its US-English web-page.
its German web-page.
The printing quality got worse a couple of months ago – low-colour stripes, where I expected bright colour.
I called support yesterday.
He told me to take everything out (all 4 cartridges, the waster toner (box) (in Geman: Resttonerbehälter), and the other beast (I will tell you its name, once I remember)).
I should shake the cartridges a little.
I should clean "it" (that glass area, where the pictures are captured) with something fluff-free and a little wet.
I should let it dry for a couple of hours.
I should also open and close the cover a couple of times, as that would activate a cleaning mechanism.
I actually went for the dry variant, and I was rather successful. I am rather satisfied now.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Google Contacts as XML – rough edges
Some vCards come with a field called SORT-STRING.
It appears to me (I will update this, once I know better), that Google (Mail) Contacts loads this field into their field by the name of "Name (phonetic)". In XML this goes into an attribute of fullName, that they call yomi.
It appears to me (I will update this, once I know better), that Google (Mail) Contacts loads this field into their field by the name of "Name (phonetic)". In XML this goes into an attribute of fullName, that they call yomi.
Monday, March 28, 2011
reverse-engineering ORM class interfaces from RDBMS schemas
I found software to create such interfaces for Perl / in Perl; some such software is oriented towards DBIx::Class, some is oriented towards other approaches. I found that in the books on Catalyst.
Is there any such thing for Ruby? Can ActiveRecord do it?
I find that a rather smart thing. Usually you find a lot of existing schemas (if you are in such a situation), and if you are lucky, you can choose the ORM approach.
To be continued …
- apress: TDG to Catalyst …, Chapter 6: Database Models
- Packt Publishing: Catalyst
Is there any such thing for Ruby? Can ActiveRecord do it?
I find that a rather smart thing. Usually you find a lot of existing schemas (if you are in such a situation), and if you are lucky, you can choose the ORM approach.
To be continued …
MySQL :: the Sakila sample database
MySQL :: the Sakila sample database
That documentation includes a nice diagram, and that diagram led me to MySQL Workbench, now I have an idea of how to create nice database diagrams.
That documentation includes a nice diagram, and that diagram led me to MySQL Workbench, now I have an idea of how to create nice database diagrams.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
RubyForge: XML::Simple (with my experiences as updates)
RubyForge: XmlSimple: Project Info
Rather short after discovering this module, I made use of it with my FRITZ!Box call monitor in order to read my Google Contacts as XML. With this approach, that was a rather easy piece of cake.
Update 2011-03-29:
If an element has not attributes, the (text) content of that element simply gets appended as string to the list at the hash field by the name of that element.
Now if the element has attributes, the (text) content goes together with the attributes to a hash list, that gets appended to that list instead. The (text) content actually goes into a hash field by the name of "content".
Example:
Rather short after discovering this module, I made use of it with my FRITZ!Box call monitor in order to read my Google Contacts as XML. With this approach, that was a rather easy piece of cake.
Update 2011-03-29:
If an element has not attributes, the (text) content of that element simply gets appended as string to the list at the hash field by the name of that element.
Now if the element has attributes, the (text) content goes together with the attributes to a hash list, that gets appended to that list instead. The (text) content actually goes into a hash field by the name of "content".
Example:
My Ruby code operates like this:text -> "e"=>[ "text"]text -> "e"=>[{"content"=>"text","a"=>"v"}]
x.instance_of?(Hash) ? x['content'] : x
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
GMarks (Add-ons for Firefox) – Google Bookmarks in the sidebar
GMarks :: Add-ons for Firefox
I loved this explore-like display of my Google Bookmarks in the Firebox sidebar. It's not supported any longer for Firefox 4. And Chrome and Chrome don't have a sidebar anyway.
I really loved adding bookmarks that way.
I loved this explore-like display of my Google Bookmarks in the Firebox sidebar. It's not supported any longer for Firefox 4. And Chrome and Chrome don't have a sidebar anyway.
I really loved adding bookmarks that way.
"Continuity of Care Record" (CCR) – ASTM E2369 - 05e1 Standard Specification
ASTM E2369 - 05e1 Standard Specification for Continuity of Care Record (CCR)
Google Health can export your health profile as CCR, an XML dialect.
Today I added another "problem" to my Google Health profile.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
O'Reilly Media book: Programming the Perl DBI
Programming the Perl DBI
What a pity: not available as ebook at o'Reilly's, but you can find it on the web, just as I did.
