey Panels

What are Survey Panels??? Survey panels are market research companies which aims for collecting huge samples from different users and they use it themselves or give it to the product development companies. The whole idea it to get what a consumer or common man thinks.
Survey websites are the one where we need to register ourselves and answer to the questions honestly which are being asked in a Survey. These questions can be from any topic e.g do you drink, from which websites you buy groceries or do online shopping.  The length of surveys can be from 5min to 30 mins. The more time consuming the survey will be the more it will pay you. Each survey has a set of points attached to it, once the survey is complete you earn those points. On reaching a stipulated point level , you are entitled to redeem those points.  The points can be redeemed to receive actual money, cash vouchers, gift cards, mobile recharges, food coupons etc.
Thus you can earn 5$ to 10$ per month easily or may be more from just taking surveys and it totally depends on how many surveys you complete.

Skills Required: Able to provide honest answers to the asked question

List of Survey Panel Websites 
Superpayme
Join Opinionbureau
opinionworld
community.xcel-onlinesurveys.com
OpinionOutpost
PaidViewpoint
iPoll


Click Here to know about the next way

Thursday, November 17, 2016

How to Run JAVA games with Android Phones


How to Run Java Games on Android phonesLike everyone else, I to had a question boggling me, whether I can run JAVA games/ app from my Android phones.
The Answer to it is Yes!!!
Yes, you can run the old JAR apps on your android phones using the utility explained below.


Netmite App Runner

You can download the app from PlayStore

Below are the features for Netmite App Runner

  • Among the famous apps to run Java games  & apps  (J2ME/MIDP – jar/jad) app on Android Phones
  • It is integrated with Browser-Browse any j2me site, click to run any jad/jar file.
  • You can immediately port your existing Java apps (jar/jad) to Android WITHOUT source code.
  • App is having integrated File explorer to load the java apps

Using JBED 

1. We need to Root your Android Phone. Rooting now a days is very easy.

2. Download JBED

3. Download lib jbedvm

4. Using ES Explorer, enable root access by going to the Settings.

5. Browse system/lib using the explorer. and copy and paste the lib jbeddm to it.

6. Launch JBED. And, you can normally install any java games on your Android.


Using PhoneME 

1. Install and use phoneMe.

2. Download the "phoneMe Feature" APK from internet and install on your phone.
http://davy.preuveneers.be/phoneme/?q=node/10

3. Also download and install OpenIntents File Manager

4. Download JADGen on PC and create a JAD file for any JAR file using the JADGen.

5. Now, copy both JAD and the respective JAR file into the same folder on your phone.

6. Open the phoneME app and run the game

Using JBLEND 

1. Download the JBlend archive file and extract the contents.

2. Copy the files on your phone.

3. Install the Root Explorer application.

4. Open Root Explorer and tap the "r/w" button in the upper corner. Copy the following files to the destination specified:
ibDxDrmJava.so – /system/lib
libjbmidpdy.so – /system/lib
libjbmidp.so – /system/lib
javax.obex.jar – /system/framework
MetaMidpPlayer.apk – /system/app
MidpPlayer.apk – /system/app

5.Copy the JAR files that you want to run to your phone.

6.Use JBlend to select the files to run them. 

Sunday, November 13, 2016

How To Recover Deleted Facebook Photos, Video , Messages and other stuffs


Trick to Recover Data from Facebook


Recover Deleted Facebook messages Photos
Lets assume you have Uploaded a nice Photo to yours over Facebook and then Deleted the copy of it from your computer. And after a while you deleted the same photo from Facebook as well and you dont have any copy of it. What would you do to get your photo back.
Here is the g33ktrick for you to Recover the Deleted Facebook Photos, Videos and other stuffs from your Facebook page.


The point here is, Facebook keeps all of your data in their archive which is downloadable.


You can Follow the steps and you can get back and have access to your deleted messages, Photos,Videos and all other data of your Facebook profile.

