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31 gennaio 2009

Graphjam


Graphjam, probably one of the most funny sites on the net.

24 gennaio 2009

Join / Merge pdf files in Linux

Linux does a lot of things out-of-the-box, just like a Mac. Essentially, unlike a Mac, Linux isn't boxed, and viceversa does a lot of things more than a Mac. It just lacks the sheer semplicity of Mac.

To join pdf use GhostScript. I tried successfully on my Ubuntu 8.10 machine.

(citation from linux.com)

gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -q -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=finished.pdf file1.pdf file2.pdf

Unless you're very familiar with Ghostscript, that string of commands won't mean much to you. Here's a quick breakdown:

  • gs -- starts the Ghostscript program
  • -dBATCH -- once Ghostscript processes the PDF files, it should exit. If you don't include this option, Ghostscript will just keep running
  • -dNOPAUSE -- forces Ghostscript to process each page without pausing for user interaction
  • -q -- stops Ghostscript from displaying messages while it works
  • -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -- tells Ghostscript to use its built-in PDF writer to process the files
  • -sOutputFile=finished.pdf -- tells Ghostscript to save the combined PDF file with the name that you specified
Obviously the operation is not limited to two files. I merged 12 files in a matter of seconds with a single command line. Yes, it supports wildcards.

gs -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -q -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=finished.pdf *.pdf

13 gennaio 2009

Australian do it worst


A land where is born the great Clinton Forbes cannot be so bad.

But Australia government pissed me twice recently:
1) Forcing the ISPs to implement a sort of Internet filtering that simply isn't going to work.
2) Refusing atheist's ads on their buses.

This isn't free speech. This is not even in the neighborhood of the free speech. You are insulting humanity as a whole.

Ok, Australians, let's make a deal: you don't insult me because of the government of my State, and I promise to do the same.