chuyeow.wtf

YSlow - Firefox extension that helps to optimize your web pages

2007-07-26T13:24:51+00:00

YSlow</a> is a Firefox extension that works with Firebug</a> to grade your web pages' performance and gives you advice on how to fix any problems. Awesome. It has JSLint</a> built into it too. And yes I got a big freaking F. Via Arun</a> (IRL</acronym>).

MySQL command line "secret"

2007-07-19T18:02:25+00:00

Tom Preston-Werner</a> (of Gravatar and Chronic fame) wrote about this neat MySQL command line "trick"</a> where instead of ending your SELECT statements with the usual semi-colon, using a "\G" gives you a very readable output.
mysql> select * from locations where location_code = 'SIN' limit 1\G *************************** 1. row *************************** location_code: SIN location_name: Singapore Changi Apt multi_airport_city_code: SIN location_type: A location_sub_type: A country_code: SG state_code: active: 1 latitude: 01.22.00N longitude: 103.59.00E 1 row in set (0.10 sec)</code></pre> Very useful, especially when SELECTing multiple fields where the output becomes unfit for visual consumption (you know what I mean, just go SELECT some stuff in your MySQL command line and you'll see if you don't).
Firefox "ad" in the Singapore MRT 2006-11-16T20:18:57+00:00 I saw a familiar furry animal on one of the ads near the entrance of City Hall MRT</acronym> and did a double take when I realized it was actually a firefox! I had no real choice but to snap a grainy photo and post it here. </div> Well, the ad actually labelled it as a "Red Panda</a>", but we all know that red pandas are also called firefoxes. Google Reader - a Bloglines user's perspective 2006-10-24T20:46:53+00:00 With the recent update</a> of Google Reader</a>, Google's shot at an online feed reader, I just had to try it out even though I was rather contented with Bloglines</a>. I've been a long-time Bloglines user (since end 2003 I think), and even though there was little in terms of innovation and useful new features happening, Bloglines was, in my opinion, ahead of its time way back in end 2003, and it provided an unchanging interface that worked (well, my opinion on that changed after using Google Reader, as we will soon find out). </div> So, I took some time to clear the backlog of unread articles in my 289 feed subscriptions at Bloglines</a> recently so I can "start over" at Google Reader and not have to read the same unread articles twice. Export Bloglines to OPML</a>, import into Google Reader... It went painlessly and I noticed that Bloglines "folders" got converted into "Tags" in Google Reader - mmm, taaaags. But oh wait, what's this when I try to "manage my subscriptions" - tags, folders and labels. I'm getting confused. </div> Just to make sure that they really are the same thing, I created some test tags/labels/folders, and yes they are actually the same thing (meaning if you add a new folder, it becomes available as a label and tag). I'm sure the terms used will be made consistent as Google Reader moves out of beta (or rather, gets further along as a beta). If you noticed how unorganized my Bloglines subscriptions</a> are, that's because organizing feeds was a pain on Bloglines back in the day (it was clumsy to organize feeds into folders, you had to select a feed, scroll to the dropdown, and select the action to move it into a folder), but that's not really a problem now with the new drag and drop interface for managing subscriptions that Bloglines pushed out recently (I think). Thankfully, Google Reader makes managing subscriptions easy as well with the familiar Gmail-like labeling. Anyhoo, I started using Google Reader for a bit to read new articles in my feeds, and it wasn't long before I just found my killer feature: 'mark items as read when you scroll past them'. </div> This preference will tell Google Reader to only mark those items you have scrolled across as read. I hated it in Bloglines where clicking on a feed would mark all its articles as read, especially for those prolific blogs or those for which I have a backlog (200 entries is usually a little too much for one sitting for good blogs). I have to say it again, this is the killer functionality for me. I've been bitten by interruptions and crashed browsers once too many times. I always click on feeds (in Bloglines) with more than 50 unread articles with no small amount of trepidation, fearing that I won't be able to read them all or that I'd do something to crash Firefox (which is surprisingly common when you're working with large datasets in JavaScript). This often results in my reluctance to click on feeds with more than 50 unread posts, and with the vicious cycle 50 becomes 200 (the Bloglines limit for unread posts) and the feed rarely gets read (happens with blogs like Scoble or news websites like The Register). With this feature in Google Reader, I can click on "All items" even if it says there are 1 gazillion unread posts and still feel safe about not losing my place. Those of you using non-web feed reader applications may scoff at this (I'm really not sure, I haven't used one in a long time so I only assume something like this is common in applications like NetNewsWire or FeedDemon), but I've yet to see this done in a web application. Offline feed readers are not really an option for me unless they integrate to an online (i.e central) source (let me know if one exists!). For this feature alone, I decided to make a switch to Google Reader from Bloglines. Google Reader can get a little slow though, but then I only have 512MB of RAM right now so it probably isn't indicative of anything (the new Bloglines is slow on the Macbook Pro as well I noticed). Hopefully all this will be moot when I get the 2GB RAM upgrade that's waiting at the store. Other than that, Google Reader seems faster to respond network-wise (which I'm not surprised at, considering that it's Google (and their distribution channels)), and it's also prettier. Yeah, looking good matters to some people, like me (not that Google Reader is fantastic aesthetically, but it's far less staid than Bloglines). Now all that's left is to keep those fingers crossed for some sexy Gmail integration - I'm thinking something like RssFwd</a>, a wonderfully useful creation by Choon Keat</a>. I use RssFwd</a> to track some important blogs and to track the latest releases of TV show torrents (Choon Keat is not gonna be happy about that though heh). Extract Any Archive with Ruby, Slimtimer, Feedalizer 2006-08-12T19:58:06+00:00 A bunch of cool stuff I found over the weekend that didn't individually deserve a blog post, but I thought would be worth sharing. Extract Any Archive with Ruby</h4> This is really neat if you could never remember what commands or command-line arguments you need to extracting archives (.zip, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2 - those kinds of archives). With this Extract Any Archive</a> script written in Ruby, instead of tar jxvf DonkeyPr0n.tar.bz2</code></pre> you can simply do e DonkeyPr0n.tar.bz2</code></pre> Instant gratification! Slim Timer</h4> SlimTimer</a> is one another of those productivity-keep-track-of-your-todo-list type applications - I like it because seeing the time ticking away gets you motivated on sticking to the task at hand. You can stick it into your Firefox sidebar and all that AJAX-y stuff makes it behave like a normal application. </div> Feedalizer - transform web pages into RSS feeds</h4> Choon Keat</a> pointed this out to me recently: Feedalizer</a> (backed by Hpricot</a>). I played around with it and it was so easy (and fun) to use. Whipped up a Mongrel news feed</a> (code</a>) for Mongrel news</a> (which didn't have an RSS feed). The hardest part was figuring