I like to post at least once a month so you guys know I’m still around. Let’s see what’s been going on:
MangAI v1.05 is running strong. Haven’t received any bug reports for it. There have been some feature requests, most notably to add a batch job function to the GUI like the one that already exists in the CLI. The idea is that instead of processing a single series job, the GUI would allow for a job queue so that you could process multiple series jobs (like your entire digital manga collection) with a single click of the “Run” button. I’m still debating adding this feature because of some issues. I may play with GUI job queue and see if I like it, but right now it is not on my priority list. Please email me if you are interesting in seeing this feature added.
Development for my first iOS app is going well. I’ve learned a lot about Objective-C and Cocoa Touch in the past months. Still a lot of work to do, but the basics of many of its main features have been implemented.
On a side note, “you can always go back” is a reference to an inside joke at bitcake. We had a computer science teacher that explained the concept of recursion by drawing out a series of steps and then explaining with arrows that at any step, you could go back to an earlier step. This explanation took several class periods, always the same lecture with nothing but endless repetition of “you can always go back”… recursion at its best I guess :P
New to version 1.05:
-Bug fix: GUI forgets settings file during auto update check
The GUI Settings tab would sometimes show mangaigui.properties instead of mangai.properties.
It took me a while to track down this bug since it occurs during automatic update checking which is only once a week :P
This has been fixed.
-AI improvements to MPM and MSM interpretation
MSM is better able to detect chapter spans.
Various logic tweaks.
-Added ereader .properties settings profile for iPad 3
All of the currently existing iPad’s use the same settings anyway, but I like having the user to be able to pick out their exact device from the list.
And yes, I know the latest iPad is not named iPad 3, but simply calling it iPad could make it be confused with the 1st gen.
-GUI improvements
Added links in the Contents panel for the MangAI FAQ, Manga Intelligence Model, and Contact web pages.
-Various fixes and improvements
Memory optimizations for image reads.
Search for ImageMagick directory at runtime if .properties file value is missing or invalid.
Miscellaneous little things that I can’t remember.
Download the latest version from the MangAI project page.
What’s a weekend? Since my health keeps me indoors at all times, I don’t have much concept of Wednesday vs. Saturday. Fortunately that means I’m working every day. Here’s what I’ve been working on:
First iOS app is coming along slowly but nicely. It’s starting to actually look like an app. The more into it I get, the more functionality I want, so my initial time estimate was way off. Still several months away from release.
MangAI has been stable for a while now. I’ve only received a few problem reports and those have either been solved or I never heard back from the user (where do you guys go after I’ve replied, lol). I’m pretty good about replying to email within 24hrs (usually less), so if you guys have any questions or problems feel free to contact me. If you don’t hear back from me within a day or two, please leave a comment in the blog just in case I didn’t get the email.
I recently started working on a new MangAI AI feature. I’m trying to see if MSM interpretation can be used to improve MPM, while up till now it has only been MPM helping MSM (if you have no idea what MPM and MSM are, check out the Manga Intelligence Model). The basic idea is if you have a volume folder without chapter info (Foo_v3), but the scans within the folder contains chapter info (v3_c10_p1.jpg, v3_c10_p2.jpg, … v3_c15_p200.jpg), then the program may be able to infer the missing chapter info for the volume folder (Foo_v3_c10-15). This new data propagates to the output archive/pdf/epub files as well. Initial tests make this seem doable, but since this is such a big logic change, it will require a lot of testing. I also have a few things I’ve wanted to improve so I’ll work on those as well.
Recently the download link for MangAI broke, leading to a 404 page. I have fixed the problem. Sorry for any inconvenience.
I was thinking of releasing an update to include an iPad 3 profile, but since all iPad generations use the same conversion settings, it seems like a waste of an update. Next time an important code change is made, I’ll also include an iPad 3 profile. For now, if you have an iPad 3, just specify your device as iPad or iPad 2 (doesn’t matter which one because, again, they all use the same settings).
Speaking of iPad 3, my parents got me one on launch (yes I know, I got very lucky in getting awesome parents). After two exchanges though, I ended up returning it. The screens on these new iPads seem to be defective. Of the three I tested, they all lacked color uniformity, with some areas of the screen appearing warmer (yellow) than other areas. The last one I tried had a dim area along the right side of the screen, kind of like a constant shadow, which made reading black on white text within that area difficult. As I read a lot of digital manga and tech docs, this was a big problem for me. I will try another iPad 3 in a few months when they’ve hopefully ironed out these production problems.
After a few months of studying Cocoa Touch and Objective-C, I’ve started programming my first iOS app. It’s too early to talk about it, but I can say this: it will be fun, a bit educational, and is in no way related to MangAI or anything otaku.
