Marapfhile's Ramblings

In medias freakin‘ res

2009-10-26T15:57:26Z

Is anybody else getting really tired of TV shows that start out with some confusing disaster scene, then jump back with a "X hours ago" (or days, or whatever)? The technique was old and busted when Homer used it, can we please come up with something else?

Suddenly, Pix!

2009-09-25T02:55:51Z

I went on a quick trip to Kukup, a nearby village in Malaysia, this past weekend, with some friends. The pictures are now up on my Flickr account. Enjoy!

Fixing Mac Mail Folder Sort Order

2009-09-22T06:02:31Z

Mac Mail (AKA Mail.app) has a distressing tendency to delete the mailbox cache of IMAP accounts when certain network operations are interrupted. Since preferred sorting column and direction are stored in plist files in this cache, that means that all folders reset to be sorted by date, ascending, which drives me nuts. After the latest such event, I finally sat down and figured out how to fix this automatically, in bulk:

% for f in ~/Library/Mail/**/Info.plist; do {
 /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Delete :DisplayInThreadedMode' $f;
 /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Delete :SearchSortDescending' $f;
 /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Delete :SearchSortOrder' $f;
 /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Delete :SortOrder' $f;
 /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Delete :SortedDescending' $f; } > /dev/null
 /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :DisplayInThreadedMode string no' $f;
 /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :SearchSortDescending string YES' $f;
 /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :SearchSortOrder string rank' $f;
 /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :SortOrder string received-date' $f;
 /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :SortedDescending string YES' $f;
done

This should have the same effect as wiping out all the plists, allowing Mail to regenerate them in their default state, and then going through and manually changing every folder to sort by date, descending.

(And yes, there are probably better, or at least more concise, ways to code the script, but this was the easiest to write, and shell arrays suck.)

Fuzzy Pix of Fuzzy Music

2009-08-10T16:12:46Z

Just got back from the Singapore edition of the current Nine Inch Nails tour. Pix here; note that the iPhone is not the best camera for these conditions.

Wolf and Short-Selling

2009-08-09T17:55:56Z

In season 2, episode 4, our hero invents the commodity future contract. Coming in season three, Wolf and the Credit Default Swap?

Overweight At Last

2009-07-27T14:16:45Z

Today's post-workout weigh-in: 185 pounds (or as the scale actually read in these foreign parts, 84.0 kg). Why is this number significant? 185*703/66^2=29.9: this is my first time with a BMI under thirty in, most likely, about ten years.

Suddenly, Pix!

2009-06-08T07:09:01Z

The Angkor Wat pictures are now up at flickr. Enjoy!

A New Law

2009-06-04T13:21:16Z

Clarke-Hanlon-Godwin: Any sufficiently advanced incompetence will inevitably be compared to Nazism (inspired by the latest App Store shenanigans).

King of the Nutshell

2009-06-04T01:07:38Z

Well, not bad dreams, but very strange. I spent (what felt like) at least an hour early this morning bouncing back and forth through at least two, and possibly more, levels of dream and dream-within-a-dream, with most of the transitions being known but involuntary--I'd be "awake", trying to do something, and feel myself falling "asleep" and be unable to stop. (There may have also been some real awake time in there somewhere; it all sort of ran together.) Very odd. At one point I was even telling someone in the dream about a dream-within-a-dream I'd been having. Apparently my subconscious is way meta.

Back In Singapore

2009-06-01T15:06:35Z

Back from Cambodia, and about ready to keel over. Not sure if it was the three days being hauled around on the back of a motorcycle or what, but I ache everywhere. Pix and commentary tomorrow, or whenever I'm not in pain.

Angkor? I Barely Know Her!

2009-05-30T15:10:33Z

On a scale from one to Siem Reap, I'm in Siem Reap! I arrived yesterday afternoon and saw the sunset from a hilltop temple. I spent most of today tramping around Angkor Wat and its associated temples and palaces on the "Little Circuit"; the plan is to do the "Big Circuit" tomorrow, then finish up Monday morning with a trip to a floating village on Tonlé Sap. Pics to follow.

Star Trek Thoughts, Spoilerrific and Un-

2009-05-11T02:03:27Z

(also posted to /.)

On the styling: someone's been watching way too much BSG; Starfleet ships are not supposed to look steam powered. That engine room was ridiculous.

On canon: Robert April, call your agent.

On prequels: WTF is wrong with going forward with the 24th century? I took about five minutes to come up with the following idea for a new series, which I hereby place into the public domain: in the Voyager finale, Janeway brought working transwarp back from the Delta Quadrant, making it feasible to visit other galaxies for the first time. Put the epic multi-year arcs on hold for a while and go back to the roots, one ship, episodically exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations, one per week. (Unfortunately it can't really be called Star Trek: Andromeda, as that would confuse the hell out of everyone, but I'm sure they can come up with a suitable name.)

Or do something about Section 31, or something about Romulan politics, or something about the Mirror Universe. There are forty years of continuity here to play with, I fail to see why they're so eager to throw them away and start over.

