Flash Player for Fedora x86_64 Architecture

If you’re using an x86_64 architecture of Fedora, and having problems with Flash player installation for Firefox, follow this quick tutorial.

Flash Player

1. (This is optional) If you’ve tried installing Flash on your system, remove it first. Include nspluginwrapper too.
[root@hostname username]# yum erase flash-plugin nspluginwrapper*

2a. Install the rpm package for 64-bit plugin created by Leigh Scott.
[root@hostname username]# rpm -Uvh http://www.linux-ati-drivers.homecall.co.uk/flash.x86_64/flash-release-1-2.noarch.rpm

2b. You may also download the rpm package and install it from your downloaded directory. Assuming that the file is in your Downloads folder:
[root@hostname username]# rpm -Uvh /home/username/Downloads/flash-release-1-2.noarch.rpm

3. Install the plugin using yum.
[root@hostname username]# yum install flash-plugin

Check if Flash player is installed. This rpm works for Firefox and Opera and from Fedora 12 or newer.

View iWork Pages Files on Windows

File compatibility issues arise when you’re working in a mixed environment of OSes – like Macs and Windows. There are files that can be opened by Macs only and files that can only be ran using Windows. An example is viewing Pages files. When you transfer them on Windows, you get to see the “unknown file” icon and you’re not able to view the contents. It’s a good thing that the term workarounds exists.

Pages files are similar to Microsoft Word files. This tip will let you view these type of files on a Windows system but you can’t edit them. First make sure you’re able to view extension names (filename.extension name). To do this, open a folder, click Tools > Folder Options… and click on the View tab. Uncheck the box that says “Hide extensions for known file types” and click Apply then OK. Below is a snipped image of the Pages file with the unhidden extension.

 

Pages File

Replace your Pages file’s extension name to “.zip” and if Windows tells you that the file will be unusable after changing the extension name just select Yes to continue. Using a zip utility like 7-Zip, extract all files. Open the QuickLook folder and view Preview.pdf. You’re now able to view or even print the file. If you have Adobe Acrobat, you may export the PDF file to Word to be able to edit it.

If you’re a Windows 7 and 7-Zip user, you may immediately extract the files without changing the extension name.

Update:

Check out the free Pages converter for Windows. It converts Pages documents into text files.

Content-Aware Scale

When I resize images in Photoshop, I do the scaling from the corners while I press Shift to maintain the proportionality of the important elements in my images, like people, animals, etc. But what if the image is to be resized to fill up spaces horizontally/vertically? Resizing images from the corners would change both the height and width and so you still have to crop the image. This is where content-aware scaling comes in. This feature is available on Photoshop CS4 and also on CS5.

Below is a screenshot of my subject photo. You’ll notice that I already increased the canvas size to show the target size of the image after editing it. Next to it is the resized image using the Free Transform tool. The surfer and his board were stretched horizontally too.

Original image with edited canvas

Using the Free Transform tool

I’ll revert back to the original image to resize the image again using the Content-Aware Scale tool – first, by using the Protect Skin Tones option.

With the image in its original dimensions, click Edit > Content-Aware Scale or you may press CTRL + Shift + Alt + C as a keyboard shortcut. Handles will appear on your image just like when you’re using the Free Transform tool. On the top just below the main menu, you’ll find the Protect Skin Tones icon. If you toggle this on, Photoshop will try to protect regions that contain skin tones.

Protect skin tones

Scaled with protected skin tones

Here’s how it looked like after I did a content-aware scale with skin tone protection. Notice that the surfer’s details are preserved while the surf board is stretched a bit. This is how the Protect Skin Tones option works. Photoshop bases its scaling on the images skin tones.

I’ll revert the image back to its original form to content-aware scale by creating an alpha channel. First, I’ll select the surfer and surfboard using the Lasso tool (you may use any tool when doing a selection). It doesn’t have to be a perfect, just as long as the subjects are inside the selection. See image below.

Making a selection

After making the selection, click Select > Save Selection… and give it a name, e.g. “surf”. Press CTRL + D to deselect. Fire up the Content-Aware Scale tool. Check the Protect section again, this time from the drop down menu, select your saved channel.

Selecting the alpha channel

After selecting the channel, resize your image. Press Enter to apply the transformation. Below is the image where all the important elements were preserved.

Important elements were preserved

There are other things that you can do with Content-Aware Scale like moving objects closer together or far away from each other. Try it out and check if you find any other applications of this tool.

For questions, you may email me at . A downloaded PDF is also available at Scribd.