Boring Programming Stuff

A while back I made a little web page to spruce up ls output. Of course I completely forgot about it until recently. Some of Ubuntu’s default colors were hard to see in Terminal.app, so I added mostly-working LS_COLORS for Linux. The string format is completely different, and harder to go from text to preview, so I ditched that feature. Linux people will have to copy-paste the color string and type ls in their terminals. Life’s tough, I know.

Anyway, try it out.

Once you’ve got a theme you like, try the following for BSD/OS X:

LSCOLORS="exfxcxdxbxegedabagacad"
export LSCOLORS
alias ls="ls -G"

or on Linux:

LS_COLORS="di=34;40:ln=35;40:so=32;40:pi=33;40:ex=31;40:bd=34;46:cd=34;43:su=0;41:sg=0;46:tw=0;42:ow=0;43:"
export LS_COLORS
alias ls="ls --color"

Apparently just setting an environment variable called LS_COLORS doesn’t mean you actually want ls to print in color. You have to set up the aliases as well. Add the lines above to ~/.bash_profile (or .profile if you’re a ksh user) to make the change permanent.

One thing I learned: Linux’s color string is much more powerful than BSD’s. Linux’s ls lets you choose more colors, blinking text, and backwards text. It even lets you specify color settings for specific file extensions in addition to general types of files. Support for all those extra features will have to wait until forever. I use color information sparingly. Too many colors is just as useless as no color. If you want to get fancy, this guy has some helpful info.

A few weeks ago I rode my Ninja 250 from San Jose, CA to Spokane, WA and back, averaging just over 500 miles a day. The gallery of photos is here. The trip was a ton of fun, although by the second day each way I was a little sore. I should have stopped more often, because there was a lot more scenery than the pictures suggest. It rained a couple of times so I didn’t get any shots from some parts of the trip. On the bright side the rain cleaned all the bug guts off my gear.

Highlights:

Welcome to Oregon

Eastern Oregon

Danger to manifold!

Bugs really like my visor.

Most of the shots are from the return trip, since I had an onboard camera mounted. The onboard camera is pretty cool, but I need to work some kinks out. The mount and the camera body itself aren’t very stiff, so it shakes while recording video. Here’s a clip to illustrate:

After I got the camera recording in HD and in daylight the quality was better but the shakiness was worse:

I finally got around to uploading pictures of the thermite from last year. Here’s the gallery.

Highlights:

I finished my first marathon, the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon. My time was 3:18:00, which isn’t bad considering my longest run before the marathon was 18 miles. For most of the run I stuck with the fastest guy in an Elvis costume, who was pacing for 3:15. The first 18 miles were a breeze. I spent time talking with people around me and enjoying the scenery. Around mile 20 things got tough, and from mile 23 to the finish all I could do was follow the guy in front of me and try not to throw up or pass out. I’m pretty sore today, but I’m definitely not the only one. I’ve seen quite a few others besides myself doing the post-marathon shuffle around San Diego.

Update: Pictures

Must…

…defeat…

…Elvis.

For the past couple of months my greatest annoyance about Bloglines was that it stripped out all <object> and <embed> tags for security reasons. This is fine and good, except that most feeds embed videos using these tags instead of as RSS attachments. Google Reader has supported a whitelist of sites for over a year now. I finally got around to fixing the Bloglines security filter so that videos will show up. Below is the current whitelist. Any <embed> or <object> from these domains will not be stripped:

blip.tv
blogtv.com
blowery.org
break.com
brightcove.com
castfire.com
cnet.com
cnn.net
collegehumor.com
dailymotion.com
dotsub.com
ehow.com
google.com
gametrailers.com
gamevideos.com
glumbert.com
grouper.com
ifilm.com
jumpcut.com
kontraband.com
liveleak.com
metacafe.com
mobatalk.com
monstersandcritics.com
motionbox.com
myspace.com
podtech.net
podshow.com
revver.com
reuters.com
sapo.pt
singshot.com
slideshare.net
ustream.tv
verycd.com
videoegg.com
vimeo.com
vsocial.com
youtube.com

I made this list by asking my co-workers for video sites. If I’m missing something, post a comment and I’ll throw it on the TODO list.

