Zznippets

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The log: The lifeblood of your data pipeline - O'Reilly Radar

April 30, 2015

via http://radar.oreilly.com/2015/04/the-log-the-lifeblood-of-your-data-pipeline.html

Interesting article. I hadn’t heard of Fluentd, looks useful.

oreilly_radar_fluentd_1
The old paradigm — machines to humans, and the new — machines to machines. Image courtesy of Kiyoto Tamura.
Over the last decade, the primary consumer of log data shifted from humans to machines.
Software engineers still read logs, especially when their software behaves in an unexpected manner. However, in terms of “bytes processed,” humans account for a tiny fraction of the total consumption.
image from The log: The lifeblood of your data pipeline - O'Reilly Radar

Mac keyboard shortcuts by Matt Gemmell

May 16, 2014
Another great article by Matt Gemmell. I knew most of them, but learned a few things. The golden part for me were the third-party utilities, in particular Shortcat, which I didn’t know and is amazing:

> It’s basically Spotlight but for all visible controls and objects on the screen: it’s type-to-select for *everything you can see*.


The whole article is worth a read.

Working from home - Matt Gemmell

May 7, 2014
Great article.

I’ve been working from home full-time for more than seven years, and running my own business for the same amount of time. Many of us at least have the opportunity to occasionally work from home, and I daresay that many people would like the chance to do so permanently.
It’s not just as straightforward as pulling out a laptop in the living room, though. Working from home has a number of difficulties and challenges. In many ways, it’s a battle for mastery of yourself. I’d like to talk about a few of the issues I’ve faced, and how I handle them.

Explanation of temperature scales

January 17, 2014

This is because Fahrenheit is based on a brine scale and the human body. The scale is basically how cold does it have to be to freeze saltwater (zero Fahrenheit) to what temperature is the human body (100-ish Fahrenheit, although now we know that’s not exactly accurate). Fahrenheit was designed around humans.

Celsius and Kelvin are designed around the natural world.

Celsius is a scale based on water. Zero is when water freezes, 100 is when water boils.

Kelvin uses the same scale as Celsius (one degree, as a unit, is the same between the two), but defines zero as absolute zero, which is basically the temperature at which atoms literally stop doing that spinning thing. Nothing can exist below zero Kelvin. It’s the bottom of the scale.

So.
Fahrenheit: what temperatures affect humans
Celsius: what temperatures affect water
Kelvin: what temperatures affect atoms
image from Explanation of temperature scales

When a Dragon mated the space station /ht @BadAstronomer

May 25, 2012

At 16:02 UTC, Friday, May 25, 2012, the SpaceX Dragon officially became the first privately-owned commercial spacecraft to be captured by and berthed at the International Space Station. It is (if I’ve done the math correctly) the 114th spacecraft to dock with ISS, including the missions sent up to build the station. It is the first privately-owned commercial spacecraft in history to do so.

via blogs.discovermagazine.com

Amazing.

image from When a Dragon mated the space station /ht @BadAstronomer

Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR

March 2, 2012
Patrick Honan holds two of the rare Lord Howe Island stick insects.
Rod Morris/www.rodmorris.co.nz

 

The story is simple: A bunch of black rats almost wiped out a bunch of gigantic bugs on a little island far, far away from most of us. A few dedicated scientists, passionate about biological diversity, risked their lives to keep the bugs going. For the bugs to get their homes and their future back doesn't depend on scientists anymore. They've done their job. Now it's up to the folks on Lord Howe Island.

image from Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR

Lists of Note: Henry Miller's 11 Commandments

January 31, 2012
COMMANDMENTS
  1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.
  2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to "Black Spring."
  3. Don't be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
  4. Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
  5. When you can't create you can work.
  6. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.
  7. Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.
  8. Don't be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.
  9. Discard the Program when you feel like it—but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.
  10. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.
  11. Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.
via listsofnote.com

Excellent advice for any line of work, not only writing.

How to remove a subproject/submodule to a git-svn repository

January 25, 2012

To sum up, you delete the offending directory and then run something to the effect of

git filter-branch --index-filter \
'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch path/to/the/formerly/misbehaving/module'

via ignoredbydinosaurs.com

I accidentally added another git repository to a git-svn repository, which makes it die when trying to push the changes. This technique helped me fix it. Documenting mostly so I remember when it happens again sometime.

nwdiag - simple network-diagram image generators — blockdiag 1.0 documentation

January 23, 2012

nwdiag generates network-diagram image file from .diag file. .diag file is similar to DOT file (graphviz’s).

