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From: Michael G Schwern Date: 04:44 on 03 Mar 2008 Subject: autoconf 10 RUN CONFIGURE 20 INSTALL MISSING DEPENDENCY 30 GOTO 10 This process gets longer and longer as you go deeper and deeper in. Couldn't it run all the way through and let me know all the missing stuff= at=20 the end? Please? --=20 7. Not allowed to add =E2=80=9CIn accordance with the prophesy=E2=80=9D t= o the end of answers I give to a question an officer asks me. -- The 213 Things Skippy Is No Longer Allowed To Do In The U.S. Army http://skippyslist.com/list/
From: Michael G Schwern Date: 07:33 on 29 Feb 2008 Subject: Logan's Run Registration I registered for XFire, yet another chat network. This one is specially designed for Windows gamers. It scans your machine and keeps track of all the games you have and what you're playing so your friends can see and jump in with you. Kinda need, in a frighteningly insecure way. Anyhow, I have a friend of mine for whom it's her primary IM and with Adium unifying all my IM connections what do I care how many I have? Going to register on their website, they require all sorts of information including a birthdate. I accidentally submitted the form before filling that in, I think the default was something silly like today's date. It told me I needed to be at least 13. Ok, I can manage that. Go back, fill out the form again and submit... "You are not the right age to register for an Xfire account" Uhh, and what age would that be exactly? Is this some sort of Logan's Run-esque "don't trust anyone over 30"? I know Windows gamers are immature, but designing a chat network which only allows 13-29 year old smacktards is beyond even the inanities of Windows. It turns out this is a feeble attempt at preventing 12 year olds from lying about their age. It wasn't long before I found the "under13" cookie they had set when I first submitted the form. Yes, it wasn't even obscured. As any 12 year old will be able to figure out how to circumvent it, a simple google search gives the solution, I can only conclude this is a new user slip punishment system.
From: Michael G Schwern Date: 23:20 on 19 Feb 2008 Subject: Signatures I hate that it's 2008 and we're still signing documents with a pen. Let me explain. I'm working out the final details of a contract which involves signing a very simple NDA. The code is all public so the NDA is a mere formality. They took a PDF and printed it. Then they signed it. Then they scanned it. Then they emailed it to us to sign. We printed it. Then we crossed out a few objectionable clauses. We signed it and scanned it back in. The scan went to an office server. It was then emailed back to us and we will then email it off to the client who will hopefully accept it. If they don't we start this ridiculous process of transferring paper to bits to paper to bits all over again. It's not like we haven't had have secure, cheap digital signature technology for decades now. It's not like everyone with a PC, scanner and printer doesn't have the technology to forge a handwritten signature.
From: Michael G Schwern Date: 17:20 on 29 Jan 2008 Subject: Thunderbird's UTF8 warning Thunderbird sees fit to warn me before I send something that contains UTF= -8=20 characters. I guess something I cut & pasted into my signature file has = some=20 of them new fangled "smart quotes" or whatever. It presents me with this= big=20 dialog box telling me all the consequences of using Unicode or se[1]nding= =20 Unicode in the current character set (without telling me what that charac= ter=20 set is). The best part is it will seem to do this randomly, not just when I hit se= nd,=20 but while I'm editing or working in another window it sees fit to steal f= ocus=20 and say "HEY! OMG! LOOK! Let me tell you about the DANGERS OF UTF-8!" Then I get a choice. No question is asked, but I get a choice anyway. I= can=20 [Cancel]... but I wasn't doing anything. [2] Does this mean it will canc= el=20 the whole message and maybe close the window or just not send the message= ?=20 Kind of ominous. Then there's [Send Anyway] and does that mean to go ahe= ad=20 and send it in UTF-8 which is what you were warning me about or to go ahe= ad=20 and send it in my current apparently non-Unicode character set? And, fin= ally,=20 there's [Send in UTF-8] which is the most sensical of them all... but sin= ce=20 you so rudely interrupted my typing do you mean to send it right now or w= hen=20 I'm done editing? [3] Bestest of all is it asks me this FOR EVERY MESSAGE! There's no "always = do=20 this". I've looked through the Composition preferences and there's nothi= ng=20 about character encodings. I get the choice between "plain text" and lor= d=20 knows what that means these days, and HTML. There's just a black smear o= n the=20 spot where the "Quoted Printable" option would be for I burnt out that pa= rt of=20 my brain which processes those words. There appears to be no, "just do the right thing and shut up you stupid b= lit"=20 setting. More software needs one of those. [1] God damnit, it just did it. [2] And again for a second compose window. [3] For the rhetorically impaired, those are all rhetorical. --=20 7. Not allowed to add =E2=80=9CIn accordance with the prophesy=E2=80=9D t= o the end of answers I give to a question an officer asks me. -- The 213 Things Skippy Is No Longer Allowed To Do In The U.S. Army http://skippyslist.com/list/
From: Michael G Schwern Date: 22:57 on 21 Jan 2008 Subject: Mailing list as bug tracker It's hateful enough to use a mailing list as your bug tracker, it's not like any good bug tracker doesn't have a mail gateway, but it's extra hateful when they don't accept posts from non-members so I need to sign up to a bunch of mail I don't care one bit about JUST TO REPORT A BUG! I'm looking at you, TextMate. Specifically their bundles.
