|
12/24 |
2006/2/3-7 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:41682 Activity:nil |
2/3 Hello, I'm trying to create an HTML page that'll give you live "tail -f logfile.log" output. I can do it with regular HTML, but the problem is the user has to constantly scroll to the bottom. Is there a javascript or something that'll simply scroll to the bottom for you? Thanks. \_ Every time there's an update, just output the data to the page and end it with (replace 42 with number of new lines): <script>window.scrollByLines(42);</script> This might not work in IE, though. You could do something with plain window.scroll(x,y), but it will be more work. --dbushong \_ Any reason you don't put a "<a name="end">" at the end and then go to the page as "page#end"? \_ I don't think that would repeatedly move you to the end, which is what (s)he's trying to do. \_ I'm pretty sure you could jump to the anchor with an onload action in the body tag. -gm \_ You're missing the point, this is a continuously updating page that you keep occasionally adding new data to. An onload only fires once. A #fragment only fires once. \_ meta refresh? |
2006/1/19-21 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages/Web] UID:41436 Activity:moderate |
1/19 How do I configure apache so that all the files in certain directories are executed as PHP without the ugly .php extension? \_ Turn on MultiViews; you can leave the files with the .php extension, but just access them without using the extension. -tom \_ Oh goodie, someone talking about MultiViews. Are there any potential problems with turning them on I should be aware of? - !op \_ I suppose it makes it marginally easier for someone to guess one of your URLs. There is some potential confusion if you have two files with the same base name in the same directory. But I don't think there are significant issues. Our site has been that way for several months: http://ls.berkeley.edu/lscr. -tom \_ MultiViews are not the rigut solution for that. They use content negotiation, IIRC and that causes problems with validation and old browsers. I'd recommend using URL rewriting. in your .htaccess put something like: Options -MultiViews RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}%{REQUEST_URI}.php -f RewriteRule .* %{REQUEST_URI}.php \_ How does MultiViews cause problems with validation or old browsers? It's transparent to the client unless the client asks for something specific in content negotiation. -tom \_ I thought it used to. Apparently I was wrong. By the way http://ls.berkeley.edu/lscr does not pass validation at http://validator.w3.org \_ It validates in HTML Tidy. I'll look at the issues http://w3.org brings up. -tom \_ Update for those who care: It looks like HTML Tidy only validates against HTML 1.0 Transitional, even if the DOCTYPE is HTML 1.1 Strict. The 1.1 Strict warnings include stuff for backwards compatibility with not-very-old browsers (IE 5.5), so we may look at falling back to 1.0 Transitional. -tom \_ Do you mean XHTML rather than HTML? also there is no "XHTML 1.1 Strict." just XHTML 1.1 fwiw. \_ Yes, I mean XTHML. -tom \_ Do your files have an extension now? If it's, e.g. ".html", you could just toss this into your .htaccess: AddType application/x-httpd-php .html --dbushong |
2006/1/16-18 [Computer/SW/Languages/Java, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:41392 Activity:high |
1/16 Okay, I have a technical question here. I administer a cluster of java webservers running jetty (not resin, sorry). They are behind a load balancer. They used to start up fine under "load" i.e. in the load balancer configuration. The latest code release broke this somehow and now they crash upon startup unless I remove them from the load balancer first. The programmers promised to fix this, but of course they did not and now they claim this is "industry standard." It is burdensome to me to have to remove them and then re-insert them every time I need to do a restart. Does anyone else run a java webserver cluster? Do you have to remove them from your load balancer everytime to start them up or restart them? I already STFW and could not find anything on the topic. -ausman \_ What I would do (I've been in similar situations): 1) Escalate to CTO so he knows #2 is coming: 2) "No, I can't bless this release because your P1 bug isn't fixed. You'll have to explain to the CTO why this bug hasn't been foxed." This will trigger a meeting where you can say: 3) "This is an industry standard? The code wasn't broken until release X.Y.Z on date MMDDYY which you said was going to be fixed. Find me the IEEE, IETF or other industry standards body doc that says this is standard." If you don't push back hard on this you're only setting yourself up for even worse hassle down the road. I've 'worked' with code monkeys like that before. They're classic bullies. Hit back hard immediately and be rude about it unless you want to be their ops bitch forever who has to kludge around their crap code. \_ Unfortunately, there is a tradition of kludging around bad code here that I am trying to change. Fortunately, we have a new CTO who supports my general philosophy on this. \_ Yes, and no. Since you didn't supply more information on how you're accomplishing load balancing, I have no idea how to fix your "problem". \_ Netscaler. \_ I assume it's something like a 9000 series. What's the error you're getting when starting up resin? Can you get a debug trace out of it? \_ Yeah, 9000. All kinds of errors, untimately leading to a server crash and restart which then crashes and then tries to restart... then tries to restart... I am trying to dig up the exact error for you now. Actually, email me for details, I don't want to post it on the motd. \_ That proves it isn't "industry standard". Escalate and get the programmers whipped into shape. \_ They promised to fix it? Do you have that in writing or in a bug tracking database? \_ No, but they promised in the code release meeting, where I have to sign off on code releases. I only agreed to let this code go live on the condition that they would fix it later. The CTO, who is in charge of both my group and programming, was there. So I definitely can push back if I want to, but I need evidence to make my case. It is probably true that it is less overall time to do the laborous restart than it is to fix the bug, at least in the short term. \_ Unless it's an architectural problem that will compound as they continue to build on the existing architecture. \_ Sounds like an excellent opportunity to set up a script to handle updates. Take node out of load balancing, restart it, test that it started cleanly, and then put back into balancing. Been there, done that. \_ nonononononono!!! do *not* *ever* kludge up something on the ops side because your coding team sucks. Make them fix their code. If you want to tweak around with LB'd node status to maintain a 100% consistent site, for exmaple taking out half, updating them, putting them in a new pool, switching the VIP to that pool, then doing the remainder. Ok, I guess. You can be clever for stuff like that if there's some need. But in this case, he's dealing with lazy code monkeys who are trying to force an ops policy change because they introduced a bug. They need to be clubbed into submission. This will not be the end of ops policy kludges to cover bad coding. He'll regret covering for them. \_ bad coding happens. you can deal with it and catch the problem before you have your entire production cluster spewing garbage, or you can let the bad code mess everything up and get into a finger pointing pissing match. OPS job is to keep stuff working. \_ bad coding happens. you can deal with it and catch the problem before you have your entire production cluster spewing garbage, or you can let the bad code mess everythign up and get into a finger pointing pissing match. OPS job is to keep stuff working. \_ OPS job is to protect the site. That includes making sure crap code doesn't get pushed and pushing back hard on the developers if it does. His situation isn't finger pointing. The devs screwed the pooch and need to unscrew. Slapping a condom on afterwards isn't going to fix anything. \_ What's wrong with doing both? I assume he doesn't have to TELL anyone he wrote the script. -!pp \_ The short version: doing it right is better. Don't lie about IT stuff. Get busted once and your already shakey credibility (you're in IT, right?) is shot forever. \_ I dunno, the exact details of how IT does its job is not really usually that interesting to engineering. I don't think you need to tell anyone about all your little operations scripts, but don't lie if asked either. \_ what would you say if someone asked you how long it would take to write a kludge script? it's a very likely question. also, in some places OPS will be working with engineering and be more aware of how long the different steps are taking even if they don't know the details. i don't know if that's jim's case but anyway, i wouldn't go out of my way to be too helpful in a situation like this. the new CTO was likely brought in *because* the board or CEO or whoever understands the code base is broken. C*O changes aren't common. if so, then OPS can help the guy do his job which will make OPS future much happier or continue down the same path to piling more and more madness on top. my philsophy is this: don't do anything you'd say was garbage if someone else did it and you were the new guy taking over that job. \_ What load balancer? HTTP keep-alives work decently well for us. If it's not answering to the load balancer, it won't be in the pool. |
2006/1/16-18 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Transportation/PublicTransit] UID:41387 Activity:low |
1/16 What do you need to do to set up a table at BART and start trying to prostelyze the masses? The Scientology people have moved their table inside of the Powell BART station that is shared by the Nordstrom mall and Powell SF MUNI stop with their stupid FREE STRESS TEST signs. Can I set up my own table behind them and offer FREE ANAL RAPINGS? Do I have to get a license somewhere? \_ It is a public area. You can get away with a good amount, but setting up a table is something you'd need to get a license for (possible obstruction of a public walkway problems). You can carry a sign or something similar, but you need to watch your language (disturbing the peace, public nuisance). I think there are also provisions against for-profit advertising not approved for BART. \_ "FREE RECTAL FEVER CHECK WITH WARM POST-CHECK LOTION" \_ LOWER GI MASSAGE ... \_ People might not make the connection as well as if you just stood there with a sign saying "Free Brain Washing" or "Free Cult Membership*" \_ When I see those bastards I usually jump around and shout "It's a cult!!!" "Don't talk to them, they're a fucking cult and they'll brainwash you!!" at the top of my lungs and wave my arms around. \_ That should convince any sensible person. \_ Well, it entertains me, and irritates the Scientologists, and that'e enough for me. Sensible people already know to avoid them and don't need to be convinced. \- the hari krishna activities have led to a lot of free speech in public but functionally dedicated spaces lawsuits. at one point there were inconsistent standars between airports, bus terminals ferry terminals railway stations etc. to the best of my knowledge these distinctions were some what arbitrary and as far as i know a higher court hasnt imposed a uniform standards. note also, it's not as simple as "is it a public space" because there is adoctrine about quasi-public. for the nTH time in the motd, see pruneyard [yes from the south bay] v. robins. \_ Please stop bastardizing the language, while there's still time. |
2006/1/15-17 [Computer/SW/Languages/Perl, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:41383 Activity:high |
1/15 This is a computer question which photo geeks would appreciate. I am trying to extract date/time from JPEG's EXIF header and use that to override Windows/NTFS's filename's create time. I need to do this in a batch mode involves hundreds of photographs. How to do this? write a shell script in cygwin? which library do you recommend to extract EXIF header? how to modify ctime on NTFS? thanks. kngharv \- i dont know anything about the windows side but i use "jhead" [http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/jhead/] or tcl. ok tnx. --psb \_ thanks. jhead fits that part of my need. However, I am also looking for something where I can add a field to EXIF, namely "FocusLengthIn35mm." If any of you guys knows how to do this, please let me know. OP \_ Image::ExifTool --dbushong \_ http://jpgtime.learsy.com i've used it to change the time stamps, not sure if it can add other exif data \_ Since the beginning of my digital camera days, I've adopted the policy of renaming my digital camera images YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_NNNN[_tag].jpg (where NNNN is the sequence number and tag can be the camera model). The time a picture was taken is more important to me than all the other attributes, and name my files this way make sure that information will not be lost and every file has a unique identification. I use my own perl script to do this, but I am sure you can find utilities that does rename for you. My script can also re-touches file timestamp based on the time embedded in the filename, so I can very easily adjust the file timestamp if necessary. The important thing is to make sure your camera's clock is set correctly (for the timezone you are in), but my script has an offset option for those "ops" occasions. On my last trip we used 2 cameras, and the file ordering allows me to dump the pictures from both cameras together and do slide shows in the order the pictures were taken across both cameras. Email me if you want to give it a try. -chiry \_ I didn't agree with "The time a picture was taken is more important to me than all the other attributes" until I became a parent. When other people see my baby's pictures, the first question they ask is nearly always "how old was he?". For those pictures without imprinted dates, I quite often find myself unable to answer. pictures without imprinted dates, I usually find myself unable to answer. \_ unfortunately, the reason why I've asked this question at first place is that I am still using 35mm and other film cameras. and they don't have EXIF info :p \_ might be a bit overkill, but these should be able to do what you want: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/asset-management.shtml |
2006/1/11-13 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:41351 Activity:kinda low |
1/11 What's the difference between an MyISAM and an INNODB table? I noticed that you can do FOREIGN KEY and CASCADE on INNODB but not MyISAM, but that's the only difference I know. \_ MyISAM also doesn't do transactions or row level locking. \_ If you don't need those (and more) features, and your access profile is 99% reads, MyISAM will be much faster. \_ http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/innodb-overview.html I think the major items are: - transaction (commit/rollback) - no REPAIR TABLE needed - row level vs. table-level locking - foreign keys |
2006/1/9-12 [Recreation/Food, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:41310 Activity:nil |
1/9 I'm trying to remember/find the (I can't remember which) the 'food' or 'hunger' program that would modify the utmp to reflect a user's hunger status. /csua/bin/foodp is just a figlet wall script. -- Marco |
2005/12/9-11 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:40932 Activity:low |
12/8 How do I make a non-italicized greek letter in Latex? \_ If you use them as mathematical characters, they're always variables. (I know this doesn't help much.) \_ Thanks to the person who nuked my reply. Most fonts probably do not have non-italic Greek, and most LaTeX packages probably don't support non-italic Greek. You need a font that has glyphs for non-italic Greek (probably you can find some native Greek fonts for this) and then a package that has options where you can select those glyphs (like, say, the MinionPro pkg). \_ You hit the nail on the head, dude. Thanks. I just put in a modern greek language font, and am using that without going into the math environment at all. Problem solved (although I briefly ended up with my whole 180 page document in greek characters when I put my {} in the wrong place, which was amusing. \_ You're welcome. Glad it worked out. --dude |
12/24 |
2005/12/6-7 [Politics/Domestic/President/Reagan, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:40884 Activity:kinda low |
12/6 emarkp's little fit below is a good illustration of the "true random doesn't seem random" problem that afflicts shuffle-play implementations in MP3 and CD players. \_ Sigh. When one value gets 50% of the hits in 200 trials, that's not uniform distribution, now matter how many names you want to call me. -emarkp \_ If this were true, you would be correct. However, 200 trials from a script doesn't mean anything. What counts is when kchang's code re-generates random numbers. Looking at your sample below, it looks like reagan is about 6x more frequent than the next closest. It's improbable, but a uniform distribution could have oversampled one item by 6 in the code, which comes up as 6/12 item generations. That's assuming your script is distributed evenly across time, and so is his random generation code. Assuming he varies the interval between regeneration, then this could be fairly probably. between regeneration, your results are fairly probable. eg. After nicknames get assigned, wait 1-100 seconds, then assign again. Reagan just got assigned a long wait time, then your script oversampled one data point. Or any variation off this procedure. Done properly, it could give the illusion of semi-consistency while remaining truly random. -magneto (not "luck of draw" magneto, but "I am Magneto" one) \_ Except that several instances of "reagan" occur, then one of (say) hitler or sauron, etc. After I listed the results, suddenly "reagan" went way down in frequency. -emarkp \_ It's a conspiracy to call you "reagan" and not hitler! \_ Ok, fine. Let's say he hardcoded something so that he called you reagan. What an insult that is! What other nicer villain names listed on his web site would you preferred to be called? \_ I'd like to be Captain Hook. -!emarkp \_ This is the CSUA. There are numerous algorithms that can do this, biasing results for certain members of the population for given periods of time. -magneto |
2005/12/1-4 [Computer/SW/Languages/Java, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:40802 Activity:low |
12/1 I am trying to make some tests using G-UNIT and Ant. The tests all consist of running MyClass.process(input, output) and then comparing the output to an expected value. I know I could make a suite in TestMyClass which just has a bunch of the same test on different input/output pairs. I know I could also make a bunch of seperate test functions or classes which just call MyClass.process() with a seperate hard-coded parameter. What I'd *like* is the ability to list a bunch of input/output pairs in the Ant script and have it pass these params to a single TestMyClass class. Is there any way to do this or am I barking up the wrong tree? \_ I was hoping to do something similar with cppunit, though, calling it with command line arguments. Instead, I just put a file in a well known location that matches up with the test in question and put all the input values there. The environment is also a good way to pass in some stuff (e.g. a top-level directory). \_ That's more or less what I decided on too, but I wish there was a less kludgy way... -op |
2005/11/28-30 [Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus, Computer/SW/Languages/JavaScript, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:40749 Activity:nil |
11/28 Any recommendations for a provider of unmanaged dedicated servers. My current provider is 2 hours into a network outage today. and they don't have an ETA yet. \_ Check http://www.webhostingtalk.com and see the offer section. Then do a search to see if any of the company you are interested in has any bad review. |
2005/11/17-19 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:40635 Activity:nil |
