Naveen's Blog

I was scanning a book and wanted to make a PDF from all the scanned images. I searched the SourceForge and found this tiny software, which worked perfectly. I was able to turn all the images into a nice PDF.

This tool is called “Image2PDF,” a project on SourceForge. It is a free software. It is a Java-based command line tool. It also has option to rotate the image to best fit the image. You can specify if the images be turned to landscape or portrait while converting into PDF.

Usage: img2pdf [options] {image file name} [[options] {image file name...}] {output PDF file name}

Options:
-landscape        Force subsequent pages to landscape orientation.
-portrait         Force subsequent pages to portrait orientation.
-noimagerotate    Don't rotate the image orientation to best fit on the page.
-autoorientation  Force subsequent pages to portrait orientation. (Default)
-autoimagerotate  Rotate the image orientation to best fit on the page. (Default)

For example, if you have put this single .exe file into a “Test” directory in “C” drive, you need to put all images into that and supply the below command (of course, you need to be in the command line window and change the directory to C:\Test):  Assuming here all are jpg files.

img2pdf *.jpg MyBook.pdf

The above command will convert all jpg files in the C:\Test directory into MyBook.pdf

If you have trouble with this command line stuff, post queries in the Comments and I will answer them.

Today, I had to join around 20 .wav audio files into one. I have downloaded few free software and tested. The best one I have chosen is All Free mp3 Joiner with lots of options. It can convert files between various formats. Even, you can merge audio files of various formats and convert them into one format at a click. It can export the files into .wav, .ogg, .mp3, .wma. You can also change channels, sample rate, and bit depth. You can drag the files up or down to rearrange the order.

Get it here: http://www.allfreevideoconverter.com/freemp3joiner/index.html

I needed a US phone number to register with a site as it only allows the people from US with a valid US phone number. We can use a US proxy to bypass the country limit, but how can we get a US phone number?

I know that for a fee, I can get a US phone number from Skype, but I wanted a free one as I will receive call only once. I ran searches in Google to find a free phone service. There were lot of suggestions, which does not work well. Some were not working and some sites disappeared. Some methods required me to register with a free SIP provider and then forward those calls to a free phone number provider.

So, tried a number of services and the best I found was VoxOx. Very simple registration will give you a free US phone number that you can use to receive calls. By subscribing to their plans, you can even make outgoing calls and they were cheap too. There were wonderful plans like US & Canada unlimited calling at Just $2.45 per month (3000 minutes fair usage policy applies).

You need to configure the client correctly to receive the calls, otherwise it does not work well.

Register on VoxOx and download the client.

Install it, run, and login with your credentials. Click on File>Preferences and in preferences window, select “Phone.”

Modify the options as you see below and you are done.

Click for a bigger picture

Possible other uses:

• If you run a cybercafe, you can offer US Phone Calls at Rs.2/minue and make 6K by subscribing to unlimited US and Canada phone calling pack at $2.45/month (approx. Rs. 150)
• If somebody in your family is in US, give this number to him/her, so that they can call at anytime right from their mobile or land phone at a local call charge and you can also talk to them at just Rs.150 for 3000 minutes.

Testing Part:
If you want to see if it is working fine, use Evaphone to make a free call right from your browser.

CutePDF is a free software to create PDFs from any Windows application. It installs a printer driver and shows up as a virtual printer when you print from any application. While giving the Print command (Ctrl+P), select the “CreatePDF Writer” as printer and it will create a professional quality PDF. I have been using it for years and helps me a lot.  It has endless possibilities.   I downloaded a free invoice template from Microsoft Office Templates.  I use it to prepare invoices entering all the details of customer, particulars, and bill amount and export it as PDF just clicking the “Print” button and selecting the “CutePDF Writer” as printer.  I can export the Wikipedia pages from browser as PDF files for storing.  I can print PDF from any application let it be Excel, Power Point, Firefox, medical dictionary, etc. etc. and it goes on.

CutePDF supports Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7 (x86/x64). It requires PS2PDF converter such as Ghostscript.

Read more about it: http://cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp and get it at: http://download.cutepdf.com/download/CuteWriter.zip

My post on Telugu Rendering and Writing in Windows XP has been attracting lot of people from Google as it is on top for that search term. After enabling Telugu language support in Windows, the next thing comes into mind is a dictionary that can show the meaning in Telugu for English words.  People landing on that page often ask me about English-to-Telugu dictionary software to install on their PCs for offline usage as most of the English-to-Telugu dictionaries are online.

There are two English-to-Telugu dictionaries that I know.

1. Telugu to English Dictionary developed by Dileep and Pradeep

This is the first dictionary I have come across.  It comes with an inbuilt Telugu phonetic writer too. You can do English to Telugu and Telug to English searches.

Features:
* English and Telugu words can be searched
* Meanings of the words can be edited
* Words that doesn’t exist in database can be added by user
* Searched words will be stored in history
* An additional tool random word is given to display random words at configurable time interval
* An additional tool Telugu writer is given to write words in Telugu
* Configurable keyboard hotkey is added
* Search on hotkey enabled
* Word search includes results displayed from Wiktionary.Org

Get it here: http://dict.miriyala.in/ | Mirror-DropBox

2. Nithya English-to-Telugu and Telugu-to-English Dictionary

This is an English-to-Telugu and Telugu-to-English database for a dictionary lookup progoram called GoldenDict.

