This morning I was pondering the origins of the goose step march
And then Slate clarified the history of this ridiculous piece of militaria. [icbm: dcs]
Chapter seven of the shop manual
"As he stared at her ample bosom, he daydreamed of the dual Stromberg carburettors in his vintage Triumph Spitfire, highly functional yet pleasingly formed, perched prominently on top of the intake manifold, aching for experienced hands, the small knurled caps of the oil dampeners begging to be inspected and adjusted as described in chapter seven of the shop manual" ABC coverage of the bad writing contest from San Jose University. [icbm: home]
Wow, Amazon UK is listing the book
I wonder where they got the cover art from though? I certainly haven't seen cover art from the publisher yet. Then again, the art that's been used is kinda nice. You can find the book listed here. Thanks to Anton for point all of this out in the comments here.
Converting a bunch of TIFF images to a PDF using ImageMagick
I just got this question in email, and thought I should answer it publically to help other people who might be wondering: I used following commands to convert D:\>convert -adjoin scanImage_1.tif -adjoin scanImage_2.tif -adjoin scanImage_3.tif three.pdf This didn't work. And I use D:\ >convert -adjoin scanImage_1.tif -adjoin scanImage_2.tif -adjoin scanImage_3.tif three.tif And convert three.tif three.pdf Did not work. Then I use D:\ >convert three.tif three.pdf Did not work How do I create single pdf file? As far as ImageMagick is concerned, a PDF file is simply a format capable of storing more than one image in a file. TIFF files are another example, as are animations. Therefore, to turn multiple TIFF files into a single PDF, you just need a command line like this: convert scanImage_1.tif scanImage_2.tif scanImage_3.tif three.pdf Too easy. Obligatory advertising: you can find out more about this in chapter three of my upcoming ImageMagick book, which is slated to be released around Christmas.
ImageMagick book – Chapter 1: Installation and Configuration
I want to talk about the chapter I'm currently writing, but in order to do that in a way which makes sense, I really need to mention the chapters which are already written. Well, it makes sense to me at least, and this is my site, so I guess I get to do that if I want. Chapter 1 of the book covers installation and configuration of ImageMagick on a variety of platforms including various Linux distributions, FreeBSD, and Windows. I didn't cover MacOS, as I figured that most people who care will know how to use Fink, and I don't have access to a Macintosh to write anything on. I'll write a summary of the other chapters I've already finished writing soon.
The architecture of PerlMagick
Steven comments on the slowness of PerlMagick in the EXIF tag extraction case. I'm pretty sure that it's not forking a process though -- ImageMagick is now a set of libraries which are wrapped to make the command line utilities we all know and love, as well as PerlMagick. So, I don't think a fork is involved. I think what is happening here is that ImageMagick is suffering from it's own generic (and therefore very powerful nature). In return for being able to do heaps of things with heaps of image formats, you get a block of code which simply as efficient as possible in all cases. I haven't done a code audit to determine if this is the case in this specific incident however. So, I think PerlMagick is innocent here. [tags: perlmagick image jpeg exif perl cgi]
ImageMagick slowness extracting EXIF information from JPEG files
For the book I've been working on a PerlMagick example which takes a directory of images, lets you rotate and label the images, and the publish them to a list of different possible publication directories. It's basically an automation of what I've done with the image publication for this site for some time, but also deuglificated. It also does some nice stuff like display relevant EXIF information for the JPEG files in the HTML pages that it generates, which will be nicer than the igal stuff I currently use. Yes, I am aware that gallery does a lot of this now, but I need an example for the book, and this gives me a chance to write up exactly what I do now in a nicer form, and make it well documented so that people have a basis for something to hack on in the future. One of the things that the script does if it hasn't been told how to rotate an image, it tries to guess by looking at the EXIF tags for the images. This presents a problem with the beta version of the code, which I am testing with the photos I took from Andrew's wedding.…
Using an Intel PCI modem as a FXO card
Some of the Linux Aus mob have been interested in FXO cards recently. Perhaps they're interested in using an Intel PCI modem as one? [tags: asterisk voip fxo intel modem pci] [icbm: home]
A book on ImageMagick?
I've been sitting on this for a little while, and a couple of people I've met in the flesh have heard about it, but I think the time is right to start talking about it more in public. A little while ago Apress asked me if I would be interested in writing a book on ImageMagick, presumably based on my having written two articles on ImageMagick for IBM DeveloperWorks. You can find those articles here and here. The book is a complete re-implementation of that content, despite my contract with IBM allowing for reuse, because that basically has to be done to make the book coherent and flow. Anyway, the contract has now been signed by myself and Gary Cornell (recent interview). The first three chapters have been written and are currently undergoing review. I have a table of contents and a schedule, so I know what else I'm going to cover. Why Apress? Well, apart from the fact that they approached me, which is flattering, they're also a pretty awesome technical publisher. They're the publisher of Nick Weinholt's .NET books, Joel Spolsky's software development books, and heaps of other stuff. Checkout they're site for more information. I've got a…
Google maps used to map US casualties from Iraq
A map which shows US casualties by home town. That's a lot of people, and it's a lot less than the Iraqis have lost. I have a lot of sympathy for America, and for the people of Iraq I guess to. What is this whole conflict improving? [tags: iraq war] [icbm: name="Hotel Avante, Mountain View, California, USA", lat=37.23 long=-122.05]