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Archives For November 30, 1999

How to Install Picty Large Collections Photo Manager in Ubuntu

Last updated: January 19, 2015

Picty Manager for large photo collections

Picty is a free, open-source, and lightweight manager for large photo collections. It is designed around managing metadata and a lossless approach to image handling.

metadata: descriptive and other information about images (created by you, your camera or the programs you use) that are embedded inside image files alongside the pixels.

lossless: by only ever writing information about images, including image processing instructions, as metadata, the original image pixels are never altered allowing you to preserve the images as they were taken on your camera.

Picty is lightweight and has a snappy interface. All the heavy lifting is done on background threads or external processes to ensure the UI never blocks. User is informed of what is going on in the background with progress notifications etc.

Picty Features:

  • Supports big photo collections (20,000 plus images).
  • Open more than one collection at a time and transfer images between them.
  • Collections are:
    • Folders of images in your local file system.
    • Images on cameras, phones and other media devices.
    • Photo hosting services (Flickr currently supported).
  • picty does not “Import” photos into its own database, it simply provides an interface for accessing them wherever they are. To keep things snappy and to allow you to browse even if you are offline, picty maintains a cache of thumbnails and metadata.
  • Reads and writes metadata in industry standard formats Exif, IPTC and Xmp
  • Lossless approach:
    • picty writes all changes including image edits as metadata. e.g. an image crop is stored as any instruction, the original pixels remain in the file
    • Changes are stored in picty’s collection cache until you save your metadata changes to the images. You can easily revert unsaved changes that you don’t like.
  • Basic image editing:
    • Current support for basic image enhancements such as brightness, contrast, color, cropping, and straightening.
    • Improvements to those tools and other tools coming soon (red eye reduction, levels, curves, noise reduction)
  • Image tagging:
    • Use standard IPTC and Xmp keywords for image tags
    • A tag tree view lets you easily manage your tags and navigate your collection
  • Folder view:
    • Navigate the directory heirarchy of your image collection
  • Multi-monitor support
    • picty can be configured to let you browse your collection on one screen and view full screen images on another.
  • Customizable
    • Create launchers for external tools
    • Supports plugins – many of the current features (tagging and folder views, and all of the image editing tools) are provided by plugins
    • Written in python – batteries included!

How to Install Picty in Ubuntu:

The developer maintains a PPA repository contains the latest Picty packages for Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 10.04, and derivatives (Linux Mint 13/17/17.1).

To add the PPA, open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T. When it opens, run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:damien-moore/ppa

Type in your password when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

After you added the PPA, update package cache and install the software by running below two commands one by one:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install picty

For basic raw processing, video thumbnailing, flickr collection, and geotagging support, run command to install below packages:

sudo apt-get install dcraw totem python-gdata python-flickrapi python-osmgpsmap

(Optional) To remove the photo manager as well as PPA repository, run command:

sudo apt-get remove picty && sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:damien-moore/ppa && sudo apt-get update
In App Review, Howtos ,
 

‘Go For It’, A Stylish To-Do List App with Built-in Timer

Last updated: January 3, 2015

Go-For-It is a new and open-source to-do list application available for both Windows and Ubuntu Linux. It features a simple and stylish UI with built-in productivity timer.

To-do lists are stored in the Todo.txt format. This simplifies synchronization with mobile devices and makes it possible to edit tasks using other front-ends.

The developer has created a Youtube video that describes the workflow of this application:

How to Install ‘Go For It’:

The developer, mank319, has built this app into PPA, available for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 15.04 and derivatives.

To add the PPA and install the app, open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T. When it opens, run the commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mank319/go-for-it

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install go-for-it

Or you can simply download & click install the .deb package via Software Center (i386 for 32-bit, amd64 for 64-bit) the matches your OS edition at the PPA packages page.

For Windows version, go to the Go-For-It website.

NOTE: Due to the bug related to Unity Overlay Scrollbars, the background sometimes looks like broken. As a workaround, run command below to edit the app’s shortcut file:

gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/go-for-it.desktop

When the file opens, edit the ‘Exec’ line so that it looks like:

Exec=env LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0 go-for-it

This disables the overlay scrollbars for the single app.

In App Review, Howtos ,
 

pivot – A Cross-platform Photo Organization Tool

Last updated: December 2, 2014

Want to organize your photographs into a proper date and time based directory structure? Pivot is a free and open-source tool that organizes your images from the hard drive or directly from the camera. The organization is mainly based on the creation date and time of the images.

