talk minus action = zero

New Direction

2008-11-19T16:30:43Z

I'm going to abandon this blog, in favor of moving all of my blogging to my new site, automattack.net. Not that I'm the most prolific blogger in the world, I'm not. But I want to consolidate. I don't plan on closing this account, too many people I know are here. If you have a paid LJ account, you can actually syndicate my new blog to your friends page at the bottom of this page. Just put http://automattack.net/feed/ into the Feed URL field and click Add Feed. Other folks who want to keep up on my exciting life can subscribe with your favorite feed reader...

Photos of CBGB in Transition

2008-10-17T19:12:10Z

Photos of CBGB In Transition

The closing of CBGB made me sad. It was the birthplace of punk, a movement, culture, and musical style that has meant so much in my life.

Using Perl to process MP3s

2008-08-30T00:27:48Z

I recently got a Squeezebox Duet and have been getting my large MP3 collection into shape. It turns out that SqueezeCenter prefers different tags than Amarok. So getting my music to appear the same in both places has been quite a task. What I figured out is that I had to remove extra junk from the files, convert any tags to ID3v2.4, and then for good measure I strip the ID3v1 tags.
I found three linux programs that do this well, mp3check, eyeD3, and id3convert (part of the id3lib project), but running them manually and remembering which one does what was too hard... So I wrote a Perl script to simplify the process. It takes paths as command line arguments, and will process the MP3s the way I like 'em. It even sets the permissions correctly!

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

while ( @ARGV ) {
    my $path = shift ( @ARGV );

# cut the junk
    system ( "find $path -name *.mp3 -exec mp3check --cut-junk-end {} \\;" );

# convert the tags to ID3v2.4
    system ( "find $path -name *.mp3 -exec eyeD3 --to-v2.4 {} \\;" );

# strip ID3v1 tags, just in case
    system ( "find $path -name *.mp3 -exec id3convert -s1wn {} \\;" );

# set permissions correctly
    system ( "chmod -R 755 $path" );
}

[Philly] Need to Borrow a Car Saturday

2008-08-22T02:18:59Z

Never mind, I got one.

Hi Philly folks,
I need to borrow a car this Saturday to pick up Meridian from summer camp. My usual channels aren't available so I'm posting this call for help.
It's an hour drive and I have to be there by 12 noon, and stay for an end-of-camp presentation. So I'd need to leave by 11am, and could return the car by 4pm. I'm more than happy to return the car with a full tank.
Please contact me If you can help me out.
Thanks.

Save Critical Path Please send letter

2008-08-21T14:00:19Z

This is a follow up to the email I sent a week ago regarding Critical
Path. It seems snail mail is the best way to support the continued
existence of this important Philadelphia ISP.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Stan Pokras <pokras@ntronline.org>
Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 6:34 PM
Subject: [CTCNet Phl] Fwd: Save Critical Path Please send letter
To: ctcnet@lists.delawarevalley.org
Cc: ntr_staff@listsrv.ntronline.org, ntr_friends@listsrv.ntronline.org

Hi all.
I received a note from Jane Shull, director of Philadelphia FIGHT and
the Critical Path Project asking that we circulate another message.
And this message came today from Critical Path staff... We need to
write the Mayor.
Your concern about the continued existence of the Critical Path free
Internet dial-up service needs to be mailed directly to Mayor Nutter.
Let's all write and affirm our support for this essential program.
Stan Pokras
Executive Director, Nonprofit Technology Resources

It seems as though snail mail offers the best response to this effort
to save Critical Path Please see the e-mail from Juliet Fink below.
Please PRINT the letter to Mayor Nutter on your organization's
stationary, sign, and physically mail it to his office. The Mayor's
Office address is:

Mayor Michael Nutter

City Hall

Philadelphia, PA 19107

Please contact Juliet Fink or myself with any questions. Thank You

Dear Mayor Nutter,

The undersigned organizations and individuals urge you to find the
means to support and fund the Critical Path Project.

For over 15 years, the Critical Path Project has been a major force in
the Greater Philadelphia metropolitan region and worldwide in bridging
the digital divide, offering free dial up Internet access and email
accounts with no ads and no restrictions to over 10,000, mostly
low-income families, as well as offering email, website hosting, and
electronic mailing list hosting to local non-profit organizations, DHS
family centers, and affinity groups throughout the nation.

We are currently the Internet backbone for the majority of HIV and
LGBTQ organizations in Philadelphia, and thousands of members of these
communities utilize our free services. This is particularly important
for those who cannot afford high speed connections at home.

For the past six years, Critical Path has had a contract from DHS to
provide Internet connectivity and host webpages for the Family Support
Centers in the public schools. In addition to these functions, which
Critical Path has always fulfilled, the contract has become part of
the funding infrastructure that supports the Critical Path enterprise.
This fiscal year, the contract was extended for two months, and is
now due to end on August 31. While we recognize that DHS may have
other funding needs at this time, we want to call to your attention
the fact that this will be a devastating loss for Critical Path, and
could result in our having to close down the entire network.

