tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86283652189113107292023-11-15T07:34:40.767-06:00Nachos et CrayonsMichael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-30693965266870700602012-04-18T13:25:00.003-05:002012-04-18T13:27:54.227-05:00slatternly typingI just invented a new term to go along with loose typing and strict typing: <span style="font-style: italic;">slatternly typing</span>.<br /><br />You heard it here first, unless you heard it somewhere else before.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-22117001584356434522012-01-26T13:48:00.002-06:002012-01-26T13:49:19.672-06:00yeah, sounds about right<a href="http://cdn.theatlanticwire.com/img/upload/2012/01/26/tumblr_lyeso6E08C1r6xvfko1_500.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 400px;" src="http://cdn.theatlanticwire.com/img/upload/2012/01/26/tumblr_lyeso6E08C1r6xvfko1_500.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-5971632304652516162009-05-15T10:19:00.001-05:002009-05-15T10:21:15.084-05:00tabs<a href="http://www.gnome.org/~federico/news-2009-05.html#14">Federico</a>, give <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1122">Tab Mix Plus</a> a go. It lets you do what you're asking about, and more besides.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-30920605599897743262008-11-13T15:01:00.002-06:002008-11-13T15:13:57.976-06:00closest book meme<ul><li> Grab the nearest book.</li><li>Open it to page 56.</li><li> Find the fifth sentence.</li><li> Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.</li><li> Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.</li></ul>The following comes the book that, I think, was closest to me at the time, although it was hard to tell for sure since there tend to be books strewn around my apartment:<br /><br />"Taking Burgundy and Provence peaceably by marriage, he proceeded to make Italy the fulcrum of his new empire."<br /><p>The quote comes from<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060934832/mawolf-20"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5134PHP6N3L._SL75_.jpg" alt="A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People" style="border: 0px none ; float: left; margin-right: 4px;" width="50" height="75" /></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060934832/mawolf-20">A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People</a> by Steven Ozment.</p>Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-46959282430082247792008-07-28T20:41:00.003-05:002008-07-28T21:53:16.103-05:00well, that went by fastI arrived in Mexico City, to live, four years ago to the day. These four years have been a lot better than the preceding four were, and, the occasional grumble notwithstanding, I would be lying if I said that this place hasn't treated me pretty well overall.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-7860997637681269972008-06-19T09:02:00.002-05:002008-06-19T09:06:32.428-05:00'sif you didn't already knowopenSUSE 11.0 is out today.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-46007414294576877112008-05-27T16:33:00.006-05:002008-05-27T17:13:41.547-05:00virtual kidnappingI just received a phone call. Here's a transcript, translated into English:<br /><br />"Dad?"<br /><br />"Who is this?" [I don't have any children, so I assumed it was just another wrong number. I get lots of those.]<br /><br />"Dad? [crying] Two men kidnapped me. [crying] Dad?"<br /><br />Realizing that it was a scam, I hung up.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/world/americas/29mexico.html">Fake calls like these are common in Mexico</a>, although I'd never received one until today. My wife's uncle received one a few months ago; unfortunately he was taken in.<br /><br />Quite chilling, even though nothing happened—to me. I hope the people with the adjacent phone numbers weren't duped.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-88780014115376219452008-04-14T13:59:00.003-05:002008-04-14T16:48:16.831-05:00That history memeI've run that command line showing my most frequently used commands a few times. Maybe I've held off from posting because the results would be embarrassing. I also noticed that its results differ wildly, because only when you close a shell is its history saved.<br /><br />One command remains constant, though:<br /><pre><br />mw@quill:~> history | awk '{a[$2]++ } END{for(i in a){print a[i] " " i}}' | sort -rn | head -n 1<br />297 ls<br /></pre><br /><br />Update: <a href="http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/bweber">Benjaman Weber</a> reminds me that you can make your history be saved more often by setting <pre>PROMPT_COMMAND='history -a'</pre>.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-31348054711360798362008-04-04T07:58:00.003-06:002008-04-04T09:12:52.863-06:00Packaging Day ][I've neglected to mention it here until now, but here it is: the second <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/Packaging/Packaging_Day">openSUSE Packaging Day</a> is today. Tomorrow too, because it's really a pair of packaging days, not just one.