out which Hpricot methods to use to parse the bits I needed. Served by Apache 2.2, mod_proxy_balancer, and Mongrel</h4> I got off my butt and set up Apache 2.2 with mod_proxy_balancer to load-balance a cluster of Mongrel processes, if you're still seeing this, that means it hasn't crashed, yet :p. Just kidding heh - I'm finding this setup pretty stable, though there was once the mongrel processes seem to have been over-loaded with requests (with 96MB RAM I can only run 2 processes, and even then I run out of memory real fast due to automated comment spam - does anyone have any solutions to blocking automated comment spammers before they even hit your website?). In any case, I learnt quite a bit as I was setting up my deployment environment for Rails, and hopefully someone will be able to benefit from that when I finish my post on the topic. Wufoo - Cool AJAX form builder 2006-03-26T17:45:41+00:00 Wufoo</a> - try the demo</a>. Very impressive (strange how I find this more impressive than Ajax Write). Gmail adds a Delete button, at last 2006-01-20T13:05:45+00:00 Remember back when you had to use a hack like a Greasemonkey script</a> for one-click deletion of emails in Gmail? Well, Google has added a Delete button</a>. </div> (You'll have to log out and log back in if you don't see the button - well, at least I had to.) Pandora is one hell of a radio station service 2006-01-14T14:28:17+00:00 This is probably old news to most of you, but I just chanced across Pandora</a> today and I was quite blown away by it. Well, it did happen to be a time when I was rather bored of the current songs on my playlist (I still love 'The Artist in the Ambulance' by Thrice and 'Slow Motion' by Third Eye Blind, probably played them a 2^20 times on my iPod), but it is still pretty awesome even then. So what is Pandora? (You'll want to skip this post if this is old news to you.) With Pandora, you enter a few songs or artists that you like, and it plays similar songs that it thinks you'd also like to listen to. Nothing really special, except that the results returned are based on some Music Genome Project</a> and it seems to do pretty well in playing great songs I like from bands that I'd never heard of before. It has a Flash interface through which you basically do everything, and it will stream and playback songs, and you can have different "stations" for different types of music/artists you'd like Pandora to match against (so I can have, say, one station that plays songs like "Stare at the Sun" by Thrice, Weezer-like songs, and heck, even throw in a little Bowling For Soup for a little pop punk flavor). As it plays each song, you can give it a thumbs up by indicating you like it, or if you indicate your distaste, it'll skip to the next song. It uses this to fine tune the type of songs it plays for you so it learns more about your tastes the more you use it. In practice, I haven't used it long enough to observe any noticeable improvement in the selection of songs it plays for me, but then I'm a mere 1-day old user. That said, I've liked roughly 4 out of every 5 songs Pandora has played for me - that's pretty awesome. Anyhow, the service is free and sponsored by ads, but you can also sign up for the paid service to remove the ads (that's the only difference between the free and paid versions, for now). There are convenient links for you to buy any songs that caught your fancy from Amazon.com or Apple. Apple really needs to set up an iTunes music store here soon, rather than late next year as was mentioned in the papers today - I'd have bought some tunes already if not for that. So check Pandora out if you haven't already or just read about it in passing - if you love your music and are finding a shortage of new tunes to hum or sing along to, this could be your answer to unravelling new favorite artists and songs. One-click delete in Gmail, thanks to GreaseMonkey 2005-04-25T19:45:49+00:00 Thanks to GreaseMonkey</a> and this nifty user script</a> from Anthony Lieuallen</a>, deleting emails in Gmail got much easier and less iffy (there were times when I selected "Add Star" when I really wanted to "Move to Trash"). </div> Oh yes, that's Trackback spam. What other neat GreaseMonkey stuff did I miss? 50 Gmail invites - open to public soon? 2005-02-03T20:36:10+00:00 Would you look at that? Google has given me 50 Gmail invites to give out. I'll bet everyone else with a Gmail account would have a whole bunch of them too. This reeks of either a stress test (though I can't really think of anyone who hasn't got a Gmail account by this time) or a public release of Gmail soonish. </div> And for those of you who wrote to ask if I was OK, thank you for your concern. I'm rather fine, not doing too well balancing work, writing, and a World of Warcraft addiction. I'll be blogging more once I submit my final draft, but before that, blogging will remain sketchy</a>. Oh, has any Community Champion got their autographed Firefox T-shirt yet? I haven't heard anything from sfx, but then again, I haven't really been keeping up. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children trailer 2004-12-13T01:27:15+00:00 Enjoyed Final Fantasy VII? You'll probably want to take a look at this (2nd) promo trailer for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children</a>, a CG movie that looks to be totally awesome. It should be out soonish (either this month or early January). Google Labs releases LiveSearch-based enhancement 2004-12-11T11:47:47+00:00 Kevin Gibbs, software engineer at Google, has written a bit of an enhancement to Google Search that uses LiveSearch</a>. His post on the Google Blog</a> was probably written to make me feel jealous I wasn't working at Google. Anyway, check out Google Suggest</a> over at Google Labs</a> - it's kinda useful but I guess no longer cool (since this isn't new</a>). </div> And would you look at that: "muvee autoProducer</a> crack" comes up when I enter "muvee". And of course typing "chu yeo" in there doesn't give "chu yeow". More on how it works in the Google Suggest FAQ</a>. Widgets for your blog 2004-11-29T22:57:53+00:00 Blogbloxes</a> - widgets for your blog (or website). Smells like Konfabulator</a>, et al. What will they think of next? New iPod Updater - finally, something for iPod mini owners 2004-11-22T01:52:21+00:00 Apple has released iPod Updater 2004-11-15</a>, the software that updates your iPod's firmware. Notable in this release is a whole bunch of features for the iPod mini that were previously only available to iPod users. Nothing for G3 iPod owners though. Stuff like Delete songs from On-The-Go playlists and Create multiple On-The-Go playlists should have been there out-of-the-box, while Hear Click Wheel clicker through headphones is nice to have. Can't wait to try it out tommorrow when syncing in the office. Ugh. You need to use the charger (the Firewire one) to flash the firmware. Now I'm stuck with a useless iPod mini for the rest of today and the long commute home.