I read this Howto about WordGrinder. I give it a try, it's easy to compile, just need a little change. You will need:







Then run ./pm install to install, I got an error from linker:





I do install lua, but the name isn't right for Fedora. So, I opened the pmfile for "lua5.1", it's at line 215 in the version 0.3.2. I changed it to "lua". Now, I have WordGrinder.



But there is a problem, I couldn't make text italic or underlined, maybe I don't know how to use that? Anyway, here is a screenshot of what I get from WordGrinder and exported HTML result:





By the way, it also provides binary package for Windows users!



Updated: I got it! RTFM! wordgrinder README.wg. You can press CTRL+SPACE to enter selecting mode, then press CTRL+I to italicize the text.

More than a week ago, I decided to temporarily stop using, reading, or writing on Twitter, FriendFeed, and MSN. That's a torture and inhuman! First 24 hours of this idiot idea is the hardest time. Even you know only few people would read your tweets, you still want to tweet. You just want to let the word out, doesn't matter if others read them.

It's a expression way, a life pattern. Something triggers your mind, being organized in your head, then being expressed via typing.

I wouldn't try this again, although this my second time. Now, I have many things have to catch up.

Don't dare to try!

I really love this ads.



This might sound like sick, but my favorite scene is "I love Egyptian kings." The video above is different than I watched in Taiwan. After Richard Machowicz firing a grenade from launcher, the next scene is a volcano eruption not a construction gets fired.

Wikipedia has the lyrics and scene sources. You can also watch on Discovery, download the video (MP4), and/or the MP3.

The World is Just Awesome

If there was only the first scene, I would think this is an X-Files clip.

I think highlight.js is better than SyntaxHighlighter. It supports more languages and you don't need to specify. It has pre-defined styles and they looks quite good.





You can download it here. If you are lazy to set up, you can just use mine. I picked up Bash, C#, C++, CSS, Django, HTML, XML, Javascript, PHP, Python, Python profile, and diff. I use Zenburn style with one modification, I make footer bar's background color of code block as transparent.



Installation

You can add a HTML/JavaScript gadget to your footer with the code like:

<script src="http://livibetter.googlepages.com/highlight.pack.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
  var hl_style = document.createElement('link');
  hl_style.setAttribute('rel', 'stylesheet');
  hl_style.setAttribute('type', 'text/css');
  hl_style.setAttribute('href', 'http://livibetter.googlepages.com/zenburn.css');
  document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(hl_style);
  hljs.initHighlightingOnLoad();
</script>

If you have your highlight.pack.js, please replace first line with your location. For CSS, please replace sixth line with your CSS location. If you want my settings, just leave them all.



Wrap your code like

<pre><code>First line of code
Second and ...
</code></pre>

Sometimes, when you are in shell, you need the current process but also want to run another command. Yes, you are running in GNU/screen, but you think you have enough tabs. What can you do? Use the magic!

Put it in background

Simply press Ctrl+Z. You will be back in your shell immediately. But the process has just been put in background is NOT running. You have to use bg to let it run in background. Use jobs to find its number and run bg 1, for example.

Want it back? Just run fg <num>.

Directly Run in Background

Run program &.

Detach it from Shell When exit

After put in background, run disown -a. You can also make directly nohup program &. However, it will show up in jobs, you can run disown -a to remove it.

When you logout, exit or Ctrl+D, the program won't exit.

This a re-post, originally posted on 2008-09-04 on The Tiny Bit blog.

Note: This is only a code snippet, not for general cases. You need to modify to suit your requirements.

I have a Python script to download Blogger.com templates, but it misses a very important feature, which is duplication detection. In other words, it stores duplications.

I wrote a quick awk script, this might be my first one. It's easy to write, it only took me 10 to 20 minutes to write and to read "An Awk Primer".

#!/bin/bash
# 2008-11-28T03:17:10+0800

md5sum *.xml | awk \
'
BEGIN {
prevhash = "";
}

{
if (NR>1 && prevhash == $1) {
    system("rm " $2);
    printf("%s deleted.\n", $2);
    }
prevhash = $1;
}'

I know BEGIN section is unnecessary, but I don't like referring to a variable without assigning before.

The argument of system() function is possibly the tricky part. It does string concatenation, I seem to know of similar syntax in other language, but I couldn't recall. I know you can do similar thing with Python, for example: 'abc' 'def'. But that doesn't not apply on variables.

The following screenshot is it in action:


This script finds duplications by md5sum. Newer duplications will be deleted, oldest will be kept. If the behavior of ls changes, this script will be broken.

Any tips for me, a awk newbie?

Since I created SuperNext, I started to see a lot of adult contents on LiveJournal. I believe that those are spams as well, but I am not sure since they are written in Russian. I also found out they are many Russian contents on LiveJournal.

In order to do what I think I should do, I signed up. I didn't see any button to report after signed up. I checked up the help and get FAQ #281. Let me quote the important part:



So, I have to wait and I totally agree with this policy.

I haven't known about what LiveJournal really is. I think it is a blogging platform, am I right? I might take some time to investigate.

After upgraded from Fedora 9 and had some problems, I decided to do a fresh installation. I finished the whole process less than 2 hours. Amazingly, I got exactly same environment. Yes, exactly same, including the problems. None of them got resolved.



I don't know what's going on, so I can only wait again. Here is the screenshot of Amarok:





That looks like GTK 1.x, so old school. Looking ugly is acceptable if it doesn't play. yea, it doesn't play anything, even the OGG.



And screenshot of Flash's problem:





Beside two above, I also have Java problem and gcin problem (scim-chewing has no problem, but I like gcin). So far, I didn't edit any configuration files, all are default.



PackageKit and NetworkManager are still the worst things. I don't want to say that, but that's the truth. It doesn't give me any Next-button methodology but troubles.



One thing I very like is the booting screen, this made me think doing a fresh install is worth even I got nothing resolved. Check this out:







This is probably the most awesome over all operating systems, not even Mac OS X can compare with new Fedora booting screen in my opinion. They have no chances. Awesome!



