Officially pissed at Apple

The wireless driver is fucked over in the 10.5.2 update. The airport will drop the connection to the router after a few minutes of heavy use. It sometimes lasts as long as 30 minutes but then it drops the connection. Makes trying to download large files fucking frustrating. They better fix this one fast or Linux is going onto this iMac. Did they test the update at all? You would think this driver would have seen heavy use while testing.

**UPDATE**
It seems that Apple has corrected this in the last set of updates.

Restoring Emacs layout

When I work in EMACS I have a specific layout that I use. I have about five frames open each dedicated to some task. One will have three dired windows and an eshell window. Others will have project files open or source files. Restoring this layout is a pain whenever I have to restart emacs. So I decided to automate this layout restoration. I found revive.el that does almost what I wanted so I wrote some code that uses revive to save the state of all the frames that are currently open and then restore that state.

(defun emacs-save-layout ();TODO: handle eshell
  "save the frame and window layout to ~/.emacs-layout. Requires revive.el."
(interactive)
(let ((out-name (concat *HOME* "/.emacs-layout"))
      (frames (frame-list))
      (configs nil)
      (buffs (sorted-buffer-list))
      (filtered-buffs nil)
      (s-buffs nil))
  (dolist (b buffs)    
      (let ((file-name (buffer-file-name b)))
        (when (and file-name
                   (> (length file-name) 0))
          (setq filtered-buffs (cons file-name filtered-buffs)))))
  (when filtered-buffs (setq filtered-buffs (reverse filtered-buffs)))
  (dolist (frame frames)
    (select-frame frame)
    (setq configs (cons (current-window-configuration-printable) configs)))
  (setq configs (cons filtered-buffs configs))
  (write-region (with-output-to-string (prin1 configs)) nil out-name)))

(defun emacs-load-layout ();TODO: handle eshell buffers.
  "Load the layout saved by emacs-save-layout. Requires revive.el."
(interactive)
(let* ((in-name (concat *HOME* "/.emacs-layout"))
      (config-count 0)
      (frames (frame-list))
      (configs nil)
      (frame-count (length frames))
      (buffs nil))
  (with-temp-buffer
    (insert-file-contents-literally in-name)
    (setq buffs (read (current-buffer)))
    (setq configs (rest buffs))
    (setq buffs (first buffs)))
  (dolist (b buffs)
    (find-file-noselect b)
    (message "Loading buffer %s" b))
  (setq config-count (length configs))
  (message "Config count is %s" config-count)
  (unless (>= frame-count config-count)
    (dotimes (i (- config-count frame-count))
      (make-frame))
    (setq frames (frame-list))
    (setq frame-count (length frames))
    (message "frame-count is %s" frame-count))
  (defun it (lconfigs lframes)
            (when (and lconfigs lframes)
              (select-frame (first lframes))
              (restore-window-configuration (first lconfigs))
              (it (rest lconfigs) (rest lframes))))
  (it configs frames)))

The Authoritarians

The Authoritarians

Normally I don't enjoy political discussions or make politically oriented posts but I think, with the upcoming elections and the current climate in the United States, that more people should know about this book and an associated article. This work on authoritarianism has been done over a period of fourty years, in a manner that is very readable, and is well worth the time to read. An associated article is here.

David Rupp's Blog: The Last Language War / Language Trolling Post You'll Ever Need To Read (Hopefully)

David Rupp's Blog: The Last Language War / Language Trolling Post You'll Ever Need To Read (Hopefully)

Seriously funny post. Most excellent.

elisp functions for emacs

A set of functions that I use in my emacs configuration and to automate tasks. Some functions have been acquired and some I have written myself.

(defun lispdoc ()
 "searches lispdoc.com for SYMBOL, which is by default the symbol
currently under the curser"
 (interactive)
 (let* ((word-at-point (word-at-point))
        (symbol-at-point (symbol-at-point))
        (default (symbol-name symbol-at-point))
        (inp (read-from-minibuffer
              (if (or word-at-point symbol-at-point)
                  (concat "Symbol (default " default "): ")
                "Symbol (no default): "))))
   (if (and (string= inp "") (not word-at-point) (not
                                                  symbol-at-point))
       (message "you didn't enter a symbol!")
     (let ((search-type (read-from-minibuffer
                           "full-text (f) or basic (b) search (default b)? ")))
         (browse-url (concat "http://lispdoc.com?q="
                             (if (string= inp "")
                                 default
                               inp)
                             "&search="
                             (if (string-equal search-type "f")
                                 "full+text+search"
                               "basic+search")))))))