What a pity: not available as ebook at o'Reilly's, but you can find it on the web, just as I did.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
I started using eRuby to create JasperReport JRXML files
All of a sudden I knew, I would immediately need a template mechanism. During the last "Stuttgart.pm" meet-up Mason got mentioned, but I was already a little familiar with eRuby, so I gave it a try, and it was just the right thing to do. The XML file to handle got smaller and smaller and smaller – really, really nice to see.
Update 2011-03-25:
A few days later I am really rather satisfied with this decision.
Of course: eRuby XML files are no longer clean XML, so they are not supported by any editing mode (apart from "text-mode") in emacs, but then that's not too terrible.
Update 2011-04-20:
Of course (again) being able to deal with eRuby XML files as XML files within nxml-mode would be a charm. There are 2 obstacles to overcome:
In order to interpolate ruby expressions into XML this syntax is used:
but nxml-mode does not accept that for a legal XML attribute value.
Update 2011-03-25:
A few days later I am really rather satisfied with this decision.
Of course: eRuby XML files are no longer clean XML, so they are not supported by any editing mode (apart from "text-mode") in emacs, but then that's not too terrible.
Update 2011-04-20:
Of course (again) being able to deal with eRuby XML files as XML files within nxml-mode would be a charm. There are 2 obstacles to overcome:
y="<%=y0+13%>"
but nxml-mode does not accept that for a legal XML attribute value.
Lines starting with '%' are for ruby code, nxml-mode should / may consider them as comments:
% y0 = 97
an extra blank page on PDF-s created by JasperReport has gone
The JRXML, I am creating programmatically, caused the generated PDF to have an extra blank page.
I didn't care a lot, as long as I had not achieved my main goal. Now, that I am going to deliver (OMG!), I tried to smooth that rough edge. As I had not clue, where the problem source really was, I urgently needed to solve that problem today. Spent some time on it, solved it!
My document has only two bands: the Title and the the Background Band.
The Title Band actually doesn't share the page space with any other band. Therefore I thought it may take all the 842 points of height, that the document has itself. That's apparently not true. Apparently the Title Band must be at least be one point smaller the available height. If I respect that rule, I don't have that extra blank page any more.
I didn't care a lot, as long as I had not achieved my main goal. Now, that I am going to deliver (OMG!), I tried to smooth that rough edge. As I had not clue, where the problem source really was, I urgently needed to solve that problem today. Spent some time on it, solved it!
My document has only two bands: the Title and the the Background Band.
The Title Band actually doesn't share the page space with any other band. Therefore I thought it may take all the 842 points of height, that the document has itself. That's apparently not true. Apparently the Title Band must be at least be one point smaller the available height. If I respect that rule, I don't have that extra blank page any more.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Saludos Amigos (1942) - IMDb
Saludos Amigos (1942) - IMDb
German title: "Drei Caballeros im Sambafieber".
Wikipedia entry.
Looks like you can watch a part of it here at wisevid.
German title: "Drei Caballeros im Sambafieber".
Wikipedia entry.
Looks like you can watch a part of it here at wisevid.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
emacs: table editing, rectangle editing, making simple drawings, picture more, artist mode
Emacs has "info mode" documentation on "Picture Mode".
"CUA Bindings" (cf. "info mode" entry by this name) come with enhanced rectangle support.
The O'Reilly book Learning GNU Emacs has a chapter (7) on Simple Text Edition and Specialized Editing with sections Rectangle Editing (subsection on CUA Rectangle Editing) and Making Simple Drawings (on Picture Mode and Artist Mode). Occasionally I actually use Picture Mode for drawing tables.
You will find info mode documentation on table editing in section Text > Text Base Tables. I also like that very much.
"CUA Bindings" (cf. "info mode" entry by this name) come with enhanced rectangle support.
The O'Reilly book Learning GNU Emacs has a chapter (7) on Simple Text Edition and Specialized Editing with sections Rectangle Editing (subsection on CUA Rectangle Editing) and Making Simple Drawings (on Picture Mode and Artist Mode). Occasionally I actually use Picture Mode for drawing tables.
You will find info mode documentation on table editing in section Text > Text Base Tables. I also like that very much.
the Chromium Browser: the Status Bubble
Status Bubble - The Chromium Projects
The Status Bubble was gone with 11.0.697.0 on the Mac. That's pretty bad. I really like "inspecting" links, before I click them.
