chewearn's blog

What’s new

• Get rid of OpenOffice Calc Delete Contents dialogbox

  8 February 2010 Comments (0)

  I have been using OpenOffice Calc a lot and one annoyance I faced is the “Delete Contents” dialogbox. In the beginning, I tolerated this quirk of the program, but after more than a year of clicking “Delete all” checkbox followed by “OK” button, I have had enough.
  Setting aside the question why this idiotic feature [...]

• Create no frills pictures slideshow

  25 January 2010 Comments (0)

  Question
  I have a few hundred pictures of various sizes, which I want to convert into a slideshow movie. What is a fast, no frills way to do this?
  Pre-requisites
  You would need to following:
  imagemagick
  mencoder
  Install using this command:
  sudo apt-get install imagemagick mencoder
  Or click here (imagemagick) and here (mencoder)
  Make pictures same sized
  Let’s say you want the final slideshow [...]

• Find window ID of a process ID in BASH script

  18 January 2010 Comments (0)

  Question
  In a BASH script, I launched an application and use “$!” variable to grab it’s process ID. I would like to perform some action on the application’s main window (e.g. move or resize it). However, this requires knowing the application’s window ID. How do I find the application’s window ID, using only [...]

• Pony Express faster than broadband

  13 September 2009 Comments (0)

  Last Thursday, a news story appeared on BBC titled SA pigeon “faster than broadband”. When I first read it, I thought it’s an interesting story, and oddly funny. Then, I went “meh”, so what? The pigeon has the unfair advantage in the form of (relatively) high tech 4GB memory stick. Instead, [...]

• Repairing broken watch strap

  7 July 2009 Comments (2)

  The strap of my old $10 watch broke. I could spend another $10 to get a new cheap watch, but I figured I should save that for my next two meals. Instead, I took out $1 for a tube of superglue, rolled up my sleeves and start tinkering.

• USB hub off the side of my desk

  2 July 2009 Comments (0)

  For a while now, one of my PC has been throw fits at the most irritating moments. It started mildly a few months ago. Randomly about once every few days, the PC would locked up hard. Only a full main power recycle would revive it. I put off trying to fix [...]

• Neighbourhood park

  29 June 2009 Comments (0)

  While taking a long walk around the neighbourhood, I stumbled on a small park hidden among the apartment buildings. It was late afternoon on a weekday; there were few people around, but plenty of mosquitoes.

• Woof

  22 June 2009 Comments (2)

  Woof! Woof woof woof woof woof woof woof… Woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof… whine…

• Changi Boardwalk Singapore

  4 May 2009 Comments (0)

  Changi Boardwalk is located on the north eastern side of the island. Across the straits is Pulau Ubin.

• Tale of a shoe company

  27 April 2009 Comments (0)

  Overheard at a Pasar Malam, as narrated by a TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) master. I paraphrased the story and replaced a few details, but the moral of the story remained unchanged.
  Once upon a time…
  A shoe company was looking to expand it’s business into a new country. Before entering the new market, it sent [...]