Hugin: Software To Create Panoramic Photograph in Ubuntu Linux

I’ve always wanted to try and take panoramic photographs using my dad’s Nikon Coolpix 5200. That day finally arrived when I finally have the free time to do so last week when I’ve to accompany my dad traveling to the countryside of my hometown.

separate.jpg

Using a tripod, I took 4 sets of photographs with the help of Nikon built-in panorama helper function. I was excited and about to use a Windows computer to stitch those photograph using software supplied with the camera when suddenly I thought of searching for a similar application on my trusty Ubuntu box.

To my delight I found Hugin! An open source panorama maker software which I use without hesitation to create a my first ever panoramic photos.

Hugin Panorama Maker

The interface was simple enough to use even for a first time use like me. What you need to do is to load all images into Hugin using the “Load Images” button, and it will start to process your images immediately.

After finished processing the photos, Hugin lets you fine tune the result using a dialog similar like below.

panorama2.png

After retouching and minor adjustment, I’ve ended with this panoramic photo!

p/s: Well the photo is not perfect in detail, but hey its my first try!

Quick Way to send files to mobile device via Bluetooth in Ubuntu Linux

Previously I’ve written a post about how to send/receive file over the bluetooth using CLI. Now i’m going to show you a quick way to send files over bluetooth using the standard “Send To” on GNOME. Like this

bluetooth

To enable this, you need :

  • gnome-bluetooth (available from the repository)
  • a Bluetooth dongle / device attached to your computer

After all requirements have been met, all you need to do is select the files which you wish to be send over bluetooth, and click “Send To”.

You should see a dialog similar like above, prompting you to select the desired bluetooth device.

It’s easy with Linux!

Using htaccess to stop Bad Bots from stealing bandwidth and crashing your server

Few days ago my site was hit by a bunch of really bad bots which crawl my site continuously until it overloads my web server. Now I’m publishing a way to block these so-called bad robots from ruining your website by their crazy crawling method.

Assuming you are using Apache Http server, create .httaccess file and append this line to the newly created file.
Continue reading “Using htaccess to stop Bad Bots from stealing bandwidth and crashing your server”

Intermittent downtime : Between bad bots and DDOS

Few days ago my site has been subjected to bad http crawling bot which caused my site to be slower than usual. It become worse when somebody took advantage of the situation and launch a Denial-of-Service attack to my website which effectively took my website down for few hours per-day until today.

Rest assured the culprits has been identified and has been dealt with, you can enjoy reading my blog again. I’ve made few modification to my sites so it is more resistant to this sort of problem the next time around.

I sincerely apologize to those who have been subjected to hours of waiting for my site to load (and viewing the dreaded Internal Server Error messages) for the past 3-4 days.

And for those who are wondering about Gutsy Gibbon update will be able to read them at my personal blog : http://please.name.my.

Have fun !

[tags]gutsy,gutsy gibbon,ubuntu,feisty,feisty fawn,ddos,downtime,dreamhost,bots,bad bots[/tags]

I got myself a new and flexible Printer – HP Officejet 5680 All in One !

After my first printer reached its end of life status (meaning that it has become too expensive to maintain it), I decided to buy a new printer. I haven’t bought a new printer for almost 6 years, I think I want to spend on a reliable and flexible printer.

After two weeks of window shopping, I decided to get the HP Officejet 5680 series, because I really wanted to have an ‘office look’ for my desk+workstation (yeah, I’m thinking of running my own business seriously).

officejet5680.jpg

Among its features are :

  • 20 page per-minute printing speed (draft mode)
  • Photo/transparency printing capabilities
  • Flatbed Scanner
  • Copier capabilities (enlarge, reduce size)
  • Fax capabilities (33.6kbps max speed)
  • Fax Junk number banning
  • Phone (with Caller-ID)

To summarize it, HP Officejet printer has all feature that I need to start my own SOHO business with functionalities that one expected to run day-to-day task. Best of all, the printer (CUPS) and scanner (sane) works well on Ubuntu (Feisty Fawn), w00t!

I’ve tested most of the feature of this little gizmo and is impressed with its performance, If you ever want to start a small-business like me, I would recommend you to get one too!

Recommended Product
Now you can do it all-print, all-print, phone, fax, copy and scan — from this compact, versatile all-in-one solution from HP. Create professional presentations and brochures with laser-quality black text, plus optional 6-ink and 4,800 optimized dpi color when you print and copy color documents. Send important faxes quickly and eliminate unwanted faxes using junk-fax barrier. Conveniently copy, scan and fax multiple pages with 25-sheet auto document feeder.

[tags]officejet,hp,printer,scanner,ubuntu,linux,debian,fax[/tags]

Portable Pidgin Instant Messenger (Windows)

This is sweet! Ady Romantika has packaged a portable version of Pidgin which runs straight from USB drive!

Although the portable Pidgin only available under Windows operating system (just like other PortableApps applications), it is interesting to note that portable Pidgin allows you to try out Pidgin without installing it in your operating system.

Pidgin Gaim Open source instant messenger logo
You can download Portable Pidgin from this website : My Version of Pidgin Portable (.zip)

Other Resources

[tags]instant messenger,im,gaim,pidgin,portableapps,opensource,open source,windows[/tags]