z0man's Dev

Kdenlive : End of timeline Crash

2010-07-03T04:35:00.000-07:00

KDENLIVE 0.7.7.1 and below(Possibly)

What at first seemed like random crashes I discovered it wasn't random crashes....

When I moved the current timeline marker to the far end, it crases.

Resolution
Move the clips at the end of the project further out, to force extending the project timeline.

Oh don't ever move the timeline after your newly extend project timeline or it crashes.

Enjoy

Oh Kdenlive still rocks in my books :)

Mass Renaming

2010-04-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

Renaming many or a mass of files you can do with either the following:

Create your own batch script
Using a command line tool such as mrename or jhead
Use a GUI Application

I picked the later and after doing some Googling around I found this bute.....

Krename

I enjoy seeing the preview system as you tweak with the settings.

Wubi : Permission Denied

2010-03-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

I am investigating an issue with Wubi and trying to find a solution.

Issue
Using a CD installation of Ubuntu(karmic), installing Wubi fails with a "Permission Denied".

Possible Solutions
Download the latest Wubi from their site as well as getting the latest Ubuntu iso image and then install from a folder. (See comment) (See Wiki Guide Entry)

Make sure appdata has write permission

Further Reading
Ubuntu Wiki: Wubi Guide
Ubuntu Forums
https://bugs.launchpad.net/wubi/+bug/521489

Web Design : Advanced Lessons

2010-03-22T03:07:00.001-07:00

I have added another chapter to my "Web Design Course" and this is an early release for the benefit of my current students eager to learn more.

It starts to teach the hidden features of CSS of making sites more functional and interactive with Javascript Widgets.

I may expand on this chapter a little later.....

Try it out by downloading the file
BURDwdca1Resources.zip from here

Any feedback much appreciated to improve quality of content.

Web Design Course [Basic] Updated

2010-03-07T04:25:00.000-08:00

Yes after providing the course for 2 sessions, I received enough feed to improve the quality and the content. Yet I know there is always room for improvement so it won't be the last!

Changes

Fixed a formatting bug with CSS coding slightly changing
Increased font size for all coding parts
Explained more about contentWrap div containers
Added step by step for creating the first HTML file
Added a positive feedback request

Download BURDwdcb1Resources.zip (You may need a Google Account)

Cassandra Database

2010-02-26T10:20:00.000-08:00

Having read an article about Twitter moving away from MySQL for a NoSQL solution. I thought I put a mental note for myself to start using it....

So here it is!
Official Project Site
Cassandra (Database) Entry at Wikipedia

Further Reading
Reddit.com

Wed Design Course: Basic - Released

2010-02-20T10:48:00.001-08:00

I volunteered at Scout Enterprise to get a feel for teaching a basic web design course. Having knuckled down, created a first draft of the course and have exhausted testing the material myself. I felt I needed to release it to the world :)

The course material has been exported to many formats so the various operating system environments (See formats folder) can view them. Please note the course was originally made using AbiWord, I wanted to see what it like using the word processor. The other formats may need minor format correction.

About the course:
Shows the individual whats it like to design a web site from the ground up.

Try out the course for yourself by downloading BURDwdcb1Resources.zip here!

Hint: Extract into a folder and then navigate to formats folder

Google Account may be required to download the resources.

Project : Free Learning Materials

2010-02-05T07:42:00.000-08:00

I like to expand my career path and I thought I'd start a small hand at teaching people, I started a volunteer placement at Scout Enterprises. Part of my tasks in the role is to document my findings for best free learning alternative solutions, it then popped that I needed share my other learning materials that I have made for my friends and for myself.

I use Google:Docs and just write the content as simple reading as a human can understand (Similar to Ubuntu) and then share it. They will always remain there and naturally if I see something that requires improving I will improve for myself. You are safe to download and customize the content for yourselves. I'm merely just giving little guiding steps (Forgive my grammar).

Have a look and see what interests you Here

Ubuntu : ASP Development

2010-02-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

Found XSP is a webserver made in C# to display and run .ASP applications on various platforms which include Linux.

ASP 1.0

Install

sudo apt-get install mono-xsp mono-xsp-base
sudo apt-get install asp.net-examples
Start Server
xsp --root /usr/share/asp.net-demos/

ASP 2.0

Install
sudo apt-get install mono-xsp2 mono-xsp2-base

sudo apt-get install asp.net2-examples
Start Server
xsp2 --root /usr/share/asp.net2-demos/

Testing
Once you have started the server for your desired ASP environment, visit http://localhost:8080/

IDE Environments (optional)
Try out the MonoDevelop project. You should be able to install it via this command

sudo apturl apt:monodevelop

MonoDevelop utilizes the xsp and xsp2 web servers as described above.

Debugging
Apparently you need to have the project compiled with "debug" in order to see "line numbers".
[pending]

Further Reading
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/run-aspnet-applications-on-ubuntu-for-developers/
http://mono-project.com

Windows Media Player 11 : What a s%^?*hole

2010-01-25T12:14:00.001-08:00

WARNING:I'm going to rant...Yes I am going to RANT!!