</ins> Firefox avatars and a centralized forum avatar system 2004-11-20T10:22:58+00:00 rakaz</a>, maker of some very nice Firefox wallpapers</a>, also has a set of forum and IM avatars</a>. Very nice if you want to show your support for Firefox and perhaps get a few IE-using friends to ask you about your avatar. Anyway, that wasn't the reason I was looking for avatars. The reason was me coming across Tom Werner's</a> Gravatars</a> (or Globally Recognized Avatars). </div> Looks like a cool thing to implement on this weblog. There's a WordPress plugin</a>, but plugins don't work on the nightly I'm using so I'll probably wait until WordPress 1.3, or if I ever get my butt off to try to get a CVS version to work. (And yes, this is a concise, rushed entry because I've got my Half-Life 2. It's Half-Life 2 weekend!) Solving algrebra with MSN Search 2004-11-17T19:47:42+00:00 This is pretty cool. MSN Search beta</a> solves any polynomial equations you enter into its search box. </div> I tried with higher degree polynomials but it seems it can only solve up to cubic equations (try x^3 -27 = 0</a>). Quartic equations, like x^4 + 6x^3 - 5x^2 - 10x - 3 = 0</a>, return a vanilla search result page. Via Neil Turner</a> via Chris Pirillo</a>. Konfabulator for Windows, finally 2004-11-15T02:04:02+00:00 Konfabulator</a> has finally been ported to Windows! Now I can at least get to experience the neat little app that made such news</a> in blogs all over some months ago. (Note to reader: I'm refraining from word-butchery, so where "blogosphere" may be more appropriate in this case, I'm not going to be tempted into using it.) Looks nice doesn't it? </div> I'm not even sure I need the weather widget, but the What To Do, iTunes remote, and RSS feed aggregator looks to be useful. Mac users get all the cool-looking, drool-worthy stuff (though I've seen a mean KDE setup), and also some of the coolest</a> technology</a>. Via coresite.org</a>. Google Desktop is here 2004-10-15T00:53:56+00:00 The newest, coolest, next big thing from Google: Google Desktop</a> indexes your files, emails (Outlook and Outlook Express only though), MS Office documents, and AOL IM chat history. And it really does work and that so much better than the slow (accidentally hitting F3 is no fun) and lousy Search function that comes with Windows. Download it, install it, try it out and pull out the F3 key from your keyboard with your teaspoon. </div> Oh, and if you're trying to hide bootleg software/music/porn in obscure locations, remember to tell Google Desktop "Don't Search These Items" so none of that comes up at the least opportune moments (like when your girlfriend is looking over your shoulder). Via O'Reilly Network</a>. Dreamhost hosting at $0.77/month 2004-10-11T15:40:28+00:00 Update: Well, I am getting 10% referral credit from this and DreamHost has confirmed that we can keep that. Thanks everyone for the referral credit! I have $44.62 right now from referrals and am wondering what to do with the extra money. Ideas anyone?</ins> It's true. Dreamhost</a> has real cheap hosting plans at USD0.77 per month. You have to pay for a year, but at USD9.24 with a free domain name, I'm surely not complaining. The first 777 customers to sign up for service with DreamHost using the promotional code "777" will pay just $0.77 for each month of hosting - for an entire YEAR! That's a $119.40 value - for just $9.24!</blockquote> I signed up almost immediately when I saw it (I put Daniel Glazman as my referrer because he recommended it first</a>). On referrals though, it does say this: Referral credit will not be provided to referers of customers who sign up for this promotional sale.</blockquote> Anyway, if you do sign up, do put my ID, chuyeow, as the referrer - I suppose referral credit will accrue later when one signs up for other plans, if I read their rewards page</a> correctly. Google does it again with Google SMS 2004-10-08T16:01:02+00:00 Google rolls out Google SMS</a> in the US. Damn, this is too cool (especially if it stays free when it gets to Singapore). Right now, Google SMS only works in the U.S.</blockquote> Via Google Blog</a>. Gmail's new features - Atom feed and "inline" Contact list 2004-10-04T18:28:57+00:00 Just noticed this: </div> They've made the Contacts page "inline" instead of popping up a new window. Obviously the Atom feed won't work unless you are authenticated (so RSS/Atom feed readers won't be able to get anything). I wonder how this can be used. Hmm... I smell something cool. We'll know soon enough when Google updates the New Features</a> page. The Official Gmail Notifier 2004-08-22T03:16:21+00:00 At first there was the Gmail Notifier extension</a> for Firefox. And there was the GMailCompose extension</a> for Firefox (made defunct by the WebMailCompose extension</a>). The first displayed an email notification message in Firefox. The second allowed you to have all mailto: links you click automatically send you to a page to compose the email in Gmail. There was also GTray</a>. And then there now is the official Gmail Notifier</a> from Google. Purely for Windows, it appears unobtrusively in your system tray when installed. New message notifications appear as a transclucent pane in the bottom right of your screen. (The icon does look a little cutesy doesn't it?) </div> There's not much more you can do with it. </div> It's nice to have an official tool from Google that does what all those other homegrown tools do. It's also interesting that Google seems to have incorporated the best of all these amazing tools in their app - mail notification and mailto: link manipulation. Thumbs up to the authors of those neat little tools! Google seems to be copying your ideas! A label for unread emails in Gmail 2004-07-30T00:38:27+00:00 This is a pretty nifty Gmail trick (via TIMELINE</a> via gmailwiki</a>): create a label named "Unread" and Gmail automatically lists all unread email when you call up that label. </div> Seems very much like a half-hearted, half-implemented feature that Google hasn't decided whether to give to users. I for one would very much like to have a standard section for unread mail ("standard" meaning it goes into the same place as Starred, All Mail and co.). Split a webpage into 2 with this bookmarklet 2004-07-18T00:40:14+00:00 Cedric asked for Document-splitting in Web browsers</a> and promptly got it</a> (read the comment by Jeff Mesnil</a> in Cedric's blog entry). Jeff Mesnil</a> whipped up 2 bookmarklets</a> in the space of less than one and a half hours that allows you to split a browser into 2 frames. How does it do that? It loads the current URL in a frameset consisting of 2 frames (both showing the same URL). A simple, yet genius, idea. Here's a screenshot of a blog entry split vertically: </a> Notice how it could be useful when cross-referencing something on the same webpage, particularly if it's a long vertical-scrolling page. A perfect use case would be referring back to a long blog entry when making a comment. Here's the same page split horizontally. </a> There are probably lots of other use cases for a webpage splitter. Cedric's in particular is this: Just recently, I was reading an article that showed a figure at the top and which constantly referred to this figure in the rest of the article.</blockquote> Thanks Jeff</a> for writing the bookmarklets and Cedric</a> for thinking of it. Google-like search engine for BitTorrent files 2004-07-13T22:31:41+00:00 bitoogle</a> - the BitTorrent file search engine. </div> It even allows you to see the torrent statistics like the number of seeds and leeches. And it works! Hmm... I wonder how it works. Novell gives away SUSE Linux 9.1 Pro and more 2004-07-07T10:49:25+00:00 Via Photo Matt</a>. Novell is giving away the Linux Technical Resource Kit</a> for free. It contains: - SUSE LINUX Standard Server 8.0 (ISO Installation Images) - SUSE LINUX 9.1 Professional (Bootable Installation DVD) - Ximian Desktop 2.0 Evaluation (ISO Image) - Ximian Red Carpet 2.0.2 Evaluation (ISO Image) - Novell Linux Services 1.0 (ISO Image & NLS Companion CD) - Novell GroupWise for Linux 6.5.1 - Server, Client & Messenger (ISO Images) - and more... We will contact you by e-mail as soon as your order ships. Delivery will be made via US Postal Service, first-class mail.