In an effort to go completely paperless, I was presented with the problem of needing to sign a document (pdf) that was emailed to me and then needing to send it back.  Without having to print out the form to sign it nor needing access to a scanner or fax machine to send it back, you can simply take a picture of your signature, and then using free tools you can “import” it “into” the PDF and email it right back! 

This may seem long and complicated at first, but once you read through it and do it once, it should be fast and easy a second time – And granted, there may be slightly easier ways to do this with paid tools, but this guide is for using freely available tools which you also may have one or two already installed!:

1. Download and install the tools

Here is what you need to download:

• Adobe Reader 9 which you probably already have.  We will use this to view the original PDF and take a single screenshot to import into the image editing software (don’t worry, it will look good!),
• Paint.net (or really, any drawing program that can do layers and make transparent images) which we’ll use to overlay your signature on the PDF screenshot, and then also to re-print to a new PDF,
• CutePDF (or any other free PDF Printer), which as opposed to printing to a printer, will allow you to “print to” (create) a PDF, and
• A way to get a copy of your signature on your computer.  I used my iPhone to take a picture of my signature, though, you can use what ever camera phone, real digital camera, etc that you have.

2. Convert your PDF to a screenshot (an image)

Open your PDF in Adobe Reader 9 and zoom all the way out so you can see the entire page (even if it looks small and you can no longer read anything):

Next, select the SnapShot tool (“Tools” –> “Select & Zoom” –> “Snapshot Tool”) and starting at one corner, click-and-drag to the opposite diagonal corner to highlight the entire page.  Once you do that, you should receive a dialog box saying that the selected area has been copied to the clipboard:

However, if you proceed in using what is currently copied, it will be exactly the same size as you are currently looking at it; meaning, it will be really small and will end up very pixilated when you “blow it up” to normal paper size when you re-print it as a PDF, such as the image below (click to enlarge to full size):

So, in order to fix this, make sure the page is still highlighted (transparent blue) and then zoom in quite a bit (“View” –> “Zoom” –> “Zoom To…”).  You don’t need to zoom to 5000%, but 200-300% should be enough.  While making sure it is still highlighted, right click anywhere it is blue-ish, and click “copy selected graphic”.  You now have a much larger screenshot of the PDF in your clipboard. 

Proceed by opening Paint.net and pasting into a new image (Edit –> Paste) and feel free to save this as a PNG file if you want (I’ll refer to this image as “pdf screenshot”).  Either way, to make things easier, go ahead and keep Paint.net open while we move forward.  You now have a large, high quality screenshot (image) of your PDF which is ready to have your signature placed on top of!

3. Get your signature onto your computer

Okay, so now you need to get your signature on the computer.  Chances are you have a decent enough camera phone (and a way to get those pictures onto your computer) that you can use to take a picture of your signature , such as the iPhone – or – you can of course use a scanner, a real digital camera, or however else you can come up with a way to do it.  With my iPhone, I just took a picture of the signature in a decently lit room and then emailed my self the picture:

(and no, this is not my real signature, ha)

4. Prep your signature for overlaying on the PDF screenshot

We will now make the image black and white, enhance it (using brightness and contrast), and then make everything that is not the signature (the paper) to be transparent.  Open your signature in Paint.net (or whatever image software you are using) and 1) convert the image to black and white, and then 2) adjust the brightness and contrast so that it really is only black-and-white. 

To do this, start out by opening the signature image in Paint.net (“File –> “Open” –> find your image).  If you already have your pdf screenshot open, you should now be in a new Paint.net window:

First, we’ll go ahead and resize the signature just incase it is huge by going to “Image” –> “Resize”.  Make sure “Maintain aspect ratio” is checked and change the width to 1000 pixels (leave whatever number appears in the Height section as-is. It will probably not be the same as mine).  Click ok. (resizing now will help prevent issues when pasting it over the pdf screenshot later)

Now, 1) go to the “Adjustments” menu bar, then click “Black and White”, and then 2) go back to “Adjustments” and then “Brightness / Contrast” — for my particular image, I had to set brightness at 52 and contrast at 79 for it to look like the following (your settings will vary) – the goal here is to have the background as white as possible while having the signature stand out and be clear:

Now we need to make all the “white” become transparent so we can overlay it on top of the pdf screenshot.  

