Posted by rae in
Reid,
web siteat 2:21 am on Wednesday, 28 December 2005
I ran across WordPress 2.0 tonight, so I upgraded my blog to it.
So far, I am happy that they centralized all the filters in one place so I could remove the dreaded “autop” filter from my content.
I don’t like my returns etc being interpreted by WP for me.
It’s okay for comments though.
I’m not sure what all the changes are, but my old theme definitely doesn’t work, so I will be using the old original Wordpress theme (which is nice and liquid) until I get it working again.
No doubt there will be help for this on the site.
I have noticed a large aount of AJAX in the interface though.
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My customized view of Bugzilla
(click to see larger image)
So I am back to working with Bugzilla.
When I last worked with it, I immediately edited the code to make the display a lot more compact.
If you
see my bug list “naked”,
you will see how ponderous and bulky it is.
Compare to my “streamlined” and colour-coded version.
Nice, eh?
This time, however, I did not have to edit the code.
No, thanks to my increased knowledge of CSS I was able to do this locally, by using a custom personal style sheet in my browser.
Most browsers have these, although almost nobody uses them, even IE for Windows.
They can also help block ads, too.
If you are using Firefox, there is a style sheet goodie that prevents all Flash obejcts from loading.
If you want to see the Flash, just click on the object and you will be asked “Are you sure?” before loading.
Pretty nifty.
If you want a copy,
here you go.
Please
let me know if you find it useful or, even better, have any improvements.
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Posted by rae in
softwareat 10:44 pm on Wednesday, 21 December 2005
Microsoft is dumping IE (for the Mac).
Unfortunately, I use IE all the time to do printing, because it ahs the best print preview around.
It also handles Page Setup percentage scaling correctly, unlike Safari.
I’ve always wanted a web browser that could print two-column output.
i’ve wanted to maybe download the source to
Shiira,
an open source browser that uses the same open source
WebKit
Safari — the native OS X web browser — uses.
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Yesterday I picked up a wireless router, the
LinkSys WRT54GX
(wouldn’t something like “The LinkSys Vorpal” be much better and easier to remember?).
This allows us to use the new PowerBook through the entire house, from top floor to basement.
I haven’t checked it outside yet because, well, there’s snow everywhere.
Okay, maybe it’s really “me” rather than “us” using the PowerBook, but hey, I’m a johnny-come-lately, being the last one to get to see the new beast!
I am hoping now that my wireless-enabled friends, who have been shuning me until now, will flock to my door.
But first, I am going to blather a bit (to steal a word from
Debbie) about the hardware.
I apologize ahead of time for the moderate techno-babble that ensues.
First the good.
The performance is excellent.
I am able to stream video from the G5 in the basement without a problem (as long as I use SMB and not AFP!).
The router itself is in the basement, on a shelf right next to my G5.
I get 3 out of 4 “bars” at the furthest point in the house: Ronnie’s room.
Now the not-so-good.
First off, LinkSys has managed to:
- make the web interface IE/Windows **only**!
- not actually uses any of the enhancements that would require such specificity
Also (but maybe I’m wrong, and I hope I am) it seems that it is not possible to merge a wired and wireless network into one subnet because the router gives you an error if you try.
Of these two things, the latter is the more painful because the former can be worked around by plugging a Windows box directly into the router temporarily, which is what I ended up doing.
Without merging wired and wireless into one subnet, I am prevented from doing things like sharing iTunes music, and using other Bonjour services.
Up until now, the whole network here has lived in 192.168.1.*, with “1.1″ being the server, and most machines living in the 10-20 range, and the LinkSys as “1.2″.
On the wireless side, everything lives on 192.168.2.*, with “2.1″ being the linksys (maybe I should make it 2.2 to prevent confusion between 1.2 and 2.1!), and the PowerBook statically assigned to 2.10 (which should probably also be changed to 2.20 since the G5 is 1.10, and when plugged in the pbook is 1.20).
At first I thought I could just play with the netmask to include both .1 and .2 in the same subnet.
