UPCScan 0.6: It’s Qt, Man!

8. October, 2008

Update: Version 0.7 released.

Getting drowned in your ever growing CD, DVD, book or comic collection? Then UPCScan might be for you.

UPCScan 0.6 is ready for download. There are many fixed and improvements. The biggest one is probably the live PyQt4 user interface (live means that the UI saves all your changes instantly, so no data loss if your computer crashes because of some other program ;-)).

The search field accepts barcodes (from a barcode laser scanner) and ISBN numbers. There is a nice cover image dialog where you can download and assign images if Amazon doesn’t have one. Note: Amazon sometimes has an image but it’s marked as “customer image”. Use the “Visit” button on the UI to check if an image is missing and click on the “No Cover” button to open the “Cover Image” dialog where you can download and assign images. I haven’t checked if the result of the search query contains anything useful in this case.

UPCScan 0.6 – 24,055 bytes, MD5 Checksum. Needs Python 2.5. PyQt4 4.4.3 is optional.

Security notice: You need an Amazon Web Service Account (get one here). When you run the program for the first time, it will tell you what to do. This means two things:

  1. Your queries will be logged. So if you don’t want Amazon to know what you own, this program is not very useful for you.
  2. Your account ID will be stored in the article database at various places. I’m working on an export function which filters all private data out. Until then, don’t give this file to your friends unless you know what that means (and frankly, I don’t). You have been warned.

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Posted by digulla

Name of the Longest Distance Between Two Points

7. October, 2008

Q: What’s the name of the shortest distance between two points?

A: The straight line.

Q: What’s the name of the longest distance between two points?

A: The shortcut.

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Posted by digulla

You Can’t Stop OOXML!? Watch Me :-)

6. October, 2008

MicroSoft is the de-facto standard on the desktop. Despite all the efforts to break the monopoly, the average user still doesn’t want to switch. Alas, the average user is not an expert and when MicroSoft tries its way with the experts, that usually backfires. Unlike the Average Joe, geeks and nerds are no cattle and they find creative ways to get even when they are served what MicroSoft dishes out.

So in Norway, 21 of 23 experts voted against OOXML as a new ISO standard. That didn’t stop the ca…administration of Standard Norge to embrace this great work from Seattle (which has eaten thousands, maybe millions, of dissertations over the years) and so they announced that Norway votes “Yes”. Every geek out there knows what it means when your management has stopped listening to you: Get a new job. And they did.

Right on, commander!

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Posted by digulla

Somebody is Playing Pong With Two Elevators and the Floorlights…

6. October, 2008

Once, it was just a joke in the UserFriendly comic strip. Now, it’s real: Welcome to Project Blinkenlights

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Posted by digulla

Scanning Your DVD, Book, Comic, … Collection

4. October, 2008

Update: Version 0.6 released.

If you’re like me, you have a lot of DVDs, books, comics, whatever … and a few years ago, you kind of lost your grip on your collection. Whenever there is a DVD sale, you invariantly come home with a movie you already have.

After the German Linux Magazin published an article how to setup a laser scanner with Amazon, I decided to get me one and give it a try. Unfortunately, the Perl script has a few problems:

  • It’s written in Perl.
  • It’s written in Perl.
  • It’s written in Perl.
  • There is no download link for the script without line numbers.
  • The DB setup script is missing.
  • The script uses POE.
  • It’s hard to add new services.
  • Did I mention that it’s written in Perl? Right.

So I wrote a new version in Python. You can find the docs how to use it in the header of each file. Additionally, I’ve included a file “Location codes.odt”. You can edit it with OpenOffice and put the names of the places where you store your stuff in there. Before you start to scan in the EAN/UPC codes of the stuff in a new place, scan the location code and upcscan.py will make the link for you. It will also ask you for a nice name of the location when you scan a location code for the first time.

If you need more location codes, you can generate them yourself. The codes starting with “200” are for private use, so there is no risk of a collision. I’m using this Python script to generate the GIF images. Just put this at the end of the script:

if __name__=='__main__':
    import sys
    s = checksum(sys.argv[1])
    img = genbarcode(s, 1)
    img.save('EAN13-%s.gif' % s, 'GIF')
    print error

There is a primitive tool to generate a HTML page from your goods and a small tool to push your own cover images into the database if Amazon doesn’t provide one.

