Hari's Corner

The Old Photo effect is a really cool script provided by GIMP. It's really a pretty simple effect but I thought I should record the steps necessary to get the result desired. There might be other ways of achieving a similar effect, but the tutorial below is a result of something I learned on my own.

Here's the original image I worked with

Take any image you wish and create a copy of it. Then,

1. Go to the Filter -> Artistic -> Photocopy. Play around with it until you get this kind of a result:
   My settings for the effect were: Mask radius: 41.67, Sharpness: 0.962, Percent black: 0.595, Percent white: 0.278. Of course, you might want to vary this, depending on the image you use and the contrast you wish to obtain in the end.
2. Then apply the Script-Fu -> Decor -> Old Photo effect. Have a 0 border and select the Defocus and Sepia effects only. Don't select Mottle. Here's the result:
   
3. To get a deeper shade (and older effect) apply the same Old Photo script again, but this time without selecting defocus. Only choose Sepia again. You should get something like this:
   
4. Now for some added effects. Choose Script Fu -> Decor -> Coffee Stain. You should play around with it until you get the required effect and you won't get the same effect each time. So keep trying it till you get that perfect stain. Here's my try:
   
5. Now to get a border for this photo. Choose Script Fu -> Decor -> Round Corners. I chose the settings: Edge Radius: 2, Shadow offset x: 2, Shadow offset y: 2, Blur Radius: 4.

And here's the effect I got by applying the steps (actually the coffee stain on this particular attempt was quite good):

Cool, ain't it?

1. Create a list like this with absolutely no idea in mind.
2. Ask people to read it and comment on it... Don't worry, they will.
3. Put something interesting below to keep them reading.
4. Talk about something else after that.
5. Make the list longer with meaningless items.
   1. For instance, start a sub-list.
   2. Fill it with more items.
   3. Make it longer.
   4. Are there any reasons for using sublists? Well it depends.
6. Lists can be numbered.
7. They can also be bulleted.
   • Like this sub-list for instance.
   • Stating the obvious is an excellent way to keep growing a list.
   • Lists are fun to work with.
   • Or perhaps they aren't.
   • It all depends on the individual, of course.
   • And it's amazing how lists can be kept growing with absolute nonsense.
   • And maybe a little bit of sense, in-between.
   • It's a good way to test people's patience.
   • In the hope that they'll keep reading it (if you've got this far, keep going).
   • Lists have that effect on people, you see (there's my proof!).
8. But of course, lists should have some purpose (you still reading this?).
   1. What purpose, you ask?
   2. Well, it really depends on the list creator.
   3. All questions about a list should be directed at the list creator.
   4. It's the only logical way to get an idea.
   5. For instance, why was this list created?
9. And lists should always end somewhere.
   • But of course the agony can be prolonged with further sub-lists.
   • Not many people have the ability to create longer lists.
   • So you should be proud if you can create one.
10. A round number is a good idea to finish a list.
11. Or maybe it isn't. It's cool to make lists with 11 items.

Finally just below the list place some profoundly insightful thought that will draw comments. Or maybe just end on that note while you're still ahead of the game.

I know I've talked about the menace of SMS spam before. But it's more annoying when this problem crops up when you're in the middle of a car drive. And it just hit me that this problem has grown to the point where I'm seriously considering giving up my connection and opting for a different service provider. I'm even willing to put up with the inconvenience of informing all my friends and acquaintances about the change of number.

To me the whole concept of mobile marketing just stinks. If people get mad when they get junk mail on their free e-mail provider, it's only logical that they should be even more so when they get spam messages on a mobile phone connection they've paid for. It's hard to believe how the mobile operators and random marketing agencies think they can get away with sending ridiculous amounts of spam day in and day out and actually benefit by it.

For those who're not aware of the problem, here's a little round up of how this whole issue has developed over a period of time.