After a bit of checking, I figured changing it from 255.255.255.0 to 255.255.252.0 would do the job (if I had used .0 and .1 instead of .1 and .2, I could have used a mask of 255.255.254).
But when I got to the config web page for the router, the netmask was a popup with only seven values, all designed to split up the 2.* network into smaller subnets, instead of letting me go the other way around!
See the picture below.
How the router prevents useful netmasks
So for now, I’m living with it.
If need be I will install some sort of tunneling solution.
I was planning on setting up
mt-daapd
for itunes sharing anyway, so maybe I’ll press on with that sooner rather than later.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to merge these two networks into one, please let me know, keeping in mind that the router itself prevents using the same subnet (e.g. 192.168.1.*) on both sides of itself.
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Posted by rae in
Reid,
the Netat 3:37 pm on Friday, 16 December 2005
Map of recent quakes
There was
an earthquake here this morning.
Apparently.
Ya, I didn’t notice it. Oh well.
Someone in IRC mentioned that URL there, which is pretty cool.
I love
the map (see above)
that shows recent quakes and fault lines.
It’s almost like a weather map.
I guess you need something like this here.
Update:
Hm, apparently there was
one on Wednesday too
that I failed to notice.
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A view of downtown from my bus stop
Today I get to do things like copy everything off the iBook and the G5 onto my iPod (which has about 25 GB of free space, yay),
fill out my expense form (leaving physical receipts on Philippe’s desk), and generally getting ready to go.
The (less than) two weeks I’ve been here feels more like a month!
I’m definitely feeling homesick.
:-/
This hotel room lost its charm pretty quickly, especially missing a TV guide(!), which made the idiot box a chore to use.
Fortunately I have downloads of shows waiting for me at home.
(I’ll post to
Tech Tok
about setting up Azureus to be accessed remotely).
I’m not looking forward to all the snow I’ve heard has fallen!
My back is aching just thinking about it, even though Michael and Luisa have already done all the shovelling work.
I expect there to be lots more ahead.
Hope the plane isn’t delayed by snow on the runway.
(*sigh, this will cement the image of Canada-as-snowbound-wasteland in the minds of any OSAF’ers who read it).
I have to say that working at OSAF is way cool.
It’s a group of very intelligent people, and the freedom is astounding.
At the staff meeting yesterday, Mitch announced (although I had heard about it earlier) that OSAF would be moving to a 20% self-directed-time policy, a la Google.
My first thought was “how many people could we get working on a PyObjC port?”
The 20% free time can’t be spent on *anything*, of course.
Just like Google, it has to be something in support of the work at hand.
Something that enables people to organize their data/events/scheduling better.
Maybe I’ll talk with Miguel about how hard it is to develop for cell phones?
The gaming nights were really fun, and made a good break from The Dreaded Hotel Room.
Last night I saw a movie!
It was
The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
I just call it “Narnia” because that’s a very long title.
I really, really liked it.
Of the four children, Susan and Edmund stood out in terms of personality.
Excellent acting there.
The little girl who played Lucy was surprisingly uninhibited.
The stoic Peter felt a bit wooden to me.
Not a lot of depth of emotion or character.
I would definitely like to see it again.
Maybe I can drag Luisa to see it, even though she didn’t sound very keen on iChat yesterday.
iChat video chatting has been awesome during this trip.
I’ve been able to see and talk with Luisa almost every day.
I’m really glad I got a second iSight so I could do this.
I’m trying to convince Philippe to get one so I can video conference in for meetings instead of calling in on the phone!
An alternative I was thinking of was to do an audio chat with more than one person in the room, so I can hear everyone.
Okay, that’s enough for now.
Time to head off to work!
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When I get home I want to go out for a double-feature extravaganza: King Kong and the Chronicles of Narnia.
5½ hours of fantasy goodness!
Ronnie (and Luisa?) saw Narnia already, so I’m not sure if I could drag them in to see it again.
Actually, Luisa would be resistant to a double-bill in any case.
Sitting in one place for that long a time wears on her I think.