;;;======================================================================
;;; scratch buffer function to immediately go to the scratch buffer
;;; from anywhere else
;;;======================================================================
(defun scratch ()
 (interactive)
 (switch-to-buffer "*scratch*")
 (lisp-interaction-mode)
 (if current-prefix-arg
     (delete-region (point-min) (point-max))
   (goto-char (point-max))))


;;;======================================================================
;;; From: lawrence mitchell <wence-at-gmx.li>
;;; Find the function under the point in the elisp manual
;;;
;;; C-h TAB runs the command info-lookup-symbol
;;;    which is an interactive autoloaded Lisp function in `info-look'.
;;; [Arg list not available until function definition is loaded.]
;;;
;;; Display the definition of SYMBOL, as found in the relevant manual.
;;; When this command is called interactively, it reads SYMBOL from the minibuffer.
;;; In the minibuffer, use M-n to yank the default argument value
;;; into the minibuffer so you can edit it.
;;; The default symbol is the one found at point.
;;;
;;; With prefix arg a query for the symbol help mode is offered.
;;;======================================================================
(defun find-function-in-elisp-manual (function)
 (interactive
  (let ((fn (function-called-at-point))
    (enable-recursive-minibuffers t)
    val)
    (setq val
      (completing-read
       (if fn
       (format "Find function (default %s): " fn)
         "Find function: ")
       obarray 'fboundp t nil nil (symbol-name fn)))
    (list (if (equal val "")
          fn
        val))))
 (Info-goto-node "(elisp)Index")
 (condition-case err
     (progn
   (search-forward (concat "* "function":"))
   (Info-follow-nearest-node))
   (error (message "`%s' not found" function))))

;;;======================================================================
;;; Functions to insert the date, the time, and the date and time at
;;; point.  Useful for keeping records and automatically creating
;;; program headers
;;;======================================================================
(defvar insert-time-format "%H:%M"
 "*Format for \\[insert-time] (c-h f 'format-time-string' for info on how to format).")


(defvar insert-date-format "%d %b %Y"
 "*Format for \\[insert-date] (c-h f 'format-time-string' for info on how to format).")

(defun insert-time ()
 "Insert the current time according to the variable \"insert-time-format\"."
 (interactive "*")
 (insert (concat (format-time-string insert-time-format (current-time)) " ")))

(defun insert-date ()
 "Insert the current date according to the variable \"insert-date-format\"."
 (interactive "*")
 (insert (concat (format-time-string insert-date-format (current-time))" ")))

(defun insert-date-time ()
 "Insert the current date according to the variable \"insert-date-format\", then a space, then the current time according to the variable \"insert-time-format\"."
 (interactive "*")
 (progn
   (insert-date)
   (insert " ")
   (insert-time)))

(defun insert-current-file-name ()
 (interactive)
 (insert (file-name-nondirectory (buffer-file-name (current-buffer)) "\/")))

(defun insert-current-path ()
 (interactive)
 (insert (buffer-file-name (current-buffer))))


;;;======================================================================
;;; this function prints an ascii table in a new buffer 4 columns
;;;======================================================================
(defun ascii-table (&optional extended)
 "Print the ascii table (up to char 127). Given an optional argument, print up to char 255."
 (interactive "P")
 (defvar col)
 (defvar limit)
 (setq limit 255)
 (if (null extended)
     (setq limit 127))
 (setq col (/ (+ 1 limit) 4))
 (switch-to-buffer "*ASCII*")
 (erase-buffer)
 (insert (format "ASCII characters up to %d. (00 is NULL character)\n\n" limit))
 (insert " DEC OCT HEX CHAR\t\t DEC OCT HEX CHAR\t\t DEC OCT HEX CHAR\t\t DEC OCT HEX CHAR\n")
 (insert " ----------------\t\t ----------------\t\t ----------------\t\t ----------------\n")
 (let ((i 0) (right 0) (tab-width 4))
   (while (< i col)
     (setq col2 (+ i col))
     (setq col3 (+ i (* col 2)))
     (setq col4 (+ i (* col 3)))
     ; special condition to insert a <TAB> instead of an actual tab
      (cond
      ((= i 9)
       (insert (format "%4d%4o%4x  <TAB>\t\t%4d%4o%4x%4c\t\t%4d%4o%4x%4c\t\t%4d%4o%4x%4c\n"
               i i i  col2 col2 col2 col2 col3 col3 col3 col3 col4 col4 col4 col4)))
       ; special conditon to insert a <LF> instead of an actual line feed
       ((= i 10)
       (insert (format "%4d%4o%4x  <LF>\t\t%4d%4o%4x%4c\t\t%4d%4o%4x%4c\t\t%4d%4o%4x%4c\n"
               i i i  col2 col2 col2 col2 col3 col3 col3 col3 col4 col4 col4 col4)))
      (t
       ; insert the actual character
        (insert (format "%4d%4o%4x%4c>\t\t%4d%4o%4x%4c\t\t%4d%4o%4x%4c\t\t%4d%4o%4x%4c\n"
               i i i i col2 col2 col2 col2 col3 col3 col3 col3 col4 col4 col4 col4))))
     (setq i (+ i 1))))
 (beginning-of-buffer)
 (local-set-key "q" (quote bury-buffer)))

