今天再次惊讶于 Google 的强大。
在 Google Drive 里打开一个 PDF 文件,是一个类似于 lightbox 效果的在线预览。我今天打开的是一份英文文档扫描后保存为 PDF 的文件,lightbox 里出现的是图像。神奇的是,用鼠标去选中其中某些文字,也能像操作文本文件一样高亮显示选中的部分;更神奇的是,按下 Ctrl+C,再到别处 Ctrl+V,粘贴出来的 OCR 以后的文字。
PDF 在线预览、图形类似文本的高亮显示、OCR,这三件事情能如此完美的结合在一起,不简单。
随想随笔,就让在杂草堆里的文章杂草丛生吧
今天再次惊讶于 Google 的强大。
在 Google Drive 里打开一个 PDF 文件,是一个类似于 lightbox 效果的在线预览。我今天打开的是一份英文文档扫描后保存为 PDF 的文件,lightbox 里出现的是图像。神奇的是,用鼠标去选中其中某些文字,也能像操作文本文件一样高亮显示选中的部分;更神奇的是,按下 Ctrl+C,再到别处 Ctrl+V,粘贴出来的 OCR 以后的文字。
PDF 在线预览、图形类似文本的高亮显示、OCR,这三件事情能如此完美的结合在一起,不简单。
老爸最近爱上钢琴。
他问我:“能不能打印几张空白钢琴谱给我?”
我答:“没问题。”
他又问:“不用我发链接给你吧?网上到处都是。”
我说:“不用。既然到处都是,那我肯定找得到。“
于是我就搜索”空白钢琴谱“,”空白钢琴谱 filetype:pdf“,”空白钢琴谱 filetype:doc“,”空白钢琴谱 filetype:docx“,确实很多地方都有,可是都要注册后才能下载,哪怕是免费,我恨注册。就这样找了一圈,还没下载到一个。
被逼得没办法了,还是不想注册。然后想到,中国的网站就爱让人注册,咱可以找国外的嘛!上 Google Translate,钢琴谱叫 piano sheet music,那就搜”blank piano sheet music filetype:pdf”,一找一个准。
真是强烈的对比。“自由、分享”,咱中国人热切盼望的,轮到自己能控制“自由、分享”时,自己又在想什么?
以后不要找了,看这里,免费、免注册下载空白钢琴谱。
安兔兔定量分析一个手机的好差,我很喜欢。连测了几个时下和过时的 Android 设备,给我了一个硬件在几年内进步的曲线。
我又突然想到 Apple 产品所采用的硬件都严重不匹配它的高价,就想安兔兔是不是已有一个 AnTuTu for iPhone 来量化对比一下 iPhone 到底有多少物不符所值。调查了一下,遗憾!AnTuTu 没有 iPhone 版,可能怕对果粉心理打击太大吧。我发现一个有趣的现象,果粉谈到 AnTuTu,不是说没听说(是真不知道还是掩耳盗铃?),就是说 iPhone 不需要 AnTuTu。
iPhone 虽没有不同硬件厂家的横向对比,但纵向对比 iPhone 4, iPhone 5 也可以看看 iPhone 进步了多少。可是果粉们视 iPhone 如同洪水猛兽,归根到底是害怕看到 iPhone 和 Android 手机、iPad 和 Android 平板设备对比后惨不忍睹的分数。因为害怕,所以果粉们说分数有意思吗?————看优劣得看流畅性、整合度。流畅性和整合度没有客观指标,于是各种争论可以变成了浑水。我想提请果粉注意的是,Android 设备来自众多厂商,硬件参差不齐,我在一台价值 £40 的 Storage Options Scroll 平板上跑一个写汉字软件,确实不流畅,可这个软件跑在 Samsung S3 手机上就非常流畅。如果真要对比流畅性和整合度,就对比一下时下同等价格的 iPhone 和 Android 手机对比,果粉们有这个自信吗?
Do you know G+ page is a “person”?
I mean, as you have a Google account, and fill in G+ profile, you are a G+ person. You start building your cycles, adding people you know (or even don’t know), and posting to individuals, cycles, or Public.
You can also create one or more G+ pages. What is G+ page? It has confused me for long. Now I know, it is a kind of G+ person, same as you. It was the terminology “Follow” confused me.
I only find “Follow” on G+ pages. However, “Follow” basically is adding this G+ page to your cycle(s), same as adding some real person. G+ page can also add you to its cycle(s), or not to add you, same as a real person makes such a choice. Even G+ page does not add you, you can still see all its Public posts in your cycle stream, seem as you add President but President does not add you.
A real person can add another real person or a G+ page to his cycle(s). A G+ page can also add another G+ page or a real person to its cycle(s). This conforms to G+ page is a person.
Since a real person can create as many G+ pages as he like, and G+ pages can add each other, which make things worse. I mean, a messy social network sharing loads of rubbish.
Nevertheless, I can not change the world. A network full of rubbish is not something I should worry too much about. What I can do is not to produce rubbish.
I hope this post is not regarded as a kind of rubbish.