Please give me updates!

---

Updated on 2008-11-28



The Amarok playback problem has been resolved. I got few updates via yum yesterday, they include kdelibs, kdelibs-common, and kdemultimedia-libs. However, after updated and rebooted, Amarok still doesn't play. Today, I install phonon-backend-gstreamer and that's the resolution. One thing I don't understand is why wouldn't phonon-backend-xine work? and qtconfig-qt4 still reports Phonon and GStreamer backend are not available. Amarok still looks ugly. PS. MP3 is also playable.



The Amarok ugliness problem has been resolved by yum install qgtkstyle. Here is a screentshot:





About the Java slow problem, I have tried the Sun's JRE 6u10.i586, same result. I feel it runs slightly faster, but that should be nothing to do with this problem. The problem must be in deeper space. In case anyone wants to try, you can install as follow steps:

• Go to download at http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp


• Run it at /opt


• Run alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /opt/jre1.6.0_10/bin/java 2 (Note the path is for Update 10, it may change when you download)


• Run alternatives --config java to use Sun's JRE.

You can refer to Sun Java Installation for more detail.

---

Updated on 2008-12-01



Today, I am lucky to read this thread "[F10] ATI Radeon XAA vs EXA [SOLVED]". It mentions nomodeset kernel booting parameter and that's the resolution for Flash and Java problems. Yes, including Java problem, I don't know why but it did resolve. Now I only have one problem left, gcin.

---

Updated on 2008-12-09



Just got some updates, including java-1.6.0-openjdk-1:1.6.0.0-7.b12, mesa-dri-drivers-7.2-0.14, mesa-libGL-7.2-0.14, mesa-libGLU-7.2-0.14, xort-x11-drv-ati-6.9.0-61. Now Flash and Java work normally without booting with nomodeset.

Although we don't have Thanksgiving in Taiwan, but I still want to show my grateful appreciations to few people from the bottom of my heart.

Firstly, I would like to thank whom have tweeted me on Twitter again. I thanked about a week ago for being as 1-year-old Twitter user. Secondly, to my blog readers, I guess this doesn't involve many people. Thanks for reading my blogs. Thirdly, to the cat, who works hard to sleep funnily.

Lastly, to everyone, thanks!

I have upgraded to Fedora 10 with DVD. Honesty, I don't feel many changes. The booting process has a little bit different. It's now always in graphical mode but still the same text-mode message (I don't use RHGB), that looks great. The logging-in sound is different.



The problems I have:

• If enable gcin (an input method editor) in IM Chooser, system will extremely slow response.
  
  


• Woopra client doesn't run well, it hangs. Could be a Java problem.


• Flash (64 Bit) doesn't render well.


• Saw a message "Could not detect stabilization, waiting 10 seconds." at booting, not sure what does that mean. After searched, I got this thread.
  
  


• Amarok is 1.94, but UI has big problem and it can't play.
  
  

I ran yum to check if there is updates and hoped they would fix the problems above. I need to disable few repos, e.g. freshrpms and jpackage. Right now, I have 143 updates about 203 MB. After updated, those problems remain.



I am trying to resolve:

• freshrpms is ready for Fedora 10.
  
  

Updated on 2008-11-27



After a day, I still didn't see anyone has same problems as I have. I decided to do a fresh installation, yea, I don't have much patience. I think all problems are caused by very fundamental thing but I don't know what it is.



Post closed.

It should be released less than an hour (1500 UTC)...



F5'ing...



Show yourself! Fedora 10!



Updated at 1507 UTC: Downloading DVD at 1.10 MB/s from local mirror server! ETA an hour! PS. The public mirrors.

I just noticed that YouTube now serves as widescreen viewport. Check out this video. Yes, that's a cat, FTW! Meow!

YouTube is getting better and better. Hope they can lift the video quality more higher. It still can't beat Vimeo or Blip.tv up.

Every time you have gone between Microsoft Internet Explorer and other web browsers, that would be completely painful. IE always acts different than others and kicks your ass. And the fact is even different IE versions act different, too. It would drive you crazy.

Here is one I just met again:

<html>
<body>
    <div>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            var p = document.createElement('p');
            p.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Hello World!'));
            document.body.appendChild(p);
        </script>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

This screentshot was taken from IE6 with WINE. If you are using IE7, that would be "blah blah blah. Operation aborted." This happens on IE 5.5 to IE7. The cause is that you do not wait for DOM gets ready.


The easiest one
Add defer="defer" attribute to your script element. That looks like:

<script type="text/javascript" defer="defer">

Usually useless solution
Microsoft has noted this bug, yes, they already called a bug. Why this is useless usually? Because we may not have fully control power on the HTML. Besides, move or create new element in existing HTML layout would break out plan of the HTML page.

Consider this scenario: You are a Blogger.com widget developer and your widget uses JavaScript. You ask widget adopter to add a HTML/JavaScript gadget with your code. For minimizing the difficulty of installation, you would not want the adopter to touch template, because not everyone is capable to edit template easily.

Binding onload event
I personally would recommend this solution. It's the most elegant way to resolve this issue. You better to chain onload event, unless you pretty sure you are the only one who bind onload. The script may look like:

function ChainLoadEvent(f) {
    var old_onload = window.onload;
    window.onload = (old_onload == undefined)
        ? f
        : function() {
            old_onload();
            f();
            }
    }
ChainLoadEvent(function() {
    var p = document.createElement('p');
    p.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Hello World!'));
    document.body.appendChild(p);
    });

Why chaining? Because you don't want to the rainforest to die, do you? (Fast forward to 4:45)

Library way
If you are using a JavaScript library, they may already provide their own method, e.g. jQuery's ready.

Other reading
You can search on Google for related entries.

Last year, I didn't take the chance. Actually, I missed that. This year, I am fully prepared!


Want a falling snow (made by Scott Schiller, it's an awesome script) and a snowman (Sorry for my drawing, I did my best as I can) on your website? It's easy, only need to add two lines of code.