</blockquote> Nice. Gmail Notifier extension for Firefox 2004-06-27T06:50:03+00:00 Doron</a> has written a Gmail Notifier</a> extension for Firefox. It adds a button to your toolbar that displays the number of unread emails you have in your Gmail account. Like how I have 0 new emails (I'm a lonely, lonely guy) in the screenshot below. </div> Neat work, and this is still early stages for Gmail Notifier. Doron has promised Gmail/Mozilla integration</a> and this (Gmail Notifier) seems to be part of that exciting project. Check back with Doron for more later - this should lead to something really neat. Sending to yourname+label@gmail.com labels your email 2004-06-26T00:09:09+00:00 Danyel Fisher</a> pointed out</a> this cool Gmail tip. Note that you can get around the label issue by forwarding messages to “myname+label”, and then searching for “+label”. (Gmail allows you unlimited “+” addresses. For example, all my mail that’s forwarded from an external account goes to mygmailname+forward@gmail.com)</blockquote> Aforementioned "label issue" being the issue with gExodus 0.2</a>'s new label feature which prefixes a user-specified string to the subject of each forwarded email. If I'd known that earlier... Nah it was good practice. It actually forced me to figure out how to modify an existing email's headers. gExodus 0.2 - some new features for Gmail mbox import tool 2004-06-23T02:33:09+00:00 I've updated gExodus (previous version 0.1</a>) with 2 new features (straight from the changelog): - Added ability to set a label to prefix to the Subject of forwarded emails. - Added "Pause/Continue" feature. </blockquote> The "label" idea was suggested</a> by Rory Parle</a> (great thinking!), and it should be particularly useful for identifying which imported email messages came from which mbox. For example, if you set a label of "[yahoo-personal]" when importing your Yahoo personal email account into Gmail with gExodus, each of the emails will have "[yahoo-personal]" prefixed to their subject field. This means that an email that had the subject of "Hey dude, I heard Futurama's coming back!" becomes "[yahoo-personal] Hey dude, I heard Futurama's coming back!". It annoyed me that the imported mails cluttered up my Gmail inbox and I don’t know which ones are imported, and which are “live” emails that I’ve just received. This also now allows me to setup a filter to filter all imported mail to be tagged with a particular label. The "Pause/continue" feature allows you to pause the importing of messages midway through an import. Useful in situations where you have a large mailbox with lots of messages. It should rightly work even after you've disconnected (and reconnected) your Internet connection. Still having several issues with multithreading, so you'll notice 1 last email being imported after you pause or abort gExodus. This is because if the email forwarding thread is paused (or killed) while it is sending out an email, it will follow through with it before actually pausing (or dying). It's not a particularly catastrophic issue, though far from acceptable. Download gExodus 0.2</a> Feedback and suggestions welcome as always. This is what's on my TODO list: - Pre-select where the mbox file is most likely to reside on a harddisk - Delay field (for specifying the delay between sending one message and the next) - Interactive importing ("Yes/No/Yes to all") - Importing of maildir format - Recurse subdirectories and import all the mailboxes in each directory The secret behind getting more Gmail invites 2004-06-21T22:30:30+00:00 Update: Well, it seems I was wrong about this. Google seems to give out invites quite randomly. Read the comments for more info.</ins> OK so it'd no longer be a secret now that I've let it out into the wild. Anyway, the hypothesis goes somewhat like this: the number of Gmail invites you get (to send out) is positively correlated to your usage of Gmail. "Usage of Gmail" is hard to define, but I reckon it'd include the number of emails you send/receive, and possibly the amount of storage you use (out of the 1GB). Why do I say so? Um, if you've been following my inane writings on this weblog, you'd probably noticed gExodus</a>, a Python hack job that I churned out yesterday that imports emails (in mbox format) into Gmail. It does this by forwarding your existing mbox - i.e. it parses the mbox file and sends each email via SMTP to your Gmail account. This registers as received mail in your Gmail account. In my testing of gExodus</a>, I probably forwarded around a thousand emails. I just logged into my Gmail account and saw the red "Invite a friend to join Gmail!" link... </div> And I had 6 invitations (I'm left with 4 now). People don't normally get 6 invites in 6 days' time. But 1000+ (received) emails in 1 day, 6 invites the next - all that's left is to connect the dots. gExodus - a graphical Gmail import tool 2004-06-21T03:11:23+00:00 Update: gExodus 0.2 is out</a>.</ins> When I saw (and used) Mark Lyon's Mbox & Maildir to Gmail Loader (GML)</a> (I wrote about it</a>), I was inspired to write a GUI version of it (I didn't copy Mark's code, just in case, though it works on the same basis). gExodus is what came out at the end of half a day's work. </a></div> gExodus allows you to import your emails (in mbox</a> format) into your Gmail account. The mbox format is the classic Unix-style mailbox format, and is used by Mozilla Mail/News</a>, Mozilla Thunderbird</a>, qmail, and many other Unix email applications. There currently isn't support for qmail's maildir</a> format, which is a much better format in terms of reliability and efficiency (because there isn't a need to lock a single file, as it is for the mbox format). There doesn't seem to be any Windows email application that supports maildir, so I've left it out. Someone has also posted a feature request</a> for maildir support in Mail/News (and consequently Mozilla Thunderbird), so vote for the bug! I'll add support for for maildir and possibly the MH mailbox formats if someone requests for it. Users of email clients which don't use the mbox format (such as Outlook Express and Outlook) can convert their emails into the mbox format by importing them into Mozilla Mail/News or Mozilla Thunderbird</a>. I'll add support for Outlook Express (.DBX) and Outlook (.PST) email formats in the near future (there are many converters already available, in fact). gExodus is written in Python</a>, and uses PythonCard</a> (which is based on wxPython toolkit</a>). PythonCard is a simpler wxPython, and is amazingly simple to use. With a WYSIWYG resource editor which allows you to place widgets and edit their properties, as well as very simple syntax rules and event handling concepts, PythonCard is Visual Studio with a better grounded language (Python). Granted, there are some inadequacies, one of the most glaring being the lack of a formal tab order (I got around that by moving widgets to the front - the nearer one is to the front, the higher it's tab order). Still, I'm glad I picked PythonCard for my graphical toolkit - I haven't used any before and was considering my options at this Python GUI toolkit "comparison" page</a>. gExodus is a standalone program - Gordon McMillan's Installer was used to convert the Python scripts into executable form. The article Building 'standalone' PythonCard Applications</a> came in very handy, especially when I didn't manage to get py2exe</a> to work (the executable didn't work properly). The documentation for using McMillan's Installer with PythonCard didn't seem to work also. Due to dependencies on the wxPython and PythonCard libraries, the resulting executable package is pretty hefty (approx. 4MB) - 2.4MB of that is a wxPython DLL. The source code is currently unreleased (I'll put it out in the near future). Listed below are the binaries. Update: gExodus 0.2 is out</a>. You may want to get that instead of version 0.1 below.