<br /><br />So if you're interested in having your favorite program available for openSUSE, please do join in!Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-57226625815225367152008-01-09T09:20:00.000-06:002008-01-09T09:24:27.993-06:00flashblockWhy I waited so long to install <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433">flashblock</a> I may never know. But I'm glad I finally did.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-8717856043908884642007-12-17T19:04:00.000-06:002007-12-17T19:23:10.544-06:00Making a hash of it<span style="font-style:italic;">The Economist</span> recently ran an article titled <a href="http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10279823">Making a hash of it</a>. Neither the article nor the actual story is news, of course. What surprised and impressed me was the relative depth of the coverage of the subject, which is very rare in the mainstream media.<br /><br />It's true that <span style="font-style:italic;">The Economist</span> oversimplified what hashing functions do and understated how difficult it is to find collisions. Still, for people who don't program, writing a program to find a one-in-one-thousand collision is no more or less baffling than finding a one-in-one-hojillion collision. So, even if such simplifications make more technically astute readers cringe, the simplifications were necessary for the majority of its readership.<br /><br />For those for whom simplified discussion of hash collisions is too esoteric, I offer you instead this link to a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/16/2120077.htm">story about the rights of poop-eating worms</a>.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-42232846236673693462007-12-06T18:45:00.000-06:002007-12-06T18:59:05.893-06:00No El Guapo for me when I'm in Massachusetts in a few weeksI just found out that <a href="http://www.elpelon.com/">El Pelón</a>, my favorite taquería (outside of Mexico, anyway), <a href="http://thephoenix.com/phlog/PermaLink,guid,08983185-841a-4398-ba6f-228a712bcca5.aspx">burnt down</a>. I used to eat there a <span style="font-weight:bold;">lot</span>, when I worked in the Ximian office in the Fenway.<br /><br />(There's more info on some livejournal community page, but they ruined it by adding a lolcat image. I won't link to it. Lolcats are not funny.)<br /><br />Oh well. I be extra sure, now, to not miss another of my old haunts in Boston, <a href="http://boston.citysearch.com/profile/4789859">Pino's</a>.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-990568418413104062007-11-30T07:29:00.000-06:002007-11-30T07:40:01.866-06:00packaging day is today<a href="http://en.opensuse.org/Packaging/Packaging_Day">Packaging Day</a> has started. Be there or else!Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-40257179634739690052007-11-16T09:10:00.000-06:002007-11-16T09:21:24.936-06:00packaging dayOn November 30 through December 1, members of the openSUSE <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/GNOME">GNOME</a> and <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/KDE">KDE</a> teams will be holding a packaging day. If you would like to contribute by picking off packages on our wishlists (here's the <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/Wishlist_Gnome">GNOME wishlist</a> and here's the <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/Wishlist_KDE">KDE one</a>) this would be a great chance to do so.<br /><br />People with all levels of experience are welcome, although you'll probably benefit most if you have some prior experience compiling software by hand (eg, the usual ./configure; make; make install steps).<br /><br /><a href="http://en.opensuse.org/Packaging/Packaging_Day">More information is available on the wiki</a>.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-50822381296920248922007-10-18T18:10:00.000-05:002007-10-18T18:24:21.242-05:00You gotta know what a CRUMPET is to understand CRICKET!<a href="http://asiantelevision.com/">ATV</a> will soon be running a channel on <a href="http://www.xmradio.com/">XM Radio</a> (XM159).<br /><br />They're saying that it will include live cricket coverage.<br /><br />How's that?Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-2752836335407121182007-10-01T18:47:00.000-05:002007-10-01T18:50:26.610-05:00Biking in the DFYesterday, Alma and I went bike riding along some of Mexico City's largest streets. We were able to do this because they were closed to regular traffic during much of the day.<br /><br />The route we took is barely visible at <a href="http://www.df.gob.mx/secretarias/mambiente/muevete_bici.html">MUÉVETE EN BICI</a>. Unfortunately, the map is very low res, and zooming in won't help.