In my previous pasttime, I spent quite a bit of time building an electric bicycle. I have experimented various versions on my electric bike. Some versions works, some dont. I have built front wheel drive version, rear wheel drive, back pusher etc.
During the process of building my electric bike, I have learned a lot. Things that work and things that do not work. The last version that I built was a in-wheel motor. This wheel has a built-in motor that it can drive the wheel directly. It is a rear wheel drive. I wanted to put this wheel to the front so that I can pedal to assist the motor during uphill or up a slope. But unfortunately, the front fork of the bike isnt wide enough to fit the motor. So for now, it will be on the rear.
There are some pictures of the electric bike that I built. Unfortunately, they dont work too well. Anyway, here is the link.. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21577012026&v=app_2373072738#!/media/set/?set=o.21577012026
Btw, if you would like to read about why I like to cycle, you can read about it at my another blog.
http://chngwords.blogspot.com/2009/08/bicycle-why-bicycle-why-not-just-take.html
Monday, January 17, 2011
Print Our Own Passport Photos
Recently, we have a new member in our family. My wife just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in late November 2010.
So, in total, we have 5 members in the family. All these while, I was (and still am) the one who went to various government agencies to have all my kids' legal documents (e.g birth certificates, ID cards, passport photos, etc) done. Other than my three kids, I still need to get my own passport renewed as well as my wife's passport renewed.
Other than filling up a bunch application forms, I would also have to get my kids pictures taken. Having their photographs taken is probably one of the hardest part of this process. For some reason, I just could not get them to sit still, stand still, not to smile, heads' straight, dont blink the eyes, etc and have their photos taken nicely. Every time when I bring them to the local photo shop, I ended up spending about 1 hour, just to have a "good" photo taken that can meet the specification per the local authority. Furthermore, with three kids, one being an infant, I usually end up spending most of the morning or afternoon there. The infant took the most time, as I couldnt find a good way of holding the baby while trying to hide my hands from the camera. After some struggle, I faced with another challenge. As I got myself a good position and ready for the camera to shoot, the baby doze off. Forcing the baby to wake up and get her eyes to open, is another challenge. So, at the end, it pretty much took about 1.5 hrs to hide my hands from the camera while holding the baby, get her eyes to open, and look at the camera, and have a decent photograph taken.
This process usually repeats every 3 years when I have to renew their passports. Instead of going through all the hassle all the time, I desperately looking for a better solution. I need to find a solution whereby I can take my kids' pictures at home at my own sweet time, that is best convenient to me, rather than going to the photo shop and have them taken there, afterall the shop is also using digital camera.
I did some research on the web and found out that, I can actually use my own digital camera and take some good photo of my kids, and then use some graphical software to resize them to meet the specification for the passport photos, ID photos, etc.
In the process of researching, I came across the below websites to show you how you can actually create and print your own passport at home, using own printer. I have tried both method and both results are great.
Using Photoshop
http://www.dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=22
Using GIMP
http://www.robotgeek.org/articles/passport_tutorial/tutorial.html
So, for the first few rounds of passport renewals, I was using the above methods with great success. Over time, I find it getting a bit tedious, as I have to make every single measurements, and calculations to obtain the correct pixel sizes. Then I started to look for shortcuts, and continue to look further for more ideas. I am looking for ways whereby I can just snap a picture of my kids, and then use some kind of software to do all the measurements and calculations, and all that I need to do is just send the output to the printer, and tada.....automagically, I get the photos that can meet the requirements exactly.
I found a great software that can do exactly what I need. It is called "Passport Photo" from a company called OnTheGoSoft (http://www.onthegosoft.com/passport_photo.htm).
I have tried it and it works great. It allows you to choose different photo sizes from different countries' requirements. It also allows you to choose the custom photo size that you need.