If we are forced to close it, the loss of Critical Path will resonate
throughout Philadelphia.

Over 10,000 people in the greater Philadelphia Metro region, mostly
low-income, would lose their Internet access from Critical Path, many
of whom may not have the skills or knowledge to know how to get access
any other way at this time.

Thousands of people would lose access to their email accounts and the
data saved in their inboxes and folders, including staff at
organizations many of which receive funds from the City of
Philadelphia, such as GALAEI, ASIAC, BEBASHI, The AIDS Law Project,
Philadelphia FIGHT, and nearly 25 more.

Over 100 electronic Mailing lists, with thousands of local
subscribers, many of which are key ways in which the non-profit
community, educators, HIV researchers, and low-income Philadelphians
discuss topics of importance to them and spread and receive
information, will be shut down and forced to find another way to
manage their lists.

Nearly 75 websites, the majority of which are non-profits funded by
the city of Philadelphia, such as Project SAFE, CHOICE, COLOURS, Asian
Americans United, and many more, will be shut down and forced find
money in their budgets to pay for hosting and rapidly find an
alternative solution. Shutting down these websites, for even a short
time means that those in the community, will not have access
life-saving information.

A list of the organizations that currently utilize critical path is attached.

We urge you to find the means to refund the Critical Path Project and
by doing so put digital inclusion at the top of your agenda. In order
to more fully describe the Critical Path system and the important role
it plays, we are requesting a meeting with you, along with a small
representation of the organizations and individuals represented below.
We will contact your office for your response.

We thank you for your action and leadership.

Sincerely,

Important: This e-mail message and any attachments is intended for the
exclusive use of the recipient(s) named above. It may contain
information that is protected, privileged, or confidential, and it
should not be disseminated, distributed, or copied to persons not
authorized to receive such information. If you are not the intended
recipient, any dissemination, distribution, or copying is strictly
prohibited. If you think you have received this e-mail message in
error, please notify the sender immediately.

Allison Wolf

Manager of Information Systems

Philadelphia FIGHT/ Critical Path Services

1233 Locust Street

5th Floor

Philadelphia, PA. 19107

215-985-4448 ext.111 (office)

215-985-4952 (Fax)

awolf@fight.org

--

* * *

Stanley R. Pokras, Executive Director Nonprofit Technology Resources (NTR)
Regional Coord, Community Technology Centers' Network (http://www.ctcnet.org/)
Chair, CTCNet of Delaware Valley, Regional Planning Committee
(http://www.ctcnet-philly.org/)

Nonprofit Technology Resources
1524 Brandywine Street
Philadelphia PA 19130
215-564-6686 (day) 215-564-6642 (fax)
267-968-0407 (cell)
Find our "Home Page" at http://NTRonline.org

IMPORTANT: Help Us Save Critical Path!

2008-08-14T13:58:24Z

I got this in the mail today. For those that don't know, Critical Path is run by Philadelphia FIGHT and provides free internet services to the larger AIDS community and allied groups.

Recently Critical Path had a drastic funding cut. Without adequate funding, thousands of Philadelphia families will loose internet access and many nationwide non-profits and organizations will loose websites, mailing lists, and email.

For more information on Critical Path, look here: http://critpath.org/isp/info.php

Please sign on to the attached letter that will be forwarded to Mayor Nutter if appropriate. Please distribute this widely.

Dear Friends,

I received this urgent message today. The Critical Path Project is the only truly free Internet service available to low income people and nonprofit groups in the Delaware Valley.

Here at Nonprofit Technology Resources, our own donations of free computers to children, (and other disadvantaged populations) include a free Internet account thanks to the generosity of our friends at Philadelphia FIGHT.

Now, they need our support to help maintain this essential resource. Please consider writing a note in response to Ms. Fink's message below.

Should the Critical Path Project be forced to close down, over 1,400 children and low-income families who received free computers from NTR in the last several years will be forced off the Internet. Please read the appeal below and write to Juliet Fink so she can pass your concerns to the Mayor and other possible sources of support.

And, while we are not being asked to contribute towards the support of the Critical Path Project directly, I suspect that a cash contribution from NTR won't be turned away and the same thing might be true of any contribution you might care to make.

Thank you for your attention to this!

