Making Vimperator 2.2+ work with Delicious keywords

This blog post echos the same information as issue 138, which describes a tiny plugin delicious_addon_kw_hack.js that can be used to restore compatibility with the Delicious add-on.

As discussed in issue 120, as of changeset da9c0a1a532d of Vimperator v2.2b1, Vimperator's ":open" will stop recognizing keywords imported from Delicious bookmarks via the the Delicious Firefox add-on.

A simple way to fix the problem is to drop the following code:

bookmarks.getSearchURL = function(text, useDefsearch) {
  let url = null;
  let postData = {};
  let searchString =
    (useDefsearch ? option["defsearch"] + " " : "")
    + text;

  this.getSearchEngines();

  url = window.getShortcutOrURI(searchString, postData);

  if (url == searchString)
    return [null, null];

  if (postData && postData.value)
    return [url, postData.value];

  return [url, null]; // can be null
}

into a file like delicious_addon_kw_hack.js into your ~/.vimperator/plugin/ directory (or the equivalent directory under Windows; see :help plugins for more details).

"Administrative e-mail" from Ticketmaster

By the CAN-SPAM Act of George W. Bush, Conrad Burns, and Ron Wyden, SPAM can be sent to your e-mail address as long as it provides a way to opt-out of it at the bottom of the e-mail.

Today I received this message from Ticketmaster about an upcoming Bluejackets promotion (which I took a screenshot of for you to capture the full effect – click on the image for a larger version):

OF COURSE, to be in compliance with CAN-SPAM, they need this little blurb at the bottom:

That's strange that it says "This is an administrative mail." Moreover, it's very strange that when I click on the "Link t- e-mail preferences page" link, I get a web page with a little blurb saying:

The e-mail you are coming from is administrative so you cannot unsubscribe. You may update your account preferences for non-administrative e-mails below.

Underneath the blurb, it shows that I have previously unselected all Ticketmaster spam sources. So evidently advertisements about upcoming Coors' sponsored events are purely administrative.

I should note that I haven't purchased a ticket from Ticketmaster since the summer, and I haven't purchased a BlueJackets ticket in years. There's no way this e-mail is in response to any action I have taken at Ticketmaster.

Thank you, George W. Bush, Conrad Burns, and Ron Wyden! Way to revolutionize AMER-I-CAN-SPAM.

Literal Total Eclipse of the Heart

RT: @notspam1: Give it time, but literal version of Total Eclipse of the Heart is great: http://tinyurl.com/nacjd8

UPDATE: A good follow-up is the literal version of "Anything for Love"...

Installing docutils for Mercurial (rst2man and rst2html)

If you're building Mercurial from its source, you might notice that the latest versions are using reStructuredText to markup their documentation. Hence, you'll need to install docutils. Additionally:

• You'll have to install the rst2man tool that is presently only available in the docutils "Sandbox," which you have to download separately.
• You'll have to make sure you have the new rst2man.py tool accessible in your PATH as rst2man.
• You'll have to make sure you have the included rst2html.py tool accessible in your PATH as rst2html.

So it's no surprise that yet-another-Python-related-adventure is yet-another-Python-related-headache. Here's how to get up and running. Things should get substantially simpler if and when docutils starts including rst2man as part of their standard distribution (however, you'll probably still have to make the simlinks unless Mercurial's installer is able to call the rst scripts with their .py extension). Meanwhile, here are some steps that will hopefully get you (the UNIX or Mac/OS X user) moving in the right direction.

• First, go to the docutils website and download the docutils snapshot as well as the docutils sandbox snapshot.
• tar zxf those tarballs to extract the docutils source code. That should give docutils and sandbox directories.
• Copy sandbox/manpage-writer/tools/rst2man.py to somewhere in your PATH (e.g., /usr/local/bin/rst2man.py or ~/bin/rst2man.py if you have ~/bin in your PATH).
• Create a symbolic link in your PATH from the rst2man.py you just placed there to rst2man. For example, symlink /usr/local/bin/rst2man.py to /usr/local/bin/rst2man by doing ln -s rst2man.py rst2man in the /usr/local/bin directory.
• Copy sandbox/manpage-writer/docutils/writers/manpage.py to docutils/docutils/writers/manpage.py.
• In the docutils directory, run python setup.py install (for a global installation) or python setup.py install --home ~ (for a home installation).
• Copy docutils/rst2html.py to somewhere in your PATH (e.g., /usr/local/bin/rst2html.py or ~/bin/rst2html.py).
• Create a symbolic link in your PATH from the rst2html.py you just placed there to rst2html. For example, ln -s rst2html.py rst2html inside your /usr/local/bin or ~/bin directory.
• Fetch the latest version of Mercurial and build it. Assuming you have all of the other dependencies, it should build OK.

Of course, YMMV, but I hope that at least helps get you on your way.

#HiaWWF: Hatred is a Weak Word For

Definition for the purpose of tagging tweets with #HiaWWF: Hatred is a Weak Word For (HiaWWF)

pine, mutt, elm, and mousetraps

The web hosting provider for tedpavlic.com recently upgraded their UNIX boxes to a 64-bit platform, and the websites I host with them had to be moved over. There were a few small hiccups (primarily due to 32-bit apps I built that needed to be re-built), but most of the issues afterwards had to deal with apps that I asked them to install on the old machine that I then had to ask them to install again on the new machine. One of those apps was (al)pine, which is the console-based e-mail client that I use. They installed pine for me, but the guy in charge was curious. Here's a response to a question he had about my request. It's my justification for using pine (and throwing away the mouse).

