tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47850825009880812042024-02-20T02:30:43.136+01:00Things to ramble about ad infinitum..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-34702857852883169782013-12-30T17:18:00.000+01:002013-12-30T17:18:03.641+01:00Conversion of PDF (size > A5) to Kindle compatible (readable) format<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As I just got a new e-book reader that is to replace my <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILiad" target="_blank">IRex Iliad e100 model</a> (A year 2006 Linux based E-book reader), an awesome reader, that really has no replacement today, but sadly has become to slow to really work with and the battery lasts only hours now... So I switched to Kindle, and with it all the issues it has with reading PDF documents.<br />
<br />
The screen is just not ment to read a full size A5 or even bigger A4 PDF sized documents, also has issues with multi column text etc.<br />
<br />
Enter <a href="http://calibre-ebook.com/" target="_blank">calibre</a>! The multi tool of e-book handling! Available on all major OS, can manage your e-book collection, but is it good enough to convert to a format Kindle can read/display comfortably? YMMV, in my case some PDFs are converted OK - depending on their complexity, some require additional steps to make them readable on Kindle itself.<br />
<br />
The tool that helps the most here is called <a href="http://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/" target="_blank">k2pdfopt</a>, and can convert your PDF to a smaller sized format with a bit of its own digital wizardry ;) I have to say the results are quite OK, I converted a couple of technical PDFs and they are quite legible on my Kindle now.<br />
<br />
There is however one downside. The k2pdfopt conversion creates PDF files that are quite a bit larger than the original. In my case for instance it converted a PDF file od 28MB in size and created output PDF of 276MB in size. Additional conversion to Kindle AZWF format created a file of 365MB which is quite substantial increase from the original 28MB. It is true though, that the first one was quite unreadable and the last one you can read comfortably on Kindle.<br />
<br />
The good part about both the tools is that they are free and available on both Linux and Windows OS.<br />
<br />
Another tool that has given me good results is also a free tool (only available for Windows sadly) which is called <a href="http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/ProductDetailsCreator.asp" target="_blank">Mobipocket Creator</a>. After you download the installer it asks you which version to install - both are free, but to convert the PDF files you need to install the Publisher edition.<br />
<br />
For details on how to use the tools mentioned on this page please check the instructions on each specific page since they all have tutorials on them - or just play around with them, it is quite intuitive to do it anyway.<br />
<br />
So good luck converting your own files too!<br />
<br />
And a Happy 2014 to you all! </div>
..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-6489516943618709892013-09-28T16:08:00.001+02:002013-09-28T16:08:38.019+02:00Windows server 2012 switching from Core to GUI (rant) and bloody Error: 0x800f0906<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have wasted quite some time figuring out why the hack would the change procedure for switching from Core to GUI not work when I know I have run the exactly same procedure before and it did work. But no, this time all I got was a nice error...<br />
So, you do this (install GUI from the install.wim file with the index of 2 - Server 2012 Standard Full):<br />
<br />
<code>
Install-WindowsFeature -Name "Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra" -Restart:$false -source wim:D:\sources\install.wim:2</code><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
And receive a generous error of 0x800f0906 with the text saying that you should supply the source...<br />
The same thing happens when you try to switch by using the DISM command (well not exact error but you get an error saying you should try adding the source).<br />
<br />
Every possible web site I could find was telling me that all I needed to do was what I have already done - just add the -source to PowerShell commands or /Source to the DISM command and point it to the correct source (Either the SxS directory or a WIM image) for instance like <a href="http://p0w3rsh3ll.wordpress.com/2012/10/10/switch-from-windows-2012-core-to-gui-mode-hands-on/" target="_blank">on an excelent page like this one</a>.<br />
Well the issue seems to be that if you have installed Server Core at the beginning and then installed Windows updates (I had about 36 updates that needed to be added), your sources (SxS directory or WIM image file) are not the correct version any more and the commands will not recognize them as sources...<br />
<br />
So what to do?<br />
<br />
Well you can modify your WIM file by adding the updates to it - depending on how many updates you need it will take you some time to list them (<a href="http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/4197.how-to-list-all-of-the-windows-and-software-updates-applied-to-a-computer.aspx" target="_blank">link on how to do it here</a>) and then download them all (<a href="http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/archive/2012/11/14/how-to-update-local-source-media-to-add-roles-and-features.aspx?Redirected=true" target="_blank">link on to how/where to get updates here</a>).<br />
There is one thing you should do which the above page about downloading them does not tell you - you need to copy each individual .msu file to a common directory - normally when you would use the above procedure you will get files saved in their own directories named by the updates themselves, but the <span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">DISM /Add-Package</span> command expects for them all to be in the same directory (or you would have to run the DISM command for each and every .msu file individually).<br />
<br />
Another way to solve this issue might be to just use the SxS directory from a machine with the same OS Version, already updated to the same level (like another 2012 server with GUI), share that directory over the network and use it as the source for your Core to GUI upgrade (did not try that one but supposedly it should work).<br />
<br />
Well probably the easiest way to not fall down this specific hole is to actually install the GUI when installing the system for the first time, and then switch to the Core version without removing the payload. It will use some disk space (compared to the pure Core version), but other than that you should be fine.<br />
<br />
Comments?</div>
</div>
..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-86110556007034680262013-09-28T15:23:00.000+02:002013-09-28T15:31:56.146+02:00Sending encrypted (7z AES-256) files to/from your Dropbox<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Protecting your important files that you still want to have easily accessible on Dropbox can be done in multiple ways. There are quite some services out there that offer encryption on top of the existing Dropbox service, but most of them require installing additional software, or have some kind of limitations while using them on multiple OS/devices.<br />