I have been currently working on a video show reel for a friend and it has gotten to a point where she can actually show someone it's current state. Yet it still a work in progress, I am still over the moon with my new audio and video editing skills even though I have only just begun to scratch the sufarace (getting a basic framework).

She said, "Can I get that burnt onto a CD" so I can show someone, I said, "Sure it should be able play it"... Boy was I wrong!!!

The Drama
I cannot believe how crippled Windows Media player 11 is. I have wasted around 3 cds just to find a suitable video format for "Windows Users" to view it int. I googled around and fount that utilizing the old "Windows Media Player Classic" supports more stuff.

Quick Solution :)
Install VLC

Slow Solution
Convert the video format to "wmv" (with VLC).

Additional Notes
Standard installed Windows Media Player 11 fails to support the following

"avi dv" format [Camcorda thingy]
"mpeg4" and dvd formats (You need to purchase a plugin?!)

Final Thoughts
I believe this is Microsoft saying, "If you think you so smart using opensource try this one for a laugh..."

Seriously though making Windows users having to pay for a plugin to play a DVD is a joke in my opinon when you can just insert into a standard DVD player. It wouldn't surprise me if the plugin cost the same as a buying a DVD player.

Having to wait an age to convert this mpeg4 into a WMV file is anoyingly slow as I write this entry.

The amount of CD/DVDs I had to trial on just to figure this one out, what a waste of resources.

On the PLUS side, the "wmv" is smaller, yet it's turned the video quality to mush :/

Well I'll be sure to remember this one once after I have found the best video conversion method.
Not forgetting getting used to converting qualities.

Yes yes yes... You can say it... "I assumed".... The mother of all ^"£% ups.

SharedCookbook : Updated 12/1/2010

2010-01-12T14:01:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Reddit.com feedback I knew the layout and content for the front page had to be more inviting.

Screenshot of New Layout

Changes
+Front page now has same content as "Home"
+Change the layout of the "Home"
+Added a nice little greeting for guests and users
+Added a Tag Cloud that shows all User's tags

Additional
Sorry for such yet another long time in the development cycle also, still juggling with other projects and important mandatory life changing tasks.

I also apologizes for the site for being in "maintenance limbo" yesterday last night. I ran out of Internet credits on my mobile phone whilst updating and discovered, it isn't a good idea updating such a live site via mobile phone anyway... [My bad].

Ubuntu : Genius Pen F610

2010-01-10T16:09:00.001-08:00

Thanks to this TabletSetupWizardpen I managed to get my pen configured and drawing. Yet I did stumble upon a a couple of issues. Here is how I managed it.

Oh and by the way, really the Genius Pen F610 is actually a WALTOP pen WALTOP International Corp. Slim Tablet.

You will find these steps will request you do steps in the "TabletSetupWizardpen" and then come back to this.

Resolution

1) Using this guide, do the following steps under "Setting up your tablet".

1.1) Installing needed packages
1.2) Downloading and installing the driver ( You will need an Ubuntu Forum account)

Once completed and you wave the pen around, you may find your tablet workspace small or larger

2) Under step "Calibration" you may find "/dev/tablet-event" does not exist, here is how I found mine.

ls /dev/input/by-id/

Mine is (remember this for later steps in the guide)

/dev/input/by-id/usb-WALTOP_International_Corp._Slim_Tablet-event-if00

When you run the command (Change the red )

sudo ./wizardpen-calibrate /dev/tablet-event

You may need to do this more than once and you need to click by pressing the "Mouse Pen" to the tablet or pad.

REMEMBER the this value for "Setting up X".

3) Follow "Setting up X" edit the xorg.conf with the following command

gksu gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

3.1) In the "ServerLayout" section, add the line just below your primary mouse0

InputDevice "WizardPen Tablet" "AlwaysCore"

3.2) I kinda copied pasted one of the template Section "InputDevice" and then changed it. Here is mine anyway

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier      "WizardPen Tablet"
Driver          "wizardpen"
Option          "Device"        "/dev/input/by-id/usb-WALTOP_International_Corp._Slim_Tablet-event-if00"
Option          "TopX"          "295"
Option          "TopY"          "210"
Option          "BottomX"       "20000"
Option          "BottomY"       "12500"
Option          "MaxX"          "20000"
Option          "MaxY"          "12500"
EndSection

4) Follow step, "Making X start without a tablet connected" with the following command

gksu gedit /etc/rc.local

4.1) Verify the device line exists, change the text marked red, HINT : " ls /dev/input/by-id"

XORG_CONF=/etc/X11/xorg.conf
if [ -e /dev/tablet-event ]; then
sed -ie 's/^\(\s*\)\#\(\s*InputDevice\s\s*\"WizardPen\ Tablet\"\s\s*\"AlwaysCore\"\)\s*$/\1\2/' "$XORG_CONF"
echo "Udev created /dev/tablet-event = Tablet present! - Tablet-driver enabled"
else
sed -ie 's/\(^\s*InputDevice\s\s*\"WizardPen\ Tablet\"\s\s*\"AlwaysCore\"\)\s*$/\#&/' "$XORG_CONF"
echo "Udev did NOT create /dev/tablet-event = tablet NOT present! - Tablet-driver disabled"
fi

5) Update your .fdi with the similar settings to InputDevice section above.

gksu gedit /etc/hal/fdi/policy/99-x11-wizardpen.fdi

6) Restart Xserver by typing

sudo service gdm restart

If you get problems starting your X server (Graphics system), you may need to reset your xorg.conf or restore your backup. For nvidia type

nvidia-xconfig

7) To get the mouse buttons working (Yet I could only get the mouse pen nib to only work) Type the following

xinput set-button-map "WizardPen Tablet" 1 3 2

Apparently there is meant to be 6 buttons when running the commands

 xinput list

And if want a summary of known X pointers type

xsetpointer -l

Final Thoughts
I can tell, open source community needs to improve a bit more on MousePen Pen drawing thingy Tablet gadget friendliness.