Easy Snowing

Choose one you like to put on your Blogger blogs.

<script src="http://sites.google.com/site/livibetter/blog-files/snow/snowstorm.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="http://sites.google.com/site/livibetter/blog-files/snow/snowman.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

<script src="http://sites.google.com/site/livibetter/blog-files/snow/snowstorm.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

<script src="http://sites.google.com/site/livibetter/blog-files/snow/snowstorm-nocollect.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="http://sites.google.com/site/livibetter/blog-files/snow/snowman.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

<script src="http://sites.google.com/site/livibetter/blog-files/snow/snowstorm-nocollect.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Manual Snowing

If you are a Blogger.com blog owner, simply add a HTML/JavaScript gadget with the code below:

<script src="http://livibetter.googlepages.com/snowstorm.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="http://livibetter.googlepages.com/snowman.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

If you don't want the snow to be stacked and piled up (however, snow still stay for a while at bottom, but will disappear soon.), replace first line with

<script src="http://livibetter.googlepages.com/snowstorm-nocollect.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

If you don't like the ugly snowman, don't copy the second line.

Let it snow!

PS. I also want to have a jukebox, but never seen a good one. If you know a good jukebox widget for this special season, be hurry to let me know!

---

Updated on 2008-12-16: Thank whom have suggested me about the jukebox. I think I will not add a jukebox, it's not because I didn't see a right player but I don't know what songs to play. However, since we have many suggestions, I will collect them and post a new posting about music player and hope that would help someone choose.

Updated on 2009-10-25: I noticed the season is coming again by having visitors via special keywords. I added four easy Add Widget button to help you to put the script on your blog easily.

---

• 2008-12-04: Add snowCollect off script.
• 2008-12-05: Correct the link to no collecting script.
• 2008-12-06: Link to How to add a HTML/JavaScript gadget.
• 2008-12-07: Fixed "Snowman hidden from you" problem in IE6/IE7. (A note to IE team: I HATE YOU!)
• 2008-12-16: Add update about jukebox.
  

Do you know the next blog button on Blogger.com's navigation bar or WordPress.com's next button? Even the Delicious.com's randomizer button?



Now you can have them all (and even more) with just one button on your bookmark toolbar!



Build Next Button helps you create your own next button as long as you have random sources.



Let's kill your free time by clicking on NEXT button!



If you have other random source, leave me a comment with the link, I might add it as default random source.

"24: Redemption" bridges the Season 6 and 7. Once again, we trapped. I do hate 24. The story has to come again and again, just different characters and objects. You can simply replace them with same things, then you would read the similar stories. The few things never changed are Jack Bauer, a President of U.S.A., a bad guy, and lots of phone ringings. Oh! CTU, of course. Okay, maybe CTU is history.

But what else I can say? Watching 24 gets you addicted, just like cat lovers. You know cat is silly and sometimes they are evil :p, but you couldn't stop loving them.

January 11, 2009 is the whole new day, prepare yourself!

I probably really bored, so I am trying second non-Linux unix-like OS. I downloaded the 2008.05 CD from OpenSolaris. Booted it up, after chose keyboard layout and language, it went into graphical mode. It is a live environment, GNOME 2.20.2. I clicked on Install icon on desktop.



In the dialog of setting user account. It is amazing that I could not have a log-in name longer than 8 characters! That's my first time to see this kind of restriction through my own eyes. Few clicks later, it started to install and took about 20 minutes to finish.



First boot took 1:30 to the login screen. The screen resolution is 1024x768. So I ran nvidia-xconfig as root and restarted X. That didn't work because the driver is 170 series. I need legacy 96 series. I changed back to the nv driver, but I broke X. I tried to switch back to console, I can't and I don't even know if Solaris is as if Linux has virtual consoles.



I tried to find out if there is a runlevel 3 as I can boot with an appending 3 in Linux kernel parameter in GRUB. That took me a while to find a solution on OpenSolaris forums, I finally read things about single user mode, which only accepts root user login. By appending -s to kernel booting parameter, I can modify xorg.conf and get nv driver worked again.



Now, I think I should get online first. I checked the network interface, I only have loop device. Device Driver Utility reports nForce Audio Processing Unit's and nForce2 Ethernet Controller's drivers missing. I found a driver called nfo, the version I used is 1.1.2. It already has binary files, you can't compile since you don't have GCC or SunCC. The pre-compiled binary works well, you only need to follow the instructions in README.txt.



By the way, the ext2/3 file system is NOT SUPPORTED out-of-box in OpenSolaris if you have to attach USB external disk. You can use FAT16/32, instead. After rebooted, Device Driver Utility now reported the NIC uses nfo driver. That's good, I then am able to proceed for the PPPoE configuration. I followed the steps in this and this. I need to release IP from DHCP in order to get network worked normally, no idea how to resolve this.



Now I have the Internet connection, I launched the Package Manager from desktop and did the first-time update. First update needs to download around 630 MB. That is hugh amount of data, I can only wait.



Unfortunately, that didn't work, it just keeps rebooting. I booted up the original BE (Boot Environment) and hours wasted. I decided to download legacy nVidia driver, I uninstall the one from OpenSolaris, then installed legacy one. Ran nvidia-xconfig and rebooted, I got the 1680x1050!



I think OpenSolaris is OK in production usage, but you may need to do a lot of homework if you want finely tune it. Lastly, a screenshot:

I wrote a small piece of JavaScript to do this job.



This screenshot shows how it works. The screwdrivers are hidden not completely removed. You can click on the left-top newly screwdriver to get them back.



This Screwdriver button helps blog owner easily to modify gadget when browsering their blog, but it lengthens the whole page and that's not what their blog readers would see. Those buttons would probably not be clicked for some bloggers, so hiding them might be a good idea and having a new button which can restore those screwdrivers might be a even better idea.



The installation is easy. Please follow the steps below:

• Add a HTML/JavaScript gadget to footer.


• Put the following code:

<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script src="http://yjl.googlecode.com/svn-history/r85/trunk/Blogger/HideQuickEdit.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

That's all. If you are interested in the source, you can check it out here.