You can get diagrams like this.

None

blockdiag.com via @saintaardvark

Very useful, like Graphviz but specifically for network diagrams. You can probably obtain the same result with Graphviz with the appropriate amount of dot magic, but nwdiag makes this very easy. Other useful graph types in sister projects: http://blockdiag.com/en/index.html

image from nwdiag - simple network-diagram image generators — blockdiag 1.0 documentation

How One Bit of Stupidity Could Have Brought Down a Multi-Million Dollar Media Company | Peter Shankman

January 13, 2012
the man sitting next to me was reading proprietary information, information that could be very, very damaging to this company if in the wrong hands, and he couldn’t have cared less about it
via shankman.com

Fascinating, scary story. It's amazing the things people do in airplanes (particularly on their laptops/iPads/phones) as if no one was watching them. Situational awareness is very important.

Fraser Speirs - Blog - Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking

January 4, 2012

Let me wrap this up by giving you a quick summary:

  1. If someone tells you that all the apps in the multitasking bar are running, using up memory or sucking power, they are wrong.
  2. When you hit the home button, an app moves from Active to Background and quickly to the Suspended state where it no longer uses CPU time or drains power.
  3. An app may request an additional 10 minutes of Background running to complete a big task before becoming Suspended.
  4. If memory is becoming scarce, iOS will automatically move Suspended apps into the Not Running state and reclaim their memory.
  5. Five classes of apps - audio, GPS, VOIP, Newsstand and accessory apps - and some built-in apps such as Mail may run indefinitely in the background until they complete their task.
via speirs.org via daringfireball.net

Great post explaining iOS background processing and why you don't need to go around removing apps from the multitasking bar.

Osaka Station City fountain

September 14, 2011
via youtube.com

This is making the rounds, so I might as well contribute. Beautiful (and maybe not so hard to do - it's much like a dot-matrix printer, but printing from bottom up). I saw one of these a few years ago at the Motor Show in Geneva (at the Jeep stand), but it was much lower resolution and much less creative.

Emacs - Multiple columns one buffer - Stack Overflow

July 23, 2011
Follow mode is a minor mode that makes two windows, both showing the same buffer, scroll as a single tall “virtual window.” To use Follow mode, go to a frame with just one window, split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x follow-mode. From then on, you can edit the buffer in either of the two windows, or scroll either one; the other window follows it. In Follow mode, if you move point outside the portion visible in one window and into the portion visible in the other window, that selects the other window—again, treating the two as if they were parts of one large window.
via stackoverflow.com

Very useful, and something I didn't know about.

Physics engines for dummies | Paul's blog@Wildbunny

April 8, 2011

This time i’m going to talk about the basic components that make up a physics engine and how to put them together; this tutorial is aimed at programmers who have a basic grasp of maths and geometry but would like to step into the world of simulation.

It is my hope that if, at the beginning of this article, you are able to code the physics behind the 1972 game Pong, by the end of the article you will be equally happy writing your own constraints to use in your own physics solver!

How to digitally sign a macro project - Outlook

March 13, 2011

This article explains how you can digitally sign a file or a macro project by using a certificate. If you don't already have a digital certificate, you must obtain one. To test macro projects on your own computer, you can create your own self-signing certificate by using the Selfcert.exe tool.

via office.microsoft.com

Useful for future reference. I'm playing with a bit of VBA in Outlook, and found that my code would work fine right after writing it, but if I restart Outlook, the macros will be disabled unless I first sign them as described in this article.

Ken Jennings describes what it's like to play against a machine - Slate Magazine

February 17, 2011

"Watching you on Jeopardy! is what inspired the whole project," one IBM engineer told me, consolingly. "And we looked at your games over and over, your style of play. There's a lot of you in Watson." I understood then why the engineers wanted to beat me so badly: To them, I wasn't the good guy, playing for the human race. That was Watson's role, as a symbol and product of human innovation and ingenuity. So my defeat at the hands of a machine has a happy ending, after all. At least until the whole system becomes sentient and figures out the nuclear launch codes. But I figure that's years away.

Annals of commerce « The Reality-Based Community

December 30, 2010
Nestlé pods, pal; it’s a lifetime relationship.  That $500 machine is a down payment on a 400-900% tax on every cup of coffee you make with it: three cups a day and you pay for the machine again, or more, every year you own it. Next, a frying pan customized to work only with a single brand of eggs, yup.
via samefacts.com

I don't understand the popularity of those pod-fed coffee machines. The pods are expensive and the coffee is bad. I much prefer my Krups machine - whole beans (my choice) and water go in, nice fresh coffee comes out.