11/17 I'm 41, so what am I allowed to complain about on motd ? I think if anything, you becoming more accepting of things the older you get. \_ If you're replying to the "at least wait till you're 40" post below, I was not meaning to imply that being over 40 makes it cool to bitch about young people--just that bitching about young people when you're barely over 30 demonstrates spectacular levels of assheadedness. There have always been good people who work hard and don't complain, and there have always been stupid whiners. \_ I can agree with that. I went back to college for awhile and found it odd to be in classes with people who were not even born when you started college. \_ Hot and easy college babes are worth it, though. \_ and if you can't get them, there is always the moms. \_ standard grumpy-old-man stuff about how things are easier these days and th whiners should shut up, because you had to hike to school 5 miles uphill each way, in the snow. \_ You can always bitch about punctuation and formatting. What year were you? \_ Let me put it to you this way, my first college level CS course (in pascal) was in 1983 and was done on punch cards. ( .. which leads to many .. in my day lines ... ) \_ I am curious because I thought there wasn't anyone from an earlier class than me ('89) on motd. In fact, when I graduated, I was the first CSUA excom member to do so in 2 years. \_ I did not actually graduate from Cal; so you probably don't know me. \_ Well, it's either that or you're okamoto. \_ I actually know Jeff; but its been a few years (over ten now) since I did anime stuff \_ Indeed, who are you, ancient master? -jrleek \_ Punch cards? Didn't Apple ][ support Pascal? \_ These were batch jobs run on the campus mainframe. At that time; only CS majors got the priviledge of using green screens since they were in short supply. This was not at Cal; btw. \_ Yes, Apple ][ did support Pascal. But in 1983 Apples ][e cost more than a semester at Cal. \_ You have an odd sense of punctuation; btw. \_ When I first learned C after using Pascal for a year in school, I though C was cool. Now after using C for 15 years, I miss Pascal. \_ The sad thing is you're only 13 years ahead of me and time has been flowing exponentially faster year after year. Ok maybe logarithmically. or something. \_ Its like Indy used to say: "Its not the years; its the mileage" |
2005/11/2-4 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Recreation/Media] UID:40410 Activity:nil |
11/2 Splinter Cell the Movie: http://www.latinoreview.com/scriptreviews/splintercell/review.html |
2005/10/29-31 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:40336 Activity:nil |
10/29 Cool Link. Illustrated periodic table. http://www.chemsoc.org/viselements/pages/pertable_fla.htm \_ Why on earth does that need Flash? |
2005/10/9-11 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:40033 Activity:high |
10/9 Should I italicize the phrase "in situ"? \_ BAH! Go find a style guide, just pick one, and follow it. If unsure, ask or figure out which one your prof uses and just follow it. You're "not allowed" to design your own style. Once you start doing that you're just being random and you're definitely not doing the right thing. Style isn't a matter of opinion as some here would have you believe. \_ If it's not a matter of opinion, why do the style manuals differ? You, sir, are a fucking idiot. \_ I'll explain even though you're too dense to get it: it is ok to choose and follow any particular style guide you want, it is not ok to make up your own. Was that simple enough for you? \_ yes -darin \_ Thanks. \_ I would not. I dislike it when authors reflexively italicize in a foreign language. Why do we italicize? Two reasons: emphasis (primary usage) or to mark a foreign phrase that could be confused in the text. ("We believe _in absentia_ voting made a big difference in the previous election.") When I see i.e. or e.g. or et al. or ad hoc italicized, I find it both distracting (because italics to me means _I'm emphasized_) and pompous. In general the typographic rule is up to the publisher but the most common rule is that if the phrase has been around long enough to feel like it's part of our language, it shouldn't be italicized (you wouldn't italicize "etc." for instance). I would put "in situ" in that category; you may not; but that begs the question that if you don't think it's a phrase that's part of our language, why are you using it? Example for my point of view: http://www.economist.com/research/styleGuide/index.cfm?page=805685 Example against: http://www.bioscience.org/guides/format.htm \_ Woah! I'm convinced, I think. It's for a thesis, so no editor other than my advisor gets a say in it. I'll go with the non italicized. \_ Outstanding. Another person converted to my Grammar Master Plan. If you have any other need for me to tell you what you should think, just lemme know. -pp \_ Ok, what do you think about "Figure 5" vs. "figure 5" and "Equation 1.4" vs. "equation 1.4"? \_ Personally, I prefer capitalized, and I think that's more common in my field, but either seems just fine to me. -pp \_ Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerous ways. \_ it may be a part of my usage, but not part of your redneck usage. \_ then don't condescend to us rednecks. \_ now if you could only learn how to use the phrase "beg the question"... \- i would not put "in situ" or other "standard" latin expressions in italics. if you dont have to ask yourself "am i sure they will know what i mean" then you can use roman type with confidence. so i would not use italics with say "circa" or "et al." however i would use it with say "contra bonos mores". some are hard calls like say "tabula rasa" or "sui generis" "prima facie" or "a priori". oh let me say "standard and unbiquitous" rather than just "standard". i would put "pace" and "sic" in italics because they are kind of weird. |
2005/10/5-6 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:39984 Activity:nil |
10/5 After years of using latex without bibtex, I have finally started using bibtex, and find that I had been leading a shallow, incomplete life. Save yourself from a meaningless life, and start using bibtex now. \_ Not all latex leads to shallow, incomplete life. Many people enjoy deep, complete life with latex such as Trojan Magnum XL. \_ You don't always have to settle with a shallow life while using latex. Try Trojan Magnum. |
2005/9/22-23 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:39806 Activity:nil |
9/22 I don't know if it's motdedit or someone's anti-nuking or merge script, but a lot of entries seem to be getting mauled, with lines posted where they don't belong, double-posted, whatever. -John \_ Al-Qaeda has infiltrated CSUA and is now terrorizing motd! FEAR |
2005/9/12-14 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:39640 Activity:nil |
9/12 http://www.google.com/search?q=failure \_ http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20050911&mode=classic |
2005/9/9-11 [Computer/SW/Database, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:39587 Activity:nil |
9/9 How do I do a SELECT STDDEV(column),MEDIAN(column) FROM table? I can only find references to AVG. Anyone know? Thanks, \_ http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/group-by-functions.html Somehow I'm just _guessing_ you're using MySQL. |
2005/8/20-22 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:39200 Activity:nil |
8/20 Anybody know if QuickBooks pro can export plain-text invoices? \_ What do you mean by "plain-text"? Export for printing it, or exporting it using some kind of script to grab the data? You can export it to a shitty PDF, or print it out as a text file. Or you can set up a report that reflects only the data in that invoice, and export that to an Excel spreadsheet, or to a PDF, or to a text file. And finally, you can unlock the Debug menu and actually export an invoice to IIF, which is a text format of sorts. But not sure what would actually suit you out of all of these, if any. -phale \_ Export to plain text that I can easily paste into an email. \_ Probably printing it to a text file would work best then. Try printing an invoice, and then in the print dialog you should be able to save it to a text file instead. Perhaps a quicker thing to do for pasting to an email is run a transaction journal report for the invoice, then export that report to Excel, and then copy and paste the text from the spreadsheet. I'm not sure which one will be better looking. -phale \_ Thanks. |
2005/8/5-6 [Recreation/Dating, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:39010 Activity:nil |
8/5 The problem of / filling up has been fixed. When I permanently unmounted the /vol/backup drives I forgot about the cron job to back them up. Every morning the script was trying to sync 20GB of home dir love to a drive only capable of holding a little bit of love. Shouldn't happen anymore. - jvarga |
2005/7/28-29 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages/JavaScript] UID:38863 Activity:nil |
7/28 How easy/hard is it to use Google Map's interface? Do you have to be a JavaScript expert? How many lines of code to write something simple? \_ http://csua.org/u/cus You have to know a little JS, but their examples in the docs will give you the general idea. --dbushong |
2005/7/22-25 [Computer/SW/Database, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:38783 Activity:kinda low |
7/22 When I do SELECT AVG(col) FROM table, where col is integer, it takes 2 minutes and returns a float type. I'm suspecting part of the problem is that it's doing floating point add? How do I make it faster? Thanks. \_ How many rows it is querying over? \_ about ~2,000,000 \_ Try adding an index to col. (When in doubt, add more indexes): ALTER TABLE table ADD INDEX (col) \_ This won't help at all; he's doing a full table scan with no where clause. You can test your theory by using SUM instead of AVG; does it still take a long time? You also have to consider that these very likely are floating point numbers if you defined the column as NUMBER. \_ I've seen MySQL run faster with indexes on lots of things that really shouldn't have run any faster. \_ Indexes may cause the db to do fewer reads, depending on his schema. \_ Actually I found out my problem isn't with the AVG but with "join" process. For example, I have a lot of the followings like SELECT ... FROM ... WHERE table1.id=table2.id2 AND table2.id1=table3.id... I've made sure that id, id2, and id3 are all indexed, but for 2 million rows it's still pretty slow. I wish MySQL would tell you why things are slow so that you can fine tune it. ARGG!! -op |
2005/7/19 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages/Java] UID:38707 Activity:low |
7/19 My boss has a bunch of money for techinical books he needs to get spend. Any suggestions on what I should get? \_ Duh, what field is your dept in? \_ Actually, it should be something OUTSIDE my field. (That's how the money is budgeted) Some Topics: Linux Kernel Hacking MPI programming Advanced Threaded Programming Software engineering \_ Design Patterns \_ Driving J2EE and SOAP CORBA for B2B and B2C success in XML RSS!!! \_ The Art Of Computer Programming |
2005/7/15 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:38639 Activity:nil |
7/15 Is there some kind of script that converts normal English to the one in the thread below? |
2005/7/15-18 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:38632 Activity:nil Edit_by:auto 50%like:36687 |
7/15 is kchang's motd script down or it it just me? does anyone else find this liberating? \_ you think kchang is the only one running identification scripts? \_ Eh. If you haven't figured out by now that the 'user guessing' is useless, you might feel that way. \_ What does "down" mean? There are many features, which one is "down"? \_ http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=down \_ down, or downe? |
2005/6/28-29 [Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:38333 Activity:nil |
6/29 Hey danh! Can you stop posting http://csau.org links to gorey images as responses to threads? Isn't one of the motd rules not being a jerk? \_ Dan's not here, man. \_ 1) Dan hasn't logged on since last night 2) clicking a danh link is done at your own peril \_ I don't post random links to the motd without some description, and I use tinyurl, not http://csua.org, since I have a tinyurl firefox extension. - danh \_ It was probably psb. That's the kind of thing he thinks is clever. -tom \_ Um, so those procs running as 'danh' aren't his? \_ He just logged in. pbbbt. \- Fear of a Danhimal Planet |
2005/6/15-17 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:38135 Activity:nil |
6/15 I've been hearing a lot about XHTML and I was wondering if there were any disadvantages to converting my personal html pages (currently in HTML 3.2) to XHTML w/ either an embedded or external (not sure which is better) style sheet. As anyone done something similar? Any issues? \_ We're now doing all development in XHTML. It's not really that different, just a little more formalized. If done right, it should reduce maintenance issues, as you can remove your formatting information from the pages and stick them in external style sheets instead, reducing the sloppiness of your HTML code. -tom |
2005/6/10-13 [Computer/SW/Mail, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:38079 Activity:nil |
6/10 Does anyone else have this Outlook problem? Once a while the fonts in the HTML messages in my Inbox becomes very big. Then if I go to other messages and then go back to those HTML messages later, the fonts will become normal again. Rich-text and plain-text messages don't have this problem. Thx. |
2005/5/12-13 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:37652 Activity:kinda low |
5/11 If you noticed that your laptop HD never rests because it's doing something, and you've already killed all auxilary processes and made drives not "Fast Indexable", it's the explorer that's funky. Here is one solution. Kill explorer and then run it again. You can use a batch file script: taskkill -im explorer.exe /f explorer.exe \_ Make sure you set this to N and reboot if necessary. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction\Enable This got rid of the strange HD activity on my laptop. -chiry \_ Is it trying to defragment the disk on its own? \_ My understanding is it will kick in when your laptop has been idle for some time (ie, 1 hour), and will disappear the moment you ran task manager trying to identify the process using the disk. You will see it in task manager if you leave task manager running for an hour. I think it tries to defrag the boot files, not your whole disk. \_ what does explorer.exe do when you don't have any IE Explorer window open? \_ It's your shell. Taskbar, tray, file broweser, etc. IExplore is something else. \_ There are a bunch of useful toys for checking open processes, file handles, etc. under Windows on http://www.sysinternals.com -John |
2005/5/11-12 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:37641 Activity:nil |
5/11 I made a boo-boo in my motd monitoring script and I don't know how to fix it. It might go back up, esp. when everyone calms down -kchang |
2005/5/9-11 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:37587 Activity:nil |
5/9 How do you write to the motd and being anonymous? I mean kchang's script tag you as 'grey'. ;) \_ You could take the opposite approach: background a script that touches the motd within whatever interval kchang's scripts diff at whenever you're logged in. Of course, that probably doesn't work at like 3am when it's only psb, mice, and YOU. at whenever you're logged in. \_ Slip kchang $20 and he'll anonymize you. \_ You go to http://csua.org/motd \_ scp \_ this doesn't make you gray. it makes you non-existant. Oh, and \_ this doesn't make you gay. it makes you non-existant. Oh, and don't edit over other ppl's comments, please. |
2005/5/9-11 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:37585 Activity:low |
5/9 I'm using Wells Fargo's online statement. I like it a lot better than ETrade and other companies because they output my statement to a PDF file which I can keep. This is important for me because of a lawsuit that I was involved in where I couldn't produce a statement because my old bank didn't produce a PDF file (just plain HTML) and didn't go back further than 6 months. What bank do you have, how long do they keep statements, and do they output PDF or HTML? \_ So they court would have accepted PDF or paper, but not HTML? Why? \_ So the court would have accepted PDF or paper, but not HTML? Why? \_ Personally, for my financial related documents, I choose to receive the paper version instead of the online version for exactly the reason you mentioned above. \_ Seconded. I still choose paper statements for this reason, even though I know I'm risking ID theft at my mailbox. \_ I use TD Waterhouse as both a brokerage and a bank account. The statements they have on their website are in HTML format, but they keep them around / available forever. \_ Don't know which OS you are using, but most financial institutions with online services have a "view printable version of statement" link, which I click on, and then print the ensuing HTML page to a PDF file on my Mac. |
2005/4/29-5/3 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/HW/Printer] UID:37427 Activity:nil |
4/29 I used to be able to use ps2pdf (and Distiller 4) to convert PostScript files to PDF. After upgrading to Office 2003, I can no longer do that as Distiller complains "Error: undefined; OffendingCommand". What can I do to convert? -ok thx \_ http://www.pdf995.com \_ ghostscript. Also check out http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator |
2005/4/25 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:37357 Activity:moderate |
4/25 I hereby re-file a motion to squish kchang, and this time, keep him squished for good. My charges are as follows: 1997-- kchang uses a script to modify motd. This offense is so serious that the squishage should be permanent. 2003-2004-- kchang's account is unconstitutionally reinstated. The person who unconstitutionally reinstated him should also be squished. 2004-- kchang writes a web interface to expose our sacred motd to the world. This is like taking a private elite file and making it world readable, hence violating the "sharing your soda account with other people" law. 2004-- kchang tries to bring down the entire Berkeley network by fingering motd every second. 2005-- kchang writes a John Ashcroft script, thus violating our right to privacy. Let's reopen this case and this time, don't fuck up. PS this script is written by cat fuck_kchang.txt /etc/motd.public > tmp; cp tmp /etc/motd.public \_ Perhaps you should take this up with root. Bellowing this here is akin to haranguing people in sproul plaza; while you might get a few people (possibly even quite a few) to agree with you, it's still basically just noise. Rather than screaming your woes to a gang of other essentially powerless denizens, why don't you take your evidence of wrongdoing direct to the people that make these sorts of decisions? You might save time and perhaps keep some needless invective off the motd; it already has more than its share.... \_ twink \_ Uhhh, do I know you in person? If not, let's meet somewhere, like a coffee shop or something. Let's talk in person. -kchang |
2005/4/24-25 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD] UID:37342 Activity:nil |
4/23 Can I determine the number of rows and columns available to an interactive terminal session from a shell script? If so, how? Thanks. \_ On FreeBSD or Linux, run "stty size". On other systems you can usually find it in "stty -a", but that's more annoying. --mconst \_ 'stty size' works on OS X and OpenBSD as well |
2005/4/23 [Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:37333 Activity:nil |
4/23 Hello my Mormon brethren, you'll want the following script + the greasemonkey firefox extension http://www.arantius.com/article/arantius/clean+language - danh |
2005/4/22-25 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:37325 Activity:high |