Updated on 2008-11-24: Added Yahoo! Site Explorer and Live Webmaster Tools.





It's easy, you not even need to verify your ownership of blogs in Google Webmaster Tools. Please prepare:

• At least a Blogger.com Blog: Go to create one (draft) if you haven't had one.
  
  


• Google Webmaster Tools account: Make sure you already have created this Google service.

When you want complete features in Google Webmaster Tools, you have to verify the site. Blogger.com takes care that part for us already and you don't have to add your blog by yourself, they do that, too.



The only thing you have to do is go to your dashboard (draft) of Blogger.com, scroll down for Webmaster Tools (draft) in Tools and Resources section:





Once you finish the steps from the link, you should have all your blogs (including later created blogs) in Google Webmaster Tools dashboard and all verified. If that doesn't work, please add (yourblog.blogspot.com or your custom domain) and verify manually.



Next step is to add sitemap. in dashboard:

1. Click on Add under the Sitemap column.


2. Choose Add General Web Sitemap.


3. Input feeds/posts/default?orderby=updated as sitemap URL, that reads like as the picture below.


4. Click on Add General Web Sitemap to finish.

Done. That's all. You only need to repeat copy-and-paste the sitemap URL to all of your blogs' sitemap profile.





Since we don't have support from Blogger.com, therefore we must manually add blog and verify.

1. Log into Site Explorer.


2. Add http://yourblog.blogspot.com/.


3. Click on icon under Status column to verify and use meta tag to verify
   
   


4. Copy the meta tag and paste into your template right after <head>. You must add a slash to make it like <META name="y_key" content="bc73e7a7e8a1bf92"/>, or you will get template syntax error.


5. Save template.


6. Go to add a feed with relative sitemap URL feeds/posts/default?orderby=updated.


7. Done.
   
   

Same situation as Yahoo! Site Explorer. Manual installation needed.

1. Log into Sites List.


2. Add http://yourblog.blogspot.com/.


3. Enter the information like the picture below.


4. Click on Submit button
   
   


5. Copy the meta tag and paste into your template right after <head>.


6. Save template.


7. Done.

About hours ago, I felt unstoppably bored and checked if there is a new distro just got released. N-O-N-E! But I saw PC-BSD.
Usually I wouldn't try that because I won't use it as daily basis and I
try new GNU/Linux distro because I can write a post for 100 Distros Project.
But BSD is not a GNU/Linux distro, if I try, that will not be a new
post. However, I thought I still can write a blog post for my other
blogs. So, I took 30 minutes to download 32 Bit PC-BSD 7.0.1 DVD and 50
minutes to install it.



The hardware is the same as listed here.
I can not install with default boot options, I have to use the safe
mode. After installed, the first boot runs normally, I saw it generated
keys and it brought up a Display Setup Wizard. I chose 1680x1050 with nv driver, then my monitor told me "Out of range", and rightmost and bottommost areas got cut off.



I tried to reboot with default boot options got stuck again, I need to use safe mode, but still Out of range. I can't run the Display Setup Wizard from boot menu, will get stuck, too. I switched to console, logged, su'ed, and vim xorg.conf. I commented out the HorizSync and VertRefresh. Switched back to X, pressed Ctrl+Alt+BackSpace to restart X. That gave me 800x600.



Now, I ran the Display Setup Wizard from KDE menu, which is located at System group. This time, I chose driver nvidia-96.43.07 with same resolution. It works now.



Next step is to get online. System Network Configuration has a PPPoE configuration section, I input my account and got online. I launched the System Updater, there is only four system updates and one PBI.



So
far, the only major problems are text is ugly -- I enabled
anti-aliasing, but does not seem to work. Firefox shows well. -- and
system response latency is quite severe when launch a program. I don't
know if that is because of KDE or BSD. Beside these two (and safe
mode), I like it, PC-BSD has Flash 9 working out of box. Audio works.



I think PC-BSD is easy to use. But 7.0.1 may not be a stable release.
This is my first install of BSD system (if Mac OS X doesn't count up).
Lastly, here is a screenshot:






Maybe OpenSolaris for next?



This is blog post is written on PC-BSD 7.0.1

A hilarious show is back on TV. I was expecting the intro would have some differences, but none of what I could see. The show is still silly as usual and that's the whole point. We need brain-useless shows, this is a perfect one.

Just a day before broadcasting, the official website finally put on a new entry and press pictures.

"I can't seem to get it opened!" Yep, that's the reason of IT department's existence.

Although I have left Arch Linux for more than two months but still read some stuff about it. This is latest one and really amazing.






Direct link to download QuickTime format.

I want to follow a Blogger.com (aka. Blogspot) blog easily. If the blog doesn't not use Followers Gadget, then I have to manually copy the link of the blog and go to the Blogger.com dashboard to add it. That takes some time.



At first, I wish I can have this following feature in Blogger.com site-wide navigation bar. Then, I think what if a bookmarklet? So, I checked up the code in Blogger.com. Minutes later, I have



Follow this blog



Drag this and drop onto your bookmark bar and enjoy following!



If you get warning and 100% sure that is a Blogger.com blog, leave a comment with a link to the blog which you want to follow, I will go to check.



You can read the JavaScript source at Google Code if you are interesting.

---

ChangeLog:

• 2008-12-11: Changed variable name for widget-XXX.js changes.


• 2008-12-20: Completely rewritten. Directly parse <link> elements to get blog id and pop up the following window (modified from Blogger.com's widget-###.js). This version runs slower than previous one due to loading external JavaScript source.
  
  

Updated on 2008-11-22: 1.1.6 had a short life, it has been replaced by 1.1.7 in order to fix #877.

Google releases the 1.1.6 of Google App Engine SDK. You can read the announcement blog post and release notes. The main improvements are matching production server environment and more capabilities with model key name.

I catgorized the release notes:

Development Server

• Datastore fetch max results and max query offset match production limits. 
  
