Applying effects to an image with Flex ConvolutionFilter
Post by efox | Date: 2009-03-10
Like the ColorMatrixFilter, the ConvolutionFilter also uses a matrix to change the image but in this case the matrix can be any size. There are a number of factors that affect performance and they are outlined in the Flex documentation. The most common matrix you will use is a 3x3 matrix. Applying effects is basically the same as applying color effects - you create a filter and add it to the filters array of the display object. Here is the example shows three effects: emboss, sharpen and edge detection.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="vertical"
creationComplete="transformImage()" verticalScrollPolicy="off" horizontalScrollPolicy="off">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
[Bindable]
[Embed(source="images/demo.jpg")]
private var demoImage:Class;
Tags: Flex effects emboss sharpen edge detection
BitRipper: DVD ripping program convert DVDs to AVI or Mpeg in a single step
Post by Voex | Date: 2009-03-09
BitRipper is free program now that allows you to back-up your DVD's as AVI files on your hard drive. It can be used for one-click DVD ripping as good as for advanced modes. It is an integrated DVD ripping and conversion program that provides AVI or Mpeg creation from DVDs in a single step.
BitRipper recently became freeware. Here is some good features of this program:
- Support any DVDs: BitRipper supports most commercial, copy-protected DVDs.
- Decrypts and converts: combines the DVD decryption and conversion processes, so that you no longer have to think of these as two distinct parts requiring different programs. More convenient but also will save you a lot of time and manual involvement with the process.
- Extreme simplicity: You don't need to be computer expert to convert a DVD using bitRipper, all you should do is to insert disc and click a button.
- Convert all parts of a track at once: BitRipper will allow you to select all tracks within a DVD at once. This is very useful, especially when you want to convert all episodes of a TV series at once into a single AVI.
- Codecs included: installing BitRipper will also install a number of codecs that you need to perform a conversion, but the program will also use any codecs that you might have pre-installed on your system. I would advise downloading and using the LAME MP3 codec which provides better audio quality options than the included MP3 codec.
- Audio normalization: you can easily adjust audio volume from the main conversion interface.
- Compression: use the Xvid video and Mp3 audio codecs for high compression.
Photoree: a photo recommendation service - quickly find photos you like
Post by Voex | Date: 2009-03-07
Photoree is a web-based image bookmarking and recommendation system. It is based on a database of more than 1 million indexed images. Photoree can learn what kind of images that the user likes by serving images and making a simple "thumbs up", "thumbs down" or no rating, and can use this information to point the user to images/photographs that it thinks he/she will like.
Maybe you frequently find yourself downloading cool photography or wallpaper, If so then you probably visit Flickr. The only problem is that it will consume you lots of time to surf Flickr in order to find the best photos. with Photoree - recommendation system for images and photographs, you will get nice images easily. Here are more useful features of this web service:
- Photo/image database: this site stats that It has a database with more than 1 million photos indexed. All images are linked to their page on Flickr, where you can find out more information if you need.
- View favorites: you can view your favorite photos as pages of thumbnails in a grid, and can either share them with everyone, with people who have registered with Photoree only, with your contacts only, or just yourself. Note that you can add people as contacts very easily.
- Rating: Photoree will serve images to you based on what it learned from your previous ratings. Images which you "thumbs up" will be saved in your favorites. Curiously, once you rate an image up or down Photoree will let you skip rating a couple of images but will force you to make a judgment call after that, which feels weird at times but certainly makes the process more efficient.
- Stats: once you make 100 ratings Photoree will present you some stats.
Tags: web-based photography engine
Extract text from PDF, DOC, RTF, CHM, HTML - Text Mining Tool
Post by Voex | Date: 2009-03-05
Text Mining Tool is a freeware program that can extract text from PDF, DOC, RTF, CHM and HTML files without need to have installed any programs that can open these files, such as Word or PDF reader. All you have to do is load the source file and it will extract the text and display it for you, after which you can either save the text file or copy it into the clipboard. just with a single click.
The good feature of the program is that it support most popular document formats includes HTML web pages, both DOC and RTF document formats from Microsoft Word and others like Open Office, Windows Help files ending in CHM, and portable documents using PDF format.
If you want to extract text from above mentioned file formats, and don't want to install any programs or have to open these programs and then manually go through the process of text grabbing, Text Mining Tool can do it all for you. you can extract text from these formats either quickly and easily.
Tags: PDF CHM extract text
