MUST HAVE

super useful app like finder on steroids http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

most excellent project timer widget http://www.microcore.dk/TheDailyGrind/

good countdown timer widget http://www.metabang.com/widgets/stop-it/index.html

list of osx shortcuts widget http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/reference/xcuts.html

dashboard wiki ( not super useful but fun ) widget http://inkspotting.com/wikity/

All the linux programs ( for mac ) – recommended http://www.macports.org/

There is something very similar called http://finkproject.org/

trick out safari http://pimpmysafari.com/plugins/safaristand

PRODUCTIVITY

open office with cocoa mac look and feel http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

project management just started using this one, no opinion yet http://bargiel.home.pl/iGTD/

mailing list software http://imailistproj.sourceforge.net/

billing and invoicing http://www.prettygoodsoftware.org/

screencast software ( make a movie of your screen as you do something ) http://www.shinywhitebox.com/home/home.html

enveloper maker http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/easyenvelopes/

set alerts for most anything on your system, alot of good software plugs into this http://growl.info/

PROGRAMMING

terminal replacement, tabbed terminal http://iterm.sourceforge.net/

cocoa mysql http://cocoamysql.sourceforge.net/download.php

enable the local mailserver for testing of php mail functions http://cutedgesystems.com/software/PostfixEnabler/

text editor http://macromates.com/

really useful firefox plugins https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60

COMMUNICATION

RSS news aggregator (free and good) http://www.utsire.com/shrook/

multi client chat http://www.adiumx.com/

ftp / sftp http://cyberduck.ch/ or http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/

irc client http://colloquy.info/

vnc http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/

remote desktop ( terminal services ) http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherproducts/otherproducts.aspx?pid=remotedesktopclient

control outbound connections http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

bittorrent client http://azureus.sourceforge.net/

wifi sniffer http://www.istumbler.net/

network sniffer http://kismac.de/

MEDIA

RIP MP3’S AT HIGH SPEED uses lame to rip mp3’s and itunes to give them the names. Must compile lame for osx, install apple development tools, you need the c++ compiler, you will not need to actually compile stuff, macports does this for you. install macports, then from terminal as root, “port install lame” http://blacktree.com/apps/iTunes-LAME/

movie viewer http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

view windows media files http://www.flip4mac.com/

mount your ipod and retreve music without Itunes http://ipoddisk.ourbiti.com/

sound editor http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

guitar tuner http://www.silencetostatic.com/software/guitartuner1.0.zip

HELPFUL

windows helpfile viewer for osx http://chmox.sourceforge.net/

mind mapping software ( helps get ducks in row or vector in java speak ) http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Screenshots

FUN

mac saber http://isnoop.net/blog/2006/05/20/macsaber-turn-your-mac-into-a-jedi-weapon/

screensaver of earth with live overlays of clouds. http://www.osxplanet.com/

alot of cool screensavers ( he wrote winamp ) http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/screenshots/

Format: Date: 2007-06-17 04:17:35 -0500 Pings: Off Comments: On

My scooter, returned from it’s walkabout with a meth addict, but is still recovering. I was riding to see Pat at Pho79 for soup Friday, cruising about 40mph, the engine made a really loud farting sound then died. I thought it was just hot, or a really fouled plug.

I spent a while at a neighboring auto parts store and replaced the plug. I bought some ether ( starting fluid ), everything starts with starter fluid; most anything. The plug wasn’t the exact type, but close enough

For reference the correct NGK spark plug for a 2003 Aprilia Mojito is a BPR8HS and a NGK 3725, they are one in the same. It’s damn near impossible to find the BPR8HS but the 3725 is common, and when I got the 3725, it had bpr8hs written on the box under 3725. I think they are changing the part number schemes.

The starter fluid didn’t help. The plug was AMAZINGLY FOULED. I was in the process of futzing with the tuning, when the scooter was stolen. It was in an especially bad state of tune, and driven by the thief for 1000 miles. and it showed in the wear on the scooter.

I brought it home and yesterday did a compression test, it was supposed to have 11 : 1 compression or 176psi, it has 60psi. The piston rings are shot.

I called aprilia and they said that the rings are the weak point in the engine, for precisely the reason to mitigate dumb guy damage. The replacement part is cheap, but takes 4 hours to replace and requires a tree and some rope to install, you decide why.

I’m actually looking forward to riding my bicycle in to work for a week. I have to get up much earlier, but it will be fun.

