Fast Stone Image Viewer (portable) in Hardy

One of the most wonderful image viewers is Fast Stone Image Viewer,
one of the few programs I really missed in Ubuntu. But I just discovered the portable version works great under Wine!!
And as I 'm not a purist (sorry)...

FastStone Image Viewer is another great app from FastStone which is one of the best image viewers in my opinion. This little free application which also comes in portable version is a user-friendly image browser, converter and editor, all in just 3,9 mb.

FastStone Image viewer has all the features you will need, like image modification tools: Resize/resample, rotate/flip, crop, sharpen/blur, brightness/contrast, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping, drop shadow, framing, bump map, lens, morph, waves, color adjustments and digital camera support but what i like the most is the built-in batch processing (you can rename or convert multiple images in the same time).

Unfortunately, FastStone Image Viewer comes only in a Windows version, but if you really want to use it on Linux, the portable version (downloadlink) works great through Wine.
source: http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009/03/best-lightweight-portable-image-viewer.html

Batch convert svg to png

I just opened gnome-terminal and searched:
Code:

$ apt-cache search svg.*png
inkscape - vector-based drawing program
librsvg2-bin - command-line and graphical viewers for SVG files
scribus - Open Source Desktop Page Layout
...

my eye caught librsvg2-bin
Code:

$ apt-cache show librsvg2-bin
...
Description: command-line and graphical viewers for SVG files
The rsvg library is an efficient renderer for Scalable Vector Graphics
(SVG) pictures.
.
This package includes a command-line utility to convert the SVG files
to the PNG format and a graphical SVG viewer.

afterwards, i checked out the package to see the command for it:
Code:

$ sudo apt-get install librsvg2-bin
...

$ dpkg -L librsvg2-bin
...
/usr/bin/rsvg-convert
/usr/bin/rsvg-view
/usr/bin/rsvg
...

Cool, now we know the commands included
Code:

$ rsvg-convert --help
Usage:
rsvg-convert [OPTION...] [FILE...] - SVG Converter
Help Options:
-?, --help Show help options
Application Options:
-d, --dpi-x= pixels per inch [optional; defaults to 90dpi]
-p, --dpi-y= pixels per inch [optional; defaults to 90dpi]
-x, --x-zoom= x zoom factor [optional; defaults to 1.0]
-y, --y-zoom= y zoom factor [optional; defaults to 1.0]
-z, --zoom= zoom factor [optional; defaults to 1.0]
-w, --width= width [optional; defaults to the SVG's width]
-h, --height= height [optional; defaults to the SVG's height]
-f, --format=[png, pdf, ps, svg] save format [optional; defaults to 'png']
-o, --output output filename [optional; defaults to stdout]
-a, --keep-aspect-ratio whether to preserve the aspect ratio [optional; defaults to FALSE]
-v, --version show version information
-b, --base-uri base uri

With some bash scripting you have a script:
Code:

$ cd your-directory-with-the-svgs/
$ for i in *; do rsvg-convert $i -o `echo $i | sed -e 's/svg$/png/'`; done

cheers!

P.S. you can do a similar conversion using inkscape's command line:
Code:

$ cd your-directory-with-the-svgs/
$ for i in *; do inkscape $i --export-png=`echo $i | sed -e 's/svg$/png/'`; done

source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=820965

Slimrat Rapidshare downloader

Jdownloader in itself is a fantastic app, but updated in such a frenzy it's regularly not usable. An altermative is slimrat for RS Free
See http://code.google.com/p/slimrat/

Installation:

* install perl modules:
o Debian/Ubuntu:

aptitude install libwww-mechanize-perl
aptitude install libgtk2-gladexml-perl xclip libspiffy-perl # for GUI

# Download the archive and unpack it somewhere (svn code may not work)
# Make symlinks in $PATH

ln -s /path/to/slimrat/slimrat /usr/local/bin/slimrat
ln -s /path/to/slimrat/slimrat-gui /usr/local/bin/slimrat-gui

# edit config file and select your terminal emulator
# Run slimrat --help (CLI)
# Run slimrat-gui (GUI)

The nice thing about this app it uses very little resources and provides a simple but effective gui for easy use.
Supported servers:

* rapidshare.com Free
* youtube.com
Not: * depositfiles.com
* mediafire.com

Patch for if you have problems with version 0.9.5.4: place a new rapidshar.pm in the plugin folder: http://slimrat.googlecode.com/issues/attachment?aid=-7662856610013720233&name=Rapidshare.pm
(right click and save as).