Stan Pokras

> From: "Juliet Fink" <jjfink@fight.org>
> Subject: IMPORTANT: Help Us Save Critical Path!
> Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:55:41 -0400
> Organization: Philadelphia FIGHT
>
> **Apologies for cross posting - please distribute widely**
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> We received notice last week of a drastic cut in our funding for Critical Path. We need your help ASAP to save Critical Path!!
>
> Many of you use Critical Path to host your websites, receive and send email, create electronic lists, and access the Internet.
>
> Attached is a sign on letter that we will present to the Mayor to help us keep our funding.
>
> We need ORGANIZATIONS and INDIVIDUALS who use Critical Path to sign on TODAY!
>
>
> 1. If you are signing on as an organization, please email the name of the organization.
>
>
>
> 2. If you are signing on as an individual, please send your name and the organization that you are part of. If you are not part of any organization, but a user of Critical Path, we want your name too! **Please make note if your sign on is only as an individual.
>
>
>
> 3. If you can send any testimonials as to how Critical Path has helped your organization or provided you Internet access, that is also helpful!
>
>
>
> 4. Please send all endorsements to me as soon as you can at: jjfink@fight.org
>
>
> The Sign on Letter is also in the body of this email below.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Juliet Fink
> The Critical Path Project/Philadelphia FIGHT
>
>
> Dear Mayor Nutter,
>
> The undersigned organizations and individuals urge you to find the means to support and fund the Critical Path Project.
>
> For over 15 years, the Critical Path Project has been a major force in the Greater Philadelphia metropolitan region and worldwide in bridging the digital divide, offering free dial up Internet access and email accounts with no ads and no restrictions to over 10,000, mostly low-income families, as well as offering email, website hosting, and electronic mailing list hosting to local non-profit organizations, DHS family centers, and affinity groups throughout the nation.
>
> We are currently the Internet backbone for the majority of HIV and LGBTQ organizations in Philadelphia, and thousands of members of these communities utilize our free services. This is particularly important for those who cannot afford high speed connections at home.
>
> For the past six years, Critical Path has had a contract from DHS to provide Internet connectivity and host webpages for the Family Support Centers in the public schools. In addition to these functions, which Critical Path has always fulfilled, the contract has become part of the funding infrastructure that supports the Critical Path enterprise. This fiscal year, the contract was extended for two months, and is now due to end on August 31. While we recognize that DHS may have other funding needs at this time, we want to call to your attention the fact that this will be a devastating loss for Critical Path, and could result in our having to close down the entire network.
>
> If we are forced to close it, the loss of Critical Path will resonate throughout Philadelphia.
>
>
> * Over 10,000 people in the greater Philadelphia Metro region, mostly low-income, would lose their Internet access from Critical Path, many of whom may not have the skills or knowledge to know how to get access any other way at this time.
>
>
>
> * Thousands of people would lose access to their email accounts and the data saved in their inboxes and folders, including staff at organizations many of which receive funds from the City of Philadelphia, such as GALAEI, ASIAC, BEBASHI, The AIDS Law Project, Philadelphia FIGHT, and nearly 25 more.
>
>
>
> * Over 100 electronic Mailing lists, with thousands of local subscribers, many of which are key ways in which the non-profit community, educators, HIV researchers, and low-income Philadelphians discuss topics of importance to them and spread and receive information, will be shut down and forced to find another way to manage their lists.
>
>
>
> * Nearly 75 websites, the majority of which are non-profits funded by the city of Philadelphia, such as Project SAFE, CHOICE, COLOURS, Asian Americans United, and many more, will be shut down and forced find money in their budgets to pay for hosting and rapidly find an alternative solution. Shutting down these websites, for even a short time means that those in the community, will not have access life-saving information.
>
>
> A list of the organizations that currently utilize critical path is attached.
>
> We urge you to find the means to refund the Critical Path Project and by doing so put digital inclusion at the top of your agenda. In order to more fully describe the Critical Path system and the important role it plays, we are requesting a meeting with you, along with a small representation of the organizations and individuals represented below. We will contact your office for your response.
>
> We thank you for your action and leadership.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> The Critical Path Project
> Philadelphia FIGHT
> The AIDS Library
> The Youth Health Empowerment Project
>
> ********************************************************************
> Juliet Fink, Director of Education
> Philadelphia FIGHT
> The AIDS Library * Critical Path * Project TEACH
> 1233 Locust Street, 2nd Floor
> Philadelphia, PA 19107
> P: (215)985-4851 x141 F: (215)985-4492
> Email: jjfink@fight.org
> *******************************************************************

Pidgin Identica Status Plugin

2008-07-23T01:05:26Z

To go along with this post, I finished the first working version of my pidgin-identica-status plugin today. It pulls an RSS feed from identi.ca, and sets the latest entry as your status in Pidgin.
It feels like a hack to me; the Perl API for Pidgin is poorly documented. I set up a Google Code project for it, and would welcome contributors to clean up the code, ad functionality, etc...
http://code.google.com/p/pidgin-identica-status/

Perl and Pidgin's API

2008-07-19T18:55:19Z

I'm trying to write a plugin for the Pidgin IM client in Perl that would take your latest post to http://identi.ca from an RSS feed and set it as your Pidgin status message. However the Perl API for Pidgin is poorly documented and I'm having trouble. I based a lot of it on the pidgintwitter-plugin.

