Test to add Google Gadget to WP
April 29th, 2010This is a google gadget with a spider on it.
Post from iPad
April 3rd, 2010Testing out the Wordpress app on my new iPad. I stood in line for half an hour in front of the Palo Alto Apple store being photographed and videotaped by all sorts of idiots. The next time Apple releases a product I need to get it from the Stanford store or Valley Fair. The “associate” that I was assigned to put a hard sell on getting Apple Care for it and buying Apple Me, which I think are the only two non-enterprise Apple products I don’t own at this point. Typing on the keyboard in landscape mode is surprisingly easy and accurate.
Martin Luther King would be proud?
February 3rd, 2009
Matthew brought this home from school in February. I don’t think he quite got the spirit of Martin Luther King Day.
To paraphrase the Reverend, “The moral arc of the Star Wars universe is long but it bends towards justice.”
Failed to load GPC extension
November 17th, 2008I struggled mightily with this issue trying to get WebEx to work, so I’m posting my solution on my blog.
The error is “Failed to load GPC extension” when trying to attend a WebEx meeting. I could only find one other post on the whole Internet with this issue and it was unsolved since 2003.
Anyway, the reason I was getting this error was because I had named my hard drive “☯” (the Unicode character for Yin Yang). The solution was the manually uninstall everything (instructions below), reboot, change the name of my hard drive to something boring like “Todd,” and then try again.
Here are the instructions for manually removing WebEx:
a. Open up your MacHD –> User Folder –> Library –> Application Support
Trash the WebEx Folder
b. Go back to your User Folder –> Library –> Internet-Plugins
Trash the WebEx-Plugins Folder
c. Go back to your User Folder –> Library –> Preferences
Trash all WebEx Preference files (3-6 possible prefs)
d. Open up your MacHD –> Applications –> Java –> J2SE 5.0 –> Java Preferences
Click on Delete Files under Temporary Internet Files and delete all all Temp Files.
e. Open up your MacHD –> Applications –> Utilities –> Terminal
type: rm -rf .webex (return)
type exit (return)
f. Empty Trash (not all items may be removed, if not empty trash again after reboot)
g. Reboot system
My theory is that the Meeting Manager installer and program both can’t handle file paths with Unicode/non-ascii characters in them. When I turned on debugging and looked in console I saw pointer problems in both Safari and Firefox:
11/17/08 4:13:24 PM [0x0-0x1f01f].com.apple.Safari[240] Destroy
11/17/08 4:13:24 PM [0x0-0x1f01f].com.apple.Safari[240] Safari(240,0xa0477fa0) malloc: *** error for object 0xec32c8: pointer being freed was not allocated
11/17/08 4:13:45 PM [0x0-0x1d01d].org.mozilla.firefox[234] plugin,NP_Initialize start
11/17/08 4:13:45 PM [0x0-0x1d01d].org.mozilla.firefox[234] plugin,NP_Initialize end
11/17/08 4:13:45 PM [0x0-0x1d01d].org.mozilla.firefox[234] plugin,NP_GetEntryPoints start
11/17/08 4:13:45 PM [0x0-0x1d01d].org.mozilla.firefox[234] plugin,NP_GetEntryPoints end
11/17/08 4:14:15 PM [0x0-0x1d01d].org.mozilla.firefox[234] Destroy
11/17/08 4:14:15 PM [0x0-0x1d01d].org.mozilla.firefox[234] firefox-bin(234,0xa0477fa0) malloc: *** error for object 0×26532c8: Non-aligned pointer being freed
11/17/08 4:14:15 PM [0x0-0x1d01d].org.mozilla.firefox[234] *** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug
11/17/08 4:14:15 PM [0x0-0x1d01d].org.mozilla.firefox[234] NP_Shutdown
I hope this helps someone else out there who runs into this.
[Update: I tried to send this info to WebEx support and got this in return:
Thank you for trying to contact WebEx Support, but your request could not be accepted for one of the following reasons:
- There was no open case number in the subject line,
- The case number in the subject line refers to a case that is closed,
- Or the case number is invalid.
]
Post from iPhone
July 25th, 2008I just downloaded this WordPress app to my iPhone. I’m attaching a picture of Matt with his buddy R2D2. We are in New York, and I regret that I haven’t been able to find an unofficial Star Wars shirt. I may be reduced to buying one at Baby Gap.
Star Wars is his new obsession though he hasn’t seen the movie. A friend across the street has some sort of Star Wars video game. He and Matt will walk around singing the theme that plays whenever the Empire does something naughty or is about to.
Took this picture at FAO Schwartz, where they do a regular show on that keyboard in Big. *Spoiler alert!* The grand finale is Bach’s tocatta and fugue in D minor.