• URLFetch in the SDK now has the same 5 second timeout to match production.
• Enforce response size and API request size limits to match production. #447
• SDK sanitizes response headers to match production. #198
• Login URLs now require login in the SDK to match production. #53
• SDK only allows "C" locale to match production. #356

• Fixed an issue in production where query fails with NeedIndexError when a model has two ancestor indexes. #423
• Fixed an issue with long URLs in HTTP 302 redirect responses. #407

Datastore

• Datastore now supports filtering and sorting on the key special property, which evaluates to each entity's key.
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to append None to ListProperty.
• Datastore appengine.ext.db models allow deletion by key without instantiating a model instance.
• Datastore models allow access to key name before put() if key_name given.
• Allow trailing whitespace in PropertyValueFromString for datetime.
• Fixed to_xml on models with binary data in a BlobProperty: they now are base64 encoded. Note: This changes XML serialization. #430
• Fixed an issue with setting expando attributes. #431
• Fixed an issue where TypeError was raised instead of NeedIndexError for "merge join" queries, i.e. queries with only equals filters and no ancestor or sort orders, that still need an index. #749
  

URLFetch

• URLFetch response headers are combined. #412
• URLFetch now uses original method when following a redirect. #363
• URLFetch logs a warning when using a non standard port. #436
• URLFetch allows integers as values in request headers.

Miscellaneous

• Fixed an issue with regular expressions in static_files in app.yaml. #711
• Support the bufsize positional arg in open()/file().
• lstat is aliased to stat.
• appcfg handles index building errors more gracefully.
• Fixed an issue with symlinks in the path to the Python core libraries.

Links: Discussion thread for 1.1.6

Yesterday, I received quarterly report from World Vision. In last quarter each year, there is always a sheet with written prayer, you can pray for sponsored child. I used to skim that sheet, read other stories on that sheet. That's all. Somehow, this year, I want to pray. But I couldn't, I know I only need to read it out, simply recite the prayer which World Vision has written for us. I can't, just can't do that.




It's not what I don't want to pray for the child, but I think if I do that, I insult the God they believe in. That is the tricky part, I don't believe in the existence of the God they believe in. Actually, I don't believe in any God from religions.

I think the God is our heart, we all have and probably the same one. Who is our conscience and intuition. Even the God tell us what's right to do, but not everyone would follow.


Human is strange, they like to be told resolution again and again. They already know the answers but prefer to hear from others. They have the most brilliant brains in this planet but prefer to act as animals do (I feel I just affront animals). They love seeing the love in animals but prefer to declare a war with else. They love giving hope but prefer to regret later. They love speaking but prefer not to listen to themselves.

Rights and wrongs are just about a foot far. How long do you need to think and to take it right?

I have been doing wrong for one thing for almost four years. If you know it, you would probably think I am stupid and silly. I suffer because I still don't say that. It's a simple word but very powerful, it can dissolve any situation if you say it from your heart.

I can't face the God, the life, and myself.

(This post title is stolen from this dream)

I already noticed that Googlebot parses things look like links nine months ago. Once again, they still have many to do with their searching algorithm.

Since two days ago, I saw a strange request on my Google App Engine application, which resulted a 404:


At first, I have no idea how this came from, but I know this must be something about JavaScript script of that application. Later I checked the log and got:


I didn't notice any until I saw the IP: 66.249.85.129, that is quite familiar. It's from Google. That JavaScript script has a block like:


I think that's clear enough. However, I won't obscure the JavaScript script in order to get rid of this. Even though I will see 404 report, but I can know when Googlebot comes. Hit me! Google!

Now you can also "Spice up your inbox with colors and themes." I see 31 different themes, which you can choose from. I use Terminal:


That Gmail logo is very cool. Some themes require your location, I am not sure what would they do with location.

I updated my old LabelCloud widget and named the newer code "LabelX". Here is how it looks:


Please check out the project page. It converts an official Labels Gadget into a LabelCloud or a dropdown box. You can sort labels by label names or frequency, limit to top # frequent labels, reverse the order, or change font size range.



Any feedback is welcome!

I saw this from a YouTube video, original does not have beds part, I added. Do you believe cats can cast magic spell? is there a Cat CIA? a "Controlling your owners using advanced techniques"?

They are really good. You never ever look their eyes, or you definitely will be totally controlled. Even you say "No" with deep serious voice, they still jump up to your bed within a second, even that is a 20+ KG super-sized cat. I guess the weight is just one of their covers. All of them are well-trained spies, each of them gets their best skill.

Common skills includes eating, sleeping, stealth, chasing, yelling, or playing cute. The can even call for support, which is the owners. They control everyone from your dog to your wife. They practice assault everything from shoes to cough or to your grandpa. They eat everything from cat food to dishes on the dinner table. They sleep all the time from 0000 to 2300, this is probably the only good thing.

When they are sleeping, you may ask for a small area of the bed to sleep. When they are hungry, you have to feed them first even if you are starved. When they are attacking so-called air enemies, you better get out of the way. When they stay closed with you, remember that they are kind to warm you up.

Humans, you are in catdom. RECIZTANS IZ FUTAI!

Every time a film has religion as part of elements, I can not write much about it since I don't know much.

The most interesting thing is not about this film, even it has good action scenes. When I read the cast list, Ashraf Barhorn (played Colonel Faris Al Ghazi) got my attention. The biography writes "He is Israeli, of Arabic heritage." Before this, I thought Israel is 100% Jewish citizens. I was wrong. "Arab citizens of Israel" explains 19.7% citizens of Israel are Arabs. I know there are Arabs live in Israel, but I never thought they have citizenship. Maybe they do not think they are citizens of Israel?

One more thing about this film I want to mention is what Ronald told to Janet and Abu Hamza told to his grandson:
I believe that is to point out whoever you are, most of use are not saint. Only few people can convert angry into forgiveness and even help the enemies. Many cultures or religions teach their people not to use violence or to revenge by indignation, I wonder how many of use can follow when things happen on us?

