VT’s Tech Blog

flauntR

Here’s an online service which allows you to edit and style your photos online. flauntR currently provides two services - photoeditR and photostylR. Both services allow provides an interface to upload images from the desktop as well as pull images from flickr though the flickr API.

photoeditR is a basic photo editing service which allows you to perform basic actions and effects on your photos. You can resize, rotate, colorize, remove red-eye and spruce up your photos here. If you’re looking for more advanced features, you’ll have to use the photostylR service which provides much more to spice up your pictures. There are predefined effects here which you can apply to your pics. Effects include digital scrapbooking style ‘compositions’, textures, light effects, overlays and colorations.

Once you finish editing your pics you can save them on flauntR in an album, download them to your system or directly send them to flickr.

Link: www.flauntr.com

Here’s something I cooked up in flauntr in a few minutes:

Posted in Sites | 2 Comments »

Breakdown of Modern Web Design

An old one but I just came across today:

I couldn’t find the original link over at poisonedminds.com

Posted in General Stuff | No Comments »

Connecting to a Windows PC from Ubuntu

If you’re looking for a way to connect to a Windows Machine from Ubuntu using RDP(Remote Desktop Protocol), you can use the Terminal server client - tsclient. To install this in Ubuntu, type in the following in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install tsclient

Once this is installed you can start it by invoking tsclient in the terminal or the Run Applications window (Alt-F2).

Posted in Linux | 1 Comment »

OpenOffice.org 2.3.0 Install for Ubuntu

OpenOffice has released the latest version of their Office Suite. Here’s how to Install OpenOffice 2.3.0 on Ubuntu.

Deb Installer:

If you’re looking installing from the deb package, here are the instructions once you download the deb file from this link:

sudo apt-get remove openoffice*
tar xzvf OOo_2.3.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz
cd OOo_2.3.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz
cd DEBS/
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
cd desktop-integration/
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org-2.3/programs/soffice /usr/local/bin


RPM Installation in Ubuntu

If you’ve already downloaded the RPM version and don’t want to bother re-downloading the deb package, here’s what you do:

Once you’ve got the package downloaded, run the following commands in your terminal :
sudo apt-get install alien
sudo apt-get remove openoffice*
tar xzvf OOo_2.3.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US.tar.gz
cd OOG680_m5_native_packed-1_en-US.9221/
cd RPMS/
sudo alien --scripts --keep-version *.rpm
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
cd desktop-integration/
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
sudo ln -s /opt/openoffice.org-2.3/programs/soffice /usr/local/bin

via: OpenOffice.org 2.3.0 Available Now - Ubuntu Forums

Posted in Linux | 9 Comments »

Really Simple History - History for Ajax

If you’re working on Ajax based websites, you’ll always face usability problems when users click on the Back or Forward buttons on the broswer. Using Really Simple History (RSH) allows you over come this issue.

The Really Simple History (RSH) framework makes it easy for AJAX applications to incorporate bookmarking and back and button support. By default, AJAX systems are not bookmarkable, nor can they recover from the user pressing the browser’s back and forward buttons. The RSH library makes it possible to handle both cases.

In addition, RSH provides a framework to cache transient session information that persists after a user leaves the web page. This cache is used by the RSH framework to help with history issues, but can also be used by your own applications to improve application performance. The cache is linked to a single instance of the web page, and will disappear when the user closes their browser or clear their browser’s cache.

RSH works on Internet Explorer 6+ and Gecko-based browsers, like Firefox. Safari is not supported.

Link: Really Simple History
Demo Link: testDhtmlHistory.html (try using the browser back button after you get to this demo)

Posted in Ajax | No Comments »

Zend_Pdf tutorial

Another tutorial on the Zend framework  showing how you can manipluate PDFs using Zend_PD. This tutorial shows you how to create a new PDF document, add text, images and create shapes.

“The Zend_Pdf component of the Zend Framework is intended to allow you to create or manipulate PDF documents from within your applications. In addition to its text handling capabilities, it comes complete with drawing features that allow you to create or manipulate graphical primitives. When working with text Zend_Pdf gives you the option of using the built-in fonts or custom TrueType fonts. Its page manipulation capabilities allow you to create new pages, remove existing pages or change the order of pages already in the document. In this tutorial my goal is to give you an overview of the capabilities of Zend_Pdf.”

Link: Zend_Pdf tutorial

Posted in PHP | No Comments »

Create your own search engine in PHP

Here’s a good article from Zend showing you how to create your own search engine using Zend_Search_Lucene (part of the Zend Framework).

“One of the features that sets the Zend Framework apart from the others is the inclusion of a decent search module. Zend_Search_Lucene is a php port of the Apache Lucene project, a full-text search engine framework. Zend_Search_Lucene promises a simple way to add search functionality to an application without requiring additional php extensions or even a database.

Zend_Search_Lucene overcomes the usual limitations of relational databases with features such as fast indexing, ranked result sets, a powerful but simple query syntax, and the ability to index multiple fields. Better still, a Zend_Search_Lucene index can live happily alongside your relational database to provide fast searching but without duplicating the effort of storing all of your data twice. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use Zend_Search_Lucene to index and search some RSS feeds.”
Link: Roll Your Own Search Engine with Zend_Search_Lucene

Posted in PHP | 3 Comments »

Simpsonize me

Have you ever wondered how you would look if you were to appear in one of the Simpson’s episodes? Here’s your chance to find out. Head over to Simpsonize me and upload a pic of your self and out comes your Simpsonized character!  You can tweak and accessorize your character to make it look more like you.

If you’ve Simpsonized yourself  do share your character too here.

Here’s another shot of me outside Appu’s Kwik-e-mart at Springfield.

Link: http://www.simpsonizeme.com

Posted in Sites | 3 Comments »

OOXML given the boot?

It was interesting to follow the battle between ODF and OOXML at the ISO standards voting commitee.

According to NY Times:

Of the 87 countries that participated, 26 percent opposed Microsoft’s bid. Under the rules for approval, no more than 25 percent of the countries could oppose the bid. Microsoft also failed to win the vote of 66 percent of 41 countries on another panel of I.S.O. and I.E.C. members.

Countries opposing Microsoft’s OOXML format included India Good to see India’s getting it head straight by not aligning itself with the $$$.

Posted in Tech Stuff | No Comments »

Creating a secure PHP production environment from Source Code

If you’re looking at deploying a secure production server for PHP, then you’ve got to check out this tutorial. The tutorial outlines the following :

• System they’ll be using (operating system, functionality assumed, security assumptions)
• Preparing the software
• Installing PHP
• Chrooting the server
• Configuring PHP
• Protecting against CSS and SQL injection attacks

Link: Securing PHP - Creating a secure PHP production environment from Source Code
via: PHPDeveloper.org

Posted in PHP, Security | No Comments »