rubyconsumer » mac

Skype Regex FTW!

Winston Tsang — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:08:06 +0000

When messaging through Skype, it’s not unusual for geeks to write a little bit of regular expression to correct mistakes.

Example:
rubyconsumer> I like kake!
rubyconsumer> s/kake/cake/

Well it looks like the Skype client for the mac has taken this one step further. And for once, the mac client is actually ahead of the windows client.

An up to date Skype client will now take that regex and run it against your last message. The resulting message from the previous example would look like:

Example:
Editted: 10/9/08 7:30AM – rubyconsumer
rubyconsumer> I like cake!

Now that’s Geek Accessibility!

Now if only video sites like youtube would add key board shortcuts…

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Full Finder Paths

Winston Tsang — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:34:37 +0000

I really love OS X. Things are done right or can be easily changed… for the most part.

A few though, need to be configured through secret command line incantations.

I’ve finally ran across a way to add the full path of the directory into the Finder.

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES

Restart the Finder and volia!

There are more customizations available from the command line here.

Menu ShortCut for Leopard

Winston Tsang — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:37:58 +0000

I ran across a great menu shortcut on Leopard.

Cmd-Shift-/ (aka. Cmd-?)

Now just type in your menu command and the result comes up like quicksilver/spotlight.

Hit enter and volia!

use help to select menu items in leopard

Setting Up Unix Profiles In A Diverse Environment

Winston Tsang — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:30:03 +0000

I’ve recently made changes to my bash profile after getting sick and tired of managing multiple environments in one profile.

In a mac environment, I need to add a path for my Ports directories as well as other mac specific configurations. On Solaris machines, I have a different set of configurations.

Managing all of this was getting to be a chore.

So I came up with the idea to use a common profile for all environments with custom profiles for each unique environment.

I’ve been using a low footprint method to running my customized profile for a while now. Luckily, this method also lends itself to the task at hand.

You can than source each profile based on the environment you are in.

In your .profile, .bash_login, or whatever is appropriate, place the following code:

# CUSTOM SET-UP

        test -e $HOME/.profile.common && . $HOME/.profile.common

        test -e $HOME/.profile.mac && . $HOME/.profile.mac

.profile.common contains all my generic configurations.

.profile.mac contains all my mac customizations.

Volia! Instant environment specific customizations.

Getting Ready for RailsConf

Winston Tsang — Tue, 15 May 2007 20:00:14 +0000

It’s a couple days ’till RailsConf and not only did I decided to write in my sorely neglected blog but I also decided, for some strange reason, to reload my laptop. Brilliant!

Well, there are several reasons for reloading the old MBP.

free up some space on the pitifully small 100GB HD
install BootCamp so I can play my one turn per 24hrs in Civ 4.
clear the financial data from my laptop before traveling with it.

As if all the craziness associated with going to a conference on the other coast for about week wasn’t enough.
I backed up my HD onto an external HD using Carbon Copy Cloner… just in case. First bit of fun was discovering I had the wrong set of install disks (not for the Mac Book Pro). I’m still working on the reload, but things are working out well so far. I still need to figure out how to transfer over my old Address Book and Key Chain, but things are looking good.

After I’m done with this reload, maybe after getting back from RailsConf, I need to make a Carbon Copy of my drive so I can easily get back to a fresh start.