Pidgin cannot connect to MSN: the certificate chain presented is invalid

November 18, 2010
1. Deleted all msn/live/hotmail certificates in the folder
2. went to https://omega.contacts.msn.com using fire fox (https not http)
3. right click > view page INFO > Security Tab > View Certificate Button > Details Tab > Export Button
4. Saved the file to ~.purple/certificates/x509/tls_peers/omega.contacts.msn.com
5. Reconnected
6. Perfect
via diarizing.com

Like many people, I started getting certificate errors when connecting to my MSN account using Pidgin. The straightforward fix described (delete certificate, reconnect to fetch the new one) didn't work for me with Pidgin 2.7.5 under Windows 7, but this slightly-more-convoluted technique worked fine.

Pac-Man Spotted In The Wild

October 2, 2010

Jaime "Kalapusa" Margary, who's given us realistic Piranha Plants, and Super Mario fungi in the past, now turns his attention to Pac-Man, presently soaking in jar of formaldehyde.

Writes Jaime:

The idea behind the video is Pac Man's final days, free from the maze (kudos if you can guess who's castle that is) and eating pellets to his heart's content in a glowing pellet forest. His dead, bloated body is found afterwards and then delivered to 8-Bit Labs.

DGSCA se convierte en TIC

September 27, 2010
Por acuerdo del Dr. José Narro Robles, Rector de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, a partir del 27 de septiembre de 2010 la Dirección General de Servicios de Cómputo Académico cambia de denominación a Dirección General de Cómputo y de Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación, y el sitio Web de esta dependencia es:
via dgsca.unam.mx

El final de una era. Yo comencé mi carrera profesional en DGSCA, por lo que tengo muchos recuerdos asociados con ese nombre. Sería interesante saber qué cambios funcionales vienen asociados con el cambio de nombre.

La UNAM cumple 100 años

September 22, 2010
Si hubiera que reducir a la UNAM a unas cuantas cifras esenciales, tendrían que anotarse, entre otras, las siguientes: 314 mil alumnos, 35 mil académicos, tres mil 500 investigadores, 2 mil edificios, 139 bibliotecas, 56 mil computadoras conectadas en red, 18 museos, otros tantos recintos históricos, un canal de televisión y una estación de radio, una casa editora de miles de libros y de cientos de publicaciones periódicas, así como una Ciudad Universitaria que ha sido declarada por la UNESCO Patrimonio de la Humanidad. Más allá de los activos, en la institución se imparten 85 licenciaturas y operan 40 programas de posgrado, con 83 planes de estudio para maestría y doctorado, así como 34 programas de especialización con 189 orientaciones.
via jornada.unam.mx

La UNAM tiene aproximadamente el mismo número de estudiantes que empresas como IBM y HP tienen de empleados a nivel mundial.

The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy « You Are Not So Smart

September 14, 2010
If you have a human brain, you do this all of the time. Picking out clusters of coincidence is a predictable malfunction of normal human logic.
via youarenotsosmart.com

We see patterns everywhere, our brain is hardwired to do it. Most of them are harmless or even beneficial. The problem is when people start assigning meaning to the patterns, as explanation of whatever they want to believe or to convince other people of (such as "vaccines cause autism", which is completely false).

Pocketful of Dough - Tips on Tipping

September 3, 2010

“What kind of establishment do you think this is?”

“How dare you insult me!”

“You think you can get in with that?”

It’s just after 8 p.m. on a balmy summer Saturday and I’m heading toward one of New York’s most overbooked restaurants, Balthazar, where celebrities regularly go to be celebrated and where lay diners like me call a month in advance to try and secure a reservation. I don’t have a reservation. I don’t have a connection. I don’t have a secret phone number. The only things I have are a $20, a $50, and a $100 bill, neatly folded in my pocket.