4/22 Per ilyas and dbushong's suggestion I modified motd diff: http://csua.berkeley.edu/~kchang/24/?incr=1 Constructive comment/suggestions welcomed here \_ what do the different colors/styles of the listed names mean? \_ color key is here: http://csua.berkeley.edu/~kchang/24 go down \_ Knowing what I have added to the motd today (very little), I can confidently pronounce this as a piece of crap. Or at least that a simple way to defeat it is to edit the motd without a lock and background the editor (reloading inside the editor when I want to add a change). -emarkp \_ I never made the claim it's 100% accurate or undefeatable. In fact it's impossible to track everything unless you make mods to the OS to track writes, or build something on top of root writable motd.public that requires authentication. It's a difficult problem, and that's what makes it interesting. \_ But claiming to indicate users while being inaccurate is disinformation, especially in some of the charged threads that show up here. -emarkp \_ what, science can't be probabilistic? The indicators are merely what the script THINKS has happened, that it has some confidence that underlined/bold/etc users did something, and low confidence that grayed out users did something. That's it. You're right, it's not black or white. If you don't trust the script, that's fine too. But calling it a piece of crap, that is a bit extreme. \_ It's a piece of crap. -tom \_ I count 25 entries today with my name in it. Considering that before this thread I made a whopping 2 edits, yes I think it's a piece of crap. Oh, and sign your name. -emarkp \_ I'll gladly sign my name when you start using motdedit or a shared lock system :) \_ Give me a break. Motdedit is problematic, and faulty. My editor lets me know if the buffer I'm editing has changed on disk so I don't overwrite. That works for me. Sign your name. -emarkp \_ Well. You don't use motdedit because you have your reasons, and I will not sign because I have my reasons. Let's just leave it at that. \_ Then do you have a problem with someone writing a script to divine your identity? -emarkp \_ Not really, why should I care? It interfere with me anyways. \_ No. I guess we're all different \_ The page could use some UI improvements. How about format it like those web forums? What I meant is something like http://forums.slickdeals.net/t94394.html So that each topic is broken into its own colored sections. Also, fonts such as Arial would probably be easier to read. How about move the "clock" to the front in its separate column? At the end of the page, explain the color coding. Remove the extra line above and below the highlighted section. And if you are really bored, reformat each reply so that it is perfectly indented. -chiry \_ And if you yearn for anonymous motd again, http://csua.org/motd \_ I wouldn't mind if I get a shell account. |
2005/4/21-22 [Computer/SW/Languages/JavaScript, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:37300 Activity:kinda low |
4/21 When I go to the http://www.yahoo.com page, it displays a current time that's PST. How does it know I'm in Pacific time zone? \_ Are you signed in? if you are, it uses whatever timezone in your profile. \_ No, I don't even have a Yahoo ID. \_ javascript or other client side scripting knows your tz \_ It reads the transponders in your laptop. \_ It uses GPS to bounce signals off of your tinfoil hat \_ use the source, luke. <script language=javascript>d.getElementById('nw').innerHTML=time;</script> (see elsewhere for where the time variable is set) |
2005/3/23-24 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Security, Transportation/Car/Hybrid] UID:36839 Activity:nil 50%like:36690 |
3/23 Now you can RIDE ELECTRIC BIKE! http://tinyurl.com/59b77 (gizmodo) \_ Electric bikes are not new. -tom |
2005/3/17-19 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:36742 Activity:moderate |
3/17 Is Latex still the defacto standard in academia/papers/publications? \- yes, esp pdflatex. \_ latex, dvips, Distiller is the standard in my field, not pdflatex - some argue that Adobe, having invented ps and pdf, generates the highest quality pdf. I realize this is not free. \- i just meant i see .ps and .pdf files provided more often than i am seeing .dvi left around today. \_ Yes, at least in CS/EE. Most conferences provide LaTeX templates (all conferences to which I have submitted), but rarely do I see well-crafted ones for other formats. There are lots of great reasons to use LaTeX but in the academic realm, probably the most important is that most academic bibliographies are in BibTeX format. \_ and the ease of typesetting high quality mathematical equations. \_ Well, there are lots of science/engineering pubs that don't need equations (although of course LaTeX rocks at those), but very few don't need bibliographies. \_ Physics and Astronomy use LaTeX, but I'm told biological sciences prefer MS Word. Go figure. \_ biologists have no need, or patience, for the features that LaTeX offers. \_ Yes, it's proven to be more effective than lamb skin. |
2005/2/18-19 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages, Recreation/Humor] UID:36232 Activity:nil Cat_by:auto |
2/18 A parent's primer to computer slang http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/kidtalk.mspx -John \_ "Was this information helpful to you? Yes" \_ "Please tell us more:" "omgwtfbbq" -geordan |
2005/2/5-7 [Computer/SW/Unix, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:36071 Activity:nil |
2/4 I want to add a "glossary" page to my website (for stuff related to a current project). I know I could just write the html myself, but is there some sort of utility for creating glossary pages, which, for example, would make it easy to add or delete entries? Thanks. \_ Use a Wiki. \_ Thanks. Is there any other solution? |
2005/2/5 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:36068 Activity:high |
2/4 2:21AM According to my script, in the past 24 hours, ilyas locked /etc/motd.public 51 times, ecchang 29 times, and erickred 15 times. Congratulations motd warriors! \_ ....must....troll....harder.... \_ Must script harder. Apart from leaving a more process running, I haven't touched motd.public in 48 hours. --erikred \_ All of the motd is really me talking to myself, anyways, if the spy scripting community is to be believed. -- ilyas \_ This sounds like the ending of a bad novel. "But in the end, the motd was all just inside ilyas' head...." \_ on the motd/ilyas head, no one can hear you scream... |
2005/1/29-30 [Recreation/Activities, Finance/Investment, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:35972 Activity:high |
1/29 I see people with all kindsa crazy prompts and colors in their terminal that change when they log into different systems and such. Is there some easy primer to get a running start on those sorts of things? \_ http://www.google.com/search?q=zsh+prompt \_ Use PS1="$ " ; export PS1 as god and Steve intended. |
2005/1/29-30 [Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:35971 Activity:moderate |
1/29 How can I convert my IE favorites into an html file that I can put on my web page? And then how to I make it accessible only via passwd? \_ IE has "file -> export favorites" or something. It exports to bookmark.htm or something. Then read up on htpasswd. \_ And to answer your other question that somebody overwrote, the firefox favorites (for windows) are in your profile, which is in a hidden windows folder C:\Documents and Settings \username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles |
2005/1/21-24 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:35847 Activity:nil |
1/21 I have a LaTeX file that I need to convert to Microsoft Word. I expect to cut and paste the text easily enough, and can just re-write the small number of equations, but I'm stuck on what to do with the references. Does Word have an equivalent to \cite{nameofreference}? Is there an easy way to translate the "\cite" commands in latex into the Word equivalent? Thanks. \_ everyone I know who has gone to the dark side uses something called EndNote which can import/export bibtex bibliographies. I imagine there is a lot of manual work ahead to insert all the references. \_ Thanks. |
2005/1/11-12 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:35650 Activity:nil |
1/11 In my HTML mail there is this tag <IMG src="cid:picture.jpg">. What is "cid:"? Thanks. \_ Displaying attatched images? \_ Aargh. If we keep feeding you, you'll never learn to STFW. Sigh: http://www.aspemail.com/manual_04.html |
2004/12/29 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages/Perl] UID:35468 Activity:moderate |
12/28 Does anyone have a good (free) program for converting .ogg to .mp3? Either for Linux or Windows. \_ CDex \_ Download the official Vorbis tools and then use oggdec + LAME. \_ Not recommended for Windows. On linux it's a one line perl script. \_ Why is this not recommended for Windows? Can't you use a one-line Perl (or even .bat) script there too? \_ Because the Windows CLI is a piece of crap. Yes, you can install cygwin, but by the time you go through the song and dance of installing cygwin you could've already converrted your ogg vorbis files to mp3 already with CDex. Not only that, unlike Linux you can't simply install an RPM/DEB or emerge in gentoo lame and oggdec. You have to manually download each piece of software and unzip it and path the directories correctly. It's just a hassle. I mean, if you really want to write a batch file go right ahead, but why bother? |
2004/12/17-20 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:35349 Activity:kinda low |
12/17 Hey ASIC designers. What are some good drawing tools out there to do documentation stuff? This is for things like drawing waveforms, block diagrams, boolean gates, transistor symbols. Something on a non-Windows platform would be preferable. \_ Illustrator? \_ OmniGraffle on MacOSX \_ I've noticed that drawings copied-and-pasted from Omni into Word end up rasterized instead of preserving their vector format. \_ xfig on any unix. export to CGM and import to MS Office to retain vector format. export to EPS and include in latex docs. learn its quirks and never look back. \_ Try File->Export and then choose PDF Vector or EPS and then try using Insert->Picture->From File in Word. \_ /usr/local/bin/cowsay \_ Everybody seems to use Visio. \_ Microsoft paint \_ Synapticad is hands down the best for timing diagrams. Bloody expensive for what it does, though. \_ brlcad. \_ xfig |
2004/12/14 [Computer/SW/Languages/Perl, Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:35286 Activity:insanely high |
12/13 http://khason.biz/blog/2004/12/why-microsoft-can-blow-off-with-c.html Why Microsoft Can Blow Off with C the Language (humor/funny) \_ not really. -tom that's because tom holub is the anonymous humourless nuker _/ \_ Feel the babelfish flow through you. \_ Any body who thinks Fortran hasn't seen widespread acceptance hasn't spent much time outside of the world of software development and systems administration, methinks. Out where I do my civil engineering thing, Fortran is the standard langauge. -- ulysses \_ Not the law is clear? There is a beard - there is a success. There is no beard - you are guilty. |
2004/12/9-12 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:35234 Activity:moderate |
12/9 I have a "friend" who needs to convert ~100 .bmp images to jpg. Is there a free Windows program that can do this in some kind of batch job? \_ irfanview \_ ImageMagick for Windows \_ imagemagick rocks - available also as part of the cygwin package. \_ Why do you need to quote "friend"? I mean is it a 'friend'? \- it is for my drug dealer; but i get a discount aka friend price. \_ Don't ask questions like that. Explaining it kills it. \_ It's probably the same guy that didn't get the 5% question yesterday. \_ could be a former coworker, someone you don't hang out with outside of work and don't really know outside of a former job. \_ that's an associate, not a "friend" \_ not all of us got a 500 on the vocab section of the GRE \- big up yourself. |
2004/11/4-5 [Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:34675 Activity:kinda low |
11/4 I'm learning Fortran 90 for work, and it's suddenly very clear why C became so popular. \_ so, what's a good language for numerical stuff these days? \_ Sadly, the really isn't one. Fortran 90 is still used, C++ is used a lot as well. Niether is really good for the task. \_ [Matlab] equivalence class if you don't care about speed :). -- ilyas \_ Jesus fucking christ. I actually agree with ilyas on something. There must be something wrong with matlab I have not noticed. \_ Shut up Rob. \_ Hi tom! \_ uh, what? -tom \_ Oh eat it you bitch! I've got the SHOOEEE! |
2004/10/31-11/1 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:34484 Activity:moderate |
10/31 Dear latex experts, I'm learning latex and it's pretty cool, but I'm sick and tired of having to do "latex file.tex; dvipdf file.dvi; acroread file.pdf" Is there a more elegant way of doing this? Thanks. \_ Uh, make? -- ilyas \_ question 2, what's the best program do to latex on the PC? \_ http://www.miktex.org \_ agreed. MikTeX is great. \_ Install this at once! http://www.winedt.com if you use PC. \_ Or just use Vim. \_ Dear dipshit that overwrote my post, I hate you*. Anyway, the nice cross-platform solution is the "latexmk" perl script that comes with most latex distributions: % latexmk -pdf foo.tex => creates foo.pdf I use it on all platforms. It rocks. * I realize "you" isn't necessarily the person with the prev. post, but I hate whoever "you" is. \_ the docs say this just uses pdflatex \_ Yeah, but you can configure it to use whatever you want - distiller, whatever. Also it takes care of other dependencies like bibtex etc. \_ oh by the way what's the best way to do spell check/etc when doing latex? -op \_ ispell (actually I think aspell is the current approved version): (setq-default ispell-program-name "aspell") (autoload 'flyspell-mode "flyspell" "On-the-fly ispell." t) (require 'ispell) It'll probably work from the command line too, but within emacs, using auctex+flyspell rocks. aspell is in the cygwin distribution (Windows) or fink (OS X). \_ pdflatex? \_ Running Distiller will probably give you higher-quality PDF, but pdflatex is pretty good. And I don't think pdflatex saves you from the latex, bibtex, latex, latex cycle that latexmk would. \_ alias? script? \_ I thought you are talking about condom... |
2004/10/29 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:34433 Activity:nil |
10/29 Via JoelOnSoftware: pretty cool standards-based HTML slide show format http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5 |
2004/10/26 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:34342 Activity:nil |
10/25 Action movie script for dorks: http://mcsweeneys.net/2004/10/5keane.html |
2004/10/21 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:34265 Activity:nil |
10/21 My digital camera (canon powershot) doesn't have the functionality of adding date/time at the bottom right hand corner of every picture. And I develop the pictures at Costco and their machines do not print date/time at the back of the paper. I really do not want to use software and manually open up each file and add the date/time into the pictures. Too time consuming. Are there other printing services that will print the date on the back of the pictures? Or some software that will automatically add the date in. Like some programs will create thumbnails on all jpgs in a directory and name them appropriately. Thanks. \_ I suspect ImageMagick could do this if there's some way to extract the timestamp from the EXIF data. ImageMagick is great for scripted image manipulation but I don't know how to extract EXIF data with it or any other program. -dgies \_ I use Imagemagick's convert wrapped in a shell script to do "thumbnailing" |
2004/10/18-19 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:34203 Activity:nil |
10/18 Is there a way to disable domain login script on XP? |
2004/10/13-15 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:34106 Activity:moderate |
10/13 Got into a discussion with someone over how I like the Times New Roman font when it is created by LaTeX, but not in MS Word. He then claimed they have to look the same if they're the same font, but they clearly look different. What is the explanation for this? \_ The MS fonts have hooks for inserting font viruses and trojans which changes their look slightly. \_ Are you sure it's not Times vs. Times New Roman? Spacing might might be an issue too. Also, unless LaTeX gets its fonts from .ttf files, they are not the same font. (They might be the same typeface, though.) \_ I just use the default font. Also what is the difference between font and typeface? -op \_ A font is a computer file that represents a typeface. Fonts are considered computer programs and are protected by copyright laws in the U.S. (but typefaces are not). \_ i think the latex default font is "computer modern" \_ The spacing might be different. Word doesn't do proper kerning. Have you done a side-by-side comparison? \_ I just compared Times in latex/Word and they look nearly identical (including spacing). The exceptions I've found are cases like "fi" which are reduced to a single glyph in latex but not in Word. |
2004/10/2-4 [Consumer/CellPhone, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:33885 Activity:kinda low |
10/2 I want to get a text message or have my cell phone ring when Mt. St. Helens erupts. Any ideas how to do this? \_ Perhaps you can use an RSS feed from one of the major news organizations, coupled with a script to parse and send the message? \_ google alerts? Of course the trouble with using google for news is that there is the crawler lag. -- ilyas \_ Tell your neurotic midwestern relatives who watch tv all the time that you moved to Seattle, and give them your cell phone number. Yes, I realize that Seattle is in no danger, but they won't. \_ ask these guys to call you http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=2379524 \_ set up a script to monitor http://cnn.com for the appropriate headline. then have it email your cell phone. \_ Uh... why? Would finding out an hour later matter at all? |
2004/9/29-30 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:33839 Activity:nil |
9/29 MySQL question: If I create a table where one column is an ENUM such as ENUM('a','b','c') can I later expand the enumerated values to say add 'd' to the possibilities, or do I have to rebuild the whole table? \_ Not really (although I think this makes MySQL silently rebuilt the table anyway): ALTER TABLE foo CHANGE bar bar ENUM ('a','b','c','d'); -geordan \_ Slightly shorter: ALTER TABLE foo MODIFY bar ENUM ('a','b','c','d'); --dbushong |
2004/9/27-10/2 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:33778 Activity:kinda low |
9/27 My company's looking for a PT IT support person (~10hrs/wks) to support the 7 person office here at Berkeley (close to Golden Gate Field ) Basically need to have a good understanding of Windows networking, be able to setup machines and just a lot of misc. trouble shooting with our Germany office. If interested send me your resume at mch@soda.berkely.edu Pays about $15-$30/hr DOE \_ Wow, that's really low. Guess you're looking for a student. \_ Look at the tasks involved. My brother who's 16 could do this.. \_ Well, your brother who's 16 can also probably be trained to run a DNA sequencing machine. That doesn't mean a mission critical lab should hire him. Setting up a bunch of machines on a network running Windows is trivial. Setting up a bunch of machines on a network running Windows so you won't get hacked within 24 hours isn't. Setting up a network which is redundant so you won't lose all your data when the hard disk warranty goes out the window isn't a $300 per week task. \_ It might be a 10hrs/week task, but that's more than $300/wk. \_ http://www.supportresort.com \_ http://supportempire.com </pre></body></html> </pre></body></html> \_ http://supportempire.com </pre></body></html> </pre></body></html> </pre></body></html> |
2004/9/22 [Computer/SW/Languages/Perl, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:33693 Activity:moderate |
9/22 I have a form that posts a heap of text from textarea box to a Perl script that puts the info into a flat database file. I'm using $in{'mytext'} =~ s/\</</g; to change any html tags to harmless <>s, but how do I replace newlines with <br>? I've tried: $in{'mytext'} =~ s/^M/\<br\>/g; $in{'mytext'} =~ s/\^M/\<br\>/g; $in{'mytext'} =~ s/\n/\<br\>/g; and I'm still getting ^Ms in my file. Help! \_ ^M is \r, not \n. -tom \_ Aren't HTML form lines ended with \r\n like Windows? And doesn't Perl::CGI deal with this? \_ (responding to myself) yes, it's \r\n (CR LF): http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/interact/forms.html#h-17.13.4.2 \_ what would you want Perl::CGI to do with a textarea that contains newlines, other than put the newlines in the variable? -tom \_ I couldn't remember if the newline was platform- independent, but if it wasn't that CGI would have a plantform-independent method of splitting/replacing/etc. \_ This did the trick, thank you. |
2004/9/19-20 [Computer/Networking, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:33626 Activity:high |