Keep pushing ahead and you will eventually get your MousePen work :) It took me 3 days of fiddling before I Finally figured it out. I even tried "wacom" drivers and they just crash the GUI so I had to remove the wacom.fdi file.

Xubuntu: FTP Access Fails with Konqueror

2010-01-10T05:37:00.000-08:00

The window manager Xfce that powers the GUI to Xubuntu has a nice setting for compatibility with KDE applications.

Resolution

Click Applications->Settings->Sessions and Startup
Click the Advanced tab
Tick "Launch KDE Services on startup" under "Compatibility"
Then restart your Xubuntu

Konqueror should now function normally :)

Special thanks to
Xubuntu Community member at freenode IRC channel #xubuntu

Netbeans : Show JavaDoc aka API

2009-11-30T09:47:00.001-08:00

Been a while since I have fiddled with Netbeans and recently found it amusing forgetting how to show "javadoc" details.... After a little while of fiddling here is how.

Show Javadoc aka API details

Put the text cursor to some highlighted text like "javax.swing" or JTabbedPane variable.
[shift+f1] Shows javadoc

Hopefully you will see a new window showing the API

Oh to add the javadoc

Visit Java Download
Under the heading "Additional Resources" Click "download for Java SE 6 Documentation" (Or what ever latested version and leave it zipped.
Click "Tools->Java Platforms"
Select the "Javadoc" tab
Click "Add ZIP/Folder..."
Browse to the zipped file you recent downloaded and then click ok :)

Valve's Time : Development Time

2009-11-04T15:27:00.000-08:00

Yes, even I can relate to some of them would you believe.

Valve's Time

Howto: AVI to DVD

2009-10-18T14:45:00.001-07:00

How to Burn AVI to DVD discs....Using Open source software!!!!! ..... In 5 steps!!!! well maybe one more :/ When I find a better way, I will update this article :)

DeVeDe is another package that I tried and saves some steps :), yet it crapped out on me so I thought I'd try this SLOW way. Yet I am sure if I tried again, it probably would of worked.

I needed to learn how to encode from AVI to DVD format for proper burning to DVD discs. This is my findings so far....

STEPS

Install wine,K3b, tovid, tovidgui software. Found using "synaptic package manager"
Ran "Applications-Sound & Video->tovid GUI" and ran through Layout, Encode and then Burn (Buggy burning part that)
Layout : Add a menu then add your videos
Encode : Just click start at the bottom (TAKES an age!!!)
Burn : Completed but failed to burn as my DVD was single layered format (Takes a while but less than encoding). Ignore the errors if you did tick "Burn to DVD"
Copy the contents of the completed work made by "tovid GUI" to another area
Normally stored in /tmp/someproject -> [another place for backup]. This is so it doesn't get lost.
Using Wine install DVD Shrink (google it and find the download link) and Run it on the folder (So it changes the format from dual layered to single layered)
Click "open files..." (Browse to projectfolder a and then "Backup"
Ran "Applications-Sound & Video->K3B" and created a "New Video DVD project". Then dragged the finaly video_ts folder over to it :) Just click that button "Burn" now :)

Finished.

My Final Thoughts
This probably would work for other video formats also like (mpg etc... possibly, providing you have installed teh correct "restricted codec formats package" from the restricted repositories).

I decided to install all the "to?????" packages (tovidgui,tovid,todraw,todiscgui) as I thought they may of inter-twined with each other....I now believe they don't now.

I feel K3B is far more matured CD/DVD burning software than Brasero. Yet I do use them both, only I trust K3B for burning video projects for now.

Wished DeVeDe didn't crapped out on me :/

Stop Motion Animation

2009-10-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

With some inspiration from a close friend who is encouraging me into "stop motion animation".

I am very slowly drafting up a technical guide on how to go about doing this.

Animation Guide
[pending]

Vmware vs Virtual Box

2009-09-27T06:17:00.000-07:00

I have decided to try out Virtualbox as I keep hearing about better performance and stability. I am also hoping it will be a lot smoother with installation,updates and transporting between different platforms.

I will update this article on my findings.

My Vmware Experiences
I have 2 virtual machines and they are used for testing and distribution purposes.

Everytime there is a kernel update, I have to re-compile it.
Bit trivial with upgrading for people who are not used to the terminal
When transporting a virtual image file to be used in Windows, I have to convert some configs (Think this is common thing).
When changing test environments I have to change network settings.
Feels like a power hog, can cause some bizarre effect once in a while.