Links: IMDb and Wikipedia

From now on, I might have different feeling about Adobe. They, finally, released a first 64 Bit Flash for Linux only, yet. I have to say, this is first time that I can feel something from non-open-source software.



It's an alpha release, I won't try it out. Unless, it is included in repository.



No matter how this 64 Bit works, I want to say: Thank you, Adobe, you did a good job!



PS. Here is a blog post from Adobe.



Updated: Can't believe that I broke my word so soon. I have tried it out, it works normally on Fedora 9 so far. Here is the steps I did:

• Remove 32 Bit: yum remove flash-plugin.i386, Note that there still is the libflashsupport.{i386,x86_64} on my system.


• Download and unpack libflashplayer.so to ~/.mozilla/plugins.


• Navigate to about:plugins to check if installed correctly, it shows as Shockwave Flash 10.0 d20.


• Watch a YouTube video?.
  

Obituary Notice: On November 17, 2008, a cloudy Monday morning, nspluginwrapper died in action of Flash 64 Bit Alpha releasing. nspluginwrapper was the well-known process who supports 32 Bit plugins to be run in 64 Bit Firefox web browser.



Updated2: I noticed that microphone is working.

Yep, I know it's not a healthy food to eat. But I could not resist the heat from them. They are some chemicals in the ingredients which I am not even able to pronounce them. I like the spicy and creamy flavor, I probably a Thai in my previous life if there is the reincarnation.

I have only eaten two of this Tom Yam flavor (still not sure what does that mean exactly). The first one, Tom Yam flavor instant noodles by KOKA, is not a product of Thailand, it's made in Singapore. I guess Singapore has many Thai.

The taste of the soup is fine, but I don't like texture of the noodles. I feel that is kind of fluffy, should be more tense.

The second one, Sour soup shrimp flavor instant noodles by Unknown, is my favorite, but if you eat again after a month later or so, yous stomach complains. You will visit your toilet for several times in a few hours. Even though, that can stop it being a best Thai instant noodles to me. Really spicy, sticky creamy. Evey time I eat this, I definitely clean up the soup, nothing left.

First, do you know what is "index.html"? If you don't, please read Index.htm on Wikipedia,
that will only take your few minutes. Basically or formerly, it's a
directory of that website. I still remember when I was a student, I got
a gig to design a web page of  a office of my school. The head of the
office asked me why "index.html", what does that mean? If I recall my
answer correctly, that would be: It's the first page that Internet
users would be checking up for a new website to them.

I chose to
create a Google Sites (will refer as GS as follows) as my index.html
website, which means I use GS' service as my personal directory
website. I think the infrastructure of GS is great. For a directory,
you don't need it to be fancy when you are not a designer. You only
need to show the information of you in a formal way or just spreading
it out. Simple, quick, and easy is the only requirements that we should
have to focus on.

Actually, I have a GS before this index.html
website. However, that one is private, I am the only one can access to
it. I put my to-do list, ideas, thoughts on it. That do help a lot.

Few days ago, I think it's in this week, I created my second GS. The name of it is "Yu-Jie Lin",
that is the same as my name. I created some pages to list my favorites
of things and projects, which I am currently working on. I also list
what social network websites I am using or I had used. And a contact
information, of course. "About me" page isn't created yet, but I will.

I
guess creating a page with List is my favorite feature of GS. You can
add fields, you can sort the list as the way like, you can add and
delete items easily. Besides List feature, you can store files  and/or
embed some gadgets. The pages are created in hierarchical method, which
is a great way to organize.

I believe that we all need a website
but definitely not meaning a blog. They are different. Blog is a
specific website, you need a general website to represent you. Yes, you
can create page in a blog as if you can do in aWordPress blog. But, that is just a page in blog, not in your website.

I had used a social network website (FriendFeed)
as my website link in many social network websites. I then realized
that is not quite a good idea to do, because not everyone who happens
to be interested in you and are like to read stuff in social networks,
at least not in that one you link to. More over, a social network
website has very narrow purpose, the functionality is limited. Social
network website would never be perfect as your website.

Go signing up for GS and create one for your own.

That means you don't have time to backup. It's just gone, boom!
suddenly! gone! nothing left. Although I don't believe that would be
real someday, but this is fun to have a figure of what I would lost:

• AdSense: I am not even have enough money to request sending a paycheck. So this is not big deal to lose this.
  


• Alerts: If I don't have this, how could I stalk?
  


• Analytics: It's OK to lose, my statistics never get high enough.
  
  


• Base: I have few documents on it, but I barely can remember what they are.
  
  


• Blogger: Well, this is possible one that I don't want it to be shut
  down. I currently have 5 blogs, 4 of them are active. 70+ posts.
  


• Calendar: "Schedule" is never in my dictionary.
  
  


• Code: I have two major repository on it. But one of them is mirroring to GitHub. The other is not active anymore.
  
  


• Docs: I have few public documents and some private documents. I wouldn't like to lose them.
  
  


• FeedBurner: If I don't have Blogger, then this doesn't matter.
  
  


• Gmail: Right now I have used 327 MB, the contents of mails are not
  so important to me, but the sent/received dates are. How so? Those
  dates mark when I did what thing. They represent my life.
  


• Groups: I did post some postings, but that's OK to lose.
  


• Notebook: Not really have "knowledge" on it.
  
  


• orkut: I have account, that's all.
  


• Page Creator: I put some JavaScript scripts or images, but they are mostly part of my coding.
  
  


• Picasa Web Albums: Most of them are screenshot for blogging.
  


• Profiles: Doesn't matter.
  
  


• Reader: Honestly, I have only searched in it for once or twice at
  most. What I have read in it is not important, but if I don't have
  Reader, then I need to get used a new reader, so I will lose time.
  


• Search: Do we have other search engine? what we do? oh... that's news to me. :)
  


• Sites: I recently use it to create my "index.htm" website, which is the index of me. I can't afford to lose it.


• Talk: I have plenty of choices.
  
  


• Video: Some people don't even know there is Google Video.
  