Update 2011-03-11:
I just installed "12.0.700.0 (77795)", and the Status Bubble is back again. I am relieved.
The Status Bubble was gone with 11.0.697.0 on the Mac. That's pretty bad. I really like "inspecting" links, before I click them.
Update 2011-03-11:
I just installed "12.0.700.0 (77795)", and the Status Bubble is back again. I am relieved.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
today I needed a stack class in bash
It's certainly not hard to do, but then it takes a while, until it's done properly.
square photos in Google Contacts – create them with the help of ImageMagick's convert -splice
I really start appreciating ImageMagick and the transformations it supports, that I come across.
Google Contacts really prefers square photos, and if your photo does not have a square geometry, you have to crop it to a sub-square. Now that I know, how to insert a rectangle to the photo (with the help of ImageMagick's "convert -splice", GraphicsMagic doesn't support "convert -splice"), I will happily upload square photos from now on.
I was long wondering, how I could achieve this.
Google Contacts really prefers square photos, and if your photo does not have a square geometry, you have to crop it to a sub-square. Now that I know, how to insert a rectangle to the photo (with the help of ImageMagick's "convert -splice", GraphicsMagic doesn't support "convert -splice"), I will happily upload square photos from now on.
I was long wondering, how I could achieve this.
MacPort/DarwinPort and Fink coexisting on my Mac
Both coexist on my Mac, and sometimes installations complain about binaries resp. libraries in an incompatible format.
MacPort/DarwinPort lives in /opt/local, Fink lives in /sw.
In order for fine installations I sometimes have to temporarily rename /opt/local resp. /sw.
After the successful installations I rename them back.
I learned this lesson during the installation of ImageMagick on my Mac.
MacPort/DarwinPort lives in /opt/local, Fink lives in /sw.
In order for fine installations I sometimes have to temporarily rename /opt/local resp. /sw.
After the successful installations I rename them back.
I learned this lesson during the installation of ImageMagick on my Mac.
Linux.com :: ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick?
Linux.com :: ImageMagick (IM) or GraphicsMagick (GM)?
… unless you absolutely without-a-doubt need some new IM option not yet available in GM, the safe bet is to stick to GM's feature set, and write your app to work with either one. …
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
apress.com: The Definitive Guide to ImageMagick : 9781590595909
APRESS.COM : The Definitive Guide to ImageMagick : 9781590595909
This book will most certainly also help you with GraphicsMagick.
This book will most certainly also help you with GraphicsMagick.
book: ImageMagick Tricks
ImageMagick Tricks Book & eBook | Packt Publishing Technical & IT Book Store
This book will most certainly also help you with GraphicsMagick.
This book will most certainly also help you with GraphicsMagick.
how to copy a rectangle region from an image file? ("cropping")
My original source files are PDF files, but I already converted them to PNG using Ghostscript.
I was thinking of ImageMagick …
I came across phatch, I read of it here. It's a GUI, that helps running ImageMagick with certain operations in a batch. It came with a lot of dependencies on other packages. I tried to fullfil some of of them, eventually I gave up. If I very sure, that phatch was the way to go, that dependency hell wouldn't be a dead end. Spending time on getting phatch to run was a dead end for me.
There is a book on ImageMagick at PackPub, there is also one at Apress. I bought both of them as PDFs. That was the key to the success. I found nice examples, and I was able to apply some easy recipe to my task.
$ convert orig.png -crop geometry new.png
There is a fork of ImageMagick called GraphicsMagick. Pretty fast, but you may come across features of ImageMagick, that GraphicsMagick doesn't know.
…
I was thinking of ImageMagick …
I came across phatch, I read of it here. It's a GUI, that helps running ImageMagick with certain operations in a batch. It came with a lot of dependencies on other packages. I tried to fullfil some of of them, eventually I gave up. If I very sure, that phatch was the way to go, that dependency hell wouldn't be a dead end. Spending time on getting phatch to run was a dead end for me.
There is a book on ImageMagick at PackPub, there is also one at Apress. I bought both of them as PDFs. That was the key to the success. I found nice examples, and I was able to apply some easy recipe to my task.
$ convert orig.png -crop geometry new.png
Actually the recommendation says to use "+repage", in order to not confuse certain software:
$ convert orig.png -crop geometry +repage new.png
Without "+repage" the file stores the displacement of the segment wrt. the original image, which comes in quite handy, but … certain software gets confused, eg. when I loaded one such new image into GIMP, GIMP displayed the displacement and presented me rubbish.
