Today I just finished my client software to design a t-shirt and the likes. Not sure why she don't just buy legal but cheaper general-purpose graphics software rather than hiring me. Anyway I'm back on pygoocanvas to deal with this basically compositing image software, previously I ever tempted to make usable 2D CAD software that way beyond my ability that time.
Pygoocanvas is really a time safer library should you ever make graphics application based on Python and GTK. With basic animation support (not as robust as clutter though) I can imaged a presentation software would benefit from it. And cairo canvas also make PDF generation a snap. Really like this library!
20 November 2010
15 November 2010
Django-1.2.3 Docs in CHM
Meet Django
Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.
Developed four years ago by a fast-moving online-news operation, Django was designed to handle two challenges: the intensive deadlines of a newsroom and the stringent requirements of the experienced Web developers who wrote it. It lets you build high-performing, elegant Web applications quickly.
Django focuses on automating as much as possible and adhering to the DRY principle.
They will prepared for version 1.3, right now 1.2.3 is the last stable version. Ning in this site has made a bookmarked and clean chm version (download). Great for windows user!
I decided to made it myself it's plain easy actually: "make htmlhelp" and let Html Help Workshop do the rest!
For Django 1.3:
Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.
Developed four years ago by a fast-moving online-news operation, Django was designed to handle two challenges: the intensive deadlines of a newsroom and the stringent requirements of the experienced Web developers who wrote it. It lets you build high-performing, elegant Web applications quickly.
Django focuses on automating as much as possible and adhering to the DRY principle.
I decided to made it myself it's plain easy actually: "make htmlhelp" and let Html Help Workshop do the rest!
For Django 1.3:
12 November 2010
Two monster that beat 7-zip
This is just a remark for my experience way back 5 years ago. That time I just barely heard about 7-zip and found a monster called WinRK (still in version 2.16). I conduct a benchmark (just a little) to my amusement today.
The test file is unfortunately just one: emule.exe (damn that WinRK is too slow for my processor). Here is:
emule 0.50 : 5.49MB
WinRK : 1.25MB
Uharc : 1.65MB
7-zip : 1.68MB
WinRAR : 1.79MB
All set at best (slowest) setting, WinRK did insane deep analysis for an exe file and took 6 min. to complete! (not multi-threaded) while game warez cracker's de-facto choice UHARC is the one that better with a little time overhead. I choose Emule because it is already a composite file, have few megabytes of unicode text, dozens bitmap images and the binary itself. Zip and BZip2 result is more than 2MB.
Analysis did take important part of compressing especially in solid mode. While 7-zip and others separate executable from data file by file extension (not by actual content) then sorted based on similarity (again only by filename) this often lead to inefficiency (in compression not time) due to mis-detection unless you came up with your own filelist. WinRK took this seriously, maybe their compression method isn't much better than LZMA (7zip) but their analysis did! It has some passes where it will chop most file into more edible chunks before compressing like no others. Imagine if I had to compress the whole Gimp with WinRK! probably will take the whole night :)) on my E2160.
If you are someone with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder try WinRK! maybe version 3 have multithreaded support? (note: it's not free)
The test file is unfortunately just one: emule.exe (damn that WinRK is too slow for my processor). Here is:
emule 0.50 : 5.49MB
WinRK : 1.25MB
Uharc : 1.65MB
7-zip : 1.68MB
WinRAR : 1.79MB
All set at best (slowest) setting, WinRK did insane deep analysis for an exe file and took 6 min. to complete! (not multi-threaded) while game warez cracker's de-facto choice UHARC is the one that better with a little time overhead. I choose Emule because it is already a composite file, have few megabytes of unicode text, dozens bitmap images and the binary itself. Zip and BZip2 result is more than 2MB.
Analysis did take important part of compressing especially in solid mode. While 7-zip and others separate executable from data file by file extension (not by actual content) then sorted based on similarity (again only by filename) this often lead to inefficiency (in compression not time) due to mis-detection unless you came up with your own filelist. WinRK took this seriously, maybe their compression method isn't much better than LZMA (7zip) but their analysis did! It has some passes where it will chop most file into more edible chunks before compressing like no others. Imagine if I had to compress the whole Gimp with WinRK! probably will take the whole night :)) on my E2160.
If you are someone with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder try WinRK! maybe version 3 have multithreaded support? (note: it's not free)
11 November 2010
Portable GTK theme selector
I modify the old gtk2_prefs.exe (GTK theme selector) to only able to modify host application's gtk (a.k.a per apps setting), for example if you put this on inkscape installation you can only modify theme for inkscape and wont affect other (e.g Gimp). This is great for portable apps? or admin user who have privilege over %programfiles%.