Java version HJSplit

http://www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/#java

HJSplit GUI
for Java

A Java implementation of HJSplit with a graphical user-interface (gui) similar to the Windows version. Runs on any platform which has a Java virtual machine installed, which can be: Windows, Linux, Mac, Solaris, etc.
Download: hjsplit_g.jar (137 Kb)
Created by: H�kan Gustavsson

Solving problems with JDownloader

J Downloader wouldn't start up. After trying all kind of solutions I found this one: enter the following in a terminal:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

This happened then:

sudo update-alternatives --config java
[sudo] password for paul:

There are 3 alternatives which provide `java'.

Selection Alternative
-----------------------------------------------
1 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java
2 /usr/bin/gij-4.2
*+ 3 /usr/lib/jvm/java-gcj/jre/bin/java

Press enter to keep the default[*], or type selection number: 1
Using '/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java' to provide 'java'.

I selcted th right java engine and it workend fine again.



/////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\


Using an older version of JDownloader:

"Here is my installation guide:


(1) disable internet access (for example, click the Stop button on your firewall, or open your Network Connections window and disable your internet connection there)--this prevents jDownloader from downloading anything at all from the updateserver when it starts for the first time;

(2) unzip the version 0.4.xxx zip file into an empty directory;

(3) start jDownloader, go to the Configuration tab and select Advanced Configuration, then on the Main tab make sure that "Update only at user request" is checked;

(4) configure any other options that you might wish to change;

(5) exit and restart;

(6) re-enable internet access;

I used this version:
I've rolled back to version 0.4.594. This appears to have fixed the freezes. There are some download links to this version on the following webpage:

http://www.dl4all.net/applications/12379-jdownloader-0-4-594-multilang.html

Convert the OTF fonts to Postscript Type one (.pfb)

The conversion is lossless as the hinting remain, however you can't do this reliably for large fonts (with more than 256 characters or glyphs). Here is a sample script allowing to convert OpenType fonts to postscript Type One fonts, you will end up with a .afm and a .pfb file :

#!/usr/bin/fontforge
# Quick and dirty hack: converts a font to Postscript Type one (.pfb)
i=1

while ( i<$argc )
Print("Opening : " +$argv[i]);
if($argv[i]:e != "otf")
Print( "Skipping ... Expecting an OpenType font [.otf]" )
else
Open($argv[i])
Print("Saving : " +$argv[i]:r+".pfb");
# If the font is a cid keyed font, you may want to flatten the cid map
# To do this, uncomment the command below :
# CIDFlatten()
SetFontOrder(3)
SelectAll()
Simplify(128+32+8,1.5)
ScaleToEm(1000)
DontAutoHint()
Generate($argv[i]:r + ".pfb")
endif
i = i+1
endloop

Save this script as otf2pfb.sh and set the executable bit ( chmod +x otf2pfb.sh ). To launch this script, just do : ./otf2pfb.sh *.otf
or make otf2pfb

#!/bin/bash
for i in $@; do
fontforge -script /usr/bin/otf2pfb.sh $i
done

and make this executable
and go in terminal to font folder and type:

otf2pfb fontname.otf

For all fiels in a folder do:

otf2pfb *.otf otf

Now the only thing remaining to do is installing the Type1 fonts in the system. For this Mandriva users can use drakfont, others can use type1inst after having copyed the files in /usr/share/fonts/Type1/.

http://linux-wizard.net/index.php?id_blog=142

Install OpenOffice 3.0 in Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10

OpenOffice 3.0 adds updated ODF format support, Microsoft Office XML format support (reading only), usability improvements, a new start center, improved annotations in Writer, and improved PDF support.