Vacation Grade: F (or D with extra credit)
May 4th, 2008This is the last night of my vacation. I took last week and the preceding Friday off. My favorite kind of vacation is where I hang out at home for the time out. All my books, music, and gadgets are at home. And most of my favorite places are a short drive from my home, so home is an ideal place to spend a vacation as far as I am concerned.
The day before vacation I made a quick list of what I wanted to do with the time off. Eleven days later I am in the happy position of being able to grade my vacation.
Here’s the list from my notebook:
- See Forgetting Sarah Marshall
0/10 — I wasn’t able to do this because Diana won’t let me see this without her, and we weren’t able to get a babysitter. We couldn’t find an early enough show that ended in time for us to pick up M. from preschool.
- See Iron Man
10/10 — Fortunately, D. has no interest in superhero movies. So I saw it the night it opened once the kids were in bed. It was strange seeing an unabashed capitalist superhero, but I guess America is ready for it. I don’t get the sense that Bruce Wayne is that involved in Wayne Enterprises to the point where he’s giving demos.
Side note: Yesterday was Free Comic Book day, so we all went over to Lee’s Comics and dutifully got our free comics. Matt got some strange thing called Nascar Heroes, but he was more interested in my Marvel Comics because it had Iron Man (I-ron Man, as he says) on the cover. Stephanie got a Simpsons comic.
- Fix up blog
2/10 — All I really did was update to 2.5.1 and make a quick to do list. I didn’t feel like spending too much time on the computer as I thought I would. Screwing around on the computer always seems so appealing during work, but not so much on vacation.
- Check out code.google.com
0/10 — I have a list of Google products to really dig into, and this is next on my list. I didn’t do anything with it.
- Read a few books in Thucydides
8/10 — I’m in the middle of Book III. The Athenians just beat the Lesbians, though it’s not what it sounds like.
0/10 — Half way through the week I got a Kindle as a sort of spot bonus. So most of my reading time was spent actually playing with the Kindle. I downloaded a bunch of different versions of Thucydides to see if it is possible to read it remotely and then review from the well-annotated Landmark Thucydides
. Also I had to check out a few editions of Decline and Fall
as well as some magazines and newspapers. So no Intelligent Asset Allocator, even though there is a Kindle version that I’m going to buy.
. Also I had to check out a few editions of Decline and Fall as well as some magazines and newspapers. So no Intelligent Asset Allocator, even though there is a Kindle version that I’m going to buy.- Write 2 book reviews on goodreads.com
0/10 — I really like Goodreads.com, and I wanted to write a few reviews of books of some of the favorite books that I have read. The two I would have probably reviewed were Pleasant Hell
by John Dolan and A Fan’s Notes
by Frederick Exley. I last read A Fan’s Notes maybe ten years ago, so that review would be maybe a little impressionistic. But I never got around to it.
by John Dolan and A Fan’s Notes by Frederick Exley. I last read A Fan’s Notes maybe ten years ago, so that review would be maybe a little impressionistic. But I never got around to it.- Review Pieces of Piece
for KFJC
3/10 — I managed to play this on the air, and I know what I’m going to say about it. But I didn’t write it down, turn it in to the station, and go to the meeting to deliver the review. It’s not my fault because Diana had plans and I couldn’t find a baby sitter.
- Get on the air at KFJC
10/10 — I was on Wednesday morning for Ann Arbor’s 15th anniversary show. I did my DJ training, and she was nice enough to have me on to talk for a bit and play a few songs. I played some soul singers that we both really like Candy Staton, Bettye Wright, Sharon Jones, and I wrapped up with a mini-review and song from Pieces of Peace.
Then I did the 2am-6am “grave” shift the following Thursday morning. It felt so good being alone with nothing to think about but music for four hours. Check out the set list. I knew that the station manager and faculty liaison were listening because they were reviewing the work logs of everyone at the station. This made me a little self-conscious.
They came into the station as I was leaving around 6:30am (after putting away all of the way-too-many records I pulled). The faculty guy said my show was “interesting.” He didn’t say anything when I asked how he liked it. I started freaking out on the drive home. Then I remembered that I had been up for over 24 hours and my brain was not to be trusted — especially the paranoid part of my brain that starts getting on my case whenever I’m tired. I went home and slept until 2:30pm.
- Fix the DVD Player on the little Mac
10/10 — This was due to a leopard graphics upgrade. For some reason it made my Macbook G4 crash hard whenever I put in a DVD. Someone was nice enough to write a script that reverts the graphics library.
- Call D—-
10/10 — This is a guy that I’ve wanted to get hired at G so that I can work with him again. Sadly, it is not to be.
- Have lunch w/friends
5/10 — I had lunch with one friend, which is actually pretty social for me. He works for an interesting start up, so I hung out and talked with a few more people there.
