EPS to PDF conversion is, for the average person a pain in the butt. A while back I wrote about how to easily convert your EPS files to PDF via terminal. Whilst that was an easier method that opening preview every time it is still time consuming. I have therefore written an Automator program to do it for you. The program will ask you to select all the EPS files you want to batch convert then it will  batch convert them and put the PDF’s in the same folder as the EPS files (with the same file name). I have added the file to my server here.

Feel free to have a closer look at some of the ads on my website to say thank you and to help contribute to my bandwidth costs of bringing this file to you.

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So, I haven’t posted a review in a while but I really had to write about this film after I watched it. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, has probably been the best film I have seen this year so far.

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet’s disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves

Initially it was hard to get into the subtitles, but the film really did rapidly progress to be quite exciting which made the subtitles barrier much easier to bare. I would thoroughly recommend buying the DVD, it is only a few pounds and can be bought via my link above.

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This is the second post in the series. In this post I am going to look at the software I currently use, the ones I am basically going to have to replace. There are a hell of a lot of good apps on the Mac and I will honestly be sad to replace these apps.

• iBank – By IGG Software is one of the main apps I use for my accounting, it will be hard beaten to be replaced!
• OmniFocus – I use this both on my mac and on my iPhone, I think the iPhone version will be the hardest one to replace.
• OmniGraffle – I use this in my PhD thesis for making sexy diagrams, I think I can replace this but the new app may not be as good.
• AdiumX – Instant messenger (Open Source)
• Apple Mail – Mail client
• Transmit – FTP client from Panic
• iTunes – We all know what this one is, biggest part of this is the iPhone syncing and also getting all my music into non DRM versions before swapping
• DevonThink Pro – This will also be a big app to move from. DevonThink is awesome, I use it for storing all my mail ever received.
• 1Password – Used religiously to store all my passwords to websites and credit card details to make my online life easier.
• Dropbox – No need to replace this, there is a free linux version.
• MacTex – Latex client (Open Source)
• Aperture – Photo library and basic photo manipulation (Handles RAW)
• iCal – Calendar app that I sync to Google calendar with…..
• Spanning Sync – Used to sync my address book and calendar to Googles.
• Steam – Online games client that I mainly use for Civilisation
• Chronosync – Used to sync certain folders to my external hard drive for real time backup
• MacTheRipper – Used to make backups of my DVDs
• VLC – Used to watch media files (Open Source)
• MailSteward – Used to backup the contents of my Apple Mail, which is basically every email I have ever recieved
• MacFamilyTree – Used to construct my family tree
• Jungledisk – Backup interface to Amazon S3
• Backblaze – Used to backup my whole machine and external drives
• Superduper - Used to make full bootable backup of my machine
• Skype – Video calls
• Knox – File encryption

This list is not exhaustive, there are many more applications I have purchased and never use. The apps mentioned above are the main ones I use on a daily to weekly basis. Baring in mind that I have paid to upgrade a lot of the mentioned apps it may shock you to know that for the apps above, if you were to go and purchase that list right now it would cost you $1082.74!!! I must have easily spent almost $3000 on software for my desktop alone, add to this the tie in I have with my iPhone and the equivalent apps I have bought to use them on the go and you can see just how much money has been wasted when there are free alternatives out there.

The next part of the series looks at how I have started using open source software and how you can also use it for free right now. Please feel free to comment below.

*All of what you have read today, was written and edited on Ubuntu Linux*

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*Begin Rant* – Please skip this if you wish and move direct to the main content

Recently I have become a little pissed off with closed ecosystem’s a.k.a Apple’s way of doing things. It has always been a system I have relished and thought was a great idea. Back in the days of the iBook (A machine I adored) there were no issues with your Apple system, it really did just work! Today, things are very different. There are many different hardware configurations, it is now Intel based and we have all these iOS devices popping up like jack rabbits. If you are one of those people that has had a bug (iPhone 3G and iOS 4 for example) then you know how frustrating it is whilst you wait for Apple to sort it out. You are at the complete mercy of a huge corporation!

There have been multiple things that have really started to get to me, if your a regular reader here, you already know what they are. If not, I will recap. When the move to Intel initially occurred, the build quality of the new machines was s**t. I went through 7, yes 7 Macbook’s. One was even quality controlled by Apple in Ireland, and to be frank that was a POS. Thankfully, those days are a thing of the past, Apple build quality really is back to where it was, if not better. Next, ever since the intel move I have found the operating system to be buggier, slower, and generally more windows like every iteration we get. A user should not be left wishing they had stayed on a previous version of an OS. I wish I was on Tiger still, just like I wish I was still on 3.1.3 on my iPhone 3G. Version 4.1 has improved things, but it is still not usable. Add to that the way Steve commented about user feedback on the Apple TV…. either he is telling lies or he has asked a total bunch of muppets. Everything Mac fans have been asking for with that device for years he has negated. We wanted openess, the ability to play any file type, we wanted a blu-ray or DVD drive and we wanted a TV tuner. That Steve-O is what makes a great TV device for your living room.