Another sponge of my time will be catching up on shows like Grey’s Anatomy, House, Stargate Atlantis, etc.
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I have found my preferred CRT HDTV and it’s the
Sony KD-34XBR960.
Unfortunately, it’s not available in Canada, only the US.
I checked
DealTime
and there are a number of places in the US that have it (not all in stock though).
B&H
has it for $1,600 US, but that doesn’t include $150 shipping or so.
HypeAudio has it for under $1,600 including shipping.
But I bet that doesn’t include Canada.
*sigh.
The main features for me are: can display @ 1080; has FireWire output; has really good reviews for picture quality (”PQ” in the forums I’ve been reading).
There was a group of Montrealers who were trying to get together to make a bulk purchase and rent a U-Haul trailer to bring them back!
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So we think we’re going to buy ourselves an HDTV.
We’re looking at a 30-37″ LCD at the moment.
Plasma doesn’t seem to go below 40″, and Luisa gave the thumbs-down to CRTs because of their weight and bulk.
LCDs seem to have a limited resolution; most are 1366 x 768, which means native 1080 is not possible.
I guess they scale the image down to fit in 768.
Even the $5,000 US Sharp Aquos LC-37HV4U has this resolution.
There are computer monitors well over this size, so why can’t they make TVs just as big?
Iain mentioned that his computer monitor has inputs for an HDTV signal (HDMI perhaps?),
so getting separate monitor and HDTV tuner components might be an avenue to explore.
This is where I solicit you to add comments with links and info on HDTVs!
I listen to the
HDTV Podcast,
which has links in each podcast to lots of HDTV info.
I am going to list some links here I got from them and other places.
Also, below the general info links I’ll put links to specific TV sets, or lists of sets at various online stores and manufacturers.
Links
Specific TVs
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Posted by rae in
Reid,
friends,
workat 4:16 pm on Saturday, 10 December 2005
I am on the CalTrain, on my way to William’s place.
I’ve been in San Fransisco for almost a week and haven’t really blogged much about it yet.
(Hah, the built-in spell checker didn’t complain about the word “blogged”!)
My hotel is quite a bit further from work than when I cam here for my job interview.
This has necessitated my learning about the local transit system.
Things are (somewhat unnecessarily in my opinion) confusing because there are a number of different transit systems with their own schedules and quirks.
The bus I take to and from work every day is run by “Muni”, San Fransisco’s municipal transit system.
There is no municipal subway system.
Instead there is BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), stations for which can be found underground along San Fransisco’s Market Street, which is the central street off the city.
The reason it isn’t a municipal subway is because it extends all over the place, well beyond the boundaries of ‘Frisco.
It’s kind of half-way between Go Trains and our Subway, with a dash of the Scarborough RT thrown in for good measure.
Sorry, I didn’t mean for this to become a long diatribe on the transit system here!
Well, along with getting used to the transit system, I am also becoming familiar with the area around my hotel.
I am staying at the “Courtyard Marriot by Fisherman’s Wharf”.
That’s a pretty unwieldy name.
As it suggests, I am staying very close to Fisherman’s Wharf.
I’ve often walked past the place where Ted and I had clam chowder earlier this year during WWDC.
I’ve even had the clam chowder again (served in a sourdough bread bowl! Yum..)
So far I’ve usually seen it only at night from the windows of the “F” streetcar on the way back to the hotel in the evening.
(The number 10 bus I take to get in to work does not return by the same route to the hotel).
I’ve posted a few pictures of Market Street at night.
These are usually taken near Market and 1st Street, which is the closest streetcar stop to work.
Yes, this is a bit of a rambling post.
While I am rambling, I must apologize to David Barker for deciding to *not* go to the Exploratorium to get him a poster (or two?).
Since I rely on transit, it is a pain too go much of anywhere.
I have lots to explore right nearby, so I am going to do that.
Today, for instance, I walked south to a big Barnes and Noble store.
I’ve never been in a B&N before, but it’s just like Chapters/Indigo in Toronto really.
