My latest Conky script
Yesterday I created a new Conky script for my laptop I use for everyday work, running Ubuntu 12.10 with Mate. The image at the left shows how it looks like.
The weather script is based on Yahoo weather API, which is totally free. The script I use is based on the Google Now-Inspired Conky Theme found at OMGUbuntu website. The script retrieves the Weather information and shows them at the Conky. Although I like the default theme weather icons of the above theme, I wanted to make it look like StormCloud.
Autochange your Facebook Page cover using Instagram images
These days I work on a new project that gives the ability to a user to change the cover images of a Facebook page using Instagram images. Instagram has a nice API that helps the developers to find public photos and use them as they wish. You can even search images by a specific tag, which is necessary if you want to create a branded cover image.
So how about changing the cover image of your Facebook page automatically? The idea is simple and using Instagram API, Facebook API and some PHP code this can be feasible.
On my projects I use ImageMagick a lot, when I have to create images on the fly. So I thought that if we use an Instagram image as background and four others as polaroid images over it, as a result we will get a nice and interesting cover image.
As soon as the final image is ready, I use a user session with manage_page permissions to upload the cover image to the Facebook page. This works just fine right now, but I want to add a few more features.
Would you use an app like this? Is there any features you would like to see? Would you like to have the ability to set the you page and have it auto changed, based on templates? Come on. Step up and make your proposals
Create your quote images online
myQuoteFive is a project based on HTML5 Canvas features, supported by the latest web browsers. The user can create quote images to send to his friends. This kind of images are commonly used on social network pages and profiles.
With myQuoteFive you can,
- set the background by selecting one of the already available or upload your own,
- add inside the image one or more logos, icons or whatever you like. There are many already available to chose or upload your own,
- add one or more texts. You can set the font color, the font size, the font and the alignment of the text. You can even edit the added texts by just selecting them over the image
All the above can be added inside your image, where you can drag them around. You can even resize these elements if you like. If you want to remove one of the elements, just select it with your mouse and press the Delete or BackSpace keys on your keyboard.
Finally, there is a button that helps you to export your design to a single image, which you can save to your computer and use it as you like.
myQuoteFive was developed using HTML5, CSS3, Canvas, jQuery, Javascript and CgSceneGraph technologies.
If you like it, please consider to share it with your friends.
Hard disk and Indivision MKII inside Amiga 1200
For a long time now I wished I had some spare time to build an Amiga 1200 I own, which was in pieces in various boxes, and set this up for a complete WHDLoad experience. Gladly, last Christmas I had a few spare days to spent at home. So I decided to open the boxes and build this fine computer.
This A1200 is equipped with a Blizzard 1230MKIV with SCSI controller and an 2.5” IDE hard disk. Last summer I bought the new Indivision AGA MKII by Individual, which I never had the chance to use it before. I bought also a new 300W power supply from AmigaKit for this system, a new floppy drive and a new keyboard. So, I gathered all the pieces on a table and I started building the computer. I had no problems with the hardware, until I tried to fit again the hard disk, which was fitted on it’s original cradle.
F10 vs Terminal
If you are a Linux user then you surely use terminal. Whenever I do a clean install to the latest version of any Linux distribution, one of the first things I do is to set the F10 key to not be captured by the system and pass directly to the terminal. This is necessary for various old programs running through terminal, like midnight commander.
in most of the Linux distributions the terminal has a menu item where you can set up the “Keyboard shortcuts”. By this menu item you disable the F10 to be used by the system. Unfortunately, at the latest Ubuntu 12.04 Unity the F10 is still captured by the system, even if you disable it.
By searching in various forums and websites I found a workaround that really worked for me. You have to cut and paste the following in a terminal and press enter
$ mkdir -p ~/.config/gtk-3.0
$ cat<<EOF > ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
@binding-set NoKeyboardNavigation {
unbind "<shift>F10"
}
* {
gtk-key-bindings: NoKeyboardNavigation
}
EOF
Install SoX 14.3.2 on Debian 6
These days I am working on a very nice project which has to do with simple music compositing inside a web browser. I thought to use the fine SoX which can do many things with the processing of sounds. I am using it to combine sound series and then mix a few of them. I need to export the sounds as OGG and MP3 files. The OGG files will be used by most of the HTML5 ready browser and there is a fallback with flash that will use the MP3 files. Even if a browser doesn’t support the OGG file it will automatically use the MP3 file.
I am working the project on my laptop where I have installed Linux Mint 12, with the SoX v14.3.2 installed from it’s repository. With this version I didn’t have any problem on encoding the MP3 files. But on my web server I have a Debian 6 installed, where the SoX application is v14.3.1. Unfortunately, this version doesn’t support encoding to MP3 files because of a bug.
If you think things are in a mess now, JUST WAIT!
“Nothing is ever forgotten, not completely. And if something can be remembered it can come back. - Dr. Who
PHP password generator
Today I had to create a script to create a large amount of unique passwords for a project. To be more specific, we needed more than 200000 passwords. So, I created a nice php script that does the job. These passwords were created in about 33mins on my desktop computer. Do you think it is slow? It would be great if you could provide any faster solution?
The script has two stages of duplication check, with the second one being optional. The first one is performed as soon as a new password is created. The second check happens at the end of the password generation, using the array_unique function of php.
255 days uptime
My personal webserver has 255 days uptime. High availability for my hosted websites, with no downtime all these days. Of course, the webserver is fully updated at the latest stable software available.
web developer, Amiga lover, Drupal follower, jQuery ninja, mobile application explorer, truth seeker, social media user, self-taught guitarist, parent & husband... at least for now...