9/19 I'm looking for a simple but good load balancing appliance to sit in front of two boxes for the purposes of redundancy. Load Balancing isn't really required, I just want the device to send traffic to the secondary box iff the first server goes down. Recommendations? \_ An OpenBSD 3.5 box running pf + carp can do this. If you don't want to use OpenBSD you can try ucarp: http://www.ucarp.org \_ I considered this kind of virtual IP solution, but there are lots of situations where an app server is down but the host still responds to a ping. A Load balancer solution would be better if it could check the port to decide if it is up or not. (which I think is the way they do it, no?) Optimally I'd be able to tell the load balancer "check this url for this answer or consider it down", but that seems like something I'm unlikely to get from some off the shelf appliance. (I want an appliance as it should be more reliable than a pc (?) ). How expensive is a small bigIP box or something like that? I can spend a couple grand on this. \_ My knowledge of CARP is limited, but it is based on the tx/rx of signed adv. not just ip pinging, so detection of a host that is down but still pingable is not an issue. It can't tell that your http server is down though. I'm not sure what the cheapest soln is, but I've seen lots of people use alteon boxes. \_ a pair of bigIP boxes should run you under 2k easily, check fleabay. I'm assuming you want two, to avoid moving the single point of failure to the bigips. We have a pair at work... when I started, the active one would crash about once a week. We haven't done anything major to them (only adding more IPs/services) but now it's not crashing. They will do ICMP/TCP/HTTP/HTTPS monitoring. You might as well do load balancing since you get it for free. \_ Hmm, these are pricey. Any "application switch" type products that don't cost 10K new? \_ Apache+modproxy with a smart proxy list handler. \_ O.K. I can't actually use this solution because the client wants a hardware box. (there are advantages, e.g. flash memory is more reliable than a harddrive) But, I'm curious as to how a smart proxy list handler would work. URL? \_ http://www.arachna.com/edu/talks/loadbalancing/slides/mod_rewrite_1_of_2.html \_ http://tinyurl.com/4qzvt the RewriteMap script (slide 11) can do whatever you want. I've set one up where it stats a file containing valid hosts, rereads it if it has changed, and set up a monitoring script that updated that file. That monitor script can do whatever you want it to. --scotsman do whatever you want it to as well. --scotsman \_ okay, I actually went and looked on ebay. The p3-550's that we have have buyitnow prices of $300 ea. \_ if you want an appliance type box to do this, the arrowpoint (now cisco 5000) devices would do it and quite well. Again you might find these on Ebay for not to much. -EricM \_ ExtremeNetworks also make a little switch (1i?) that can do this. |
2004/9/17 [Computer/SW/Database, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:33585 Activity:nil |
9/17 In SQL it seems DATE, DATETIME, TIME and TIMESTAMP are all reserved words. What do you use to name your date fields? \_ What date it actually is, e.g.: "created_date", "updated_date", "renewed_date" (or just "created", "updated", "renewed", etc) --dbushong \_ Good idea, thanks. Another question: How do I create a table with a record which is an array of strings, eg: a table of some type of record where one element is a list of keywords. Do I have to put all the keywords in one string and do something like comma-seperation? \_ If they're going to be of varying length and short, then the comma separation bit will work. Otherwise, make a new keyword table and tie it to the first table with a foreign key. |
2004/9/9 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:33434 Activity:nil |
9/9 In a sh script what is the significance of the "X" character here: read yn if [ X$yn = Xn ]; then \- if $y is empty and you do if $y = foo, it well generate a syntax error because the shell will see if = foo --psb \_ Thanks! --op |
2004/9/4-6 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:33351 Activity:high |
9/3 I started getting spam on an account that is only mentioned on my webpage (it's not my normal account). If it's an automated spider or something that scans webpages for email addresses, would it make a difference if I either 1) put up the email address without an actual "mailto:" link or 2) put up an image of the text of my email address? Thanks. \_ http://www.codehouse.com/webmaster_tools/email_obfuscator -tom \_ 30 seconds and someone's added that to their harvester script. \_ nice concept, but as you come up with a solution, it's already obsolete. Naive. Nice try. \_ Wrong. Certainly it's possible to write a harvester that gets around obfuscators, but there are dozens of different ones out there, and they include random elements which makes it difficult to script for. You don't need to solve 100% of the problem to make a big improvement. -tom \_ There's no such thing as a right/wrong answer. There are are only trade-offs to consider. This is a typical tom holub opinionated answer. Go get an education. \_ You said it was obsolete, he said you're wrong. I think he wins. \_ You still view talking to, you know, other people as a competitive game with winners and losers? Yeah, ok, you 'win,' buddy. Let us know when you join the rest of the adult world. -- random guy \_ Tom in a nutshell: An asshole online. Not stupid, but not as smart as he thinks he is. He has some native intelligence but is not well educated, so he doesn't know how to think about complicated concepts. His main defect is not realizing these limitations. Disclaimer: I don't know what his personality is like face to face, but I've been around CSUA for a while. \_ make a comment form and script \_ It's too late for that account. Once your account is on 1 spammer list, it'll soon be sold and resold forever until they all have it. I suggest changing the account name, dropping that address and implementing various email hiding solutions. Uhm, in reverse order to what I just said, :-). \_ http://www.spamhole.com \_ Nice. http://Mailinator.com as well. -John \_ Or http://spamgourmet.com, which is even easier after initial setup |
2004/9/2 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:33303 Activity:nil |
9/2 Wow this is funny. And has nothing to do with BushKerryNader: http://virt.vgmix.com/jenny18 \_ Any emacs port for it, similar to M-x psychoanalyze-pinhead? |
2004/8/6 [Computer/SW/Languages/Perl, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:32750 Activity:high |
8/6 On Linux, how can I find out how much space a directory takes up? (Including all it's files and subdirs, etc.) \_ du -sk . -tom \_ try windirstat (ok, it's not linux), it's awesome!! \_ on Linux we just take such things for granted (hint, du -k | sort -rn ) \_ windirstat is a lot more advanced than du -k. come on, this is no longer the 80s. \_ For each file, type ls -l. Copy that down in notepad.exe. Then write a perl script to take the input you save in notepad.exe, put a plus sign "+" inbetween the numbers and pipe it through the 'bc' command, take the output from 'bc' and print it out, send a fax of the photocopy of your printout to your boss's secretary asking her to ask him to approve the numbers, and don't forget that at each stage you should have the security department double check everything so you're not in a state of policy violation. \_ ~jameslin/bin/dirstat is a lame awk script I made awhile back to calculate this. --jameslin |
2004/8/4-5 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:32694 Activity:very high |
8/4 So I have a few questions. Why is ilyas zilching the bottom part of motd.public, and with a script too it seems? Is ilyas also the same guy who was nuking it for out-of-order deletions, or was that jblack? \_ Not with a script. I am zilching it because someone deleted a thread I was (still) participating in, while leaving the threads below it be. I ll stop if you give me a good reason why I should. Or perhaps what I should do is whine to the politburo about how my posts are getting victimized, like someone suggested yesterday. -- ilyas \_ How very libertarian "I'm not getting my way so I'll throw a fit and mess with everyone else's posts" of you. Go Ilyas!! \_ Indeed. If you were me, what would you do? Btw, please sign your name, so we can try your approach on your posts. I am not, btw, messing with everyone's posts. I am merely interpreting a deletion of a thread as a sign that the entire section of the motd past that point has gotten stale and needs garbage-collected. -- ilyas \_ So anyone replying to a thread should move it to the top of the motd, to indicate its freshness? When did this start? \_ No they shouldn't. People who perform the legidimate \_ No they shouldn't. People who perform the legitimate public service of cleaning up old threads tend to only deal with the bottom that isn't getting modified anymore. I have no beef with them. You are putting words in my mouth. -- ilyas \_ If I were you, what would I do? I'd try to figure out why everyone thinks I'm a jackass. \_ Well, if you think I am doing something wrong, at least you know who to blame. You seem to have no unkind words for the anonymous jackasses who fuck up motd threads, which I find interesting. You wouldn't happen to be one of them, would you? -- ilyas \_ Seems punitive, especially of parties who didn't participate in the thread (I assume it was the Partha-Kantian one). I am not sure how fair it is to punish disinterested third-parties. \_ Yes it does seem punitive. I don't think it's a good reason for stopping though. I don't know of another way to 'encourage' certain motd idiots to not delete stuff out of order. -- ilyas \_ Punishing the deleter seems fair. The same logic that would justify the punishment of others could lead to all kinds of unpleasant applications. I don't think the inability to punish just the delete would justify the punishment of all. \_ Seems like we disagree, then. I have no way of punishing the deleters even if I knew who they all were. You are right, if you take what I am doing to its logical conclusion, the motd becomes extremely unpleasant. That's sort of the point. Don't delete non-stale threads to avoid unpleasantness. Or, to phrase it another way "if you fuck up someone's posts, you are really hurting the motd as a whole -- don't do it." -- ilyas \_ It's probably not difficult to figure out who deleted your thread (repeated reinstatement, forcing the deleter into a predictable behavior pattern), if you wanted to. Having done that, you could either selectively punish that person by deleting his subsequent posts, or you can at least hold his name up to public scrutiny. \_ I could, probably, if it's a single person. (I don't think it is). But public scrutiny will not encourage anybody to change their behavior (it's certainly not encouraging me), and I have no desire to maintain an error-prone script to try to determine who posts what, and selectively delete a wrong person's post. I think my method works better. It occurs to me this argument is already occupying too much space here, on the motd. If you have something constructive to add to address the problem of selective deletions, just email me and I ll be happy to discuss more. To people deleting active threads: please don't do it, you aren't helping anyone. -- ilyas \_ I hate the politics purgers as much or more than you do. getting pissed at them doesn't help. they love that. here's what works: purge a unix-related thread for every politics thread they kill. This is the only thing these fuckers understand, and it works. The typical politics purger is some dick who wants the whole motd to be a little unix nerd forum where we all talk about drivers all day. \_ One of you is guilty, all of you shall be held responsible till the guilty one comes forward. \_ My apologies to jblack for impugning his honor, btw. |
2004/8/2-3 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:32648 Activity:nil |
8/2 Is there a way I can invoke abs (absolute value) from a bash script? In general how can I use math function from shell script? \_ If you're worried about math functions, then it is time to start using a real scripting language instead of shell. \_ Agreed. But, if you're not quite ready to rewrite your script yet, it's pretty easy in bash: $((x < 0 ? -x : x)) will return the absolute value of $x. See the section ARITHMETIC EXPANSION in the bash manpage. --mconst \_ Thanks. I would have used Perl if I had thought that I would need math functions. \_ It's never too late to do the right thing. It'll only be harder to convert later. \_ bc (use a here document), note you have to define your own abs function. |
2004/8/1-2 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:32614 Activity:high |
8/1 A silly question: how do I output something to stderr from a shell script, except by echo foo-bar > /dev/fd/3? \_ You mean /dev/fd/2, right? That works fine, and it's actually the only way to do it in csh. If you're using sh, you can also do "echo foo-bar >&2" -- the &2 means "file descriptor 2", just like /dev/fd/2. \_ Stricly speaking you want echo foo 1>&2 in sh. |
2004/7/31-8/2 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:32611 Activity:high |
7/31 Using CSS, is there a way to make my text just take up the middle 700 points of the webpage, similar to the way it would be done as if I had made a table with width="700" (using only HTML)? Thanks. \_ http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1#box-properties -tom \_ http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1#box-properties -tom \_ whoever keeps messing up this URL, stop. -tom \_ here's a real world example of using CSS mixed w/ kludge to get the desired effect: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 http://creativecommons.org/includes/deeds.css |
2004/7/9-10 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Health/Sleeping, Industry/Startup] UID:32202 Activity:nil |
7/9 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=1&u=/nm/20040709/od_nm/life_naps_dc |
2004/7/7-12 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages/Python] UID:31205 Activity:high |
7/7 If you're interested in working at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, there are quite a few openings. The first opening I heard about today was for working on parallel file systems in Linux, a good OS hacking job. See it at: /csua/pub/jobs/LLNL. However, there are always a lot of jobs for scientific programmers (Familiariry with Math, Physics, and/or biology are big pluses). There's also some sys admin jobs and other miscelleous things. You can check out: http://csua.org/u/82x click "search by organization", and select \_ All I get is a PeopleSoft8 error page: "Webserver appears to be incorrectly configured." \_ It's a government facility. Someone will take a look at the logs next week and submit the "Form a committee to discuss error log issue" paperwork a week later. Quit yer bitichin', take your pension and stop stirring the water. You trying to get someone in trouble? \_ Works for me, but you could also go to ww.llnl.gov and click "Jobs" then click "advanced search" "Computation." Or search more generally. Or email me. -jrleek \_ thanks for the post. can you comment on the quality of life issues of living out there? I.e. rent, ease of getting around with or without a car, traffic, access to parks and such, how easy it is to get back to the bay area, etc.? Could one buy a decent home out there on a LLNL salary? \_ Do you have to be a genius to work there? \_ I think you're confusing LLNL with the apple store \- LLNL has a reputation of having a lot of politics ... although maybe a hacking job isnt especially affected. what do you think? --psb \_ The genius I met at apple store is positively retarded. \_ No, but it helps. Basically, LLNL is fully of self-modivated geniuses. If you want to get ahead and be self-motivated geniuses. If you want to get ahead and be really important, yeah, you should have both a PhD and a genius level intelect. To psb: Actually, yeah, the politics here can be pretty bad. Basically, you get a good income, great benifits, great job security, and you work with geninuses. The downside is you have to put up with some petty acedemic-style politics. I consider this a reasonable trade. -jrleek \_ 1. What is academic politics like? 2. Why does government job well? I thought government job pay sucks. \_ My pay is a little less than my friends who started work at the same time, but I work a lot less, and have a lot more flexibility. And oh man, THE BENIFITS are stellar. How would you like your retirement paycheck to be 100% of what you were making when you retired? That's pretty dang good. Acedemic politics are all the piss-posturing about Phds and worring about whether something is really RESEARCH or not that you see around Universities. You know, the stuff like what professors do where they get more worried about who's who and who has what education and went where than about who's doing a good job. It's not really that bad around here, but you see it sometimes. -jrleek \_ Ok, so maybe academic politics isn't worse than office cubicle politics. But you also need security clearance to work there, right? Do people get harrassed for having brown skin? \_ yes, you do, no they don't care that you're a heavy pot user and queer, no they don't care but you will care that they're all white and very conservative. \_ This post above me ^^^^ is a little unintelligible, but correct. Brown skin's not a problem, although not being a citizen is. Our biggest "minority" is easily Chinese, but yeah, this place is mostly white. It still feels wierd after leaving Berkeley to end up in a room where all the occupants are white. That's really just a function of the citizenship rule though really. Oh, and having been a druggie in the past isn't a problem, but currently being "a big pot user" might be a problem. Being a big booze drinker is a problem. -jrleek \_ it was intelligible. i simply chose to ignore common english syntax like psb does but no one calls him unintelligble. \_ are you insane? people call psb unintelligable all the time. \_ jrleek, are you elite and what do you do? \_ http://csua.com/?entry=12410 \_ I'm about as un-elite as they come, but here's what I do: http://www.llnl.gov/CASC/components/babel.html -jrleek \_ I hope you didn't pick the color scheme. \_ Why not SWIG (swig.sourceforge.net)? \_ obItWorksWithOcaml! -- ilyas \_ SWIG actually does provide pretty good functionality. It is currently well used at the lab. The main problem is that since it's not specifically designed for scientific programming, there are some features we really need that SWIG just doesn't have, and probably shouldn't add. \_ More on SWIG. Also, in SWIG all callers must be script languages. We want the whole call stack to be mixed languages. Python calls Java, which calls C, Which calls fortran, which calls Python. Completely impossible in SWIG. -jrleek \_ Uh... what's a 'script language' jrleek? \_ Oh sure, end your hiring freeze right after I get another job elsewhere. \_ I guess I wouldn't mind but is there a Ranch 99 nearby with Boba Tea hang out place filled with cute Asian chicks? That's more important than say, pay or housing. -chinese \_ Sorry, AFAIK the nearest Ranch 99 is in Albany and there are no Boba places. As they meantion below, open a restraunt and either serve good foor or cheap prices and you'll be packed constantly. As far as single h@t 4SI4N CH1X0R, I know one at church, and one at work. This being a nerd town, there are quite a few asian chicks, but they're already married to white guys. \_ can you comment on the quality of life issues of living out there? what is the housing situation? traffic? easy access to decent stores, easy access to parks? how long does it take to get back into the bay area? do you have to own a car to get around out there? \_ I live in the area but don't work at LLNL. Housing is much easier here than in SF,Oak,Berk,SJ,SC,Penninsula,etc. You have the choice of paying less to get the same size but newer than in those places or paying the same to get much more and newer. Traffic: not too bad but getting worse. Depends which direction you're going and when. Decent stores: Costco is nearby, every chain imaginable is near by, Berkeley is 25 minutes for the rest. I live 90 seconds walk from a nice park. It's 25 to Berk, 45 to SF. Yes, you must have a car but contrary to popular opinion, you aren't legally required to drive an SUV in the suburbs. The biggest problem here now is lack of restaurants. The food is ok \_ The other side of the hills may not be Berkeley or SF, but Walnut Creek offers many fine eating choices, and the kickin'-est ribs in the Bay Area are to be found in Lafayette. -elizp but there simply aren't enough. Come out here and open one and you'll be packed at every meal as long as you're not killing people. \_ yahoo maps gives a time for driving between llnl and berkeley that is exactly double what you claim. looking at the map, it looks to me like walnut creek is just as far away as berkeley...throw in traffic, and you've got a solid hour or more to get *anywhere*. \_ yeah plus it's hot as hell in the summer out there. and you're making your living suckling at the gubmint's teat! \_ what's the pay? \_ they pay decently but not great. if you spend your career there the pension more than makes up for it as well as the other perks and benes. \_ no Ranch 99, no Boba, no Chinese radio, only 1 foreign channel, forget it. -chinese \_ For 100, do you try harder? \_ You can listen to RTHK over the Internet if you have RealAudio. \_ um, parallel file system? It's called the RAID. Stop reimplementing things that have been done decades ago. \_ That's all Linux is, isn't it? |