</ins> Download gExodus: gexodus 0.1 (zip format)</a></li> gexodus 0.1 (tarred bz2 format)</a></li> gexodus 0.1 (tarred gz format)</a></li> </ul> Feedback is greatly appreciated. I haven't really tested it on other machines (just my own Pentium 4 desktop running Windows XP), so bugs are expected (please let me know of them). Very nice app to import your emails to Gmail 2004-06-19T22:45:59+00:00 Mark Lyon has written Mbox & Maildir to Gmail Loader</a>, or GML, which transfers emails in an mbox file into Gmail accounts. Mbox is the format Mozilla Mail</a> and Mozilla Thunderbird</a> uses, so if you use something like Outlook or Outlook Express, you'd have to export your emails into Mozilla Mail or Thunderbird first. </div> Works nice enough, though it had some problems with emails containing attachments - those didn't import properly and Gmail couldn't parse the email, so were as good as lost. It is still good stuff because I can now archive my existing email accounts in Gmail (I do have 1 gig of space). Of course, GML works by forwarding the emails from your mbox file to your Gmail account, so it neccessarily becomes a possible tool for spammers to bomb your Gmail account. Not that there aren't generic email spambots in existence already. Other similar applications include Pop Goes the Gmail</a> and gmail.py</a>. GTray</a> also seems useful, but I can't get the website to load at the moment. Your own private CVS repository 2004-05-31T13:46:08+00:00 To think I'd tried to set upon the path of setting up a CVS server a few weeks back to allow me and several friends sharing a dedicated server to have our own private CVS repositories. The approach I took was to setup the server for password authentication (pserver). Naturally, I failed to get it running (had some issues with xinetd), and had given up since. Little thought did I give to alternative ways of setting up a CVS repository, and probably the most common sense way, using RSH</acronym> - specifically, SSH, to connect. Well, that worked, and it was amazingly simple to do too. I'm going to assume you have a shell account to your webserver accessible via SSH. Also, your server should have the cvs client installed - you can test it by logging into your shell account and typing 'cvs -v', whereupon it should print the CVS version and the usual blurb. Now, my server is codefront.net and I have a user account chuyeow. First, I'd have to create a repository on my server. I do that by logging in to my shell account (using SSH) and creating a directory where I'd have read-write access. The simplest place is to create a directory in your home directory (mine's /home/chuyeow). $ mkdir /home/chuyeow/cvsroot</div> Create the CVS repository: $ cvs -d /home/chuyeow/cvsroot init</div> There I'm done! I now have a CVS repository that's accessible from any location so long as I have a SSH client and a CVS client. To access my repository, I'd first have to set my CVSROOT to :ext:chuyeow@codefront.net:/home/chuyeow/cvsroot, and the CVS_RSH environment variable to "ssh". I do that by entering these lines below into my ~/.bashrc file. export CVSROOT=:ext:chuyeow@codefront.net:/home/chuyeow/cvsroot export CVS_RSH=ssh </div> Now, all that's left to do is to import my existing sources into the repository: $ cvs import -m "Imported sources" sources_dir vendor start</div> That's it! You can checkout a copy and then do CVS checkins, merges, etc. as you normally would from now on. Why BitTornado is a better BitTorrent client 2004-05-26T13:59:48+00:00 I get tons of anime via BitTorrent</a> and one of my favorite BitTorrent clients has been BitTornado</a> (previously known as Shadow's Experimental client - nice rebranding too). I liked it because it was simple and light, and it uses the latest official BitTorrent code that allows for incremental allocation of files (since version 3.3). Before, BitTorrent would allocate the entire required disk space for the files you're downloading prior to actually connecting to peers/seeders. Now, BitTornado 0.3 has just made an advocate of me. Changes</a> include a per-file download priority system and most significantly, a fast resume feature that allows recently-run torrents to be started immediately without the need for a hash-check! I got my 4.4GB download (68% done) started in a flash, sans disk-thrashing. You can't imagine how useful that is with large torrents of several gigabytes, where hash-checking can take an interminably long time and not to mention the painful disk-thrashing involved. I get big torrents of several gigabytes quite often, and I dread the hash-checking process because it slows my system to a crawl for several minutes and also starts the processor fan spinning like mad to cool away the extra heat. Also very cool (and something that brings it on par with other BitTorrent clients like Azureus</a> in this respect) is the per-file download priority system which allows you to choose the priorities of files in a multiple-file torrent. You can choose to download just a single file in the torrent if you wish, something which was sorely missing before. </div> BitTornado's an excellent BitTorrent client, but to be honest I've only tried the official client, Azureus, and ABC</a>, all of which I didn't quite grow to like. Which BitTorrent client do you use, and why? Lone Wolf RPG has landed! 2004-05-25T00:38:09+00:00 The good people at Project Aon</a> sent out an email on their mailing list today to announce the release of the Lone Wolf RPG</a> (RPG in the Pen and Paper sense, not the CRPG</acronym> sense). Yes, a PnP</acronym> RPG! Not that I've ever truly played one beyond a fleeting tryst with BattleTech PnP. Where are the people who play PnP games in Singapore hiding? Anyway, I digress. The rulebook seems to be very interesting reading - the usual stuff you'd expect in a Dungeons and Dragons rulebook. I suppose this sounds fantastically geeky, but reading rulebooks and sourcebooks for Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms at Borders is something I actually enjoy - and yes I don't play PnP. Go figure. Check out the character classes available: In this rulebook, we have included the following character classes to get you started - the Brother of the Crystal Star, Dwarven Gunner of Bor, Kai Lord (of course), Magician of Dessi, Shadaki Buccaneer, Sommerlund Knight of the Realm, and Telchos Warrior.</blockquote> And who doesn't remember those Crypt Spawns, Doomwolves, Drakkarim, Giak, Gourgaz, Helghasts, Kraan and Vordaks. </div> If you're interested in The Lone Wolf RPG</a>, check it out at Amazon.com (there isn't much there at the moment though), and if you purchase it, affiliate earnings would help fund Project Aon. Note: I wrote about</a> Project Aon while back, in case you're interested. 1GB of email with Gmail? SpyMac already has it 2004-04-07T01:06:02+00:00 Now this is nice stuff here. SpyMac</a>, a community for Mac users (as its name would suggest), is offering "the Internet's first free Gigabyte email service"</a>. Of course, Google was theoretically first by running beta trials with Gmail</a>, but pretty much SpyMac is the first to roll out such an offer to the world at large. Spymac agrees with the staff at Google that a 1 GB e-mail account makes sense.