First, select the Magic Wand tool and start with a tolerance level of 50%:

Then, hold the CTRL key while you start clicking on the white areas of the image.  Keep clicking the white areas (while still holding CTRL) until they have all been selected so you get something that looks like this (zoom in if you need to in order to get enclosed small areas such as the white space in letters like P, B, O, etc):

At this point, you can then press the delete key, and everything that is highlighted (all the white) will be removed and will be replaced with transparency (white and grey checkered boxes):

There, now your signature is ready to be placed on the pdf screenshot!

5. Paste the signature onto the pdf screenshot

Start out by copying your entire signature by going to “Edit” –> “Select all” and then copy it (edit->copy).  Then, move on over to your pdf screenshot (just click on it’s thumbnail in the top-right corner if you still have it open, or if not, open it! [with Paint.net] ).

From here, create a new layer on top of your pdf screenshot by going to “Layers” –> “Add new layer”:  (this will allow you to place the signature “on top” of the pdf screenshot without covering anything up)

Next, paste the signature into this new layer (“Edit” –> “Paste).  Chances are, your signature will be a big large, but either way you will need to resize it to the size your actual signature would be and move it down to the signature line:

With the signature still selected (dotted lines still surrounding it), hold the SHIFT key on the keyboard while you click and drag one of the corners of the signature selection  (when you move the mouse cursor to one of the corners, the cursor should change from a solid black arrow to a white hand, thus signifying you can resize).  Hold the SHIFT key while you resize it so it will keep the same aspect ratio.   Continue to resize it until it is about the right size that you signature would be.  Once you are happy with the size, let go of the SHIFT key and release the mouse button – now, move the cursor to the middle of the signature so you now have a black arrow cursor – this will now allow you to move the signature down to the signature line:

Now, click and drag the signature to the signature line and release the mouse button.  With the signature where you want it on the pdf screenshot, proceed to “flatten” the image (combine the “signature layer” with the “pdf screenshot” layer) by going to “Image” –> “Flatten”.   Congratulations, your PDF screenshot is now signed and ready to be re-saved (“printed”) as a pdf!

6.  Print to PDF

Now, go to “File” –> “Print”, and select your PDF printer (in my case, “CutePDF  Writer”).  Be sure that you select Full Page Photo and don’t choose the option for cropping if you see it (I am using Windows 7, but if you were using XP you may see the option for full page photo cropped) and continue to print.

Your PDF printer software will now most likely have some sort of dialog box asking you what to name, and where to save, your new pdf – go ahead with that, and then enjoy your signed pdf!

So there you have it, you were able to bypass having to print it and scan it in (or fax it)!  Have a simpler (free) way to add a signature to a PDF?  Did I miss a step you can’t seem to get passed?  Let me know in the comments!  (caveat emptor, this guide is in no way meant to act as a way to forge, or otherwise impersonate, someone’s signature!)

As Google Voice gains more and more steam, here are a few tips and tricks you may find useful (if you are one of the people who have had your invite accepted):

– Call from your GV number (from whatever phone you have in hand) –

You can make an outgoing call as your GV number (recipient’s caller ID would show GV too) from any phone by:

• Dial your GV number
• Press *
• Dial your GV voicemail pin
• Press 2
• Dial the number you wish to call
• Press #

So say your GV number was 111-222-3333, pin 1234, and outgoing call 999-888-7777, you would dial:  111-222-3333 * 1234 2 999-888-7777#

– Google Voice works with Gizmo –

Gizmo is very similar to Skype in that it is a VOIP application you can run on your computer (Win, Mac, Linux) or mobile phone – again, very similar to Skype.  One major advantage Gizmo has over Skype is that you can have it work with your Google Voice number, so you can answer any of your GV calls from the Gizmo app (again, from your computer or mobile device).

