Naruzo's blog

If your install of Mac::FSEvents doesnt work on Snow Leopard

I didn't have time to find out exactly why, but CPAN was compiling the Mac::FSEvents code as "-arch i386 -arch ppc", and was not including x86_64.

I dont need PPC, so I fixed it like this:

1. cpan
2. look Mac::FSEvents
3. perl Makefile.PL
4. replace all instances of "ppc" with "x86_64" in Makefile
   
5. make && make text && make install
   

Exclude arbitrary directories from bash's tab completion

I got tired of `cd` (and `ls`, and `vim`, and...) always suggesting .svn directories on tab completion, so I found a way to filter them.

* Before we go any further, switching to `git` was not an option ;)

Luckily, bash's tab completion is entirely scriptable, and the out-of-the-box completions are all editable functions housed in the `/etc/bash_completion` file.

The `_filedir()` and `_filedir_xspec()` functions in /etc/bash_completion handle most (all?) directory name evaluation.

I used the stock versions of those functions to make the script below, added the `has_element`-related code.

Installation:

1. Install the bash_completion package, as necessary (on OSX: `brew install bash_completion`)
2. Save the code below to /etc/bash_completion.d/cdexclude (/usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/cdexclude, if you're on OSX and installed using Homebrew)
3. Edit ~/.cdexclude and add any directory fragments you want to exclude from tab completion, one per line (eg, in my file I have ".svn" as one line)
4. `source /etc/bash_completion` to enable the changes

# Install bash_completion (using brew or whatnot) and shove
#   this into /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d
#
# All the overrides below do is prevent directories that match
#   a line in your $HOME/.cdexclude from showing up in tab
#   completions.
#
# e.g. If you put ".svn" in ~/.cdexclude your subversion directories
#   won't show up in tab completion.
#
CDEXCLUDE_FILE=~/.cdexclude
CDEXCLUDE=( $( cat "$CDEXCLUDE_FILE" 2>/dev/null ) )

if [ ${#CDEXCLUDE[@]} -gt 0 ]; then
    echo "Loaded '${#CDEXCLUDE[@]}' entries from $CDEXCLUDE_FILE"
else
    echo "HAS NO ENTRIES"
fi

# Find an element in the CDEXCLUDE array
has_element() {
    local hay needle=$1
    for hay in "${CDEXCLUDE[@]}"; do
        [[ "$hay" == "$needle" ]] && echo "found" && return 0
    done
    return 1
}

_filedir()
{
    local i IFS=$'\n' xspec

    _tilde "$cur" || return 0

    local -a toks
    local quoted tmp

    _quote_readline_by_ref "$cur" quoted
    toks=( ${toks[@]-} $(
        compgen -d -- "$quoted" | {
            while read -r tmp; do
                # If the directory is in your .cdexclude file, skip it
                [[ `has_element "\`basename $tmp\`"` ]] && continue
                # TODO: I have removed a "[ -n $tmp ] &&" before 'printf ..',
                #       and everything works again. If this bug suddenly
                #       appears again (i.e. "cd /b<TAB>" becomes "cd /"),
                #       remember to check for other similar conditionals (here
                #       and _filedir_xspec()). --David
                printf '%s\n' $tmp
            done
        }
    ))

    if [[ "$1" != -d ]]; then
        # Munge xspec to contain uppercase version too
        [[ ${BASH_VERSINFO[0]} -ge 4 ]] && \
            xspec=${1:+"!*.@($1|${1^^})"} || \
            xspec=${1:+"!*.@($1|$(printf %s $1 | tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]'))"}
        toks=( ${toks[@]-} $( compgen -f -X "$xspec" -- $quoted) )
    fi
    [ ${#toks[@]} -ne 0 ] && _compopt_o_filenames

    COMPREPLY=( "${COMPREPLY[@]}" "${toks[@]}" )
} # _filedir()

