Variety Meal

Moved

2011-03-10T10:30:00.000-08:00

Converting JPG to PDF under Linux...As simple as 1 2 3

2009-12-22T11:52:00.000-08:00

Never thought it could be as easy and simple as this:

1- Under Ubuntu ( I use it) Install ImageMagick through the command:

sudo apt-get install imagemagick

2- Go the JPG directory ( The directory in which you store your JPG)

3- Open Terminal ( Applications >> Accessories >> Terminal ) and type the following command:

convert *.jpg name.pdf

Where name is the desired PDF's name.

That's it.

P.S. If you don't want to install ImageMagick, ubuntu guarantees you even an easier solution:

Open the JPG using the default Gnome Image viewer (Eye of Gnome), click on File, Choose Print, then choose "Print to File" from the available printers, Press Print, and Bingo... You have a PDF copy of your JPG.

Translatey for Google Wave, Speak Your Own Language

2009-11-27T15:00:00.000-08:00

Translatey is a lightweight Multilingual Translator Based on Google Translate API.

Imagine you are chatting with friends from different countries, where no one speaks other's language ? Yes, now this is possible using Translatey.

To add Translatey, simply add: translatey@appspot.com to your contacts and whenever you want it to help, just add it to your wave as a prticipant, enjoy speaking your own language, and let Translatey do the translation job.

Translatey is a Robot, it means it only does what you want it to do, however, it provides you with initial help to start translation. The robot asks you to choose from couple of options:

1- Enter (/?) for Help (To list all the available languages and their codes)

2- Or Enter (/!) to view credits and info about author

3- Or Simple enter the language code you want to translate to, example: If I want to make Translatey translate to French, I simple enter the code '''fr''', Translatey then will greet me in French indicating that I can start writing and Translatey is then ready to translate to French, and so on.

Translatey has a built-in '''Auto-Detect''' feature, used in Google Translate, which allows Translatey to detect the creator's language. Example, If I chose French to translate to, then I can write in ANY language, and Translatey will detect my language and translate it to French.

'''Example Screen-shots''':

[Initial Welcome & Help Message]

[Choosing a language:]

[Translating to the Chosen Language:]

[Changing the Destination Language to Japanese:]

[Auto-Detecting the Japanese Language when translating back to French:]

For more information contact the Author:
eng.ma2moun@googlewave.com

Or Enter '''/!''' Translatey in Wave

Top 10 Reasons to choose Linux over Windows

2009-11-08T12:32:00.000-08:00

1- Linux is an Open-Source OS, which means you can modify the OS !! While in Windows you are blindly following and using the OS or any of its applications.

2- Linux is Free !! Imagine you download the OS, install it and use its Office applications for FREE !!!

3- No Spy-ware and almost no viruses, hence, no anti-virus load headache.

4- Linux uses less resources, boots-up faster. While WindowssssszzzzzZZZZZ !!!

5- Linux looks better.

6- Linux doesn't need to restart right after each update.

7- Linux does not show you the Blue Screen of Death each time it feels sluggish.

8- You browse faster using Linux.

9- Linux can run from a CD or can be installed on the hard drive.

10- Linux is also extremely portable, it can also run off usb pen drives/portable hardrives/thumb drives and more.

Alarabiya.net . . . . HACKED !!!

2008-10-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

Between 22:00-00:00 GMT, The Most Racist and Racial Segregative Website for News in Arab World Was Hacked. This Could Be My Own Opinion About it, and It Could Be Others'. However, The Site Was Defaced by A Hacker Who Seems To Be A Shiite Whose Message was Crystal Clear Towards The Sunna's Web Sites And Hackers !

It Seems To Be A Sort Of "Revenge" But In the Wrong Place ! The Reason Is That Alarabiya Is Neither A Sunna's nor Shiite's In The First Place. The Site In Fact Has Its Own Agenda In Rising Ridiculous Issues That Reflect The Quality Of The People Behind The Website and The TV Channel. Rising Homosexuality Issues In The Times Where People In Palestine & Iraq Are Getting Murdered In Cold Blood Is A Sin, Posting A Story-A-Day About To Stay Sexually Healthy, or How To Get Bigger Penis While People In The Middleeast Generally Are Seeking The Least Requirements To Live Is Indeed The Biggest Sin. Yes, It Is Because A Site With 1st Intentions To Be A Political / Economical Site Then Turned To Be A "Your Fantasy Demands Stop Right Here " Is The Site That Needs To Be Defaced.

