Making PDFs with free software and Wii are on the way

Making PDFs with free software

Recently, Adobe announced that it intends to release the Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.7 specification for publication by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Also, the editorial in Issue 16 of Free Software Magazine Paper is dead - has PDF followed suit? makes a case about the perceived decline of the PDF format. In my opinion, PDF isn't dead, so this week I've compiled several techniques for making PDF files with free software.

My intention for the postscript was to emphasize content and not the delivery mechanism, and is in subtle defense of FSM dropping their PDF version of their issues. I feel that the medium doesn't matter as much as the message, but one still should take care in selecting the proper delivery method. The Making PDF files entry has done well on digg.com - 851 diggs so far, which I appreciate.

Wii are on the way

My brother, who lives on the west coast, has sent a belated Christmas present after insisting that I shouldn't give him anything this year... a check for a Nintendo Wii. I'm floored; it's an incredible gift, and I really, really appreciate it. So far, no store has any Wiis in stock (but they do have several PS3s collecting dust), but I'll keep trying. Alex, thank you! This really means a lot to me. I will be driving out sometime this summer to visit.

HDR Chernobyl Photos

I highly recommend reading Trey Ratcliff's entry Nuclear Winter in Chernobyl, a description and HDR photo tour of the reactor and Pripyat. It features beautiful, high resolution and haunting imagery of the abandoned power plant, ferris wheel, apartment buildings and playgrounds. If you just want to see the slideshow, they're hosted on flickr.

Unlocking your iPod's potential and building life skills with free software

Managing your iPod with free software

In the end of December of 2006, I wrote my first article for Free Software Magazine. It was accepted, and it was published today in Issue 16.

While iTunes is a powerful application, it does have its limitations, mostly stemming from both Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions and the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) interest in preventing unauthorized copying of music, regardless of fair use and personal flexibility. The free software community believes that the ability to freely copy content you own between your iPod and a computer is a right, not a privilege. I discuss how to fully manage the content on your iPod using completely free software in Managing your iPod without iTunes.

Using free software to build professional and life skills

I've found that many of the skills I've developed using free software and just plain "doing it myself" has been useful in my professional endeavors. This week at FSM, I considered some of the more abstract fringe benefits of using free software in Using free software to build professional and life skills.

Pikmin 2

I've been looking for good games for the GameCube, and this week I've discovered that Pikmin 2 is a joy to play. You play as two tiny aliens followed by a a crowd of eager-to-please creatures that look and act like friendly carrots. You're on Earth, trying to search out objects that can be used to pay back a loan and save your company. As your company is trying to market the objects, they come up with marketing names, such as "Sunseed Berry" for a strawberry, "Director of Destiny" for a compass, and "Quenching Emblem" for a 7-up bottle cap. The difficulty and learning curve ramp up very appropriately, and overall it's just fun.

Now, if I can wrap my head around Killer 7...

Free desktop revolution, new domain and using ezSQL

Inspired by a recent experience, my latest entry at FSM offers my perspective on the question, has the free desktop revolution arrived? My wife's computer had hardware issues, so as a stop-gap I gave her an account on my Ubuntu desktop, then asked her about her experience.

I registered a new domain through DreamHost. They have very reasonable plans, starting at $7.95 a month, and I've used their services for several other sites that I've administered and had a positive experience working with them. My new site, the confluence is intended to be a collection of web applications that I've written and released to the public. Most programs will be released as GPL, as I believe fully in contributing to the community.

I'm working finishing a few applications; the tag cloud generator (name pending), eManiuplator (email address extraction, validation and list operations), eBrother (visualizes server usage), an email newsletter generator (name pending), and a service inspired by the old lowbrow.com site. The first three work, but need to be secured and cleaned up. The last two are in development.

I've discovered a new database class that assists in rapid application development; ezSQL v2.00. In their words, "ezSQL is a class that makes it ridiculously easy to use mySQL, Oracle8, SQLite (PHP), within your PHP script." It's got automatic query caching, built-in debugging functions, and works with Smarty. I really, really like the way it returns responses and the built-in functions are very useful. I suggest you give it a try.

Finding Linux replacements for Windows software, developing with phpMyEdit

When discussing ways to switch to GNU/Linux, one of the biggest difficulties I've found is finding answers to the question, "What can I replace this program with?" It's completely understandable; people don't want to lose functionality. However, Googling for answers can easily lead to confusion and frustration if you don't have the background or knowledge to be able to differentiate between the wheat and the chaff. In my new entry for FSM, I discuss resources that can be used for Finding GNU/Linux replacements for Windows software.

Good news; the article that I wrote for Free Software Magazine has been accepted! Once it's published, I'll link to it here. I'm proud; it's my first real published article, not just an opinion, letter or article in a student publication.

Today, I've been going through my notes, snippets and ideas from the past few weeks and tried to catch up on some back entries (my apologies to the feed subscribers). I've posted everything chronologically, so if you look at the blog itself, it should sense.

Yesterday, I tried using phpMyEdit to develop a forms based front-end to a MySQL database. I've found it to be simultaneously useful, simple, complex, flexible, and limited. It allows for rapid development of CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Destroy) forms, which greatly reduces development time. However, when you want to use an advanced MySQL join or contextual input, you start to find a bit of roughness.

The documentation does a decent, but not thorough job of listing all the functionality. I'm particularly annoyed by the comment, "Note that the above example contains additional features..." yet there are no instructions on how to use the new functionality anywhere else in the manual.

Another issue I have with the documentation is the inclusion of code examples that only apply to "future development" and not the current version... this sort of thing should be in the bug tracker, not the production documentation.

I've asked a question on how to do contextual input on their support forums, and if I get a response, I'll publish it here. Overall, I think phpMyEdit is a good free tool for PHP development.

