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WLUG Meeting: Oct 10th 2019 Topic: CAD on linux!

by Tim Keller

Hey Everybody, We've got a meeting next week! Date & Time: Oct 10th, 2019 at 7PM Location: WPI Rec Center Room Rom 412 (Class of '61 conference room) Topic: Round table on CAD software for linux. This month we're going to talk about the plethora of FOSS and otherwise options for doing Computer Aided Drafting on linux. Logan Brown has offered to speak about OpenSCAD Frank Sweetser will be talking about TinkerCAD I will be talking about FreeCAD We'll also gloss over LeoCAD and a few other cad products as well. This is a round table, so if you have a piece of cad software on linux you love feel free to speak up! Refreshments and Snacks will be provided and afterwards we'll head off for dinner. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Oct. 4, 2019

Linux in the wild

by Richard Klein

Seen on Nextdoor (lost cat): https://nextdoor.com/post/125096592?init_source=copy_link_share -- Rich

Sept. 26, 2019

Re: Thanks for a great meeting last night!

by Keith Wright

John Stoffel via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > It was a really fun meeting, bummer we didn't have > the CAD discussion, but happy about the storage discussion. After I got into a gun fight with the police it was difficult to pay attention. They kept talking about tera-bytes, but I am still a bit future-shocked from when my ex-new-boss told me that the programs I would be paid to write had to work with a giga-byte of important data...and when I actually bought a mega-byte for my own home. Real programmers code for 64K. > Subject: [WLUG] Becoming a brick-and-mortar Linux vendor > From: Joshua Stone via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> > > I've been wondering about with Linux as a desktop > platform if one were to run a business around selling > machines that're built with it in mind. I had a similar idea about 20 years ago. I rented a store-front in south-east Worcester and did it for a few years. I didn't make much money, but I didn't lose much either. The remaining fragments of that business exist as a web page: http://www.free-comp-shop.com/ I used to have a book about starting a business in Massachusetts, maybe I can find it. It's probably far out of date. You need to know the laws about collecting sales tax and reporting and remitting to the state. -- Keith Wright, Programmer in Chief, Free Computer Shop

Sept. 26, 2019

Re: Becoming a brick-and-mortar Linux vendor

by Mike Peckar

Here's my take Following on the FOSS model, you may want to set up a shop offering free services at an incubator like technocopia.org. This may then become a stepping stone to more commercial opportunities. Hope this helps. Mike On Tue, Sep 24, 2019 at 11:42 PM Joshua Stone via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > Hey everyone, > > I'm sure we all know how successful Linux is across different markets > today, but I've been wondering about with Linux as a desktop platform > if one were to run a business around selling machines that're built > with it in mind. > > The market for online retailers selling devices shipping Linux already > seems diverse enough, but I don't know of any successful brick-and- > mortar stores selling these devices. I think there could be some > advantages to this, including: > > - Spreading awareness about Linux and the FOSS community > - Providing on-site troubleshooting and consultation > - Demonstrating different form factors such as Raspberry Pi, Steam OS > machines, workstation etc > - Providing a physical location for workshops, LUGs, and other meetups > - Having a one-stop shop for hardware that's already known to work on > Linux such as USB DACs, wifi adapters, etc > - Generally act as a community center for computer enthusiasts > - Partnering with pre-existing online vendors so customers can test > their hardware in-store > > Jumping into a business such as this does sound risky though, seeing as > the Linux crowd is generally very hands-on about computers they > purchase and are willing to fix problems on their own. There are also > many hurdles that the ecosystem has to catch up on in order to be > competitive with applications found only on Windows and/or macOS. That > being said, I think I'm still curious to see how much interest there > would be in selling a platform around desktop Linux in a brick-and- > mortar store with an experience similar to Microsoft and Apple stores. > It would certainly help for attracting new users with a more integrated > approach that we've come to expect from other platforms, and I think > we're in a pretty good position these days for seeing growth. > > I'd also like to say that I have no experience in marketing, so I > wouldn't know where to start with doing anything like market research > or studies, so I'm eager to hear any suggestions for how to gauge the > potential for a business idea such as this. > > More than happy to hear what everyone else thinks! > > Sincerely, > > -Josh > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >

Sept. 25, 2019

Becoming a brick-and-mortar Linux vendor

by Joshua Stone

Hey everyone, I'm sure we all know how successful Linux is across different markets today, but I've been wondering about with Linux as a desktop platform if one were to run a business around selling machines that're built with it in mind. The market for online retailers selling devices shipping Linux already seems diverse enough, but I don't know of any successful brick-and- mortar stores selling these devices. I think there could be some advantages to this, including: - Spreading awareness about Linux and the FOSS community - Providing on-site troubleshooting and consultation - Demonstrating different form factors such as Raspberry Pi, Steam OS machines, workstation etc - Providing a physical location for workshops, LUGs, and other meetups - Having a one-stop shop for hardware that's already known to work on Linux such as USB DACs, wifi adapters, etc - Generally act as a community center for computer enthusiasts - Partnering with pre-existing online vendors so customers can test their hardware in-store Jumping into a business such as this does sound risky though, seeing as the Linux crowd is generally very hands-on about computers they purchase and are willing to fix problems on their own. There are also many hurdles that the ecosystem has to catch up on in order to be competitive with applications found only on Windows and/or macOS. That being said, I think I'm still curious to see how much interest there would be in selling a platform around desktop Linux in a brick-and- mortar store with an experience similar to Microsoft and Apple stores. It would certainly help for attracting new users with a more integrated approach that we've come to expect from other platforms, and I think we're in a pretty good position these days for seeing growth. I'd also like to say that I have no experience in marketing, so I wouldn't know where to start with doing anything like market research or studies, so I'm eager to hear any suggestions for how to gauge the potential for a business idea such as this. More than happy to hear what everyone else thinks! Sincerely, -Josh

Sept. 25, 2019

Re: Thanks for a great meeting last night!

by John Stoffel

>>>>> "Richard" == Richard Klein via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: Richard> Shoot! I didn't have the meeting on my calendar! I'll add the next one now. It was a really fun meeting, bummer we didn't have the CAD discussion, but happy about the storage discussion.

Sept. 14, 2019

Re: Thanks for a great meeting last night!

by Richard Klein

Shoot! I didn't have the meeting on my calendar! I'll add the next one now. -- Rich On Fri, Sep 13, 2019 at 1:09 PM Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > As usual at WLUG, we went off on a tangent and it was amazing.. What > started out as a side conversation about storage technologies turned into > 1.5 hour conversation about LVM / ZFS on Linux / Ceph / GlusterFS / > Synology / FreeNAS / NetAPP and the general philosophies around managing > scalable storage at home and in the enterprise! > > This conversation continued at the Boynton and was great fun! > > Next meeting is the 10th of October! > > Later, > Tim. > > -- > I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their > constituents as "consumers". > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >

Sept. 13, 2019

Thanks for a great meeting last night!

by Tim Keller

As usual at WLUG, we went off on a tangent and it was amazing.. What started out as a side conversation about storage technologies turned into 1.5 hour conversation about LVM / ZFS on Linux / Ceph / GlusterFS / Synology / FreeNAS / NetAPP and the general philosophies around managing scalable storage at home and in the enterprise! This conversation continued at the Boynton and was great fun! Next meeting is the 10th of October! Later, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Sept. 13, 2019

September WLUG Meeting Announcement!

