Function code is below, try out a demo at http://rrbits.com/resizer/ (Demo code is available here: http://rrbits.com/resizer.zip )

Right now it’s pure GD (uses a sharpening convolution matrix to get over GD’s resizing blurryness), though could probably be converted to ImageMagick by someone who knows more about ImageMagick than I.  (Plus more patience, no desire to port it right now.)

<?php
/**
 * img_resize_crop
 * Resizes an image to a specific size, cropping if necessary, allows center-weighting.
 *
 * @param Resource $src - GD Resource Image to use.
 * @param Integer $twidth - Thumbnail width
 * @param Integer $theight - Thumbnail height
 * @param Integer $center_x - The x value of the target center location, leaving it at -1 autocalculates. [Default: -1]
 * @param Integer $center_y - The y value of the target center location, leaving it at -1 autocalculates. [Default: -1]
 * @param String $method - Method to use for the resize.  [Default:suggest]
 *   'suggest' (provided center coordinate is only guaranteed to be in the picture.)
 *   'force' (The provided coordinate is forced into being the center, additional data is trimmed to ensure this.)
 *   'onlycrop' (Not sure why you would use this, but only performs cropping.)
 * @param Boolean $sharpen - Specify whether or not to sharpen the resultant thumbnail [Default:true]
 * @param Int $evil_threshold - Maximum thumbnail width/height to prevent attempts at evil. [Default:1024]
 */
function img_resize_crop($src, $twidth, $theight, $center_x = -1, 
    $center_y = -1, $method = 'suggest', $sharpen = true, $evil_threshold = 1024)
{
   /*Set defaults if they are not provided.*/
   if($center_x == -1 || ($method == 'force' && $center_x == 0))
   {
      $center_x = floor(imagesx($src)/2);
   }
 
   if($center_y == -1 || ($method == 'force' && $center_y == 0))
   {
      $center_y = floor(imagesy($src)/2);
   }
 
   /* Prevent evil */
   if($twidth > $evil_threshold) $twidth = $evil_threshold;
   if($theight > $evil_threshold) $theight = $evil_threshold;
 
 
   /*  The ratio of the thumbnail and the ratio 
    of the original image.*/
   $t_ratio = $twidth / $theight;
   $o_ratio = imagesx($src) / imagesy($src);
   $new = imagecreatetruecolor($twidth, $theight);
 
   /*Ideally, we'll want to grab as much of 
     the source image as possible.
 
     So we need to figure out how much to grab based on 
     the ratios of the desired thumbnail and the original
     image.*/
   if($t_ratio > $o_ratio)
   {
      $i_width = imagesx($src);
      $i_height = floor($i_width / $t_ratio);
   }
   else
   {
      $i_height = imagesy($src);
      $i_width = floor($i_height * $t_ratio);
   }
 
   /*Calculate the upper-left corner of the 
     source image grab area.  These will be 
     adjusted differently based on the method selected.*/
   $s_x = $center_x - floor($i_width/2);
   $s_y = $center_y - floor($i_height/2);
 
 
 
   switch($method)
   {
      case 'onlycrop':  
         $i_width = (imagesx($src) > $twidth) ? $twidth : imagesx($src);
         $i_height = (imagesy($src) > $theight) ? $theight : imagesy($src);
         $s_x = $center_x - floor($i_width/2);
         $s_y = $center_y - floor($i_height/2);   
 
         /*Make sure we're inside the left and top boundaries.*/
         $s_x = ($s_x < 0) ? 0 : $s_x;
         $s_y = ($s_y < 0) ? 0 : $s_y;
 
         /*Make sure we're inside the bottom and right boundaries.*/
         $s_x = ($center_x + ceil($i_width/2) > imagesx($src)) ? imagesx($src) - $i_width : $s_x;
         $s_y = ($center_y + ceil($i_height/2) > imagesy($src)) ? imagesy($src) - $i_height : $s_y;  
 
         break;      
      default:
      case 'suggest':
         /*Condition: Crop is thinner (ratio-wise) than the original image.*/
         if($t_ratio <= $o_ratio)
         {
            $s_y = 0;
            $s_x = ($s_x < 0) ? 0 : $s_x;
            $s_x = ($center_x + ceil($i_width/2) > imagesx($src)) ? imagesx($src) - $i_width : $s_x;
         }
         else /*Condition: Crop is wider (ratio-wise) than the original image.*/
         {
            $s_x = 0;
            $s_y = ($s_y < 0) ? 0 : $s_y;
            $s_y = ($center_y + ceil($i_height/2) > imagesy($src)) ? imagesy($src) - $i_height : $s_y;   
         }
         break;
      case 'force':
         /*Condition: Crop is thinner (ratio-wise) than the original image.*/
         if($t_ratio <= $o_ratio)
         {
            /*Find the maximum possible height with the requested center_y.*/
            $i_height = ($center_y > floor(imagesy($src)/2)) ? (imagesy($src) - $center_y) * 2 : $center_y * 2;
            $i_width = floor($i_height * $t_ratio); /*Height for said width.*/
 