My VirtualBox Experiences

More user friendly to install
Feels like a light weight
Fast
Virtual drives are stored straight to [home] folder
Dynamically compiles the kernel module :)
Ran my unsupported Webcam in XP very fast too :))))

Think I'm in love already.
{{{virtualBox}}}

Further Reading

Vs Reviews
Ubuntu Forums
virtualbox-3-0-4-vs-vmware-workstation-6-5-3/

About the Virtual Machine Software
Wikipedia : Virtualbox

My Heavy Ubuntu Desktop

2009-09-26T02:25:00.000-07:00

I been wanting to get to know how to get into video editing in Ubuntu. This is my first attempt at adding music to a video with Kino. I also wanted to show off my desktop to my friends ;)

Obviously the quality still needs perfecting, I was just soo happy know this little new trick I just wanted to upload it :D (Strange that).

gtk-recordMyDesktop used to record Desktop :)

Mum's 49th Birthday : I made this :)

2009-09-23T08:11:00.001-07:00

Click and then save Story Behind the Card
My mum has drank so much cola and poorly looked after her teeth for years. She now has no teeth. Recently my Dad said he will try and pay for some new false teeth when and if he can save up for it.

I spent 3 hours making this card with a couple of hours of researching and testing. I started meddling with Blender and started to create some false teeth, then I got put off with the idea. Then meddled with Inkscape, tracing over some people smiling with their perfect teeth, then I got put off with that idea. I was reminded that i, 'it's words that count'. So I went to "Keep it Simple Stupid" mode.

Kate + Konqueror : Tieing the Knot

2009-09-21T05:11:00.000-07:00

File Transfering Made Easy :)

I have grown to love a good FTP client that blends really well with the text editor. The only known set up that I knew at the time was, Mac's combo of

Interarchy + BBEdit

I was determined to find a similar feel of "Double clicking files editing them in BBEdit" and then when saving in the editor, it uploads it with out asking..."File has changed, do you want to upload this file?".

After many trials with various FTP and Text editor combos, I finally chose these and feel so relaxed with them now :)

Kate + Konqueror sitting in the tree K.I.S.S.I.N.G :P

Tie the Knot
The following steps allows for "Web development", further customizing can help you edit any other file.

Prep Your OS
1) Install Konqueror + Kate (If you have gnome and not KDE)
2)Open Konqueror

Prep Konqueror
3) Set the view of the Konqueror to be slim looking and with folder tree view.
4) Save the View as a profile (Settings -> Save View Profile), I called mine "Web Development" (OR you can save over the default "Web Browsing".
5)Click Settings -> Configure Konqueror -> File Management -> File Associations

Prep Kate
6) Now search for the following file formats (php,ini,phtml,js,html,txt,css,tmx) all have "Kate" as the TOP "Application Preference Order", if Kate does not exist you have to add it.

Use the command "kate -u %U"

The -u is important so you don't have multiple instanses of kate loading. The %U makes sure the file cache is stored in your home area and not anywhere else. Also make sure in "Advanced Options->DBUS Registration" is set to NONE (IMPORTANT or you may get KDEInit could not launch XXXX).

Below is the "Advanced Options" from above image

Finally

The very first screen shot in this article is what your Kate and Konqueror should look like. And yes that is my Desktop :D

Background : Windows 7 Update, broken glass that needs a patch
Appearance Theme : New Wave
Ciro Dock Theme : Tux_n_tosh

Enjoy :)

First IT Room Reboot

2009-09-15T15:43:00.000-07:00

This past few months I have been extremely busy volunteering, rebooting an IT suite at Reading Resource which is managed by "Together". The IT Suite now provides open source and commercial solutions so the members have a choice of which way to learn. They had to cut back on various areas due to the recession particularly in the IT area. So they are extremely thankful and chuffed with me at the moment. Also gives me a chance to craft some of dream into play :)

Servers
Originally the members logged into Windows2000pro server and took an awful long time to log in.

Now the members are now split from the server and now all the members now log into an Ubuntu server. Which has boosted security and increased speed of logging into machines.

Malware and Bad Sites
Each machine had "Cyber Patrol" installed to prevent users from going to bad sites. Also They utilized Symantec Anti-virus.

All machines web browser software are configured to point to a proxy server (powered by squid). They are also locked so cannot change them. Speed increased by removing "Cyber Patrol" from each of the machines. And a Freeware anti-virus solution is playing a part to help combat virus for free.

Web Portal
Each machine points to a simple web portal show simply what is happening at Resource.

The Learn section shows off free learning material to various "open source" solutions :) This is what the portal looks like so far, still a work in progress yet it is a start. It also serves the purpose of keeping all the members updated more quickly.

Future Plans
After I have finished with making the web portal easily maintainable and the user friendly documentation for maintaining the IT suite has been finalized. I will hand over my responsibilities to them.

I will move on to some part-time work that I so dearly need to get back into. Yet Ideally I am hoping to set up some sort of job solution for myself here with all this new experience...Here's hoping :)

Computing Numbers

2009-09-14T01:55:00.000-07:00

A friend wanted help to understand how to convert Octal and Hexadecimal numbers into binary. May not look amazing yet I created this nice little cheat sheet using "Inkscape". I'm sure am not the only one who has done this, but if you like it, take it :)

Click on the image for a larger view and then you can save it.