One more thing that’s great about Gizmo is that you can use it to make free incoming and free outgoing free 3 minute outgoing calls from your computer!  A  few days/weeks ago, posts filtered in about there being actual feature to pair up your GV account & Gizmo to be able to dial out directly from Gizmo without having to pay for any of the first 3 minutes of call out credit / any in credit, or having to login to google.com/voice and then start the call from the GV web interface :

Pair this setup with an ATA device (ie: an old SunRocket or Vonage box), and can you can be able to make free 3 minute outgoing calls and receive unlimited free incoming calls using a land line phone (without having to have a computer running), or through the Gizmo5 app (with a computer running).  Learn more about how to do this from my earlier post, Use Gizmo5 for free calls with Google Voice.

– Forward calls going to your cell, to GV, when out of range so you won’t miss the call –

With most (any?) cell carriers, you can setup conditional forwarding rules to forward incoming calls to different numbers based on the situation.  For example, you can have your incoming calls forwarded only if you have no signal, if you ‘deny’ the call, or if you simply want to send people to a different number as opposed to using your default voicemail.   This could be useful if you live in an area that gets poor cell reception – you could set your phone to forward to Google Voice when you do not have signal (ie when at home), and then have GV ring your Gizmo phone (either on your computer or via an ATA device like mentioned earlier), or your land line if you still happen to have one (do you?).  No more missed calls at home!

For reference, unconditional means it will forward every call at all times, busy is when you are already on a call, no reply is when you don’t answer the call (when the call would normally go to voicemail), and not reachable is when you phone is not getting signal (out of range).   Also, dialing the code for disabling unconditional forwarding will disable all call forwarding and you are ‘billed’ normal minutes for any forwarded call (if you spend 5 minutes on a forwarded call, it’s like you spent 5 minutes on your cell). 

(thanks wikipedia):

So for example, say I wanted to forward calls to 123-456-7890 when I have no signal, I would dial *62*1234567890# and press send/talk – You should get some sort of confirmation that the forwarding is now in effect;  I know on my old at&t Fuze, I would get a simple dialog box saying “forwarding saved”, and now on my iPhone, I get a fancy dialog confirming exactly which conditional forwarding rule I just set:

– Use GV for just it’s voicemail capabilities –

Can’t see a real use or need for a 2nd, all-purpose, forwarding number?  Then just set your Google Voice account to Do-Not-Disturb (or don’t enter any forwarding numbers) and just use GV for it’s voicemail service.   Transcriptions still have a long way to go, and it appears it does much better with female / higher pitched voices, but most of the time you can get the gist of what the caller is trying to get across.  Being able to first try and ‘read’ your voicemails is already 10x better than having to sit through the long drawn out voicemail prompts (though they can be shortened). 

How do you set this up?  Login to your account, go to Settings (General tab), and scroll down and check “Enable ‘Do Not Disturb’”:

Then, setup your call forwarding as mentioned earlier to forward to your GV number for all three options (busy, no reply, and unreachable).  This will effectively replace your providers voicemail service with Google Voice’s. 

– Firefox extension to make calls using GV on any webpage –

Chad over at thatsmith.com has created a firefox extension that builds upon his earlier GrandCentral Click to Call Add-on to make any phone numbers on a webpage clickable which will initiate a call through your Google Voice number.   All you need to do is simply install the Add-on, click on a phone number on webpage, and you’ll get a call from your GV number and it will connect you to the number!

– Create bookmarks/favorites or desktop shortcuts that act as speed dials –

Every contact in Google Voice has their own, unique URL at the mobile version of the site (https://www.google.com/voice/m).  If you click on a contact, the URL that brought you there is unique to that particular contact (it will look something like  https://www.google.com/voice/m/contact/5680533939988165049).  Now, while this is not a URL that will automatically start the call, it will still only be one (more) click away — you’ll have to click “call” once at that page:

So what are some ‘useful’ ways to utilize this? 

