Chealion's LJ

06:41 am - Interesting Twitter Tidbits of the Week

Originally published at Chealion.ca. Please leave any comments there.

These are just a couple little tidbits I’ve posted on Twitter over the past week that deserve to be posted on the blog so I can find them using Google later. If I have something to say that is really short I use Twitter.

Figured out why the iTunes backups are so much speedier. They’re a 1/10th of the size nowadays. My ~205MB backup is now 27.1MB (after 2.1)!! 9/13/08

Note to self: sudo -u of course won’t work when you do not specify a command. eg. sudo -u cyrus FIX_MAILBOX will work wonders. 9/10/08

New iTunes visualizer: Hit ‘?’ for the options available. eg. F will freeze the display. 9/9/08

http://twitpic.com/awi9 - Best iTunes Terms of Service I’ve ever seen. I’d gladly accept them. I think.. 9/9/08

“We’re better off with Harper.” What?!? Who writes such a terrible slogan?How does that inspire ANY confidence?!? C-61 lost my vote 9/6/08

05:56 pm - Opening/Copying Locked DVDs

Originally published at Chealion.ca. Please leave any comments there.

At work we sometimes receive DVDs that we need footage off of that are locked. They will play back fine in DVD Player but we don’t want it for playback. The resulting DVD images are always titled SONATA_VOLUME and are created by a stand alone Sony DVD Recorder.

In order to copy the VIDEO_TS file off of the DVD you require sudo access but given that sudo access is limited to administrators (and not the editors) - this gets to be a bit of hassle because I have to be called to copy the DVD which adds unnecessary overhead to just get some footage off a simple DVD.

The solution? Create a droplet application (in this case AppleScript with shell scripts) so the editors don’t have to disrupt their workflow to get me to unlock the footage they need.

The source follows:

(* Files dropped onto the application will be copied to the root folder
of the main hard drive and set so the user has ownership - allowing 
them to move, rename and delete said file/folder. *)
on open files_
	repeat with file_ in files_
		--Get name of file, path, and the current username of editor
		set name_ to name of (info for file_)
		set file_ to POSIX path of file_
		set username_ to short user name of (system info)
		(* The 3 shell commands here can be condensed into one longer line
			but I left them separate for debugging and readability reasons
		*)
		do shell script "/bin/cp -R " & quoted form of file_ & " /" & quoted form of name_ user name "ADMIN_USER_NAME" password "PASSWORD" with administrator privileges
		do shell script "/bin/chmod -R 777 /" & quoted form of name_ user name "ADMIN_USER_NAME" password "PASSWORD"" with administrator privileges
		do shell script "/usr/sbin/chown -R " & username_ & " /" & quoted form of name_ user name "ADMIN_USER_NAME" password "PASSWORD"smoke@#$" with administrator privileges
		do shell script "open /"
	end repeat
end open

12:00 am - The Case to Remove Twinkle

Originally published at Chealion.ca. Please leave any comments there.

Today I removed Twinkle from my iPhone and given that it has sit on my front screen since launch day I feel a review of Twinkle and it’s subsequent banishment are worth expounding upon.

For those who don’t know Twinkle is a program available for the iPhone created by Tapulous. The program is both a competitor and client application for Twitter, offering an experience similar to Twitterrific on your iPhone. The difference is that Twinkle as far as I can tell and have read caches your tweets on their server meaning you talk entirely to Tapulous - avoiding the not as present Fail Whale and being required to create a Tapulous account. However it also allows them to set up new features such as the Nearby feature.

The nearby feature hands down is the sole reason I opened Twinkle the last few weeks - getting local tweets was both interesting and informative. The feature allows you to specify how close a tweet should be to you to display.

What killed Twinkle for me was the silent failures to push my tweets in the application to Twitter, the hard limit of 140 characters in the textbox and a seeming penchance to be down (or giving server errors that eat tweets) when I wanted to use it most. It wasn’t a regular repeatable offence but that it kept happening made the advantage of the application near nil when I also had Twitterrific.

An aside reason for removing other Tapulous applications have been the quotes from the CEO about their (managements) approach to applications. Yes it has all been ibthe wake of Mike Lee’s departure but when the focus isn’t on quality applications and not just using it as a necessary marketing buzzword I’ll vote with my feet and wallet. The effect may be limited but it stands as an attempt to live by some code of ethics. (I’m not perfect and have changed my opinions completely from one year to the next).

06:27 pm - iPhone oddities : Bug 001

Originally published at Chealion.ca. Please leave any comments there.

