I’m trying out some new blogging software. Writing blogs from the old desktop hasn’t worked for me in the past but I blame the software for that. We’ll see how this stuff goes.

Loooonnnng time no talkie.

I’ve been busy. Sometimes I’ve been busy working on a new website. I might try and post stuff to do with this new site on here in an effort to share the stuff I’ve learned.

To that end I give you a basic AppleScript that other developers may find useful and a slightly less basic Automator script.

The Apple Script

The site I am working on is done with PHP and since I’m too lazy to look for a debugger I’ve taken to writing text to a log. I got a little bored and I wanted a one click solution to opening up the mac os x terminal and tailing the log so I whipped up this little AppleScript.

tell application "Terminal" activate do script "tail -f ~/Documents/Workspace/OnlineHold/logs/debug.txt" end tell

This is probably too much information for most people who read this blarg but it’s a fairly simple deal. It opens the Terminal and then tells it to execute the unix command “tail” on the debug.txt log file. What this does then is scrolls the log file down the screen as text is written to it. It looks very matrixy to the uninformed.

The Automator Script

In another effort to dodge working on the site I’ve spent the last few days playing around with automator. I wanted to automatically download a wallpaper image of the internet and use it as my desktop image.

The first thing I needed was to find a site which would update regularly with images. I found the site InterfaceLIFT which seems to update regularly.

With that done I used an article on downloading and setting wallpapers using Automator as the basis for my workflow.

Unlike in the first article I didn’t want to download every image. Just the latest. In order to accomplish this I used the handy firefox plugin firebug to figure out how exactly the wallpaper site built there image links. I found that each image link had an ascending five digit id associated with it in the link and that the latest image had the largest id. In order to take advantage of this little fact I wrote a brief perl script.

$max = 0; $latest = ""; foreach (@ARGV) {

print “$_\n”;

$_ =~ m/[0-9]{5}/g;
if ($& > $max) {
    $max = $&;
    $latest = $_;
}

} print $latest;

This little piece of magic got me the latest image off the page, which was downloaded to a folder and then set as the background.

I was getting the workflow to run every hour but it if it runs it takes over the focus so instead I just execute the workflow when i turn my computer on.

Here it is if you want it. Download and Set Wallpaper disk image

Update: Poking around the interface lift site led me to a page that contains random wallpapers. I’ve changed the script to use this as it means that when the script is run you always get a new wallpaper.

Time for another Sundance post. When I read the blurb for Anvil: The Story of Anvil, I initially thought “This is Spinal Tap, except real”. Then on the bus to the cinema I heard the woman behind me say that it is like Spinal Tap and that it’s kind of sad. This got me thinking “If Spinal Tap was real, how good a movie would it be? Things go really bad for Spinal Tap but while watching it you have a grin on your face because you know it’s not real.”

Anvil Is Real. Watching it was like being on a roller coaster of emotion. One minute your happy, laughing at a joke. The next cringing as they miss a train. Worried when they fight amongst themselves. Happy when they apologise to each other. Crushed as they endure disappointment after disappointment. And elated when it all comes together.

Anvil is Really Real. When the movie was over the director came down. And he introduced the stars of the movie. Anvil. The people we just saw on the screen were the exact same people that were asked questions such as “Where were they playing tonight?” and “If the movie that was made was the movie they expected to be made?”. This was really special. Being able to see these guys who had become personal heroes in the space of 2 hours and realise they weren’t playing any character for the camera was amazing.

Anvil is Spinal Tap. This movie will be compared to Spinal Tap and it knows it. It’s got lots of little touches in it that pay tribute to the mockumentary from a dial that goes up to eleven to Stonehenge.

Basically Anvil: The Story of Anvil ROCKED!!!! I hope it at least gets released on DVD as this is a documentary that should be seen by everyone.

I’m in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival. I just saw Quentin Tarantino walking down the street. This place rules.

I had low expectations when I went to see Hitman because there is no such thing as an amazing movie that has a computer game as it’s source. All I wanted was to see Agent 47 running around doing cool shit. Which is exactly what I got.

This is not a movie for a typical movie-goer. This is a movie for the fans. It hits all the notes of the original source material. From something as simple as a bouncing coin to something so integral as Agent 47’s walk.

There is a plot. It’s purpose is to lead Agent 47 to his next cool action sequence.

There is a girl. Her purpose is to engage those people who don’t realize how lucky they are to be seeing agent 47 on the big screen.

There is a helicopter gun ship. It blows a hole in the steeple of a church that is the size of a car.

But the movie isn’t all bullets and blood spatter. It contains that which has been mandated since the year 1982. Cheese. There isn’t a whole lot, but any amount, especially that which involves agent 47 is unacceptable.

I am not sad I paid $10 to see this movie. There are many who will be. But they don’t know what it is to be a silent assassin.

Oh Nooooooooo!
Originally uploaded by Kertap

I confused Neil Young with Neil Diamond.

Every body watches nascar for the crashes. The problem with that is the pace car comes out. No one wants to see the pace car.

I cooked something last night for the first time in over a year and a half that wasn’t a brat/cereal/scrambled egg. Obviously with a time period like that this was a little out of the ordinary. There where a couple of reasons for this.

The first was the amount of delicous home cooking I had when I went back to Ireland. There was Mary’s delicious curries, Dad’s curry that was insane and delicous (it used lots of crazy stuff), Maura’s lasagne and the aroma of the food in 182 (I didn’t partake). The second is I’ve been eating the same fast food for the last year and it’s getting kind of tired. Getting a car (pictures to come later) has opened up a few new food options but they are nearly all of the greasy burger variety.

I got the idea for this particular meal in from a place I love to go called The Bayou. They have a fantastic selection of beer there and delicious cajun food. They do this cajun fettucine alfredo with alfredo that is possibly the most exquisite form of pasta on the planet. I decided to emulate this meal.

The actual cooking was pretty easy. I got one of those packets of pasta that come with the sauce and some chicken breasts. Cooked them and added them together on a plate. I also threw in enough cajun spices to make the sauce go orange but I think next time I’ll throw in more at the last minute. Also the chicken was too well done.

I don’t know what I’m going to have tonight. Something chickeny perhaps.

This is an excellent article on Rock, Paper, Scissors.

One of the great things about it is the lexicon of the various RPS strategies such as “The Scissors Sandwich” (Paper, Scissors, Paper) or “The bureaucrat” (Paper, Paper, Paper).

I think I’ll have to try and enter this next year. If only for the free beer.