(defun explorer ()
 "Launch the windows explorer in the current directory"
 (interactive)
 (w32-shell-execute
  "open"
  "explorer"
  (concat "/e, " (convert-standard-filename default-directory))))

(defun cmd ()
 "Launch the NT Command console"
 (interactive)
   (w32-shell-execute
    "open"
    "cmd"))

(defun tomcat ()
 "launch tomcat in debug mode."
 (interactive)
 (let* ((cwd (getenv "CATALINA_HOME"))
       (tcat (concat  cwd "/bin/startdbg.bat")))
   (find-file tcat)
   (w32-shell-execute
    "open"
    tcat)
   (kill-buffer (get-file-buffer tcat))))

(defun dbg-tomcat ()
 "launch a debug console for tomcat."
 (interactive)
 (let ((dbg (concat (getenv "JAVA_HOME") "/bin/jdb.exe")))
   (w32-shell-execute
    nil
    dbg
    "-attach jdbconn")))

(defun run-cmd (cmd)
 (interactive "sCommand: ")
 (start-process cmd "*scratch*" "cmd" (concat "/c " cmd))
 (switch-to-buffer "*scratch*"))

(defun replace-all (string to-string)
 (interactive (progn (setq string (read-from-minibuffer "Replace string: "))
                     (setq to-string (read-from-minibuffer
                                      (format "Replace %s with: " string)))
                     (list string to-string)))
 "Replaces string with to-string in all buffers"
 (let ((buffs (buffer-list))
       (current-buffer (current-buffer)))
   (while (car buffs)
     (switch-to-buffer (buffer-name (car buffs)))
     (let ((pos (point)))
       (goto-char 0) 
       (query-replace string to-string)
       (goto-char pos))
     (setq buffs (cdr buffs)))
   (switch-to-buffer current-buffer)))

;;overlay bookmarks
(defun filter (fn lst)
 (let ((acc nil))
   (dolist (x lst)
     (let ((val (funcall fn x)))
       (if val (push val acc))))
   (nreverse acc)))

(defun setOverlayBookmark ()
 (interactive)
 (let*
     ((pnt (line-beginning-position))
      (ovrly (make-overlay pnt (line-end-position))))
   (overlay-put ovrly 'face 'highlight)
   (overlay-put ovrly 'pointHistory t)
   ovrly))

(defun overlayBookmarkFilterFunc (ovrly) (and (overlay-get ovrly 'pointHistory) ovrly))
(defun overlayBookmarkFilterStartsFunc (ovrly) (and (overlay-get ovrly 'pointHistory) (overlay-start ovrly)))

(defun nextOverlayBookmark ()
 (interactive)
 (let*((pnt (line-end-position))
      (ovrly_starts (or (filter 'overlayBookmarkFilterStartsFunc (overlays-in pnt (point-max)))
                  (filter 'overlayBookmarkFilterStartsFunc (overlays-in (point-min) pnt)))))
   (if ovrly_starts
       (goto-char (reduce (lambda (a b) (if (< a b) a b)) ovrly_starts))
     (message "no items in history"))))


(defun clearOverlayBookmarks ()
 (interactive)
 (let
     ((ovrlys (filter 'overlayBookmarkFilterFunc (overlays-in (point-min) (point-max)))))
   (mapcar 'delete-overlay ovrlys)
   (message "cleared point history")))

(defun toggleOverlayBookmark ()
 (interactive)
 (let
     ((ovrlys (filter 'overlayBookmarkFilterFunc (overlays-in (line-beginning-position) (line-end-position)))))
   (if ovrlys
       (mapcar 'delete-overlay ovrlys)
     (setOverlayBookmark))))

(defun overlayBookmarkRefresh ()
 "stretches the overlays from the beginning to end of a line"
 (interactive)
 (let
     ((ovrlys (filter 'overlayBookmarkFilterFunc (overlays-in (point-min) (point-max))))
      (lf (lambda (tmp) (save-excursion
                                (goto-char (overlay-start tmp))
                                (move-overlay tmp (overlay-start tmp) (line-end-position))))))
   (if ovrlys
       (mapcar lf ovrlys)
     (setPointHistory))))