Give Some Attention To The People's Demands, Post The Reality, BE NEUTRAL !

I Am With This Step, Yet, Not In The Name Of Shiites Nor Sunnas'.

Don't Tell Me It Is My Bad Luck !!!!!!

2008-09-29T17:03:00.000-07:00

I have been into this since a week only, trying to figure out how things work in National Lottery Instant Games.

What I have been trying to prove that when you "Try" to play an instant game you get different prizes than when you play it with real money. That is, "Try" to play a game for some time and you might win a big prize, however, play the game for many times and check how much you could win, rip off !!!

Check the screen shot above, I have played this game as a "try" mode for more than 50 times, I won amounts up to £1,000. And the confusing thing that - at most - 2 rows' prizes might be similar. On the contrary, when I played the game for real money (as in the image above), I got 5 correct rows, and guess what ? all of them are £2's ....

I have tried again and again, I got one correct row, two rows, and again, all were £2's.

Bad Luck ?? Be my guest, getting 5 correct rows in such game is not a bad luck, I believe.

Multi-Purpose Credit Cards

2008-07-16T07:36:00.001-07:00

May Reasons for people to carry a wallet filled with different credit cards. You know, credit cards are way better than carrying money, jut imagine if there are no credit cards at all how would people's pockets look like ? particularly how would people's arses who put their wallets in the back pocket would look like !!

Back to the reasons behind having more than one credit card. Reasons might be:

* Some people like me are addicted to shopping from everywhere, stores nearby or even from Internet. So to avoid sending money by post and waiting zillion days for your shopping to come home it's easier for them to pay through the credit card, seconds of waiting time and bingo.

* Some people fear carrying money because of the crimes related to wallets robbery. If a thief is willing to steal my wallet for the credit cards it might have then I say go for it. You can easily call your bank and stop all the credit cards in a moment, but you can't call the bank to stop the money of being used, can you ?

* Others love to show off. Seriously, I once met this guy who while we were talking he opened his wallet to show me how many credit cards he got !!!

* One of the main reasons of having many credit cards is to separate powder quotes. What powder ? Heroin and Cocaine. Yes you read that. I once woke up in the morning and entered the toilet to find out that there is a credit card next to the mirror. This card was washed and it was badly used from one side only. I grabbed this card and looked at it closely and here we go, inside the tint numbers and letters from back of the card there was powder. I am not expert with this kind of powder nor even tried it before, however I knew it was the "Misery" powder. What else could it be ? I don't think the guy was using it to open a baby powder bottle, or even to make bread from scratch.

I might discover other reasons of carrying credit cards in the future, until then I will take my credit cards and go for shopping.

New Era

2008-07-15T01:46:00.000-07:00

All of sudden, I felt fed up of photography without challenges. To grab my 350D with the bunch of lenses and go out for capturing birds, people, or still dead scenes. I have decided to add some life to my photography.

Yesterday, I was extremely bored, I took my bag filled with the camera, a prime lens, a zoom lens, a tripod, a remote shutter I bought recently, 2 batteries, 2 memory cards, and my drink. and took the longest path between the town centre and my house. I just realized that this path has become a natural reserve, in fact it deserves to be one since the huge trees and the beautiful greenness all the way.

All I wanted was to - as much as I possible can - show what my naked eyes see through my photographs, and the best way to do so is to capture the scene the way the eyes do.

Our eyes capture the high dynamic range with region-adaptable sensitivity, two important terms in modern photography High Dynamic Range (HDR) and sensitivity (ISO). So I decided to improve my HDR photography techniques to get closer to one's eyes vision.

With setting my tripod up, installing the camera on it properly, attaching the remote shutter, and setting the AEB (Automatic Exposure Brackets) to 3 stop (-2, 0, +2), I was able to take 3 different shots for the same scene in different colour, and sensitivity patterns. I went home and tried both Adobe Photoshop and Photomatix software to merge the 3 shots into one.

Although I have tried the Photomatix before but this time, I realized how easy is to do the job that might take minutes further using Photoshop. Merged the 3 shots and adjusted the colours the level I memorized of that scene and the result was this:

Though these are not the best ones, but at least a new era for me to start enjoying !!

P.S. Full size photos can be found at my flickr