You could create a Firefox bookmark toolbar folder of contacts,

Create some desktop shortcuts,

Or even add it as an iPhone webclip icon (thanks Eric & lifehacker.com):

Questions about any of these or have any tips or tricks that aren’t listed here?  Then spell it out in the comments!

Today, www.giveawayoftheday.com is making available Evernote Beta for free!  Check it while you can — Of special note, one feature I think is great is it’s ability to index any notes you take (copy stuff from the web, take digital pictures of rebates/business cards/etc) and it can make any text in those images (even handwriting) and make it searchable / indexable!

Direct link:  http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/evernote-beta/

Evernote Beta lets you capture any information from your real and digital life and then find it all easily anytime.

 

The latest version of Evernote, currently an invitation-only beta, gives users more options than ever before to create and find their memories – a Windows version (main download links), Mac version, Web version, Windows Mobile version, Mobile Web version, browser web page clippers, and more. All clients can be synchronized to one another via the web, ensuring that anything created in one place is accessible from all others.

 

In addition, all users now have access to Evernote’s powerful image recognition, which recognizes text inside of images so users can take camera phone snapshots of anything from whiteboards to wine labels.

Here’s a youtube video explaining what it can do:

As many sites have posted, google maps just recently released their new version (2.0.0) which now does location tracking based off cell phone towers!  It’s not quite as accurate as a GPS based location, but as you can see from the pictures above, it’s pretty close! 

Find out more information about Google Maps Mobile:
http://www.google.com/gmm/mylocation.html

Download to your device now by pointing your mobile browser to:
http://www.google.com/gmm

yay google!

I can’t express how excited I am over LogMeIn’s release of Hamachi for Windows Mobile (download it here) — though it may have been out for a while, but I just found out today!  This opens so many doors for connecting your pda/phone to your hamachi network. 

for those who don’t know, hamachi is a free vpn client which can connect all your computers together as if they were on the same network, even when they’re not, onto their own virtual network (vpn).  It works behind firewalls and creates a secure connection between all computers (read more about hamachi security framework here).

What makes hamachi great is it’s ability to simply connect computers that are on different networks.  For example, I have a desktop and server at home, and I have my laptop which I carry with me where ever I go.   With hamachi, I can connect to either of those computers (from my laptop) as if I were at home — what I mean by this, is if I want to access a file from my desktop, I just go to start->run-> \jrindesktopmusicasong.mp3.   With hamachi installed on both my desktop and laptop, I can access files when I’m home, or on the go!

Not only is this useful for basic file access and sharing, but you can also do remote desktop (though using LogMeIn’s software is usually a better experience for remote desktop when not on the same physical network), map network drives, print remotely, virtual lan parties (gaming and such), and so much more!

Installation is a snap as well – simply download the hamachi installer and run it, power it on and create a nickname (ie:  “jRinDesktop”, “jRinPhone”, etc), and then join or create a network ( ie: “jRinNet”) with a password.  Then that’s it!  All computers connected to the same network are now (for most intents and purposes) as if they were all connected to the same router!

Installing it on my phone was just as easy as installing it on a computer — simply download the cab file from their site, copy it over to the phone, run it, and create a nickname and join my network! 

What do I use hamachi for regularly?

• Printing from my laptop, to my home printer (connected to my desktop), when I’m away from home
• Remote desktop’ing to my desktop’s at home to use software I don’t have installed on my laptop
• Run backups of my family and friends’ computers to my server (albeit this is slow, but only because most people’s upload speeds are slow :- )
• Have access to my laptop or desktop when I’m using a computer that’s not my own (during boring labs at gatech, for example, haha)

And now that I have hamachi on my phone:

• Access all my files on my laptop and desktop from my PHONE (this is useful cause sometimes my laptop battery is dead, and I need that document for class I have on my desktop, so I can now just use my phone and put the file on my SD card!)
  • I do this using TotalCommander (a free file manager replacement for windows mobile), and then just type in the machine name (ie: \jrindesktop)
    
• Copying pictures and movies taken with my phone to my laptop or desktop

What I want to TRY to do:

• Print to my desktop at home!
• Be able to access files on my phone from a computer (instead of other way around)
• Remote desktop!! (I can’t seem to get logmein to work on my phone… )

Over the next few days,  I hope to find new and interesting things to do with ‘mobile hamachi’ — I’ll update this post if I discover anything!!  Now go out and get a smartphone (if you don’t already) and install hamachi!!