An embarrassing error glitch discovered by a Redditor :)

Sharedcookbook : Update : 10th Sept 2009

2009-09-10T14:48:00.000-07:00

Making the site more user friendly with little time to spare I decided to provide "mini updates". So my changes will be extremely small....What else is new?

Changes

+Added "About" and "Helpful Notes" sections to main features of the site.

Sharedcookbook : Update : 3rd Sept 2009

2009-09-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

Yup feel more happy with the "Guest System" now.

I must admit I kinda rushed the guest system programming as I was really motivated and happy and wanted to see the system in action ASAP. Yet I knew there was a couple of bugs to fix, so I spent this past couple of days testing on my development server to really be sure I have ironed them out. Thankfully ironed out the important ones, like deleting the guest accounts that have expired.

When I last looked there was 119 accounts out of the 19 more official users, so hopefully the expired accounts would have been deleted along with all the gear like, ingriedients, recipes, menus etc.

Changes
-Fixed bug in 'Guest Account System', expired accounts now get purged from database.
-Fixed the loggedAs helper to show language bar again.

Enjoy freely having fun with "Shared Cookbook". The guest accounts expire after 8 hours, or create an account to save your recipes.

Future Improvement Thoughts
Thanks to Redditor's comments and a recent chat to a friend, I have strong belief that these two are a must important.

Friendly Interface, the site still looks rough and needs more friendly feel.
Mobility support, by providing HTML widgets and provide downloadable applications for various mobile phones to get your favourite menu shopping lists saved for offline/online purposes.

Sharedcookbook : Update : 2nd Sept 2009

2009-09-01T17:17:00.000-07:00

After some interesting comments from Reddit, I decided to action one of them and see what happens.

You can freely start using "sharedcookbook" for as much as you like for up to 8 hours at a time. Also if you choose, you can even save your newly created recipes into a proper account.

This feature will trial for a few days and hopefully everything will be OK :)

Changes
+Added Guest Account Ability

Technical Issues
If you have problems, empty your cookies :)

Sharedcookbook shown on Reddit

2009-08-30T16:55:00.000-07:00

Having the site been on for almost a year now with little feedback, I turned a little desperate for some. So I posted it on Reddit you can see that post here. I was amazed with the first comment boosting my motivation to keep it live and to carry on improving it.

Redditor's have shown me the light to make "Shared Cookbook" even better, will show a little credit to usernames who influenced what feature some where, as similar to the current credits already in place.

Thank you Reddit.

BurdFrame2 : Minorly Previewed

2009-07-25T03:26:00.000-07:00

BurdFrame2 is powering, 'Community Recycling' web application.

The Pickup System is a module and can be re-used for other purposes. It also boasts my first experience coding a drag and drop interface for ease of use.

The technology originally spawned from Sharedcookbook code and was being developed to help an organization create a private social website for their clients. It didn't start maturing until a major tune up of the then code and was AGAIN forked off to create "Community Recycling" project. I then decided to call my technology that I seem to keep reusing, "BurdFrame2".

So now I have the power to make various other fun web services/applications on the fly with not much fuss for myself.

Previewed Features
User Management
Backup System
Module System

Woohoo!

LightBox2 and Area Maps

2009-07-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

Whilst developing a site using LightBox2 I bumped into a common, it cannot handle area maps by default.

Workaround is by replacing two entries in the lightbox.js. And yes that workaround blogger is also my hero too now :)

Wee Reminder : Ubuntu Fonts

2009-07-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

Keep forgetting that clever little command to refresh the fonts with Ubuntu....

Become super user and bring up Fonts folder. Copy the nessarary files.

gksu nautilus /usr/share/fonts/truetype

Then refresh the font cache by running

sudo fc-cache -f -v

For further information, visit this link.

Sharedcookbook : Update : 17 June 2009

2009-06-17T03:36:00.000-07:00

Conflicting Cookies
Sharedcookbook was my first social web service and having spawned other new social web service projects from this, I discovered the conflicting issues with the cookies, so I knew had to fix this for my developing comfort.

New Facts Section
The "Facts" section has a new area called "Methods of Cooking".

Sharedcookbook : Reddit Submission

2009-06-16T17:29:00.000-07:00

I decided to post sharedcookbook url to reddit.com, here is the perm link.

I hope to start planning more improvements again some day however, I have taken up some new tasks to help improve myself and others around me.

Patience is a virtue.

Gimp : Cloning

2009-04-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

After listening to some poetry from "John Haggot" and "Pete the Temp" at a great place called, "Moondog", believe me they are both really good. Someone kept staring at me and said you kinda look like a joker with the coffee stain on my mouth, I was amazed at someone joking about that. So just for fun, I decided to give my other side the full treatment using Gimp.

Look closely on both sides of my cheek :P They are both the same :P
How to Clone and Treat a Photo
I knew I wanted to duplicate the the "silly impression of my mouth corner", to make the impression seem more REAL as like in the film. During the hole process, I accidently horizontally flipped it and I actually felt it helped to remind me I was working duplicating the cut on the other side, here is how I did it.

Locked the original photo.

Created a new layer.