_filedir_xspec()
{
    local IFS cur xspec

    IFS=$'\n'
    COMPREPLY=()
    _get_comp_words_by_ref cur

    _expand || return 0

    # get first exclusion compspec that matches this command
    xspec=$( awk "/^complete[ \t]+.*[ \t]${1##*/}([ \t]|\$)/ { print \$0; exit }" \
        "$BASH_COMPLETION" )
    # prune to leave nothing but the -X spec
    xspec=${xspec#*-X }
    xspec=${xspec%% *}

    local -a toks
    local tmp

    toks=( ${toks[@]-} $(
        compgen -d -- "$(quote_readline "$cur")" | {
        while read -r tmp; do
            # If the directory is in your .cdexclude file, skip it
            [[ `has_element "\`basename $tmp\`"` ]] && continue
            # see long TODO comment in _filedir() --David
            printf '%s\n' $tmp
        done
        }
        ))

    # Munge xspec to contain uppercase version too
    eval xspec="${xspec}"
    local matchop=!
    if [[ $xspec == !* ]]; then
        xspec=${xspec#!}
        matchop=@
    fi
    [[ ${BASH_VERSINFO[0]} -ge 4 ]] && \
        xspec="$matchop($xspec|${xspec^^})" || \
        xspec="$matchop($xspec|$(printf %s $xspec | tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]'))"

    toks=( ${toks[@]-} $(
        eval compgen -f -X "!$xspec" -- "\$(quote_readline "\$cur")" | {
        while read -r tmp; do
            # If the directory is in your .cdexclude file, skip it
            [[ `has_element "\`basename $tmp\`"` ]] && continue
            [ -n $tmp ] && printf '%s\n' $tmp
        done
        }
        ))

    [ ${#toks[@]} -ne 0 ] && _compopt_o_filenames
    COMPREPLY=( "${toks[@]}" )
}

If you know a simpler way, please leave a comment!

References:  

http://www.debian-administration.org/article/An_introduction_to_bash_completion_part_1

  via http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/tabexpansion.html

Customer service: template

I was encouraged to write a customer service letter in regard to a piece of software that was driving my friend mad.

Whether they send it or not is up to them, but feel free to use the following for inspiration in your own customer service endeavors:

---

Dear <Company> customer service center,

I am writing in regard to your <Product> product.

On the recommendation of a colleague I downloaded the trial version of the software for evaluation.

Unfortunately, usability left much to be desired.

In fact, after two hours of using the product I was able to accomplish only the following:

 1) Create a large box with 4 other boxes inside of it

 2) Realize that in order to select/move the top-left box, I had to move the enclosing box away every time

 3) Fall to my knees and thank <insert deity here> that I hadn't shelled out $200 for the Professional version

 4) Denounce said deity for allowing <Product> to come into existence in the first place

 5) Throw my laptop out the window of a speeding car

#5 being particularly difficult due to the fact that all of the bones in my right hand were shattered from smashing my trackpad in frustration caused by #2 above.

You would be surprised how difficult it is to drive at 140 km/h while steering with your knees and frisbee-ing a laptop over a bridge into an oncoming freight train, especially given that the sulfuric acid was still simmering away, and the piece of rebar I lanced through the device's heart in white-hot, skin-rippling fury precluded a reliance on traditional flying disc aerodynamics.

In the end, however, I feel confident that any sectors on the hard drive still containing bits of <Product> code were rendered completely unreadable, and by that I have done my small part to make the world a happier place.

I applaud your effort on <Product>. However, in the interest of truth in advertising I formally request that you preface all "Buy Now" links on your site with the text, "If you're not suicidal yet, we can help."

You may also want to consider shipping an iron mallet with each copy of <Product> to prevent the hand injuries outlined above.

Thank you, and have a pleasant day.