Oh, and the obligatory demonstration of this feature:

I recently finished taking the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s basic rider course and got my M1 endorsement. The next week-end I bought a brand-new (well it’s a year old but it had zero miles on the odometer) 2007 Kawasaki Ninja 250R. I got a decent deal since Kawasaki redesigned the bike for 2008. Although considered a beginner bike, it’s a ton of fun to ride. Even going in a straight line on the freeway is entertaining. Keeping up with traffic means the engine revs to almost 10,000 rpm and sounds like it’s about to explode. Still, it’s not exactly slow. The top speed is almost 110mph and it can go from 0-60 in less than six seconds.

Will just got a Canon Rebel XTI and was testing it out today:

Yes, the flames do make it go faster.

Edit: I rode to San Francisco and back today.

I’ve noticed the search suggestions on Ask.com are a little… preoccupied with a certain topic:

I know medical searches are increasing, but this is a little ridiculous.

While I was stuck in an airport Sunday, I spent an hour or so working on a clone of Bjorn’s Karmerd (link not available because Bjorn took down all his stuff). He has stopped development since getting frustrated with a BerkeleyDB incompatibility. Basically this web app allows you to increase or decrease an integer associated with a name. Try it out. It’s totally useless, but it’s fun to waste time and/or brag about your score. One thing I really like is how it shows off Rails’ simple URIs. You don’t even really need hyperlinks between pages when URIs look like /karma/up/blah. As usual, all code is in a public svn repo. I’m always impressed by how Rails handles escaping HTML, JavaScript, etc. Instead of having to write or even use a bunch of methods, it just takes care of the data munging behind the scenes. I suspect the only problem with this database will be spam, since it is so easy to create an entry. I hate CAPTCHAs with a vengeance, so I’m definitely not going to add something like that. If things get too bad I guess I’ll block some IPs and/or reset the DB, so don’t be depressed if your karma disappears. Another option would be to cease showing things with a score below some threshold, that way users can get rid of spam (and annoy their friends) and I can sit back and be lazy.

On an unrelated note, Sea-Tac lacks free wifi. This wouldn’t be a problem except that EDGE is filtered heavily as well. Outgoing packets not addressed to port 80 get dropped. HTTP on other ports does not work, IMAP and POP don’t work, not even ssh or telnet work. My direct flight from Spokane to San Jose turned into a flight through Seattle to San Jose, which turned into a delayed flight, which turned into a cancelled flight. After getting on a later plane to SJC, that flight was delayed and I got in much later than I expected (without my luggage). For all the annoyances I had to put up with, I wasn’t compensated at all. Alaska used to at least offer free alcohol on flights delayed over 30 minutes. Guess I’m flying Southwest next time.

Last Saturday I bought a 1997 Mazda Miata. Since I moved to a warmer climate I’ve wanted a convertible of some kind. My requirements were:

1. Convertible, duh.
2. Target price of $5,000. This means used, but I wanted to pay cash instead of financing. More expensive cars also cost more to insure.
3. The car must be reliable enough to be a daily driver.
4. It has to be fun to drive.

Requirement #2 ruled out similar cars such as the S2000 and newer versions of the MR2. Consumer Reports rated the Miata more reliable than the MR2 or pretty much any other sporty car, so I settled on the Miata. Although it’s not a very powerful car (only 140hp), it more than makes up for it with its light weight, short gears, and excellent handling. My only complaint is the cost of insurance. I know 22-year-old males aren’t the safest drivers, but $3,000 a year is pretty ridiculous.

Here’s a picture:

Some of my coworkers mocked me for having a car with such effeminate looks. They’re all jealous since they own practical cars with features such as four doors, rear seats, and a trunk you can actually fit a body in.

This evening we finally launched Bloglines Beta, a redesign of the once-popular news reader. It’s been the largest and most visible project that I’ve had a hand in, and I’m pretty happy with what has been accomplished so far. Pretty much all of the reviews are positive. Obviously not all the features are there yet, but it’s nice to get some praise for the hard work.