• Web History: Google has no longer indexed all of you history because of some responses, mainly from Europe I believe.
  
  


• Webmaster Tools: Same as Analytics.
  


• YouTube: I only have four videos (I think), it's OK to lose mine. BUT, what should I do if we don't have YouTube. You can't take our fun away!
  

I believe that I miss some. Since I missed, that means they don't matter.



I think I may try to find some ways to backup my stuff on Blogger, Code, Docs, and Gmail. Any suggestions?

I tweeted this to a Twitter, then she decided to put it in her profile bio line. That makes me extremely happy. I think if I blog this I may find more people who might like it.

My curious has caught me, always do some investigations: Google it! Amazingly, I only see five entries and all of them don't seem to be written by native English speakers. I believe that is the reason why would she describe my words as "beautiful", because she have never heard people saying like that before. But that is my guessing.

Actually, I could say "Hold on to the chance in your hands." It's more clear and that's what I meant to say, but I rather not. Who would never know we should not let chance slip away? It's not a wisdom, we all know that since we grew up. The point of this is a reminder, which reminds of what you have stopped to listen. That's your heart.

It's just like good or evil. We are born to know and able to distinguish them relatively. However, knowing them doesn't mean that you would face them. Lack of courage or having excuses, I have mine and you have yours, too. That's not a sin, it's a fact. A fact of being a human.

Sometimes, I think life is really dark and darkness is necessary as a requirement of existence of lightness. They are not absolute value, not like 0's or 1's, true or false. They are relative, they are black, they are white, they are gray. They are everything based off  your thoughts. I have no idea why would I have such thought. I also have no idea why would a post named "Chance is in your hands" come to this place.

Now, back to chance. You probably noticed that I use singular form not plural form. Why? Because you only need to have one at a time, treat it well. Some people have dozens of chances waiting for them, but they get nothing in the end. Because they don't cherish what they already have, they take chances for granted.

One by luck; two by mistake; three, you should thank the whole world; four, your God love you very much; five or more, please don't steal in your daydream.

A good creation should not be judged by how the technique is hard, how high-tech it is, how much money creators put in, or who they are. It should be judged by how they use what resources they have. Do they 100% utilize each unit of resources? Do they show their grateful heart to the resources? I know that sounds weird. Cherish what you have, even you have nothing.

Saying is much more easier than action, many people are masters at it. I am not sure if I can when the time comes, but I do know I didn't let the chance of writing this post left. Once you have, all you need to do is to listen and to step out, that's the most hardest part.

"August Rush" is a "good" film because the story is beyond the realistic world. Dramatic, but not exaggerated. The music has to be outstanding, and it's in my feeling.

I think the major point of this film is the music in everywhere, you only need to listen and you will see the connections.

Later, after seen, I searched for August's Rhapsody on YouTube and Blip.fm, then listened to it again.

I found out that I did miss a thing: it's not only Evan's trip to find his parents, but also the road to seek, to learn, and to listen to music from every place which he has been, from everyone who he has met, from every sound which he can notice, and from every scene which he has never been able to see before.

You should notice what you have heard from the last consists of many materials which are heard and seen throughout the entire film. August's Rhapsody is this film.

While writing, someone seemed to be playing saxophone (maybe that was not that instrument), the music came through the window. Suddenly, it's gone, when I paid more attentions to it. I wonder if that was just my imagination.

Videos: Trailer, August's Rhapsody.

Audio: August's Rhapsody



Links: Wikipedia.

I saw this movie on HBO last afternoon, didn't see from beginning. I started from the President of Marshall University visits Jake Lengyel. Later at the night, I saw it completely. Every time a film about tragedy reminds me that I have a fortunate life.

When that comes, no one is able to be out of it. One way or another, they have to get the normal life back. Grief is harsh, it can drown people to death. The rebuilding is not about football team, but about getting the life back, doing what they used to do in every day.

This film is very touching, when you watch them suffering from the emotional moments, you would have same feeling. The head coach does many pushes, but, in the end, only the person who can adjust their pace, then move on. Nearly the end of film, when they won the first game after plane crash, Jake gave the ball to the President as a tradition. I couldn't agree anymore that President is the MVP, he deserves to own that ball.

If you want to read more, the page on Wikipedia and this collection page at Marshall Univserity website have more information. Here is a letter from Nate Ruffin. And date of the crash is November 14, if you happen to be nearby, you could go to the fountain for the memorial service.

I watched this music video "Change" by Taylor Swift on YouTube, which was released on Aug. 8, the opening day of this Olympics Game.

Video (bad quality)


Audio


It's interesting to connect this song Change to Obama's Change. Although we all know this song was written for American Olympians. Try to read the lyrics and think about the elections, you may feel something.

After clearly saw the facts about my blogs in newly Google Analytics overview dashboard, there was another fact caught my attentaion already. The status reports from Webmaster Tools:
The second one from bottom is the status of this blog, it says the last crawled on Oct. 18 by Google bot. It's almost a month ago, I don't know why the bot didn't crawl this blog. So I started to think maybe Blogarbage is a bad word? or my blog posts are not worth to indexed?

I don't know the reason, I don't promote my blog posting when I tweet, or post a link everywhere. I only have my blogs on my FriendFeed, MyBlogLog, and Google Profile. That's all I have done for my blogs. I don't do SEO, I think it's cheating as a human. You should not to fit the bots' flavors, but bots should be get smarter. When you try to do SEO, you are not exactly you. You have changed, just a person who wants more traffic. It's not a bad thing, and of course that is legit.

Like some behaviors on Twitter or FriendFeed, I never agreed. Possibly, there are some people who do not agree how I use social networks. I feel those are cheating, don't know how do they feel about mine.

I always believe if you blog harder, try to write with firm logic and rigorous examination, build your own credibility, and post often, eventually, we would form a group of loyal readers. I still believe so. Maybe I am too harsh and too rush to see immediately reaction, these blogs not even two months old.