But I must ask, for the few odd requests I get for pine, I am curious as to if you actually use it on a day to day basis or just for testing. I remember using it back in the day (good ol'e ISDN!), but it seems a bit redundant and quaint now that we have webmail and Thunderbird and such.

Gosh – pine is far more powerful than either of those. For example:

*) Does webmail support IMAP tags? Pine does. Thunderbird just started, and it's support is still limited.

*) When managing large folders of mail, it's often much easier to query and process the messages with pine. I can quickly select a batch of messages, invert the selection, view the selection as its own folder, etc. etc. I have much more efficacy in pine.

*) If I'm at a remote computer, it's much more convenient for me to ssh into gemini and run pine than to use webmail (which is slow and clunky) or setup Thunderbird for my one time use.

*) If I'm at a remote computer *with* pine, if I run THAT pine and point it at gemini's IMAP server, pine will use the pine configuration (and address book) that is stored in a special IMAP folder. Hence, pine is much more portable than Thunderbird.

*) With very few exceptions, I'm much happier with console-mode (or near-console-mode) apps. Similarly, I use vim on every machine I have. Not only does it give me a uniform editing environment wherever I am, but with the addons packaged with any standard vim installation, vim will download, edit, and upload networked files automatically for me without much extra work on my part.

*) Oh, and don't forget that once upon a time you could only get pico with pine. Now, IIRC, nano comes separately.

My officemate uses mutt, and I used to be a major elm fan because it integrated better with vim. I shifted to pine because it's just so very powerful.

Have you heard of Vimperator? It's an add-on for Firefox that makes it act like Vim. The same people also brought out Muttator – it's an addon for Thunderbird that makes it act like mutt.

So there are lots of us out there that are dissatisfied with the GUI. Console-mode developers don't put a lot of time into perfecting the shading of the chrome. Instead, they add features, and they make the apps fast.

(note: applications like Quicksilver, Spotlight, and Microsoft's latest knock-off are bringing people back to the keyboard. People would rather *type* the app they want to launch rather than clicking through folders. Eventually, people will realize where the mouse belongs – dead in a trap stuck in the garbage out in the garage)

Thanks. :) –
Ted

YouTube video of helicopter control project of a student

For anyone who doesn't understand what "control" is, the following is a small example of the work of a "control engineer". In this case, the engineer is one of my students. He's an undergraduate in a class I taught last quarter; this YouTube video is a demonstration of his final project for the class:

As shown, his controller manages to keep the helicopter stabilized in a position that gets set by the joystick. The computer "flies" the helicopter with a heading set by a human via joystick. When they push on the helicopter, they're simulating a disturbance like a heavy wind gust. The helicopter's controller quickly brings it back to its old state. What you don't see is that the controller has been designed to do this as smoothly as possible (e.g., to prevent "jerkiness" within the helicopter).

This is a concrete example of classical control design. What I do in particular in my own research is quite a bit different. However, the video is a nice demonstration about what "control engineers" (like me) do.

Something for fans of Douglas Adams

I am not a member of the Douglas Adams cult, nor do I foam at the mouth thinking about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; however, I do know several such junkies. I had an experience yesterday that I thought would interest them.

The following picture is taken from the floor of the bathroom down the hall from my office.

If you can't see it, then click on the large version of the image. To give an idea of scale, I think the little tag is one of those stickers indicating either the size of a jacket or the identity of a particular clothing inspector.

Just a Walk on the Beach? (by my brother)

My brother, who is presently suffering with ALS, just sent this. Please visit my d'Feet ALS walk web page and help us.

Just a Walk on the Beach?

I want you to think back, imagine in your mind, totally block all other thoughts out, just focus on what you are reading. Close your eyes to all your surroundings for just a few minutes.

Imagine, your walking along the beach and you see kids starting to bury the feet of a young persons with sand, packing it down, adding water to make it good and heavy so the feet can’t move. Can you see him? Standing with no movement in his feet? Can you? He can handle it right?

You continue down the sandy beach as the ocean waves continue to splash. You come upon another group of kids that have buried this young persons feet, calves, just above his knees. You watch as he concentrates on his balance a bit more. Can you see him? Have you ever lost your balance? Do you remember that feeling? Do you? Should you help yet?

You go down further and you come to another group burying a young persons feet, legs, waist and hands. Not only can he not move his feet and legs but now his hands won’t move right. All statuesque, unable to move can you see him? Can you? Ready yet?

As you’re reaching the end of the beach you see yet another group. Packing sand from his feet to his throat. As you look on you can see that he can’t walk, move his arms, struggling to breath from the weight of the sand. He can’t talk from the pressure on throat. You can now see the fear in his eyes of when will the tide come in. Can you see him? Can you? Have you asked how can help or just stand by and watch?

As you walk around the front of him looking in his fear filled eyes you realize that you recognize this young man. It’s your son! Are you ready to help yet? What will you do now? Are you too late?

DON’T WAIT TILL IT EFFECTS SOMEONE YOU LOVE, HELP NOW!!

Strike out ALS.

Ken Timmons

Again, please visit my d'Feet ALS walk web page and help us.

Thanks.

My 2009 d'Feet ALS Walk Page

My brother Ken has ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Every year, our family participates in the ALS association's Columbus chapter's Walk to Defeat ALS, and this year is no different.

Please help us defeat ALS by visiting my 2009 d'Feet ALS walk page.

Thanks so much.