nerdish

mint su eeepc

Mounted Mint on eeepc today, it seems to be cool! =)

How to mirror a static copy of the opensource.org website

I currently maintain the italian mirror of the Open Source Initiative web site, and today I realized that the script I wrote some months ago wasn't doing its job well.. because the CSS files weren't downloaded at all, causing a rather unpleasant rendering of the site.

To mirror opensource org I'm currently using the plain'ol GNU Wget -r --mirror and so on. While the good'ol wget downloads each page prerequisite defined in the HTML source, it doesn't support @import CSS rules, and doesn't download images referenced in CSS with url() rules.

BTW, nothing that can't be resolved with some regex-fu: that's why I'm sharing the script I'm currently using to mirror the opensource.org web site, hoping it will generate either a new mirror or some insights on how to do this job better :).

The script: update_opensource_mirror.sh

Continuous evolution

7.6M 20081209132347
7.0M 20081209133350
7.6M 20081209144343
7.1M 20081209145133
7.1M 20081209151843
7.1M 20081209163013
7.1M 20081209175506
7.1M 20081209183553
7.1M 20081211122939
8.6M 20081212190026
8.3M 20081212201852
8.3M 20081212203943
8.3M 20081212205430
8.3M 20081213014847
8.3M 20081213020357
8.4M 20081213163428
8.4M 20081213173633
8.4M 20081213184749
8.5M 20081214171239
8.5M 20081214174058
8.5M 20081215122638
8.5M 20081215152408
8.5M 20081215171627
8.5M 20081215200430
8.5M 20081215205042
8.5M 20081215235659
8.5M 20081216000247
8.5M 20081216164820

a permalink_fu improvement: allow modification of permalinks and create redirects on-the-fly

Another spin-off from the www.visitacsa.it website: a permalink_fu improvement that allows dynamic permalinks. I know it is an oximoron, because permalinks should be .. well .. permanent! And because search engines index them, they should never change. But what happens when you publish something, your permalink is generated with permalink_fu using the title of your post, and after a couple of days you want to change the title, and the permalink under which the post is accessible as well?

Following the specification, your app should send out a 301 moved permanently HTTP status when accessing the old permalink and redirect the client to the new Uniform Resource Locator. That's quite the same thing what my modification to permalink_fu does: whenever your post attributes are changed, the former and new permalinks are saved to the database, and you can enable your controller to generate 302 moved temporarily redirects when needed. In other words, it checks whether the requested URL is an old permalink, and automagically redirects the client to the new one.

The jQuery ajax-upload-fu plugin

This jQuery plug-in allows AJAX file uploads without having a fixed file input button. It achieves its goals by installing an OnMouseMove handler over the selected elements, and moving the input button under the mouse cursor.

The quote that inspired this code is: "If Muhammad won't go to the the mountain, the mountain will come to Muhammad",the opposite of the more known proverb :).

It has been spinned off from the http://www.visitacsa.it/ JavaScript codebase, see the gist for more information, and have a look onto the live app code for an example of its usage.

Here is the source code:

The Windows 7 default wallpaper meaning.

When you install the developer beta of Windows 7, after the usual 3 reboot cycle, you are greeted with the following image:

Windows 7 fish

AU Lab power II

AU Lab pwnz II

AU Lab power II.

Improving: there is no need to use NetSend and NetReceive to play on 8 speakers: an aggregate device composed of Soundflower 2ch, the USB 6ch SBlive and the Built-in output is enough!

AU Lab power.

AU Lab pwnz

The right session shows a document open on an aggregate audio device between soundflower (2ch) and a Creative SBLive with 6 channels: the flower receives sound input from iTunes and routes it to the card channels, using all the 6 speakers.

The end of online anonymity

Exactly the words that run around my mind these days:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_end_of_online_anonymity.php

"When we reach the point where online anonymity has ended, instead of getting to be who we really are, the fact that we've become so aware of the fact that we're always being recorded, photographed, tracked, and traced, will have actually created a slightly altered personality instead. Like reality TV show contestants, the act of being observed will change our behavior. Our personal brand image will become our public identity and therefore our identity."

che editor usa?

<gianluca> quindi lei ti chiede che profilattico usi.. in realta` tu devi chiederle che EDITOR usa
<vjt> .. ma io, ora che mi ci fai pensare, non le ho ancora chiesto che editor usa..
<gianluca> marcello, non fare questo errore
<gianluca> perche` quando nasce il bambino
<gianluca> lui poi non sapra` quale editor usare
<vjt> .. rotfl!

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