First, you need to install the GoldenDict program and then you need to install the above databases to work.

The advantage of using this program is a featured called Scan popup. You can find Telugu meaning for a word in any application. Just hover the mouse on a word and an instant popup shows up the meaning in Telugu.  Click here for a screenshot.

Installing:
1. Download the GoldenDict latest version on Downloads Page at http://goldendict.org/download.php
2. Get the dictionaries HERE.
3. Install GoldenDict.
4. Copy the databases into the GolenDict installation folder (C:\Program Files\GoldenDict if you are running Windows XP)
5. Click Edit>Dictionaries
6. In “Files” tab, click “Add…” button on the right and select the installation folder where you dictionaries are available (C:\Program Files\GoldenDict in case you are using Windows XP).
7. Click the button “Rescan Now.” Once you press this button, it will add the dictionaries.
8. Close the program and restart.
9. You now will see two red book icons added along with Wikipedia button on the Navigation Bar.

10. Click on them to activate.
11. To enable the “Scan Popup” facility click on the “Scan Popup” button from navigation menu.

If you are having problems with installation, post them in comments. If you know any other working English-to-Telugu dictionary, let me know so that I can add to this post.

I already dumped Adobe Reader for Foxit Reader as it is tiny in size, runs fast, and consumes less system resources. Today, I was checking a mutual fund consolidated statement, which was not opening in Foxit as it was intended to be opened only in Adobe Reader. So, I went to Adobe Reader website to download it. I was browsing through Firefox. It downloaded a plugin called “Adobe DLM” to download the reader. It asked me to restart the Firefox and then started downloading McAfee Scanner without my permission, installed it, and then started downloading Adobe Reader. It looked to me nonsense. Why the hell we need the plugin and a virus scanner just to install the Reader.

So, I did a search on the Internet and found the direct FTP link to it. I thought it would post this direct link for the people to download easily without going through the hassles of plugins and scanners. Here you go:

Go to ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/

Click on your respective operating system. Hint: win for Windows. Then, select the latest version. At the time of this writing, the latest version is 9.x. Then, the latest release. Again, at the time of this writing, the latest release was 9.4.0. Click on that and then, select you language. For English, select en_US. You can download either EXE file or MSI. EXE is smaller in size, so it will be the best option.

I have Deep Freeze installed in my system, so after installing Adobe Reader and reading the Adobe-only Mutual Fund Statement, I just restarted my system and it went back to its earlier state making it Foxit Reader-Only system

If you were following me on Twitter, you might have already noticed that I was tweeting from my LG Cookie Pep and testing few apps for it.

Anyway, last week, I was downloading and testing few best mobile video converters available on the net. After a day of testing, I found that XMedia Recode is the best video converter that can convert videos for almost all mobiles. It has a list of mobile brands and models to select and it will convert the video compatible for that model. Best of it, it is a free software.

Once you installed it, click open file and select the video to be converted for your mobile. Then, in “Profile,” select the brand of your mobile and in the below list, select the model of your mobile. Then, click on the “Add Job” button in toolbar. Then, the “Encode” button will active and click it to convert. It also has an option to shut down the system automatically when the conversion completes.

You can also use it for normal video conversions. Choose the profile name “Custom” and you can see more than 20 types of formats you can convert your video into.

Click for a bigger and clear image

It can convert for Acer, Apple, Archos, Asus, BlackBerry, Cowon, Creative, Elson, Epson, Garmin-Asus, Hauppauge, HTC, Hyundai, Intenso, iRiver, LG, Loewe, Motorola, Nikon, Nintendo, Nokia, O2, Palm, Phillips, Pocket PC, Samsung, SanDisk, Sony Ericsson, Sony, Sony PlayStation 3, PSP, Toshiba, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Western Digital TV Box, Xbox, Zune, and YouTube (as of version 2.2.4.2).

I found this amazing software called Image Composite Editor (ICE) by Microsfot while searching for free software to stitch photos. I found few other free photo stitching softwares too, but they were difficult to install, took lot of time to stitch, and/or producing low-quality images.

Using photo stitching software, you can stitch a set of overlapping photos taken of a location into a single image. Assume that you want to shoot a wide-angled scene with your mobile camera, you can take photos of that scene into rectangular grid of rows and columns and then using photo stitching software, you can create a high-resolution single image.

Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE) is available as a free software. It can stitch giga pixels of images into one single image. No other software can match its speed. It is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit windows and supported up to Windows 7.

Click the image for a bigger and clear image

Flickr has a group for the images stitched with Microsoft ICE, http://www.flickr.com/groups/922872@N23/.  Check the photos created with it and you will understand what you can do with this little free application.

For example purpose, I have captured the Microsft webpage into 4 different parts of unequal lengths and stitched into one. Click the below images to see, how good it stitched the images into one.

This is a photo taken from the ICE group on Flickr as an example for panoramic image created with stitching 14 photos into one: