Thursday, October 15, 2009
I’ve been playing around with bash scripting quite a bit recently in relation to my current job.
Came up with one that’s really useful (imho) around chkconfig:
# mass set all services known to chkconfig to be `on` or `off` at given level
# written by warren myers - warren@warrenmyers.com
# 28 sep 2009
echo "USAGE:"
echo " $0 <level> [on|off]"
echo
# list all services, just the name, skip blank lines, do in order
SERVICES=`chkconfig --list | cut -f 1 | grep -v ^$ | grep -v ':' | sort`
for SERVICE in $SERVICES
do
chkconfig --level $1 $SERVICE $2
echo "$SERVICE has been altered for $1 to state $2"
done
Yes – there’s an evil you could perform:
for CS in `chkconfig --list | cut -f 1 | grep -v ^$ | grep -v ':'`
do
chkconfig --level 12345 $CS off
done
So, if you wanted to stop all services from coming on at startup, you could – and not know you did it until you rebooted.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
I like [some] Pringles potato crisps. For years I wondered why it is that when you remove the lining inside the cover it often likes to rip the inner lining of the cardboard case off with it, but it was a minor inconvenience (especially in the era [many moons ago] when I’d eat a whole can at a time).
Now, Lays has introduced the Stax line – same concept: reconstituted potato spooge shoved into a mold and baked. And, at least in Singapore, the packages are the same cost as an identically-weighted package of Pringles. Here’s the kicker – the Stax chips come in plastic. So when you remove the lid liner, it comes off – no tearing of the inner package liner.. because there isn’t one.
Why can’t Pringles do the same thing, or cut their cost so that the convenience of a tear-free interior is actually a cost of the other guys?
How ironic. My favorite condiment at Vietnamese restaurants in the US is actually a Thai sauce. A sauce, may I add, that I have never seen in a Thai restaurant – anywhere.
Sriracha is awesome – heat but not an astounding amount. And it still carries a lot of flavor, so it’s not just heat.
I saw this in /. earlier in the week.
Apparently NASA is turning to the American public for new challenge/contest ideas.
I don’t know whether to be impressed that they’re trying to get new perspective.. or scared that they can’t come up with it on their own.
There’s lots and lots of smart people at NASA. I hope it works 
It’s after 23:23 Eastern time on the 2d of October 2009.
This means I’ve completed my 28th year.
This next one promises to be even more exciting
Thursday, September 24, 2009
I’ve been given claim code, which apparently has to exist in a post, hence this one
z2pacsmvq4
Monday, September 14, 2009
With the new iPod nano from Apple, it looks like someone is starting to implement a digital radio recorder.
It’d be nice if it wasn’t just the “skip” or “pause” protection, but it’s a start.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
It’s been a month since I last posted on my weight loss attempts.
From a month ago, I’ve dropped 11 lbs. For my metric-bound acquaintances: I have no idea, so look it up 
Now I have a good (but somewhat costly) problem – I need new pants
Thursday, September 10, 2009
I just found this article from David Pogue that indicates how to avoid the voicemail prompts and greetings:
It turns out that each carrier offers a “bypass the instructions” keystroke that takes you directly to the beep. (It bypasses both the person’s own recorded greeting and the 15-second carrier nonsense.)
To be as evil as possible, the carriers do not promote or tell you about the existence of this keystroke. Furthermore, the key to press is different with each company:
* for Verizon
1 for Sprint
# for AT&T
# for T-Mobile
bad math and the digital economy
I generally like reading Seth Godin’s blog. However, this post on the digital music economy isn’t very helpful, in my opinion.
Yes – 0% of a large number is still 0. But 0.5% of a large number.. is a big number, too.
What I think that article is telling us is that people are only willing to pay for .5% of music available online.
It speaks nothing to the relative popularity of said music – just to it’s profitability. I legally obtain lots of music. I buy CDs, use iTunes, stream radio, etc.
I also find freely-available songs from artists, and download them from their websites.
Also note – of the 13,000,000 songs available, 10,000,000 never had any purchases made. That means that 3,000,000 of them did – which means there was at least enough interest on some folks’ parts to give it a shot.
I think that means that most people won’t pay for the crap that’s shoved out the doors, and only want the good stuff.
You used to be stuck with 10 songs you didn’t want along with the 2-4 you did off a given album – the article says this means the bad songs were financing the good ones. That’s backwards: it was/is the good ones financing the bad ones. Now that people can get just the ones they want (ie, the good ones), we’re seeing how much of what is produced is really just junk.