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Document Conversion with DC.py
Chris Cox

DC.py is a python script that uses the pyUNO bridge to speak to Open Office running as a daemon to convert files form one format to another. For example you can convert Microsoft Office formats to PDFs, or HTML. DC.py is a greatly enhanced version of PyODConverter (DocumentConverter.py) found at http://www.artofsolving.com/opensource/pyodconverter At Sterling Commerce, we use DC.py as an extension to PmWiki using the recipes PmDocConvert to allow us to portray documents on our wiki. See: http://pmwiki.org/wiki/Cookbook/PmDocConvert

In the meeting I mentioned difficulty with 3.0.0.1 of OpenOffice and pyUNO support. I updated on my openSUSE 11.1 platform to 3.0.0.9 and the problems went away. I also mentioned that some Ubuntu users seem to be reporting similar issues. If so, it's likely that an update probably fixes their issues as well. With that said, there are some deprecations in the DC.py script, but should hurt anything... I'll get to that when I can.

Last month, Ralph Green suggested some very inexpensive media players, like the Sansa C2xx class. He suggested these to me because they are inexpensive and are often times expandable (via microSD) and can run Rock Box. In the process of hunting around, I discovered that Best Buy made a player called the Insignia Pilot (4GB/8GB) that handles many media formats, is very small and light, and handles a full side SDHC card (fits entirely within the unit). I needed an SDHC reader on my machine, and opted to give it a try as my solution for that.... and what a pleasant surprise. They are pretty easy to get for $25 - 35USD (retails for $99) in various used/refurbished states. I bought mine for $35 (used with some scratches). It handles XVID video, HAS video out, HAS bluetooth (we tested at today's meeting), HAS OGG Vorbis, HAS JPEG photo support at ridiculously high resolutions... pretty nice all in all. Recommended.

I'm now using a 32GB SDHC card in mine. Excellent!! I really like this player... does glitch every once and awhile.... but seems a lot more stable than most players out there. Re-tagged all my media to embed the album covers inside the songs. Watched bolt via DVD the other night while also watching Bolt on the Pilot (manually synced them up)... worked great (so no noticeable time skewing).

My mencoder script for the Pilot


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Document Conversion with DC.py
Chris Cox

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Page last modified on May 21, 2009, at 02:26 PM