Note: You’ll need an AWS account for the script to work. The script will tell you where to get your account ID and where you need to put the ID when you start it for the first time.

Download upscan-0.1.tar.gz (54KB, MD5 Checksum)

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Posted by digulla

Firefox 3.0.1 and GMail: Gray Background???

29. September, 2008

Am I the only one who gets a gray background on many websites after the update to Firefox 3.0.1?

Update: Apparently so. If not, browse to about:config and search for “browser.display.background_color”. In my version of FF, that was set to #C0C0C0 for some reason (when it should have been #FFFFFF).

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Posted by digulla

Installing Eclipse 3.4.1 Despite p2

29. September, 2008

If you’re, like me, one of the unlucky ones that aren’t on p2’s friends list (translation: Eclipse p2 provisioning causes you an endless stream of pain and suffering), then you can’t install the 3.4.1 patches because p2 won’t let you.

There are several ways to deal with this. One of them is to delete your workspace’s .metadata, your Eclipse install and start from scratch, installing all plug-ins again, etc., always hoping that p2 doesn’t mess up until you’ve installed everything.

The other way is a workaround. It needs a bit of disk space and discipline. Do this:

  1. Leave your original Eclipse install alone. Specifically, never ever use the menu “Software updates…” again! Never. I mean it. Disable the entry if you can.
  2. Install eclipse again in a new place. This must be a standard install (not a shared one!!!)
  3. Do not start this install! Specifically, do not attempt to add all your update sites to this base template! Just unpack it and rename the “eclipse” directory to “eclipse-template”.
  4. Copy “eclipse-template” to “eclipse-install”.
  5. Start eclipse-install. If you worry that you might accidentally start the template once in a while, rename “eclipse.exe” to “eclipse.exe Is this install”.
  6. Download the 3.4.1 updates.
  7. Exit eclipse-install.
  8. Use your favorite file copy tool to copy all new files and directories in eclipse-installplugins and eclipse-installfeatures to your working copy of eclipse.
  9. Start your working copy.

Installing and updating plug-ins works in a similar way:

  1. Delete eclipse-install and recreate it from eclipse-template.
  2. Start eclipse-install.
  3. Open the install software dialog. Add the update site. You may be tempted to add the update sites to eclipse-template. Don’t do this! As soon as p2 can see more than one update site, it will eventually mess up in the dependency calculation.
  4. Install the plug-in.
  5. Create a directory for your new plug-in in the driectory “dropins” of your working copy of Eclipse.
  6. Copy the new files and directories from eclipse-installfeatures and eclipse-installplugins to the new directory below “dopins” in your working copy of Eclipse.
  7. If you need to install more than one plug-in, start with step 1. After you have installed anything in eclipse-install, the Eclipse instance is tainted and shouldn’t be used again.

That’s all folks. At least until the p2 guys fix the many bugs in their code. Which will probably in the Eclipse release in 2010.

That’s not because I believe that the p2 guys are stupid or lazy but because this kind of product just takes three years to mature and they started in 2007, so the first working version can be expected in 20010.

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Posted by digulla

Stack Overflow Launches

18. September, 2008

Stack Overflow is a Q&A site for programmers. If you’re looking for an answer to a question or if you know a lot and can’t really fill your needs to help in your current position, have a go at it.

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Posted by digulla

Amiga Forever 2008

8. September, 2008

I have the set for a while now (thanks Michele!) and after reading the announcement elsewhere, I’d like to remind all you Amiga fans out there that the 2008 release of Amiga Forever is ready. Did you know that Andy Warhol (yeah, that Andy Warhol) gave a demo of the system when it was launched 1985? If not, grab the premium edition and watch him do his thing with Marilyn Monroe (or rather a picture of her).

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Posted by digulla

How To Launch Software

5. September, 2008

If you’re still wondering if “big bang” software releases are a good thing, read this.

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Posted by digulla

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