However using an open source utility souch as <a href="http://www.7-zip.org/" target="_blank">7-zip</a> enables you to do it a bit more multi OS capable, for no financial fee at all. It does however require you to utilise a set of scripts, which can be used for sending (encrypting) files to Dropbox and decrypting them when you want to access their content.<br />
<br />
The article <a href="http://anilavadhani.blogspot.dk/2013/09/encypt-compress-files-and-send-to.html" target="_blank">here</a> by Anil Avadhani, describes how to create a set of scripts to utilise the above premisis - sending/encrypting and receiving/decrypting files on your Dropbox. It is focused on Windows OS (windows 7 to be precise), but with little shell scripting knowledge you can do the same on many varieties of GNU/Linux or BSD* OSs, probably also on Macs (I am not an expert on the latter). There are also utillities available for <a href="https://play.google.com/store/search?q=7-zip%20pass&c=apps&hl=en" target="_blank">Android</a> (I use <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.zdevs.zarchiver&hl=en" target="_blank">ZArchiver</a>) and iPhone that enable you to open files encrypted in such manner, so even if you are trying to access them via your mobile device you should be still able to do it.<br />
<br />
What I have done here is changed a little bit of the scripts by Anil Avadhani, since his implementation uses password stored in plaintext inside the script itself, which is not up to my liking.<br />
<br />
So I have created two simple scripts, one in PowerShell and one (a lot simpler) in WScript. You can utilise them by simple changing Anil's scripts in the following manner.<br />
Anils original scripts (.bat files) conaint the following lines:<br />
<code>
REM Set default password for encryption<br />
SET keyphrase=Enter_Your_Password_Here_Using_Alphabets_And_Digits_Only</code><br />
<code><br />
</code>
just change that to (add REM in front of the SET keyphrase=... line):<br />
<code>
REM Set default password for encryption<br />
REM SET keyphrase=Enter_Your_Password_Here_Using_Alphabets_And_Digits_Only</code><br />
<code><br />
</code>
and add the following lines after it (uncommend - remove REM in front of the code you would like to use - WSCript - if you lack PowerShell or leave as it is to use PowerShell):<br />
<code>
REM If your computer does not have PowerShell installed or if your execution policy is too restrictive use<br />
REM the following VBS script, (less secure)<br />
REM Read vbs script output and store it into a variable<br />
REM for /f "tokens=*" %%i in ('cscript //nologo %~dp0Read_Pass.vbs') do set keyphrase=%%i<br />
REM for computers with PowerShell use the following line<br />
for /f "tokens=*" %%i in ('powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File %~dp0Read_Pass.ps1') do set keyphrase=%%i<br />
</code>
<br />
<br />
You will of course need to add the two files to the same directory you have created Anils .bat files in. In my case I just put everything on the Dropbox folder and that way I don't have to recreate scripts on each computer I use them on, I just have to add the shortcuts to them to the "Send to" menu. Anils blog discribes the method on how to do it on Vista/Windows 7. To find the Send To folder on windows 8 just paste the following command into the run dialog:<br />
<code>shell:sendto</code><br />
<br />
<br />
Here are the actual code for the PowerShell part (just copy/paste-it into a new file with a .ps1 extension):<br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">## BEGIN PowerShell SCRIPT HERE</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">[void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing") </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">[void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms") </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Form</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm.Text = "Enter Password"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(280,150) #the size in px of the window length, height</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm.StartPosition = "CenterScreen" #loads the window in the center of the screen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$MaskedTextBox1 = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.MaskedTextBox</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$MaskedTextBox1.PasswordChar = '*'</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$MaskedTextBox1.Top = 40</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$MaskedTextBox1.Left = 20</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm.Controls.Add($MaskedTextBox1)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$MaskedTextBox2 = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.MaskedTextBox</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$MaskedTextBox2.PasswordChar = '*'</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$MaskedTextBox2.Top = 60</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$MaskedTextBox2.Left = 20</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm.Controls.Add($MaskedTextBox2)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm.KeyPreview = $True</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm.Add_KeyDown({if ($_.KeyCode -eq "Enter") </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>{SubmitPWD}})</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm.Add_KeyDown({if ($_.KeyCode -eq "Escape") </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> {$objForm.Close()}})</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$OKButton = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$OKButton.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(15,85)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$OKButton.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(75,23)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$OKButton.Text = "OK"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$OKButton.Add_Click({SubmitPWD})</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm.Controls.Add($OKButton)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$CancelButton = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$CancelButton.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(90,85)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$CancelButton.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(75,23)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$CancelButton.Text = "Cancel"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$CancelButton.Add_Click({$objForm.Close()})</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm.Controls.Add($CancelButton)<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objLabel = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objLabel.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(5,10) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objLabel.