2004/7/4-5 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:31159 Activity:low |
7/4 Is there any script which can split a multi-page pdf to multiple single pages pdf? |
2004/6/30-7/1 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Security] UID:31095 Activity:low |
6/30 I have a ps file probably made from a (la)tex source but I do not have access to the source. ps2pdf renders it but only with totally ugly result - the fonts look like scaled up bitmaps. How do I make it look normal? \_ Try a more recent version of ghostscript. |
2004/6/30 [Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:31075 Activity:insanely high |
6/30 US Govt. recommends: Use a different web browser. http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/713878 \_ That's why I use IE for work but Netscape to surf other stuff. |
2004/6/29-30 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:31053 Activity:high |
6/28 is it useful/essential to learn Latex? I'm pretty happy with MS Word and Powerpoint but occassionally people make fun of me and I kind of feel left out and wanna learn Latex, but I'm not sure if it's worthwhile to spend the time learning it. thx. \_ I don't think I've ever found it useful, and I know very very few people in industry that have any use for it. Perhaps it's different in academia if you're serious about publishing something (lecture notes, text books, etc). It's a tool, man. If a tool serves a need you have, then learn it. It sounds like the people you hang with are kind of silly. \_ If people are making fun of you for not knowing LaTeX, those people really need to get a life. Meet girls, pick up a language, explore the world, learn about other cultures, see live theater, read a book. There's so much more to life than learning LaTeX. If you have nothing better to do then knock yourself out. \_ Shut up Paolo. \_ Uhm, even if it is Paolo, his comment seems pretty sensible. Dumbass. \- you should learn troff -me macros. \_ my first resume was ms macros with tbl. those were good times. \_ I use LaTeX as my main way of composing a document of which appearance is important. The only time I run word is when I have to deal with a word.doc someone else sent me. Although I hope the world does not revolve around MS Word and its proprietary file format, I don't think the reasons your offered justify learning latex. (It sounds like a troll actually.) BTW, I never learned latex in the sense of taking a course or sitting down and read a few chapters of a book. Nobody does. You just look at an existing document or draft and emulate. That's the advantage of LaTeX. I knew all about Word 10 years ago but since I stopped using it, now I forgot how to do many things in it. \_ I need to learn it for my work. (LLNL) Really, for large documents where layout is important and there are a lot of graphs and pictures, Word becomes unuasable. It got so bad that my version of Word XP would crash whenever I tried to insert a text box. It's just the wrong tool for the job. -jrleek \_ well, yes; Word is not a layout tool, it's a word processor. If you need layout, use InDesign or Quark. Or better, do it in XHTML. -tom \_ vi and troff. real men settle for nothing less. |
2004/6/18 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:30910 Activity:nil |
6/18 [reposted] What is the best software to use for making large posters? I have found that Illustrator goes crazy when you have too large a file with too many bitmaps imported, and obviously powerpoint kind of sucks. It's been suggested that i use latex, but that seems like a silly way to do graphical layout. i don't object to buying expensive software (i won't be paying for it) but I want to know what the *right* software is. \_ talk to someone at Kinko's. They'd know. |
2004/6/4 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:30603 Activity:low |
6/4 The Seventh Antual ICFP Programming Contest begins! http://www.cis.upenn.edu/proj/plclub/contest/task.php |
2004/6/3 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:30565 Activity:nil |
6/3 Jesus Christ. The motd is moving backwards and forwards in time. Is this some kind of script war? I think we might have been better off with no controls of any kind. |
2004/5/2-4 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages/Web] UID:29950 Activity:very high |
5/1 Can someone please recommend a good apachelog analyzer (generates statistics, etc etc)? Something cool, maybe with HTML+graphics, easy to use, and free. \_ awstats. uses php, easy to set up. maybe doesn't do everything that webalyzer does, but a heck of a lot easier to install. \_ umm, webalizer is pretty easy to install. \_ analog is the STANDARD! \_ Search the web for "Scratchy" |
2004/5/2-4 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:29947 Activity:insanely high |
5/1 Anyone recommend a word processor for writing a book? My friend's mom just finished her book, and it's one Word doc per chapter... I was wondering if there is any software out there geared to handle 300 pages? She's a writer, so no, she doesn't want to use LaTex. \_ FWIW, my mom wrote her dissertation (100s of pages, plus footnotes) in WordPerfect. She seemed pretty happe, but she also used EndNote in WordPerfect. She seemed pretty happy, but she also used EndNote to help with footnoting. \_ Why in god's name did she start a new doc every page? \_ sorry, I meant one doc per chapter. \_ Framemaker...kinda industrial, but powerful. \_ Don't be mad. FM is such a bitch she might as well us LaTex. \_ People have written math books in latex. -- ilyas \_ that's the whole point. she has no interest in making perfectly typeset symbols and the like. she probably just needs something to efficiently handle many pages of text. \_ asking someone's mom to use latex is just plain stupid. she needs a word processor. what she really needs is for someone to teach her how to use Word properly. one .doc per page is just user error/ignorance. she already has the right tool. she now needs lessons in basic use. \_ no one doc per page is my typo. it was 41 chapters, so 41 docs. she wanted to get the page numbers right before sending the book off to the publisher, so printing each document wont do. as for using 1 doc vs. 41 docs, I don't think her decision to go one doc per chapter was so bad... it's faster to load, easier to manage, etc. also, there are probably fears of losing 1 chapter vs. losing the whole document if there is corruption. \_ How many math books nowadays *aren't* written in LaTeX? I can't imagine trying to make a 100+ page document with extensive mathematical typesetting without LaTeX. However, I think it's pretty clear that the op's friend's mom is *not* writing a math book. \_ TeX/LaTeX are good even for non-math stuff. I wrote all my english essays in LaTeX, for example. \_ I think the OP was acknowledging that LaTeX could be used, but it's complexitity was too great for the intended user. \_ LaTeX is really not that hard to use. You can do all the typing first, and then the proofing and formatting later. \_ Latex is so easy, even I use it all the time. -- ilyas \_ aren't there plenty of graphical LaTeX editors? \_ there's scientific word, but personally i don't trust it. I've seen people wrestling with it for hours to get it to not fuck up their figure captions, and i've seen it destroy bits and pieces of documents in screwy ways. mathematica can generate latex from its wysywyg, but it's some kind of fucked up latex code that not all latex compilers will recognize. if you want a point and click interface, why use latex? \_ no \_ LaTeX is flexible, powerful, and totally impossible to use on any non-*nix platform. Don't delete this again. \_ wrong. i used to use latex all the time on windows, using miktex under cygwin. there are also other fine editing environments like winedt, if you don't like CLI's. \_ winedt rocks. also, ostex for mac is really nice. \_ Why would she not use Word, and put the whole book in one document? Let the publisher worry about formatting it, that's not the author's job, unless it's a "book" she'll be printing out and binding herself. (In which case she should still write it in Word and then lay it out in Quark or InDesign). -tom \_ I agree. also, writing the document in word doesn't mean you can't typeset it in latex later, or better yet get someone else to deal with typesetting. as an author, typesetting is not really your problem. I know of one journal(science) that actually lets authors submit latex manuscripts which they then actually *convert* to Word 97 for publication. go figure. \_ Actually, this is largely the purview of the publisher. Most publishers say ``Thou shalt use xxx.'' In most cases, xxx is one version or another of Word. Most of them like Word for its change tracking features. A handful of publishers will let you use any tool you want, but, unless your friend's mom is sufficiently well established to pick and choose among publishers, the question is probably moot. -dans \_ What's wrong with one word doc per chapter? When I was writing, I put each chapter in a separate word document. The publishers liked this as it made it easier for them to email the chapters between the different editors and myself. Once the manuscript is finished, the publishers will use something like frame or quark to layout all the chapters and add indexing codes, consistent footnote numbers, pg numbers, &c.). I wouldn't put all the chapters into a big word doc and worry about getting the pg numbers right &c.; let the publishers do that, they have better tools. Just make sure that the publishers send the proofs in ps or pdf so that she can get a good idea about how printed edition will look. I would plan to spend a couple of weeks reviewing the proofs in order to make sure that formatting codes and deleted text don't accidentally show up. BTW, I wouldn't recommend word for chapters longer than 50 pages. I ran into problems with footnotes and revision control (office{98,X} on Mac). \_ I would suggest she try a stick and rock. |
2004/4/27 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:13402 Activity:nil |
4/27 Can someone write a script that greps for /\s+\-+(\w+)/ on the entire motd log? I'm interested to know who posts their names. This will give a lower bound as to how many people actively posts on motd. \_ get a life. -tom \_ Boy, if there was ever a time for pot kettle black... \_ you should sign your name, so you can help provide a lower bound as to how many people actively post on the motd -troll \_ tell us about the stars ilyas! \_ Wtf? Hey, anonymous mental giant, did you notice how I sign my name? -- ilyas \_ Yes, I can. |
2004/4/27 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:13398 Activity:nil |
4/26 Is there a *nix program that allows one to define arbitrary object with connections between them, not for oop but just for arbitrary graphs? Visual representation would be nice but is not the most important factor for me. I would like to be able to specify the objects and relationships textually rather than graphically. \_ Prolog. In fact, it will do more than what you want. It is not just a knowledge representation tool, it is an inference tool -- it will answer questions about your knowledge base. A slightly less esoteric answer is to use your favorite relational database with a friendly frontend. -- ilyas \_ I appreciate the answer, but do you have a more conventional one? \_ I don't understand the question then. If you want to do knowledge representation, the conventional answer is to use either logic (i.e. prolog) or databases. Maybe you are looking for something other than what you seem to be asking for. I said my answer was 'esoteric' in a sort of tongue-in-cheek way to mean that Prolog is sadly unfamiliar to most American CS types, not that it is somehow unsuitable or unpopular (it is used heavily in Europe and Japan). -- ilyas \_ if you just want to draw graphs, use dot [google for graphviz] \_ magic(1). it's orig. for circuit description. \_ Is cornell's magic vlsi what you are referring to? |
2004/4/23 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages/Python] UID:13352 Activity:nil |
4/23 What's a twink point? -newbie \_ run ~tom/bin/twink_warriors \_ sucky interface \_ /accounts/tom/pub/twinks \_ Wow, what's cmlee's claim to fame? \_ What is a "twinkish statement?" \_ "how many attachments can I send in a hotmail e-mail?" \_ Wow, so my above statement is recursive. Do I now have infinite twink points? Or is there a recursion limit like in Python? \_ I like this line: tom 1 1 \_ I earned one for a bug I introduced into my script. -tom \_ But naturally none for anything you have ever said. -- ilyas \_ boy, it looks like you spend a lot of time on this. Why not archive the offending statements as well. I'd love to see the particulars. \_ don't be a twink \_ You missed me! Either I'm not a twink, or I've managed to stay pretty anonynmous. |
2004/4/22 [Computer/SW/Unix, Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:13331 Activity:nil |
4/22 Does hotmail have a limit to the number of attachments that can be in a RECEIVED email. I have about 10 jpegs (approx 20k each) and I wonder how many emails I need to seperate them into to send them to a friend with a hotmail account. \_ record all data to punch cards, load them onto a surpluss Oscar Meyer Wiener truck, and launch the whole truck to the destination using a giant railgun. \_ Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes. -- Dr. Warren Jackson, Director, UTCS \_ generally, asking a hotmail question on soda is a bad idea. here is a standard soda answer: write a shell script to send these pictures one by one using mail/mailx, eventhough I am not sure how to encode binary files in MIME format using commands \_ mimencode \_ mpack \_ Don't be a doofus. Put them on a web site and send links. -tom \_ You're a doofus, doofus. \_ Wow, the previous guy is like, a prophet or something. An insult and an answer that doesn't really answer the question! \_ Of course it answers the question. In fact, it's the correct answer to the question. If someone asks "how do I hammer in these nails with a screwdriver?", the answer is "use a hammer, doofus." -tom \_ Heh, that made my day. \_ Bad analogy, doofus. I'm not saying your answer was not a possible right answer, but it's also possible there is some reason that's not feasible. Unlikely, but not impossible. Also, there's no reason to be a jerk. You could politely suggest your alternitive. I suppose this anwers my question as to why everyone wants to sorry your account. -jrleek \_ The person has a soda account, so of course it's feasible. You might say there's no reason to be a jerk--I say there's no reason to ask stupid questions. -tom \_ And so he posts after the op already posted why he didn't want it on a webpage. \_ The op is still a doofus. \_ The op's reasoning is flawed. This whole thread is stupid enough that by MOTD charter section 7 subparagraph B the op shall be subject to insults until such time as the thread is gone. The fact that it's also about Hotmail is just insult to injury. \_ Hey, can I help it if people I associate with make the mistake of using hotmail for email? In the future, the first question I ask when I meet someone will be if they use hotmail for their email. If so, I just won't associate with them. -op \_ You mean injury to insult? \_ No, he probably doesn't. \_ I'm surprised anyone would even mentioning sorry in in this context! I agree with Tom - given the OP's posting, "why not send links" seems a very reasonable question... \_ That's what I'm saying, it IS reasonable, but you don't have to be a jerk about it. As for the sorry mention, that's referencing yesterday's discussion. -jrleek \_ so if you dont have a hammer available, you'd rather insist on using the screwrdiver, instead of getting one? \_ I appreciate the suggestion to put the pics on a web page. There are 2 reasons why I don't prefer to do this. I don't want the pics publicly available. And I don't want them on my web site indefinately. If I send a link, the receiver might assume they will always be there. But I will eventually take them off the web. So, good suggestion, but I still prefer to email them. So, is there anyone out there with a hotmail acct that can answer my original question? -op \_ There's another reason people might choose to hurl insults at you at this point. It literally took me less than 100 seconds to go to http://hotmail.com, look at the FAQ, and see that any email under 1 MByte total is fine, as long as it doesn't put the user over their total quota. So you're ok if the user is not close to having a full mailbox, since you want to send less than .5 Meg. \_ The FAQ I found on http://hotmail.com says there is a limit of 1 Meg for outgoing messages. I doesn't say anything about incoming messages (that I saw), but I vaguely recall that there is some limit to the number of attachments an incoming message can have. \_ All this discussion, but no answer to the actual question. I guess hotmail users don't post to the motd. \_ you could have frigging mailed the stuff already and not wasted so much time. Just email once or 10 times in smaller amounts. what the fudge is it? It is only 200k total. Send it in one email doofus. \_ send yourself 20 small jpg files and see what happens. there must be some reason you're asking this if you don't think this will work. \_ I don't have a hotmail account. It's easier to ask on the motd than to get a hotmail acct just for this purpose. -op \_ Better yet: open a Yahoo Mail account. Send the pix one at a time to that account. When all of the pix have been received by the account, send the username and password to your intended target. Yahoo gives more storage than Hotmail anyway. |
2004/4/15-16 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:13225 Activity:nil |
4/15 what is an html way - easier than wrapping it in a table - to wrap a phrase you don't want broken up? (like say <don't break>Firstname Lastname</don't break>). \_ I think it's <nobr> or <nobreak>. \_ it's nobr, but that's deprecated. I think with CSS you need to specify a style: "white-space: nowrap;" \_ Substitute spaces with , as in Firstname Lastname. |
2004/4/15-16 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/HW] UID:13218 Activity:nil |
4/15 http://csua.com/?q=tom (118 results) http://csua.com/?q=psb (145 results) psb >> tom -psb #1 fan \_ that's >, not >> \_ What sort of horrible Frankenstein would result from appending psb to tom?! \_ Partha T. Holubjee \_ Ride Cricket Bat! \_ CHEESEBOARD! CHEESEBOARD IS THE STANDARD! \_ Cheeseboard IS the standard. I miss it. -- ilyas \_ Welcome! I am Frau Blucher! <sound of horses rearing> \_ kchang has access to soda again? |
2004/4/10 [Computer/SW/OS/Linux, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:29914 Activity:nil |
4/10 Does anyone know how Redhat turns on IP forwarding? Apparently you can set a directive FORWARD_IPV4=yes in /etc/sysconfig/network, but I can't seem to find the script (or whatever) that acts on this. I know you can 'echo 1 > /proc/net/ipv4/ip_forward' to do the same thing, but I'd like to find that file in hopes of also finding a list of other similar directives. Google also does not seem to be coming up with a definitive list of these things. Thanks. |
2004/4/2-3 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/SpamAssassin] UID:12993 Activity:nil |