by Tim Keller

Hey Everybody, We've got a meeting next week! Date: September 12, 2019 Time: 7pm Location: WPI Campus Center Mid-Century Room (rm 331) aka. the usual haunt Topic: Tinkercad codeblocks and more! I know that a few of us have tinkered with and enjoy using OpenSCAD. However, for many users the learning curve is REALLY steep and this steep learning curve has kept many users away from programmatic shape generation for 3d modeling. Basically writing code to generate a shape. At our last meeting Frank Sweetser showed off something really cool, which is that Tinkercad has now integrated a "scratch" like language into Tinkercad. At this meeting someone will be giving a demo of this. I think we would be remiss if we didn't talk about exFAT and Microsoft's decision to open the patents on it. It *sounds* like we may have exFAT becoming a first class citizen on linux. Is this Microsoft playing some long game of embrace, extend, extinguish or are we moving towards some wild convergence point? In that is the interesting conversation where we think linux will be in another ten years and for that matter Microsoft. As usual, snacks and refreshments will be provided and afterwards we'll head off for dinner and fall deeper down the rabbit hole! Later, Tim. WLUG President -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Sept. 5, 2019

Sr Linux Software Engineer opening

by John Spencer

Connected Systems has a client with a perm/direct hire opening for the following: As a Senior Linux Software Engineer with this group on Cape Cod, you will be working on the embedded software and firmware development and enhancements of a new IoT system platform. Please note our client will consider candidates who can work on-site 1-2 days/week. We're seeking candidates that have the ability to modify kernels and drivers on Linux based systems. A candidate will also ideally have some form of wireless, wifi or Bluetooth product experience. 10+ years of Linux programming with C++/C coding for Firmware development Strong experience with Linux systems, Linux Kernels, Linux Drivers and security programming Experience with Wireless, Wifi, or Bluetooth (BLE) based technology Bonus points for candidates experienced in Yocto Linux or Systems Architecture Please Note : All candidates must be US Citizens or US Greencards. Our client cannot sponsor visas. Salary up to $150K will be considered. Please send your resume and any questions to me directly. Regards, John Spencer Connected Systems Partners Office: (978) 455-5550 x208 Cell: (978) 621-9743 jspencer(a)connectedsp.com www.connectedsp.com GET CONNECTED! All information in this email, unless indicated otherwise in the body of the email, is considered confidential and intended for the view and use of the recipient(s) only.

Sept. 3, 2019

Re: August WLUG meeting reminder!!

by Tim Keller

Keith, If your up for it, I can pick you up at your house. Otherwise, we need to up our streaming game! In any case, I hope you feel better soon. Later, Tim. On Thu, Aug 15, 2019 at 2:39 PM Keith Wright via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > > > Hey fellow WLUG'ers! > > > > We've got a meeting this Thursday August 15th! > > Keep the faith. I had planned to be there, > but I fell and sprained my ankle. > Getting between the bed, bathroom, and armchair, > is about all the moving I want to do. > > I haven't fogotten you and I hope to see you next month. > > -- Keith > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Aug. 15, 2019

Re: August WLUG meeting reminder!!

by Keith Wright

Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > Hey fellow WLUG'ers! > > We've got a meeting this Thursday August 15th! Keep the faith. I had planned to be there, but I fell and sprained my ankle. Getting between the bed, bathroom, and armchair, is about all the moving I want to do. I haven't fogotten you and I hope to see you next month. -- Keith

Aug. 15, 2019

Re: Comparing distro packages

by Dennis Payne

I know openalchemist is there. I have it installed. I maintain ostrichriders and btbuilder. I alerted the maintainer of shippy to my updated version of that program. What I'm interested in knowing, is when something is included in Fedora but not Debian. This doesn't have to be limited to Fedora and Debian. They just happen to be the ones I'm looking at. If you give a demo of say openalchemist at a user group meeting, it would be nice to be able to say it is available on Fedora and FreeBSD but not Debian. There is a PPA for Ubuntu. I stumbled on this wiki page for Debian which compared it to Fedora 20 but I have no idea how up to date it is: https://wiki.debian.org/Games/FedoraGamesNotInDebian On Tue, 2019-08-13 at 15:23 +0000, Anderson, Charles R via WLUG wrote: > openalchemist has recent builds in Fedora: > > https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=7009 > > shippy, ostrichriders, btbuilder are all there as well. > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org