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(250,30) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objLabel.Text = "Please enter the password into both fields and press OK to continue:"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm.Controls.Add($objLabel)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm.Topmost = $True</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">function SubmitPWD {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>if ($MaskedTextBox1.Text -eq $MaskedTextBox2.Text)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>{</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Write-Host $MaskedTextBox1.Text</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$objForm.Close()</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>} else {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$objLabel.Font = New-Object System.Drawing.Font("Verdana",10)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$objLabel.BackColor = [System.Drawing.Color]::Red</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$objLabel.Text = "Password entry mismatch, please reenter passwords:"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$MaskedTextBox1.Text = ""</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$MaskedTextBox2.Text = ""</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$OKButton.Text = "Retry"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>$MaskedTextBox1.Focus()</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">$objForm.Add_Shown({$objForm.Activate()})</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">[void] $objForm.ShowDialog()</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">## END PowerShell SCRIPT HERE</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
and for the WScript it is a bit simpler, just a couple of lines:</div>
<div>
'<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">'' BEGIN WScript SCRIPT HERE</span></div>
<div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">' Read_Pass.vbs</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">' Read password (input string) and echo it to console</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">' Sadly does not have any kind of text hashing without using external dll files</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">' you can improve it by using dll from: http://www.westmesatech.com/passdlg/</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">UserInput = InputBox( "Please enter the password (alphanumeric only): ", "Send to/from 7z AES/Dropbox PWD" )</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">WScript.Echo UserInput</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">''' END WScript SCRIPT HERE</span></div>
<div>
<br />
And that should be it. If you find it usefull drop me a note. Big thanks to mr. Anil Avadhani for thinking of it and writing the instructions for the whole process in the first place.<br />
<br />
Have fun...</div>
</div>
..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-47026900605344409112013-09-13T11:51:00.000+02:002013-09-28T15:25:31.142+02:00Apt-Cache Server and Ubuntu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have to admit, that I don't know how I lasted this long without an apt-cache server. Everytime I would update the systems I have on one of the locations I would download updates on each of the machines, because I was too impatient to wait for one of them to finish to go to the next one I ran them all simultaneously and of course that made it even worse ;) So now I finally set up the apt-cache server. Setting it up according to the<a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Apt-Cacher-Server" target="_blank"> Ubuntu help web page</a> worked quite well, with one minor exception - Import of existing packages with the following command:<br />
<pre style="background-color: #f3f3f3; border: 1px dashed rgb(193, 180, 150); color: #333333; font-family: UbuntuMono, courier, monospace; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; padding: 4pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">sudo /usr/share/apt-cacher/apt-cacher-import.pl -l /var/cache/apt/archives</pre>
That created the links in the apt-cacher directory, but afterwards would issue errors in the logs when trying to change the files there and the clients access was denied and they downloaded the files anew from the net.<br />
So just skip that one (I did not try to import the whole CD/DVD image, don't know what that one does, but it might work better since it would copy files and not link them on disk).<br />
<br />
So now, first time apt-get update or upgrade command fetches/refreshes the cache, the next machine that does the query gets files cached and downloads everything from the LAN with full speed ;)<br />
<br />
For instructions just follow the above <a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Apt-Cacher-Server" target="_blank">link</a>, and you should be fine.<br />
<br />
So happy apt-ing ;)</div>
..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-89860251208181758832012-08-07T15:19:00.001+02:002012-08-07T15:20:22.619+02:00Kolesarjenje po Solčavskem, Solčavsko bike tripA friend and I went for a bit of a bike ride last weekend and a bit of camping too, both worked out great. Here is the trip (as recorded by Sports Tracker app on Android phone).
<iframe style='background-color: transparent;' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' width='500' height='400' src='http://www.sports-tracker.com/widgets/wdgt_workout.html?username=neonatus&workout_key=9kb645phs6doltsf'></iframe>
Hope we can have many more of these.....:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0Luče, 3334 Luče, Slovenia46.358835175278905 14.73906040191650446.356095675278908 14.734124901916504 46.3615746752789 14.743995901916504tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-18220551561948687572012-03-11T18:08:00.000+01:002012-03-11T20:19:33.743+01:00Compiling custom module from external patch in Ubuntu 11.10 (asm58 sensors patch)<br />
<div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The result of the following commands is that you gain a copy of the default ubuntu kernel packages, with just your patch added (one module and one help file).</span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: Tahoma;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<ol>
</ol>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Install the required packages (linux sources and required programs/files to build the new kernel package).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Install the dependencies required for building the kernel</span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">$ apt-get build-dep linux kernel-wedge fakeroot makedumpfile</span></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Install the kernel source code</span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">$ apt-get install linux-source</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Extract the current ubuntu kernel source (into an allready prepared directories - by linux-source package)</span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">$ cd /usr/src/</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">$ tar -xjf linux-source-x.y.z.tar.bz2</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Tahoma;">Download the latest patch file </span><a href="http://n.neonatus.net/files/asm58-linux-3.0.0.patch" style="font-family: Tahoma;">http://n.neonatus.net/files/asm58-linux-3.0.0.patch</a><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"> and patch the kernel:</span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">$ cd linux-source-x.y.z</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">$ wget <a href="http://n.neonatus.net/files/asm58-linux-3.0.0.patch">http://n.neonatus.net/files/asm58-linux-3.0.0.patch</a></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