I'm not sure what's going on exactly though I suspect I'm not passing the URL correctly to the the parsing subroutine.
Any help would be appreciated.

use Purple;
use XML::RSS;
use LWP::Simple;

%PLUGIN_INFO = (
    perl_api_version    => 2,
    name                => "Identica Status",
    version             => "0.0.1",
    summary             => "Use an identi.ca feed as your Pidgin status.",
    description         => "Use an identi.ca feed as your Pidgin status. Based on the pidgintwitter-status plugin (http://code.google.com/p/pidgin-twitterstatus/).",
    author              => "Mattack <paintitmatt\@gmail.com",> "http://identica.ca",
    load                => "plugin_load",
    unload              => "plugin_unload",
    prefs_info          => "prefs_info_cb",
);

sub fetch_url_cb {
    my $response = shift;                                                   # This section correctly 
    # parse the RSS feed                                                    # parses the URL and pulls
    my $rss = new XML::RSS;                                                 # the latest post if $response
    my $feed = get($response);                                              # is a correct URL. If you pull 
    Purple::Debug::info("Identica Status Feed", "Fetching $response\n");    # it out and put it in a 
    $rss->parse($feed);                                                     # seperate script, add something
    my $item = shift (@{$rss->{'items'}});                                  # like print $status_message; 
    my $status_message = "$item->{'title'}\n";                              # to the end... I'm not sure I'm
    # we don't want @replies                                                # passing the URL to the subroutine
    while ( $status_message =~ /^\@/) {                                     # correctly though...
        $item = shift (@{$rss->{'items'}});                                 # Pidgin's Perl API is poorly
        $status_message = "$item->{'title'}\n";                             # documented.
    }
    Purple::Debug::info("Identica Status Feed", "Status Message is ". $status_message ."\n");
	# set identi.ca status to pidgin status
    my $saved_status = Purple::SavedStatus::get_current();
    my $statusType = $saved_status->get_type();
    my $prev_status = $saved_status->get_message();
    Purple::Debug::info("Identica Status Feed","Your status type is ". $statusType . "\n");
    $saved_status->set_message($status_message);
    $saved_status->set_type($statusType);
    $saved_status->activate();
}

##	if(!($keepOnAway && $statusType == 6))
##	{
##		if(($prev_status ne $status_message) && (length($status_message) > 1) && (index($status_message, '@') != 0))
##		{
##			Purple::Debug::info("Identica Status Feed", "Updating status message with ".$status_message." From ".$identicaurl."\n");
#			$saved_status->set_message($status_message);
#			$saved_status->set_type($statusType);
#			$saved_status->activate();
##		}else{
##		      Purple::Debug::info("Identica Status Feed","Not updating status because it has not changed, was too short, or started with an @\n");
##		}
##	}else{
##		Purple::Debug::info("Identica Status Feed","Not updating status because you are away and like your message\n");
##	}

## print $status;

#}

sub timeout_cb {
	Purple::Debug::info("Identica Status Feed", "Starting the sequence.  Pidgin's timer expired.\n");
	my $plugin = shift;
	
	my $identicausername = Purple::Prefs::get_string("/plugins/core/gtk-mattack-identicastatus/identicausername");
	my $identicaurl = "http://identi.ca/api/statuses/user_timeline/".$identicausername.".rss";
	#if the timeout cannot be parsed, 0 will result
	my $timeout = 0+Purple::Prefs::get_string("/plugins/core/gtk-mattack-identicastatus/timeout");
	my $keepOnAway = Purple::Prefs::get_bool("/plugins/core/gtk-mattack-identicastatus/onaway");
	my $status_message = "";
	if($identicausername eq ""){
	 Purple::Debug::info("Identica Status Feed","Blank username\n");
	 die "blank username";
	}
	my $agent = "pidgin-identicastatusfeed/1.0";
	
	#give some timeout if not otherwise specified
	if($timeout eq 0)
	{
		Purple::Debug::info("identica Status Feed", "Could not parse timeout field. Using 120 seconds default.\n");
		$timeout = 120
	}
	
	Purple::Debug::info("identica Status Feed", "Fetching URL.\n");
	Purple::Util::fetch_url($plugin, $identicaurl, TRUE, $agent,TRUE, "fetch_url_cb");		
		
	# Reschedule timeout
	Purple::Debug::info("identica Status Feed", "Rescheduling timer.\n");
	Purple::timeout_add($plugin, $timeout, \&timeout_cb, $plugin);
	Purple::Debug::info("identica Status Feed", "New timer set for " . $timeout . " seconds.\n");
    
    return 0;
}

sub plugin_init {
    return %PLUGIN_INFO;
}

sub plugin_load {
    my $plugin = shift;
    Purple::Debug::info("Identica Status Feed", "plugin_load() - Identi.ca Status Loaded.\n");
    