…
Monday, March 7, 2011
my call monitor software is going jruby
My FRITZ!Box call monitor is written in ruby-1.9. So far I am running it using MRI-ruby-1.9.
This call monitor is a FRITZ!Box call monitor, it does not monitor the calls on my smartphone yet (which is rather, rather sad). Most of the year (for economical reasons) I should sit in a customer's office quite a little away from my place – receiving calls on my smartphone. So it makes much sense to get my call monitor software to monitor the calls on my smartphone one day (rather sooner than later).
Just recently (with the help of RVM) I delved into the the jruby world, and of course I am trying to run my call monitor software also with "jruby --1.9".
My current problems with "jruby-1.6.0.RC2 --1.9" are with I18N and encodings, so I cannot open my gmail address book with "r:UTF-16LE:UTF-8". My evasive strategy is to let it read a UTF-8 version of it.
The ruby CSV module, that parses my address book using regular expressions, seems to give the runtime system yet unseen tasks.
Maybe I am not too far away from running a slightly adapter version of my call monitor in jruby and therefore on a JVM.
Of course, IronRuby (a .Net ruby implementation) is also an option.
There are not that many different smartphone operating systems, that run JVM-s, so we are mainly talking about Android.
Does Android allow non-core software to (sort of) monitor the incoming and outgoing calls?
Once jruby successfully runs my call monitor, the way is free to go for an Android implementation. I am rather hot for it.
Update 2011-03-07:
After a couple of postings on user@jruby.codehouse.org and especially with the support of Thomas E. Enebo, my software now runs just as well with the very, very latest jruby, that I produced through "rvm install jruby-head".
This call monitor is a FRITZ!Box call monitor, it does not monitor the calls on my smartphone yet (which is rather, rather sad). Most of the year (for economical reasons) I should sit in a customer's office quite a little away from my place – receiving calls on my smartphone. So it makes much sense to get my call monitor software to monitor the calls on my smartphone one day (rather sooner than later).
Just recently (with the help of RVM) I delved into the the jruby world, and of course I am trying to run my call monitor software also with "jruby --1.9".
My current problems with "jruby-1.6.0.RC2 --1.9" are with I18N and encodings, so I cannot open my gmail address book with "r:UTF-16LE:UTF-8". My evasive strategy is to let it read a UTF-8 version of it.
The ruby CSV module, that parses my address book using regular expressions, seems to give the runtime system yet unseen tasks.
Maybe I am not too far away from running a slightly adapter version of my call monitor in jruby and therefore on a JVM.
Of course, IronRuby (a .Net ruby implementation) is also an option.
There are not that many different smartphone operating systems, that run JVM-s, so we are mainly talking about Android.
Does Android allow non-core software to (sort of) monitor the incoming and outgoing calls?
Once jruby successfully runs my call monitor, the way is free to go for an Android implementation. I am rather hot for it.
Update 2011-03-07:
After a couple of postings on user@jruby.codehouse.org and especially with the support of Thomas E. Enebo, my software now runs just as well with the very, very latest jruby, that I produced through "rvm install jruby-head".
Update 2011-03-28:
Now it runs reading the XML Google Contacts, which is more comfortable, as I can download it on the command line.
filling JasperReports forms with a "simple" command line utility
Are you interested in such a utility?
I derived this utility from TextApp, that comes with the JasperReports sample applications.
It uses command line arguments in order to assign values to $P{…} within JRXML resp. .jasper.
The advantage over installing JasperReports as a server: it makes use of JasperReports' libraries, but it's stand-alone and pretty lightweight.
Update 2011-04-20
My next "major" feature enhancement for this utility: Let it make use of XML elements and their attributes resp. "content" instead of command line arguments. That should deal with UTF-8 text much better than command line arguments to be supplied from within shell scripts. Actually the JasperReports toolkit already knows how to work with XML, but my point is to make the usage of XML supplied fields look almost like $P{…}.
(Nota bene: this was written rather in a hurry and may need some rephrasing. Once I will start the implementation, I will certainly do this.)
I derived this utility from TextApp, that comes with the JasperReports sample applications.
It uses command line arguments in order to assign values to $P{…} within JRXML resp. .jasper.