From: Michael G Schwern Date: 23:29 on 20 Jan 2008 Subject: flexcar.com It's a lazy sunday, let's hate on a web site. Flexcar and Zipcar are great ideas. Cars parked all around the city that= you=20 can reserve and drive away. Pay by the hour, about $7 - $10. They pay f= or=20 the gas and insurance. It's lovely and makes being a carless American so= much=20 easier. Flexcar's web site... well that's another story. First off, your username is a number. !? What? Ok, so it must be this=20 number printed on my member card, right? No. Ok, what about my "Custome= r=20 Number" on my bill? No. The "Account Number" on my bill? No. It's a=20 completely different 5 digit number that's not on anything. So I put a piece of masking tape onto my member card and write down the u= ser=20 number. Now we come to the password. Sorry, PIN! Yes, it's a four digit number.= Boy=20 that's secure guys. To add insult to injury, they don't even let me pick= it.=20 They don't even let me CHANGE it! Of course, I write it down on that l= ittle=20 piece of tape on my member card. I can see the process by which this came about. "Everyone knows how to u= se an=20 ATM machine, right? And passwords are insecure, right? So we'll give=20 everyone a PIN like an ATM machine but we'll generate it randomly for the= m so=20 it's secure. PINs are good enough for banks, they're good enough for us!= =20 What? Of course they'll remember it, it's just four numbers. What? No,= =20 nobody will ever guess it, there's ten thousand of them! That would requ= ire=20 some sort of... inter-networked computing machine!" Except, of course, they'd all be saying "PIN number". Now that we finally log in, half the links are broken. They're all=20 http://http//flexcar.com/... Good job on your URL rewriter, guys! Every= =20 other click dumps me onto http.com which I'm sure they love. We were here to reserve a car, so let's do it. Easy enough. Pick a driv= er,=20 an account, dates for the trip... and now step 4. Which vehicle do I wan= t.=20 Obviously they'll just ask where I am and give me a map with nearby vehic= les=20 marked on it, right? The markers would be clear icons showing the type o= f=20 car. They'd have tooltips showing me type, cost and availability. Maybe= I=20 can then narrow the search by availability and cost? Yeah, that's what i= t=20 will be. No, of course not. First I have to tell them my "region". It's a nation= al=20 company, so that makes sense, but guys... you know where I live TAKE A GU= ESS!=20 There's no default, it's just blank. To add insult to injury there's j= ust=20 ONE option in the list. Ok, now I tell them my cross street, right? No, I have to tell them my=20 "Neighborhood". Ok, so maybe it's like "Downtown", "NE", "SE", "Beaverto= n".=20 Ya know, the major areas of town. Portland isn't a big town and it's rea= lly=20 easy to get around without a car. No, it's things like "Downtown / Centr= al",=20 "Downtown / North", "Downtown / Waterfront". Is the Pearl District "Down= town=20 / North" or is it "Northwest / Pearl" or maybe it's "Northwest / Knobb Hi= ll".=20 When does "Northeast / Lloyd" end and "Northeast / Irvington" begin? I= =20 don't know, it's not like they give me a MAP it's just a big pull down. = What=20 if I'm on the edge of two "neighborhoods"? JUST SHOW ME THE CLOSEST CARS= ! I finally decide, ok, I guess I'm in "Northeast / Irvington". Now I have= to=20 pick a vehicle type of which there are 11. 5 door, convertible, hybrid,=20 mini-van, pickup truck, sedan, sports car, sub-compact, unknown, utility=20 vehicle and wagon. Uhh, what if I want a convertible sports car? A=20 hybrid-SUV? What exactly qualifies as a sedan? What is a 5-door? JUST = SHOW=20 ME THE CLOSEST CARS!! Mercifully, there is an "Any" option so I pick that. Ok, step four ends = and I=20 can finally see some cars. Hopefully on a map, right? Wrong. It's a li= st.