Fewer Broken Pieces

He’s standing right behind you.

I am now a zsh man.  The key to a happy zsh experience is a good ~/.zshrc file.  Thanks to Gentoo’s docs, I have a good start:

#!/bin/zsh
# completion
autoload -U compinit
compinit
# prompt
autoload -U promptinit
promptinit
prompt adam1
# options
setopt correctall
setopt autocd
setopt extendedglob
# history
export HISTSIZE=2000
export HISTFILE="$HOME/.history"
export SAVEHIST=$HISTSIZE
setopt hist_ignore_all_dups
# zstyle
zstyle ':completion:*:descriptions' format '%U%B%d%b%u'
zstyle ':completion:*:warnings' format '%BNo matches for: %d%b'
# color
[ -f /etc/DIR_COLORS ] && eval $(dircolors -b /etc/DIR_COLORS)
alias ls="ls --color=auto -h"
alias grep="grep --color=auto"

There are many more zsh options to play with.  For example, you can use prompt -l to see the list of available prompt templates if adam1 does not suit you.  Customized designs are doable as well.

You can also set the OS X Terminal.app to use zsh (/bin/zsh), but the color section of the file needs to be a bit different:

# color
alias ls="ls -Gh"
alias grep="grep --color=auto"

Enjoy!

I have released a new version of surl (”surl unlengthens resource locators”), a command-line interface to metamark.net (a URL-shortening service).  You can download the 1.0 release at Sourceforge.  It requires Python 2.4 or newer.  This version implements command-line options and fixes STDIN usage.  I am going to see about getting it into the Gentoo tree, or at the very least getting it bumped in the Sunrise overlay.

After unpacking the archive, you can install it by running the following command:

# python setup.py install

Surl is comprised of one script, so you can skip the installer if you like and just add it to your path.

EDIT: Make that 1.1.

Banshee, an open-source audio player, is now in beta for Mac OS X (Intel).

Today President Bush signed a law toughening penalties for copyright infringment (also hilariously know as “piracy”) and creating a cabinet-level Intellectual Property Czar.  This law has prompted a lot of controversy and at least one hilariously insightful comment on Slashdot:

“Copyright infringement is a felony”

If I steal a CD from a store that is a misdemeanor….

If I download a song…THAT IS A FELONY?!?!?!?!?

Yes, that is odd, isn’t it?

Finally I have discovered the secret to audio happiness on OS X.  First, Cog for playing music.  It’s simplistic, but has some great features (including support for the front row remote).  Next, Max, which is the answer to my prayers for a decent CD ripper.

Apple’s iPod product is popular, but its abilities are fairly limited.  Want to play back Ogg Vorbis files or customized the user interface?  Too bad.

Thank goodness for Rockbox.  Rockbox is a free-software alternative firmware for most iPods and many other portable digital music players.  I happen to use it on my 2nd generation iPod Mini, and I love it.  So, if you are feel like trying something new on your boring old iPod, check it out.

Is there no good audio player on OS X?  iTunes is out of the question, being a bloated piece of crap which does not even play every format.  I typically use VLC, but it is not full-featured enough for my taste.  Songbird seems a bit heavy, and needs more work, but maybe I will give it another shot.  I guess Amarok will be running on OS X shortly.  Any other ideas?

I was living a nightmare when several users told me that their machines were caught in an endless reboot cycle after I pushed Windows XP Service Pack 3. After a log of digging, I found out that by unplugging all USB devices, the machine would boot up and run normally. However, if I plugged any USB device in, the machine would reboot immediately. The affected machines were ones which once had the original version of Windows XP on them along with an Intel chipset (all of my affected machines as of yet have also been HP/Compaq). SP3 broke the backwards compatibility with this old USB driver which was installed, hence the crashing. Here is the fix:

1. Grab a PS/2 keyboard and attach it to the affected machine.
2. Unplug any USB devices.
3. Boot up and log in as an administrator.
4. Using your keyboard navigation skills, open up the Device Manager.
5. For each item in the USB section, choose “Uninstall.”
6. Reboot the computer and log in again. XP will reinstall the USB drivers.
7. Plug in a USB device and test.
8. Reboot and connect all USB devices.

And the users rejoice!

For some reason I can’t explain, I have decided to dogfood it on KDE 4.1. It is somewhat usable now, unlike 4.0. Moreover, I have to say that I have been excited by the KDE for a long time, and I am anxious to put in some time actually using it. At any rate, it doesn’t look like the Gnome libraries will be uninstalled, because I still need them for a few things. Also, NetworkManager still does not have a KDE 4 applet so far as I know, which is a big bummer.