OpenOffice 3.0 on Ubuntu 8.04

You can replace Ubuntu 8.04’s now outdated version of OpenOffice, or keep both versions installed at the same time. It’s not clear whether OpenOffice 3.0 will be available in Ubuntu 8.10, so I’ve tested these instructions with it as well.

1. Visit the download page, and select the Linux DEB download. The download should be about 150 MB. Extract the tar.gz archive.
2. OpenOffice is very complex software, and consists 47 packages. The easiest way to install them all is using the terminal. Use dpkg to install all of the packages in the DEBS subdirectory (command is one line, you will be prompted for your password):
sudo dpkg -i ~/Desktop/OOO300_m9_native_packed-1_en-US.9358/DEBS/*.deb
3. If you’re happy with OpenOffice 3.0, you can optionally remove the older Ubuntu-provided version. Note that removing the old OpenOffice will also remove the ubuntu-desktop metapackage, so don’t do this if you want to be able to upgrade Ubuntu to a new major version.

sudo apt-get remove openoffice.org openoffice.org-base openoffice.org-base-core openoffice.org-calc openoffice.org-common openoffice.org-core openoffice.org-draw openoffice.org-evolution openoffice.org-filter-mobiledev openoffice.org-gnome openoffice.org-gtk openoffice.org-help-en-us openoffice.org-impress openoffice.org-java-common openoffice.org-l10n-common openoffice.org-l10n-en-gb openoffice.org-l10n-en-za openoffice.org-math openoffice.org-style-human openoffice.org-writer

4. Once the old version of OpenOffice has been removed, you will be able to install the package that provides menu items for OpenOffice 3.0:

sudo dpkg -i ~/Desktop/OOO300_m9_native_packed-1_en-US.9358/DEBS/desktop-integration/openoffice.org3.0-debian-menus_3.0-9354_all.deb

[update] If you chose to keep the old version of OpenOffice installed, you’ll have to create your own menu items. Use this command to run OpenOffice 3:
/opt/openoffice.org3/program/soffice
5. One last step is to associate the document formats to open with OpenOffice 3.0. To do this, right-click on a document file and select Open With->Open With Other Application. Then select the appropriate OpenOffice component for that file.

If you want to remove OpenOffice 3.0, here the huge command to do so:
sudo apt-get remove ooobasis3.0-base ooobasis3.0-binfilter ooobasis3.0-calc ooobasis3.0-core01 ooobasis3.0-core02 ooobasis3.0-core03 ooobasis3.0-core04 ooobasis3.0-core05 ooobasis3.0-core06 ooobasis3.0-core07 ooobasis3.0-draw ooobasis3.0-en-us ooobasis3.0-en-us-base ooobasis3.0-en-us-binfilter ooobasis3.0-en-us-calc ooobasis3.0-en-us-draw ooobasis3.0-en-us-help ooobasis3.0-en-us-impress ooobasis3.0-en-us-math ooobasis3.0-en-us-res ooobasis3.0-en-us-writer ooobasis3.0-gnome-integration ooobasis3.0-graphicfilter ooobasis3.0-images ooobasis3.0-impress ooobasis3.0-javafilter ooobasis3.0-kde-integration ooobasis3.0-math ooobasis3.0-onlineupdate ooobasis3.0-ooofonts ooobasis3.0-ooolinguistic ooobasis3.0-pyuno ooobasis3.0-testtool ooobasis3.0-writer ooobasis3.0-xsltfilter openoffice.org3 openoffice.org3-base openoffice.org3-calc openoffice.org3-dict-en openoffice.org3-dict-es openoffice.org3-dict-fr openoffice.org3-draw openoffice.org3-en-us openoffice.org3-impress openoffice.org3-math openoffice.org3-writer openoffice.org-ure