</blockquote> It's just POP3 and webmail at the moment, but IMAP access is in the works (which is crucial, btw, if 1GB of e-mail is going to make any sense, unless you use webmail or choose to leave your messages on the server). Besides this, there are also some added free services</a>, like 100MB of web space, 250MB of picture storage, RSS feed aggregator, and even blog hosting. I couldn't resist and signed up. At this moment, I've been getting errors at the final registration page (seems like the sendmail program on the server's getting a little too busy). Haven't got a confirmation email yet. If you're willing to tolerate the lack of credibility (relative to Google), I think SpyMac offers a very sweet deal that's hard to resist. Pats on the back for the SpyMac staff for providing this for free. Smart move too, considering the amount of free publicity they'll get over the next few days. Oh well, you can't fault them for doing so - Google did it first. I won't trust SpyMac with my essential emails, but it's interesting enough to take a look-see. Gmail? I'd trust it with my list of passwords that I store in a spreadsheet - aforementioned password spreadsheet existing hypothetically, of course. Google has gained that much clout and trust, at least in my eyes. Source: Gadgetopia</a> Google's GMail is for real 2004-04-02T10:33:27+00:00 If you haven't yet heard of it, Google's upcoming e-mail service, Gmail</a>, has been under contention for one of the biggest April Fool's jokes ever. People all over have either first believed it (reservedly) and then laughed it off when they saw the press release on April 1st (like good old Simon Willison</a>, or were thoroughly suspicious and wary of being conned yet again (like me). The verdict? Yes, Gmail is for real</a>. The Straits Times (local print newspaper) even published an AP</acronym> article on Gmail</a> today. I won't inundate you with the details on what Gmail offers</a>, but it is interesting to note that e-mails will come with targeted ads a la Adsense</a>. Google says "no humans read your email to target the ads". Google's facelift is official, Personalized Web Search 2004-03-29T16:51:16+00:00 Dogtoe reports</a> that Google's new look is official. Previously you could get the new look with a bookmarklet</a>. I also came across this Personalized Web Search</a> at Google Labs</a> which I think is new (could someone confirm?). You can specify a profile (which is saved in a cookie), search for something, and move a slider to increase or decrease the degree of personalization of your search results. </div> That's pretty awesome. Google has developed new algorithms that dynamically reorder results by weighting the interests you enter in your profile. When you move the slider, it recalculates and rearranges the results to add more or less emphasis on your profile information.</blockquote> Experience Google's new look with a bookmarklet 2004-03-07T17:32:37+00:00 Update: Google's new look is officially in effect - there is no need for this bookmarklet anymore.</ins> Jesse Ruderman</a>, bookmarklet</a> creator extraordinaire, has written a bookmarklet</a> that allows you to view Google search results in its new look. Google has been testing the new look randomly on a small number of users (I myself have only seen it once before). Bookmark this link and click on it at Google.com</a>: toggle google look</a> For those of you who are redirected by Google to your regional specific Google domain, try going to http://www.google.com/intl/en/</a> instead. You can also use the bookmarklet for the regional specific Google domain you are redirected to by changing the 2 occurences of "google.com" in the bookmarklet to that domain you're at.</ins> Interesting Google stuff 2004-02-16T19:18:58+00:00 I seem to have picked up a handful of Google-related bookmarks. I think I have way too many at the moment so it is as opportune a time as any to start making link dumps. Hidden Google Tools</a> writes on several tools you probably never knew existed. Some of these are listed below.</li> Soople</a> provides a form-based front end to many of Google's more advanced operators. Nothing to it really - just a simple form submission to Google with the appropriate query string. But convenient nonetheless.</li> Fagan Finder</a> is quite like Soople, though it has an IE-only version which I didn't bother to check.</li> Google WebQuotes</a> is a beta application from Google Labs</a> which "offers a convenient way to get a third party's opinion about each of the returns for your search, providing you with more information about that site's credibility and reputation".</li> Google Guide</a> is an interactive tutorial on how to use Google more effectively.</li> Google has a help page on Advanced Search Operators</a>. Nice to keep it handy.</li> Google offers special searches</a> within specific topics, including searches for Universities and other institutes of education with university searches</a>.</li> </ul> Now that's 7 less bookmarks which makes it, erm, 1196 - 7 = 1189 more bookmarks to go through. XHTML/CSS/JS Scrabble 2004-01-30T21:01:33+00:00 SScrabble</a> (Solitaire Scrabble) was created using purely XHTML, CSS and some clever JavaScript. Really neat stuff (although DHTML Lemmings</a> had much more oomph in terms of pure wow factor - too bad it had to be taken down due to copyright issues). The Man in Blue speaks on his experience coding this SScrable thing up in this weblog entry</a>. Teach yourself Java in 21 days? 2004-01-25T01:09:33+00:00 Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years</a> is more realistic. That just about sums up why I was never bought by the enticing promises of "Teach Yourself X in Y days" and "Learn X in Y hours" books. Photoshop magic 2004-01-22T16:35:37+00:00 Check out the 1st post in this discussion forum thread</a>. It's in Chinese but the pictures speak for themselves. 20 hours was how long it took, but check out the hair on the girl and the fur on the dog. Unbelievable. Email addresses for dodgy websites/people 2003-12-17T12:48:43+00:00 killMAIL</a> and Mailinator</a> are 2 of, I think, many free online services that give you an instant, disposable email address. Great for use on websites which want your email address for apparently no reason other than to send you product updates, offers and other emails that you never want. Or you may be worried they will sell your email addresses to spammers. Or maybe there's that insurance agent who has been bugging you for your email address so that he can send you "more info". Whatever your purposes and needs, I'm sure you'll find services like this useful from time to time. Shooting around corners 2003-12-17T11:59:05+00:00 A cool weapon from the Israelis - the Corner Shot: </div> Good for anti-terror and SWAT</acronym> teams, but I dread the day it gets into the hands of an overzealous sniper (remember Maryland?). Read more about it.</a> Google can track your FedEx delivery 2003-12-14T02:47:55+00:00 Search By Number</a> is a new Google feature that allows you quick access to your UPS or FedEx delivery information, and easy access to patent, FAA</acronym> and FCC</acronym> numbers/IDs. Abyss Web Server - small and really neat 2003-12-04T23:22:27+00:00 The Abyss Web Server</a> from Aprelium Technologies</a> is one of the neatest, tiniest web server I've come across. It's only 144 KB</acronym> for the Windows version and the Mac, Linux and FreeBSD versions are around that size as well. It's also free. What's more, adding PHP support is quick and painless. Just follow the instructions for adding PHP support</a>. I did all of it under 5 minutes (like Phil - see the source</a> for this entry). Adding ASP support</a> and Perl support</a> appear to be a snap too from a cursory glance. Why is this cool? Because it is very useful as an easy-to-setup test platform for server-side scripts like PHP, ASP and Perl scripts. Being flyweight helps too, since there are no long download times for those still using dialup modems. Everything is run via CGI - there are no modules, unlike for Apache</a>. There is a single config file, abyss.conf, which contains Apache configuration-like directives. The good thing is, there's