The advantage over installing JasperReports as a server: it makes use of JasperReports' libraries, but it's stand-alone and pretty lightweight.
Update 2011-04-20
My next "major" feature enhancement for this utility: Let it make use of XML elements and their attributes resp. "content" instead of command line arguments. That should deal with UTF-8 text much better than command line arguments to be supplied from within shell scripts. Actually the JasperReports toolkit already knows how to work with XML, but my point is to make the usage of XML supplied fields look almost like $P{…}.
(Nota bene: this was written rather in a hurry and may need some rephrasing. Once I will start the implementation, I will certainly do this.)
"Black Duck Koders" – Koders.com
Open Source Code Search Engine - Black Duck Koders
A colleague of mine pointed me to that website; he had found code to work with the JasperReports Java API there.
A colleague of mine pointed me to that website; he had found code to work with the JasperReports Java API there.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
youtube-dl – updating it from github
youtube-dl
I guess, YouTube and youtube-dl's developer are playing cat and mouse.
The utility already has a command line option to update itself to the last stable release, but today I had to update it to "head". Now it works again, and I am happily downloading a few nice videos for my journey home.
I guess, YouTube and youtube-dl's developer are playing cat and mouse.
The utility already has a command line option to update itself to the last stable release, but today I had to update it to "head". Now it works again, and I am happily downloading a few nice videos for my journey home.
Ruby XML Performance Shootout: Nokogiri vs LibXML vs Hpricot vs REXML
Ruby XML Performance Shootout: Nokogiri vs LibXML vs Hpricot vs REXML
I am really eager to know, what the current state is.
I am really eager to know, what the current state is.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
O'Reilly Media book: XPath and XPointer
XPath and XPointer - O'Reilly Media
Update 2011-03-05:
Update 2011-03-05:
Happily acquired the PDF e-book.
Lots of nice XPath examples … – now: practice, practice, practice!
Update 2011-03-09:
This book is also available online and for free here, on the O'Reilly Commons wiki.
Lots of nice XPath examples … – now: practice, practice, practice!
Update 2011-03-09:
This book is also available online and for free here, on the O'Reilly Commons wiki.
XSLT Cookbook - O'Reilly Media
XSLT Cookbook, Second Edition - O'Reilly Media
Update 2011-03-05:
Happily acquired the PDF e-book.
Lots of nice XPath examples … – now: practice, practice, practice!
Update 2011-03-05:
Happily acquired the PDF e-book.
Lots of nice XPath examples … – now: practice, practice, practice!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
your Google Contacts address book as XML
Today I came across a rather interesting thread on the googlecl-discuss mailing list, it's subject was "Backing up contacts", and it thrilled me instantly. With this command line, you get your address book dumped as completely, as it currently can get:
Yes, the XML misses an enclosing top-level element – but you can add that easily.
I would also love to see the groupMembershipInfo in a rather "accessible" way, but I guess, that will also come sooner or later.
This lists alls groups (and not in XML for currently trivial reasons), but I am not able to relate the groups to the (group) URIs mentioned in the contacts XML:
My FRITZ!Box call monitor software will make use of the XML Google Contacts rather soon. That way I can skip all the current JRuby CSV and m17n problems. Its also more comfortable to download, because I can do that on the command line. And if it's more comfortable, you do it more often. Backing up your address book frequently isn't a bad idea either, right?!
Update 2011-03-28:
Task accomplished for my FRITZ!Box call monitor software, also if executed through jruby-1.6.0.
$ google contacts list --title='' --fields=xmlOf course you must have an up-to-date gdata-python-client and googlecl installation. But you do have that anyway, don't you? I updated mine today.
Yes, the XML misses an enclosing top-level element – but you can add that easily.
I would also love to see the groupMembershipInfo in a rather "accessible" way, but I guess, that will also come sooner or later.
This lists alls groups (and not in XML for currently trivial reasons), but I am not able to relate the groups to the (group) URIs mentioned in the contacts XML:
$ google contacts list-groups --title='' --fields=xml --verbose ".*"…
My FRITZ!Box call monitor software will make use of the XML Google Contacts rather soon. That way I can skip all the current JRuby CSV and m17n problems. Its also more comfortable to download, because I can do that on the command line. And if it's more comfortable, you do it more often. Backing up your address book frequently isn't a bad idea either, right?!
Update 2011-03-28:
Task accomplished for my FRITZ!Box call monitor software, also if executed through jruby-1.6.0.
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