今年以来 GoDaddy 狠命促销新注册 .com 域名,推出好多 $0.99, $1.99, $2.99 就可以注册一年 .com 的优惠券。
今天我需要新注册两个 .com。我不能免俗,首先是去用最大幅度的 $0.99 优惠券。试了好几个,终于有一个被 GoDaddy shopping cart 认可了。可是我在订单的最后一步卡住了,GoDaddy 在最后一页本该显示确认付款成功的时候说,无法接受这种方式的付款。
网上有人提到这个优惠券在 checkout 什么阶段输入也很有讲究,他给出了 1234567 的步骤,我照着做了两遍,都不成功。我又怀疑是卡号信息输入错误,重输若干次仍不成功。换了几张卡来回试,也不成功。难道是 GoDaddy 账户个人信息长期不更新无法作 Whois 档案?我去更新了,依旧不成功。退出 GoDaddy 再登录,仍然不成功。清空历史、关闭浏览器、重新打开,不成功。换个浏览器,依然不成功。难道是 GoDaddy 支付网关系统维护中?睡了一觉继续付款,还是不成功。
最后我只好打个电话给 GoDaddy,客服告诉我,我用的 $0.99 优惠券已经作废────可是它是被 GoDaddy shopping cart 接受的呀────不管啦,反正它是作废了。
后来我也没找到更好的 $0.99 优惠券,只好用了一个 $1.99 优惠券,毫无悬念,成功了!此时已浪费了约三小时。
In June, 2012 I visited the O2 shop in 49 George Street, Hove, BN3 3YB, enqurying about opening an account and getting two Samsung S3 mobile phones. David told me I could get the phones virtually free by paying £99.99 upfront and he would credit me £100 into my account for each phone. I still keep his written notes, luckily.
On the next day or two, I revisited the shop. I paid £199.98 for two phones. Christina went through the contract procedure with me. She was fully aware of the £200 credit. However, she told me, she could not add £200 to my account while I was there, because I was porting the numbers from Vodafone to O2. She had to wait a few days until the porting process finished and then my account was active. She said she would add £200 credit in a few days. So I left the shop with two new phones happily.
I have no way to check if O2 has put £200 into my account or not. Only at the time O2 monthly direct debit shows on the bank statement, I know the credit has not been credited. I started tracing the credit in August, 2012. At first, I thought it is a piece of cake to get it back. I did not trace O2 hard. I popped into the O2 shop occasionally when I was on George Street for something else. Sometime I had chance to speak to David, sometime I did not. David never denied his promise – how can he? I am glad I have not thrown away these pieces of little notes.
David asked me at least twice to write down my company name, address, account number, contact number. He always said someone would contact me. From my ten times visits, I received only one call from O2 in October, 2012 (or so, I can’t remember). But he did not sort out my issue straight away, instead he promised another call back within a week. Well, I never received a call back since then.
My last visit to the O2 shop was three weeks ago. I met David. David must think he should do something differently this time. He composed an email to the Area Manager reporting this issue, and clicked “Send” in front of me. I took it that David wanted to correct an error happened 7 month ago, he need some kind of authorisation. David said someone, probably the Area Manager, would contact me by the Friday within that week.
Well, more than a week passed. I had not been contacted by “someone”. I was not surprised this time. I must be a very patient man, but I lost my patience with O2 after half a year tracing the credit. I did something I was reluctant to do. I started a complaint procedure.
I am annoyed at being badly serviced by O2 for 2 aspects.
I have an outdated LCD TV and a nearly outdated Android smart TV set top box. I mean, this Android smart TV set top box was bought a year ago, and it works very slow compared to current market products.
I want to combine these two equipment to make a smart TV. Actually, the only functionality I need out of a smart TV is a DLNA/UPnP player. To be more specific, a DLNA/UPnP player for YouTube.
I want to search for videos on YouTube using my mobile phone, stream to TV, and watch on TV. I do not want to search on this nearly outdated set top box because it is slow, and it accepts input via a fly mouse rather than a touch screen.
At first, I tried to install a few apps (iMediaShare Lite, aMPdroid, DLNA Server) on the set top box, but none of them is a DLNA/UPnP player.
Then I installed XBMC on the set top box, set it can be remotely controlled by UPnP. I also installed Beam on my mobile. Now I can stream YouTube video to my TV. However, XBMC is not reliable on this set top box, most likely due to some bug – this player is not always shown on the list of available DLNA/UPnP players. Every time I have to untick and retick “remotely controlled by UPnP” to force it.
So I have not found a perfect solution for streaming YouTube video to an Android device. I may have to buy a new TV with DLNA/UPnP player built-in.
I was looking for an app on Google Play Store to generate transparent background handwriting in PNG format, which can be put on an electronic document as a signature or watermark. It is either
I tried a few apps.
Samsung Memo. It can only export JPG or PDF. No transparent background available.
Image Editor. It is slow responding to drawing track. Never record a complete handwriting. Useless. Too many bugs and Ads.
ShoDo. No transparent background available.
Adobe Photoshop Express. Too “express”. It can not open/save as PNG at all.
Handwriting. It can export transparent background PNGs. It is good. However, it always exports 720 x 1280 images on my test device, no matter how small writing. This requires another software to crop the images. So it’s not good enough.
Photo Editor. I did not expect it can export transparent background PNGs, as Photo is not transparent. However, I find it can open a transparent background PNG, write on it, then export as transparent background PNG. This requires another software to produce a blank transparent background PNG before first use. That’s not a problem. However, it is an ad-supported programme, which is a bit annoying.
FreeNote. I have known FreeNote for long, but before today I did not realise it can export transparent background PNGs. It does auto crop and it is ad-free. It does not require other software to do pre or post process. So it is a perfect solution.
I was excited when I saw 4x8GB server memory was selling at a total of USD110.00. It will fit my HP ML110 G7 server very well – ECC, unbuffered. I quickly asked my sister to order and post it to me after she gets it.
After two days my sister told me her order had been cancelled for no reason. I think it is simply because the dealer Computer Memory Solutions does not want to fulfill the order after they realised they had wrongly priced it.
Now it is selling at USD280.00.
Computer Memory Solutions ruined Rakuten.com’s reputation, at least in my memory.