$ <span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">patch -p1 <</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">asm58-linux-3.0.0.patch</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">My builds always failed with the error of not being able to touch a certain file so for that reason I create a directory beforehand so that the build goes through without an error</span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">$ mkdir debian/stamps</span></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Prepare to build the source</span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">$ fakeroot debian/rules clean</span></blockquote>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Build the kernel packages</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">$ AUTOBUILD=1 NOEXTRAS=1 fakeroot debian/rules binary-generic-pae</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">You could also use binary - to build binary packages for all flavours - or select your flavour according to your hardware - they are listed in the </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">debian.master/config/$ARCH/</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> directory.</span></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If you are lucky enough to have multiple cores or processors utilize them during build add "</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=parallel=2</b></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">" variable in front of the command where 2 is the number of cores/processors you have available to the OS like this:
</span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">$ DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=parallel=2 AUTOBUILD=1 NOEXTRAS=1 fakeroot debian/rules binary-generic-pae</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">During the build the kernel configure script will ask you to define the following:</span></div>
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> Asus Mozart-2 (SENSORS_ASM58) [N/m/y/?] (NEW)</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Enter the letter</span><b> m</b> <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and press</span> <b><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">enter</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">, which signifies to build the object as module so you can load/unload it at need. </span><br />
<br />
<div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Now we wait... and wait... (hope you have a fast computer, or you'll) wait some more...</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">When the compiling finishes you will be left with a couple of new *.deb packages in your /usr/src directory, which you can install with </span><b><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">dpkg</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> command.</span></span><br />
<div>
<blockquote>
<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"><span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate;">$ dpkg -i ../</span>linux-headers-3.0.0-16-generic-pae_3.0.0-16.29_i386.deb</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-collapse: separate; font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">$ dpkg -i ../linux-image-3.0.0-16-generic-pae_3.0.0-16.29_i386.deb</span></span></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Reboot and (if not allready selected) select the new kernel in the grub boot menu.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Log into the newly booted system and verify if all is fine by loading the asm58 module:</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">$ modprobe asm58</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and verify that it is loaded ok:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">$ lsmod |grep asm58</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">asm58 13122 0</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Now you can use the functionality of the newly compiled module by configuring lm-sensors - run sensors-detect and afterwards verify that the command sensors returns values from the sensor.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Good luck, and write a comment if you need help ;)</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div>
#Links:</div>
<div>
<a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Kernel/Compile">https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Kernel/Compile</a></div>
</div>..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-52079541893345512912011-12-11T11:39:00.005+01:002012-01-22T18:17:56.882+01:00ASM58 (Asus Mozart-2) Linux 3.0 kernel patchHi everyone, long time since last post...<br />
<br />
Well I have been doing some autumn cleaning and discovered my home server did not have sensors installed. Upon discovering it has a barely supported chipset, that does get detected by the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">sensors-detect</span> script, but there is actually no driver included.<br />
<br />
<br />
The sensor is found on the following Asus mainboards:<br />
<ul>
<li>P4B533-VM</li>
<li>P4S333 (in conjunction with another asus chip?)</li>
<li>P4S333-VM</li>
<li>Terminator P4</li>
</ul>
I have googled a bit and (All raise hands and give praise to the GNU) discovered that somenoe - namely <i>Michael Loßin</i> has once upon a time written the driver code for linux kernel 2.6.x tree. And he deserves the gratitude for the work he put in. I have only modified his code, so that it compiles cleanely and works on the Linux kernel 3.0 tree.<br />
<br />
The patch is available <a href="http://n.neonatus.net/files/asm58-linux-3.0.0.patch" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Works like a charm with lm_sensors - here is the output:<br />
<code><br />
asm58-i2c-0-77<br />
Adapter: SiS96x SMBus adapter at 0xe600<br />
in0: +1.79 V<br />
in1: +3.41 V<br />
in2: +3.02 V<br />
in3: +3.12 V<br />
fan1: 2393 RPM<br />
fan2: 1125 RPM<br />
temp1: +42.0°C<br />
temp2: +56.0°C<br />
<br />
</code><br />
Please post a comment if you find it usefull..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-60955479303230674922011-03-12T18:07:00.001+01:002011-03-12T18:08:33.091+01:00Depth of Field calculator for Nokia n900Well I changed my phone a while ago and have recently needed the Depth of field calculator and it was not there. So I wrote one... I have already written a similar one in Python for S60, so the logic remains the same, I just had to redo the GUI part, which uses Python with GTK and Hildon modules.<br />
This is the screenshot of the results window:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK8sc54vlEUXiJKAtBt3dEzFhhJzGizZ1f-hKPMuAyVSWmNpl1Zld-w7a15F87oAQ9QiM9-WCUGfiBDWqJjK_WrlWw3GElI5thHSm7FoyGqQgypq6mR1rr28VYlBAFjtcN-74ejUjCJBm_/s1600/DoF_calc_n900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="194" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK8sc54vlEUXiJKAtBt3dEzFhhJzGizZ1f-hKPMuAyVSWmNpl1Zld-w7a15F87oAQ9QiM9-WCUGfiBDWqJjK_WrlWw3GElI5thHSm7FoyGqQgypq6mR1rr28VYlBAFjtcN-74ejUjCJBm_/s320/DoF_calc_n900.jpg" alt="Python Depth of Field calculator on Nokia N900" /></a></div><br />