The original version defaulted to current user setting which effectively render all GTK based apps you're installed to obey it. If you already apply this setting you must delete %USERPROFILE%\.gtkrc-2.0 (note: this is a file not folder).
gtk2_prefs.exe (place this along side main executable e.g gimp.exe, inkscape.exe, mypaint.exe)
Refer to this post to add some themes
Enjoy
The original version defaulted to current user setting which effectively render all GTK based apps you're installed to obey it. If you already apply this setting you must delete %USERPROFILE%\.gtkrc-2.0 (note: this is a file not folder).
gtk2_prefs.exe (place this along side main executable e.g gimp.exe, inkscape.exe, mypaint.exe)
Refer to this post to add some themes
Enjoy
New PyGTK for MyPaint?
I've been playing PyGTK 2.22 for a while now, and I think it could make its way into next MyPaint, no more major bugs (of user interface) as far as I know and windows theme bugfixes already there. Finally a real successor of 2.16.x version after skipping 2.18 and 2.20
I'd like to see PyGTK team build this version with Numpy support though, but if not I will uploaded it here. Still waiting official binary...
edit:
Ah and the answer is absolutely NO, it turn out that pressure sensitive tablet has problem
edit:
gtk.Recentdocument assertion failed... my my I'm a bad tester am I? Folks of linux said it has something to do with specific Icon Theme! Well gtk win32 doesn't even have such! what should I do then? :)
I'd like to see PyGTK team build this version with Numpy support though, but if not I will uploaded it here. Still waiting official binary...
edit:
Ah and the answer is absolutely NO, it turn out that pressure sensitive tablet has problem
edit:
gtk.Recentdocument assertion failed... my my I'm a bad tester am I? Folks of linux said it has something to do with specific Icon Theme! Well gtk win32 doesn't even have such! what should I do then? :)
26 October 2010
IBM Lotus Symphony 3 Released
Get it here also available for Mac and Linux
Additional spell check dicts here
Review will come later.. but from changelog, IBM seems didn't do their homework to speedup their most undergone OpenOffice variant, one thing for sure they are more OOO 3.x compliant and that's how version 3 jumped from 1.3. Do we go for LibreOffice?
Hmm.. so far this version is more responsive than 1.3 but startup still slower than any OpenOffice 3.2 notably Novell's and still only offer the basic trio of OpenOffice. Strangely if you quit Symphony it left soffice.bin process hang in there, maybe for startup caching purpose?
I will keep this as the sleekest OpenOffice for my hackintosh.
Additional spell check dicts here
Review will come later.. but from changelog, IBM seems didn't do their homework to speedup their most undergone OpenOffice variant, one thing for sure they are more OOO 3.x compliant and that's how version 3 jumped from 1.3. Do we go for LibreOffice?
Hmm.. so far this version is more responsive than 1.3 but startup still slower than any OpenOffice 3.2 notably Novell's and still only offer the basic trio of OpenOffice. Strangely if you quit Symphony it left soffice.bin process hang in there, maybe for startup caching purpose?
I will keep this as the sleekest OpenOffice for my hackintosh.
MiniTools for XP
I made a complimentary package for PimpShell (yes, this is for XP only) containing very useful selection of freeware that less than 1Mb each.
M$/Sysinternals Regmon and Filemon, a good educational tool (newer replacement is much slower)
M$ CalcPlus
M$ Tweak UI
Powerquest Partition Table Tool (also available here)
PowerOff, automate power off (homepage)
ResHack, the old still popular executable's resource tool (homepage)
ProcessHacker (OSS), why? Process Explorer is overkill
Regshot (OSS), monitor what happened to your Windows before and after an event.
Greenshot (OSS), the best screenshot tool whether commercial or not! (need dotNET)
Name Generator, generate random username (homepage)
Notepad2 (OSS), this is what notepad should be
Mike Lin's StartUp CPL, there are something more out there but this one much smaller (homepage)
GrepWin (OSS), Search files and content with RegEx power
Showin, the old tool to show window handler of application
Angry IP Scanner 1.9 (OSS) (newer version is Java based)
Warning: Partition Table Tools is not for casual user, don't mess around unless you know MBR concept
No need admin right to install, but you'll need it when running most of them
To uninstall go to Add/Remove Programs
MiniToolsXP_Silent.exe (2Mb) Enjoy!
M$/Sysinternals Regmon and Filemon, a good educational tool (newer replacement is much slower)
M$ CalcPlus
M$ Tweak UI
Powerquest Partition Table Tool (also available here)
PowerOff, automate power off (homepage)
ResHack, the old still popular executable's resource tool (homepage)
ProcessHacker (OSS), why? Process Explorer is overkill
Regshot (OSS), monitor what happened to your Windows before and after an event.