Pivot features:

  • copy photographs and videos from the camera to a pre-selected folder on the hard drive
  • copy photographs and videos from a folder on the hard drive to a pre-selected other folder
  • flexibly setup up the renaming process of the copying, including sub folders creation (e.g. by year and/or album)
  • setup albums based on the creation date of files.
  • adapt time differences of files from different cameras. This includes EXIF meta data adaptation
  • setup multiple destination targets. For instance, one destination is the actual gallery, the other one a backup path. You can:
    • (de-)select every file individually for each destination
    • choose different naming conventions for each destination
  • preview the copy results, before actually copying
  • rename existing files to fit with the newly copied files (only changing of numbering, including changing the number of digits to match the overall number)
  • add comments to files and hence, to the destination copy of the files, as well – if you wish so.
  • adapt a lot of settings to your need
  • remember already copied files. Depending on the settings, these files won’t be copied again.
  • recognize duplicate files based on a MD5 hash. Only one of these duplicate files will be copied – depending on the user settings.
  • recognize file times on different ways, if no meta data is present (i.e. for videos)
  • save adapted file data, as well as album data between sessions
  • take care of raw/jpeg combinations in the way you like (e.g. same numbering)

Screenshots:

Install Pivot Organization Tool in Ubuntu:

The binary package is available in PPA for Ubuntu 14.04. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway 

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install pivot

For those who don’t want to add the PPA, grab the .deb package directly from the ppa page and click to open with Ubuntu Software Center and finally install the software.

(Optional) To remove the PPA as well as the software, run:

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:dhor/myway && sudo apt-get remove pivot

For the detailed descriptions including how to use guide, go to Pivot home page.

In App Review
 

Install HDR Raw Exposure Merging App ‘HDRMerge’ in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: May 31, 2014

HDRMerge is an open source tool that makes merging raw images really simple. It fuses two or more raw images into a single raw with an extended dynamic range. It can import any raw image supported by LibRaw, and outputs a DNG 1.4 image with floating point data. The output raw is built from the less noisy pixels of the input, so that shadows maintain as much detail as possible.

To use this HDRMerge, source images must be made with the same camera. Once the input images are loaded, the interface presents you with a 100% preview of the result. The selected pixels from each input image are painted with a different color. You can then pan the result to inspect it.

This tool also offers a bottom toolbar that allows to remove ‘ghosts’ from the resulting image. Once the preview is satisfactory, the Save HDR option of the File menu generates the output DNG file.

Install HDRMerge in Ubuntu 14.04:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one to install from PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dhor/myway

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install hdrmerge

Once installed, start the GUI via command:

hdrmerge

via: github page

In App Review ,
 

CutePad: A Simple and Rather Pretty Text Editor for Linux

Last updated: February 19, 2014

Dear readers, in this tutorial I’m going to show you a beautiful text editor called CutePad. Never heard of? CutePad is an open-source, simple and rather pretty text editor with some handy features. It’s available for Windows and Linux.

Features:

  • Simple and clean graphical interface.
  • Real fast start up time.
  • Ability to read and write any text document.
  • Can be export the document as PDF format.
  • Insert Images, tables, dates and times easily.
  • Cross platform >> can be used in any Linux or Windows operating system.
  • Keyboard shortcut facilities.
  • Finally it’s modern and cute when comparing to a ordinary text editor.

See some screenshots:

Install CutePad:

The EXE file for Windows and Linux installer (support Ubuntu, Fedora, Net Runner, Slitaz and others) are available in CutePad official download page.

If you’re comfortable with Linux command line, you can follow the steps below to install it:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below to download the Linux installer:

wget serandibsoft.com/uploads/8/3/5/2/8352420/cutepad_linuxbuild_x86.tar

In the code, change x86 to x64 for 64 bit system.

2. Extract the downloaded package:

tar -xf cutepad_linuxbuild*.tar

3. Make the installer executable:

chmod +x CutePad-*-Linux-*-Install

4. Run the installer and follow the setup wizard:

./CutePad-*-Linux-*-Install

Once installed, you can launch this app from Menu or Unity Dash.

In App Review
 

Command Line IRC Client F-IRC 1.31 Released [Ubuntu PPA]

Last updated: January 20, 2014

F-IRC, an irc client for terminals/command-line/console now is at version 1.31 which brings several improvements.