The old post (which contains the apps for Symbian S60 Python is available <a href="http://blog.neonatus.net/2008/06/depth-of-field-calculator-for-your.html">here</a><br />
<br />
The web site where you can download the files is <a href="http://n.neonatus.net/DoFCalc/">here</a><br />
<br />
If you find it useful or if you find any bugs, please drop me a note...:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-82798813970366175462011-02-21T17:48:00.002+01:002011-03-20T16:08:11.490+01:00Heey greetings from MaStory on my Nokia N900I discovered a blogger client for maemo, which enables me to add news to my blog and also takes care of adding the media.<br />
<br />
I loooove it!<br />
(This is what it looks like editing the entr on the phone)<br />
<img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_qgdYJxZKxrg/TWKXRhnPXDI/AAAAAAAALyQ/3INLuUqaSNo/mastory-image.png" />..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-40143597988453471852011-02-20T09:57:00.001+01:002011-02-20T09:58:46.759+01:00Perl script to convert n900 pwsafe export into KeePassX XMLI wanted to have an option of exporting data from pwsafe on my Nokia n900, so I wrote this script. All you have to do is export the file on N900. Transfer it as securely as possible to your computer and run the script <br />
<code><br />
./pwsafe2keepassx_n900.pl < PWsafe_n900_txt_output_file > out_keepassx.xml<br />
</code><br />
<br />
The script can be downloaded <a href="http://n.neonatus.net/files/pwsafe2keepassx_n900.pl">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Drop me a comment if you like it or if you have any comment of how to improve it further...:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-54080468704798209382010-09-28T18:26:00.000+02:002010-09-28T18:26:17.182+02:00Trip to Singapore, Bali and Gili islands (Lombok)Hey, long time no write ;)<br />
<br />
Had a great thing happen in my life while I was away (from the blog). I got married ;)<br />
<br />
And the lovely wife and I went for a nice trip to the aforementioned locations (Singapore, Bali and Gili islands).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.olympus-europa.com/consumer/images/products/mediando/MjuTough-8010_PlatinumSilver__front_M.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.olympus-europa.com/consumer/images/products/mediando/MjuTough-8010_PlatinumSilver__front_M.jpg" /></a></div>I got my hands on a nice tough (2m shock-proof) and waterproof (10m) compact camera - an <a href="http://www.olympus-europa.com/consumer/29_digital-camera_mju_tough-8010_22707.htm">Olympus μ TOUGH-8010 </a>. And we have taken quite some underwater photos of the Bali islands reef snorkeling. It really is a _verry_ automatic camera (verry little manual options present - apart for preset shooting profiles), but makes quite nice underwater photos.<br />
<br />
The rest of the pictures I took with my trusty Olympus E510 with ownusers grip.<br />
<br />
Here are the photos from the trip - if you like them do comment:<br />
<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="288" height="192" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&hl=en_GB&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fneospics%2Falbumid%2F5517920682044388177%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCPbn1I3NkK-UjgE%26hl%3Den_GB" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br />
The weather was quite gloomy, it's not the cameras fault for the lack of light ;)..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-46871688127220958152010-04-06T09:35:00.001+02:002010-04-06T09:36:49.554+02:00A GE-free futureThe European Commission <span style="font-weight:bold;">has just allowed genetically engineered crops into Europe</span>, ignoring safety concerns of the public interest. I've just joined a new EU initiative with Greenpeace, Avaaz and Friends of the Earth - calling for a moratorium on GE crops in the EU. With 1 million citizens' signatures, we can make an official legal request to the European Commission. Sign below and let's get to 1 million:<br /><br />You can read more and sign the petition here: <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/GEpetition">http://www.greenpeace.org/GEpetition</a><br /><br />Thanks!..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-43403724852319889912010-02-19T12:02:00.003+01:002010-02-19T12:09:49.482+01:00Sleighing / Ir a trineoThis week we had a visitor on our couch and we decided to do some Slovenian winter sport activities and we got a couple of our sleighs and went to a hill near Ljubljana called Kurenšček. Well here you can see the actual photos, the adventures and misadventures ;)<br /><br />Snow is FUN!<br /><br />So we took some pictures, I hope you can find some enjoyment in them as we did in sleighing.<br /><br />B.<br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="288" height="192" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&hl=en_GB&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fneospics%2Falbumid%2F5438954022871550049%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCKGqkL_n6Maxew%26hl%3Den_GB" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-68440005162489307242009-03-03T11:35:00.004+01:002009-03-03T11:49:52.844+01:00Dublin is grand!I was lucky enough to be able and take some time away traveling and this time we went to Dublin, Ireland. We spent four days walking around the "town", visiting tourist and some less touristy attractions. Had a taste of Guinness (actually I hat to taste and re-taste it quite a couple of times).<br /><br />We also went for a "<a href="http://www.newdublintours.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=2">Free walking tour</a>", which was great and so was our guide <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dPJZSVObfFa7ZUdA0ZkKUQ?feat=directlink">Rob</a>.<br /><br />I must say I like the "town" A LOT!<br />The weather we had was surprisingly nice and the people were extremely nice to us.<br />I definitely would recommend to visit it.<br /><br />Here are some photos I took during the visit:<br /><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fneospics%2Falbumid%2F5308690523346782977%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" width="400" height="267"></embed>..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-48932408011406303802008-12-22T12:23:00.007+01:002008-12-22T13:16:52.017+01:00Sony Ericsson W910i and its "special" ways<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.michaelvoong.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/w910-narrowweb-300x3802.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 380px;" src="http://www.michaelvoong.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/w910-narrowweb-300x3802.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Yes, special... (as in special needs).</span><br /><br /><br />After fiddling around with many (many, many, ...) options of how to make Album Art work in visualization options, I have figured out it supports <span style="font-weight: bold;">ID3 v2.3</span> (and v2.4 but is faulty - read on) tags that can have embedded pictures in them. It supports only <span style="font-weight: bold;">image/jpeg</span> type files. After twiddling for quite some time I converted all the tags to version 2.4.0 and UTF-8 encoded them - BIG MISTAKE, the player displays all the artists, albums and song names incorrectly than. The names seem to be split in 2 or more characters - GO SE ;). So I had to convert them all back.