mikal – Page 126 – Made by Mikal

The architecture of PerlMagick

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 26, 2005
Post category:Imagemagick

Steven comments on the slowness of PerlMagick in the EXIF tag extraction case. I'm pretty sure that it's not forking a process though -- ImageMagick is now a set of libraries which are wrapped to make the command line utilities we all know and love, as well as PerlMagick. So, I don't think a fork is involved. I think what is happening here is that ImageMagick is suffering from it's own generic (and therefore very powerful nature). In return for being able to do heaps of things with heaps of image formats, you get a block of code which simply as efficient as possible in all cases. I haven't done a code audit to determine if this is the case in this specific incident however. So, I think PerlMagick is innocent here. [tags: perlmagick image jpeg exif perl cgi]

ImageMagick slowness extracting EXIF information from JPEG files

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 26, 2005
Post category:Imagemagick

For the book I've been working on a PerlMagick example which takes a directory of images, lets you rotate and label the images, and the publish them to a list of different possible publication directories. It's basically an automation of what I've done with the image publication for this site for some time, but also deuglificated. It also does some nice stuff like display relevant EXIF information for the JPEG files in the HTML pages that it generates, which will be nicer than the igal stuff I currently use. Yes, I am aware that gallery does a lot of this now, but I need an example for the book, and this gives me a chance to write up exactly what I do now in a nicer form, and make it well documented so that people have a basis for something to hack on in the future. One of the things that the script does if it hasn't been told how to rotate an image, it tries to guess by looking at the EXIF tags for the images. This presents a problem with the beta version of the code, which I am testing with the photos I took from Andrew's wedding.…

Using an Intel PCI modem as a FXO card

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 19, 2005
Post category:Link

Some of the Linux Aus mob have been interested in FXO cards recently. Perhaps they're interested in using an Intel PCI modem as one? [tags: asterisk voip fxo intel modem pci] [icbm: home]

A book on ImageMagick?

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 19, 2005
Post category:Imagemagick

I've been sitting on this for a little while, and a couple of people I've met in the flesh have heard about it, but I think the time is right to start talking about it more in public. A little while ago Apress asked me if I would be interested in writing a book on ImageMagick, presumably based on my having written two articles on ImageMagick for IBM DeveloperWorks. You can find those articles here and here. The book is a complete re-implementation of that content, despite my contract with IBM allowing for reuse, because that basically has to be done to make the book coherent and flow. Anyway, the contract has now been signed by myself and Gary Cornell (recent interview). The first three chapters have been written and are currently undergoing review. I have a table of contents and a schedule, so I know what else I'm going to cover. Why Apress? Well, apart from the fact that they approached me, which is flattering, they're also a pretty awesome technical publisher. They're the publisher of Nick Weinholt's .NET books, Joel Spolsky's software development books, and heaps of other stuff. Checkout they're site for more information. I've got a…

Google maps used to map US casualties from Iraq

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 13, 2005
Post category:Link

A map which shows US casualties by home town. That's a lot of people, and it's a lot less than the Iraqis have lost. I have a lot of sympathy for America, and for the people of Iraq I guess to. What is this whole conflict improving? [tags: iraq war] [icbm: name="Hotel Avante, Mountain View, California, USA", lat=37.23 long=-122.05]

Andrew is a loony

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 13, 2005
Post category:Travel

He hasn't slept in something like 48 hours now. He's a loony. On of the funnier parts of the trip over was listening to the Channel 9 "from the flight deck". Before they could take of the United plane insisted on burning off 1,000 pounds of fuel. How long did it take? 5 minutes of idling and driving around in circles. The airline was fairly ordinary though -- no screens in the back of seats. 5 inches of extra leg room for premium economy, but that only put them about 2 inches ahead of Qantas. Catering was nothing special. No little care package for during the flight. No face mask. I'd fly United again, but only if I didn't get to chose the airline. [tags: airline united]

Hotel Avante

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 12, 2005
Post category:Travel

Well, I got here. Nice hotel, nice staff on check in. Easy drive from the San Francisco airport for us foreigners. The San Francisco airport seems a lot nicer than the one in Los Angeles as well. [tags: hotel, avante]

Flattering

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 11, 2005
Post category:Imagemagick

I've had some need to be reading the ImageMagick documentation recently, and it's flattering to see that they link to my articles on ImageMagick so often. It makes the effort worthwhile to see that people appreciate the articles. [tags: article]

Old languages

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 8, 2005
Post category:Link

I have a friend who used to code in an ancient and archaic language that was used for things like starting fires and planning assaults on the wooly mammoth. You know -- an old language. [tags: language old age] [icbm: work]

Make Magazine: Building a Myth TV Box part 1

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 2, 2005
Post category:Link

A guide on how to build a myth tv box. I know a few people who might be interested in this... [tags: mythtv tivo make oreilly magazine howto] [icbm: dcs]