;; eshell/bmk - version 0.1.2

(defun pcomplete/eshell-mode/bmk ()
 "Completion for `bmk'"
 (pcomplete-here (bookmark-all-names)))

(defun eshell/bmk (&rest args)
 "Integration between EShell and bookmarks. For usage, execute without arguments."
 (setq args (eshell-flatten-list args))
 (let ((bookmark (car args))
       filename name)
   (cond
    ((eq nil args)
     (format "Usage: bmk BOOKMARK to change directory pointed to by BOOKMARK
   or bmk . BOOKMARK to bookmark current directory in BOOKMARK.
Completion is available."))
    ((string= "." bookmark)
     ;; Store current path in EShell as a bookmark
      (if (setq name (car (cdr args)))
         (progn
           (bookmark-set name)
           (bookmark-set-filename name (eshell/pwd))
           (format "Saved current directory in bookmark %s" name))
       (error "You must enter a bookmark name")))
    (t
     ;; Assume the user wants to go to the path pointed out by a bookmark.
      (if (setq filename (cdr (car (bookmark-get-bookmark-record bookmark))))
         (if (file-directory-p filename)
             (eshell/cd filename)
            ;; TODO: Handle this better and offer to go to directory
            ;; where the file is located.
            (error "Bookmark %s points to %s which is not a directory"
                  bookmark filename)))))))

(defun eshell/start (FILE)
 "Invoke (w32-shell-execute \"Open\" FILE) and substitute slashes for backslashes"
 (w32-shell-execute "Open" (substitute ?\\ ?/ (expand-file-name FILE))))


(defun setenv-from-list (env strlst)
 "Set an environment variable using the contents of a list."
 (setenv env (join "; " strlst)))

(defun join-strings (sep &rest strngs)
 "join a bunch of strings with sep concatinated after each string."
 (let ((rslt ""))
   (dolist (str strngs)
     (setq rslt (concat rslt str sep)))
   rslt))

(defun join (sep strlst)
 "join a list of strings with sep between each."
 (let ((rslt ""))
   (dolist (str strlst)
     (setq rslt (concat rslt str sep)))
   rslt))

(defun join-ba (before after strlst)
 "join a list of strings with before and after pre/post pended to each string."
 (let ((rslt ""))
   (dolist (str strlst)
     (setq rslt (concat rslt (format "%s%s%s" before str after))))
   rslt))


;;setup load paths
(defun setup-load-paths (edir subdirlst)
 "Setup load paths. edir is the elisp directory path and subdirlst is a list of subdirectories." 
 (mapcar (lambda (subdir) (add-to-list 'load-path (concat edir subdir)))
         subdirlst)
 (add-to-list 'load-path edir))

(defun copy-to-scratch ()
 "copies selected text to the scratch buffer."
 (interactive)
 (let ((txt (buffer-substring (region-beginning) (region-end))))
   (save-current-buffer
     (set-buffer "*scratch*")
     (insert txt "\n"))))

(defun search-all-buffers (srch-str &optional match-buffers)
 "Search across all open buffers."
 (interactive "sSearch String: \nsMatch Buffers: ")
 (let (buffer-re)
   (if (stringp match-buffers)
       (setq buffer-re match-buffers)
     (setq buffer-re "."))
   (multi-occur-in-matching-buffers buffer-re srch-str t)))

(defun todo ()
 "Find all todo items in all buffers."
 (interactive)
 (multi-occur-in-matching-buffers "." "TODO: " t))

(defun multi-find-file (root-dir name-regx)
 "Find multiple files starting in root-dir and descending directories."
 (interactive "sDirectory to search from: \nsMatch files Regx: ")
 ;(message (concat "root-dir: " root-dir))
  ;(message (concat "name-regx: " name-regx))
  (if (and (and (stringp root-dir) (> (length root-dir) 0))
              (and (stringp name-regx) (> (length name-regx) 0)))
   (let ((files-to-open nil)
         (subdirs nil)
         (names-list nil))
     (setq names-list (directory-files root-dir t))
     (unless names-list (message "names-list is nil."))
     (dolist (name names-list)
       ;(message (concat "file name: " name))
        (cond
        ((file-directory-p name)  (unless (string-match "[.]+$" name) (setq subdirs (cons name subdirs))))
        ((string-match name-regx (file-name-nondirectory name)) (setq files-to-open (cons name files-to-open)))
        ))
     (dolist (item files-to-open)
       ;(message (concat "opening file " item))
        (find-file-other-window item))
     (setq file-to-open nil)
     (setq names-list nil)
     (dolist (item subdirs)
       ;(message "dropping into subdirectory.")
        (multi-find-file item name-regx)))
   (message "Need values for root-dir and name-regx.")))

