Da Vinci Planet » open source

Convert Any Document to PDF

Da Vinci — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:26:02 +0000

PDFCreator is a handy little application that installs as a printer and creates PDFs from any file that you are trying to print. To convert a document to PDF simply open the document up the usual way, select Print and choose PDFCreator as your printer. PDFCreator then opens up a window that allows you to enter meta data for the file like Document Title and Author and then you hit Save to save it as PDF.

Here’s a tip on how PDFCreator can be used to help with filing expense reports. When you’re making hotel reservations or airline bookings while working remotely and without access to a local printer, you can print your reservation confirmations to PDFCreator and save them as PDFs on your computer. Now you can email the PDF version of the confirmation to someone who can print it for you and you have easy access to your invoices when it’s time to file your expense report.

Why an Open Source Search Algorithm is the Answer

Da Vinci — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 04:06:24 +0000

Google is known for their free services, open APIs and their “don’t be evil” motto. For most part they aren’t evil, but keeping their search algorithm a secret is just plain evil. Microsoft is known as a closed source software giant with a desktop OS monopoly. What makes Google any different when they have a proprietary search algorithm and they have a Web monopoly? Why don’t they open their search algorithm? The reasons are very similar to why Microsoft has kept their code closed and ironically Google too can become victim of the power of social computing and open source.

Wikia Search launched today and while there has been much criticism, their principals make total sense:

Transparency – Openness in how the systems and algorithms operate, both in the form of open source licenses and open content + APIs.

Community – Everyone is able to contribute in some way (as individuals or entire organizations), strong social and community focus.

Quality – Significantly improve the relevancy and accuracy of search results and the searching experience.

Privacy – Must be protected, do not store or transmit any identifying data.

Google gives “guidelines” on how to make Web sites more SEO friendly, but why not offer complete transparency to their algorithm? The first reaction is because the algorithm is very, very complex and that an open source algorithm could be abused by those that find loopholes. Well it is already being abused by Black Hat SEO practices and that is exactly why it should be socially driven and open source! It is the very reason why open source solutions like Linux and Apache are a success: Open and engaged communities have much more combined knowledge than closed communities can ever have – even more than the smart Google engineers. For now Google is riding the wave that Microsoft did in the nineties, but sooner or later they will come under pressure and will be faced with the decision to open up their algorithm or not.

To me, the four principals of Internet search that Wikia Search has identified defines what Google means by “don’t be evil” and while their alpha release may be disappointing I applaud Wikia for doing this. Just like open source supporters have fought Microsoft, I believe the social computing community will be fighting Google some day. An ungrateful irony.

See Your Web Site in Different Browsers

Da Vinci — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:07:49 +0000

Have you tested your Web site in different browsers and on different platforms? Web designers tend to focus on the one or two that they deem most important and often forget to test their Web sites in other browsers and on other platforms. That normally means testing sites in IE and Firefox, but the different versions of IE and Firefox and different versions of operating systems are ignored. Besides, very few have access to all the different browsers and operating systems, not to mention the hundreds of combinations that you get when you include screen sizes, Javascript versions and Flash enabled.

Browsershots is a free, open source solution for your problem. Browsershots takes screenshots of sites and displays the screen captures in .png files. You can use Browsershots as a free online service, but what makes this product cool is that itâ€™s available as an open source (written in Python) download so that you can run it on an internal server. This is very useful when you need to test a site that isnâ€™t live or accessible from the Internet yet.

The catch with the download version is that it uses â€œscreenshot factoriesâ€? to produce the screenshots and that these factories need to run on the operating systems and browsers that they produce screenshots for. So you need to have computers or virtual instances with the operating systems and browsers that you want to use as screenshot factories which requires a fair amount of infrastructure and support. It also means that when a new version of a browser or OS comes out you may need to create several more screenshot factories. So how is this better than simply having a bunch of test machines? The advantage is scalability and ease of use because multiple users have access directly from their desktops. One downside is that users get to see screenshots of what a particular Web page looks like and can’t interact with it so you cannot test interactivity like DHTML and AJAX.

There are other solutions like using VMWare virtual appliances for each of the operating system/browser combinations. This is a quicker and possibly easier solution, but doesnâ€™t scale as well with multiple users (or testers). Another solution is using a high-end service like Gomez and while they offer a lot more it comes with a price!

Google hacks project

Da Vinci — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 02:33:19 +0000

This Zurich based Google engineer has a few interesting Google hacks, check out his interesting projects. Most of these hacks use algorithms to parse Google search results.

I also like his thinking that while Google is a great company and they produce great products, they are a power house that keeps many secrets and can easily become corrupt. It would be much more comforting and encouraging if it were an open source project and everyone had free access to the search algorithms with the ability to contribute. Sure there will be smartasses that benefit in the short run, but an open source community will find ways to hone the ever growing algorithm closer to what people want from it. Google’s income comes from its ad network, what is the downside of making their search open source?

Operate multiple desktops and screens using Synergy

Da Vinci — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 18:16:26 +0000

If you have multiple computers all connected to the same network and would like to access them from one mouse and keyboard, Synergy might be a good alternative to a KVM switch. With Synergy, you can redirect your mouse and keyboard to another computer and screen by moving the mouse to the edge of the current screen. Synergy can be configured to arrange screens the way they are physically arranged to become one big virtual screen. You can also copy & paste between computers and screensavers can be synchronized. It’s great for developers and system administrators that run multiple computers with different operating systems. Synergy is an open source project.

Test the best php/mysql software using OpenSourceCMS

Da Vinci — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 02:04:01 +0000

If you ever wanted to test open source software, this is pretty slick! OpenSourceCMS gives you – as an administrator to their sites – access to test the best php/mysql open source software. The site’s name is misleading because you’d expect it to be related to content management, but the list of applications available is extensive, including:

Portals; e.g. Drupal, Mambo, Joomla
Blogs; e.g. Serendipity and of course WordPress
eCommerce, Forums, Image Galleries, etc..

The administrator username and password is given for every system and each system is deleted and re-installed every two hours. This allows you to to add and delete content, change the way things look, basically be the admin of any system here without fear of breaking anything.

OpenSourceCMS has a timer on the home page that counts down from two hours. Every two hours the demo sites shut down and reset to fresh installs. During that time you have complete administrator access to test the applications. So, for instance, if you were interested to learn about Drupal (because, wow, the Rachael Ray Show is built on Drupal!), then instead of downloading and installing it yourself you simply try it out on-line with admin access.

Now if only we could download OpenSourceCMS onto a USB drive as a portable app

OpenSourceCMS