a7p's http://a7p.org/blog OpenSource, Ubuntu, Python, Zope Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:11:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 en TAPI & managed code http://a7p.org/blog/2008/11/25/tapi-managed-code/ http://a7p.org/blog/2008/11/25/tapi-managed-code/#comments Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:11:24 +0000 A7P http://a7p.org/blog/2008/11/25/tapi-managed-code/ I solved my TAPI-problem using C#s excellent COM binding – BUT my solution does not work reliable. Recently I discovered this knowledge article - M$ recomends against using TAPI from managed code, which made me searching for another solution to invoke calls from a python script. TAPI handling is really really ugly if you do not want to dive into Windows COM-programming and using the older C-interface also is the opposit of fun.

TAPI SUCKS!

]]> http://a7p.org/blog/2008/11/25/tapi-managed-code/feed/ Python + TAPI-madness http://a7p.org/blog/2008/11/03/python-tapi-madness/ http://a7p.org/blog/2008/11/03/python-tapi-madness/#comments Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:58:54 +0000 A7P http://a7p.org/blog/2008/11/03/python-tapi-madness/ If it comes to lower- to medium-class telephony, TAPI is everywhere. Since Version 3.0 TAPI is okay, but even though controllable via COM, I was not able to use pythons win32com module to make it do what I want (here is a minimalized version of my problematic code).

Having TAPI availabe via python would be really, really nice, but all I could find in the internet, were a couple of other people wishing the same. So if anyone is willing to take the challenge, I’d be glad to help wherever I can.

I’ve got no idea if it would be easier to get TAPI3 working via win32com or to use CTypes to use earlier TAPI-revisions (which are really ugly).

]]> http://a7p.org/blog/2008/11/03/python-tapi-madness/feed/ Getting Birthdays out of the AppleAddressBook http://a7p.org/blog/2008/10/02/getting-birthdays-out-of-the-appleaddressbook/ http://a7p.org/blog/2008/10/02/getting-birthdays-out-of-the-appleaddressbook/#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 09:51:24 +0000 A7P http://a7p.org/blog/2008/10/02/getting-birthdays-out-of-the-appleaddressbook/ Recently I posted a terrible piece of AppleScript, but I refurbished the whole thing and rewrote it in python.

Basically there are two known ways of accessing the contents of the Apple AddressBook - well, two sane ways.

The first and most simple one is to use SQLite, and that will doubtlessly be the fastest way. But if Apple ever changes the data-schema of the addressbook the script will be useless. Apart from all that, there is another, more interesting way of accessing the addressbook - so I took the long way home *g*.

PyObjC offeres a neat bridge to OSxs’ native methods - these methods are useable in Python. Using pythons datetime classes it is pretty simple to accomplish almost anything concerning dates. This blog-entry was a great help and gave me the idea to use PyObjC - thanks!

Since my OSX does not offer a py2applet (and the macports version does not work properly) I used Platypus to bundle it into an App.

The Growl code I used stays BSD-licensed, my code is GPL3.

Have fun (and post improvements).

showbirthdays.app (clickable releaase)

birthdaystuff.tar.gz (sourcecode release)

]]> http://a7p.org/blog/2008/10/02/getting-birthdays-out-of-the-appleaddressbook/feed/ Address Book “Show Birthdays” Script http://a7p.org/blog/2008/08/21/address-book-show-birthdays-script/ http://a7p.org/blog/2008/08/21/address-book-show-birthdays-script/#comments Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:28:16 +0000 A7P http://a7p.org/blog/?p=167 I wrote myself a little (apple)script which displays current and upcoming birthdays. It’s not beautiful, it is slow and I am a bit dissatisfied with it - but it’s good enough for now and good enough for me and may be for you.

Feel free to download and improve it - I’d be happy to hear/read about improvments.

The script will might have some issues with people born on 29.2. - but I am to tired to check the behavior of Applescript’s date-class now.

show-birthdays

PS: sorry, I don’t know applescript and I did not want to learn it for this micro project - so if I did some cruel stuff, feel free to correct me, but be kind.

PPS: … and you need Growl to run it.

]]> http://a7p.org/blog/2008/08/21/address-book-show-birthdays-script/feed/ Zope3 + Eclipse http://a7p.org/blog/2008/08/14/zope3-eclipse/ http://a7p.org/blog/2008/08/14/zope3-eclipse/#comments Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:46:39 +0000 A7P http://a7p.org/blog/2008/08/14/zope3-eclipse/ To develope Zope3-application I use Eclipse with pydev and WickedShell (ctrl-shift-c means ctrl-c … I just don’t get debugzope running in interactive mode).
The python-enviroment for Eclipse has got to be the same as for Zope, otherwise you will not be able to use code-completion in it’s full glory.