=20 Cross-street, cost per hour and per day, and a grid of availability. And= how=20 many cars do they show me? Four. FOUR?! Are there four vehicles in thi= s=20 made-up neighborhood? No, they're only showing me four at a time. I hav= e to=20 click to get another page. How many vehicles are there in this neighborh= ood=20 total? Six. Showing me six would obviously overload my brain. It's not= like=20 each car in the list takes up any space, they're all crammed together wit= h=20 these tiny little icons indicating the type of car that are all black (mu= st be=20 Fords) and look very similar. Now they want to know the times I'd like to reserve the car. Ok, I guess= that=20 will narrow things down. I can see when each car is available, they did = that=20 part quite well. Now once I say I want it they'll narrow down the list t= o=20 what's available in that time slot, right? Wrong. They just highlight m= y=20 time on the one car I have selected. But wait... I never selected a car!= I=20 guess they selected one for me. At this point I'm ready to give up and BUY a car. But wait, there's a bi= g=20 button "Cars & Locations" at the top. Ah ha! Maybe this is the map I've= been=20 looking for! *click* "Welcome to http.com..." Oh god. *URL hack* Ok, = big=20 map of the US. Good. Pick my region and... A MAP! With cars on it! We= ll,=20 flags. But oh god, it's Mapquest. Click zoom, wait for reload. Click, = wait.=20 Click, wait... No I can't put in an intersection but I can put in a zi= p=20 code. No use if I'm wandering around town but it'll work for cars near m= e. Mouse over a car/flag thing. No tooltip. *sigh* Ok then, click on it. = Nope,=20 it's not a link. ?! Scroll down and... oh, there's a big numbered list = below=20 the map of the car types and locations. Of course, there's no numbers on= the=20 flags so I have to pick through to find the one I want. To add insult to= =20 injury I can't pick on the car number or type, just the location, and the= re's=20 no visual queue for this. This takes me to... another map! The car I picked is in the center, a bi= g=20 unhelpful flag. There's some information about the car below the map. I= t's=20 number, addresss, type, directions... stuff I already knew. Oooh, they t= ell=20 me what bus routes are nearby, thanks that's handy. Cost? Availability?= A=20 link to reserve this car? Nope. ARGH! But wait, what are these stars on the map? They're other cars, and I can= =20 click on them and get a tooltip with some details! That's sort of what I= =20 want. Now I'll just scroll around the map to find more... I can't scroll= .=20 I'm locked onto this one car. They took away the scroll links. Why woul= d I=20 want to look around the map, I've found what I'm looking for obviously. USELESS PIECE OF CRAP! JUST SHOW ME CARS NEAR ME! It's a fucking GOOGLE= MAPS=20 MASH-UP! Get a CS student intern to do it. The worst part is someone *designed* this. Someone thought this was a *g= ood=20 idea*. Fortunately Flexcar has been bought out by Zipcar. Zipcar's system still= has=20 the neighborhood / zip code thinking, but at least they use Google Maps s= o I=20 can bypass all that. Hopefully they'll wisely trash the Flexcar site. In the end, I got a ride from a friend. --=20 7. Not allowed to add =E2=80=9CIn accordance with the prophesy=E2=80=9D t= o the end of answers I give to a question an officer asks me. -- The 213 Things Skippy Is No Longer Allowed To Do In The U.S. Army http://skippyslist.com/?page_id=3D3
From: Michael G Schwern Date: 18:18 on 14 Jan 2008 Subject: Self-certified email An email just came into the bug tracker, which is hateful in and of itself, but it has this tacked onto the end: No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.19.0/1218 - Release Date: 10/01/2008 13:32 Well gee thanks, totally untrustworthy email! I'm glad you think I should believe you. Sort of the electronic equivalent of "sure, baby, of course I'm clean. We don't need to use condoms..." The worst part is that this is a VIRUS SECURITY COMPANY who thought this up. Not only should they realize it's totally worthless, and a waste of space, but actually counter productive. You're NOT supposed to trust what the incoming email says. The people who should have already seen every dirty trick virus authors pull should know better. How long do you think it'll be until viruses start adding on their own certification? Ooh, and they're advertising what version of the virus database they're using. Hmmm, I wonder what it's vulnerable to...