Aug. 13, 2019

Re: Comparing distro packages

by Anderson, Charles R

On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 08:54:56AM -0400, Dennis Payne via WLUG wrote: > I wanted to know if OpenAlchemist is included in Debian. During my > searching I found distrowatch has the ability to compare packages from > distributions. I pull up Fedora and Debian. > > https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=compare-packages&firstlist=fedor… > > Fedora's list of packages doesn't include OpenAlchemist. Nor does it > include shippy, ostrichriders, and btbuilder. Clearly this isn't a > complete list. Am I doing something wrong on distrowatch? Is there a > different way to do the same thing? openalchemist has recent builds in Fedora: https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=7009 shippy, ostrichriders, btbuilder are all there as well.

Aug. 13, 2019

Comparing distro packages

by Dennis Payne

I wanted to know if OpenAlchemist is included in Debian. During my searching I found distrowatch has the ability to compare packages from distributions. I pull up Fedora and Debian. https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=compare-packages&firstlist=fedor… Fedora's list of packages doesn't include OpenAlchemist. Nor does it include shippy, ostrichriders, and btbuilder. Clearly this isn't a complete list. Am I doing something wrong on distrowatch? Is there a different way to do the same thing?

Aug. 13, 2019

August WLUG meeting reminder!!

by Tim Keller

Hey fellow WLUG'ers! We've got a meeting this Thursday August 15th! Space and time: WPI student center mid century room (rm 331) aka "the usual haunt" at 7pm. Topic: general discussion / using linux to drive a Curio die cut machine. San is and refreshments will be provided and afterwards we'll head off for dinner to continue the conversation. See ya there! Tim Keller WLUG President

Aug. 13, 2019

Re: Next Meeting moved to August 15th 2019

by Richard Klein

Do we know what room the meeting will be in yet? On Tue, Aug 6, 2019 at 5:54 PM Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > Hey Gang, > > I'm going to move the meeting to August 15th. > > If you've got a topic idea, let me know. Otherwise, we can either do an > open topic meeting. > > Thanks, > Tim. > -- > I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their > constituents as "consumers". > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >

