Tuesday, December 14, 2010

How to Convert .BIN/.CUE Files to .ISO in Ubuntu

Here is another way to convert BIN/CUE’s files to ISO CD format in Linux. Before you start install the ccd2iso package using your system package manager.



 ccd2iso <.img filename> <.iso filename>
 ccd2iso cdimage.bin newcdimage.iso

Another solution would be to use the bchunk program explained in this post



bchunk filename.bin filename.cue filename.iso

Monday, December 13, 2010

KeePassX Cross Platform Password Manager

Ask me my phone number, I have to look it up. But I do have uncanny memory for passwords. May be I type them so often that they are etched in my brain.

If you have manage a large set of usernames and password KeePassX is a good choice. It is good way to manage all your access information for the a SME organization. You can organize the data into different categories (Local Networking information, Mail Server, Webserver, Emails account information etc)

Automated password generation is another feature that I use often. You can choose the length of the password and the combination of numeric, special characters. Its cross platform available for multiple operating systems so if your boss uses Windows, it will still work.

KeePassX Features

  • Extensive management- title for each entry for its better identification
    - possibility to determine different expiration dates
    - insertion of attachments
    - user-defined symbols for groups and entries
    - fast entry dublication
    - sorting entries in groups
  • Search function
    - search either in specific groups or in complete database
  • Autofill (experimental)
  • Database security
    - access to the KeePassX database is granted either with a password, a key-file (e.g. a CD or a memory-stick) or even both.
  • Automatic generation of secure passwords
    - extremly customizable password generator for fast and easy creation of secure passwords
  • Precaution features- quality indicator for chosen passwords- hiding all passwords behind asterisks
  • Encryption- either the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) or the Twofish algorithm are used
    - encryption of the database in 256 bit sized increments
  • Import and export of entries
    - import from PwManager (*.pwm) and KWallet (*.xml) files- export as textfile (*.txt)
  • Operating system independent
    - KeePassX is cross platform, so are the databases, as well
  • Free software
    KeePassX is free software, published under the terms of the General Public License, so you are not only free to use it free of charge, but also to redistribute it, to examine and/or modify it’s source code and to publish your modifications as long as you provide the same freedoms for your modified version.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

BlindLead.org HTML5 accessible wordpress website

Few weeks ago I received a email from Ted Moallem, we collaborated on Blind Lead project in August this year. The BlindLead.org project website seems to be inaccessible to screen readers users. Ted used the latest version Wordpress 3.0 content management system (CMS), but Black Letterhead wordpress theme and the page structure were creating some problems.

Decided to attempt redesign the website using HTML5. HTML5 offers many accessibility improvements with new elements, ARIA landmark roles etc. Initially I thought of building with Starkers HTML5 theme. However Wordpress ships with a HTML5 complaint theme Twenty Ten so I decided to stick with it. Added some rounded corners, little bit of typographical changes, disabled the sidebar widgets for now. And the site looks better already.

blindlead website screenshot

Next I set about cleaning up the inline styles in the page content. Some of the styles were introduced by the wordpress editor and other external editors.The pages structure needed some re-organizing as well. Added headers instead of just bold text. The Web Developer Document Outline feature comes in handy here. You can access it from Web Developer > Information > View Document Outline menu item.

Web page outline
workshop project page outline

Right now we have only few pages, blog posts, photo gallery and accessible widgets would be added to the site soon. This is my first HTML5 website, there is lots of things to be fixed. So give me your feedback and share your experiences working with HTML5 accessibility.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Nina Universal Braille Teacher

Here is yet another innovation from N.Krishnaswamy the creator of Universal Braille Kit (UBK)

Nina Universal Braille Teacher is battery operated handheld device which aids teaching and learning of braille alphabets. This model is designed for the English language, but other languages are also supported. The Nina Universal Braille Teacher is available two models, a teacher model built with LEDs to provide visual indicators for sighted teachers and the student model with audio messages only.

The device is manufactured at Workshop For Rehabilitation and Training of the Handicapped (Worth Trust) in India.

Nina Universal Braille Teacher

If you are interested to procure the device, please do get in touch with Worth Trust.

Worth Trust 48, New Tiruvalam Road
Katpadi, Tamil Nadu (India)
Phone: 0416-2242739 0416-2243464
Email: worth@md3.vsnl.net.in
Website: http://www.worthtrust.org.in

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

AEGIS project video

AEGIS is an EC-funded FP7 project that seeks to determine whether 3rd generation access techniques will provide a more accessible, more exploitable and deeply embeddable approach in mainstream ICT (desktop, rich Internet and mobile applications).

You can now view the AEGIS project video online here.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Drupal Installation Profiles, Distributions and Features

When you think you learnt all about Drupal CMS. You stumble across across few new features that boggle your mind. Have you stumbled across Drupal Installation Profiles, Drupal Distributions and Drupal Features yet?

Drupal Installation Profiles, Distributions and Features
 Venn diagram

If you haven't heard about these, don't worry. Read Isaac Sukin wonderful article Simplifying Use-Specific Drupal Sites: Installation Profiles vs. Distributions vs. Features

Monday, December 6, 2010

Japan-Vietnam Workshop on Software Engineering 2010 (JVSE 2010)

JVSE 2010 is the third joint workshop on software engineering aiming to further strengthen the progressive R&D collaboration between Japan and Vietnam. This workshop intends to exchange on-going research topics in software engineering and related fields as well as to find possible research collaboration of all participants. In particular, theoretical researchers are encouraged to present the research results that would be implemented as tools. Graduate students and young researchers are encouraged to present their on-going research and initial results, and to participate to obtain new ideas and overview of current trends. JVSE 2010 is a special event to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Establishment of Faculty of Information Technology, University of Engineering and Technology, VNU Hanoi.

The workshop is about all aspects related to software engineering. The topics include but are not limited to the following categories:

  • Software specification and verification
  • Software testing
  • Formal methods and industrial case studies
  • Component-based development
  • Software evolution
  • Software metrics and measurement
  • Software process improvement
  • Real-time and fault-tolerant software
  • Modern software architectures
  • Multi-agent systems
  • Software services and cloud computing

INVITED SPEAKERS

  • Keijiro Araki, Kyushu U., Japan
  • Zhenjiang Hu, NII, Japan
  • Hiroyuki Iida, JAIST, Japan
  • Atsushi Ohori, Tohoku U., Japan
  • Kazuhiro Ogata, JAIST, Japan
  • Mizuhito Ogawa, JAIST, Japan
  • Koichiro Ochimizu, JAIST, Japan
  • Masahiko Sakai , Nagoya U., Japan
  • Hiroyuki Seki, NAIST, Japan
  • Akihiko Takano, NII, Japan
  • Shoji Yuen, Nagoya U. , Japan

Event Details

  • Event Name: Japan-Vietnam Workshop on Software Engineering 2010 (JVSE 2010)
  • Date: Thursday, December 9, 2010
    11:00p - Friday, December 10, 2010 12:00am
  • Location: Room 212, E3 building, 144 Xuan Thuy rd., Cau Giay dist., Hanoi, Vietnam
  • Website: http://www.coltech.vnu.edu.vn/~hoangta/jvse2010/

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