1. Login to your facebook account and Go to General Account Settings.
Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/settings



2. You will see Download a Copy of your Facebook Data on this page.
Click on "Download a Copy" link

3. This will take you to the next page , here you can see "Download Archive" Button,.
Go ahead and Click on it to .




4. On the next screen you will be asked to confirm to Start the Archive of your facebook data as displayed in the screen shot here.
Click on "Start My Archive".




5. Next, you will be told that it will take some time to archive your data and the download link will be sent to your registered email ID .
Wait for Few Minutes and check your mail for facebook download link.





6.  Start downloading the file from the link. Once download is complete, Unzip it. Now you can access all your Photos, Videos. Messages, Friend list etc.
Please note that , the Files will the webpages in .html format. You can just double-click on the file to open and then can see the data on the browser of your choice. From there you just need to Right-click on Photo to save the image.
How to Speed Up Chrome Browser Quickly




Speed-up your Chrome Browser to load page faster



How to make Chrome fastAs you may know, Chrome is one of the popular browser available to us and it is also among the fastest browser. You also might have used it or maybe you are using it now as well and can feel the difference of speed compared to other Web Browsers.
The fact which you might not know is, Google Chrome uses DNS prefetching and speedy (SPDY) protocols instead of HTTP. DNS prefetching and SPDY protocols helps to load the webpage in advance which reduces the time to load the page.
If you are reading this page means something went wrong with your Chrome browser. After using it for many days it tends to slow down. Lately, it has been observed that Chrom has been consuming high amount of RAM even if there is only one tab opened. Offcourse, it does lot in background so consuming high memory is not a surprise.
So, here are the things which you can do to fasten your Chrome Browser application for your desktop machine. This should work for other browsers too.

1. DISABLE THE  PLUGINS or ADD-ONS 

Having many plugins enabled in your browser can slow down it easily as it consumes time to load each and every plugin and moreover it consumes you RAM usage as well. So the best option would be to load the important plugin which you really need and disable the rest. I presonally prefer running zero plugins.
This is how you can disable it.


a. Open Chrome Browser and enter the following address into address bar

chrome://plugins/

b. Now you can Un-tick all the plugins which you think are not at all useful to you.
Please do remember that few plugins like Adobe Flash is required for many websites to display content so you should not disable it and there are some other plug-ins which can help your browser to increase performance.


2. DISABLE EXTENSIONS


a. Open Chrome Browser and enter the following address into address bar

 chrome://extensions/

OR

Click on Wrench icon on your toolbar > Tools > Extensions.

b. Un-tick the extensions which are not needed or can be deleted as well if not required.


3. CLEAR YOUR BROWSING DATA

Browsing data consumes good amount of space. Everytime you visit a webpage, some amount of data from the webpage will be saved on your system so that when you visit the same page again, the data can be loaded quickly. But if your not clearing your browser data, the data continues to increase thus slowing down your browser.

Although cache and cookies are really made to speed up chrome browser but sometimes it happens that they are responsible for decreasing your browsing speed and lagging while opening webpages.


This is how you can clear the data

a. Click on Wrench icon
b. Go to Tools > Clear browsing data.
c. Choose Time range in the dialog box and click on "Clear browsing data"

OR

a. Go to Settings
b. Search for "Clear browsing data"
c. And appropriately select the data that needs to be cleared.

4. Disable any ToolBar you have added to your Browser

Toolbars are your worst enemy. They stay on your browser and do nothing. Toolbars can really slow down the system and the browser. Moreover, I feel toolbars should not be installed at first place.

The Above tips works well for the other browser like FireFox and Internet Explorer as well. Only the path to change the settings will vary.

Hope you like the tips shared. Please do add any other tips if you have in comments.

You can set the Chrome to Dark mode . Check it out here

Thursday, October 27, 2016

How to make mobile a webcam



Make your Mobile phone camera a Webcam

During this Corona virus Pandemic (Covid19), people have been asked to work for home and you will feel the need of having a webcam some or the other day. Teleconferencing gets easier when you see the other person face to face rather than having the voice converstation.
Not everyone has a laptop and not everyone has a Desktop PC with a Webcam. Now a days, not having a camera/webcamera is a big deal. Attending Zoom Calls,Skype Calls, Facebook Live streams and many other applications and website demands you to have a webcam.
How to make your mobile a webcameraWhen I say a webcam , its just a camera which can stream you over internet, hence the name 'web camera' aka webcam.

So, here I am going to tell you about a simple application that I have tried and tested to make your mobile phone as webcam and save money.
As I am talking about Skype video call, I think I should call this post of mine as "How to use Mobile phone as a webcam"


IP WEBCAM
This one is simple yet elegant application which you can install on your android phone from the Play Store.
IP Webcam turns your phone into a network camera with multiple viewing options. View your camera on any platform with VLC player or web browser. Stream video inside WiFi network without internet access.


Features include:
• Video can be uploaded directly to Dropbox, SFTP, FTP and Email using Filoader plugin
• Several web renderers to choose from: Flash, Javascript or built-in
• Video recording in WebM, MOV, MKV or MPEG4 (on Android 4.1+)
• Audio streaming in wav, opus and AAC (AAC requires Android 4.1+)
• Motion detection with sound trigger, Tasker integration.
• Date, time and battery level video overlay.
• Sensor data acquisition with online web graphing.
• Videochat support (video stream only for Windows and Linux via an universal MJPEG video streaming driver)
• Cloud push notifications on motion and sound, cloud recording for motion-triggered records, online video broadcasting powered by Ivideon.
• Extensive baby and pet monitor features: night vision, motion detection, sound detection.

Here is the link for IP WEBCAM. Install the app on your smartphone and Launch it.
There are plenty of things which are there in the mobile app, which you don't need to worry about.

Next Step is to Download the configuration software.
Download from https://ip-webcam.appspot.com/

After installing the PC app and launching it, below screen will be shown
Click on Auto Detect.

Settings window

If everything works fine, the camera will be available in Windows software. If something is wrong, please check your firewall rules and your network by visiting your network camera in a web browser.

For example, in skypeTry restarting your PC if it does not work.
After restart, launch any application
say Skype and you can then configure your skype with the IP Cam.
In Skype, Go to Tools - Options - Video Settings .
Here You need to choose, MJPEG Camera
And Baam!!! all done.

You can see your pretty cat over your PC by using your phone.

In the similar way, you can config any Streaming application . You just need to use MJPEG camera as a webcam source.

Another App I remember which you can use is, 
DroidCam. It also has mobile app and a PC connectivity software.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Sample MP3 files for testing


In here you will find all sorts of sound effects, historical speeches, nature sounds, music, classic radio shows, video game quotes, movie and TV quotes, science quotes and more.

You can use these as inspiration to make audio loops.
They are also pretty interesting to simply browse around & listen.


http://www.noiseaddicts.com/free-samples-mp3/

You can also check out the RTSP Sample Streaming videos
How to Make your Li-ion Battery live longer


how to increase Li ion Battery lifeHere is one more post which will remind you, Not to let the mobile phone battery discharge completely.
In fact, this habit of fully charging mobile batteries was considered pretty good with the older Nickel-Cadmium (NiCd) batteries. This is because of something called the Memory effect, which essentially causes them to lose their maximum energy capacity if they are repeatedly being charged after only partial discharges.

But now every phone is coming with Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries which no longer has such issue.

So, there is no point in charging and discharging them completely every single time and if you do this may account in reduction of the battery’s efficiency.

So below are some efficient practices for charging of Li-ion batteries :


  • The 40–80% rule: Try maintaining the charge range in between 40%-80% in order to prolong the battery life to maximum.
  • Even if you do charge it to 100%, never leave it plugged in i.e do not overcharge your battery
  • Try keeping the phones in cool environment, as heat drastically degrades the performance of Li-ion batteries
  • Fully discharge it once a month, as this helps in rejuvenating the battery’s accuracy of estimating the remaining time for complete discharge.
Above points hold good for your Laptop or any other device if its using Lithium-ion batteries


Monday, September 26, 2016

Google's own Tips and G33k-Tricks section for Android phones



There was a post which I had posted recently about "Ok Google" where all the list of quick tricks were mentioned about how to use your smartphone smartly :)

But, Imagine Google itself giving a set of tips and tricks to make your android phone work efficiently and seamlessly, it has happened.
 I was going through android.com and landed up on a page which actually tells about the tips.
There are all sort of tips presented for Camera, Battery , Customization, Security with the simple to follow steps.

