Sander van Dragt's Notes

iTunes App Updates Sync

Sander April 13, 2011 at 11:52 am

Wouldn't it be useful if iTunes would (have at least the option to) sync app updates to your device automatically after downloading them? How often I have forgot to sync and find out later in the day that my apps are still out of date.

#macos #windows
Intranet Migration Strategy

Sander April 13, 2011 at 11:47 am

Next week we're turning off our old intranet site so I have setup a "Migration Switch" and a redirection page so that from the moment we turn off the site people will not be able to access it. Because if we actually turn off the site we would receive phonecalls with people needing access to their lost data, and because certain parts of the old intranet are reused in our new one, we instead check if the page is embedded, and if it's not check that the user is on a whitelist of specifically allowed users (us). If this is not the case we redirect them.

Next week we will remove all navigation links to the old intranet, turn on the switch, and remove the documents from the search indexer on the (new) intranet. There must be better terminology for old and new intranet.

Hopefully this will ensure that everything works smoothly.

#development
Create an Avatar Specific Communication Channel

Sander April 5, 2011 at 11:47 am
Sometimes you will want to create a listener that will not interfere with any other avatar using the same object near you. The basic solution of detecting the owner creates a lot of overhead, therefore a better solution is to have individual channels.

Thanks to Winter Seale, on the SecondLife scripters mailing list:
use an avatar specific channel. To do that I would define a function:
```
integer get_channel(key avatar, integer offset){
 return (integer)("0x"+llGetSubString((string)llGetOwnerKey(),-8,-1))
 + offset
 }
```
Then in your script, use:
```
 llSay( get_channel( llDetectedKey(number), -1234 ), (string)llDetectedKey(number) );
 ...
 llListen( get_channel( llGetOwner(), -1234 ), "", "", "");
```
* The reason this is better is that it keeps only one script (the avatar's) listening on this channel. Without this, a script for every person with a HUD would have to execute code every time your in world object was touched.
#secondlife
Hear no iPad, see no iPad

Sander March 31, 2011 at 10:05 am

What's the Deal With These Windows PC Guys Saying Stupid Things in Australia About the iPad?

Microsoft cannot get a tablet out so it's best to marginalise the whole market.

Via Daring Fireball.

#ios
A Conversation between Two Chat Bots

Sander March 24, 2011 at 9:48 am

splotchy ==> You are a great conversationalist. One of the best I've seen. jabberwacky ==> So are you. Especially since I can correct your statements to my liking.

via http://www.yiransheng.com:80/2010/03/bot">Yiran's MBA Experience|A Conversation between Two Chat Bots.

#web
How I concentrate in a noisy office

Sander March 8, 2011 at 3:18 pm

We have seven people in a smallish office and typically two people discuss a problem by shouting across the room, while another person is busy making phone calls. As a developer it can be hard to concentrate on programming with all this noise around. That is until I discovered the Inception app.

From the http://inceptiontheapp.com:80/">official website:

Experience your life as a dream [..] This app is a dream machine that transforms the world around you into a dreamworld. It uses augmented sound to induce dreams through the headset of your iPhone and iPod Touch. It will change your perception of reality.

The idea of this app is that you listen to it while you do live your life, and in certain situations it unlocks interactive dreams, for example on a sunny day - or in a busy place. The still dream I'm listening to currently records audio through the microphone and playsback the samples through an echo with pitch-shift, resulting in an ever-changing soundtrack.

In my busy office with headphones on, this successfully creates an interactive soundtrack blocking all communications. I prefer it to a regular radio station and other solutions I've tried.

Update: Unfortunately this app no longer works with iOS 8. Recommendations are welcome!

#ios
How to meet interesting people (with Olark) « Borski

Sander March 4, 2011 at 10:54 am

Interesting article on personal support via impersonal website:

via How to meet interesting people (with Olark) « Borski.

#technology #web
Mark Zuckerberg is TIME Magazine's Person of the Year? Where's the "dislike" button?

Sander March 3, 2011 at 11:18 am

Facebook's users are not connecting directly with each other. They are speaking to Mr. Zuckerberg, who first writes down and files away everything said, and then maybe relays it to the intended destination, if it suits him.

Mark Zuckerberg is TIME Magazine's Person of the Year? Where's the "dislike" button?

#technology
NANY 2011 Release: Bard - Organise your audio library

Sander February 28, 2011 at 4:50 pm

Sorry, I have not yet made a proper webpage for this, so please revisit: NANY 2011 Release: Bard - Organise your audio library - DonationCoder.com.

#bard
Rotate PHP logs

Sander February 28, 2011 at 2:38 pm
Our php.log was nearing 550MB so I was investigating how to rotate the logs. The easiest solution seems to be using logrotate (ubuntu linux) with a script like follows.
```
sudo nano /etc/logrotate.d/php5
```
```
/var/log/php5/*.log {
```
```
  #rotate daily
  daily
```
```
  #keep 14 days
  rotate 14
```
```
  missingok
  nocompress
  sharedscripts
  postrotate
  apache2ctl graceful
  endscript
```
```
}
```
You can check the configuration by running logrotate --force /etc/logrotate.d/php5

#php