On remembering and dealing with people's names

September 3, 2010
A person's own name is the single most important word to him/her; it is intimately tied to his/her identity as an individual. How you deal with people's names can have a profound effect on their impressions of you: Think about the times you've felt special when someone you admired addressed you by your name in a sincere tone; or think about the times when you've felt belittled when someone negligently called you by the wrong name, or worse, maliciously made fun of your name in front of you.
via stanford.edu

I've always been extremely bad at remembering people's names, and it's caused me my fair share of embarrassment during my life. While I lived in Switzerland, I was always amazed at how well people in general could remember names. I don't know if they train them for it, or if it's a cultural trait, but many times, for example, I was greeted by name by people I only met briefly weeks before at a party. By then, I could barely remember their faces! Lately I've been making an effort to consciously remember people's names, and it does have a positive effect, both on myself and on other people.

Trying out The Pomodoro Technique

August 26, 2010

The basic unit of work in the Pomodoro Technique™ can be split in five simple steps:

  1. Choose a task to be accomplished
  2. Set the Pomodoro to 25 minutes (the Pomodoro is the timer)
  3. Work on the task until the Pomodoro rings, then put a check on your sheet of paper
  4. Take a short break (5 minutes is OK)
  5. Every 4 Pomodoros take a longer break
via pomodorotechnique.com

I'm giving the Pomodoro Technique a try today for my work. Looks like a nice way to split time, and a nice complement to GTD as a mechanism for the "doing" part of it.

US Chamber: Equal Pay “a Fetish for Money,” Women Should “Choose the Right Partner at Home”

August 20, 2010
The US Chamber of Commerce has apparently spent too much time watching Mad Men: in a blog post this morning, Chamber blogger Brad Peck called women’s fight for pay equity to be nothing more than a “fetish for money,” and said women complaining about their pay should focus instead on “choosing the right partner at home.”
via workinprogress.firedoglake.com

You couldn't make up stuff like this. Wow.

Anchoring Effect « You Are Not So Smart

July 30, 2010

You walk into a clothing store and see what is probably the most bad ass leather jacket you’ve ever seen.

You try it on, look in the mirror and decide you must have it. While wearing this item, you imagine onlookers will clutch their chests and gasp every time you walk into a room or cross a street. You lift the sleeve to check the price – $1,000.

Well, that’s that, you think. You start to head back to the hanger when a salesperson stops you.

Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning

July 7, 2010
of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea it is happening (source: CDC). Drowning does not look like drowning
via mariovittone.com

This is an eye-opening article for me. Not having actually watched anyone drown (fortunately), I had the impression that someone drowning would trash madly as shown on TV and movies. This is knowledge that can actually save lives! I think everyone should read this, particularly parents.

How’s that for a low price guarantee?

March 17, 2010
Media_httpfarm3static_exmgg
via passiveaggressivenotes.com

Great sense of humor (follow the link for more signs from the same store). Reminds me of the signs in a Shakey's Pizza place where we used to go when I was a kid. Two I remember:
"We have a deal with the bank. The bank doesn't make pizza, and we don't take checks."
"If you would like to use your plate for your cigarette ashes, please ask the waiter to serve your pizza in the ashtray"

image from How’s that for a low price guarantee?

How to make the LG BD370 region-free

February 23, 2010
The instructions below apply to the LBD 370 & 360.
via videohelp.com

How to make the LG BD370 region-free (mine came set to "All regions" for Blu-Ray, but not for regular DVD). For the most complete instructions, see the post by BoriMar, February 06 2010. One change: I had to burn the contents of 6000.zip to a CD for it to recognize it, putting it in the USB drive didn't work, but the down/upgrade files worked fine from the USB drive. I burned the CD using the built-in capabilities of Windows Vista, just making sure to check the options for "mastered" format, and to close the session on ejecting the CD.

Must-Have Windows Software (or Windows Programs that I use) - good coders code, great reuse

February 17, 2010
I am not just a Linux enthusiast, I also happen to use Windows quite often. In fact, Windows is my primary desktop from which I connect to all the other boxes and do my work on. During the years of Windows usage, I have accumulated a list of must-have Windows programs that I wouldn’t be able to work without. Some of them are commercial, some are freeware, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is how productive you are with your setup. If you’re really productive on Linux with your own set of tools, it’s perfectly fine and you have done a great job of finding the best tools of trade.
via catonmat.net

Having recently moved to Windows as my main desktop OS (out of work requirement, not by wish), I have been trying to find good software that makes it a more pleasant environment. This list has many good recommendations.