    # Here we are adding a set of preferences
    #  The second argument is the default value for the preference.
    Purple::Prefs::add_none("/plugins/core/gtk-mattack-identicastatus");
    Purple::Prefs::add_string("/plugins/core/gtk-mattack-identicastatus/identicausername", "");
    Purple::Prefs::add_bool("/plugins/core/gtk-mattack-ideinticastatus/onidleonly", "");
    Purple::Prefs::add_bool("/plugins/core/gtk-mattack-identicastatus/onaway","");
	Purple::Prefs::add_string("/plugins/core/gtk-mattack-identicastatus/timeout", "120");
    
     # Schedule a timeout for 1 second from now
    Purple::timeout_add($plugin, 10, \&timeout_cb, $plugin);
}

sub plugin_unload {
    my $plugin = shift;
    Purple::Debug::info("Identica Status Feed", "plugin_unload() - Identi.ca Status Unloaded.\n");
}

sub prefs_info_cb {
    # The first step is to initialize the Purple::Pref::Frame that will be returned
    $frame = Purple::PluginPref::Frame->new();

    # Create a new boolean option with a label "Boolean Label" and then add
    # it to the frame
    $ppref = Purple::PluginPref->new_with_label("Identi.ca Account Information");
    $frame->add($ppref);

    # Create a text box.  The default value will be "Foobar" as set by
    # plugin_load
    $ppref = Purple::PluginPref->new_with_name_and_label(
        "/plugins/core/gtk-mattack-identicastatus/identicausername", "Identi.ca User Name");
    $ppref->set_type(2);
    $ppref->set_max_length(120);
    $frame->add($ppref);
	
	#Adding the timeout box
	$tpref = Purple::PluginPref->new_with_name_and_label("/plugins/core/gtk-mattack-identicastatus/timeout", "Timeout Period");
	#TODO: look to see if this type can be automatically set to be an integer so we don't need to parse it later
    $tpref->set_type(2);
    $tpref->set_max_length(3);
    $frame->add($tpref);

	#Update on Away
    $ppref = Purple::PluginPref->new_with_name_and_label(
    	   "/plugins/core/gtk-mattack-identicastatus/onaway", "Preserve Pidgin status when extended away");
    $ppref -> set_type(3);
    $frame->add($ppref);

    return $frame;
}

Miles on the letter of the day

2008-06-24T19:01:49Z

Earlier today, while watching Cookie Monster eat the letter of the day cookie yet again, Miles asked, "Why is it never the banana of the day?"

Police critics arrested, home seized in police raid.

2008-06-14T00:03:27Z

June 13th, 2008.
Philadelphia Police descended upon the home of
homeowners who have been questioning police tactics in Mayor Nutters new
"stop and frisk" program. Four residents were arrested in their home at
17th street and Ridge Avenue, and the police are in the process of
sealing the building. The homeowners are being held at the police
station, no charges have yet been filed.

Homeowners had been circulating petitions calling upon Mayor Nutter and
Police Commissioner Ramsey to attend community meetings on the use of
excessive force, surveillance cameras, and the new "stop and frisk"
policy. The mayor and police chief have declined to attend these
community forums, but instead have seized the home and possessions of
those who question "Stop and Frisk," and are currently holding them in
jail. While many civil liberties advocates and residents of affected
neighborhoods have questioned the new police tactics, few imagined that
simple criticism of a city policy could result in the seizure of one's
home and subject residents to arrest.

More details coming soon.

Geek Dad, or using Perl to do math

2008-05-29T20:59:18Z

Yesterday littlemeridian came to me and said she knew the sum of 1+2+3... etc to 100. She had figured out a way to solve the problem without adding all the numbers.
"I can bang out a perl program that can do the math," I said, not convinced she was right (she was right, btw). So we sat at my computer and I wrote this easy program that adds consecutive numbers up to a limit you specify from <STDIN>. It took us a little while to get the math right but we eventually got it.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my $count =0; my $sum = 0; my $index = <STDIN>; while ($count < $index) { $sum = $count + $sum +1; $count +=1; } print "$sum \n";

Netiquette Revisited, AKA Why You Should Bottom-Post.

2008-05-28T03:32:14Z

Umm... yeah so to remember a five day old conversation posted to an e-mail list, I now have to find the beginning of the conversation somewhere in the middle, read down and then scroll up to the top to read the other person's reply.
I though again about how top-posting made this hard for me to read, and did a little deeper reading in the RFC in question. I readied my reply to include Third Co-worker but didn't send it, remembering my itchy send finger and the desire to not be leading a one man crusade.
Feedback anyone?