Greenshot (OSS), the best screenshot tool whether commercial or not! (need dotNET)
Name Generator, generate random username (homepage)
Notepad2 (OSS), this is what notepad should be
Mike Lin's StartUp CPL, there are something more out there but this one much smaller (homepage)
GrepWin (OSS), Search files and content with RegEx power
Showin, the old tool to show window handler of application
Angry IP Scanner 1.9 (OSS) (newer version is Java based)
Warning: Partition Table Tools is not for casual user, don't mess around unless you know MBR concept
No need admin right to install, but you'll need it when running most of them
To uninstall go to Add/Remove Programs
MiniToolsXP_Silent.exe (2Mb) Enjoy!
Week of mess
And who couldn't agree that virus is Windows' biggest disadvantage. While my RAID ruins, I try to backup everything then after. When I reinstalled Windows XP and setup SteadyState, I didn't knew if a virus (viking) lurking on my frozen OS is awaited for a break and when I slept (yeah) it infect all (almost) 32-bit executables. The benefit of MSI installer shown in this case.
In the morning at 4:00 AM I generally check my leeching session and I found a corruption of one of exe file. Well of course it's far too late! Tried to trace the originating infection later and it's came from a warez keygen that I downloaded a while ago. Reinstalling and redownload (some) again.. a whole week of PITA. I finally give up and decide to setup a free antivirus until I get better solution, now my PC is as slow as hell!
My hackintosh also can't wait. With my recent comeback to warez world (since the release of AutoCAD for Mac) I need to finish the VoodooHDA problem and yesterday I got it works. I think the urge to move platform is bigger now and while it's fun combating virus (the new one especially) I can't stand a breach like this. Now my hackintosh is ready to kick, everything work as good as Windows in hardware and software terms. Oh why into warez? hmm I don't know but don't worry I still seeing the future is OSS but as a cross-platform solution.
I might give a try to make MyPaint as Python App dmg there, though I still noob to Xcode toolchains.
BTW If you have a spec similar to me, just shout I'll give my patched driver
Mobo: Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD
CPU: Intel E2160 @ 2.9Ghz
Chipset: ATI X1250 (not working) and AMD SB600
SATA/PATA: Both IDE or AHCI mode works but not the "fake" RAID
Soundcard: "properly" known as HDA ATI SB work with VoodooHDA but not with AppleHDA
Radeon 4650: tested VGA interface only, but DVI should even easier to work. Full QE/CI yeah!
LAN/NIC: Works but need a patch for FlexLM to work
Modem: CDMA VT-12 USB. I experienced occasional Dc, still investigating whether it's a driver issue
Camera: Logitech E3500. works out of box (UVD mode)
Printer: Canon Pixma i1700
Tablet: Genius 800x600
Distro: iAtkos S3 updated to OSX 10.6.4
In the morning at 4:00 AM I generally check my leeching session and I found a corruption of one of exe file. Well of course it's far too late! Tried to trace the originating infection later and it's came from a warez keygen that I downloaded a while ago. Reinstalling and redownload (some) again.. a whole week of PITA. I finally give up and decide to setup a free antivirus until I get better solution, now my PC is as slow as hell!
My hackintosh also can't wait. With my recent comeback to warez world (since the release of AutoCAD for Mac) I need to finish the VoodooHDA problem and yesterday I got it works. I think the urge to move platform is bigger now and while it's fun combating virus (the new one especially) I can't stand a breach like this. Now my hackintosh is ready to kick, everything work as good as Windows in hardware and software terms. Oh why into warez? hmm I don't know but don't worry I still seeing the future is OSS but as a cross-platform solution.
I might give a try to make MyPaint as Python App dmg there, though I still noob to Xcode toolchains.
BTW If you have a spec similar to me, just shout I'll give my patched driver
Mobo: Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD
CPU: Intel E2160 @ 2.9Ghz
Chipset: ATI X1250 (not working) and AMD SB600
SATA/PATA: Both IDE or AHCI mode works but not the "fake" RAID
Soundcard: "properly" known as HDA ATI SB work with VoodooHDA but not with AppleHDA
Radeon 4650: tested VGA interface only, but DVI should even easier to work. Full QE/CI yeah!
LAN/NIC: Works but need a patch for FlexLM to work
Modem: CDMA VT-12 USB. I experienced occasional Dc, still investigating whether it's a driver issue
Camera: Logitech E3500. works out of box (UVD mode)
Printer: Canon Pixma i1700
Tablet: Genius 800x600
Distro: iAtkos S3 updated to OSX 10.6.4
17 October 2010
This FAQ really funny
http://pages.prodigy.net/daleharris/5_00.htm
It tells all about $5 LOL and I don't believe if that was really a FAQ, I found it when try to find the usefulness of DOS in modern day. Well, sometimes you just can say "it works for me!" and skip the whole evolution.