I discovered a rather odd bug today on my iPhone (running 2.0.2 and would assume it has been around since 1.1.3) that exists because of the ability to change home screens. The bug will result in a home screen like this:

The steps to create this are:

1. Open an application - doesn’t matter which one.

2. During the opening animation flick either left or right with your finger and in the diminishing space of the opening animation you will see your home screen changing.

3. Close application and see that the home screen was unable to finish the transition to the left or right screen.

4. Swipe even slightly on your home screen to being it back to normal.

11:20 pm - The Move To WordPress

Originally published at Chealion.ca. Please leave any comments there.

After much (okay very little) persuasion from Matt and coincidentally a well written breakdown on how he has set up his WordPress installation I’ve pulled the trigger and installed WordPress. The installation replaces my MT4.1 installation that languished under the wait for me to find some time to design the new blog and accompanying photo blog on mcjones.ca. I had even got so far I had it written it out and sketched in a notebook. Finding the time to sit down and actually code it however never came to pass as when I did make time it was the last thing I felt like doing.

So please bear with some minor growing pains as I decide and modify a theme for WordPress - I’d still love to go with the design I made but since that is never going to come to fruition I should move and start creating articles that interest me.

11:27 pm - kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork: 302

Originally published at Chealion.ca. Please leave any comments there.

After seeing this error popping up a lot while having issues with my internet connection dropping packets left and right I searched CFNetworkErrors.h for what the error code meant (since Google didn’t say much other than it appeared in 10.5.3). The line in question is: kCFErrorHTTPConnectionLost = 302,

So if you get kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork: 302 errors, it’s because the HTTP connection was lost somewhere along the way. As to what causes it can really definitely seem like voodoo.

08:50 pm - Tab Count to Growl for Safari

Originally published at Chealion.ca. Please leave any comments there.

The following AppleScript snippet figures out how many tabs are open in the frontmost window and spits it out to Growl. Helps when I don’t feel like counting how many tabs I’ve opened in WebKit/Safari. Note: To get this to work with Safari change WebKit to Safari.

tell application "WebKit"
    activate
    set numtabs to index of last tab of front window
    tell application "GrowlHelperApp"
        set the allNotificationsList to {"Number of Tabs"}
        set the enabledNotificationsList to {"Number of Tabs"}
        register as application "Growl AppleScript Sample" all notifications allNotificationsList default notifications enabledNotificationsList icon of application "WebKit"
 
        notify with name "Number of Tabs" title "Number of Tabs" description "" & numtabs application name "Growl AppleScript Sample"
    end tell
end tell

02:27 am

Wow. It's been far too long since I wrote anything here.

Anyways, I saw Blue Man Group and photos are now on Flickr:

Go and bask in the power of manual settings! (Oh yeah, and the awesomeness of Noise Ninja to make ISO 1600 bearable):


(http://www.flickr.com/photos/chealion/sets/72157602255104736/)

12:15 am - Retarded Quotes

Odd and possibly retarded quotes by me:

"The lottery is a tax on those who say Fuck You to statistics. Or they're not getting any."
"I'm delusional, therefore I'm perfect and nothing you will say will convince me otherwise."
"I'm feeling deliciously morose - my vocabulary is coming out. Hide the Prozac!"
"Thank you for your time"
"Black? Wonderfully hard." - Referring to Ninja Gaiden Black
"I did not buy a telephoto lens to compensate for something - but that'd make a one time funny joke"
"Where do I buy a Dalek powered Tommy Gun?"
"What's wrong with having a customer make my"
"Oh dear. I really am Captain Oblivious"
"Frack. Q is far too close to W."

11:41 pm

Is it wrong to feel slightly bemused while watching 3 years of work, and the chance of getting something that is almost becoming necessary in today's societal demands burn in front of you?

By bemused, I mean a cold detached bemusement. I mean I know how hollow the whole point of it is in the big picture (the end game I mean), so I've refused to get involved more than necessary throwing myself at other endeavours, but without it I don't know the point of sticking around.

Confused and vague? Yes. Emo? No. I request someone shoot me if it gets even close to that.

08:14 pm - WWDC 2007

Woo! I just got my email that I got my student ticket to WWDC 2007. I'm so going to San Francisco in June!

12:57 am - I'm an ENFP?

12:12 am - Lethal Bathroom Activities!

From MSN:

mcsimpson: as in, one shit with a shotgun == you die
Chealion: Okay. Never go to the bathroom while holding a shotgun. It's lethal.
mcsimpson: apparently

Typos make the best rationalizations of how games translate to reality.

12:00 pm - launchd Caveats: StartCalendarInterval and Sleeping

Originally published at Chealion.ca. Please leave any comments there.