Third Co-Worker wrote: > However you post your replies, please don't manually move the insertion > point and accidentally separate your signature block from your reply. > It makes it very difficult to follow a string of replies when your reply > is on top, your signature block is on bottom, and the original email or > string of emails falls in between. I agree, fully. Having your signature at the end of the conversation is /very/ confusing, and often they pile up uselessly at the end of the e-mail. > Other Person wrote: >> The Wikipedia entry on posting style >> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style), which is linked from the >> page you mentioned, notes that that RFC is oriented toward mailing >> lists and newsgroups... While it's true the quoted section of the RFC is oriented to mailing lists (which this is, btw), the RFC also states "Make things easy for the recipient." I don't think reading things out of order is easy. The end of the top-posting section of the Wikipedia article has a good example of what I mean. I'll leave the rest of the conversation at the bottom of this message to further illustrate how confusing it can be to have the context of a discussion out of order. >> It also discusses several arguments in favor of the top posting in >> most other circumstances. The arguments don't convince me. The most recent reply to a thread I haven't read doesn't do me any good without the background discussion. I don't think I know anyone that checks email primarily on a Blackberry. And just because Gmail and Microsoft software default to top-posting, that doesn't mean it's correct. And to reiterate what Third Co-worker wrote, now that I top-posted above the rest of the conversation, my signature is way down at the bottom, below all the quoted text. How confusing is that? Who the heck even wrote this? >> Matt Miller wrote: > My Co-Worker wrote: > >>>>> Strangely, by default Thunderbird buries text of replies under the >>>>> original text. > > This makes the reply more readable. It's a form of "netiquette" called > bottom-posting. One of the best explanations of why you should > bottom-post is here: > http://tonyandrewmeyer.wordpress.com/2005/12/13/email-quoting/ > > I urge you to read and consider the points in the above article before > setting up your email client to top-post. > -- Me

Finally, someone came to my rescue. Sort of.

However you post your replies, please don't manually move the insertion point and accidentally separate your signature block from your reply. It makes it very difficult to follow a string of replies when your reply is on top, your signature block is on bottom, and the original email or string of emails falls in between. If you want it at the top, set Thunderbird to place it at the top, or vice versa. Third Co-worker Other Person wrote: > The Wikipedia entry on posting style > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style), which is linked from the > page you mentioned, notes that that RFC is oriented toward mailing > lists and newsgroups where people might be receiving a digest of all > the messages from a certain time period. It also discusses several > arguments in favor of the top posting in most other circumstances. > > --Other Person > > Matt Miller wrote: >> My Co-Worker wrote: >> >>> Strangely, by default Thunderbird buries text of replies under the >>> original text. >> >> This makes the reply more readable. It's a form of "netiquette" called >> bottom-posting. One of the best explanations of why you should >> bottom-post is here: >> http://tonyandrewmeyer.wordpress.com/2005/12/13/email-quoting/ >> >> I urge you to read and consider the points in the above article before >> setting up your email client to top-post. >> >> - -- >> Me

Ok fair. Some want the reply at the top to get at the information you want first. I DON'T. I offer this. If you have to scroll down too much to get to the information you need, the person that wrote the email is a bad editor and quoted too much of the original email. Did you see what I did? I quoted the relevant part of my co-worker's original message and put a short, concise reply below. The whole thing fits in the preview pane of Thunderbird; no scrolling necessary.
What happens when you get a reply to something 2 weeks old? Do you want to read the email from bottom to top (which is not really the case since Western cultures read left to right, top to bottom, you'd have to start most of the way down, read the original, scrolling down if necessary, scroll up past where you started and repeat for each top-posted reply...)?
However, I didn't want this to seem like a one man crusade, so I let it go.

This morning, everyone in the building found this in their inbox.

The Wikipedia entry on posting style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style), which is linked from the page you mentioned, notes that that RFC is oriented toward mailing lists and newsgroups where people might be receiving a digest of all the messages from a certain time period. It also discusses several arguments in favor of the top posting in most other circumstances. --Other Person Matt Miller wrote: >My Co-worker wrote: >>Strangely, by default Thunderbird buries text of replies under the >>original text. >This makes the reply more readable. It's a form of "netiquette" called >bottom-posting. One of the best explanations of why you should >bottom-post is here: >http://tonyandrewmeyer.wordpress.com/2005/12/13/email-quoting/ > >I urge you to read and consider the points in the above article before >setting up your email client to top-post. > >- -- >Me

I thought this was a nice, non-inflammatory reply. My consults agreed, so I sent it off to everyone in the office. The CEO replied to me singularly.

Matt -- I must admit that I am with your co-worker on this. I want to get an email that has the answer and part I need right up front, not buried at the bottom. CEO Matt Miller wrote: > My Co-Worker wrote: > >> Strangely, by default Thunderbird buries text of replies under the >> original text. >> > > This makes the reply more readable. It's a form of "netiquette" called > bottom-posting. One of the best explanations of why you should > bottom-post is here: > http://tonyandrewmeyer.wordpress.com/2005/12/13/email-quoting/ > > I urge you to read and consider the points in the above article before > setting up your email client to top-post. > > - -- > Me

In the past, I've been know to have an itchy send finger, but I couldn't let this one go. Top-posting is sooo bad. Really, it is possibly The.Worst.Thing.Ever. So rather than start a flame war, I took a deep breath, consulted others in my department and composed a reply.