- Email T—— about her show
0/10 — One of my favorite DJs left her show, and I wanted to find out why. But I forgot to email her.
- Have a daddy/daughter day
- Have a daddy/son day
20/20 — I had a lot of quality time with the kids, I’m glad to say. We spent Friday in San Francisco walking through Chinatown, through North Beach, up Telegraph Hill, down the other side, down Herb Cain way, on a ferry to Tibaron, on a ferry back, on Muni, then back home. We made goofy movies for Diana (who stayed home) with my Flip Video.
I gave each kid $10 to spend however they wanted during the day. This prevents them from bugging me to buy them things every few minutes, especially when walking up Grant Ave. Tellingly, Matt spent his in about 2 minutes and Stephanie held on to hers to save. Stephanie almost bought a Geronimo Stilton book, but when I told her it was $8, she wrinkled her nose and put it back. If I hadn’t given her the $10, I am sure she would have talked me into buying it for her.
The next night we camped out in a tent in the back yard. The kids were insanely excited. They slept cozy in their sleeping bags, and I was cold. I need to wear a hat next time. I think I had more hair the last time I camped out.
- Go out with D.
5/10 — Sadly, there is a babysitter recession in Palo Alto, so we could only go out for lunch a few times. We went to Chaat Paradise, which is fantastic. I didn’t even mind that it is vegetarian.
- Talk to S—-
10/10 — This was a work thing.
Extra credit: This was stuff that I took care of that I’ve been meaning to do for a while
10/0 — Plan our summer vacation. The whole family is taking a biking vacation up in the Redwoods. D. actually took care of this, but it was my idea.
10/0 — Buy a new commuting bike. My old mountain bike is a little uncomfortable for me. It’s too small, and riding it I look like a praying mantis trying to mate with a bike. So I bought a Cannondale Bad Boy Ultra XL.
10/0 — Put away my CDs. I never, ever play CDs at home since everything is ripped on my computer. So I moved them down to the basement in alphabetical order. This cleared off a lot of shelf space in my office. Genres still accessible in my office: classical, soul, and hip hop. This is in case I want to play them on the air.
Grade: 55% — F
Grade with extra credit: 72% — D (according to the grading scale at the Jesuit high school I attended)
I clearly suck at taking vacations. My next vacation will have simpler goals (don’t fall off my bike and get paralyzed, don’t forget to bury my poop, don’t lose a kid), so I expect my grade to improve significantly soon.
WP 2.5
April 21st, 2008I woke up this morning and read an email from friend (Hi Kent!) stating that my blog had been hacked. Frankly, I deserved the haxoring because I was running an old (2.1.1) version of WordPress — one that had actually been cracked while on the download servers at that.
I exported by blog posts, cleaned out the bad links, deleted every wp file, deleted my database and every associated database user, deleted a bunch of other files that were laying around my htdocs directory, installed WP, imported my posts, and added a new theme.
Most everything made it over okay. I even moved the blog to a /blog directory and updated my .htaccess file to 301 all of the links. The old feed link doesn’t seem to work in Google Reader for some reason. The only real data lose occurred because I used the Exhibit plug in for a bunch of posts, so a lot of my image links were gone when I delet. I may need to redo my album of pictures I found on the ground after I retire.
I’m going to upload a few images to test that feature out and then check the feed links. (Note: WebKit crashed when trying to upload pictures the first time.)
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- Stephanie and Matt about to enter a mine
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- Trying to read The Histories on a Sunday morning while being attacked.
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- Hanging out with Stephanie, who is proud of her KFJC temporary tattoo.
Using Komodo Edit as an IDE for Google App Engine
April 19th, 2008More than a year ago I wrote a “buzzword bingo” application. I was at work and had about three hours to kill while waiting for some scripts to finish, so I hacked together some PHP to pick random words out of a file and put them on a bingo card image that I found on Google image search.
This made conference calls more interesting and probably caused my friends at work to listen more closely than they would have otherwise. It was fun for a while, and then we kind of forgot about it.
The last time I thought about it before this week was when I got a nasty email from someone in Canada complaining that there were 500 bingo cards printed out on their printer in color. Since I hosted this app out of my home directory, my LDAP name was in the URL for every page. I explained that anyone with a browser could have printed it out, which got no response. (I sure hope he doesn’t have a job that requires deduction.)
But anyway, I have been trying to stay abreast of Google’s 6,000 APIs, and App Engine seemed as good a place to start. (I played with Open Social a little the week before.) Porting my simple bingo card app to Python and to Google App Engine seemed like the perfect starter project.