4/2 Interesting. Now I'm seeing spams that consist entirely of HTML mail containing Javascript code that reads characters from a numerical array - the spam consists of little more than a list of numbers. Funny that spam detection techniques have slowly pushed the spammers into making their mail illegible. \_ but that's easy enough to filter. what legitimate reason is there to allow javascript in email? (heck, I still think there are few good reasons for HTML mail at all...) \_ I think rich-text-format is good enough. No need to go HTML. \_ there was never any reason to allow html in email. or really i should say the disadvantages overwhelm the minor advantages. |
2004/3/25 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:12857 Activity:nil |
3/25 Did someone run some wierd script on the motd? All the \_ changed to \- and the formatting is all off now. \_ M-x query-replace is your friend. => query? i guess you like hitting the y key. \_ 1,$s/\\_/\/-/g |
2004/3/23-24 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages/Web] UID:12825 Activity:nil |
3/23 A friend is going to create an email account for her small business and post it on the net. Assuming she would get lots of spams, she wants to know whether spam blocking at hotmail or yahoo is any good or whether she should use a domain hosting service. \_ Why does she want to post it on the web? Just make her a comments form and and cgi/php script that sends her email. Commercial spam blocking services suck ass. \_ There are various simple b2b sites that let businesses post ads with contact info, like a bulletin board. So it's beyond her control. Many such sites are not spam-smart yet. \_ I know this is not what you asked, but I highly recommend you make some sort of "contact us!" page for the business with a HTML form, rather than post her email address on her site. -brain \_ Spam blocking at yahoo and hotmail is waaayyy too overzealous for this sort of thing. I have a box set up to do ``what you want'' (TM) for email, i.e. IMAPS, non-destructive spamassassin with well trained bayes filters, SMTP+AUTH over SSL, redundant MX hosts, etc. As long as your friend is not going to bandwidth hose or attract DOS attacks I would be willing to host her email inexpensively. If your friend's business is something cool, e.g. non-profit working to promote human rights, I'll do it gratis. Drop me an email. -dans \_ What method and server software do you use for SMTP+AUTH? \_ Pretty much everyone is running Cyrus SASL for the authentication layer. All modern MTA's that I am aware of have the necessary plumbing to support SASL. I run postfix, but I've also done it with sendmail (I wouldn't want to do it again). -dans \_ My friend is selling bio weapons to third world nations so they can play on a level field with the evil Western powers. It is entirely non-profit and advances the rights of women and the poor in the third world. What do I need to do to get a free account? \_ One meellion dollars in small, unmarked, non-consecutively numbered bills. -dans \_ Thanks. Are you running a commercial hosting service? Is there any commercial hosting service that does it? (presummably with a shell account?) \_ No, I am not running a commercial hosting service. I just happen to have several boxes set up to do this, and offer service to friends, family, and friends of friends. Mostly it is an evil ploy to get my friends off of shitty webmail services like Hotmail and Yahoo so I don't ever have to update my address book, resend messsages when they bounce due to quota, etc... In particular, email account != shell account on my boxes. Most people don't need shell accounts, and most people lack the clue to use a shell account in a responsible manner that won't compromise system security. -dans \_ I guess that is why almost no low cost hosting service offers a shell account. But if I have a domain hosted with email acct., is there a way to route the incoming emails there first to a place where I have shell acct., say soda, filtered it w. spamassassin, and then route back to that domain? \_ No, I think it's mostly that shell accounts aren't in wide demand. ftp is sufficient for most people's needs so it's not cost effective to provide shell accounts. You *can* route it to a place with a shell account and filter it with spamassassin, probably easiest to do with /etc/aliases, which I can set up. Pushing it back to the original box is tricky to do without creating mail loops. Of course, if you read what I wrote, you'll note that my box is already running spamassassin. Also, I've got my box set up to allow mail filtering without a shell via sieve. -dans \_ I have a yahoo account, and I seem to get a lot less spam than my family and friends who use hotmail. |
2004/3/16 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:12703 Activity:nil |
3/16 Is there a program that will take a hostname -- or better yet, a list from stdin -- and return the ipaddress? I want to write a script that will taken a human readable file using hostnames and generate a config file for some software by substituting ipaddresses. \_ tcsh% foreach i (`cat filename`) host $i end You can pipe the output of host through grep/sed/cut/awk/whatever --scotsman \_ I was familiar with host, and thank you for the suggestions, but as you see, host returns a bunch of other things too. I have used host for this purpose but I was wondering if there was a program that didnt have all the verbosity about MX info. \_ You are a very lazy person. \_ Beyond lazy. learn to use grep/awk/cut/splice, etc, and you will be able to accomplish simple tasks like this without bothering motd. --scotsman \_ RTFM! \- Helo, host is ok, but I'd be interested in the opposite of this program: -rwxr-xr-x psb Oct 8 1999 /csua/bin/ip2hostname (hf) as well. a foreach loop in the shell is not a reasonable way to process a 1000 of these ... and it would be nice to have an inline filter like ip2hostname. Maybe I'll write it "one of these days" but I am lazy too. It would be great if there was something like this around. --psb \- although since you cant quite neatly match hostnames, the hostname2ip would be less powerful ... like only match hosts at beg of line. maybe something can be done with true FQDNs. --psb \_ http://he.fi/slookup/README --scotsman \_ a foreach loop in the shell is totally doable if you know how to read in a line at a time from a file in a shell. your problem isn't your ignorance, that can be cured with effort. your problem is laziness. |
2004/3/16 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:12700 Activity:nil |
3/16 Need a dos batch script to launch of a bunch of executables. How do I tell the executables to run in the background? \_ DOS doesn't support background processes. Maybe the "start" command is sufficient for your needs, though. \_ that's it exactly. thanks. \_ You might want to see if "4dos" and "4cmd" still exist if you're doing more than trivial 'batch programming'. |
2004/3/15-16 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:12692 Activity:very high |
3/15 Any Sodans who is Mogolian? I am a bit curious on how you deal with the fact that Mogolians can only be written vertically. Is there any software such as browser that has vertical layout? \_ You're forgetting one very important aspect of Mongolian history: Russian imperialism. They use a cyrillic phonetic system now, which is what they've adopted for the web. For example: <DEAD>www.pmis.gov.mn<DEAD> \_ I am fully aware of Russian imperialism. 90% of Mongolians speak Russian. ".mn" is their domain extension. Also, there is a LaTeX font package for mongolian that handles the vertical script: http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~corff/im/MLS/montex.html \_ cool... but that is not what I am looking for. I am wondering about how their browser works :p \_ yes, and that was answered with the above link to a .mn website. They use the cyrillic alphabet for web stuff. ".mn" is their domain extension. Isn't it amazing what 30 seconds with google will do? \_ do you perhaps mean "Mongolian"? \_ no, Mogolian... lives out with the Moguls. \_ then wouldn't it be "Mogulian"? \_ Aren't the two related? \_ then wouldn't it be "Mogulian"? \_ Aren't the two related? \_ Do they read the Klingon Book of Mormon? http://james.jlcarroll.net/Star_Trek/Klingon_BoM \_ ok, Mongolian. Does anyone knows how computer deal with writing which can only be written vertically? \_ I am having a hard time visualizing any writing system which _requires_ vertical writing. What if Mongolian is written horizontally? Will Mongolians suddenly cease to understand it? -- ilyas \_ Mongolians are similiar to Arabic in a way which all letters are connected, and depend upon the position of the letter relative to its word, the glyph may be different. It is less convinient than traditional Chinese or Koreans to change its orientation. I just thought this would be a very interesting computer science problem to solve this kind of writing system. Besides Mongolians, Manchurians (which is heavily influenced by Mongolians) are the only script I know that is written exclusively in vertical form. know that is written exclusively in vertical form. -kngharv -kngharv \_ Would it be analogous to trying to write calligraphy vertically? People below don't seem to get what you are saying. \_ what's the problem? if they have arabic fonts then you can easily do mongolian. if nothing else you could flip the display sideways. in English you can still read something if you flip it sideways, it's just harder. \_ w p n t t s i b h r o o r i f e a o t y d t t b r e i t l a e f w t e i e a l a r s m b d i y l ? i p s o t g l p o h i i i a k e t d k n n s ' e e g d s a e l t m s v h e e e i e n s . \_ Enter the Matrix! \_ this is why you guys don't work in Usability \_ it's a cultural thing. A lot of old Chinese text which contains English are written this is way, and it's matter of getting used to it. \_ except mongolians alphabets are all connected. \_ ugh! I meant to show that it's difficult to read vertical english. the words are tongue in cheek, but it seems that people think it's easy to read the vertical text above. \_ For viewing, flipping is ok, but what about when you are entering text? Doing it sideways would be a big pain. I don't think that's acceptable. \_ sigh. Don't you get it? I was referring to English turned on its side. In your example, the letters are l t m s v h e e e i e n s . \_ Enter the Matrix! still horizontal but you placed them vertically. the brain recognizes word shapes, which your example destroys, but which is preserved when rotated. Now imagine a font that creates sideways Mongolian. \_ For viewing, flipping is ok, but what about when you are entering text? Doing it sideways would be a big pain. I don't think that's acceptable. what's needed is like a word processor that goes verticle line by verticle line. \_ What I'm saying is that if you for example made the font as I described, and just set your monitor on the side, it seems like that would give you most of what you want in Word. In fact all of Windows could be flipped and the titlebars etc. would make sense. It may not be easy in current programs, but concep- tually I don't see any real problem. \_ Chinese used to be written almost exclusively vertically until the last century. There is no problem reading Chinese aligned in any orientation, so it's just a matter of habit. \_ that's because chinese is different. It doesn't use an alphabet, and words are not composed of letters. Instead each "word" is always a square shape. So it feels more like what's below except it's even \_ sigh. You have new mail. You have new spam. what a this. see is big try if the deal flipping it problem? to me looks it's read sideways even not like and better. better in that each word is always a square (maybe like each word is always 5 letters). Also, "pictographic" (don't know the more accurate term) writings tend to be easier to read. One can scan it really fast. In practice, I think there is no difference in terms of reading speed for chinese between vertical and horizontal. what a this. see is big try if the deal flipping it problem? to me looks it's read sideways even not like and better. \_ It be analogous to trying to write calligraphy vertically? People below don't seem to get what you are saying. \_ imagine hand writing English (script form) which each letters in a word are connected... try to write *THAT* in a vertical form, you would get some idea what is the problem... this analogy doesn't reflect the true difficulty in Mongolian, as English alphabets' shape does not change relative to the position of the word and vows. |
2004/3/12-13 [Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:12645 Activity:nil |
3/12 Iway'may eryvay eryvay impressedway atway owhay icklyquay ethay otdmay ormattingfay odgay ormatsfay may intentionallyway illway ormedfay ostspay. Iway'may onderingway ifway itway'say actuallyway away onedcray ormattingfay iptscray orway omethingsay, andway ifway osay, ancay youay easeplay ostpay ethay iptscray? anksThay \_ It's no script. \_ That's no moon. \_ Why do YOU care? \_ Wow, motdedit fixed up my post pretty funny. This was supposed to be on the Jessica Lynch post, but someone deleted it. I can't say it's any less applicable here though... \_ The motd formatting devil was here \_ I'm pretty sure there is no script as this is a pretty complicated problem (context sensitive flow analysis with statistical inference, etc). However, I do think that whoever does the formatting is equivalent a very complicated finite state automaton that runs in an infinite while loop. \_ it's not that hard. parse the motd looking for a newline followed by a number to get the start of a post, then anytime you see a "\_" or "\-" preceeded by tabs or spaces you get a change in authorship. the actual reformat is trivial. FUCK its hard because there are so many corner cases. For _| U example, suppose I interrupt your line in the middle, then C your parser will get fooled. The other example is if I K start posting in ascii pictures. Then what if I jive your F content? And what if the indentation IS indeed unusual like a C/Java code? ANd what if I use letters I_ to indicate a response? And the list goes on and on, but the point is, it's very easy for the naked eye to catch infinite weird cases, but putting them into smart/self-learning generic rules is just as hard as writing spamassassin. \_ Corner cases? fuck em, its the motd. this isn't one of hilfinger's courses. \_ I am Gunnery Seargent Hartman, your Senior Drill Instructor. From now on, you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be "Sir!" DO YOU MAGGOTS UNDERSTAND THAT?! \_ SIR YES SIR!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
2004/3/12 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:12642 Activity:moderate |
3/12 I'm very very impressed at how quickly the motd formatting god formats my intentionally ill formed posts. I'm wondering if it's actually a croned formatting script or something, and if so, can you please post the script? Thanks. \_ It's no script. \_ That's no moon. |
2004/3/11 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Security] UID:29863 Activity:nil |
3/11 Truck carrying $1e6 in computers stolen: http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/128121-2046-127.html |
2004/3/11-12 [Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:12613 Activity:moderate |
3/10 Teach yourself programming in 10 years: http://norvig.com/21-days.html \_ "Learn at least a half dozen programming languages" Why? What is the point of knowing a bunch of languages when the only language that is of any real use is C? \_ Assuming this is not a troll I'll just throw in that I know more than a couple of people who have been slow to get re- absorbed into the employment pool because they could not claim to be experienced and proficient in more than one language. As an outside observer, it really looked to me like they should have been augmenting C with Java or J2EE with C++ and so on... -- not a cs professional \_ Did you study CS at Berkeley? If you want to get any real work done, you ought to use high-level languages. \_ if you want any real job you need to know more than 1 lang. \_ I didn't study CS (I was an eng.) I'm not sure what you characterize as real work, but I've worked on device drivers, custom embedded oses and encryption protocols; all in C. \_ "Hydrological _and_ hydrodynamical! Talk about \_ "Hydrological _and_ hydroelectrical! Talk about running the gamut." -- ilyas (though the credit has to go to Sideshow Bob) \_ The first mention of my profession on the motd, ever! Well, actually I kind of gave up on hydrology. -- ulysses \_ Because really learning another language means learning what its strengths are and understanding why those are strengths. \_ It's better to learn new languages naturally as the need arises. \_ I don't know why I bought all those tools when the only \_ BAM! tool of any real use is the hammer. |
2004/3/4-5 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:12520 Activity:nil 54%like:12414 |
4/3 How to write bad documentation. Pretty funny. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/9/29/104212/112 -John \_ My god, this is spot on. Excellent. |
2004/3/1-2 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:12465 Activity:nil |
3/1 I barely, if ever, used Javascript. Can someone tell me if this is possible? If so, can you either give me a sample of how to write "func()" or point to where I can find some samples? Thanks. If I have the following embedded table, can I dynamically replace the embedded table with nothing (i.e., empty string) or from a selection of like 3 differently data sets when a user selects a different option in the dropdown menu? <form ...> <select onChange=func()><input>1</input><input>2</input>...</select> <table> <tr><td>...</td><td>...</td></tr> <tr> <td>...</td> <td> <table> <tr><td>...</td><td>...</td></tr> <tr><td>...</td><td>...</td></tr> ... </table> <tr><td>...</td><td>...</td></tr> </table> </form> \_ Rather than removing it, you might consider simply hiding it with CSS (though removing it is possible): <table id="showMeAtFirst">...</table> <a href="#" onclick="swapVis('showMeAtFirst')">Show/Hide</a> <script> function swapVis(id) { if (document.getElementById(id).style.display == 'block') { document.getElementById(id).style.display = 'none'; } else { document.getElementById(id).style.display = 'block'; } } </script> \_ Pretty cool--this actually shows up as intended on soda's finger cgi. -John |
2004/2/27-29 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages/Perl] UID:12439 Activity:high |
2/27 In perl, say I have a @list of strings, how do I print the first character of those stings, concatinated? For example, if @list is ['hello','world',123], I want an output of hw1. I can do a loop, substr, and the .= operator, but it looks lame... \_ what's wrong with just doing what works? \_ TMTOWTDIT, but foreach $item (@array) { print substr($item,0,1) } is one way. -tom \_ map { print substr($_,0,1) } @array or $output = map { substr($_,0,1) } @array \_ The latter doesn't work, because it calls map in scalar context; you need $output = join "", map { substr($_,0,1) } @array. \_ (dolist (i array)(print (char i 0))) -- ilyas \_ gee you're clever. \_ Array.map (fun x -> print_char x.[0]) array p([[X|_]|Y]):-print(X),p(Y). Incidentally, I know of multiple cases where a Perl programmer benefitted from seeing a solution in another language. But I respect your anonymous snide remark anyways. -- ilyas \_ Because we all know that anyone posting anonymously is also less intelligent and has invalid points. I post anonymously to cloak my inferiority to you and others who are so smart because you sign your names. Really, it's just jealousy. Anonymity is a form of envy. I think I'll start signing all my posts so I envy. I think I'll start signing all my posts so I anyways. -- ilyas can be just as smart and well likde as you! can be just as smart and well liked as you! -- ilyas \_ you're pathetic. -intelligent, valid anonymous guy \_ wow I can't believe how many ways there are to do this. Here is the ultimate question. After parsing, internal representation, and optimization in Perl, which one of the above gives you the quickest runtime? \_ Depends on the size of your array. Generally map is faster as length @array gets larger. \_ what are you implying, that the function "foreach" expands the representations in memory (extra malloc maybe?) and then goes through the elements? For example "foreach $a (1..10000)" does an expansion, and that "foreach $a list" does the same thing? \_ I'm not implying anything. Everything I say is emperical experience. I leave the internals as an exercise to the reader. \_ That's all bullshit. array.each {|i| print i[0].chr} \_ Prolog is shorter: p([[X|_]|Y]):-print(X),p(Y). -- ilyas \_ I'm not convinced that's really shorter. How is that used? I don't know much about Prolog. Given a list called "Array", how do you print it? \_ p(Array). -- ilyas \_ As I suspected. So it ain't shorter! \_ In some sense, 'array' in your code and '[[X|_]|Y]' in mine are equivalent. Both are internal variable names for some data. What you were asking me to do is something else, namely provide a function call wrapper to the code, which isn't what your code does. I think the original stands as an equivalent to yours. -- ilyas \_ In some sense, that code and your code are given the same input. You rule! equivalent because they produce the same output given the same input. You rule! -- ilyas \_ Well I could say [].each{|i|putc i[0].chr} \_ Given an array "array", it prints the characters. It's a function call. No? (It's ruby, for anyone who doesn't know...) \_ Given an array "[[X|_]|Y]", it prints the characters. Prolog names can have structure built in. -- ilyas \_ cool. btw i shortened it again. array.each {|i| print i[0].chr} built in. -- ilyas \_ Well I could say [].each{|i|putc i[0]} [].map{|i|putc i[0]} Is that longer than Prolog? I'm no ruby expert so I'm not sure if there's anything better there. \_ Yup, you win. You can look here for more examples me, dbushong and some others came up with: http://www.bushong.net/david/comparisons \_ cool. btw i shortened it again. \_ you rock! -- ilyas -- ilyas \_ cool. btw i shortened it again(2) |