            /*If that puts the source box out of bounds, we'll need to proportionally scale down.*/
            if($center_x - floor($i_width/2) < 0 || $center_x + floor($i_width/2) > imagesx($src))
            {
               /*Minimum width.*/
               $i_width = ($center_x > floor(imagesx($src)/2)) ? (imagesx($src) - $center_x) * 2 : $center_x * 2;
               $i_height = floor($i_width / $t_ratio);
            }
            /*Recalculate source x and y*/
            $s_x = $center_x - floor($i_width/2);
            $s_y = $center_y - floor($i_height/2);            
         }
         else /*Condition: Crop is wider (ratio-wise) than the original image.*/
         {
            /*Find the maximum possible width with the requested center_x.*/
            $i_width = ($center_x > floor(imagesx($src)/2)) ? (imagesx($src) - $center_x) * 2 : $center_x * 2;
            $i_height = floor($i_width / $t_ratio); /*Height for said width.*/
 
            /*If that puts the source box out of bounds, we'll need to proportionally scale down.*/
            if($center_y - floor($i_height/2) < 0 || $center_y + floor($i_height/2) > imagesy($src))
            {
               /*Minimum height.*/
               $i_height = ($center_y > floor(imagesy($src)/2)) ? (imagesy($src) - $center_y) * 2 : $center_y * 2;
               $i_width = $i_height * $t_ratio;
            }
            /*Recalculate source x and y*/
            $s_x = $center_x - floor($i_width/2);
            $s_y = $center_y - floor($i_height/2);
         }
 
         break;
   }
 
   imagecopyresampled($new, $src, 
     /*Destination Coords*/
     0,0,
     /*Source Coords*/
     $s_x,$s_y,
     /*Destination Geometry*/
     $twidth, $theight,
     /*Source Geometry*/
     $i_width, $i_height
     );
 
   if($sharpen)
   {
      $sharpen_matrix = array(array(-1,-1,-1),array(-1,16,-1),array(-1,-1,-1));
      $divisor = 8;
      $offset = 0;
 
      imageconvolution($new, $sharpen_matrix, $divisor, $offset);
   }
 
   return $new;
}

All you need to do is create a file called “.is_audio_player” and add some content to it that’s something like this:

audio_folders=music/
folder_depth=1

…and then scan removable media.  (Should be in the file menu)  One caveat you should be aware of is that I’m not sure if Rhythmbox will do any audio file conversion for you during the sync to your device.  But for moving a play list from one computer to another, this is plenty fine for me.

$mp3 = new KTaglib_MPEG_File('2.mp3');
$idv2 = $mp3->getID3v2Tag(true);
$album = new KTaglib_ID3v2_AttachedPictureFrame();
$album->setType(KTaglib_ID3v2_AttachedPictureFrame::FrontCover);
$album->setPicture('testalbum.jpg');
$album->setMimeType('image/jpeg');
$idv2->addFrame($album);
$mp3->save();

Assuming no exceptions are thrown, this should allow you to set an image of your choosing as a FrontCover image  (of course replacing my example values with your own real values), consult the KTaglib documentation for more details and check “Predefined Constants” for the other image types.

And that’s when I learned this: Before you throw out a drive with bad sectors, try to run the manufacturers test and repair utilities on the hard drive.  Western Digital has its Digital Lifeguard software and I’m sure Seagate has a similar tool.  If you can attempt a repair with it, try the repair option.  If the repair fails, then you will likely need to get a new hard drive unfortunately.  Hopefully this will help you wring another couple of months out of your drive.  (Who knows, it may work for years after you do so.)

By default, when browsing by category, everything in is shown vertically with text and pictures.  I wanted to browse without scrolling so much, so at first I made this a greasemonkey userscript called “jlist-condense.user.js” and here’s the result with that one:

JList with the first condensing script

So, I decided to continue playing around with the script and then made a “super-condensed” version that uses even less space.  It would break on things that don’t have pictures at the moment btw, but most everything on jlist does have a picture. Further, I was just me messing around with Greasemonkey script shenanigans.  All it is is product image with a reflection (because I can) that you can mouse over for the title and click to view the full product descriptions.

Super-Condensed jlist greasemonkey script

svg-to-coloring.php.zip <– The source code is available if you want to take a look at how it works.