For a little while yesterday I considered a different scooter. I found this on you tube.

I bought a nice ripe pineapple a few days ago. I took a little too long to cut it up for chutney, resulting in hundreds of little fruit flies.

I found a good way of getting rid of them. A glass of vinegar, with a dash of dishsoap.

They land on the surface of the vinegar, and sink. No surface tension. Most of the flies were gone in 12 hours.

I just heard a great new term. Theres offshoring, where you job out a project to a bunch of people overseas. And there is Lakeshoring, where you job out a project to local consultants ( who may be working at their lake shore homes. )

I heard about Wafaa Bilala a Chicago artist from Iraq who has a installation, a site here where you can control a camera roboticly, and shoot him, with paint pellets. In a video he mentioned he needed a good night sleep. I whipped up this ruby script that moves the robot left, all the time. Their firewall blocks me after a while. But if you want to try…

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
# give the guy an hour of sleep
require 'net/http' 

url= 'wafaabilal.com'
h = Net::HTTP.new(url, 80)

7200.times do |i|
  response = h.get("/forward.php?action=move_left") 
  sleep(0.5)
end

The power adapter for my macbook melted last night.

I'm going to take it to apple and see if warranty covers it. I looked up the problem and it seems that alot of others have the same issue.

I like cushy socks. My old socks were all worn, so I threw them out; bought a bunch of new socks I thought were comfey. Last night, in a store, I remembered my dad going on and on about some great socks he bought; “Dr Scholls Diabetic Socks”.

He went on and on about how comfortable they are.

And now, so am I.

They are great. Don’t bind, itch, they stay cool, and are really soft. They are the best socks EVER. Wow, I sound like an Apple fanatic…….

I had to send large files with rails, so huge that it was killing rails.

Here is the solution, note the allow-x-send-file NOT allow-x-sendfile, this wasted a few hours of mine.

Make sure that “mod_fastcgi” is in the server.modules stanza of the lighttpd.conf file

Here is the vhosts.conf file

$HTTP["host"] =~ "www.yoursite.com" {
    server.document-root        = base + "/domains/yoursite.com/web/public/"
    server.error-handler-404 = "/dispatch.fcgi"
    compress.filetype        = ( "text/plain", "text/html", "text/css", "text/javascript" )
    compress.cache-dir       = base + "/domains/yoursite.com/web/tmp/cache"
    fastcgi.server = ( ".fcgi" =>
        ( "localhost" =>
            ( "socket" => base + "/var/run/yoursite-0.socket",
                "allow-x-send-file" => "enable",
                "bin-environment"   => ("RAILS_ENV" => "production")
            )
        )
    )
}

rails controller code

def send_this_file
    # this will force rails to read the entire file then stream it out BAD
    #send_file "#{RAILS_ROOT}/public/pdf/#{params[:id]}" , :type => mime_for(params[:id]), :disposition => 'inline', :stream => false

    # this will pass the headers to lighttpd and force it to handle the large static file, rails doesn't read the large file.
    filename = "#{RAILS_ROOT}/public/pdf/#{params[:id]}"
    response.headers['Content-Type'] = "application/force-download"
    response.headers['Content-Disposition'] = "attachment; filename=\"#{File.basename(filename)}\"" 
    response.headers["X-LIGHTTPD-send-file"] = filename
    response.headers['Content-length'] = File.size(filename)
    render :nothing => true
end

A while back I found a nifty utility that allows you to browse other server via sftp through the finder. http://toadstool.se/journal/2007/01/12/first-look-at-macfuse-and-sshfs

http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/

The market adjusted alot yesterday at 3pm est, on the top of the hour. I was wondering about the time as well as the suddenness. Things that happen at the top or the bottom of the hour seem to be more likely to come from systemic causes. Markets open at the top or bottom of the hour. Markets close. Banks open and close. But 3 pm EST wasn’t one of those times anywhere on the globe. However it was Midnight in Dubai, Alot of banking happens there. Midnight is usually when batch processes are scheduled to kick off.

I’ve got a theory that the China selloff the previous day left a few LARGE accounts rather dry in Dubai. Automated batch processes spooled up to at Midnight and like good little drones they sold off off their stake in some holdings to cover the losses.

Sort of like each major financial market is like a needle sticking up in one of those wind up music boxes, waiting to pluck those 5 chords (market open,close, bank open,close, Midnight ( settle the account time ) )