I suppose everyone's trying to avoid posting spoilers, but doesn't anyone else think the single biggest problem with the movie is that they BLEW UP VULCAN!?!?! I mean really, casual genocide of one of the most important races in Trek? WTF?

Full Circle

2009-04-29T17:43:38Z

Fifteen years, almost to the day, since the green card spam:

Britney, Singer-Songwriter

2009-04-18T14:18:42Z

from the universe that brought you NWA, grunge band,

and Sir Mixalot, balladeer

That's Travis, Dynamite Hack, and Jonathan Coulton, respectively.

Conflation

2009-04-07T23:07:41Z

This morning I dreamed that Dr. Saroyan from Bones was angry at me for playing too many computer games at work.

One Book Left, For Large Values of "One"

2009-04-06T04:54:00Z

Tor announces The Gathering Storm, book one of A Memory of Light.

<sigh>....

Inauguration Glee, My Turn

2009-04-01T01:18:24Z

As Clinton said to Arafat, "Yasser, that's my Bibi!"

Personal Milestone

2009-03-31T13:27:58Z

Today's post-workout weigh-in: 89.8 kg. (That's 198 lbs. for those of you playing at home.) This is the first time in over seven years I've been below that mark.

Earth Hour

2009-03-26T23:12:45Z

Earth Hour is this Saturday, so remember everyone, turn everything in your house on! If we all work together, we should be able to "offset" (see what I did there?) whatever the idiots who organized this thing manage to "achieve". (I should be able to equal at least half a dozen CFL weenies' non-output all on my own, what with four computers, two TVs, and an ancient 17-inch CRT monitor just waiting to be switched on.

Remember what "the lights are going out" used to mean? Stand up and be proud of your civilization, and burn that power!

Here's my reworking of the poster:

Old Filk!

2009-03-08T12:03:32Z

This was written a day or two after this, since one song wasn't enough to get the tune out of my head. Somehow it never got posted....

Windows Boxes
by Aaron Davies
ttto "Little Boxes" by Malvina Reynolds

Windows boxes, Windows boxes
Windows boxes from Microsoft
Windows boxes on our desktops
And they all crash just the same

And there's Compaq and there's HP
And there's Gateway and there's IBM
And there's Sony and Toshiba
And they all crash just the same

And there's 3.1 and there's 95
And there's NT and there's 2K
And there's XP and there's Longhorn
And they all crash just the same

And there's patches, second Tuesdays,
And there's XP SP's 1 and 2
And there's fixes for the patches
And they all crash just the same

And there's trojans and virii
And there's popups and there's spyware
Cause there's EULAs fools click through
So they all crash just the same

But there's Linux and there's OS X
And there's three kinds of BSD
And I think there's still BeOS
Why keep crashing just the same?

Windows boxes, Windows boxes
Windows boxes from Microsoft
Windows boxes on our desktops
And they all crash just the same

My Top Three Apple UI Micro-Optimizations

2009-03-06T07:06:32Z

In no particular order:

When a Mac with only one user account is rebooted, you go straight to the password screen.

When selecting playlists to sync to an iPod in iTunes, option-click on a folder's disclosure triangle collapses all folder trees, not just that subtree. (This is a great example of breaking a rule for a reason.)

The first ten non-folder bookmarks on Safari's bookmark bar are accessible as command-0 through 9.

Oh, Rainbows!

2009-02-25T15:57:47Z

Caught a great rainbow on the way home from work today. Only had the iPhone handy, but it's better than nothing. If you look very closely, you can even see the second part of the double-bow, near the left.

I'm Making a Note Here, Huge Success

2009-01-22T16:07:53Z

Portal cosplay win.

Google Stemming/Spellchecking Phrases?

2009-01-08T09:00:00Z

Amused by the thought of a really bad pun involving arity, I googled "the man who shot liberty valence" to see if it had occurred to anyone before. Imaging my surprise to discover Google's inclusion, without so much as a "Did you mean", of results for the correct spelling! Sticking a + in front of either the phrase or the name made no difference. I infer that Google is now statistically spell-checking phrase searches and refuses to allow users to choose otherwise. Does anyone know different?

Not Actually from the Onion

2009-01-07T07:38:14Z

Experts say children are a vulnerable group affected by economic crisis. Is it just me or is this possibly the most vacuous headline in the history of journalism?

Marapfhile's Ramblings

In medias freakin‘ res

Suddenly, Pix!

Fixing Mac Mail Folder Sort Order

Fuzzy Pix of Fuzzy Music

Wolf and Short-Selling

Overweight At Last

Suddenly, Pix!

A New Law

King of the Nutshell

Back In Singapore

Angkor? I Barely Know Her!

Star Trek Thoughts, Spoilerrific and Un-

Full Circle

Britney, Singer-Songwriter

Conflation

One Book Left, For Large Values of "One"

Inauguration Glee, My Turn

Personal Milestone

Earth Hour

Old Filk!

My Top Three Apple UI Micro-Optimizations

Oh, Rain*bows*!

I'm Making a Note Here, Huge Success

Google Stemming/Spellchecking Phrases?

Not Actually from the Onion

Oh, Rainbows!