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Here is the final coctail of Id3 tags, that does work and display all fields ok:<br /><ul><li>ID3 version <span style="font-weight: bold;">2.3.0</span></li><li>Picture field with <span style="font-weight: bold;">image/jpeg</span> type</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">ISO-8859-1</span> (latin-1) encoding</li></ul>I use <a href="http://kid3.sourceforge.net/">Kid3-qt</a> tag editor for most jobs with tagging my audio files.<br /><br />Another glitch I noticed was that <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">the device did not correctly disconnect</span> when umounting the phone (as a storage device) from the PC. I use Ubuntu as my desktop and what I needed to do was to use eject (or a variation of it) to get proper disconnect - so this is the concoction I brewed to make it work properly:<br />in <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/</span> create a file called <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >Eject</span> with the following contents:<br /><code><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >MNTPNT=$(echo "$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS" |tr -d '\n')</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >gnome-eject --pseudonym "$MNTPNT"</span><br /></code><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">When right clicking on the device icon on your desktop (the storage device that displays either the internal or the storage card of your W910i phone), navigate to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Scripts->Eject</span>, now the device should be ejected correctly and the phone will display the message that the storage session is finished.</span><br /><br />Well hopefully someone else will stumble upon this post instead of wasting a weekend arranging their music files and discovering the tags have all gone beserk...<br /><br />PS: The same procedure should work on older/other SE W(alkman) model phones/players...:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-72957258150763791252008-11-18T19:54:00.008+01:002008-11-20T13:15:00.244+01:00Ubuntu, VirtualBox and suspendHey, I know, long time no write, well, long time no time left...<br /><br />and allways running around requires me to suspend my laptop a lot, mainly when suspending it with VirtualBox running. Well after resuming the suspend VirtualBox froze most of the times. Killing the program and restarting it did not work, removing the module was impossible, so the only fix was the reboot. Well until smarter thought came ofcourse.<br /><br />Create an pm script (in Ubuntu go to <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >/etc/pm/sleep.d/</span>) create a newfile named <span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >90virtualbox</span> with the following contents:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><br /><PRE><br />#!/bin/sh<br /><br />USR_RNNG=$(ps aux |grep VirtualBox |grep -v grep |cut -f1 -d' ')<br />if [ "x$USR_RNNG" != "x" ]; then<br /> if [ $(id -u) -eq 0 ]; then<br /> su $USR_RNNG -c $0<br /> else<br /> for VMS in $(VBoxManage list runningvms |egrep "^[0-9]"); do<br /> VBoxManage controlvm $VMS savestate<br /> done<br /> fi<br />fi<br />exit 0<br /></PRE><br /></span><span style="font-family:courier new;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Dont forget to make the script executable (</span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >chmod +x 90virtualbox</span><span style="font-family:courier new;">).</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Well that works for me, now before doing ACPI suspend</span><span style="font-family:courier new;"> <span style="font-family:arial;">the virtualbox machines are suspended nicely and afterwards you have to start them again, but they are up in a heartbeat (well 5 seconds in my case).</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">You can do that either by running VirtualBox gui and starting them or running:</span> </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">VBoxManage start UUID|name_of_virtual_machine<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:courier new;">Happy virtualizing...</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-1623181895468410822008-08-13T15:14:00.005+02:002008-08-13T15:23:01.395+02:00Vacation in Spain...we enjoyed very much. The people were great, the sights were excellent, the water was perfect. The pictures... well those you can judge for yourself.<br /><br />I would recommend it to anyone, but maybe not necessarily by car and maybe you could take a bit longer (we had 3 weeks to enjoy it) lingering in each of the locations.<br /><br /><table style="width: 194px;"><tbody><tr><td style="background: transparent url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat scroll left center; height: 194px; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;" align="center"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/neospics/Spain2008?authkey=5iMth-W5s3Y" target="_new"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/neospics/SKLOhRkLxDE/AAAAAAAADjE/ll4WOfLMDFk/s160-c/Spain2008.jpg" style="margin: 1px 0pt 0pt 4px;" height="160" width="160" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/neospics/Spain2008?authkey=5iMth-W5s3Y" target="_new" style="color: rgb(77, 77, 77); font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Spain 2008</a></td></tr></tbody></table>..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-58623636345588702492008-06-30T14:33:00.004+02:002008-06-30T14:48:22.408+02:00Geocoding photosA couple of posts ago I mentioned I was awaiting an GPS bluetooth gizmo. Well (to the dissapointment of my wifie) it arived. I spent a couple of evenings coding or should I better say recoding two peaces of software (python s60) progs to work as I want them to work and now I have a nicelly working GPS data reader and uploader from Symbian S60 phone with Python and a storage card (the data taken can come up to a couple of MB in size) and an external GPS bluetooth receiver.<br /><br /><ul><li>The file is saved with a datetime timestamp, and is internally of <a href="http://www.gpsinformation.org/dale/nmea.htm">NMEA 0183 format</a>.</li></ul><ul><li>After you transfer the file to your computer (either in NMEA or GPX format - I use my uploader script for the second), you can use a peace of software called <a href="http://code.google.com/p/gpicsync/">gpicsync</a>. You could ofcorse use any other software that does the same job, but I am verry satisfied with gpicsync. It also works on Linux, Win, and OS X.<br /></li></ul><ul><li>The program asks you to enter the path to the coordinates file (NMEA or GPX formated) and to the directory where the pictures (JPEG format) are kept.</li></ul><ul><li>You can also do some additional tweaking like the UTC time offset, but other than that you are set to go - so click "Synchronise!" and the coordinates are read from the GPS files and the coordinates are writen to the EXIF info in the JPEG files.