2004/2/25-26 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:12403 Activity:nil |
2/24 Is there a way for a shell script to set its return status? return can only be used for sourcing or inside a function. \- you mean like "exit #" --psb \_ Yes I do and I guess I have been malnutritioned. |
2004/2/24-25 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:12371 Activity:nil |
2/23 My snapfish account is expiring and they want to delete all my photos. Anyone have a nice wget/curl script to get my images? \_ You could do something really weird like actually *buy* a photo or two. It might cost you all of 50 cents so they continue storing your zillion gigabytes of photos for another year. If you wget them you're not getting the original images, btw. \_ always save your photos on cdrom or dvd. if you need to store online, try getting a cheap web hosting solution like http://www.onedollarhost.net (?). no bandwidth or storage space limit. they have a setup fee, but afterwards it's $1/month. |
2004/2/20-21 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW] UID:12326 Activity:nil |
2/20 What's the deal with this "optimized" or "accelerated" dial-ups? Do they just cache stuff behind your back? Compress things? Just a bunch of crap? What's the deal? \_ They compress parts of the download that are easily compressible, such as HTML and email text. I think some of them may also give a lower QoS to images, so the 'meat' of webpages loads faster. \_ Some also compress (or re-compress) images. E.g., really low-quality JPEG. |
2004/2/10 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:29788 Activity:nil |
2/9 I'm in search of a new blogging script. I've used b2 in the past, but it's no longer being developed, and I thought I'd see what else is out there. What do you use, and why? \_ b2 is still being developed; it lives on as WordPress. I use it because it's free and simple. http://www.wordpress.org |
2004/1/22 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:11880 Activity:nil |
1/21 EMRG guy, what do you think of DOC? \_ overkill technology to track cows and don't have the software to back up the embedded tags, EMRG better, has software to track as well as tags. \_ Both are a flash in the pan going up on pure FUD. It can't last. Try MDK instead. \_ Mersey Docks and Harbor? \_ nope, murder death kill! |
2004/1/20 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:11842 Activity:nil |
1/19 I'm setting up LDAP to replace NIS+ at work. I got the server running and I think I know how to setup the clients. However, what exactly am I supposed to do to add in things like a /etc/hosts table or an automount table? |
2004/1/19-20 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:11831 Activity:very high |
1/19 Why does /csua/bin/motdbrowser format the line-indents(tabs&spaces) differently from simply: less /etc/motd? \_ Because they're using "less -r" instead of "less -R" \_ neither less -r nor less -R give the indenting of motdbrowser. see the first two replies in the caucus thread below for an example, or the first line of the Stock market post below. \_ Um.. Did you even read the script? Come back when you have a clue. \_ open(LESS, "| less -r") while (<MOTD>) { ... print LESS; } so why does piping the file line-by-line thru less -r give a different stdout than "less -r /etc/motd?" The difference seems to be related to how the "| less -r" interprets tabs, but seems inconsistent. \_ Not the tabs. The color codes. |
2004/1/10-11 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:11745 Activity:nil |
1/9 I have a start script that I source from rc. It runs perfectly fine if run as just a shell script but fails during reboot. What could be the problem? \_ probably different environment variables, like PATH. \_ What could possibly be wrong with foo=`/bin/date +\%s` ? \_ and what makes you so sure it's that... \_ Well, I have ConsoleMessage both before and after it.... \_ what is that supposed to mean... \_ how about you just post the script? |
2003/12/3 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:11292 Activity:nil |
12/2 I want to allow users to change their passwords via a webpage (they don't have shell access), but I don't really understand PAM and most of the stuff I see out there is for Linux. Unfortunately, my machine is running Solaris. Any pointers on how to start writing this (or a script that already exists) or why this is a bad idea? \_ You could feed their passwords to the passwd command (or whatever) using something like expect, running from a CGI script. \_ urgh! |
2003/12/3 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:11291 Activity:nil 50%like:28857 66%like:29868 |
12/2 LaTeX thread deleted by op \_ DUDE! How can you be deleting latex threads? This is the MOTD! |
2003/11/29-12/1 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:11262 Activity:nil |
11/28 With HTML, I don't like how text runs from the left edge to the right edge of the browser window. Without using a table with a width that's some percentage of the screen, how can I let there be a (empty) margin on both sides of the text? It's easier to read this way. Thanks. \_ use <div> ... </div> tags to surround the text and use CSS to specify the location and width of that region. you also could use CSS to specify margins for the <body> tag, but that will apply to everything, not just text. \_ Wow, for a second I saw <booty> rather than <body>. I was trying to figure out what the hell the <booty> tag did, and when it got added to the spec.... \_ you're totally right. use css: body { padding-left: 10%; padding-right: 10%; } \_ hey that's awesome. now is there a way to fill up that empty 10% on the left side with a solid bar of color, or some sort of vertically-oriented image? \_ make another div, set the width to 10% and set the background-color: orange; \_ something like body { padding-left: 10%; padding-right: 10%; background: orange url(./img.jpg) no-repeat top left; } might work, experiment. See http://www.csszengarden.com \_ use css but make sure you test on whatever browsers you want to use. IE 5 fucks some stuff up, so I test against IE5 and Firebird (which is pretty similar to IE6 in terms of rendering CSS... but better) \_ Cool, thanks everyone. -op |
2003/11/26 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:11236 Activity:high |
11/26 Is there any rule on motd that prohibits deletion targeting at certain individual, and/or using automated script to delete certain person/types of post? \_ No such rule. The admins would prefer not to waste their time policing the motd. The deleter's lameness is its own punishment. --PeterM \_ Using an automated script should be squishable--but paolo still has his account. -tom \_ there are worse things than selectively or automatically purging the motd--but tom still has his account. |
2003/10/30-31 [Computer/HW/CPU, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:10871 Activity:moderate |
10/30 I want to run a script that checks if a machine has active users on it, and if there aren't any, than starts a CPU intensive process, and also to turn it off if there are users. Is there a way to check this easily? The best I've come up with is running ps and who -u checking for idle users and/or processes. TIA. \_ uptime \_ can't you just run the process with a weightless priority. then it will only use the CPU when nothing else is using it. The only downside is if it uses a lot of memory you may experience swapping issues. 'npri -w <command>' (at least on IRIX). \_ hmm... sounds like it would work. However, I don't run Irix. Anyone know of a Linux equivalent? nice -19 is too intensive \_ what do you mean by "intensive"? \_ I mean that users complain that the system is slow and sluggish even when the job is nice -19 \_ The problem probably is not CPU time, but that the working set of your process is too big. \_ if you're trying to reinvent a queueing system, don't. install openpbs, lsf, or condor instead. \_ Sun Grid Engine is free and worked well when I used it before. |
2003/10/28 [Computer/SW/Languages/Java, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:10817 Activity:nil |
10/27 Is there any search engine that lets you search for symbols? I am trying to figure out what the significance of # starting a line in a CSS file is and no search engine i know will do anything but ignore a '#' \_ look at the instructions. Maybe you can use quotes. "#" \_ why not just check the CSS spec on http://w3.org? Or ask? #foo in a cascading style sheet refers to the element with the unique ID "foo" \_ sorry I'm late punkass. when you start something with "." it refers to a class you defined, like something you use with "class='foo'". When you start with # it's an "id"- a uniquely named block. Just use it once, using "id='foo'". I use this to float layers. look at the examples at http://csszengarden.com -brain \_ Also, if you use neither, it refers to a predefined HTML tag. HTML CSS <div class="h2"> .h2 { } <div id="h2"> #h2 { } <h2> h2 { } |
2003/10/27-28 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:10815 Activity:nil |
10/27 Is there any program or script that will overlay text titles or headers on top of a postscript file? mpage and a2ps have these options but they only seem to work on text files. thanks. |
2003/10/27 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:10800 Activity:nil |
10/25 Is there a command line equivalent (and not a wrapper script or similar) of http://www.allwhois.com \_ unable to connect to <DEAD>whois.dotster.com<DEAD> (115: Operation now in progress) \_ o-kay...was that meant to be informative? \_ thats what it said when i put in my domain. |
2003/10/21-22 [Computer/SW/Languages/Perl, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:10722 Activity:kinda low |
10/21 I'm trying to write a Perl script with a spam assassin interface so that it'll take out trolls. Please keep up the troll keywords thread below so that I can make the program as perfect as possible. \_ You mean an auto-motd-censor script? I thought these were grounds for sorrying of account. \_ it damn well better be. hey op, go fuck yourself. we know who you are. \_ no no no, no AUTO motd script. Yes, auto motd scripts can get you sorried (case in point dumb ass kchang). My point is creating something that allows me to kill threads that I personally deem as troll with one push of a button instead of having to do it manually. So short of complete automation I believe what I am doing has no grounds for sorried account \_ it just makes you a fucking asshole. \_ If you can do this, then why not create a motd reader that simply doesn't display threads with these words in them? \_ because it isn't about him not seeing it, it's about an infantile need to control what others read. \_ how about an auto script that corrects my grammar on motd post? \_ how about an auto script that purges your account? \_ do you really want to get into scripting wars over the motd? it's been very calm all these years (mostly). if you turn it into a script war you'll find others writing scripts to delete the stuff you've deemed worthy of staying. when we're done the motd will be blank most of the day. suggestion: grow up, you're not the smartest kid in your HS anymore. w3 awl g0t m4d sk1llz!1 |
2003/10/9 [Computer/SW/Languages/Java, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:10548 Activity:kinda low |
10/8 my google foo is weak, any css wizes around here? I want to make a box.italic class that makes a little slanted box around whatever like so... ___________ / yermom / ----------- (but with solid lines). Can i do this? how?, o.k. thanks(ia) -phuqm \_ OK, since there are no constructive responses yet, I'll give it a crack- look at the code for the index page for slashdot- specifically the headers for each article. It's a image of a corner on a colored background. You can do something similar by defining a style and prepending a slanted mask to your SPAN and appending another at the end... If you want a border on this slanted monstrosity you are going to have to define a background also which will be covered by the slanted ends, and cannot use transparency. This is because the background will show through, so you have to cover it on the ends. For a similar reason you cannot use the CSS "border" attribute. For more ideas check out http://csszengarden.com -brain \_ I'm fairly competent with CSS, and this is probably beyond anything CSS 2 can reasonably do. http://www.csszengarden.com for some cool alternatives. \_ you can do this relatively easy using any server side language. \_ uh, if you can't get a browser to render a slanted box with solid lines, wtf can the server do about it? \_ I think he's talking about auto-generating an image with "yermom" in it. Don't do that though. \_ why would you need to auto-generate an image with yermom? there are plenty of those images on the web already. \_ I would do it because it is not always going to say yermom, sometimes it is going to say "whatever" (as the original example given). I could create a script which auto-generates an image with $words in it, but then i get into size issues, transparency issues and all kinds of crap. It is far from "easy" and far from optimal. -phuqm \_ One of many CSS-related bugs in M$ IE. |
2003/10/8-9 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:10537 Activity:nil |
10/8 I've got to parse very simple XML files in Java. Is it worth using/ installing either the Sun parser (JAXB/P??) or xerces or something, or should I just write my own? It seems fairly straightforward. I'm just wondering whether there's an advantage to the commercial ones. \_ http://xml.apache.org... the SAX parsers are fairly simple, and you only need to set ~ 4 listeners to use it (all the same object) |
2003/10/3 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:10444 Activity:nil |
10/3 I like to run a script to tell me what changes have been made to the motd-- it lets me follow the responses as they happen and stores the changes so I can read them later if someone nukes the motd. Recently, however, my processes have been Suspended (and show up Stopped (T) in ps). Is this a new development? Or is someone with access just hosing any script having to do with the MOTD just 'cos? \_ isn't there already motdwatch? |
2003/9/24 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:10310 Activity:nil |
9/23 I wanna put my own pix on my mLife phone, what's the easiest and cheapest (preferably free) way to do this? Can I setup my own WAP/HTML web site to make it free? \_ shutterfly |
2003/9/22-23 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:10286 Activity:nil |
9/22 Can someone recommend a good UML designer that can translate a class diagram to a W3C XML Schema Definition? Being able to translate in both directions would be a definite plus. Thanks. \_ -- ilyas |
2003/7/15-16 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:29047 Activity:kinda low |
7/15 What's the best way, using free software, to merge two eps files into a single pdf document? \_ using latex, put them into one ps document, then ps2pdf them? \_ Actually, I just found this: gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sOutputFile=testout.pdf \ Page1.eps Page2.eps works great. thanks anyways. -op \_ you can also use psmerge | ps2pdf \_ cool, thanks. Okay, a related question, I have a ps file that has type3 fonts. What's a quick way to remove them? They are unnecessary and don't work in xpdf. |
2003/7/9-10 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28983 Activity:high |
7/09 My script calls another (and puts it into the background). Is there anyway (short of a "trap" command) to make sure that script is killed/dies once mine is/does ? \_ if you are using csh/tcsh you should know the job number by where you launched it (first bg job is 1, second is 2, . . .). just do a 'kill -9 %#' in you cleanup (where # is the job number). \_ i.e. "use the 'trap' command" |
2003/7/9-10 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:28976 Activity:insanely high |
7/8 Is there a utility to convert MS Word files to PDF from the command line? \_ Do you really need it from the command line or do you simply need a batch convert (even though that may have a GUI frontend)? \_ Here's my use case... a secretary needs to post meeting minutes online. she can do "save as html" but that kind of sucks. so i want to have a webpage that lets her upload the doc and then auto-generate html and pdf (or just pdf) links on the site. if you have a GUI way to do it, that's fine too (she uses a Mac, i have a PC and UNIX, but no X on my UNIX server). thanks. -abe \_ If she's using OS X, she can just print to PDF from the print screen of any application. -chialea \_ I'd just use OpenOffice 1.1 -- export to pdf. anything with a doc with non-mS software won't always result in correct output. If your secretary has a budget, and you want \_ No X on your unix box?? Install it. It isn't that big. \_ I don't *want* X and I definitely don't want OpenOffice. \_ What's wrong with X? You some MacBigot? \_ The inards/spec of the "Word" document are secret, so doing tried an existing program "doc2html" but it makes even single carriage returns into paragraph boundaries </p><p> That wouldn't work for me, so I wrote a perl script to turn doc into xhtml, but there is junk near and the beginning and end of the file that I have to edit out by hand. Not elegant, but it works. I'll send you my code, perhaps you can improve it. mail brett. Microsoft does not "play welll with others". \_ The inards/spec of the "Word" document are secret, so using non-mS software won't always result in correct output. If your secretary has a budget, and you want perfect output, she should buy Adobe Acrobat, which comes with "Distiller". that will allow her to "Print to PDF". Otherwise, she could print to a postscript file, but that creates other issues with fonts and pages and such. I have a similar task. I tried an existing program "doc2html" but it didn't do quite what I wanted, so I anything with a doc with non-mS software won't always totall do things correctly. If your secretary has a budget, and you want perfect output, she should buy Adobe Acrobat, which comes with perhaps you can improve it. mail brett. Alternatively, you could quote: "Distiller". that will allow her to "Print to PDF". Otherwise, \_ Is the Secretary running OS X? If so, she can select File->Print then hit "Save as PDF..." she could print to a postscript file, but that makes other issues with fonts and pages and such. I have a similar task. I tried an existing program "doc2html" but did't like it, so I wrote a perl script to turn doc into xhtml, but there is junk near and the beginning and end of the file that I have to edit out by hand. Not elegant, but it works. I'll send you my code, perhaps you can improve it. mail brett. Microsoft does not "play welll with others". http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html \_ If she has OSX, there's built-in export to PDF. \_ I'm thinking about upgrading her to OS X... but I was wondering if there were any UNIX equivalents... \_ OS9: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos/126 \_ OSX *is* Unix. \_ The Open Group does not agree with you. \_ best results from print-to-file with postscript printer driver from MS Word and then ps2pdf13 to distill it. |