From: Michael G Schwern Date: 23:24 on 29 Dec 2007 Subject: COPY_EXTENDED_ATTRIBUTES_DISABLE Oh god, how many things are wrong here. Macs have long had extra file meta-data integrated right into the file separate from the data, which is a great idea. Means you don't wedge meaning into things like file extensions and magic #! lines and magic binary bits. You can have an editor store the last point you were editing at right in the file without screwing up the plain text data. The problem is, nobody else does it this way so there's some trouble when shipping files around. This has created all sorts of hatred from the old binhex .hqx file formats to Macs pooping little .DS_Store files all over remote filesystems. As I understand it, a lot of filesystems support forks, just nobody uses them. Anyhow, there's all good fun reading about that here: http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=The_Grand_Unified_Model.txt But we're not here to have fun, we're here to have hate. And wear tiny little ironic birthday hats and eat bitter, bitter cake. Apple has finally gotten around to making it's Unix utilities resource fork aware. So things like cp and mv and rsync all that can move files while retaining the resource fork without having to use bizarre OS X specific things like ditto. This is great and all, but they have a tendency to not document it. And cp and mv tend to operate on just the local filesystem so you're probably copying from Mac to Mac. Finally it's tar's turn. A utility which is generally used to move files *between machines* and thus you lose the happy assumption that you're going to send it to another Mac. Of course you're going to just turn it on without warning. And in true Apple style they did not document the change in the man page, it's just a fun surprise. And how do you turn it off? Easy, just set COPY_EXTENDED_ATTRIBUTES_DISABLE to true. Yay, negative flags! Is there a corresponding switch? No. But that's not good enough. It's not enough to have a long winded, oddly worded, magic flag to turn off broken default behavior. Oh no. You should REPLACE IT in the next version, again quietly and undocumented, with the even more inspired COPYFILE_DISABLE. Still retaining the negative naming scheme, good, nice and hateful. But making up for it's shorter length with a totally misleading name! It's not file copying we're disabling, it's copying those resource forks we're disabling. Bravo, Apple. Bravo. And now I need to break out an OS X specific subclass for MakeMaker.
From: Michael G Schwern Date: 22:22 on 28 Nov 2007 Subject: Why does one bad drive block the whole operating system? My DVD drive is dying, this much is clear. Put a DVD in and it's like Homer Simpson in a hospital bed. Disk spins up, disk spins down. Disk spins up, disk spins down. After a few dozen cycles of this it will either be spat out or finally mount. Mechanical parts, they wear out. What are you gonna do? The trouble comes when an already mounted DVD spins down to save power, and then tries to spin up again. The up/down/up/down cycle can go on for ten minutes with the OS refusing to stop or eject the disk. That's hateful in and of itself, but like I said, the DVD drive is dying and I can accept that. What I can't accept is that it brings the whole operating system down with it. One by one, each application freezes with the dreaded OS X beachball spinning. Spinning into oblivion. Applications that have no business with the DVD drive. Firefox, Thunderbird... even the Terminal! Everything goes unresponsive while the computer plays Homer with the DVD drive. And this isn't limited to OS X or even DVD drives. I remember a poorly connected NFS mount would bring Unixen to a screeching halt. Or a troubled hard drive would freeze any shell which touched it, locked and unable to be killed even by root. Why, in 2007, is the most unreliable part of my computer cross wired with the most critical part?
From: Michael G Schwern Date: 22:37 on 19 Nov 2007 Subject: Hate saves the day! (was: Don't fancify my man pages!) -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: nroff does not honor TYPESETTER Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:40:13 +0100 (CET) From: Werner LEMBERG <wl@xxx.xxx> To: schwern@xxxxx.xxx CC: bug-groff@xxx.xxx References: <4740ECC9.9030800@xxxxx.xxx> > nroff does not honor the TYPESETTER environment variable documented > in the "Troff User's Manual" page 31. `TYPESETTER' is implementation specific. The corresponding environment variable for groff is `GROFF_TYPESETTER'. > SUGGESTED FIX [optional]: > If the TYPESETTER environment variable is set, use it rather than > guess based on the locale. I implemented that for GROFF_TYPESETTER. Please test the CVS. > Additionally, I wouldn't be upset if groff stopped mapping ASCII > input characters into Unicode. This has been already discussed, and I'll fix that somehow for man pages (but not in general). Thanks Werner
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