A-Cute Bit

RSS  •  Ruminations on programming, life, the universe, and everything. By Alberto Pettarin.

Who Uses aeneas?

A brief list of projects and people using my tool aeneas for aligning audio and text

My Talk Proposal Submitted To PyCon8 (PyCon Italia 2017)

I submitted a talk proposal (actually, two: one in English and one in Italia) about aeneas to PyCon8, i.e. PyCon Italia 2017. Read the abstract here and vote for them!

A Guide For Non-Techies To Install And Run Python On Windows

I published on GitHub a guide for non-tech-savvy Windows users to install Python and use the Command Prompt

Make Your Web Page Talk With espeakng.js

espeakng.js is a port of the eSpeak-ng text-to-speech engine, done via emscripten, that can be used to add text synthesis to any Web page

Inside aeneas Part 1: Motivation And Design Principles

I describe the problem my FLOSS forced aligner aeneas addresses, and I review the design principles behind it

Solving (Generalized) Ruzzle Boards With elzzur

I describe elzzur, my Python package to solve (generalized) Ruzzle boards

Quando un algoritmo non è...

Traduzione di un breve ma eccellente post di Suresh Venkat sulla definizione di algoritmo nel contesto del machine learning

aeneasweb.org Is Online Now

I have just launched aeneasweb.org, a simple Web App that lets users run aeneas without installing it on their machines.

Patching the All-Time Top 100 IMDb Movie Titles with Algorithm

What happens when you substitute the word algorithm in the title of the all-time top 100 IMDb movies.

I Have A Python Script

I have a Python script to convert EPUB 2 + MP3s into EPUB 3 reflowable + Media Overlays

A Heartbreaking Email

I received this email a few days ago, and it broke my heart.

aeneas Updates: Summer Edition

Brief updates on aeneas, detailing the work done during the summer: C extensions, boundary adjustments, Google Group, running on Windows

Pointers on Reading+Listening

A few pointers to projects, articles, and research papers exploring reading+listening for literacy building

awesome is awesome!

A long-due tribute to the awesome window manager I daily use, aptly named awesome!

A Tale of Ordinary Piracy (and Stupidity)

A few thoughts on pirated works that can be easily found on Google Play.

ReadBeyond Is Dead, Long Live ReadBeyond!

ReadBeyond is closing down, but don't worry, its legacy will stay online.

Running aeneas using VirtualBox and Vagrant

This tutorial helps you setting up a Vagrant box on VirtualBox so that you can easily run aeneas without the hassle of installing its dependencies, especially if you are using Windows or Mac OS X.

A Few Notes On Minstrel

This post contains a few notes and observations about the recent publication of the source code of Minstrel app

A Practical Introduction To The aeneas Package

This post is a practical introduction to the aeneas package, with concrete examples of how to use it to compute audio/text sync maps.

Don't Call It 'Social DRM'

A plead to professionals, journalists, bloggers and the like not to use the term "Social DRM."

(Current) Fixed Layout eBooks Considered Harmful

Current fixed layout (FXL) eBooks are not just limited, they are harmful to the digital publishing ecosystem.

Let Me Pop Your eBook's Images

A cool feature of Menestrello v3 is a pretext to discuss the concept of eBooks as asset containers and the implied importance of the reading systems.

Menestrello v3, Developers' Page, and More

In case you missed them: we released the v3 of Menestrello and we put online a Developers' Page for the app

Time to kill ReadBeyond

For the last 18 months I have been working full-time for ReadBeyond, but now I think it is time to kill it.

Free Menestrello

In case you missed it, ReadBeyond seeks support for releasing the source code of Menestrello app. Read this post for details.

No user-provided CSS is a stupid CSS

In this post I want to write down a few observations on a hot topic in the eBook world: the balance between author's/publisher's choices on eBook typography and reader's preferences. And the role of apps (developers) in it.

The Quest for the Missing eBook Reading App

Some scattered thoughts on eBook reading apps, and the current need for good, truly FOSS ones.

Installing Edubuntu on Acer Aspire 2001

How to install Edubuntu on Acer Aspire 2001, whose BIOS does not support booting from USB.

Notes from Editech (Italian EPUB Day) 2014

A collection of thoughts and notes inspired by Editech 2014

Subsetting Fonts with glyphIgo

Do you have to subset a bunch of fonts? Use glyphIgo, directly from your favourite shell!

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How To Create EPUB 3 Read Aloud eBooks

This post describes the steps needed to create EPUB 3 eBooks with Media Overlays, also known as "read aloud" eBooks, with tips and tricks, and a full EPUB 3 demo.

Audio-eBooks: using Media Overlays in reflowable EPUB 3 eBooks

I share some lessons learned working with "Audio-eBooks", which are reflowable EPUB 3 eBooks with embedded audio and Media Overlays.

The Simpsons in CSS, in 15 minutes

A preview of an Inkscape plugin (and console script), that lets you convert an SVG into XHTML+CSS

Inside Menestrello — Part 4: Future work

This is the last part of a "behind the scenes" tour of Menestrello app. In this post, I describe some improvements and future work to be done on Menestrello.

My brain is on the market

I am looking for exciting job opportunities, starting in January 2015. Details in this post.

Inkscape plugins

Yesterday I learned how to write Inkscape plugins

On a cool project never born

A brief and censored description of a cool project never born.

Inside Menestrello — Part 3: Interesting features

This is Part 3 of a "behind the scenes" tour of Menestrello app. In this post, I cover some interesting features of Menestrello.

Inside Menestrello — Part 2: Architecture

This is Part 2 of a "behind the scenes" tour of Menestrello app. In this post, I cover the high level architecture of Menestrello.

Hide or toggle nav bar in Firefox 29 with Vimperator

Annoyed by the fact that Firefox (Iceweasel) 29 no longer lets you hide the nav bar? Here is how to hide or toggle it.

Inside Menestrello — Part 1: Motivation

This is Part 1 of a "behind the scenes" tour of Menestrello app. In this post, I cover the motivation behind developing Menestrello.

An AppleScript to bypass the annoying "add to library" dialog in ADE 3.0

Annoyed by the "add to library" dialog in ADE 3.0? Check this AppleScript out!

How to dim (or light up) Android status bar from a PhoneGap plugin

After I wasted a lot of time trying to figuring out how to dim the Android status bar from a PhoneGap plugin, I share two tips that will save you the trouble.

Google Play Books vs Media Overlays

I checked whether the Google Play Books Android app supports EPUB 3 Media Overlays. You know, for science.

Minima Immoralia 001

The easiest way to waste the best talents in the software industry...

EPUB reading systems vs invalid OCFs

I investigated whether some popular, real world EPUB reading systems actually check for OCF conformance when loading an EPUB file. You know, for science.

EPUB OCF, mimetype, and kittens

Do you know why the mimetype file should not be compressed in your EPUB files? Venture yourself in this blog post full of EPUB OCF technicalities and kittens!

Opening EPUB files with Vim

How to instruct Vim to open EPUB files on the fly, so you can view/edit their contents without unzipping them first.

Sideloading EPUB files using Python SimpleHTTPServer

The simplest way to sideload your EPUB files? Just use a Python one-liner to instantiate a light Web server directly from your console!

Hello World

No serious blog starts without a Hello World! post.