Another thing that seemed as though it were worth looking into is it’s apparently designed with storing whole files in mind.  I’ve stored files in MySQL databases before, but MySQL really isn’t designed with that in mind, but at the same time, if I’m going to be making a lot of small binary files, I don’t like them cluttering up my directories.

There are two ways I know of:

You can use vmware-mount provided by VMWare Server.  I don’t actually like this method because VMWare Server is huge and I don’t use VMWare.  However, if you do, take a gander at this: http://www.vmware.com/support/reference/linux/loopback_linux.html

The method I ultimately went with was vdfuse since I use VirtualBox.  It allows you to mount any disk image supported by VirtualBox.  Basically, if you follow the instructions at that the vdfuse forum link I just provided, you can mount the VHD to a mount point in your filesystem.  Now, this alone doesn’t yet give you access to your files yet.  It provides the partitions as standard files (and a file for the entire disk as well).  The partitions are named Partition1, Partition2, etc.  You can then mount the partition you want as a loopback device.

For a quick one-off post like this, it seems as though it might be a useful tool to have at your disposal.

What’s better yet is that it allows you to save your post so you can come back to it later.  (Might want to make sure you give it an XML file extension and don’t accidentally load the Kanji Dictionary XML file either.  It really doesn’t like that.  Oops.)

Looking for more Firefox blogging extensions?  I found them at speckboy design magazine.

Here’s the INSTALL file that’s packaged with the source code so you know what you’re getting yourself into before you even fetch the source tree from Subversion.

I should point out that installing Danbooru is not for the faint of heart.  You’ll need to know a bit about your linux distro and be comfortable (and have the requisite access) to install software packages as the root user.  An easier to install PHP-based clone, Shimmie, might be more suitable for your project if you are not.

First thing, and I’ll copy this directly from the INSTALL file, you’ll need the following packages installed on your system ( or more up to date versions thereof): gcc, g++, make, readline, zlib, flex, bison, gd2, bzip2, postgresql-8.3, postgresql-contrib-8.3, ruby, rubygems, memcached, subversion, apache, and phusion passenger

Once you have all that, you’ll also need the following ruby gems: postgres, diff-lcs, html5, memcache-client, aws-s3, json, rails (version 2.2.2)

Now that you’ve hopefully collected everything together it’s time to get to work.

From the INSTALL “It’s recommended you create a dedicated [Postgres database] account for running the Danbooru database and/or web processes. “  I say do it.  It’s much easier than any other way I could think of setting this up.

1. Use the createuser command while logged in as postgres to grant database access to the danbooru account.
2. You will need to update the pg_hba.conf file to grant your danbooru account trusted localhost access. Make sure to restart the database server (/etc/init.d/postgresql-8.3 restart) after making any changes.

I should note that I had to make a couple of minor tweaks to get rails to actually connect to Postgres, but at the moment, I can’t remember what they were so hopefully you don’t run into the same problem I did.

The  rest is a fairly straightforward process, this is all taken verbatim from the most recent INSTALL file:

1. To export from Subversion: “svn export svn://donmai.us/danbooru/trunk danbooru”
2. Recursively change the owner of this directory to the danbooru account: “chown -R danbooru:danbooru danbooru”
3. Create a public/data/sample directory.
4. Compile the resizer at lib/danbooru_image_resizer: “ruby extconf.rb && make”. Do not make install it. If this fails you will need to figure out your gd2/libjpeg/libpng dependencies.
5. Create new database.yml and local_config.rb files in the config directory. Example files are provided.
6. Create the database: “createdb danbooru”
7. Load the schema: “psql danbooru < db/postgres.sql”
8. Run the migrations: “RAILS_ENV=production rake db:migrate”
9. Start the job daemon: “RAILS_ENV=production app/daemons/job_task_processor_ctl.rb start”
10. You now need a way of managing the Rails process. The preferred method is using the Phusion Passenger module (see section below). Alternatively you can use Mongrel or fastcgi, there are several examples on the web.
11. [Not mentioned in INSTALL] You might want to remove the advertisement stuff from the templates or replace it with your own.  It crashed my installation when I tried to view pages when not logged in as the administrator.

I used FastCGI myself actually, so I know nothing about Phusion.

I might run through the installation process again and create a VDI image in the future that can simply be connected to VirtualBox and booted so people can play around with it with minimal hassle.  (That minimal hassle being setting the IP address.  I don’t know enough about Linux boot scripts to have it ask you by default to provide one.)

Sorry, that’s all the help I can deliver today, unfortunately, it’s been a while since I had done this.  Also, I’m a bit tired.