Ah, finally, att / htc has released the windows mobile 6 rom for the cingular 8525!

Download link from HTC:  http://www.america.htc.com/support/8525/software-downloads.html
Direct link to the rom:  http://download.america.htc.com/RUU_…
Discussions about the rom over at xda-developers.com:  http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=340987

I have yet to install it myself, (yay classes!), but will update this post once I do — It seems as though some people are saying it’s actually the old rom, so lets hope for the best!

UPDATE:  I just installed it, and at first glance, there isn’t much difference from the previous "unofficial" official wm6 rom release back in July…

After installing however, I did notice that startup time is a LITTLE bit faster (enough to notice the difference).  This new rom also fixed the issue I was having with wifi not working correctly — what would happen is that I would be connected to my router, have an ip address and everything, but could not actually "get to" anything (internet explorer would just get stuck on "locating" for any page I tried to go to) — but now w/this newer rom, it works fine!

The resulting memory capacities (upon first boot after upgrade) are as follows:

Storage:

• Total:  44.77 MB
• In Use:  11.01 MB
• Free:  33.77 MB

Program:

• Total:  48.77 MB
• In use:  21.14 MB
• Free:  27.63 MB

After uninstalling the Microsoft QuickStart Tutorial, Cingular Get Xpress Mail, and GravityMobile MusicID (more about this below), I get 34.59 MB free storage.  

Speaking of MusicID, this is the only ‘new’ thing I have been able to find, and what it appears to be is a pay-for program that can tell you what song you are listening to (intersting…).  What you are supposed to do is hold the phone up to the speaker, or whatever music source you have, and it will detect and figure out what song it is!  Neat idea, but I could NEVER see my self paying for something like this! 

However, like the ‘unofficial’ official wm6 release, I am still having the problem where media player will not work correctly when ‘updating library’ from a storage card.  When I update the library, select Storage Card for the library, then click on "My Music" then "all music" I get a Windows Media "An unexpected error occurred" — is anyone else getting this error?

UPDATE 6:00p:  Ah, I finally found out what the error was (again, google was my friend!), as walshieau posted over at xda-developers,

you have to delete the MSMETADATA, WMDRM Folders and WmpInfo.xml from your SD card…. that will fix your problem

I did that, and media player now works as it should!

Oh, and to get rid of the annoyingly loud start up 3g-whoosh-animation sound when you start the phone, download a smartphone registry editing program, such as total commander (free and much better than the built in file manager), and do as crgan says over at htcwiki.com which is to change the follow registry entry:

HKLMSOFTWAREHTCStartupAnimation
Enabled – change from 1 to 0 to turn everything off and permanently fix the volume issue.

Now, restart your phone, and no more annoying startup sound or animation!

Finally!  Gmail finally offers IMAP support!  Now I (you too, haha) can retrieve email via a method outside of webmail and have the read status show up in webmail as well!  I have been waiting forever for this! 

I have been waiting forever for the possibility for gmail to offer imap –  I have a windows mobile device, and while I like the gmail app that google has created, I still like the ability to simply find a contact directly from my phone and quickly write an email to them (instead of having to open up the midlet manager, then let gmail load, sign in, etc).  Before this, and and using pop3, whenever I would retrieve my mail with my phone, none of it could show as being read when I login to webmail later.  However, with IMAP, the read mail status gets reflected on the server, so when I login to webmail, it shows as read!  Awesome! Read more about it at downloadsquad:

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/10/23/gmail-gets-imap/

a huge list of free gps software

a link to useful hacks for the mio c310x gps (get access to wince backbone, add tomtom, video playing, etc)