]]> http://a7p.org/blog/2008/08/14/zope3-eclipse/feed/ Double- vs Single-Quotes http://a7p.org/blog/2008/08/07/double-vs-single-quotes/ http://a7p.org/blog/2008/08/07/double-vs-single-quotes/#comments Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:01:42 +0000 A7P http://a7p.org/blog/2008/08/07/double-vs-single-quotes/ In Python, I just learned, they mean exactly the same (which is a terrible waste of semantic possibilities *g*).

]]> http://a7p.org/blog/2008/08/07/double-vs-single-quotes/feed/ DHL online stamps http://a7p.org/blog/2008/07/21/dhl-online-stamps/ http://a7p.org/blog/2008/07/21/dhl-online-stamps/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:27:23 +0000 A7P http://a7p.org/blog/2008/07/21/dhl-online-stamps/ … and once again the Deutsche Post managed it to really annoy me. Their online-stamp-system uses PDFs with embedded JavaScript .. you have to click away about 5 warning messages, about remote connections, printing etc and you can print it only ONCE… of course you can print test pages from their PDF-JS-”Application” … I just hate it - it’s so stupid.

]]> http://a7p.org/blog/2008/07/21/dhl-online-stamps/feed/ Instant-Messangers for OSx http://a7p.org/blog/2008/07/19/instant-messangers-for-osx/ http://a7p.org/blog/2008/07/19/instant-messangers-for-osx/#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2008 07:41:45 +0000 A7P http://a7p.org/blog/2008/07/19/instant-messangers-for-osx/ Since I am currently on a MacOSx trip and as for Linux there exist a lot of Instant Messagers - even GPLed ones.
I did a quick comparism:
  • Proteus sadly does not seem to support SSL … after discovering this I dropped it instantly.
  • Fire somehow does not want to work with my jabber.ccc.de-account (and does not get continued)
  • Adium works perfectly

This comparisme got a lot shorter than planed, but the reasons are obvious I think. If you know any other IM-Client for MacOSx worth trying, please tell me.

]]> http://a7p.org/blog/2008/07/19/instant-messangers-for-osx/feed/ Ubuntu’s vim and vim-latexsuite http://a7p.org/blog/2008/06/05/ubuntus-vim-and-vim-latexsuite/ http://a7p.org/blog/2008/06/05/ubuntus-vim-and-vim-latexsuite/#comments Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:00:08 +0000 A7P http://a7p.org/blog/2008/06/05/ubuntus-vim-and-vim-latexsuite/ Since the default gvim-application-menu-entry in Ubuntu starts gVim via “gvim -f” it is not able to execute a couple of vim-latexsuite commands properly, for example |lv and |ls just don’t work. Changing the menu-entry fixes this issue (also for starting via gnome-do).

]]> http://a7p.org/blog/2008/06/05/ubuntus-vim-and-vim-latexsuite/feed/ Hating the “Deutsche Post” http://a7p.org/blog/2008/06/02/hating-the-deutsche-post/ http://a7p.org/blog/2008/06/02/hating-the-deutsche-post/#comments Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:12:49 +0000 A7P http://a7p.org/blog/2008/06/02/hating-the-deutsche-post/ I just spend about an hour to print some stamps which I bought from the “Deutsche Post”.
  • my PDF-Reader (evince) does not execute JavaScript (which I appreciate very much - it’s a f**king PDF-displayer, not a turing machine)
  • the Deutsche Post java-webapplet successfully rebootet my computer twice and crashed my X-Server twice too. The problem only occurs when compiz is used - metacity runs flawless.
  • After all this trouble suddenly I was not able to print one of my stamps, since it was “already printed” as the Acrobate Reader (but only the windows version - the linux version did not get that far) and the web-applet claimed. This was fixed in 10 secs by an online-chat-support-guy (I was really supprised).

After all this trouble something came two my mind: Why the hack do they all this to try to keep me from printing some sheet of paper twice? If this is, what their online-stamp-system is secured by, they’ve probably did not realize, how a computer works (these days) - we are not (yet?) living in a TCPA-World.

… my mother would be able to hack their system by simply using a copying machine.

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