Clone copied the face that I wanted, made sure the brush was at the right size to just copy only the face part of the scar.

Once the cloned area into new layer, it will be a circled area.

Rotated the area using the "Rotate tool" to roughly match the other side, doesn't have to match properly.

Magic selected the new layer and then trimmed the edge of the circle to match my ORIGINAL edge of my face.

Changed the mode to "Value" and set the Opacity to 74.3 to help merge the colors to be similar.

Use the smudge tool with the default settings and carefully smudge the inner circle and the outside of the face smoothly match my ORIGINAL face. Don't overly smudge, only just till no outstanding edging is visible.

Use the brightness and contrast tool to match the lighting of the other side.

That is all.

Note about flipping in Gimp

There is "Image->Tranform" and "Layer->Transform" be sure to use the apporiate one, as one of them flips all layers.

Card : Wisdom Tooth Removal Thank You

2009-04-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to say thanks yet till I knew I was on the mend, my mouth feels good :)

How to Publish
1) Right click and save the image.

2) Just print the image OR

Create a document in a word processor and set all margins to "zero", don't worry about any warnings or messages during the process, then print. After all it is an A4 image.

One Project at a Time

2009-03-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

Going to share my thoughts about ethical designing here that I have to come to like....

SharedCookbook updates has been slowed down to halt for some time now, heres why.

Since moving into a flat with no Internet access and gaining a couple of volunteer opportunities that I have started to actively work on. These two projects I am working, will hopefully aid the public sector, touch wood. I won't say anymore than that.

Since there is only one of me, and I have taken on this rule when a project starts to speed up, learnt this from 'Valve Software Corporation'...

"One Project at a Time"

I don't like chopping and changing projects especially when I am on good developing speed. It's all about keeping the brain thinking on the right track and getting through a mess of tracks.

Don't Rush

I don't like to rush things either, having to rush something out and seeing it running on 3 legs is a horrific sight to witness.

If you want it to work properly and see things go smoother, 'Don't rush into things until you have planned and thought things through'. This goes for developing as well as real life situations.

Unless it's an emergency, like the server is down or you lost your keys.

Make Coding less of a headache and more enjoyable
Oh and here is a sneak peak of a project I am currently working on. You can see I listen to music whilst I code :P Trust me that helps quite regularly, keeps the brain churning as peacefully as possiblily during coding.

Whats New 3rd Feb 2009

2009-02-03T00:41:00.000-08:00

I have had decided to drop the version number and keep it to date form, just to keep things more friendly looking. A couple of nice new features to improve socializing and viewing pleasure.

The printer friendly feature can been seen when viewing, recipes, profiles, and shopping Lists( via /menu->get shopping List).

Comment system now shows total number of comments to help encourage socializing.

Changes
+Added Comment Totals
+Printer Friendly View
+Added Invalid message to invalid Recipe Views

Add Household Items to Shopping List

2009-01-21T12:36:00.001-08:00

EXPERIMENTAL IDEA : But you can try it.

How do you add "other" items to your shopping list?

If you click the screenshot on the left, you will see two "other" items. Well I have hacked about a bit and finally thought up a friendly way to do this.

Further Development Required
Ideally I will need to add a switch when creating new recipes, whether it contain a bunch of items or ingredients of edible products.

Also in the shopping list I'd change the column heading "ingredients" to "items". OR I could move the "OTHER ITEMS" away from the ingredients sections altogether and have that in a sperate list on the side possibly.

Just Household Only Shopping List
Create a new menu called, "Household" and then attach it the new housesholds to it.

WARNING:
Since it is an experimental idea and DO NOT want to give any stupid ideas of mixing recipes up with non edible items. I strongly advise that you do not fill in your method with mix instructions.

You can use the method area to explain why such items is your favourite brand possibly.

Where is this Rough Guide?
The instruction with examples are here.

Shared Cookbook : Update 1.1.2

2009-01-20T20:37:00.000-08:00

Search engines love meta data to index, this website needed its recipes indexed there too. also implemented Sweden language support.

Changes
+Sweden language support
+Improved meta support
*View Recipe
*Main Pages

Web Environments

2009-01-16T11:07:00.000-08:00

Database Management
http://freshmeat.net/projects/phpmyadmin/

HTML Text Editor
http://freshmeat.net/projects/fckeditor/

Project Management and Tracking
http://freshmeat.net/projects/achievo/

System Info
http://phpsysinfo.sourceforge.net/

Shared Cookbook : Update 1.1.1

2009-01-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

I have been requested to include video embedding support, his one simple request kept nagging in my brain mentally for a while, until I eventually caved in and started coding.

Similar system to Images only it's videos now. At the moment the system only supports Youtube, an example of their video urls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0quDfpfRUQ

Check out the results of an embedded video here.

Changes:
v1.1.1
+Implemented Videos
*Youtube only for now.

Launch Article and Features Explained

2009-01-10T09:31:00.000-08:00

This is the launch article I made to help showcase the website, explains the reasons behind the site as well as the main features.

Read the full article here.

Shared Cookbook : Update 1.1.0

2009-01-02T05:41:00.000-08:00

As of 1st January 2009, [Shared Cookbook] got updated!!!! Took a lot of mental pushing power on my side, setting up my a new dev environment to match with the live host, and finally did the first update. Hopefully you will notice roughly 3 things.

