getting shells in the same path

Command Line linux technology

Often I work with a couple of shells simultaneously in the same directory. One may be the editor with a program in it, and the other one running it.
When I add the following lines to .bashrc


alias sd='pwd > /tmp/ddd'
alias d='cd `cat /tmp/ddd`; pwd'

I just need to type ‘sd’ (for Set Directory) in a shell that is already in the right directory. When I then log in with the other shell a simple ‘d’ gets me where the other shell already is. Extra benefit: When I want to continue where I was last I just type ‘d’ again. Just a little thing. But the world is made out of little things. Lots and lots of them.

osx wrtg54 connection reset ssh

linux OSX

When using via the wrtg54 ssh connections timed out after a while.
Which is was mildly annoying. The problem that with mildly annoying things is they are mildly annoying.
So one does not go and fix them soon enough. In this case it was terribly easy to cure errors like:


Read from remote host 1.2.3.4: Connection reset by peer
Connection to 1.2.3.4 closed.

All that it needed was to create a file called .ssh/config in the home directory and add something like these lines:

ServerAliveInterval 60
ServerAliveCountMax 5000

Nice that it didn’t require any changes on the other end.

gmail backup

google linux

Over the last years I accumulated quiet a bit of mail in Gmail. It works, and I find it very inspiring to see its features grow while I keep all my data. But I also grew worried: What would happen if my mail should go away? I have paid google exactly zero for keeping all my email. There would be nothing I could do.

Turns out that it is possible to make a copy. Googles own Matt Cutts described it well

I found that these getmail parameters worked well for me:


[retriever]
type = SimpleIMAPSSLRetriever
server = imap.gmail.com
username = EMAIL@gmail.com
password = PASSWORD
mailboxes = ("[Gmail]/All Mail",)

[destination]
user = getmail
type = Maildir
path = /root/.getmail/

[options]
read_all = false
verbose = 2
received = true
delivered_to = true
message_log = /root/.getmail/gmail.log

It took a while. Actually days. It seems that you only get mail out at a slow data rate. Then there is a bandwidth limit. getmail failed after a while with:


getmailOperationError error (IMAP error ([ALERT] Account exceeded bandwidth limits. (Failure)))

Just waiting a couple of hours took care of this. Having had the mail not backed up for 5 years it was quiet alright to wait 5 hours.

Another error occured with 5 mails. Getmail for instance would end with:


getmailOperationError error (IMAP error (command FETCH ('3049', '(RFC822)') returned NO))

And it would do so repeatedly with the same number. I assumed that something had gone awry with those mails. After pretending that the mail already had been retrieved via the oldmail-imap file getmail soldiered on.

Tragically at some point my connection went away. I had downloaded around 120,000 mails during that session.
Getmail updates the oldmail-imap file only when done (or cancelled via ctrl-C). So the next time it started I went to download the same mails again.

Even with that glitch things worked out. And I feel pretty good about having a copy of my mail now.

Having a secure copy of your data is never a bad idea.

Only 99 decades left till 3000

history misc

thank you sqlite

technology

Since more than 25 years I write computer programs. Writing some information to a file for later use is a very common thing. It worked (most of the time). But it never felt right. Common up with a format, creating a writer and a parser. All that can be done. Rather mundane. Finally I switched to using sqlite for this kind of thing. And this feel right. It works. And will just cover 99% of all cases were I have used “fopen” in the past. One of the things that I like about coding for a living is that it keeps getting better. Not me, that’s for sure, but the tools. And that almost makes up for the natural decline in raw brain power.

corporate video

internet technology

Remember the look of corporate Videos?

Well, things change.

I found this video for Cooper Union on The C47.

In the right hands you can make some very compelling images with a camera body that retails around 2.700 $US.

I had hopes that miniDV would spawn new content, due to the leap in quality of the recording technology. It didn’t work out that way.
I am hoping again that the 5D Mark II and similar devices do that.

At least wedding videos will look better than they used to.

iptraf

internet linux

just found

iptraf

and it is real nice and handy tool so see what is going on the network ports.

Very helpful.

QRCodes, Boards, the future and the others

interdubs internet technology

Just saw the Boards Summit opening reel:

They made a big deal about the QR Code.

But INTERDUBS clients can use QR Codes since January

We like it that way.

going back to 24 frames

history interdubs internet technology

Back in the day an electron beam was running across the TV screen. NTSC was running with 30 and PAL with 25 frames a second. If the beam would go line by line the screen would flicker. The solution was, to let it run twice over the screen for each frame: Once for all odd lines (1,3,5 etc) and then again for all the even ones (2,4,6). That looked better. It is called ‘interlaced’. Each of these passes is a ‘field’.

Film cameras liked to run at 24 frames per second. Cinema does not flicker since each frames is shown twice, but that is not the point here.

When you have 24 fps footage and your TV runs at 30fps, what do you do? The solution was to insert a so called 3:2 pulldown to make 30 frames out of 24. This was done based on 60 fields to make it look smooth.

Interlacing is dead. There are no electron beams going over glass tubes to make images to speak of.

If you like to compress an NTSC spot that was shot on film, and that has the 3:2 pulldown in it, then you should go back to the 24fps version first. Since I could not find anything that worked I developed this. In 1998. Then, in 2008, I needed it again, and so I looked again. Much to my surprise, nothing really worked the way it should be. Many tools have the button to do an ‘inverse telecine’. But none detect cuts and deal with changing cadence patterns. So, I wrote it again. This time based on quicktime.

I decided to give it away: 32none is a free tool now.

Enjoy.

replylater.com sliced bread has nothing on it

internet technology

A great idea implemented right can be so freaking awesome. I started using replylater.com and I must say it is great!

I tend not to get excited about computers, websites, software and services that much anymore.

replylater.com is different.

it is so simple:

For instance. you send / forward an email to tomorow@replylater.com
and it will send it back to you tomorrow.

Google should buy replylater.com and make this an internal feature of gmail. They don’t need to technically. It would be just a nice acknowledgment.

My project management is much based around email. At any point I have between ten and thirty projects going in the same time. And I need my head for something else, then to keep them all in there.
With a mail based workflow it is actually pretty easy to juggle so many things. replylater.com just adds a wonderful time dimension to it.

really love it.