no need to go into the file to make changes - the web-based configuration interface provided by Abyss allows a simple click-and-point interface which is a breeze to use. What a boon to beginners (AKA</acronym> newbies) who often have trouble setting up Apache with PHP support. I'm going to recommend this as an alternative to Apache for anyone with difficulties setting that up in the future. Source: Phil Wilson</a> Your site in Konqueror, too! 2003-12-04T21:44:09+00:00 Remember iCapture</a>? In case you don't, read this</a>. Now it seems there's also another neat little free service called Kcapture</a>. And I just noticed that IE isn't the only browser that doesn't listen to you when you tell it you want a dotted border (and NOT a dashed border you stupid piece of crap). You don't need a Mac to see your webpage in Safari 2003-11-29T02:37:44+00:00 Ever wondered how your website looked in Safari</a>, but don't have a Mac? Well, now you can thanks to Dan Vine's automated online screen capture tool</a>. For those not in the know, Safari is the default web browser in Mac OS X, which is one reason you should care how your site looks in it. Safari utilizes the KHTML rendering engine which is the same engine that powers K-Meleon</a> and Konqueror</a>. KHTML is to Safari what Gecko is to Mozilla (and Mozilla Firebird</a> and Epiphany</a>). One thing I can say about KHTML - it's fast. I tried K-Meleon</a> just to see for myself and it's light and fast. Here's what David Hyatt had to say about the merits of KHTML compared to Gecko</a>. Anyway, here's this site in Safari: screenshot</a>. Nothing broken so far. Good. Source: webgraphics</a> More accessing Hotmail in Thunderbird 2003-11-25T01:13:29+00:00 An interesting coincidence it is that Mozillazine has posted a link to a write-up on how to access Hotmail in Mozilla Mail</a> in its article entitled "Accessing Your Hotmail Account Using Mozilla Mail</a>" - see my previous entry</a>. Read the comments (or rather, "talkbacks"). I wasn't aware of MrPostman</a>. Judging from the comments so far, though, Hotmail Popper</a> seems to be the best-received thus far. Keeping an eye on the talkbacks for an even better solution! Accessing Hotmail with Thunderbird 2003-11-22T13:50:44+00:00 Not too long ago I got an email from a reader of this weblog that he needed help setting up Thunderbird</a> to read his emails. In the end, it turned out that he was given the wrong email account information by his ISP, so I didn't provide any real assistance. As it is, he was pretty impressed ("enamored" was the word he used) with Thunderbird - always nice to see a convert. Except for one problem: it can't access Hotmail</a> accounts. For that matter, Outlook Express and Outlook seem to be the only email clients that can access Microsoft's Hotmail via its web service. And as it turns out, I have a Hotmail account too and used to access it in Outlook Express. We both needed a solution, excepting logging on to the Hotmail website</a> to check for emails. What is so troublesome in logging on to the website? For one thing, the Hotmail website doesn't really work in non-IE browsers. There is IE-only scripting involved in several portions, including the rich text editing and the adding of email recipients from a drop-down. And it bugs me terribly that the MSN Messenger</a> application starts running whenever I log into the Hotmail website (it's true - when you close the IE window for Hotmail, MSN Messenger exits). I did the smartest (or should I say "only") thing possible and Googled for a solution - it turned up this FAQ entry</a>. Great news, then, since Hotmail Popper</a> is a free application that really works just fine. One word of caution though: make absolutely sure you change your email account settings for the Hotmail account to "Leave messages on server" if you really want to do so before downloading any emails. If you're using Thunderbird, go to Tools -> Account Settings and select your Hotmail account. Under Server Settings, check the box that says "Leave messages on server" and the box that says "Until I delete or move them from Inbox", as shown in the screenshot below. </div> CVS syncs and backs up your life 2003-11-14T01:32:48+00:00 Joey Hess writes in CVS</acronym> homedir</a> in Linux Journal</a>: I get three major benefits from keeping my whole home directory in CVS</acronym>: home directory replication, history and distributed backups.</blockquote> Yup, it's amazing, but definitely not crazy. He could be on to something. I'll have to try that sometime when I get a server with lots of space to spare, as well as enough machines to play around with. Search "without opening a browser" with Google Deskbar 2003-11-07T23:24:53+00:00 Google Deskbar</a>'s pretty neat, but as usual from Google, the neat stuff is only available for Windows users, and is actually tied to IE (think Google Toolbar</a> and PageRank. Anyway, it's convenient to search straight from the desktop, and if you're like me, you do lots of searches with Google. It does, however, mean that you're using IE to browse your searches - depending on your preferences, that may be a good, bad or "I don't really care" thing. You may also have noticed I quoted Google in using double quotes when I say "without opening a browser". That's because the mini-viewer uses IE, and it actually does "open" a browser - there is a noticeable delay as the Deskbar revs up IE the first time I do a search. Of course, that entirely depends on your definition of the word "open". Preventing RSI with WorkRave 2003-10-27T06:36:07+00:00 When I'm coding or writing reports, I often find myself going into a trance-like state where I can't keep myself from looking away from the monitor. That is majorly bad, and I know it, but sometimes I just don't care because things have to be done. I figured I needed something external to enforce a little discipline in me, so I'd got Break Reminder</a>. I used it for some time. Unfortunately, I'd turned it off when I found it unbelievably annoying. Before you start rolling your eyes, let me say that I find my "unrepentant" behavior very disappointing as well. So now having been alerted to WorkRave</a> by Simon Willison</a>, I've decided to install it and enforce breaks no matter what. It isn't a good sign when your wrists, fingers, neck and back start to ache. I needed RSI</acronym> prevention, fast. Enter WorkRave</a>. WorkRave</a> is an Open Source application that sets reminders to tell you when it is time to take a break from your work. Oh, and it's free software</a>. I've it set to micropause for 20 seconds every 8 mins, and enforce a rest break of 5 mins every 45 mins. The FAQ</acronym></a> has some guidelines for good timer values. If you've ever felt any aches in your wrists or fingers, or find yourself unable to take a break from your computer even though you know you needed it, get it and try it out. There're Windows and Linux versions - having a Linux version is great, because now I can enforce breaks when working in Linux too. Source: Simon Willison: Avoiding RSI</a> Stumped by regular expressions? Try the Regex Coach 2003-08-28T18:21:26+00:00 Peter Bowyer</a>'s entry on The Regex Coach - interactive regular expressions</a> alerted me to the very excellent Regex Coach</a>. The Regex Coach allows you to experiment with your regular expression (regex) and quickly determine how it would match your target string. It would be a very useful tool for trying out all any examples in any tutorials or books you may be reading. Also serves as a good testing platform for verifying your regex interactively (as opposed to writing it in your script, running it, and then checking the results). I wish I had this when I was learning regex.