</li><li>All you have to do now is to upload your pics to a web service that can make use of the coordinates embedded in the images, Picasa Web Albums, Flickr, etc. or you can view the locations in Google Earth application or another app that can read KML files.<br /></li></ul><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/neospics/VelikaPlanina">Here</a> is the web album of some geocoded pics.<br /><br /><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/neospics/VelikaPlanina/photo#map">And the map of the photo locations</a>...:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-5079547992014920472008-06-29T17:35:00.007+02:002008-10-27T13:16:46.916+01:00Depth of Field calculator for your mobile (s60)I had some time on my hands and tried to spend it usefully (learning Python while actually doing something useful). So I wrote Depth of Field calculator that runs on Python enabled Symbian phones.<br />Ok so the usefulness part is so so, it is only useful if you are interested in photography and actually try to calculate the DoF instead of just going for it. While most of the time I just go for it, there are times when I can't really tell by the picture on the screen how much of it is actually sharp and where does the blur begin.<br /><br />Here is what the result looks like on the phone screen:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://n.neonatus.net/DoFCalc/Screenshot0003.jpg"> <img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://n.neonatus.net/DoFCalc/Screenshot0003.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://n.neonatus.net/DoFCalc/Screenshot0002.jpg"> <img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://n.neonatus.net/DoFCalc/Screenshot0002.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The files are available <a href="http://n.neonatus.net/DoFCalc/">here</a>.<br /><br />And if you want additional information on Depth of Field and formulas used in my prog look <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field">here</a>.<br /><br />If you like it - drop me a note - leave a post on the blog. If you want more/new/different features - please don't hesitate to ask - I'm sure there is more to it than just what I did.<br /><br />PS: the code is my first try of actually doing some Symbian stuff in Python so please keep the comments objective ;)..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-55640306772879619712008-06-08T18:04:00.004+02:002008-06-08T18:40:11.481+02:00moo/flickr cardsAn acquaintance of mine gave me his "business card" that looked kind of funny. It was a bit more narrow, printed on good paper, and had a photo that he took on the back side. Being an amateur photographer I thought well that's kind of cool how could I get my grubby little hands on a couple of those. So he told me you could create them from the pictures you post on <a href="http://flickr.com/">flickr.com</a> and the company called <a href="http://moo.com/">moo</a> prints them for you.<br /><br />So, here is the result of the cards I got (only displaying the picture side). On the front side you can squeeze in 6 lines of text and an optional logo. The text can be read from the picture specs too (aperture, lenses, etc).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh-HK_BaR8K0pa-tiM9UIUH69_L7nVZOB9OC79y97ctzKfrIsed9SR7Qnx_yM2ttP5SdsntwzSZO5c0-tyuGLKLhaDC8D6YFAsTXPoteeemYleYhLZeUU9YOGmJuxMMhoN0jHmI0qpmMFr/s1600-h/p6083514.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh-HK_BaR8K0pa-tiM9UIUH69_L7nVZOB9OC79y97ctzKfrIsed9SR7Qnx_yM2ttP5SdsntwzSZO5c0-tyuGLKLhaDC8D6YFAsTXPoteeemYleYhLZeUU9YOGmJuxMMhoN0jHmI0qpmMFr/s320/p6083514.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209550856179468914" border="0" /></a><br /></div>..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-72876013105159338502008-06-08T17:48:00.004+02:002008-06-29T22:18:07.888+02:00Ownuser E-510 battery grip<a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.ownuser.com.tw/n_FBH_E510/product_s1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 187px; height: 197px;" src="http://www.ownuser.com.tw/n_FBH_E510/product_s1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />A couple of weeks ago I ordered an <a href="http://www.ownuser.com.tw/e_E510_menu.htm">ownuser battery grip</a> for my Oly E-510 camera. It helps vertical shooting a lot and is a verry firm grip. Built well (not the cheap plastic you would expect really).<br /><br />The it has two buttons on the grip (for left/right handed) and it can pack two batteries (two BLM-1) or 12AA type batteries with a special battery holder.<br />The only problem is that it actually powers the camera through the mini USB connector on the back side so it is a bit clumsy, but otherwise works perfectly.<br /><br />It takes a bit getting used to if you use a lot of manual mode like I do and have to turn the knobs all the time ;)<br /><br />I'd rate it worth the money for an E-510 user (since olympus does not produce any official grips for E-510/E-520 models).<br /><br />I have also ordered an GPS bluetooth module from E-bay, when that one comes in we'll dig into geocoding of pictures...:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-3633700737907218392008-05-23T11:18:00.003+02:002008-06-29T22:19:02.390+02:00Vacation in HungaryA couple of weeks ago around May 1st we went (by car) to Hungary specifically to Budapest and later to Siofok by lake Balaton. The trip was great. We really enjoyed the city, great architecture, monumental buildings, friendly people (most of all our <a href="http://www.couchsurfing.com/">CouchSurfing</a> hostess there). I would recomend it to anyone who favors architecture and beautiful sites ;)<br /><br />Also Balaton lake is very nice, and did I mention before the people were very, very nice? I can't seem to stress that enough ;)<br /><br />I am attaching a slideshow of the Budapest<br /><br /><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05005098293040857 visible ontop" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf"></a><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fneospics%2Falbumid%2F5197281579847762209%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" width="288" height="192"></embed><br /><br />and Balaton pictures:<br /><br /><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05005098293040857 visible ontop" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf"></a><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fneospics%2Falbumid%2F5197290006573599569%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" width="288" height="192"></embed><br /><br /><br />I hope you enjoy them but there is no supplement for the real thing...:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-49626544652210043252008-04-16T12:51:00.004+02:002008-06-29T22:18:31.393+02:00The Zoo photo session<p>Regardless to the fact weather zoo's are OK or not, some days ago a couple of friends and I went to the Ljubljana Zoo, to practice our photography skills. I noticed I need a lot more time to take better pictures and observe the animals in their behavior than I actually managed to do this time. And after the shooting was done I also finally decided that the work flow in post processing needed serious changes and more of a structured approach. With pictures overloading the disks and me not being tidy enough to label them appropriately it's becoming a pain in the (a word that rhymes with bass).