Aug. 12, 2019

Re: August 15th 2019 and/or GIMP resizing/crop ideas

by Doug Mildram

doug/OP> yay, ideas! Boo/delay: learning curve. Thing1: Found xnconvert is already on my linux Mint system, but havent figured out how to use it yet ( dont wanna crop via X/Y/Width/Height coordinates, i suspect if I get smarter it will let me crop via mouse.....) Thing2: Found caesium and/or caesiumPH is free compile-able software, if I knew how to compile it I'd try it, since it mentions no-pixel-loss compression in caesiumPH. I'm Qt-clueless however; ~/CaesiumPH-0.9.5-beta$ AUTHORS.md CaesiumPH.pro CHANGELOG.md icons/ icons.qrc LICENSE qss/ qt.conf README.md src/ style.qrc TODO.md translations/ doug> README says/includes...a bit more but below are the best hints: ##### REQUIREMENTS * [mozjpeg](https://github.com/mozilla/mozjpeg) * [Exiv2](http://www.exiv2.org/) ---------- ##### TESTED PLATFORMS * MacOSX El Capitan (v. 10.11.1) * Windows 10 64 bit * ArchLinux ---------- ##### INSTALLATION Binaries can be found at [GitHub]( https://github.com/Lymphatus/CaesiumPH/releases/latest) Linux source code must be compiled using Qt5.5. doug> ~/CaesiumPH-0.9.5-beta$ l src aboutdialog.cpp cimageinfo.h lossless.h* qdroptreewidget.cpp* aboutdialog.h cphlist.cpp main.cpp qdroptreewidget.h* aboutdialog.ui cphlist.h networkoperations.cpp utils.cpp caesiumph.cpp ctreewidgetitem.h networkoperations.h utils.h caesiumph.h exif.cpp preferencedialog.cpp caesiumph.ui exif.h preferencedialog.h cimageinfo.cpp lossless.cpp* preferencedialog.ui doug> Tempted to try binaries and/or learn Qt ( src/main.cpp clearly needs it w/o teaching me anything) ...................gotta run for now. Thanks ongoing. On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 10:02 AM Joseph G via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > Hello Richard, > > Have you taken a look at these? > > https://www.xnview.com/en/xnconvert/ > https://saerasoft.com/caesium/ > > Enjoy your weekend, > Joe > > > On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 9:37 AM Richard Klein via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> > wrote: > >> How do PNG files compare? >> >> On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 8:05 AM Doug Mildram via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> >> wrote: >> >>> doug> I have a topic idea and/OR question-for-list-here+now, but only >>> half a clue; >>> I seek the Grail (our group's collective mind meld) on.... >>> >>> Resizing/cropping images efficiently w/r/t >>> ( a) my time to perform the file manipuation, and >>> (b) efficient+good JPG compression/filesize-shrinking. >>> >>> In my nearly-abandoned Windows-OS world, I had/have an obscure tool >>> ACDSee >>> which I paid $10-20 for, 25 yrs ago ! (still avail for windows >>> only) which.... >>> >>> --- is very easy/quick to use in my opinion >>> --- does an easy image rotation if needed >>> --- does an easy crop-and-save (the main feature for me) >>> --- magically, without asking about quality/compression? DOES COMPRESS >>> Very Well: >>> .... I can crop most images (eg typical smartphone jpg around 4mb >>> for example, >>> ........ I can crop most of it and save with a typical result = >>> 10-20% of original file size = 400-800k >>> ........... and you wouldn't believe how good the 10%-smaller image >>> tends to look. >>> >>> GIMP can do these, except seems to lack the magical quality of ACDSee >>> for a downsize. >>> >>> while doing GIMP's Crop first, then Export to JPG, GIMP Export asks for >>> a QUALITY in the 1-100% range, >>> if I choose 10% I do get a 400k file, but it's grainy as you might >>> expect, >>> and I wonder how ACDSee does such superior compression with barely any >>> loss/grainy result. -------doug >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org >>> To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org >> To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >> > > ) > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >

Aug. 10, 2019

Sr or Prin Linux Drivers/kernel job

by John Spencer

Connected Systems has a perm/direct hire opening for a Sr or Principle Embedded Software Engineer with our client in Boston. You be able to work on-site in Boston, with occasional off-site as an option. GREAT opportunity to work with a successful and growing company on interesting products. Work with existing team to get current product released to the market. As soon as that work is done, next project will involve design and development of next generation products. Must have a strong background with C and be an expert with embedded Linux Must be able to work at the Linux driver and kernel level Must have multi-threaded experience Must have microprocessor/microcontroller experience as well (ARM is helpful) Experience with C++ and experience working in the lab. Regards, John Spencer Connected Systems Partners Office: (978) 455-5550 x208 Cell: (978) 621-9743 jspencer(a)connectedsp.com www.connectedsp.com GET CONNECTED! All information in this email, unless indicated otherwise in the body of the email, is considered confidential and intended for the view and use of the recipient(s) only.