The 'Israelification' of airports: High security, little bother - thestar.com

January 28, 2010
Israelis, unlike Canadians and Americans, don't take s--- from anybody. When the security agency in Israel (the ISA) started to tighten security and we had to wait in line for — not for hours — but 30 or 40 minutes, all hell broke loose here. We said, 'We're not going to do this. You're going to find a way that will take care of security without touching the efficiency of the airport.
via thestar.com

Very interesting article about doing airport security when you face real, constant threats, and how to do it without ridiculous and time-consuming measures that are only useful to further promote the security theater.

xkcd - A Webcomic - Scary

October 9, 2009
Media_httpimgsxkcdcomcomicsscarypng_wtzzdabykfdgjpd
via xkcd.com

Scary indeed. From the alt text "I'm teaching every 8-year-old relative to say this, and every 14-year-old to do the same thing with Toy Story. Also, Pokemon hit the US over a decade ago and kids born after Aladdin came out will turn 18 next year."

I feel old.

image from xkcd - A Webcomic - Scary

10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines « Smashing Magazine

September 24, 2009

Everyone would agree that usability is an important aspect of Web design. Whether you’re working on a portfolio website, online store or Web app, making your pages easy and enjoyable for your visitors to use is key. Many studies have been done over the years on various aspects of Web and interface design, and the findings are valuable in helping us improve our work. Here are 10 useful usability findings and guidelines that may help you improve the user experience on your websites.

Going home

September 7, 2009
Thirteen years ago, I left Mexico to study a Ph.D. in the U.S. In the meantime, apart from doing that, I got married, we moved to Switzerland, and we formed a beautiful family. I have learned so many things, I have changed in so many ways. In the words of my advisor, during one of our very early email exchanges, before I went to Purdue:

It isn't so much a leaving as a beginning of something else.  When you return, as you will, it will be with a more wordly viewpoint.  That is both a loss and a gain.

Now, after all these years, it's time to go home.

Synchronizing 1Password data between two local accounts (howto)

September 29, 2008
I am a big fan of the incredibly useful 1Password. The latest beta release (2.8.3.BETA-11) introduces a new keychain format that, among other things, allows 1Password to detect changes made to the file by other programs and reload the changes on the fly. I am using this now to keep my 1P data synchronized between my work and personal accounts on my machine. Here's what I did:

  1. In my work account (dza), switch to the AgileKeyChain format by following the instructions.
  2. Modify the ACL for my ~/Library/Application Support/1Password/ folder to allow my personal account (zamboni) read/write access. I did this using the "Sharing & Permissions" section of the Info dialog for the folder, and then choosing "Apply to enclosed items" from the cogwheel menu in that same section.
  3. Switch to my personal account.
  4. Quit 1Password, run the defaults command from the instructions, restart 1Password.
  5. Export my existing 1Password data in the "1Password Interchange file" format. To do this, choose File -> Export all -> 1Password Interchange File, and save it to a file in my desktop.
  6. Double click /Users/dza/Library/Application Support/1Password/1Password.agilekeychain and click "yes" to start using that file.
  7. Import the data from step 5: File -> Import, and follow the prompts. Wait for the data to import.
  8. Switch back to my work account and verify that the imported items are seen there as well.

Adding growl notification to Raymond Page's bash prompt code

September 8, 2008

Update (2008/09/10): Giles Orr kindly pointed out that he is not the author of the bash prompt package I use, I have updated to give proper credit to the author, Raymond Page.

For some time I have used Raymond Page's bash prompt code (heavily based on the work by Giles Orr in the Bash Prompt HOWTO, you can get it at http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_Prompt_Magic or http://code.google.com/p/homenix/source/browse/, you need to get .prompt, .prompt_functions and .prompt_config from the trunk/ directory), which I like very much because it is highly customizable, and although a lot of the functions are Linux-specific, it can easily be made to work on Mac OS X. It features context-dependent prompt colorization (e.g. based on whether the current directory is writable and on the machine load), automatic shortening of the prompt based on window width, and many other features.

Fixing Mail.app's recent mail addresses problem

September 2, 2008
I had noticed for a while that somehow my Mail.app's "recent mail addresses" list was not updating (I never seemed to get any of my recently used addresses in Quicksilver). Today I noticed the following error message in /var/log/system.log:

Mail[365]: AddressBook failed to save: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=259 UserInfo=0x10c9a810 "The file MailRecents-v4.abcdmr€ could not be opened because it is not in the right format." ({\n NSFilePath = "/Users/dza/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/MailRecents-v4.abcdmr";\n NSUnderlyingException = Fatal error. The database at /Users/dza/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/MailRecents-v4.abcdmr is corrupted. SQLite error code:1;\n})