Melayubuntu – the best local Ubuntu blog

Today I would proudly write about a fine, if not the best local Ubuntu blog for Malaysian, Melayubuntu. Best of all, its written in Malay !

The website is filled with loads of Ubuntu tips which is useful for Ubuntu users, whether they are new or an old timer. It is the one particular blog which should be worth subscribing for.

exifprobe – easiest way to get GPS location from JPEG files

I’ve seen few photos taken from a GPS capable camera and the photo can be traced back to its original location using photo-navigation capable GPS devices.

These GPS coordinates are stored inside JPEG files which comforms to EXIF specification (using GPS IFD). However, I found out the f-spot photo manager while capable of reading EXIF metadata from JPEG, it can’t display the GPS coordinates properly upon reading the JPEG files.

Gunung Jerai Camping Spot

This is rather annoying to me as I can’t possibly know the location where the photo was taken.

exifprobe to the rescue
Fortunately there is exifprobe. A CLI tool which able to display GPS coordinate on JPEG files among other things. The displayed coordinate from EXIF probe are in this format

degree, minute, second

so this output

Latitude                    = 5,47,39
Longitude                   = 100,24,10

would become 5° 47′ 39″ N, 100° 24′ 10″ E which you can enter on google maps to get its location.

Easy isnt it

p/s: btw, The location is within Gunung Jerai camping area where it is a popular camping spot for locals and tourists in Kedah (Malaysia).

Google Maps Now Available in hometown – Alor Setar!

I just discovered today that Google (street) maps is now available for my hometown – Alor Star! Upon checking further I discovered that the street level maps is also available for various other places in the northern part of Malaysia too, including remote areas in Perlias and Kedah, w00t.

Here’s sample of the street map taken from Google Maps
alor-setar.jpg

alor-setar google map

Sungai Petani to Kulim

Check this feature in Google Maps now!

Now I can relate more stuff from my Dopod P800W to Google Maps and vice versa

I’m going to get a new Desktop PC

Dang seems my 6 years old PC (my Ubuntu PC) is starting to show its age, so I decided to set some budget aside to get a new computer for my workstation. I’m going to use it primarily as my development computer to develop .NET, C and java applications for mobile and embedded device. My current computer, Pentium 4 1.7GHz occasionally slows down to a crawl and plays dead on me with the amount of pressure I put on it (compiling, debugging, profilling).

I’ve a budget of around RM2.3k for a complete system without monitor. I’m looking for an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, with at least 2GB of RAM and 320GB storage. I seldom play graphic intensive game so I don’t mind much about graphic cards. What concern me most is the computer performance when I’m compiling/debugging apps.

I don’t have an exact date when I’m going to get a new PC, but seeing the amount of annoyance I’ve to face with an aging workstation, I will probably get it by the start of next year. Hopefully I could write and improves more applications once I get a new workstation.

Btw, keen readers might notice that I write less frequently nowadays, rest assured this pattern will not continue for long because currently I’m being swamped out by a lot of work that I’ve to do. I’ll be back writing at full pace after this month, and yes according to statistic — November is kinda a slow month for me.