1. Started off by getting ridiculous "spam" from my cell phone operator's own "customer service" number about downloading ring tones.
2. The same started happening for this ridiculous concept called "caller tunes." (here's a hint to mobile phone operators: if I need caller tunes or ring tones junk, I'll ask for it! Filling my limited mobile phone memory with rubbish that I have to clean out is a pathetic marketing strategy.)
3. Then third parties who have absolutely no business knowing my number started filling my SMS space with no-brainer "contests."
4. Probably what I thought was the last straw - phone calls from the cell phone provider's marketing department with recorded messages. Advertising all kinds of "add-on" services.
5. And today, on my father's mobile phone, while we were driving, we got a recorded message from a third party marketing agent who has no business knowing my number.

But above everything else, what really bugs me about this spam is that mobile phone operators want individual customers to come forward and opt-out. That's a ridiculous suggestion. Customers shouldn't *have* to do this to be rid of this disturbance in the first place. SMS spam and nuisance calls are not legitimate services provided by the operators. They add no value to the service and serve only to irritate and disturb people who might be busy with important work. It's one thing to enhance a service by offering add-on packages. It's much less annoying when they send these advertising and promotional offers along with the monthly bill. So there's no lack of opportunity there.

I don't know where this is going to end, but I forsee consumer interest litigations in the near future from people who're being hassled in this fashion. SMS spam, nuisance as it is, is nowhere nearly as annoying as these crappy recorded messages. I cannot describe the degree of annoyance when you receive a call from an unknown number only to find that it's a dumb recorded voice speaking in an artificially crafted accent. Sure, it's not happening too frequently at the moment, but every time it does, it becomes ten times more annoying than the last time.

Just take a lesson from hotmail... when the level of signal-to-noise ratio goes beyond a certain limit, the bubble bursts. And where are they now?

I know I've written about MIDI in Linux before, but I thought I'd share another alternative to people who prefer using SoundFonts - fluidsynth. The advantage is that there are several high quality soundfonts available for download all over the web and you can use the qsynth GUI tool to easily to control the MIDI output.

For users of Debian or Debian-based systems, setting up fluidsynth and qysnth is as easy as using the apt-get install command. Additionally you must download at least one SoundFont to use with it. Just search the web for some free SoundFonts (you might want to download a GM-compatible one for portability). Like all software synth, fluidsynth is also fairly resource hungry and will eat up plenty of CPU cycles. However, it's a good option for those who don't have hardware MIDI and still want to use SoundFonts.

There was a piece of news which caught my eye recently about private banks using goondas (musclemen) to recover loans from individual defaulters - (see here and here). Of course, it is nothing new in India. Admittedly loan recovery is a sensitive issue in a environment where there are plenty of defaulters and conscienceless swinders. But such cases of using brute force come to light only when the Supreme Court suddenly decides to take note of the issue.

My issue with these private banks is,

1. They bombard their customers with loan offers day in and day out through nuisance telephone calls/telemarketing and hand out loans without any discrimination or common sense. In such an environment, how can they ensure that every loan will be 100% recoverable? If they cite competition as the reason for being so aggressive in pushing people into debt, they will have to accept the risk of not being able to recover some of those loans, surely.
2. They use their muscle power only against those people who cannot retaliate in kind. Would this private bank have sent its goondas to the house of a politician or even a rich businessman with high-level political connections? I don't think so. Only those who cannot strike back (the salaried middle class) are targetted regularly for such tactics.

Using illegal methods to extort money from people has a different connotation in society. Only repulsive school bullies indulge in such criminal methods. The problem is that the public has such a short memory that the bank in question will continue doing business as a "respectable" institution.

I'm planning to completely recategorize all the posts in this blog with a new scheme of categorization. Over a period of time I began feeling that the current method of categorization does leave a little bit to be desired as I don't think I'm able to cover all the areas I blog about. Instead of fitting articles rigidly into specific categories, I'm now looking for a more natural categorization scheme which will reflect the nature of the content better with the categories acting more like "tags" or "labels".

I'm open to any ideas you might have as well.

Update: I've redone the categories now.