On Memorial Day, the U.S. flag should be flown at half-staff from sunrise until noon (“U.S. Flag Code” 4 U.S. Code 1).
Author: Bruce
Happy Pi Day!
Firefox and related tabs
New version of Firefox (you did upgrade to 3.6 already, right?) now opens new tabs immediately adjacent to the tab you’re in when you right-click a link. To change it back to the “old” way (open a new tab after all the other tabs), go to about:config in the URL bar and toggle browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent from “true” to “false”
Fighting tyranny
“Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” — Winston Churchill
“Miracles do not cluster. Hold on to the Constitution of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands — what has happened once in six thousand years may never happen again. Hold on to your Constitution, for if the American Constitution shall fail there will be anarchy throughout the world.” — Daniel Webster
Removing Picasa “Favorite Activity”
Some random person on Picasa shared an album with me. I have no idea who they are or why they shared with me. Some random travel pictures of Malaysia or something. But it was irritating to have to see it in “Favorites Activity” every time I went into my own albums.
Google doesn’t provide a direct way from the activity list to remove someone. The process to remove it is to click the shared link and go to the other person’s gallery. Add them as a Favorite using the link on their album.
Then when you go back to your own People/Favorites tab, and click the “List” link in the top right corner, there are checkboxes to stop getting updates from them or to remove them outright.
Keyboard mapping problem in Ubuntu VNC session
New hard drive in my home PC = upgrade to/new install of Ubuntu 9.10 last night.
I set up tightvncserver and all worked fine from home when I tested it last night. Today from my Macbook at work, though, odd keyboard mapping prevented using a VNC session.
A little searching online reveals that tightvncserver is apparently built with an old version of XFree. Removing tightvncserver and using vnc4server instead solved the problem.
Interest
“Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels; it takes no pleasure; it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours; it never has short crops nor droughts; it never pays taxes; it buys no food; it wears no clothes; it is unhoused and without home and so has no repairs, no replacements, no shingling, plumbing, painting, or whitewashing; it has neither wife, children, father, mother, nor kinfolk to watch over and care for; it has no expense of living; it has neither weddings nor births nor deaths; it has no love, no sympathy; it is as hard and soulless as a granite cliff. Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.” Â —Â J. Reuben Clark
The first 100 things to become scarce during an emergency
Found this list online. How is your supply of these?
1. Generators 2. Water filters/purifiers 3. Portable toilets 4. Seasoned firewood 5. Lamp oil, wicks, lamps 6. Coleman fuel 7. Guns, ammunition, pepper spray, knives, clubs, bats, slingshots 8. Hand can openers, hand egg beaters, whisks 9. Honey, syrups, white/brown sugar 10. Rice, beans, wheat 11. Vegetable oil (for cooking) 12. Charcoal, lighter fluid 13. Water containers 14. Mini heater head (propane) (Without this item, propane won't heat a room.) 15. Grain grinder (Non-electric) 16. Propane cylinders 17. Survival guide book 18. Lamp mantles: Aladdin, Coleman, etc. (Without this item, longer-term lighting is difficult.) 19. Baby supplies: Diapers/formula, ointments/aspirin, etc. 20. Washboards, mop bucket w/wringer (for laundry) 21. Cookstoves (propane, Coleman, kerosene) 22. Vitamins 23. Propane cylinder handle holder (Small canister use is dangerous without this item) 24. Feminine hygiene/haircare/skin products 25. Thermal underwear (tops and bottoms) 26. Bow saws, axes and hatchets, wedges (also, honing oil) 27. Aluminum foil -- regular and heavy duty 28. Gasoline containers (plastic and metal) 29. Garbage bags 30. Toilet Paper, Kleenex, Paper Towels 31. Milk (powdered, condensed: shake every 3 to 4 months) 32. Garden seeds (non-hybrid) 33. Clothes pins/line/hangers 34. Coleman's pump repair kit 35. Tuna