My co-worker wrote: > Strangely, by default Thunderbird buries text of replies under the > original text. This makes the reply more readable. It's a form of "netiquette" called bottom-posting. One of the best explanations of why you should bottom-post is here: http://tonyandrewmeyer.wordpress.com/2005/12/13/email-quoting/ I urge you to read and consider the points in the above article before setting up your email client to top-post.

A few days ago at work, a co-worker sent the following email to everyone in the building;

Hi Folks: Strangely, by default Thunderbird buries text of replies under the original text. If you would prefer that your replies appear above the quoted text, these are the links to follow: 1. Tools 2. Account Settings 3. Composition and Addressing 4. Automatically quote original message when replying 5. Start my reply above quote 6. Save

Ubuntu and Gmail

2008-05-21T02:59:04Z

I was tired of not having mailto: links work correctly on my Ubuntu machine, so I did a bit of google-ing and found a very useful Perl one-liner here.

perl -MURI::Escape -e '$to= shift; if ($to =~ /^([^\?]+)\?(.*)$/){$to=$1;$args="&".$2;$args=~s/\&subject=/&su=/};$to =~ s/^mailto://i; exec("firefox","https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&cmid=22&to=".URI::Escape::uri_escape($to).$args);' '%s'

Ubuntu (and possibly other Gnome) users, stick this in the Mail Reader custom command field of System -> Preferences -> Preferred Applications -> Internet.
Thanks to dcrooke at gmail dot com. It works like a charm.

netiquette websites +1

2008-05-20T15:32:36Z

I ran into a few websites about netiquette today, and thought I'd share. The +1 may be useful for determining if a website is up or down...

netiquette:
five.sentenc.es
thanksno.com
bccplease.com
and +1:
downforeveryoneorjustme.com

SSH Vulnerability

2008-05-13T18:00:09Z

Ubuntu 8.04, Firefox 3beta5 and SSL certs

2008-05-08T17:25:42Z

There are a lot of problems with Ubuntu 8.04 that I'm finding since installing it at work. I use a lot of security features, like SSL certificates, GPG, and user authenticated samba shares to name a few.
Firefox 3 Beta 5 (which shipped with Ubuntu 8.04) has some issues with self-signed SSL certs, especially those generated by CUPS servers. As a sys-admin, I use the web interface to CUPS regularly. FF3b5 throws sec_error_inadequate_key_usage errors with CUPS SSL certs and doesn't allow exceptions. Here's the workaround I found from https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=427081#c18:

1) go to an affected page, get the error.
2) right-click, view page info, security tab, view certificate
3) details tab, export, save as .cer, close, close
4) go to preferences, advanced, encryption tab
5) view certificates, servers tab, import, select the saved .cer file
6) hit ok, close preferences
7) refresh the page with the cert error, now should be a different error
8) click "Or you can add an exception", "Add exception..."
9) get certificate, confirm security exception - now you're in

Ubuntu users: Enigmail/Thunderbird invalid password error fix

2008-05-07T15:47:48Z

I use Thunderbird and the Enigmail extension a lot at work. I like to sign all my emails. After installing the latest release of Ubuntu, I had some trouble. Seahorse (the new default key manager) was not recognizing a passphrase caching agent (either gpg-agent or seahorse-agent). Both were running....
when trying to sign an email, I would get an error like
gpg command line and output: /usr/bin/gpg --charset utf8 --batch --no-tty --status-fd 2 -d --use-agent gpg: problem with the agent - disabling agent use gpg: can't query passphrase in batch mode gpg: Invalid passphrase; please try again ... gpg: can't query passphrase in batch mode gpg: Invalid passphrase; please try again ... gpg: can't query passphrase in batch mode
Turns out the fix is easy, and numerous bugs have been filed.

All you have to do is delete the file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/90gpg-agent and restart X (CTRL+ALT+Backspace).

Version 1.0

2008-04-26T21:11:36Z

To go along with this post.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Net::Twitter; # from .deb or cpan

my $post;

if (@ARGV) {
    $post = join(' ',@ARGV);
    print"$post\n"; # only in for debugging
} else { # open file of posts and pick a line at random
    open (TALK, 'zombie talk.txt') or die "can't open file: $!\n";
    srand;
    rand($.) < 1 && ($post = $_) while <TALK>;
    close TALK;
    print "$post"; # only in for debugging
}

# post to twitter
my $twit = Net::Twitter -> new (
    username => "XXXXXXXXX",
    password => "XXXXXXXXX",
    source => "web"
);
my $result = $twit->update("$post");

question for you perl programmers...