<br /><br />We picked up the trail at the junction of División del Norte and Churubusco, went through a stretch of Patriotismo, and then went through parts of Condesa, Roma (where the stopped for a brunch of barbacoa), and the Zona Rosa. From there we picked up the Paseo de la Reforma towards the Centro Histórico, rode along the edge the Zócalo, skirted Merced, and went on to areas where I've never been on foot (and much less on a bike) and don't really know. When time ran out -- the streets were only closed from 7am till 2pm -- we were close to the Palacio de Deportes. There we got on the Metro and went home under someone else's power.<br /><br />Along the route, there were police protecting every major intersection and most if not all of the minor ones too.<br /><br />It was a great way to spend the day, although I wish we'd started earlier, or, better yet, that it went until later in the day. It was very nice to see Mexico City from a new perspective. It was kind of like being in a car, yet without the traffic and all that the traffic entails. And it was kind of like being on foot, except we were going much faster. I won't say that Mexico City would become paradise if everyone got out of their cars and started walking or cycling, but it sure would be a lot nicer. Seeing the surrounding mountains clearly would be a daily occurrence instead of a rare treat, and there would be much less noise. For many people, daily commutes would be substantially shorter. I am not joking about this last point.<br /><br />Biking here is usually a harrowing experience. But not yesterday.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tacobreath/1464187803/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1170/1464187803_dee1630899.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Me on my bike in front of the Ángel de Independencia" /><br /><br />Here's a picture of me by the Ángel of Independencia</a>.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-56721123351175927782007-09-25T19:53:00.000-05:002007-09-25T20:04:48.098-05:00ginger aleOn Sunday, Alma and I brewed a small batch of ginger ale. We roughly followed the directions at <a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Ginger-Ale">http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Ginger-Ale</a>. We deviated from the recipe a little bit in using limes instead of lemons. Hey, we're in Mexico — what do you expect?<br /><br />It finished brewing this morning (by our estimation). We let it refrigerate during the day, and just now opened and tried it. It was pretty good.<br /><br />Next time, we'll probably use fewer limes, so it's less citrusy; more ginger; and more yeast, so it comes out fizzier.<br /><br />Not bad at all for a first try!Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-28507243375633211232007-09-19T09:03:00.000-05:002007-09-19T09:06:14.348-05:00a humble suggestionLet's change today, Talk Like A You-know-what Day, into a mere hour.<br /><br />Seriously. Talk Like A Pirate Hour: it's the new hotness.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-26892782914596522922007-09-17T13:34:00.000-05:002007-09-17T13:52:33.141-05:00frantically moving to gnome 2.20.0We <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/GNOME_Team#The_GNOME_Team_Members">openSUSE GNOME people</a> are updating what will become openSUSE 10.3 to GNOME 2.20.0.<br /><br />So far, it's proving to be rather light work, and really not all that frantic, although we do intend to finish this update very soon. The <a href="http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-gnome/2007-09/msg00032.html">mail Gary sent last week</a> has the details.<br /><br />The fine work done by the GNOME release team makes this relatively easy, so many thanks to them.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-74656290328157784622007-09-17T13:33:00.000-05:002007-09-17T13:34:29.041-05:00interesting interview<a href="http://adncultura.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=943083">An interesting interview with author Haruki Murakami</a>. (In Spanish.)Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-91488797720633139452007-08-31T08:28:00.001-05:002007-08-31T08:34:05.825-05:00s/evento/acontecimiento/If you don't speak Spanish ignore what follows.<br /><br />s/evento/acontecimiento/. Por favor.<br /><br />(En el evento que lo de que hablas sea un evento sigue usando evento.)Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-37419378173227424302007-08-30T16:42:00.000-05:002007-08-30T16:53:44.233-05:00I like emacs.Here's some emacs lisp I whipped up yesterday. It helps out when running quilt against new .spec files on old systems. It's a bit crude, but so far it's proven quite the little timesaver -- it's certainly already repaid the 10 minutes I put into writing it.<br /><br /><style type="text/css"><br /> <!