Aug 292010
 

ImageMagick Usually when we talk about programs for editing images we think to graphic programs such as The Gimp or photoshop, but they are not the only alternative.

ImageMagick is a suite of programs that you can use from command line to change and transform images, may seem more uncomfortable but it is actually a very powerful option to process many images in a short time or include image processing programs in web or bash scripts.

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Aug 212010
 

dvs-slideshowOn returning from a vacation with friends, everyone said ‘Well, now you can do a nice DVD with all our photos, right? ”
Certainly, work in IT means I need to know anything about computers, let’s say I used this opportunity to learn a bit about this topic in Linux.

I found myself with about 3000 photos from five different cameras, to put in order and select for a slide show of about an hour, to accomplish all we need:

  • Software to move from camera to PC the images
  • Software for storing photos and process them
  • A software to create a slideshow from images, perhaps with some effect
  • Software to prepare a DVD with interactive menus and music.
  • A burning software

Excellent, let’s start
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Aug 192010
 

wget-screenGNU Wget is a free software package for retrieving files using HTTP, HTTPS and FTP, the most widely-used Internet protocols. It is a non-interactive commandline tool, so it may easily be called from scripts, cron jobs, terminals without X-Windows support, etc.

GNU Wget has many features to make retrieving large files or mirroring entire web or FTP sites easy, here are some interesting options.

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Aug 152010
 

A DNS server resolves domain names into IP addresses. So when you request “google.com” for example, the DNS server finds out the address for the domain, and sends your request the right way.

You can run a DNS cache on your computer. This will speed up the process of looking up domain names when browsing. The difference is about 30-60 ms for me. Multiply that difference by the number of websites you visit a day for an approximate estimate of the speed improvement. Of course, all this would be worth it if it weren’t for the fact that setting this up is way too easy.

The following instructions are for someone with a cable (broadband) internet connection, where the computer gets it’s local IP address using DHCP from the router in your house/office:

Read it all at here

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