You can refer all of them at
https://www.android.com/phones/tips/

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Trick to Play Pokemon GO on computer


Requirement

Enable USB debugging on your smartphone .
(For that developer option should be enabled)

2nd thing you need is, adb drivers install on you pc.
Incase you dont have, google is the answer ;)


Now here the tricks starts.
You need to install Vysor on your Chrome Browser.
Download it from here 

Then install Vysor app from Google play on you phone.

Once all installations are done, you are ready to go.
Connect your smartphone to Computer to proceed for playing PokemonGO.

The moment you connect the phone, Vysor app will get installed on you phone too(in case you did not install)

The screen of your phone will appear on your computer .
You can then open the Pokémon GO app on the phone.
You will see it played in a window on your monitor.

Now you can wait for Pokemon to come to you and you can easily catch them using mouse instead of dragging your fingers on your mobile screen
And its easy for you to do multi tasking, you can use your computer and can play in between.

If your mobile screen goes off, and you have a new Pokemon near you,  the phone will vibrate and letting you know that , its time to Catch'em all.


Friday, June 24, 2016

Audio Testing Links for headphones and speakers


How to Test your Headphone and Speaker




Found a  nice Audio testing Website which I wanted to share with you all.


There are plenty of Audio test files which you can directly run over your browser and then you can put your Headphones or Speaker to test.



For Audio tests on your headphones 
http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php


List of other Sound / Audio tests
http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtestsaudiotesttones_index.php
How to Record Android Screen [without using any app]


Record Actions performed on your Android phone Screen


Record Android ScreenaSay, you want to record the screen of your android phone i.e you want to record what actions did you perform. Its very simple.

Pre-requiste for this trick would be:
You must have an adb tool (it comes with android SDK)
You can get the tool by going through this page.

Open command prompt
Type below command and press Enter

adb shell screenrecord /sdcard/<filename>.mp4

That's all you need to do. Till this above command is running, all the actions performed over your android phone will be recorded in the path you have specified (in this case, /sdcard folder)
To stop recording stop the above command by pressing Ctrl+C.
You can play the video made with any player supporting mp4 format.

If you want to pull the file onto your system , you need to type

adb pull /sdcard/<filename>.mp4 <DestinationPathonSystem>

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Charge mobile faster with short USB cables


How to Charge mobile faster

How to Charge mobile faster

Recently I came across with an nice android app called "Ampere".
Yes, it displays the current flowing into your mobile i.e while charging and also the amount of current being consumed by your smartphone while discharging.
With this app running on my mobile, I ran an small experiment.


Here are my observations,



Scenario Charging or Not Min
Current
Max
Current
Laptop - USB long cable Laptop charging 770mA 840mA
Laptop - USB long cable On battery 750mA 780mA
Laptop - USB Short Cable On battery 1150mA 1180mA
Laptop - USB Short Cable Laptop charging 1150mA 1180mA

The same goes when charging using the chargers.
With long USB cable the charging current was 890mA and with short USB cable it was 1460mA.
Charger rating was Input--0.6A, Output -- 6V- 2000mA
Its clearly seen,there is difference of 400mA  and that's a bummer if you use long USB cable.
It can be easily concluded from above table as well that using Short USB cable to charge will definitely decrease the  charging time i.e will charge your mobile or another device quicker.
And also, it does not  matter whether your laptop is charging or not the power being drawn from the USB port of laptop remains almost same.

You can also download the app from here Ampere Android app
and can understand how fast your mobile is charging with the cable you have or do you need to replace your usb charging cable.