Pulvis Et Umbra

Useful Mac Script

2008-07-13T16:34:00.000-07:00

When I used to use Windows more regularly (i.e. Windows NT), one of the most useful commands was the "start" command. It would behave much like the "Run" dialog. The number one thing I used it for was to open the current directory (or another directory) in the Explorer.

When I moved to Linux, this was still relatively possible (using konqueror or gmc from the terminal).

Upon moving to the Mac, I've never found anything that does it very well. I googled around for something today, and still found nothing. So I thought a little bit and wrote one.

You can download it here. I called it "reveal". It does some very simple (by no means comprehensive) URL escaping on the specified path (or current directory if none is given) to create a file URL. Then it uses osascript to tell Finder to open that location. Simple.

UPDATE: I added a line to bring Finder into the foreground.

UPDATE++: Apparently there's already a command to do this (open). Appeared in NextStep. Curse you Google!

Preying On Youth?

2008-07-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

Being fairly unconventional in my youth, I have some exciting stories. One time I spent my birthday money on "Subliminal Tapes". The theory was that they had hidden recordings that played directly into your subconscious.

That sounded like it made sense to me (being about 12), so I purchased a few. Two that I recall were one to improve my bowling game (I was in a kid's league at the time), and one titled "Do It Now!". Even at 12, I knew I was a procrastinator. It was a harmless purchase, even if a naive one.

At that point I clearly had the idea that I was spending my money, and what it meant. A few years earlier, not so much. I had previously fallen victim to a much more insidious scheme. In the later case, "Subliminal Tapes" were intended to play upon the naivety or curiosity of adults--people who should know better. People who would know to read the fine print.

Here's the scenario. Being a 10-year-old, I heard a commercial on the radio for a phone number that would get me a message from Santa Claus. How could I resist? I mean, I wasn't so certain about his existence at the time, but I thought it sounded like it was worth calling. Of course, there was some boilerplate about having your parents' permission, but it obviously didn't (and wouldn't) have a huge impact on a 10-year-old. So I called this number. I'll give you a hint, it started with 900.

That's right, instead of a 900 number being used as God intended, for audio porn and hookup lines, it was instead being used to drain the wallets of unsuspecting parents. So, after about ten calls to a repeating automated message, my parents figured it out, talked to me about it, and I learned that I had been a party to their fleecing; and that Santa Claus doesn't have a phone.

Not cool. In fact, later, these people were pretty much categorically sued into the ground by various States' Attorneys General. It stands under the some very old, and very sound, legal reasoning--i.e. if you put a cookie in a bear trap in your front lawn, you are liable when a child gets caught in it.

These days, I'm a recent parent. I think it's important to supervise my son and my step-daughter. A kid can't raise itself. Television is not a substitute for supervision. That said, I don't need some greedy schmuck making parenting more difficult either. As an analogy, just because I don't let my kids smoke doesn't mean that I'd be thrilled about Mickey-Mouse-themed cigarettes (note, Mickey Mouse is wholly owned by the Disney Military-Industrial Complex).

You can imagine my dismay when I saw a certain commercial on television. Was what I saw an attractive nuisance? No. Was it designed to prey upon parents who raise their children with a television? Yes, it was. In fact, being shown on the "Teen Network" was direct, if brazen, targeting.

What was it, you ask? It was so simple, and yet unoriginal, that it must be the work of some sort of greedy idiot savant. Imagine the Magic 8-Ball accessed via a cellphone text message. That's right, you text your "question" to "Ask The Phone", and you get cryptic, generic responses back.

If you read the fine print, it says you must be 18+, or 13+ with the "wireless subscriber's permission". Oh, and it's $9 per month for 5 questions, plus $2 each additional question (with varying differences for different carriers). Wow.

Should this be outlawed? No. Should these people be shut down? Not directly. Should it be possible for a small, determined group of parents to make these people suffer in court until they closed down? Very probably.

Genius Speaks For Itself

2008-06-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure everyone has heard already, George Carlin died this week (picture kindly borrowed from Wikipedia).

We all choose to remember the people that influence us in different ways. George is easy to memorialize because so much of his work is so faithfully recorded.

I was able to find my favorite one of his routines on YouTube. I've included it here for your viewing.

Make sure you listen all the way through. He insults a lot of people early on, but if you listen to his message, you'll see that his message, while dark, actually transcends most of the rhetoric on the subject.

Crash!

2008-06-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday was eventful. A MUNI train rear-ended another one in front of the apartment. It was before a game, so there were tons of people around and it was a bit crazy. There were 6 ambulances at one point. The track was running later that day.

It's hard to appreciate the damage from the pictures. Keep in mind that these trains have a giant steel connector that sticks out of each end about a foot or two. For these trains to be that close, it means that two of these assemblies have met and crumpled enough to shorten the whole thing by four or five feet. Two giant steel assemblies that are each hefty enough to hold multiple cars together--CRUNCH!

Random Erlang Article

2008-06-02T00:54:00.000-07:00

We really should have tried harder to hire Yariv. He's an awesome guy. I recently found this on his blog.

It's an excellent comparison of Erlang and Scala. However, it's even better as a very concise, succinct explanation of how the pieces of Erlang fit together to make it so useful.

A Sad Goodbye

2008-05-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't heard, Daniel Joseph Dougherty died Friday from complications from his cancer. The specifics probably don't matter. For those who want to know, his heart was stopped by a blood clot, possibly from bleeding within his heart. The story I got was muddled.

Ironically, I was actually looking at plane tickets to go see him shortly before he died. He had requested that we make it out so that he could see us and his namesake, David Joseph, before things got any worse. As you might imagine, this has hit Alicia and I pretty hard.

Before we moved out here, he actually intended to come out with us. It seems like only a month ago--actually it was only a month ago--that he was dreamily thinking of starting an exciting new chapter of his life in San Francisco.

He actually sent out his bicycles and his most prized possessions with us when we came out. Being Joey, it was mostly antiquated but somehow unique old computer hardware.

He will be missed.

I am currently unclear as to exactly where the funeral and visitation will be held, as I've alternately heard it would be at (I think) the First Christian Church or at Waters Funeral Home, in Vandalia, Missouri. The visitation will be from 5pm to 8pm on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008. The funeral will be the following morning at 10am on Thursday, May 8th, 2008. I am currently assuming that the visitation will be at Waters and the funeral will be at the Church.

Funeral home is at 500 Main St in Vandalia. Here's a (hopefully accurate) map:

View Larger Map

The church (assuming I have the right one) is at 205 W Park Street, also in Vandalia, Missouri. Here's another (also hopefully accurate) map:

View Larger Map

I'll edit this post with updates as I get more information.

A Warm Welcome

2008-04-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

I'd like to introduce you to David Joseph Vantuyl. He was born April 15, 2008 at 8:39 PM PST. It was a warm spring day in San Francisco, California. He weighs in at 6 lbs 5 oz and is 19 inches long. He is also disarmingly cute, as can be seen in the pictures here.

He's healthy and is generally happy (unless tickled).

First Post, Again

2008-04-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

Well, my old blog is effectively gone. I could recover it, but I don't have the time. Wasn't that much on it anyways.

Let's see how well blogger handles remote blogs. I'm kind of curious actually.