A major bug was discovered not too long ago, and prompted for urgent attention, have to thank the bug for giving me this, "urgent feeling" and major enhancement to my mental health, which finally prompted a quick update. Users can now set ingredients with preparations, like slicing and dicing. They can make up their own preparations up if they wish or choose from one of the many pre-configured preparations.

I apologise in advance for any inconvenience, that major bug fix has left a mark to the data already in the system. Look out for "-1", those are the ones you need to "Re-assign/re correct" yourself manually. They will be found in the recipe ingredients and menus.

Course I am one man band it here, so bare with me still if things look rough :P

Following fixes/enhancements have been made.

+ Add "Canada" to countries
+ Smaller Font size
+ Implemented Preparations
! Minor content changes
*Welcome
*About
*Credits
*Feedback
*Layout
! Added Captcha to Feedback form
! Fixed major user data look up bug:
* Preparations
* Measures
* Ingredients
* Images
* Recipes

Quick Server Solutions

2008-12-28T21:53:00.000-08:00

Solutions to help speed up development with not much programming.

TikiWiki

Remove Red Eye

2008-11-04T14:38:00.001-08:00

The following picture is what needs to be enhanced. Clicking on it will reveal there is RED eye issues.

You will need the latest Gimp installed. Believe there is an installer for MS Windows.

Start your installed gimp and load the picture that needs improving. You should be able to click on the image to see a bigger view of the screenshots below.

Steps
Zoom in on the problem area, you can use two ways. You can use the button from the tools dialogue or the pulldown menu which is located at the bottom of the image window.

Select the Rectangle selection tool and draw around the first eye.

Now lets select the 2nd eye, by hold down shift key which will add a PLUS(+) symbol, then draw another selection over the 2nd area.

On the image window, click on the "Filters->Enhance->Red Eye Removal..".

NOTE: This part will require some trial and error.

Adjust the threshold value until the red eye has gone almost and then click ok.
If you not happy with the first attempt, you can use "Edit->Undo" to reset what you have done.
Don't forget to zoom out to really see the difference.
Then save when you happy :)

Result
This is what the picture looks like after removing your first pair of red eyes :) Yes. The guy in the middle is not of this Earth :P The technique explained above has been applied twice on both guys ^^. The red eye is not a horrific at least.

Hmm Think here is another way to do this in Gimp, which is even more manual. I wanted to see what GIMP's filter was like.

Socially Shared Cookbook

2008-10-12T14:53:00.001-07:00

[Shared Cookbook]

My latest piece of work has come out of the coding grind-house and is now live online for all to see.

This site project has been years in my head with a working prototype.... And it has taken me a few months to build it. It's original name was "ECBook" As in "Easy CookBook", but all them domains was taken. I also read somewhere that some people hate silly web2.0 domain names so I figured "shared cookbook" in the end.

Recommend Firefox for optimal site performance,
Workable in IE6 and IE7.
Minor annoying glitch in IE8.
Does not function well in Opera or Safari.

The beauty part of this site, is that it boasts an almost user friendly recipe Editor. Read the full article about the site features here.

My Firefox Developer Plugins

2008-09-12T11:50:00.001-07:00

These are my Developer Addons

Google Gears (So I can work offline ^^ with Google:Docs)
Greasemonkey (Helps customize websites)
FireBug (Debug Javascript and CSS)
DOM Inspector (Required for FireBug)
ColorZilla (Pick colors off web pages)
Screen grab! (Take website screenshots [Full length])
MeasureIT (Measure various website parts)
HTML Validator (For debugging Code HTML)

Enjoy

PHP and mail

2008-09-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

On the server, you need to install sendmail. If you found you duff configuration and you had to change your hostname details. You wonder how to reconfigure sendmail? You can reconfigure it by running...

sendmailconfig

My Linux Shell Cheatsheet

2008-09-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

Find total number of lines in a programming project recursively.

cd /to/some/project/folder/with/loads/of/subfolders
wc -l `find . -name *.php`

Dojo/JS Error: [somevariable] is not defined

2008-09-03T18:02:00.001-07:00

Error: some variable is not defined
Source File: bla.php?sadf
Line: 360

Make sure you name your widgets in the HTML with "jsId". For example:

<select name="somevariable" jsId="somevariable" /></select>

Dojo/JS Error: unterminated string literal

2008-09-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

As of Dojo version 1.1.1, the nice debug console Dojo provides does not properly show where abouts the error occured. So make sure you bring up the Web browser's javascript console also.

Don't forget to clear the javascript console log and re-run your page.

Example Error
The Quotes, at around t=i&id='????' is causing the trouble. Basically cuasing the intoNode to break.

dojo.xhrGet(intoNode('ajaxingredientlist', '/ajax/categories/?ajax=true&mode=l&t=i&id='????'))

PHP: Cannot use object of type stdClass

2008-09-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

When handling object, you have to remember to retieve LIKE an object, NOT an like array style.

Example Object retrieval:

$varName->someThingToGet

PHP Example
Make sure you just use

echo $response->TransactionID;
NOT
echo $response['TransactionID'];

Zend Framework [ ZEND_DB Example ]
When handling You must remember to set the db adaptor to fetch object, so anything returned will fetched as a proper object.