fish (in oil) 36. Fire extinguishers 37. First aid kits 38. Batteries 39. Garlic, spices, vinegar, baking supplies 40. Big dogs (and plenty of dog food) 41. Flour, yeast, salt 42. Matches 43. Writing paper/pads/pencils, solar calculators 44. Insulated ice chests 45. Workboots, belts, Levis, durable shirts 46. Flashlights, lightsticks, torches, "No. 76 Dietz" lanterns 47. Journals, diaries, scrapbooks 48. Garbage cans (great for storage, water, transporting - if with wheels) 49. Men's hygiene: Shampoo, Toothbrush/paste, Mouthwash/floss, nail clippers, etc 50. Cast iron cookware 51. Fishing supplies/tools 52. Mosquito coils/repellent, sprays/creams 53. Duct tape 54. Tarps/stakes/twine/nails/rope/spikes 55. Candles 56. Laundry Detergent (liquid) 57. Backpacks, duffel bags 58. Garden tools and supplies 59. Scissors, fabrics, sewing supplies 60. Canned Fruits, Veggies, Soups, stews, etc. 61. Bleach (plain, NOT scented: 4 to 6% sodium hypochlorite) 62. Canning supplies, jars/lids/wax 63. Knives, sharpening tools: files, stones, steel 64. Bicycles, tires/tubes/pumps/chains, etc 65. Sleeping bags, blankets/pillows/mats 66. Carbon monoxide alarm (battery powered) 67. Board games, cards, dice 68. D-con rat poison, MOUSE PRUFE II, roach killer 69. Mousetraps, ant traps, cockroach magnets 70. Paper plates/cups/utensils 71. Baby wipes, waterless and antibacterial soaps 72. Rain gear, rubberized boots, etc. 73. Shaving supplies (razors, creams, talc, after shave) 74. Hand pumps, siphons (for water and for fuels) 75. Soy sauce, vinegar, boullion/gravy/soup base 76. Reading glasses 77. Chocolate/Cocoa/Tang/Punch (water enhancers) 78. "Survival-in-a-Can" 79. Woolen clothing, scarves/earmuffs/mittens 80. Boy Scout Handbook, Leaders Catalog 81. Roll-on window insulation kit (MANCO) 82. Graham crackers, saltines, pretzels, trail mix, jerky 83. Popcorn, peanut butter, nuts 84. Socks, underwear, T-shirts, etc. (extras) 85. Lumber (all types) 86. Wagons and carts (for transport to and from) 87. Cots, inflatable mattresses 88. Gloves: Work/warming/gardening, etc. 89. Lantern hangers 90. Screen patches 91. Tea 92. Coffee 93. Cigarettes 94. Wine/Liquors (for bribes, medicinal, etc,) 95. Paraffin wax 96. Glue, nails, nuts, bolts, screws, etc. 97. Chewing gum/candies 98. Atomizers (for cooling/bathing) 99. Hats, cotton neckerchiefs 100. Goats/chickens
Removing Mailman list members with invalid addresses
If you have a list member with an invalid address (I ended up with one that had 2 concatenated addresses, yielding 2 @ characters which the default parser apparently does not like), the regular bin/remove_members
script won’t work. You can use this trick though:
cd /path/to/mailman
bin/withlist -l listname
>>> m.removeMember('foo@example.combar@example.com')
>>> m.Save()
>>> ^D
See the Mailman wiki for more details and other things to try if even this step doesn’t work.
Deleting sendmail file pairs based on content
This one-liner will identify files containing a string, and then use some bash string manipulation to generate a wildcard for the pair of files sendmail creates for each message (dfn for message content, and Qfn for headers). This assumes you’re running it in the mail queue directory (/var/spool/mqueue for example).
for f in `grep -l -i viagra *`; do t=${f:10:6}; rm -f *${t}; done
The ${f:10:6}
extracts the last 6 characters of the filename, then the rm
command prepends that with the wildcard.
Some sample output:
[root@mail mqueue]# grep -l -i cialis *
dfn7U8Rc3X020530
dfn7UD7BUh015512
dfn7VELCbV031687
But there are actually six files:
[root@mail mqueue]# ls -l | egrep "020530|015512|031687"
-rw------- 1 root smmsp 2062 Aug 30 01:27 dfn7U8Rc3X020530
-rw------- 1 root smmsp 2232 Aug 30 06:07 dfn7UD7BUh015512
-rw------- 1 root smmsp 2069 Aug 31 07:21 dfn7VELCbV031687
-rw------- 1 root smmsp 825 Aug 30 01:27 Qfn7U8Rc3X020530
-rw------- 1 root smmsp 837 Aug 30 06:07 Qfn7UD7BUh015512
-rw------- 1 root smmsp 810 Aug 31 07:21 Qfn7VELCbV031687
So we run the command, using cialis:
for f in `grep -l -i cialis *`; do t=${f:10:6}; rm -f *${t}; done
Then there are no more files 🙂
[root@mail mqueue]# for f in `grep -l -i cialis *`; do t=${f:10:6}; rm -f *${t}; done
[root@mail mqueue]# grep -l -i cialis *
[root@mail mqueue]#