Oh, the irony!

Installing the first Oracle-branded JVM release ... the installer offers to install Microsoft's Bing toolbar ... the next page offers to install openoffice, billing it as a free alternative to Microsoft Office. I'm flying on the back of a pig.

Convert set of images to a multi-page PDF

#!/usr/bin/python
# Creates a single PDF file from multiple images. 
# Required ubuntu packages:
#       pdfjam
#       sam2p
#   - Thanks to http://typethinker.blogspot.com/2009/06/creating-multi-page-pdf-from-images.html

import sys
import subprocess
import tempfile
import os

images = []
pdfs = []
print(len(sys.argv))
outputFile = sys.argv.pop()
print(len(sys.argv))


for next in range(1, len(sys.argv)):
 image = sys.argv[next]
 print(image)
 images.append(image)
 
for image in images:
 pdf = tempfile.mkstemp(suffix=".pdf")[1]
 pdfs.append(pdf)
 print(pdf)
 print(image + "->" + pdf)
 #subprocess.call(["/usr/bin/sam2p", image, pdf.name])
 subprocess.call(["/usr/bin/sam2p", "-pdf:b2", image, pdf])

print("JOINING PDFS: ")
print(pdfs)
print(" as " + outputFile)

p = ["/usr/bin/pdfjoin", "--outfile", outputFile]

p += pdfs
print(pdfs)
print(p)
subprocess.call(p) 

print("Cleaning Up")
for pdf in pdfs:
 os.remove(pdf)

An iPhone Perspective

"Getting an iPhone is like walking into a cool, refreshing pond, which just happens to be full of leeches. You'll be comfortable as long as your body can generate blood fast enough." - derGoldstein (slashdot.org) (from a comment on this slashdot article).


Very insightful.  The blood is the money you have to pay.  The device is great, but there is always the blood loss.