<insert name here>

Customer service: Sephora keeps an email newsletter subscriber

Dear Sephora, I purchased several items from one of your stores on a business trip to the US. After this I began to receive your newsletters, but there were too many and I decided to unsubscribe. However, on clicking unsubscribe I was presented with a page of options, one of which was "only mail me once a month", along with regional mail selections. I have to say, the "once a month" option struck me as a great idea and I will continue to subscribe to your email newsletters. Good work! Thank you, -naruzo

mod_fcgid: can't connect unix domain socket

If you get errors like this in your Apache error log:

[Thu Apr 15 11:21:41 2010] [debug] arch/unix/fcgid_proc_unix.c(525): (111)Connection refused: mod_fcgid: can't connect unix domain socket: /tmp/2494.18

Then make sure your FCGIWrapper (in your Apache config) is executable by the webserver:

FCGIWrapper /var/www/blahsite/bin/php-wrapper  .php

This site put me on the right track:

http://www.docunext.com/wiki/Apache_FastCGI#can.27t_connect_unix_domain_socket

More bizarre craziness pounding my skull on Magento

OK, so I can't add a Grouped Item to my shopping cart from anywhere except the product details page because it tells me "Please specify the product(s) quantity"

I found one site that recommends hacking the core: http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/56231/

But I decided to dig.

So I dug, and I dug, and I dug (Magento has no debug output whatsoever, and is awfully good at hiding exceptions, and not printing them anywhere. Apparently there is profiling functionality, though. woohoo.)

In Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Type_Grouped there is this call:

$productsInfo = $buyRequest->getSuperGroup();

It returns nothing, which is what causes the error to be thrown. So, what is getSuperGroup doing, I ask?

$buyRequest is a Varien_Object.

Varien_Object does not have a getSuperGroup() method, nor a parent:

class Varien_Object implements ArrayAccess

So where is this method defined?  I really have no idea. It's nowhere to be found within my Magento directories, and it doesn't seem to be a PHP builtin (according to google)

I'm not much of a PHP guy, so if anyone has an idea of how to continue please let me know!

Speed up key repeat on OSX

Based on this macosxhints link I've started to experiment with different key repeat delays and key repeat rates.

So far this works well for me. Having to logout/login to apply the changes is a bit of a pain, if anyone happens to know which process I can kick to avoid the relogin please comment!

Be careful of InitialKeyRepeat: if you start to notice that cmd-tab is skipping applications, then you probably have it set too low :)

# Shorten the delay between keypress and key repeat

defaults write NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat -int  11

# Increase the key repeat rate

defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 4

Magento: "Undefined index: blah"

If Magento errors out with something like

"Undefined index: blah in..."

then maybe you're trying to process a POST request, but testing with GET.

Something like:

$post = $this->getRequest()->getPost();

$blah = $post['blah'];

will cause the error above if you issued a GET request instead of a POST.

Customer Service: Great experience with Continental Airlines

Dear Continental customer support, On February 3rd I flew on Continental from HERE to THERE via SOMEWHERE. I had made a late flight change from United Airlines back to Continental that confused things in the online booking system. However your staffperson at DTW exchanged many calls between Continental and United and finally straightened things out for me. She was calm and kind throughout the entire process and was overall very helpful. In fact, each Continental employee with whom I interacted on my return trip, including counter staff and cabin crew, was courteous, upbeat and professional. Given the current state of travel in the US, I was pleasantly surprised with Continental's high level of service. I look forward to flying Continental again and am happy to recommend your airline to friends and family as well. Thank you, and have a pleasant day. -naruzo

p5-locale-gettext install on OSX 10.5

Some OSX packages depend on not only gettext, but also the perl package Locale::gettext.

If you've installed gettext via `port` (MacPorts) then `perl Makefile.PL` may fail upon not finding gettext or libintl.

Also, installing p5-locale-gettext may error out with the wholly uninformative:

Error: Target org.macports.destroot returned: no such file or directory

The solution to this ended up being in the p5-locale-gettext portfile's details page.

Toward the bottom you will see:

Patch Files: patch-Makefile.PL
post-patch {
reinplace s|-lintl|-I${prefix}/include\ -L${prefix}/lib\ -lintl|g ${worksrcpath}/Makefile.PL
}

If you edit Locale::gettext's Makefile.PL by hand, like so, then your build will work (if your `port` install doesn't use /opt/local/, adjust accordingly):

    #$libs = "-lintl";

    $libs = "-I/opt/local/include -L/opt/local/lib -lintl";