I would like to steal words from Google Code:
with my supplementary:

Google Analytics team keeps making many new features. I just checked out my account:




It's embarrassing to show everyone this single digit of views, obviously, I didn't run my blogs well or write a popular codes. This can be treated as positive, keep working until I get hot!



Anyway, I like this new Overview, you now only need to take a glance to know a general statistics of your sites without checking them one by one. Maybe the team would add custom fields feature, which allows you listing any data you would like to see in Overview.

Twitterank (@t_rank) just heavily hit the Twitter. Many people talked about it, most are just retweeting. It started with Gullible Twitter users hand over their usernames and passwords - did you get your Twitterank yet?! then Is Twitterank Ranking Your Popularity Or Stealing Your Password?. Someone also took a screenshot of the HTML source, by that HTML comment to judge Twitterank is a phishing. If you visited Twitterank more earlier, you directly saw that paragraph. The author, @ryochiji, commented out that after an update. When you read the author's resume, it's harder to believe a Google employee and former Yahoo! employee would do a phishing thing. But so far, there is no solid proof for the entire thing.

However, there is a security concern of Twitterank. You password sends out in clear text. No SSL. The form data is not sent out via SSL. If someone's password get stolen and this is not phishing, then that's a possible way how a bad guy gets their password.

Later, the author posted a blog post, however, that explains nothing. If you track tweets, it's funny to read the rumor gets bigger and more dramatic, just like this. Also another guessing, the author is trying to push Twitter to improve their authentication.

If this turns out a false alarm, please apologize to the author, that really hurts; if this is true, the author trying to steal passwords, then we all know where he works (maybe that resume is fake); or he tries to force Twitter for better authentication, he still needs to be blamed, this is a really bad way to do a good thing.

Anyway, special thanks to those who happily play with Twitterank and then change their passwords, you and your tweets just made my day.

(Just have this thought if: Twitterank->Twitterprank->Twitter Prank, and P stands for Password. Just for fun, please don't hate/beat me.)

Update: there is a guest post by the author on ZDNet. I still don't see any apologies, the credibility on Internet has gone long time ago.

THE US MILITARY has ordered YouTube off of its networks and has launched its own video-sharing Web site for troops, their families and supporters.

Since May 2007, the Defense Department banned employees and soldiers from accessing social not-fighting sites including Youtube and Myspace, citing security and bandwidth issues.

-- US builds Trooptube

I wonder if U.S. DoD employees watch videos on YouTube all day long? or how would this involve bandwidth issue? If you already know American Army, then this TroopTube is really not a big thing to you.

I first visited it to see if I can find a secret LOLcat solider, but for a visitor, you can only see few videos. So I signed up as civilian friend, however, I still see no lolcat.

This sign up form is quite interesting. We all are familiar the Captcha, but when it's about the Military, you have change your jargon
So, am I having the Level 1 Security Clearance? :)

Currently the video is limited to up to 5 minutes or 20 MB, you can also mark videos as private, but how would other people watch that? I see no option to add friends or foes :). You can also comment on videos.

I think normal Internet users will not use this website, but I am really bored, just want to check out.

Recently I kept playing a MV on my screen, so I decided to turn on Desktop Effects, then I will have alpha channel. I can make video window a little transparent and I can read stuff beneath that window. I have tried to keep system as simple as possible, therefore I didn't install other players besides the default, totem. Funny thing is after turned the Desktop Effects on, I also installed Xine (front-end), MPlayer, and VLC. Why I installed them? because I can't stand with the quality of gstreamer, Xine, or VLC, only MPlayer can satisify my eyes.



I will start to note about how to let each player play with Desktop Effects first:




Make sure you switch to gstreamer (as root)

totem-backend -b gstreamer

Choose video driver

gstreamer-properties

Switch to Video tab, choose X Window System (No XV), Test, then Close.




Go to Setup, Choose Master of the known universe from Configuration experience level in gui tab, Switch to video tab, Choose driver xshm.




Tools/Preferences, Video, Display/Output X11 video output.




In Preferences/Video. x11 may work, but the fullscreen doesn't work for me. gl2 is sort of working, but have other issues.



The quality of them, I rank them in this order: MPlayer > VLC >>> Xine = gstreamer. Although VLC seems to be better than Xine or gstreamer, but it gives me few glitches on audio, that is not acceptable to me.



MPlayer is not really fully working with Desktop Effects, I wonder if this is also about open source video driver. I can't recall the status when I still use ATI driver.



Since I only have a small window playing, I will stay with Desktop Effects using Totem + gstreamer, I can accept the quality when window is small. When I need the fullscreen playing, I will turn off Desktop Effects and use MPlayer.

This episode makes Chuck more like a CIA agent, the badge, leading a tactical team, and taking over the charge. But that is just TV show. When Chuck and his ex just enter the restaurant, I didn't know that waiter is Casey until they sit down. Then I noticed that Casey under that cover looks like Billy Ray Cyrus, anyone has same feeling?

It's funny when they discuss about the reconnection. "Email or invite her to my Facebook," I think they miss "Poking". But Facebook is kind of old stuff, the script is possibly written years a ago.

And what is mojo?

I just finished my third Google App Engine application, Blogger.com Related Posts Service. I believe BRPS is currently most easiest way to have related posts on your Blogger.com blogs.








It only needs three lines of code. You can also simply click and a button to add it to your sidebar as a widget. If you want this Related Posts just right after your post, you only need to manually add these three lines of code at right place.



Honestly, I didn't write it with much care, so it might be broken very soon or never be. I don't know how many posts data can be stored within 500MB, I haven't written any clean-up code. The speed is quite fast, just a second or two for querying 5 labels via Blogger Data API. I may raise the label querying limit to 10 or higher, when BRPS has more bloggers use it.



The JavaScript script is relative simple, but enough for bloggers use standard templates. I am very welcome anyone to improve it or any part of BRPS.



Again, I am a lazy person. Current status is all what I need, I will only fix bugs for myself. I wish you can request some features, then I will add them if possible.



Updated on 2008-11-17: Here is a link to a blog post, which collects the old ways.