I worked through the tutorial using vim, then I tried to work through it again using Eclipse. Maybe I’m just an idiot, but after using Eclipse for over two years I still don’t really get it. I can run programs and include libraries and set breakpoints for debugging, but I get the impression that somehow I’m doing it all wrong. After a few hours trying to find a browser previewer to show the app dev server, I gave up on Eclipse in search of a new IDE to work with.
And after reading through this thread about Python editors, I downloaded the free (as in speech) Komodo Edit app. I spent most of last night using it to port my bingo card app, and I think it’s a great development environment for App Engine.
I’ve only used Komodo Edit for a little while, but here are the steps I took on my government^WGoogle-issued MacBook Pro (running Leopard) to get it set up for App Engine:
1. Download Google App Engine SDK and install
2. Download Komodo Edit and install. (I installed 4.3.2 for x386.)
3. Configure Komodo Edit
a. Make a command to start the dev server
Tools->Run Command…
In the Command box: /usr/local/bin/dev_appserver.py %p
Check Add To Toolbox
Press the More button
Select Run In New Console (otherwise you won’t be able to run any other commands)
b. Make a command to upload the app to Google
Tools->Run Command…
In the Command box: /usr/local/bin/appcfg.py update .
Check Add To Toolbox
Press the More button
In the Start in box: %p
Select Run In New Console
Note that these commands will show up when you show the Toolbox, which you can see by toggling the “Show/Hide Right Pane” or selecting View->Tabs->Toolbox from the main menu.
c. Add the Google libraries to the code completion path
Go to Komodo->Preferences…
Languages->Python
Add /usr/local/google_appengine
d. Django file extension
This isn’t really a configuration, but remember to save your Django templates (the templating language that Google App Engine uses) with the file extension .django.html to enable syntax highlighting.
e. Add handy URLs
I found it handy to add some common URLs that I was using in development.
To add a URL go to the main menu and select Toolbox->Add->New Url…
I added these:
Appspot login == http://www.appspot.com/
Google App Engine intro == http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/gettingstarted/introduction.html
http://localhost:8080/ == http://localhost:8080/
Double click to launch the default browser, right click and select Open URL in Tab to open it as a tab in Komodo Edit.
f. Use vi mode if it floats your boat
One interesting feature is the ability to use vi or emacs commands in the editor window. You can set this in the Preferences under Edit->Key Bindings, then select Vi under Key Binding Schemes. I turned this on for a while but quickly tired of the novelty.
There is also an emacs mode, but it seems unnecessary because if you know emacs you are already such an efficient programmer that using a program with a gui Komodo Edit would be too jolting, sort of like a speeding race car hitting a large pothole.
g. Getting a side by side view
I heard this complaint in a review of Komodo Edit, so here’s how I was able to do it (not that I really used this):
Put focus on a file you are editing
Window->Move To Other Tab Group
Window->Rotate Tab Group
4. Create a project
I didn’t really get the whole Live Import thing, so I might be doing this wrong. I made a directory, copied the .yaml, .py, and .html files into it, then File->New->New Project… Then I browsed to the directory and saved the project file with the name of the app that I was working on. Be careful naming the project because I couldn’t figure out how to rename project files.
When uploading the app to Google only the necessary files are uploaded, so it doesn’t matter if the project file is in that directory or not.
I’m not sure how the project view (on the left hand side) maps to the file system. I created a directory and moved a file into it from the project view, but that wasn’t reflected in the file system. So I just moved files around with Finder and then selected File->Refresh Status from the main menu.
5. Reflect on the experience
Once I was set up it was very easy to code, test, and deploy with this environment. You can check out the end result at http://wordbingo.appspot.com/ After I password protect editing the buzzwords, I’d like to try to make it multiplayer. But that might require more free time than I have.
(Actually, if I had some extra time I’d really like to set up syntax highlighting and code completion for the Gadget API — because I spend a lot of time on gadgets, gadget ads, and Open Social gadgets. Currently I’m using the Google Gadget editors which are okay but have their limitations.)
Now you have a full accounting of last Friday night between the time that my wife fell sleep putting my son to bed at 8:00 and when I went to bed at 12:30am.
March 11th, 2008
This is a test from Google Docs. I’ve been meaning to set this up for a while.
I also got on Twitter at twitter.com/nemet I’m building a bridge to the 21st century!
Update: Doesn’t seem like it is adding the title from the doc.
Update: What about images?
Am I [^ ]+ Enough For You?
September 26th, 2007The great Funky 16 Corners blog has a nice write up of the song that my blog is named for. “I’m not weak but not I’m not too strong. But I think I’ve been around too long.” My first choice — Ain’t Too Proud To Blog — was already taken, which sent me looking through my soul CDs for an appropriate title.
In related news, two nights ago Matt was singing “You can feel it all o-o-over. You can feel it all o-ver people” from Sir Duke.