ODF Templating using Appy pod

28Nov09

The last time I tried to produce ODF text document from Python, I hack Django templating to load an ODT file as a template. Long story short: Don’t try this at home. The fact that the application is still running in-production is very much a miracle.

Last week I suddenly stumble upon Appy pod. Oh if only I had found you sooner! Pod uses OpenOffice’s track changes feature to insert template placeholders and notes for conditionals and loops. This makes templates to be very simple to create. Aside from ODF, pod can also call OpenOffice in headless mode to generate the result PDF format.

Of course there are some limitations. You can’t put a word by word conditional, you need to use a paragraph. You can’t loop more than one row in a table. Also if there are errors, the error messages will be displayed as notes in the output document. While this simplifies debugging, it won’t look professional when it is seen by the user.

I you ever need to generate ODF documents from Python, do give pod a try!

Filed under: Information Technology, Python   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: odf, pod, Python, template

Latte

28Nov09

Irish Creme Latte at Highlander Coffee. Isn’t it lovely to get latte art on your coffee.

Hi readers, long time no see. As you may deduce from my previous posts, I am now living and working in Singapore. I hope to resume my posting on this blog now that the Internet here is much reliable than back home.

Filed under: Coffee, Personal   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: cafe, Coffee, espresso, highlander, latte, Photo, photograph

Temple Photo

22Aug09

The same temple as the previous post. This time from the inside.

Filed under: Photographs   |  1 Comment
Tags: Buddhist, Photo, photograph, Singapore, Temple

Temple, and Chrome for Linux

21Aug09

Another photo from my FZ-28. Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown, Singapore. See more photos on my Flickr page.

By the way sorry if its old news but Google Chrome for Linux (development build) is now available. Although its a dev build, it feels stable enough to be used as your default browser. You can download a .deb package from the Chromium dev channel. The window title/border does look a bit out of place, but you can tell it to use your default system default (like Metacity on Gnome).

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Tags: Buddhist, Chrome, Google, Photo, photograph, Singapore, Temple

Singapore Esplanade at Night

03Aug09

See at Flickr

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Things to do in Singapore

01Jun09

Interesting things to do in Singapore, but probably aren’t mentioned elsewhere:

• Have a cup of cappuccino or latte at Highlander Coffee (S$ 3.90).
• For Catholics, attend holy mass in the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. Not to be mistaken with the St Andrew’s Cathedral in front of City Hall station which is an Anglican Church.
• Eat Soup Kambing at Upper Boon Keng Food Center (S$5.5). The location is a 10 minutes walk from Kallang MRT.
• Eat Subway, just because we don’t have them in Jakarta :)
• Try Botak Jones western food.

Meanwhile, things to avoid:

• Long John Silvers. Save your money. If you want fast food, go to Burger King.

Filed under: Food, Personal   |  7 Comments
Tags: Singapore, travel, visit

Learn WSGI

01Jun09

Some links to get you started on Python WSGI…

• An Introduction to Python Web Server Gateway Interface (WSGI)
• A simple WSGI Test Application
• Mod WSGI, Python WSGI Adapter Module for Apache

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Jaunty hands on

25Apr09

After several hours of download and installation, I finally upgraded to Jaunty.

First of all I’m not a fan of the new start up and login screen. The smaller progress bar looks odd, and its still the same logo over a black screen. I hope Ubuntu start up screen can move forward to the full color, full screen kinds like Fedora/SuSE.

The login screen is a huge regression for me. I absolutely love the old login screen, it looks professional and mature. But the new one screams amateur. I’ll definitely download the old login theme.

On the other hand I welcome the new notifications and indicator applet. Both of them are cool. The Computer Janitor is also a welcomed addition.

I haven’t found any other interesting changes so far. I haven’t tried the new themes. They look nice from a distance but unfortunately my 1024×600 netbook screen cries if I don’t use a “compact” theme.

Overall: A good incremental release, except for some “visual” regressions.

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  1 Comment
Tags: 9.04, jaunty, Ubuntu, upgrade

Upgrading to Jaunty

23Apr09

Thank’s to Telkom’s new unlimited package I can safely (monetary wise) upgrade to Jaunty. I wanted to upgrade before the release day, before the repos are bombarded by the release hype.

Unfortunately the official Indonesian Ubuntu repos (ubuntu.indika.web.id) isn’t properly synched. I had to manually change the sources.list to use Telkom’s server (dl2.foss-id.web.id) which seems to be doing a better job in keeping its repos.

Currently the download is on hold, I shouldn’t waste company bandwith during worh horus. I’ll resume the download later lunch time, and at home. If all runs well, the upgrade should be done tonight.

If you’re wondering: I’m using Speedy, “Load” (512kbps, 3G soft limit). The download speed is pretty stable at 50Kb/s.

BTW: I don’t no about you guys but I’m not really that hyped up about this release. The new notification system looks cool, but not really that ground breaking. Is the GDM login screen already using clutter?

Filed under: Information Technology, Internet, Ubuntu   |  2 Comments
Tags: 9.04, jaunty, Ubuntu, upgrade

Link: Ubunchu Manga

04Apr09

Ubunchu Manga at DeviantART. Geekiest manga, ever!

Filed under: Cute, Ubuntu   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: manga, ubunchu, Ubuntu