Why be at the mercy of a company that cares more about money that it does about you? I mean, and I quote:

“we don’t care about existing users, our target is windows movers” – Apple Recruiter 2006.

*End Rant*

So on the back of this rant, I wondered, given how much time and money I have invested in the Mac and iOS platforms whether I could actually make a complete move to open source and like it. From what I can see, it would offer me greater freedom both in terms of hardware and software choices….. it would also free my wallet. I tend to spend quite a bit on Mac applications….. especially with the latest and greatest versions you seem forced to buy to get the functionality you really wanted from day one. This will be a series of posts about my transition to open source, the replacement of all my main apps and how I did it. It will serve as a demonstration to all about how easy it is to do and how you can all give it a go, right now, without any investment on your part at all.

Please subscribe to the RSS feed if you are interested in seeing this series unfold and PLEASE comment on the threads. I want to know what you think, how many of you are open source now and what you think to closed ecosystems as shown in my rant.

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I don’t even need to say anything, watch the video and see what a POS this software currently is (4.0.2) on the 3G.

Popularity: 16% [?]

So if you are reading this, your probably in the same situation I was. You have installed iOS4, most likely the GM and you have found out that it sucks ass and you want to go back to 3.1.3. You, like me, probably tried to go back but iTunes won’t let you!? Well I am going to show you how to get back to 3.1.3

The first step is to put your phone in DFU Mode. Go and connect the iPhone to the Mac/PC. iTunes will be like “OMFG your iPhone is in recovery mode” at which point you click on restore. At this point on mac i clicked “alt” – “restore” and selected a 3.1.3 restore image I have. You will get the error that your iPhone cannot be restored….. DON’T Panic. Go HERE and download iRecovery, pick the one appropriate to you (Windows/Mac). Next open up a terminal window and type:

cd /directory/to/iRecovery then type ./iRecovery -s

Wait for iRecovery to load then run the following commands one at a time (it says its going to bring up a cmd prompt – it never does):
setenv auto-boot true
saveenv
/exit

Then go ahead and do the restore process again – you will now be back at 3.1.3!!!!

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I thought I would post a very short update on my post about the iMac not waking from sleep. Apple never got back to me…. only goes to show they don’t care! As for the Mac…. well the issue still exists and since the post it has had several failures to the logic board, hard drives etc. How is everyone else’s doing?

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Recently I found myself needing to quickly and easily convert some .eps files to .pdf. You can simply double click on the EPS in OS X and Preview will convert it however this cannot be done in batch and you have to go through the process of saving the .pdf.

There is a quicker and free solution to this in OS X and it is already built in…. Terminal.app.

1. Open terminal.app
2. Navigate to the directory where the .eps files are located… use ‘cd’ followed by a folder or directory string to move to the folder ‘cd ..’ to move up a directory level and ‘ls’ to tell you what is in the directory your currently in.
3. When you have located the files type the following: epstopdf filename.eps 
4. epstopdf will now convert that eps file to a pdf and place it in the same directory as: filename.pdf  

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I have been an iPhone user since it was first launched in the UK. One of the nice features that came in a January software update was the ability to save an icon on your home screen that relates directly to a website. This allowed you to easily launch and few a site with one push of your finger.

A couple of weeks ago I had an icon made by Arron Hirst from RazorianFly. Arron is responsible for most of the graphics you see on my sites, mainly the icons, banners and post banners. I hope he continues to provide me with these excellent graphics for shameless plugs on my sites

Arron will soon be starting up his own graphics design business which I hope will continue to provide DavidJMoore.com with great, simple and clean graphics. Who knows, if the site becomes popular I may even be able to pay him, but that wouldn’t be frugal, or help me retire at 45.

To place the DavidJMoore.com webclip icon on your desktop you need to follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to DavidJMoore.com on mobile Safari.
2. Hit the plus button on mobile Safari.
3. Select ‘Add to Home Screen‘

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I just wanted to make a quick post about an update I was eagerly awaiting. Plus it seems like a good opportunity to write something positive about Apple. Regardless of the other articles written here I will praise any company that does good and flame them when they do bad. This time Apple has done good!

For all of you that were on 2.x prior to 2.1 you will know it just plain sucked. It was buggy, laggy and crashy! I’m happy to say 2.1 is none of those and it also introduces some nice little touches:

• Pause app install by clicking on the app icon
• Triple clicking to go to the previous track
• Genius playlist
• Option to wipe data after 10 incorrect passcode attempts
• iTunes now displays ‘Apps’ space usage
• On UK English set iPhones holding ‘.com’ on the keyboard presents you with other domains

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