chuyeow.wtf

YSlow - Firefox extension that helps to optimize your web pages

MySQL command line "secret"

Firefox "ad" in the Singapore MRT

Google Reader - a Bloglines user's perspective

Extract Any Archive with Ruby, Slimtimer, Feedalizer

Extract Any Archive with Ruby</h4> This is really neat if you could never remember what commands or command-line arguments you need to extracting archives (.zip, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2 - those kinds of archives).</p>

Wufoo - Cool AJAX form builder

Gmail adds a Delete button, at last

Pandora is one hell of a radio station service

One-click delete in Gmail, thanks to GreaseMonkey

50 Gmail invites - open to public soon?

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children trailer

Google Labs releases LiveSearch-based enhancement

Widgets for your blog

New iPod Updater - finally, something for iPod mini owners

Firefox avatars and a centralized forum avatar system

Solving algrebra with MSN Search

Konfabulator for Windows, finally

Google Desktop is here

Dreamhost hosting at $0.77/month

Google does it again with Google SMS

Gmail's new features - Atom feed and "inline" Contact list

The Official Gmail Notifier

A label for unread emails in Gmail

Split a webpage into 2 with this bookmarklet

Google-like search engine for BitTorrent files

Novell gives away SUSE Linux 9.1 Pro and more

Gmail Notifier extension for Firefox

Sending to yourname+label@gmail.com labels your email

gExodus 0.2 - some new features for Gmail mbox import tool

The secret behind getting more Gmail invites

gExodus - a graphical Gmail import tool

Very nice app to import your emails to Gmail

Your own private CVS repository

Why BitTornado is a better BitTorrent client

Lone Wolf RPG has landed!

1GB of email with Gmail? SpyMac already has it

Google's GMail is for real

Google's facelift is official, Personalized Web Search

Experience Google's new look with a bookmarklet

Interesting Google stuff

XHTML/CSS/JS Scrabble

Teach yourself Java in 21 days?

Photoshop magic

Email addresses for dodgy websites/people

Shooting around corners

Google can track your FedEx delivery

Abyss Web Server - small and really neat

Your site in Konqueror, too!

You don't need a Mac to see your webpage in Safari

More accessing Hotmail in Thunderbird

Accessing Hotmail with Thunderbird

CVS syncs and backs up your life

Search "without opening a browser" with Google Deskbar

Preventing RSI with WorkRave

Stumped by regular expressions? Try the Regex Coach