Usability, a wii-diculously large response, and GameCube modding

Happy New Year! Sleep is for the weak, so let's get back to business.

Have you ever found a new piece of software that sounds like it's the perfect match for your needs, only to get bogged down by bad documentation or a horrendous interface? Many people will quickly discard programs out of frustration caused by avoidable usability issues. Read about ways software developers can avoid disenfranchising potential users in my Free Software Magazine entry How usability inhibits good software.

The Wii-diculous video has gotten frighteningly popular; over 300,000 views on YouTube so far! I figured I'd get a few thousand hits... Ed, Chris and I are very pleasantly surprised by its success. We're currently planning a follow-up...

Reading over the comments on my entry about learning Ruby on Rails and using generated CRUD forms, I found a nice suggestion; phpMyEdit. It's an "instant MySQL Table Editor and PHP code generator." Thanks to Niraj for pointing it out! I'll take a look at it in the coming weeks.

I've been researching ways to mod my used GameCube... ultimately, I'd like to replicate the functionality that I have with my modded Xbox w/ XBMC; the ability to use home brew (network media player, emulators, Linux) and to play backups.

It looks to me like the easiest solution is to use a XenoGC 2.0 modchip ($15), buy a Gamebit screwdriver (about $8), and a replacement case (around $30) or top (around $20) so I can use full-size DVDs. Also, I should get a GameCube Broadband Adapter, which runs about $20 off eBay (unless I can find it locally).

I've learned a few things... Full-size DVDs apparently reduce the lifespan of the optical drive motor, but the exact amount is up in the air. Also, you can "make" your own Gamebit screwdriver by melting a pen for each screw, but I'd rather just buy the right tool rather than ruining a bunch of pens. Playback of backups is affected by the type of media; adjusting the potentiometer may resolve some skipping issues. Finally, while it's theoretically possible to hack an IDE hard drive into a GC, it's a square peg in a round hole.

However, the more I look at the GameCube homebrew scene, the more I'm second guessing whether or not I should do this. My GameCube is working just fine as a game playing device, and I don't mind having both a GameCube and an Xbox. I can't afford to replace it if I screw up. Oh well...

New Year's resolutions, GameCube

I'm currently in Pennsylvania with my in-laws over the holidays, so I've been pretty much off the grid. We've had a grand time visiting, exchanging presents, eating too much good food, and building a potato cannon. Seeing as 2007 is fast approaching, it's time to start thinking of resolutions. From exercising more, eating fewer snacks, or remembering to call your mother on her birthday, we all think of various ways we can improve our lives, by starting good habits or ending bad ones. I took some time off this afternoon and compiled a few suggested resolutions that will assist you in your pursuit of free software. Check out the entry at Free Software Magazine entitled Free software New Year's resolutions.

As the Nintendo Wii is still a bit difficult to get a hold of and there's a persistent rumor about it dropping to $200 and having DVD playback in early 2007, I decided to purchase a used Nintendo GameCube for the time being. I know there's a homebrew scene, there's a Linux distribution available, and I've heard of people hacking IDE drives onto the thing. Oh, and there's a fairly large number of excellent games for the GameCube that are pretty cheap right now, so I should be able to finally play The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Cubivore, Killer7, Donkey Konga and a few other titles that have been recommended to me. I'll write more about the GameCube mod scene when I can do some more research.

My wife and I wish you and yours the very best in the years to come!

Backing up your system, finding balance

My new entry, Backing up your system with free software is up at FreeSoftwareMagazine.com. Originally titled I ain't afraid of Norton Ghost (I'm learning to be more graceful about editorial changes), it describes some free tools and techniques one can use to back up and make an image of their workstation.

I still feel like I'm still fumbling around a bit there. While a weekly writing deadline has been very good for me, I don't think I've quite found the right groove yet at FSM.

Part of the difficultly has stemmed from the definition of "free". I originally thought free meant not having to pay for it, and classified closed-source freeware, no-nag shareware and open source software as free. Their definition is a bit more strict; if it's not open source, it's not truly free. It's a challenge to shift your perspective in that manner, but it's manageable.

My other stumbling block is finding the right equation for success; what's popular? I can't predict what will be hit yet, even looking at other people's work. Sometimes, an entry that I think is substandard will generate tens of thousands of hits, and another that I thought was stellar only gets a few hundred.

Obviously, there's no black and white solution; it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time with the right message.

With this particular definition of free, it's easy to slip into the anti-corporate role, railing against Microsoft or other large companies... extremists are obnoxious, and that's not my style. I feel more moderate; it's okay to find balance, and while I lean in a particular direction, I don't want to go off the deep end. I don't think Steve Ballmer is the devil.

However, I do like the 37signals approach, which is to pick an enemy and make something better than what they're doing. Hence, my title, "I ain't afraid of Norton Ghost" - I intentionally picked a popular commercial package and made it a target, and my weapons were free and open source software. Such a violent analogy and a confrontational tactic, yet that's a proven method of success.

In the end, the entry title was changed but the structure remained the same, and I got an above-average number of hits. So it goes.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my first article for Free Software Magazine... if accepted, it'll be in Issue 16. I haven't forgotten about the home server security, but real life and some other priorities have taken precedence. Also, I've got something big and fun planned in the next day or so...

Serendipity

This is extremely frustrating and unfortunate. I finished writing my entry at around the same time that this other one was posted, and the Gina's currently has over 1000 diggs. At least I know it was a good idea, and Gina's article was well written and a slightly different perspective on the same issue. Congratulations!

Why hack your game console?

My first blog entry at FreeSoftwareMagazine.com, Why hack your game console, has been posted. It's a topical overview of why and how game consoles can be utilized and extended using home brew software and Linux. Check it out!