After a couple hours of testing, and searching on Google I’ve come to the realization (and subsequent confirmation) that the reason my launchd periodic task doesn’t always run on time (but sometimes hours late) is that the process is tied to a timer and not a specific time of the day like you specify in the plist.

So if your computer is asleep for 3 hours, the process will run 3 hours later unless you restart your computer which will fix the timer issue, until the next time you sleep.

I really hope this is fixed in Leopard, and have subsequently filed a bug report. (Radar 5091911 - link will only work for Apple employees)

So in summary, don’t depend on StartCalendarInterval to run your launchd process at the time you’ve said unless you know the computer has restarted since the last time it was put to sleep.

Note: This was fixed in Leopard. Unsure if it was fixed in 10.4.11 as I don’t use Tiger anymore.

12:00 pm - launchd : cron with less suck?

Originally published at Chealion.ca. Please leave any comments there.

So while figuring out launchd I came across the revelation that launchd will run any tasks it is given at it’s prescribed time, or the next time available (eg. the computer is asleep or turned off). I now remember hearing that when 10.4 Tiger was first released but had completely forgot it. Since Apple has the periodic tasks running in launchd instead of cron in Tiger, this makes the often touted reason to run Onyx moot and useless.

The system runs the scripts when it can (when it’s supposed to, or when you turn your computer on next), and doesn’t just “not run them” as cron would.

Running the periodic scripts sounds just as helpful as “Repairing Permissions” now, but I may be underestimating the value of the placebo effect.

Source: man launchd.plist

StartCalendarInterval <dictionary of integers>

This optional key causes the job to be started every calendar interval as specified. Missing arguments are considered to be wildcard. The semantics are much like crontab(5).
Unlike cron which skips job invocations when the computer is asleep, launchd will start the job the next time the computer wakes up.
If multiple intervals transpire before the computer is woken, those events will be coalesced into one event upon wake from sleep.

So for replacing cron? launchd kicks ass. I’m disappointed it took me until 10.4.9’s release for me to truly start finding out the power of launchd.

02:48 am - HD makes Gun Kata Awesome

Gun Kata in Equilibrium was pretty awesome but after seeing the HD-DVD version? I can see why HD is *that* much more awesome.

As awesome as gratuitous violence. If you've never seen Equilibrium it's worth watching; albeit not entirely original.

11:22 pm - File Extension

Which File Extension are You?


Gratuitously stolen from mcsimpson. Honestly that quiz didn't make any sense.

12:26 pm

So I attempted to vote today for the Student Union elections, and it caused my browser to crash each and every time. *shakes fist at CanVote.ca* Switched to Firefox and it worked, but Safari has nearly 5% market share (I think it's 4.6% or so). Oi.

04:23 pm - Spam, Spam, Oh wonderful spam!

In response to: http://jfpoole.livejournal.com/100515.html

Filtered Mail
65,047 Good Messages
5,908 Spam Messages (8%)
13 Spam Messages Per Day

SpamSieve Accuracy
56 False Positives
123 False Negatives (69%)
99.7% Correct

Corpus
1,588 Good Messages
3,290 Spam Messages (67%)
196,300 Total Words

Rules
3,275 Blocklist Rules
1,670 Whitelist Rules

Showing Statistics Since
30/11/05 2:22 PM

04:09 pm - Crazy People in Calgary

Hi, my name is Mike and I am a representative of Societal Ills. I'm still waiting for a group somewhere to chime in with a "Hi Mike".

Place: Bus stop 5162 in front of the Beddington Heights Community Centre.

Events: While waiting for a bus (which was a couple minutes late to start with) I saw someone speaking French particularly loudly into his cell phone. Considering he was a good 150 feet away at least and that you could hear him perfectly, he was talking quite loudly. My understanding of French is rather poor but I can understand an angry tone, and "le taxi".

As he was walking towards the crosswalk which would allow him to cross over to our side of the road an Associated cab was travelling down Beddington Blvd., needless to say it was a cliché to see him run for the taxi waving his arms. It deviates from the cliché when the taxi driver waves his finger saying he isn't in service, and the French guy stands in front of the taxi yelling at the driver that he wants to get to the airport.

It further deviates from the cliché and enters entertainment when he hops on the hood of the car still yelling at the driver. From here as far as I can tell the cab driver threatened to phone the police in hopes to get him to move on. However screaming "Phone the police" at the cab driver seemed like more fun. This went on for a 30 seconds or so before the cab driver turned on his hazard lights. He did eventually try moving the car backwards and forwards a couple feet to see if he could dissuade the French guy from staying attached to his hood.