As you may know, F-IRC aims to be as user friendly as possible with easy navigation and keyboard shortcuts for quick navigation. The learning curve should be as shallow as possible.

The latest version F-IRC 1.31 brings below changes:

  • rewrites IRC protocol handling (much more stable)
  • Nicks can now be aligned in a column. You can now add a marker line to see where you left off (this is also automatic when changing channels)
  • An improved configuration editor
  • A tab-completion dictionary
  • Improved scroll-back window navigation. You can now invoke an external program/script when there’s a nick-hit
  • A “headlines” window has been added. You can now set custom highlight words

How to Install F-IRC in Ubuntu:

I’ve uploaded the latest builds to launchpad PPA, so we can easily install the client by running below commands one by one in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install f-irc

Works for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint and their derivatives.

If you don’t like the PPAs, download the DEBs from launchpad page

F-IRC Homepage

In App Review , , ,
 

vpnc-gui: Graphical Tool to Connect to Cisco VPN in Ubuntu

Last updated: January 6, 2014

vpnc-gui is a simple application written in gambas3, it allows us to manage Cisco VPN connections with a convenient graphical front-end in Ubuntu Linux.

With is simple GUI you can:

  • Create vpnc file conf
  • Delete vpnc file conf
  • View vpnc file conf
  • Connect/Disconnect to a vpn Cisco connection

vpnc-gui find the existing .conf file in /etc/vpnc and setup a list of connection. If you want to connect to a vpn you simply choose the connection in the menu and click the “Connect” button.

Screenshots:

This simple application is hosted on sourceforge.net. At the moment, there’s only .DEB package available for Ubuntu / Debian user.

vpnc-gui files | via:lffl.org

In App Review
 

QNetStatView – QT Graphical Network Connections Viewer for Linux

Last updated: December 20, 2013

QNetStatView is a qt networking tool that shows you detailed listings of all TCP and UDP endpoints on your system, including the local and remote addresses and state of TCP connections.

Similar in functionality with Netstat, it has following features:

  • Shows all udp, tcp, udp6 and tcp6 network connections in an automatically refreshed list.
  • The presented information includes protocol names, addresses, connection states along with process information.
  • The connections can be killed or closed.
  • The connections list can be filtered.
  • Works on Windows and Linux

Screenshots:

Install QNetStatView:

DEB packages for Debian / Ubuntu, RPM for SUSE and Fedora are available in this page

For Ubuntu users, download and install the .deb file for Ubuntu 13.10, which also works on Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.04 and Linux Mint.

In App Review
 

FisicaLab, A Physics Education App for Ubuntu Linux

Last updated: December 16, 2013

FisicaLab (can be pronounced as PhysicsLab) is a free and open source educational application to solve physics problems. Its main objective is let the user to focus in physics concepts, leaving aside the mathematical details (FisicaLab take care of them). This allows the user to become familiar with the physical concepts without running the risk of getting lost in mathematical details. And so, when the user gain confidence in applying physical concepts, will be better prepared to solve the problems by hand (with pen and paper). The latest release of FisicaLab have the following modules:

  • Kinematics of particles 2D.
  • Circular kinematics of particles 2D.
  • Static of particles 2D.
  • Static of rigid bodies 2D.
  • Dynamics of particles 2D.
  • Circular dynamics of particles 2D.
  • Heat, calorimetry, ideal gas and expansion.

The static and dynamic problems are entered constructing the free body diagrams of the objects. Although FísicaLab is easy and intuitive, we recommend you read the help files first before set any problem. You can access these files in the option menu Info -> Help (or FisicaLab -> Info -> Help).

See the video:

Install:

Source code, binary and DEB packages are available in official download page

In App Review ,
 

FF Multi Converter Finally Ported to Python3 and PythonMagick

Last updated: December 15, 2013

FF Multi Converter, simple app to convert audio, video, image and document files between all popular formats. It uses ffmpeg for audio/video files, unoconv for document files and PythonMagick library for image file conversions.

FF Multi Converter 1.6.0 was released recently, it has been finally ported to python3 and PythonMagick library replaced by ImageMagick. Users can now pass extra command line parameters for image conversions to the program.
New translations: Italian, Spanish, Chinese (Taiwan) and Malay.

Install ffmulticonverter:

The DEB packages for Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint will be available soon in this page or the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ffmulticonverter/stable

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install ffmulticonverter

Once installed, open it from Unity Dash or Menu.

In App Review ,