--<br /> body {<br /> color: #00ff00;<br /> background-color: #000000;<br /> }<br /> .constant {<br /> /* font-lock-constant-face */<br /> color: #7fffd4;<br /> }<br /> .fl-comment {<br /> /* fl-comment-face */<br /> color: #ffffff;<br /> }<br /> .fl-function-name {<br /> /* fl-function-name-face */<br /> color: #00bfff;<br /> }<br /> .fl-string {<br /> /* fl-string-face */<br /> color: #ff0000;<br /> }<br /> .keyword {<br /> /* font-lock-keyword-face */<br /> color: #00ffff;<br /> }<br /><br /> a {<br /> color: inherit;<br /> background-color: inherit;<br /> font: inherit;<br /> text-decoration: inherit;<br /> }<br /> a:hover {<br /> text-decoration: underline;<br /> }<br /> --><br /> </style><br /> <pre><br /><span class="fl-comment">;; Temporarily comment out %gconf_schemas_prereq, %lang_package, <br />;; %files lang, etc. <br />;; Useful when using quilt setup. Don't forget to save. You can <br />;; undo this with M-x ab-undumb-down-spec. <br /></span>(<span class="keyword">require</span> '<span class="constant">cl</span>) <br />(setf replacements '((<span class="fl-string">"^%gconf_schemas_prereq"</span> <br /> <span class="fl-string">"# GCONF_SCHEMAS_PREREQ"</span> <br /> <span class="fl-string">"%gconf_schemas_prereq"</span>) <br /> (<span class="fl-string">"^%lang_package"</span> <br /> <span class="fl-string">"# LANG_PACKAGE"</span> <br /> <span class="fl-string">"%lang_package"</span>) <br /> (<span class="fl-string">"^%files lang"</span> <br /> <span class="fl-string">"# FILES LANG"</span> <span class="fl-string">"%files lang"</span>) <br /> (<span class="fl-string">"^gnome-patch-translation-prepare"</span> <br /> <span class="fl-string">"# GNOME-PATCH-TRANSLATION-PREPARE"</span> <br /> <span class="fl-string">"gnome-patch-translation-prepare"</span>) <br /> (<span class="fl-string">"^gnome-patch-translation-update"</span> <br /> <span class="fl-string">"# GNOME-PATCH-TRANSLATION-UPDATE"</span> <br /> <span class="fl-string">"gnome-patch-translation-update"</span>))) <br /><br />(<span class="keyword">defun</span> <span class="fl-function-name">ab-dumb-down-spec</span> () <br /> (interactive) <br /> (<span class="keyword">let</span> ((old-pnt (point-marker))) <br /> (<span class="keyword">progn</span> (mapcar (<span class="keyword">lambda</span> (arg) <br /> (<span class="keyword">progn</span> (beginning-of-buffer) <br /> (replace-regexp (first arg) (second arg)))) <br /> replacements) <br /> (goto-char old-pnt)))) <br /><br />(<span class="keyword">defun</span> <span class="fl-function-name">ab-undumb-down-spec</span> () <br /> (interactive) <br /> (<span class="keyword">let</span> ((old-pnt (point-marker))) <br /> (<span class="keyword">progn</span> (mapcar (<span class="keyword">lambda</span> (arg) <br /> (<span class="keyword">progn</span> (beginning-of-buffer) <br /> (replace-string (second arg) (third arg)))) <br /> replacements) <br /> (goto-char old-pnt))))</pre><br /><br /><br />Adding new pieces of text to replace and unreplace is easy: add a list containing a regular expression matching the text to destroy, a(n ideally) unique temporary replacement, and the original text to <tt>replacements</tt>. I use a regexp in the <tt>car</tt>s in case there's the same text elsewhere, which I wouldn't want to change.<br /><br />Now I visit a .spec file, run <tt>M-x ab-dumb-down-spec</tt>, do quilt setup whatever.spec and other quilty things, and then revisit the .spec and do <tt>M-x ab-undumb-down-spec</tt> prior to doing actual builds.<br /><br />(By the way, the meat of this post was created by setting a region around this chunk of lisp and running <tt>M-x htmlize</tt>, although it looks like blogger is eating the colors.)Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-28070426831462535802007-08-23T10:12:00.000-05:002007-08-23T10:19:31.555-05:00136 years of solitude<pre>/dev/sda2 has gone 49680 days without being checked, check forced.</pre>Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-59612545640945534732007-08-21T08:52:00.000-05:002007-08-21T10:14:13.128-05:00back homeI arrived uneventfully in Mexico City last night. Was good to see my wife and cats again. Alma bought a bunch of plants during my absence. They make the apartment feel a little nicer somehow.<br /><br />I got stuck in an extra small seat from CDG to MEX -- there was a big metal box under the seat in front of me bolted to the floor and occupying about 1/3 of the "legroom". At 193cm tall, I find all seats cramped, but this was ridiculous. Ridiculously uncomfortable, that is.<br /><br />Being back at home is like stepping into a pair of old, comfortable shoes.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8628365218911310729.post-71897831946299066722007-08-17T05:41:00.000-05:002007-08-17T05:57:27.636-05:00in GermanyI'm in Germany. I haven't been having a great time, though. I felt really sick a day after I arrived, and although I've been feeling steadily better since, my recovery has been quite slow. At least I'm able to eat and enjoy food (assuming it's edible and enjoyable, of course, which most of it is) again, although I get full quickly and stay full for a long time.<br /><br />Seeing people whom I mostly know as email addresses and IRC nicks has been productive and nice, of course. That's the real value in this sort of trip.Michael Wolfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18068630733762770700noreply@blogger.com0