Besides this, I have also tried the online passport photo, whereby you just upload your photo online, set the country requirement, and it will then process and provide you a nicely created passport size photo that you can print it on your home printer. It works great but I encountered various problem uploading my photo to the site to process. Occasionally, my browser just hung. Another problem that I find this is, you need to be online or access to the internet before you can actually use this service. If you are keen to try it, you can go to http://www.epassportphoto.com
After all the evaluations that I have done on many online and offline passport photo applications, I find that the Passport Photo software from OnTheGoSoft is the best so far. If you are keen to create and print your own passport photos or ID photo at home, you should seriously give it a try. It is a great software.
If you need more details on this DIY passport photo, drop me an email at choonhooi (at) yahoo (dot) com.
So, in total, we have 5 members in the family. All these while, I was (and still am) the one who went to various government agencies to have all my kids' legal documents (e.g birth certificates, ID cards, passport photos, etc) done. Other than my three kids, I still need to get my own passport renewed as well as my wife's passport renewed.
Other than filling up a bunch application forms, I would also have to get my kids pictures taken. Having their photographs taken is probably one of the hardest part of this process. For some reason, I just could not get them to sit still, stand still, not to smile, heads' straight, dont blink the eyes, etc and have their photos taken nicely. Every time when I bring them to the local photo shop, I ended up spending about 1 hour, just to have a "good" photo taken that can meet the specification per the local authority. Furthermore, with three kids, one being an infant, I usually end up spending most of the morning or afternoon there. The infant took the most time, as I couldnt find a good way of holding the baby while trying to hide my hands from the camera. After some struggle, I faced with another challenge. As I got myself a good position and ready for the camera to shoot, the baby doze off. Forcing the baby to wake up and get her eyes to open, is another challenge. So, at the end, it pretty much took about 1.5 hrs to hide my hands from the camera while holding the baby, get her eyes to open, and look at the camera, and have a decent photograph taken.
This process usually repeats every 3 years when I have to renew their passports. Instead of going through all the hassle all the time, I desperately looking for a better solution. I need to find a solution whereby I can take my kids' pictures at home at my own sweet time, that is best convenient to me, rather than going to the photo shop and have them taken there, afterall the shop is also using digital camera.
I did some research on the web and found out that, I can actually use my own digital camera and take some good photo of my kids, and then use some graphical software to resize them to meet the specification for the passport photos, ID photos, etc.
In the process of researching, I came across the below websites to show you how you can actually create and print your own passport at home, using own printer. I have tried both method and both results are great.
Using Photoshop
http://www.dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=22
Using GIMP
http://www.robotgeek.org/articles/passport_tutorial/tutorial.html
So, for the first few rounds of passport renewals, I was using the above methods with great success. Over time, I find it getting a bit tedious, as I have to make every single measurements, and calculations to obtain the correct pixel sizes. Then I started to look for shortcuts, and continue to look further for more ideas. I am looking for ways whereby I can just snap a picture of my kids, and then use some kind of software to do all the measurements and calculations, and all that I need to do is just send the output to the printer, and tada.....automagically, I get the photos that can meet the requirements exactly.
I found a great software that can do exactly what I need. It is called "Passport Photo" from a company called OnTheGoSoft (http://www.onthegosoft.com/passport_photo.htm).
I have tried it and it works great. It allows you to choose different photo sizes from different countries' requirements. It also allows you to choose the custom photo size that you need.
Besides this, I have also tried the online passport photo, whereby you just upload your photo online, set the country requirement, and it will then process and provide you a nicely created passport size photo that you can print it on your home printer. It works great but I encountered various problem uploading my photo to the site to process. Occasionally, my browser just hung. Another problem that I find this is, you need to be online or access to the internet before you can actually use this service. If you are keen to try it, you can go to http://www.epassportphoto.com
After all the evaluations that I have done on many online and offline passport photo applications, I find that the Passport Photo software from OnTheGoSoft is the best so far. If you are keen to create and print your own passport photos or ID photo at home, you should seriously give it a try. It is a great software.
If you need more details on this DIY passport photo, drop me an email at choonhooi (at) yahoo (dot) com.
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