Fat Dutch Guy

Lets see how long this lasts

The HD-DVD key. Fighting censorship.

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

Real life project management using Scrum

Dody Gunawinata, founder of Silverkey Technologies, explaining real life project management using Scrum.

Scrum Tuning: Lessons learned from Scrum implementation at Google

Google Tech Talks December 7, 2006 ABSTRACT Adwords introduced a Scrum implementation at Google in small steps with remarkable success. As presented at the Agile 2006 conference this exemplifies a great way to start up Scrum teams. The inventor and Co-Creator of Scrum will use this approach in building the Google Scrum implementation to describe some of the subtle aspects of Scrum along with suggested next steps that can help in distributing and scaling Scrum in a "Googly way".

Scrum et al.

Google Tech Talks September 5, 2006 Ken Schwaber co-developed the Agile process, Scrum. He is a founder of the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance, and signatory to the Agile Manifesto. Ken has been a software developer for over thirty years. He is an active advocate and evangelist for Agile processes. ABSTRACT Scrum is an amazingly simple process that causes many, many changes when it is implemented. This seminar presents the basic framework of Scrum and some of the implementation issues associated with it.

Getting Started with Common Lisp, part 2

The first thing that you need to do when getting started with Common Lisp is to choose a Lisp implementation. Lisp has a standard, similar to C++. Choosing a Lisp implementation is similar to choosing a C++ compiler. Like C++ compilers, conformance to the standard varies. For this post I will only discuss Free CL implementations but there are a number of commercial CL implementations. If your lucky enough to be using Linux for development, there are quite a few Free CL implementations. You have the choice of CMUCL, SBCL, CLISP, GCL, and ECL. There are probably more but those are the ones I know of. I chose SBCL because of its speed and because ASDF comes pre-installed. (ASDF is a library management system similar to CPAN.) SBCL can produce standalone executables. If you're stuck running Windows for some reason then your choices are somewhat more limited. There is CLISP, GCL and ECL. Under windows I chose CLISP because of it's standards conformance and because there are a lot of libraries that are known to work with it. It is also very cross platform. It will pretty much run under whatever OS you want. There are also a number of interop libraries for it so you can make use of windows specific features easily. CLISP uses a VM and byte code system, similar to Java, so it is not as fast as some of the other LISPs but it is faster than Java.

Getting Started with Common Lisp, part 1

I've spent the last couple of months learning Lisp. I would say the hardest part about the process has been figuring out how to get a proper development process setup and learning how to install libraries.
Lisp is a significantly different environment than any of the other languages I have learned. It's not the syntax that is the real issue. Once you get used to prefix notation and how the libraries work, you really start to appreciate the language. If you get emacs setup correctly then Lisp syntax is actually easier than the more common languages. The bug hurdle in my adjustment to Lisp was getting used to working with the repl, learning about application images, learning how to work with SLIME and learning the primary library and application management system, which is called ASDF. Once you learn how to install ASDF, getting and installing libraries becomes simple, somewhat like CPAN or Python's easyInstall. The next few posts will be about how I overcame each of these hurdles and learning to appreciate Lisp and the Lisp way.

Lisp in Python

I was browsing through some Lisp sites and came across this cool article. Describes and implements a Lisp interpreter in Python. There are some other cool articles on this site as well.

A nice series of introductory Python articles

This series (Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4 ) articles looks like a nice intro to Python.

Mastering Ajax, Part 2: Make asynchronous requests with JavaScript and Ajax

Part 2 goes into more depth on using XMLHttpRequest. It details some basic uses like error handling and call backs. Nice article.

Read more at www-128.ibm.com/develop...

Mastering Ajax, Part 1: Introduction to Ajax

Yet another excellent Developer Works article. A nice intro to Ajax. Covers the basics of using the XMLHttpRequest object, including cross browser issues.

Read more at www-128.ibm.com/develop...

Another nice Python Tutorial

Nice tutorial. The color scheme is not so hot though.

Discover Python

There is a nice set of introductory Python articles over on Developer works.

Planner Mode for EMACS

I came across Planner mode a couple of weeks ago. It has been working very well for me. It integrates with a variety of other EMACS applications. It is also able to keep track of time spent on a given task, which is handy for a number of uses.
In the past I have used a variety of contact management/calendaring software including Outlook and Evolution but they are big and bulky and get in the way. They are also overly complicated and it is hard to associate notes with a given piece of information.

Useful web site

This site has a lot of interesting articles on a number of different languages.