$this->db->setFetchMode(Zend_Db::FETCH_OBJ);
$result = $this->db->fetchRow($select);
echo $result->columnNameToFetch;

Simple Form Styling (No Tables)

2008-08-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

Always wondered how they made forms with no table html( As quoted from here.)

No table code used, but dl,dt and dd.

<dl class="newsletter">
<dt><label for="name">Name:</label></dt>
<dd><input type="text" id="name" value="Enter your name" /></dd>
<dt><label for="email">Email:</label></dt>
<dd><input type="text" id="email" value="Enter your email" /></dd>
</dl>

Style the desired areas, as follows

<style type="text/css">
.newsletter {width: 50%;}
.newsletter dt {float: left;}
.newsletter dd {margin: 0 5em 1em 5em;}
</style>

Movie Poster

2008-08-14T03:17:00.000-07:00

This poster is an example of my graphical abilities for a silly competition I devised at OkCupid :P The winner will get one of their desired photos digitally enhanced to the best of my abilities, just one photo.

Description of Work:
This is the only movie poster I have ever made, I made this for an ex-partner's mum. I had to scavenge around the internet for the right images and angles. Took a little while yes :p

The poster could never be very high resolution, because the images were ripped off the internet and were of various sizes.

Big enough to shove in a frame and hang some where at least ^^.

The plane and ship was never by the Golden Gate bridge like that :P

How NOT to Design

2008-08-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

Don't just call it a "thing.com" and a slap a picture on it with a few links in there :P
lmao

Planning and Designing

2008-08-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

During my naive young years, I rarely planned or designed. I coded to my hearts content lol. I have decided to rectify that. So I have spent a fair time trying various ways of designing more digitally. Also I have an issue with "pencils" and endless amounts of paper being wasted. I used sketch and jot dot down almost anything of an idea.

They all exercise sharing in a social way. Also they are all easy to browse and publish.

Keeping others posted
Any change done, must be able to give everyone a quick overview of changes rather than individual emails.
Online journal or blog, be sure to let everyone know how use RSS feeds

Master Plan
Must have Brainstorm chapter
Must be easily sharable and editable by anyone
Must be colorful (Use key colors to designate important notes/must reads).
Google:Docs

Databases
Still waiting for MySQL's Workbench for Linux to come out of beta.
DIA (Linux)

Interfaces
One document with many many various layers, each layer represents a different part of the site.
Inkscape

Debating
You don't want everyone accidently deleting other's thoughts just because they hate it. More the merrier, pick out the important ones for planning :P
Emails don't forget to use "Reply to all"
blogs or journal addons (Votes and comments)
Forum

Testing

2008-08-12T04:02:00.000-07:00

Firefox use Linux (Ubuntu is my fav distro).
IE6 use IE4Linux for Linux (Not the beta, but you could though ain't used it yet myself)
IE7 use XP in VMWare Server for Linux

VMWare Server (get version 1, as version2 is a kind disapointing)
I am a lover of virtual machines for testing, just recently had a hefty time installing VMware Server on Ubuntu 8.04, then I discovered this.

Update Patches
When downloading the latest update, keep the defaults, but recompile when it asks for the gcc compiler. You should not need to re-enter the serials, be sure to run the following when updating

sudo cp /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1
sudo cp /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpng12.so.0

Another note to remember:
Use Legacy Driver for CD drive, cuz my drive is too new. Even if u have 64bit dual core, don't get greedy with processors, one processor should be enough :P

service pack3 for xp, need more than 3gig+71mb size for partition, better make it 5gigs if you want it to live more (Especially to install updates like ie7) :P

My Dev Environment

2008-08-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

Programming / On the fly FTP Editing and Saving / Window Management
Read this

Also there is a sneek peak of my latest project, it is about as close as anyone is going to get. Still early days but viciously expanding, also don't want anyone stealing my idea. Only a few close friends know this project and I trust them fully to not disclose any information without checking in with me first :) Even that scares me lol.

This idea has been in head for absolute years, ever sinces I touched learning PHP. I've only a working prototype to show off a snippet of the system. I am now trying to make it a reality. It is all heavily planned and if all goes well....Well lets not get too big head here, who knows it could fail really :P

I am also thankful I have got my programming interests back, it disappeared on me over a year ago. Long story so I won't explain here. Enjoy the pic :P

Smarty Obsolete

2008-08-06T18:10:00.000-07:00

Smarty was made obsolete by proper use of MVC and CSS handling. Also you can cache pages using Zend_Cache.

Heh, as of this date, they moved smarty.php.net to it's domain, lol. Some developers still rely on technology and still need support (Like regular updates), fortunately I am not one of them.

Handy Design Links

2008-08-06T13:23:00.001-07:00

Free Fonts
http://www.free-fonts.com/

Less Distracting Links

2008-08-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

Soo many links? Grey out the areas that not so important, until hovered over.

As of 2008 SecondLife's website demonstrates this very well.

Welcome to my Dev Blog

2008-08-05T03:21:00.000-07:00

Here you see snippets of code in various languages that has been helpful to me.