Aug. 9, 2019

Re: Best place to look for webcam drivers

by Richard Klein

Output from v4l2-ctl -l: > User Controls > > brightness 0x00980900 (int) : min=0 max=255 step=1 default=128 value=128 flags=slider > contrast 0x00980901 (int) : min=0 max=255 step=1 default=128 value=128 flags=slider > gamma 0x00980910 (int) : min=1 max=6 step=1 default=3 value=3 flags=slider > gain_automatic 0x00980912 (bool) : default=1 value=1 > power_line_frequency 0x00980918 (menu) : min=0 max=2 default=0 value=0 > sharpness 0x0098091b (int) : min=0 max=3 step=1 default=2 value=2 flags=slider > > JPEG Compression Controls > > compression_quality 0x009d0903 (int) : min=50 max=87 step=1 default=75 value=75 Output from v4l2-ctl -D: > Driver Info (not using libv4l2): > Driver name : gspca_zc3xx > Card type : USB Camera (041e:4051) > Bus info : usb-0000:00:1d.3-1 > Driver version: 4.15.18 > Capabilities : 0x85200001 > Video Capture > Read/Write > Streaming > Extended Pix Format > Device Capabilities > Device Caps : 0x05200001 > Video Capture > Read/Write > Streaming > Extended Pix Format Maybe "(not using libv4l2):" is my problem? Do I need a webcam app that specifically supports gspca? Anyway, I added myself to the 'video' group and ran Cheese. Since I was already in the terminal, I ran Cheese from the command line instead of from the GUI, like I usually do, and I was rewarded with some extra output (editing out some irrelevant lines): > Xlib: extension "RANDR" missing on display ":0". > (cheese:8484): cheese-CRITICAL **: 10:26:20.051: cheese_camera_device_get_name: assertion 'CHEESE_IS_CAMERA_DEVICE (device)' failed Cheese still didn't find a video device, and I got the same results running it as root. On Thu, Aug 8, 2019 at 4:59 PM John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org> wrote: > >>>>> "Richard" == Richard Klein <rich(a)richardklein.org> writes: > > Richard> Hmm... > Richard> From lsusb: > Richard> Bus 005 Device 003: ID 041e:4051 Creative Technology, Ltd Live! > Cam Notebook Pro [VF0250] > > So it sees it ok as a USB device > > Richard> And from v4l2-ctl: > Richard> USB Camera (041e:4051) (usb-0000:00:1d.3-1): > Richard> /dev/video0 > > And it finds it properly. Maybe you can do: > > v4l2-ctl -l /dev/video0 > > and see what controls is offers. Or try the -D option. See the man > page for things to try. > > Richard> But the webcam app I installed (Cheese) detects no device. > > Did you check the permissions of /dev/video? Does 'cheese' have the > permissions to open the file? Try running as root, or adding your > account to the 'video' group. > > John >

Aug. 9, 2019

Re: August 15th 2019 and/or GIMP resizing/crop ideas

by Joseph G

Hello Richard, Have you taken a look at these? https://www.xnview.com/en/xnconvert/ https://saerasoft.com/caesium/ Enjoy your weekend, Joe On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 9:37 AM Richard Klein via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > How do PNG files compare? > > On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 8:05 AM Doug Mildram via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> > wrote: > >> doug> I have a topic idea and/OR question-for-list-here+now, but only >> half a clue; >> I seek the Grail (our group's collective mind meld) on.... >> >> Resizing/cropping images efficiently w/r/t >> ( a) my time to perform the file manipuation, and >> (b) efficient+good JPG compression/filesize-shrinking. >> >> In my nearly-abandoned Windows-OS world, I had/have an obscure tool >> ACDSee >> which I paid $10-20 for, 25 yrs ago ! (still avail for windows >> only) which.... >> >> --- is very easy/quick to use in my opinion >> --- does an easy image rotation if needed >> --- does an easy crop-and-save (the main feature for me) >> --- magically, without asking about quality/compression? DOES COMPRESS >> Very Well: >> .... I can crop most images (eg typical smartphone jpg around 4mb >> for example, >> ........ I can crop most of it and save with a typical result = >> 10-20% of original file size = 400-800k >> ........... and you wouldn't believe how good the 10%-smaller image >> tends to look. >> >> GIMP can do these, except seems to lack the magical quality of ACDSee >> for a downsize. >> >> while doing GIMP's Crop first, then Export to JPG, GIMP Export asks for >> a QUALITY in the 1-100% range, >> if I choose 10% I do get a 400k file, but it's grainy as you might expect, >> and I wonder how ACDSee does such superior compression with barely any >> loss/grainy result. -------doug >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org >> To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >> > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > )

Aug. 9, 2019

Re: August 15th 2019 and/or GIMP resizing/crop ideas

by Richard Klein

How do PNG files compare? On Fri, Aug 9, 2019 at 8:05 AM Doug Mildram via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > doug> I have a topic idea and/OR question-for-list-here+now, but only half > a clue; > I seek the Grail (our group's collective mind meld) on.... > > Resizing/cropping images efficiently w/r/t > ( a) my time to perform the file manipuation, and > (b) efficient+good JPG compression/filesize-shrinking. > > In my nearly-abandoned Windows-OS world, I had/have an obscure tool > ACDSee > which I paid $10-20 for, 25 yrs ago ! (still avail for windows only) > which.... > > --- is very easy/quick to use in my opinion > --- does an easy image rotation if needed > --- does an easy crop-and-save (the main feature for me) > --- magically, without asking about quality/compression? DOES COMPRESS > Very Well: > .... I can crop most images (eg typical smartphone jpg around 4mb > for example, > ........ I can crop most of it and save with a typical result = > 10-20% of original file size = 400-800k > ........... and you wouldn't believe how good the 10%-smaller image > tends to look. > > GIMP can do these, except seems to lack the magical quality of ACDSee for > a downsize. > > while doing GIMP's Crop first, then Export to JPG, GIMP Export asks for a > QUALITY in the 1-100% range, > if I choose 10% I do get a 400k file, but it's grainy as you might expect, > and I wonder how ACDSee does such superior compression with barely any > loss/grainy result. -------doug > > > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >

Aug. 9, 2019

Re: August 15th 2019 and/or GIMP resizing/crop ideas

by Doug Mildram

doug> I have a topic idea and/OR question-for-list-here+now, but only half a clue; I seek the Grail (our group's collective mind meld) on.... Resizing/cropping images efficiently w/r/t ( a) my time to perform the file manipuation, and (b) efficient+good JPG compression/filesize-shrinking. In my nearly-abandoned Windows-OS world, I had/have an obscure tool ACDSee which I paid $10-20 for, 25 yrs ago ! (still avail for windows only) which.... --- is very easy/quick to use in my opinion --- does an easy image rotation if needed --- does an easy crop-and-save (the main feature for me) --- magically, without asking about quality/compression? DOES COMPRESS Very Well: .... I can crop most images (eg typical smartphone jpg around 4mb for example, ........ I can crop most of it and save with a typical result = 10-20% of original file size = 400-800k ........... and you wouldn't believe how good the 10%-smaller image tends to look. GIMP can do these, except seems to lack the magical quality of ACDSee for a downsize. while doing GIMP's Crop first, then Export to JPG, GIMP Export asks for a QUALITY in the 1-100% range, if I choose 10% I do get a 400k file, but it's grainy as you might expect, and I wonder how ACDSee does such superior compression with barely any loss/grainy result. -------doug

Aug. 9, 2019

Re: Best place to look for webcam drivers

by John Stoffel

Richard> I picked up a Creative Labs model VF0250 webcam, but V4L Richard> isn't detecting any devices. I googled it and it looks like Richard> gspca supported this model, but it also looks like gspca was Richard> abandoned years ago. Where would you look for answers? I'd probably spin up an old version of Linux which had that driver and see how it works on there. But in reality I'd probably dump it if it's not supported. Just looking on the web I see that Creative hasn't really released any updated drivers. But... looking also on the Linux Kernel 5.3 page, it looks like this might still be supported. https://linuxtv.org/downloads/v4l-dvb-apis/v4l-drivers/gspca-cardlist.html Can you show the output of 'lsusb' when it's hooked into your system? And what exact version of Mint are you running? Install the v4l-utils package and then do: v4l2-ctl --list-devices once you have the USB camera installed and see what it says. John

Aug. 7, 2019

Next Meeting moved to August 15th 2019

by Tim Keller

Hey Gang, I'm going to move the meeting to August 15th. If you've got a topic idea, let me know. Otherwise, we can either do an open topic meeting. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Aug. 6, 2019