Recently in Software Category

Every few months for the last several years, this particular problem annoys me enough that I search MacOSXhints and the web in general for a possible solution. The closest thing I've ever found is this hint, but that doesn't describe the situation I've encountered. Maybe that's because the solution was obvious to everyone but myself. I find that hard to swallow.

I tend to use my Powerbook while disconnected. I also tend to "send" messages while disconnected, so they stay in my Outbox until I reconnect. Generally, it works. But every once in a while a message gets stuck. Mail.app flatly refuses to try to redeliver it. "Synchronize Accounts" does nothing (and never has). It used to be that sending another message via the same server would prod it into sending both messages, but somewhere along the way Apple fixed that "feature." Usually quitting and restarting Mail.app (a lame solution to my mind) would cause it to retry. Still, every once in a while I'd still have messages that defy even that treatment.

Recently, I serendipitously stumbled upon the solution: Drag the offending messages to the "Outbox" folder in the folders pane. They'll be redelivered. That's a handy little feature. Too bad it's not documented anywhere.

Yes, I am aware of the "Message -> Send Again" option. But there are times when I want/need to keep the Date: header (yes, it can be forged) and the timestamp of the cryptographic signature the same as the original send date and time.

[Also, I've given up trying to find the rhyme or reason behind the two "I can't send this message" dialog boxes Mail.app has. Every time I think I've got it figured out, I get a counterexample. I just know that the one that gives you an option to try another server more often lands messages into this state, even if you choose not to.]

Jesus H. Fscking Christ!

| | Comments (0) | Crossposted

Any MySQL fanboi who so much as insinuates that it is anything other than the half-assed, inconsistent, steaming pile of shit (in a usage that degrades the term) kludge that it is will face my wrath.

That also goes for anyone caught using the terms "MySQL" and "database" or "enterprise" in the same breath. Even with some kind of superlative negative in between. You're still suggesting that the thought entered your mind.

Edit: Yes, yes. It's my own damn fault for building a major component relying on a feature that's new in MySQL 5. They can't even do right what they claim they've always done, what was I smoking when I suggested trusting something new?

Commute (pt.3)

| | Crossposted

I'm really enjoying my commute. Having a monthly pass makes things that much easier. But it's not without peril. A (two or more zone) monthly Caltrain pass is good for free VTA rides. This caused a moment of hesitation this morning when I looked out the train window and it was POURING! In the end, I made the right decision. I had my rain-gear on already, and it's faster for me to ride than take the light rail (!!)

I had a great ride in. Some of it was the pushing through the "inclement" weather, some of it was the exercise. I felt great when I got to work. Too bad I left my wallet & badge at home. :-/

A few weeks ago I broke down and downloaded an RSS reader. After poking around a bit, I settled on BlogBridge. It's OSS, cross-platform, and it seems to have most of the features I care about. One of the other readers I saw had the ability to use XSLT to transform it's look & feel, but I don't think it was OSS.

I played with it a bit. The UI is a bit odd. The keyboard controls aren't what I expected. But still, it was a novelty. I don't think it would have progressed beyond that if I hadn't had a flash of inspiration: since it caches the RSS feeds, It basically makes a a great offline news/blog/website reader!

I'm really enjoying using the time on the train to peruse the blogs (etc.) on which I used to waste my time at work. I've even found a few new blogs along the way. The one I've most enjoyed: The Traveler's Lunchbox. I'm really loving the way she writes, and the food porn & recipes are just icing. Go, check it out, see if she doesn't suck you in!

Update: Next step: hacking something so that I can get my $#%#@ing LJ Friends Page as an RSS feed!

[ed. This should have been posted on Thursday, but werk eight my brane.]

@colin_clive(it's alive . . . It's Alive . . . IT'S ALIVE!)

A few months ago I procured two 3Ware hardware RAID cards. One for slackers (a nice SATA unit, with caching & acceleration), and one for myself (an older, lower-end unit, but probably adequate for my needs). My intention was to use mine to build a fileserver on which to store backups (primarily of my photos, but also of other important data to which I want semi-convenient, networked access).

As I was thinking about doing this, it occurred to me that I'd never named a machine "Sarnath." This is surprising, since as names go, it hits a trifecta: it is a city that is both mythical and destroyed (either one would be adequate for Slackers' Network inclusion) AND it exists(-ed) in the Dreamlands (my own personal subset of the Slackers' Network scheme)

For all of those reasons, it seemed the obvious choice for the new machine. And yet, I decided that I should not tempt fate that way, (the name of the story is "The Doom That Came to Sarnath," after all!) Naming my shiny new Athalon64 fileserver "sarnath" would be hubris: basically asking for it to be struck by lightning. (Technically, flooded and dragged to the deep by lizard-men, but that's not really likely in Northern California! Though I suppose swallowed up by an earthquake would be close enough...)

So, when I finally got around to ordering the other parts, I rejected "Sarnath" in favor of "Kiran[*]." Little did I know that the fate had already been sealed.

How Am I Only Now Noticing This?

| | Crossposted

Mail.app just gave me a fright. I thought I'd broken mail delivery today when I restarted SpamAssassin on the newly installed (ahem, more on that later) gomorrah.

I had no messages dated "Today." only "Yesterday." Fortunately, I quickly realized that was merely because it was now after midnight. It's not "Tomorrow" until I go to bed or the sun comes up, dammit!

Once again, Mail.app makes me pine for Batmail (which had been hacked by someone (I don't remember whom anymore) such that you could make it do the inteligent thing in this case. "If I ask for my mail from 'today' and it's before 4am, include 'yesterday' as well, since my brain is probably not functioning well enough to figure out where all my mail went."). All MUAs are just a pale imitation.

What also disturbs me is that I hadn't noticed this until now. I must be getting old or something.

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This page is a archive of recent entries in the Software category.

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