In many case DOS still much well reserved than the newly revived eComStation (OS/2) like BIOS updating, low level format tool, emergency tool (in LiveCD form) and tons of artistic pixelated games. Hmm I might can skip until Windows 7's EOL... XP for another decade?
It tells all about $5 LOL and I don't believe if that was really a FAQ, I found it when try to find the usefulness of DOS in modern day. Well, sometimes you just can say "it works for me!" and skip the whole evolution.
In many case DOS still much well reserved than the newly revived eComStation (OS/2) like BIOS updating, low level format tool, emergency tool (in LiveCD form) and tons of artistic pixelated games. Hmm I might can skip until Windows 7's EOL... XP for another decade?
14 October 2010
Going with hackintosh
My experiences with quad boot OSes before my RAID broken
PCBSD 7.1.1 In short I will choose being forced to use CLI (among four main BSD variant) all the time rather than using GUI desktop there. All BSD derivative is IMO still a specialty OS (Server, Router, Firewall etc) that works its best when you glued with CLI otherwise it's no match for Linux and that obviously above my head.
Ubuntu Studio 10.04 While KDE is more intuitive than Gnome, Ubuntu is so responsive. I could spent all time on it while not doing CAD jobs. Pre-emptive kernel, AMD Catalyst driver and Synaptic play important role in my experience. A decent workstation OS indeed!
Windows 7 The more time spent there I realise 7 give some valuable benefit over XP, but I will give score 5 out of 10 for compatibility and 3 for privacy. Sure I still want to play some games there.
Mac OS X 10.6.3 I like it more! When I get Quartz Extreme enabled everything changed dramatically, and once I get VoodooHDA works this will become a real deal. I also impressed by HFS+ performance (handling so much files more efficiently and faster) over NTFS. One problem, OSX's dual personality. Its console and plist editing is a hardcore feature while GUI layer offer too simplistic noob experience thus the lack of in-between tools can be frustating (for me).
Prediction: With more increasing port of industrial-strength apps (like AutoCAD, Smoke) and the flourishing hackintosh community, OSX is on the way to slaughter Windows ahead of Linux. The big problem? Apple is a platform company just like Sun with Solaris+SPARC (though Sun is dead and Solaris had been offically ported to PC) which bring tendency to a more greedy monopolist than Microsoft. While OSX virtually runs on PC hardware, Apple strictly maintain the Macintosh term consistently and how hackintosh community keep their pace also remain to be seen. The goodness? OSX's high tide popularity may also brought Linux within and when thing does get worse (monopoly etc.) Linux is there to takeover.
PCBSD 7.1.1 In short I will choose being forced to use CLI (among four main BSD variant) all the time rather than using GUI desktop there. All BSD derivative is IMO still a specialty OS (Server, Router, Firewall etc) that works its best when you glued with CLI otherwise it's no match for Linux and that obviously above my head.
Ubuntu Studio 10.04 While KDE is more intuitive than Gnome, Ubuntu is so responsive. I could spent all time on it while not doing CAD jobs. Pre-emptive kernel, AMD Catalyst driver and Synaptic play important role in my experience. A decent workstation OS indeed!
Windows 7 The more time spent there I realise 7 give some valuable benefit over XP, but I will give score 5 out of 10 for compatibility and 3 for privacy. Sure I still want to play some games there.
Mac OS X 10.6.3 I like it more! When I get Quartz Extreme enabled everything changed dramatically, and once I get VoodooHDA works this will become a real deal. I also impressed by HFS+ performance (handling so much files more efficiently and faster) over NTFS. One problem, OSX's dual personality. Its console and plist editing is a hardcore feature while GUI layer offer too simplistic noob experience thus the lack of in-between tools can be frustating (for me).
Prediction: With more increasing port of industrial-strength apps (like AutoCAD, Smoke) and the flourishing hackintosh community, OSX is on the way to slaughter Windows ahead of Linux. The big problem? Apple is a platform company just like Sun with Solaris+SPARC (though Sun is dead and Solaris had been offically ported to PC) which bring tendency to a more greedy monopolist than Microsoft. While OSX virtually runs on PC hardware, Apple strictly maintain the Macintosh term consistently and how hackintosh community keep their pace also remain to be seen. The goodness? OSX's high tide popularity may also brought Linux within and when thing does get worse (monopoly etc.) Linux is there to takeover.
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