2008-04-26T02:45:44Z

I wrote a script that will post to twitter. It takes a command line argument or reads a random line from a text file, and posts the result. I've got it working, but I think code could be a little cleaner.
Basically, I want to know if there is a way to put each element in an array ( like @ARGV) into a string.
For instance, if I run perl post-to-twitter.pl here is a tweet, I'd like to turn "here is a tweet" into a string so I can put it in a scalar like $post.
I think I could use a reference, but I have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept. I really want to turn the last 4 or 5 lines into one.

Thanks...

#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use Net::Twitter; my $post; # determine what to post if (@ARGV) { $post = \@ARGV; print"@$post\n"; # only in for debugging } else { # open file of posts and pick a line at random open (TALK, 'file.txt') or die "can't open file: $!\n"; srand; rand($.) < 1 && ($post = $_) while <TALK>; close TALK; print "$post"; # only in for debugging } # post to twitter my $twit = Net::Twitter ->new( username => "username", password => "password", source => "web" ); if (@ARGV) { my $result = $twit->update("@$post\n"); } else { my $result = $twit->update("$post"); } </talk>

Oh yeah, if the command line argument has an apostrophe, the script breaks... Why is that?

Bored, Tired, nice girls want to talk to me

2008-04-17T13:23:24Z

Spam... amazing. I get tons of these at work every day.

Subject: glad to hear you
From: "Carlene Choi" <a-ambica@adcom.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:14:04 +0800

Hello! I am bored tonight. I am nice girl that would like to chat with you. Email me at Pia@rtutcentral.com only, because I am using my friend's email to write this. Hope you wanna see my pics.

Subject: good to hear you
From: "Louis Juarez" <a-awehba@adampratt.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:40:15 +0800

Hello! I am tired this evening. I am nice girl that would like to chat with you. Email me at Jessica@rtutcentral.com only, because I am using my friend's email to write this. I would like to share some of my pics.

Subject: is it you? madison here
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:24:13 -0800 (EDT)
From: "madison" <kfvhfq@cameronhighlands.net>
Reply-to: kfvhfq@cameronhighlands.net

Hi,
i am here sitting in the internet caffe. Found your email and
decided to write. I am 25 y.o.girl.
I have a picture if you want. No need to reply here as
this is not may email. Write me at amadison6@rtutdirect.com

Presidential Tax Returns

2008-04-16T13:12:14Z

Ever wonder what kind of taxes the President pays (or doesn't)? The Tax History Project has online copies of many of our recent presidents' tax returns, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.Of course John McCain hasn't made his available yet...

new gpg key

2008-03-31T14:34:48Z

I have a new gpg key. You can get it from the link in my profile, or here.
Fingerprint: E4C9 4420 8972 C50B 9CC8 DF0F B926 3A8B C46A F91F

It Came Yesterday

2008-03-22T19:48:34Z

My computer arrived yesterday... It's awesome!

shipped

2008-03-20T02:20:10Z

Call me excited. My new computer shipped today at 6:15am.
Call me bummed. I still don't have a tracking number...

Me = Stoked!

2008-03-15T15:40:48Z

After some dissapointment last night while trying to order a Dell Outlet Scratch & Dent, I just placed an order for a beast of a computer. With the Dell Outlet you have 15 minutes from the time you put something in your cart until the moment you complete your checkout, or else they empty your cart. This happened to me twice last night as I was researching this thing. When it didn't show up for sale again I was convinced that somene else snagged from me. But when I looked again, maybe 20 minutes ago, there it was!
Anyway, I'm excited (can't you tell?). And since it doesn't have to be built, I'm guessing It will ship within a week! Yes!

Item Description:

-- XPS 420 Mini-Tower: Intel Core 2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB) Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate
Unit Price: $959.00
Quantity: 1
-- XPS 420 Mini-Tower: Intel Core 2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
-- No Speakers
-- USB Optical two button mouse
-- 256MB Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS
-- No Raid
-- Service Software
-- Roxio Creator 9.1 Premier
-- Software
-- Operating System Label
-- Software
-- Shipping Material
-- Software
-- Software CD
-- Scratch & Dent
-- Microsoft Works 8.5 with MS Office Trial Version Software
-- Dell Solution Center Software
-- Assembly Cable
-- 16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
-- Operating System CD
-- Lord Of The Rings Online
-- Floppy Drive Cable
-- Processor Label
-- Shipping Material
-- 48X CD RW/DVD Combo Drive
-- Resource DVD
-- Reference Guide
-- 56K DataFax Modem
-- USB Keyboard
-- ISP Search Assist
-- 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive
-- Image Restore Software
-- 1 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM) 3.0Gb/s, 32MB Cache
-- 3 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz (4 DIMMs)
-- Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate
-- XPS 420 STD: 1Yr Ltd Warranty and On-site Service

There are some extras I wouldn't have gotten, but for the price you can't beat it. Lord of the Rings online anyone?