2003/7/9 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages/Web] UID:28968 Activity:high |
7/8 Is there a way to put a colored border on the inside of a cell in an html table? \_ use CSS, border attribute \_ td, th { border: 2px solid orange } \_ why ",", not " "? \_ RTFSpecs \_ with comma: "apply this rule to any td or th" w/o comma: "apply only to th that is child of td" \_ Can't you set BGCOLOR? For example, <TD BGCOLOR=GREEN> I don't know if it's standard, though, so it might not work in all browsers. \_ That stuff has been deprecated. \_ and you will die for suggesting the use of bgcolor, esp. in caps \_ related css question: how can i change the blue background of the selected item in a dropdown list? \_ select option:active { background-color: pink; } might work. \_ at least w/ IE6, it doesn't work. i think "active" is only a pseudo-class for the a element, no? \_ In CSS1, yes, but CSS2 expands active, hover, and focus to all elements. See if it works with mozilla. Also, try select, option:active { background-color: pink; } ^ note the comma just to make sure. \_ I suggest using the validator services. valid xhtml is the way of the future. http://validator.w3.org and http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator \_ ya very nice and all but it still doesnt work. \_ it may not work but at least you'll be spec-clean! |
2003/7/4-5 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28921 Activity:nil |
7/3 I need to convert powerpoint files to web-presentable form. No, the built-in functionality doesn't work because my cms can't handle anything with FRAME in it. Any other easy way (yes, i could output everything to PNG files and write whole bunch HTML myself) ? Thanks \_ ok, I installed 50+mb Open Dufus just for this purpose. Stupid, but it works. |
2003/6/20-21 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28782 Activity:kinda low |
6/20 I can't find a symbol for degrees in LaTeX. For now I'm using a superscripted \circ. Is there actually a degrees symbol? \_ \usepackage{textcomp} ; \textdegree http://www.educat.hu-berlin.de/~voss/lyx/symbols/textcomp.phtml - CSUA LaTeX Guy \_ you or someone like you has answered alot of my latex questions also. We, the latex newbies are really appreciative. please continue. thanks. -!op |
2003/6/18 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28758 Activity:nil |
6/18 To the person who suggested I use \renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.0} to resume single-spacing in my LaTeX document...it doesn't quite work actually. When I put that in the .cls file, it made everything single spaced (the entire document), not just the \verbatiminput stuff. I still need the rest of the document in double space. I put that command at the end of the VERBATIM section in the .cls file. Did I do it wrong? Thanks. again, it's at /csua/tmp/mythesis.cls |
2003/6/11 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28703 Activity:kinda low |
6/11 I'm trying to get LaTeX to put a figure on a page by itself, so I'm using \clearpage both before and after I insert the figure. I'd like it so that the figure is centered on that page, but it isn't. Is there a way to do this? Thanks. \_ I'm sorry, I don't have my latex book on me, but I belive there are flags you can pass to make it put it on its own page (and top, bottom, etc). they go in the flags spot: \begin{figure}[flags] \_ In particular the "p" flag is probably what you want: \begin{figure}[p] p: Page of floats: on a separate page containing no text, only figures and tables. |
2003/6/10-11 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28690 Activity:high |
6/10 I'd like to have a \section heading be typeset as small caps in LaTeX, but just putting {\sc ... } doesn't work. is there any way to do it? \_ In the LaTeX file, the letters you want to be smallcaps should be lowercase --- are they in your file? \_ Yeah, they are, and it doesn't work. \_ Odd. E.g. \section{{\sc Introduction}} works for me, using the "article" document-class. \_ I'm actually using a style file (actually a .clo file). would that affect it? -op \_ That's my guess. \_ Why do some people still use *tex for anything? |
2003/6/5 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Security] UID:28642 Activity:high |
6/4 Does anyone know if there's a web interface for FORTRAN? Basically, I want to write and run FORTRAN programs from a Web browser without having to install anything on my desktop. Thanks! \_ no \_ Hmmm. If your goal is just to write FORTRAN programs without installing on your computer, you could SSH into soda and use g77. Is using a web browser really important? Maybe the Java SSH interface would suffice. \_ Thanks for that thought. I have a need where it would be more than just myself and not all my users would have an SSH client... I just figured Web browsers are ubiquitous. Also, I was hoping for a richer UI. Any other thoughts?... I appreciate any ideas. \_ How about install a VNC server? VNC has java applet client and it works reasonably well. \_ The problem with VNC is all users share the same desktop. So if two people needed to work on their own project, they couldn't. I didn't mention this as a requirement previously so I definitely appreciate the suggestion... but I cannot use it. Please keep 'em coming, though. \_ you can run them from a browser as a cgi like anything else. writing them is no different than any other web based input system that you see message boards,etc using. \_ In other words, you mean use an HTML TEXTAREA where the programmer can write his/her code; but when the submit button is clicked, the code is fed to the FORTRAN compiler on the server? \_ something like that. In short I mean "use CGI". that's what it's there for. \_ more stupid idea. How about install an X-client on the FORTRASH computer, install an X-server on your own computer, and access that way? It will resolve the problem. I know, you said you don't want install anything on your computer, but i personally think an x-server should be an exception: everyone should installed X-server (and FTP server :p ) \_ and a kazaa server and put at least 200 gigs online so we can all share because the information wants to be free!!! you're truly brilliant in a k-12 sort of way. |
2003/5/22 [Computer/SW/Editors, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28517 Activity:high |
5/21 Is there any decent open source html2pdf converter? I've seen some that do the reverse, but the only html2pdf are commercial. Thanks. \_ OpenOffice? Has HTML editor and 1.1 beta can save as pdf. \_ /usr/local/bin/html2ps $1 | /usr/local/bin/ps2pdf - $2 -crebbs \_ Perfect, thank you. \_ Now how about a util to convert a pdf file to a 2up (2 pages per side, like enscript) pdf? \_ pdf->ps->psnup->pdf \_ Thanks. |
2003/5/14-15 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28435 Activity:high |
5/13 I'm trying to typeset a document in LaTeX, and I'd like to break it up into smaller more manageable files. But when I say: \chapter{Introduction} \include{chap1} it puts the chap1.tex text on a new page, when I'd like to have it on the same page that has the "Introduction" chapter heading. How can I do this? Thanks. \_ Use \input not \include. \include == {\clearpage \input \clearpage}. \include is useful only in conjunction with \includeonly. -recentphd \_ Thanks. \_ You making any money recentphd? \_ he's a recentphd in a bad economy. there are plenty of jobs for waiters and movie ushers. \_ I'm a professor. Relatively immune from vagarities of the economy. Economy is bad, funding sucks, but good students come to grad school. Economy is good, funding is good, but the smart students get rich instead. My job, fairly steady either way. -recentphd \_ Related question: is there a reason people use LaTeX now that OpenOffice exists? \_ I wouldn't write technical papers in OO. \_ Practically, most conferences / theses have LaTeX formats, so it's most convenient to write in LaTeX. LaTeX makes beautiful output although Frame is close and Word is evidently getting better. Equations totally rock in LaTeX, more so than anything else. LaTeX is very portable - there's something to be said for software that can be used anywhere (Mac, PC, Unix). It's also a text format which is (IMHO) more convenient than a binary format. Philosophically, I find it nice to write in Emacs without worrying about what it will look like when it is typeset. Separating out the content-creation from content- layout is desirable ... WYSIWYG is not such a good thing for writers. This is a philosophical point though - I like separating the two, but you may not. \_ Scientific Word and Mathematica both provide a WYSIWYG environment with TeX output. \_ There are several real-time TeX editors. Blue Sky makes "TeXtures" for instance. I prefer to write in emacs and compile when I'm done writing, but your mileage may vary. \_ Using MS Office (or its poor clones) in science is Considered Harmful(tm). Actually, the group revisioning functions of Word can be handy in writing papers collaboratively, but if you ever see Excel being used in a scientific project -- run!!! Seriously, papers written in Word look awful. The nice thing about using a structured document format (LaTeX, SGML, etc) coupled with the World's Best Typesetter (TeX or maybe even troff) is the total consistency of the output. Word documents inevitably accumulate accidental font changes, unintended automatic substitutions (like a list (a), (b), (c), ..., where the (c) is automatically transformed into a copyright symbol). Having converted totally to writing term papers (etc) in EMACS with LaTeX, I can't go back -- Word with all its useless bells and whistles is just Too Painful. \_ What's amazing is that Science magazine uses Word 97 as their standard. You can send your manuscript in in latex, but then they convert it to word 97 in house. |
2003/5/12 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28411 Activity:kinda low |
5/12 latex gurus please help. When I complile my latex file to ps and look at it with gsview, the figures look fine. Then, when i convert it to pdf, all the text in the figures gets strangely fubared: the letters are run into eachother somehow. What might cause this? \_ PDF font embedding? \_ try using pslatex to compile and see if that helps. -hahnak \_ ok, so now I tried using ps2pdf on another computer with the same file and it worked! So, in one sense my problem is solved, but what the hell happened? Same program, same file, different computer, different font embedding. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ \_ different versions? different available fonts? bad magic? |
2003/4/24 [Computer/SW/Languages/Web, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28209 Activity:nil |
4/23 HTML form JSP question: What I have is essentially, an array of a set of radio buttons. Since radio buttons are identified by its name and there is no concept of scope in HTML, how do I deal with this? I really want to avoid things like <input type="radio" name="radio1"> <input type="radio" name="radio2"> <input type="radio" name="radio3"> mainly because the javabean for this form is going to be a pain in the butt to write. any pointer? custom tag? thanks in advance \_ Well, any form inputs are basically parameters to a function (read cgi). So name them accordingly. A terse, descriptive name. And there certainly is "scope" in HTML. It's global per- page (correct me if I'm wrong). Also, you mention JSP, which definitely has definable scope (e.g. page, session, etc.) --scotsman \_ what i want is a radio input which has the scope of let say, 1 table row! \_ radio buttons belong to a group, so you could do the following: <input type="radio" name="group1" value="radio1"/> <input type="radio" name="group1" value="radio2"/> <input type="radio" name="group1" value="radio3"/> So, the parameter is group1 and then whichever radio button is selected will pass the value. \_ Well, this is what you would do for, say, a multiple choice question or the like. \_ What is your use case exactly? \_ example: a page of 10 multiple choice questions. idealy we want be able use an array to handle them, instead of hardcoding the name. \_ I wouldn't recommend this, but if you want to use an array you could give each question-group the same name and then make the value for each answer something like q1_a2 (1 and 2 would be values from the question and answer loops). Then you could retrieve every answer by getting the parameter value array for the parameter named "questions". An example entry would be: <input type="radio" name="questions" value="q1_a2"/> But I'd rather name each question-group something like q1 ... qn and then each answer in that group a1 ... an and then just pull out the parameter values using a loop of names q1 ... qn and stop when the value for q_current is empty. |
2003/4/24 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28208 Activity:nil |
4/23 ok, same problm as question below, but different approach. Is there any existing tool that extract <input> html tag and generate javabean automatically? \_ this question probably means you're missing something. Look up the ServletRequest api for getParameterValues and getParameter-- you can name all your form inputs the same and get them back as an array. This works well for a feedback survey with 50 questions where all the answers are something like "Strongly Agree" "Agree" "Disagree"-- name your radiobuttons surveyAnswer, and if surveyAnswer[3] == 2, then someone strongly agreed w/ statement 4. |
2003/4/14-15 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28114 Activity:high |
4/14 I need to write a script to run under DOS (yes, I know it sucks) and I need it to stop a program that can only be terminated by hitting Control-C. How can I give that to the script as a command? Thanks. \_ try installing cygwin (cygwin.com ?) and use their "ps" and "kill" functions? \_ Is it a true DOS platform, or a DOS window in a windows environment? \_ a DOS window in Windows -op \_ You could write a vb function that runs your script and sends key strokes to the window. though you'll have to write code to get the handle to the window. \_ Or put a timer in your program that you wrote that exits after 10 seconds. \_ what are you smoking, DOS is not a multithreaded environment \_ grab one of the freebie or shareware keyboard/macro programs off the net. Since you're in windowed dos you can get away with a stunt like this. There is also 4Dos which can probably do what you need. It's a command shell replacement for command/cmd. You can also install perl and then use the plist and pkill and other stuff MS provides in some freebie package. If you give more details you'll get better answers. |
2003/4/7 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28012 Activity:high |
4/7 The 'dict' command always seems to format stuff very nicely from the commadn line, but when I envoke it from code or a shell script I get no formatting... couldn't find anything on the man page. is there an env var I should set to get this to work? thanks. \_ it could be using isatty() to check the output is on a terminal or not in which case it's not an environment issue. Use the source Luke. \_ it could be using isatty() to check the output is on a terminal or not in which case it's not an environment issue. Use the source Luke. |
2003/3/28 [Computer/SW/Languages/Java, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:27889 Activity:nil |
3/27 I have a large home directory, want to back it up to CDs. Is there a front-end to mkisofs that will split up the stuff neatly into multiple 700MB ISOs? \_ there was some http://www.freshmeat.net project to to that, no i don't remember the name of it, sorry. |
2003/3/24 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:27831 Activity:nil |
3/24 Re: earlier post about POW. Geneva convention obliges waring party to ensure they are protected, anonymous, and unhumiliated. Inviting mobs of "embedded" journalists to have a feeding frenzy is about as in compliance as having a mob of thugs not controlled by the government beating the POWs. Both sides violated the convention, but the civilized coaliation so far has much more serious violation. It achieves so by having a poorly informed but self-righteous population. \_ is a declaration of war necessary for Geneva convention to apply? \_ embedded journalists didn't film any pow's. it was pows left behind to be picked up by later troops that random non-embedded independent journalists filmed. I believe what they did was wrong but it was not an official U.S. government sanctioned act. |
2003/3/23 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages/Web] UID:27808 Activity:high |
3/22 The real solution would be to replace motd.public with something a little more secure and functional, like a CGI weblog script or something. But that would be too rational and easy, which wouldn't be in the spirit of the motd. \_ http://csua.org/motd \_ that wouldn't be the motd anymore would it? \_ The real solution to what exactly? I don't see a problem. |
2003/3/21 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:27775 Activity:nil |
3/20 I'm RTFMing right now, but i have a deadline, and need to figure this out fast. How do I get LaTeX to single space, over-riding the double space default in the REVTEX style file? what's the simplest way to just double space or single space in the same document? I want to have single spaced figure captions, with the rest of the document double spaced. thanks! |
2003/3/21 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:27773 Activity:high |
3/20 What exactly is an "embedded system"? Is that just MIPS core with other stuff around the core? Or is it DSP stuff? \_ What's an embedded reporter? \_ microprocessor with stuff around it. could be a core, more often parts on a board. laser printer, for example. \_ There's no exact definition. Different people use it to mean different things. My company makes printer controllers for office printers. When we give the controller a PC-like housing and put it next to the printer, we call it a server. But when we remove the call it an embedded controller. -- yuen fancy housing and mount the thing inside the printer housing, we call it an embedded controller. In my previous company, when we stopped writing our OS on desktop machine and started writing for devices that has flash memory instead of hard disks and "embedded processors" (x86 CPU plus 8259's plus other things all in one chip) instead of regular x86's, we called those products embedded devices. -- yuen \_ a controller, some memory devices, input/output devices mounting on a pc board. \_ Here's a definition: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embedded_system |
2003/3/19 [Computer/SW/Languages/JavaScript, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages/Web] UID:27739 Activity:moderate |
3/18 How do I put my e-mail address in my home page and avoid being picked up by spammers? Do spammers scan for "mailto:" links or do they scan for all text in the .html files? Thx. \_ Don't worry so much about the scan part...it is too hard to maintain. I just use spamassassin now, and sometimes give out user-tag (or user+tag) type addresses. \_ put up an image of your email address. The spammers aren't going to bother taking the image file and trying to OCR it to get the email address. \_ Cool! Thanks! \_ Make a form that posts to a cgi script that sends you mail \_ post your email address to usenet then everyone will have it and you won't need it on your web page. \_ This is like that entry on the multiple-choice test your teachers warned you about. \_ "E"! It's always "E"! \_ Someone deleted my post about JavaScript obfuscation, which is probably the best way to keep the functionality of a mailto: link while hiding from spammers. ObGoogle. -tom \_ I wouldn't use a mailto: link. I'd rather just post my email address in html using '@' for '@' and '.' for '.'. This will prevent the vast majority of spammers from harvesting your email addr from your webpage. \_ This sounds good too. Thanks. \_ Thanks! -spammer |
2003/2/19-21 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:27461 Activity:low |
2/19 Is there something like the hyperref package for latex 2.09? I want to automatically add hyperlinks for \ref \cite etc in a large latex 2.09 file. Ok tnx. \_ pdflatex supports it, IIRC, but since I don't think dvi has "hyperlinks" per se, I don't think it would have such a thing. -chialea |
12/24 |