</p><p>Here are some of the pictures taken in a slide show - click for larger pics.<br /></p><p><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 0px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05005098293040857 visible ontop" href="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf"></a><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fneospics%2Falbumid%2F5189792356434577985%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" width="288" height="192"></embed></p>..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-19537596454610697532008-04-02T16:38:00.006+02:002008-06-29T22:19:41.048+02:00Iliad - The E-book readerThe "heads" here at my workplace have purchased a couple of <a href="http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT9929449485.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">E-book readers - iRex Iliad</span> </a>models for possible integration into a big launch of a electronic newspaper release (which did not quite make it onto the drawing board) which leaves me with one of the gadgets in my greedy little hands. The preciousss... Oh and did I mention it <span style="font-weight: bold;">runs GNU/Linux</span>? This is where the fun begins...<br /><br />The <a href="http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Iliad_Software">wiki.mobileread.com</a> page has a list of programs of different sorts available for the Illiad reader and the instructions on installing them. You can install additional or improved reader software, or even ssh package that enables you to work remotely with the full shell on the Linux computer.<br />You can even play mp3's on it while reading your favourite book.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.productwiki.com/upload/images/irex_iliad.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.productwiki.com/upload/images/irex_iliad.png" alt="" border="0" /></a>The Illiad is actually quite good with displaying pages from PDF or (properly formated) HTML pages, and with the help of the additional <a href="http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/ILiad_FBReader">FBReader</a> you can also read plucker, CHM and a bunch of other e-literature types.<br /><br />Hey and there is also an option of installing a web browser. You can choose between Dillo (minimalist browser) and Minimo (mozilla for memory/screen challenged devices) allthough they might be usable as a last resort with speed being the biggest problem on Illiad.<br /><br />The computer supports WiFi, LAN connection and USB, it can load media an programs from CF, MMC or USB slots.<br /><br />You do have to install an additional peace of software to make all of the above work - the "developer shell" which invaluates your software guarantee, so be carefull about it.<br /><br />It can also download and upload files to/from a network SMB share either via WiFi or LAN, and you can also make it connect and sync at predefined intervals if you want your daily newspapers/comics etc. on it every morning.<br /><br />Overall it is an interesting toy, but it lacks in certain areas:<br /><ul><li>speed (horrible, horrible, slow..., reading is ok if you dont mind waiting between the pages to switch and resizing of fonts also takes a while)</li><li>no back light (not by default not by option), which means you have to read it like a book (under some kind of light source)</li><li>the memory is a bit on the small size, but if you don't actually keep all the books on it, but exchange them via keys, CF, mmc you actually get some good mileage</li><li>sometimes the pen is off (yes I know there is calibration in the settings page, but none the less on some pdf pages it is _allways_ 5-7 mm to the right of the point where you touch the screen)<br /></li></ul>Other than that I am quite impressed with the thingy (especially after discovering the possibility to install additional reading software - after writing an half witted CHM automated parsing and HTML conversion service).<br /><br />So all in all a toy for geeks, but not really useful for general public I'd say...:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4785082500988081204.post-15899332045423636282008-01-29T13:39:00.000+01:002008-01-29T14:03:30.770+01:00The tripod monopod or something completely differentI keep reading and investigating what one needs to get better photos, and considering the limited lighting when you are on the go (not shooting in conditions that you set up yourself), some kind of stabilization is obligatory.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tripod:</span><br /><br />Since there is quite an array of tripods available I guess you could get your hands on one of those, but, since I just mentioned taking pictures on the go I would like to find one that can suit all the following needs:<br /><ul><li>compact (eg. less than 50cm when fully folded)</li><li>can be extended from smallest about 20cm up to max of 140-170 cm)</li><li>is rigid enough not to shake when lenses are fully extended and longer exposures are necessary and so that it does not tilt by itself</li><li>as lightweight as possible (below 2kg)</li><li>the head should be able to rotate and tilt<br /></li><li>price (the cheaper the better)</li></ul>By now I have found exactly 0 of those ;) They might be light, but they were not sturdy or could not handle the 1+ kg of weight that dSLR's+lenses weigh.<br /><br />Hey if someone has a sudgestion for a tripod that matches approximately the above specification, leave a comment please.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Monopod:<br /><br /></span>Another topic are monopods. However, they don't seem to be as popular here in Slovenia, at least the couple of stores I walked into did not have a single one.<br />Again monopods would probably be even better alternatives for shooting on the go, since they tend to be even lighter, a bit less appropriate for really long exposure since they are not as stable as tripods are, but much easier to set up when you are walking around.<br />So if you know of a model that folds up nicely and can support a weight of a dSLR (cca 2kg) please leave a comment.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bean bags (and other animals of the kind):<br /></span><br />Small tripods, minimal portable gear seems to be fine in certain conditions, when you have somewhere to put them, but in general tripod or monopod is a must. I have read a book by a wildlife photograph Andy Rouse, where he mentiones that a Bean bag is the ultimate support to have when traveling or being driven around, since it offers support in places where you would not usually be able to even set up a tripod, monopod or similar. A bean bag is generaly a small sack of beans,rice or similar that gives you support on uneven ground and you don't have to fill them at home, you can just buy the beans on any market/store at your destination.<br /><br />So what to go for in the end... whatever suits your needs... I still need a new support option, since my last tripod is too wabbly to use for serious work (except if I would intentionally want blurry photos).<br /><br />Have a blast!<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>..:: neonatus ::..http://www.blogger.com/profile/13038701727557798104noreply@blogger.com0