I was looking for books on Python, which I have had a hard time finding in Toronto.
(Ugh, more weight for the trip back!)
[The train just went through San Mateo]
I went to the Apple store the first night I was here, even before going to the hotel.
Being the savvy traveller I am, I did not take a cab from the airport, but used BART instead.
It cost me about $4.50 to get from the airport to Market Street.
I picked up a cable that lets me plug my new iPod into a TV so I can show movies and slideshows.
Wednesday night was interesting.
On Tuesday I had to write up a short bio about myself that included personal interests.
I mentioned in the bio that I enjoy playing German board games.
About 1/2 hour after I sent that to Philippe, Jeffrey (who sits next to me at work) turned to me and asked if I wanted to go gaming on Wednesday night, even though he couldn’t go himself.
Well, to make a medium-sized story short, I ended up going.
It was a long bus ride out on the #38 bus to Geary and 42nd Street.
I got there early, so after spending a few minutes knocking and not getting any answer, I went back up the hill to the Walgreens to kill some time.
Walgreens is kinda like Zellers.
My host, Mike, was in the Walgreens too, but we didn’t know each other yet, so we passed each other without comment.
After a while I went back down the hill and met Mike.
It was sort of like a mirror universe version of Hrach’s basement, except this was an upper-floor of a townhouse overlooking the bay.
They had the same stack of games from which to choose, and a “new game” to try out (it involved lasers!)
[Belmont]
I met Mike’s game-mates Eric, Keith, Brian (the friend of Jeffrey’s through whom I was invited), Jordan, and .. um, David?
Damn, I can’t remember if that’s his name for sure.
Sorry he-who-I-call-David!
We played a bucket pyramid game, which was a lot of fun, quickly followed by “Poison”, which I was surprised to find out I won after two rounds.
Then we split up into two groups (which often happens while gaming since people arrive late), and I played “Chiamo” with Eric and Keith.
[Redwood City]
We had a hell of a time getting a handle on the game.
I was certain it was the same game I played with Luisa’s dad and his friends years ago, but Luisa assures me this is not the case.
Maybe I’ll ask Tony as a confirmation.
Continuing with the gaming non-theme, I usually do gaming on Friday nights, not Wednesday.
Last night it was Rolemaster, a fantasy role-playing game.
I played remotely using my new PowerBook and Vartan’s videocamera hooked up with FireWire.
When I was sick a while back we tried out this kind of setup using Jeff’s PowerBook and my iSight at home.
Jeff didn’t have his iSight with him, so I did a one-way video chat.
Actually, that was Rolemaster too, which makes sense as it really would not be feasible to play general games via video-chatting!
This time Jeff was going to be late because he had to go to an office party for Davis.
So I got Michael to bring my new PowerBook (which I haven’t even seen yet!) along with Vartan’s videocamera, which I have been borrowing for a long time to convert video tape to DVD.
The video camera has a superior picture to the iSight (which makes sense, since one costs just over $100 and the other was closer to $1,000!).
The audio seemed no different, but I blame iChat for that since I know from tests I’ve done locally that the sound from the video camera is excellent (and in stereo!).
Overall it worked quite well.
I was able to follow what happened in the session and could contribute as well.
In fact I also had a secret channel of communication with Hrach via MSN, which I used a few times.
[Palo Alto]
As an extra bonus, the session was much earlier for me than usual, since I was on Californian time.
Everyone wrapped it up just before 11pm!
I actually “worked from home” at the hotel in the afternoon so that I could be ready when they started around 5pm local time.
[California Avenue]
I still want to hear the session’s mp3 log so I’ll ask Michael if he can copy it to the g5 tomorrow.
I have full access to the g5 via ssh, which has been great.
I tried VNC a couple of times, but that was glacially slow and painful, so it’s strictly command-line access.
[San Antonio]
Well it’s getting near the end of this little train ride (5:09pm), so I think I will stop now.
I am posting pictures to Flickr all the time, and adding them to my “San Fransisco” set in chronological order, so be sure to check that every now and again.
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