Teleport Pro -- Offline Browsing Webspider
Blogger has an official way to backup one's blog. Problem is, it's slightly ridiculous and it produces a huge document.
I tried using an OS X personal spider (SiteSucker) to suck down my blogspot site, but it started failing with a download error after page 300 or so. So I located my ancient copy of Teleport Pro (windows, alas) and fired it up. It worked perfectly, creating several thousand pages and localizing all the URLs pointing to internal blogspot pages.
I'm impressed. Incredibly, you can still buy Teleport Pro at this site. It's not the most intuitive application, but it works great.
Update 11/25/08: I ran into a 65K limit for URLs when using Teleport Pro with the 2008 version of Gordon's Notes. There's a more advanced spider sold by the same vendor, with a $30 updgrade discount it's $165. I'm going to look around for alternatives. Also in 2008 Blogger did introduce the ability to export blogs in a Google defined XML format.
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Hard Drive Cooling for 10 Cents
Cheapbooks.com - Hard Drive Cooling for 10 Cents
He mounts an 80mm fan over his drives using a cheap hardware bracket. Note these larger fans are much quieter than the small fans sometimes sold for hard drives. My Vantec case let me install an 80mm to blow external air over the drives ...
He mounts an 80mm fan over his drives using a cheap hardware bracket. Note these larger fans are much quieter than the small fans sometimes sold for hard drives. My Vantec case let me install an 80mm to blow external air over the drives ...
OS X and all its bizarre keyboard shortcuts
macosxhints - An OS X keyboard shortcut reference
Well, probably not all of them. A complete collection is probably impossible, since they vary between machines and OS versions. One imagines an immense grid in several dimensions ...
The comments reference other collections, including Apple's. I've printed them into one big pile in my desk -- useful for when the Mac isn't working.
A psychoanalyst could make much of the Mac keyboard fetish -- especially since the Mac was born of a the mouse world. Single button mouse, one trillion keyboard shortcuts ... hmmm. Compensation perhaps?
Well, probably not all of them. A complete collection is probably impossible, since they vary between machines and OS versions. One imagines an immense grid in several dimensions ...
The comments reference other collections, including Apple's. I've printed them into one big pile in my desk -- useful for when the Mac isn't working.
A psychoanalyst could make much of the Mac keyboard fetish -- especially since the Mac was born of a the mouse world. Single button mouse, one trillion keyboard shortcuts ... hmmm. Compensation perhaps?
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Uber-Geek usage of Safari
All About Safari :: Apple-X.net :: Alternative Mac Tech News, Analysis, Reviews, and Opinion.
There are tips here even I'd not heard of.
There are tips here even I'd not heard of.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Backing up a Blogger blog
Blogger Help : How do I create a backup of my entire blog?
There's now a way to backup a Blogger blog -- even if it is tortuous.
There's now a way to backup a Blogger blog -- even if it is tortuous.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Skype gets interesting: inbound number and voice mail
SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail Beta
Skype is a popular (too popular?) Voice over IP (VOIP) solution. It's primary use is cheap long distance calls, technical conferencing, and low cost conferencing. There are several similar alternatives.
Now, however, Skype is getting .... interesting.
They're offering users a 'unversal number' that can be reached by external phones (hmm. What does it do with fax calls?). Calls can go to voice mail or get routed to the Skype client (if it's connected). Cost is about $60/year for one number and voice mail, but I'd expect a variety of hidden fees also exist.
If they also provided programmable routing (route to my mobile phone, route to my home phone, etc) I'd have signed up already, but given their infrastructure it doesn't seem far fetched to expect routing in a future release.
Skype is a popular (too popular?) Voice over IP (VOIP) solution. It's primary use is cheap long distance calls, technical conferencing, and low cost conferencing. There are several similar alternatives.
Now, however, Skype is getting .... interesting.
They're offering users a 'unversal number' that can be reached by external phones (hmm. What does it do with fax calls?). Calls can go to voice mail or get routed to the Skype client (if it's connected). Cost is about $60/year for one number and voice mail, but I'd expect a variety of hidden fees also exist.
If they also provided programmable routing (route to my mobile phone, route to my home phone, etc) I'd have signed up already, but given their infrastructure it doesn't seem far fetched to expect routing in a future release.
SkypeIn provides an affordable, flexible alternative to costly mobile phone roaming charges with SkypeIn personal numbers. SkypeIn customers can receive inbound calls to their Skype client from ordinary fixed telephones or mobile phones while they travel worldwide, providing seamless interconnectivity without having to pay costly roaming charges. Skype Voicemail enables users to manage incoming voicemail messages, making their Skype usage more ubiquitous...All Skype services are pre-paid, apparently they lead the industry in credit card fraud.
... SkypeIn customers choose a country and area code and are assigned a regular telephone number... Users may purchase up to three numbers from their home country in Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States during the beta period.
Skype Voicemail customers can receive a voicemail message up to 10 minutes long from any user or traditional phone. Skype Voicemail customers may record their own personalized voicemail greeting, playback their messages, even while offline, and send incoming calls to voicemail if they away, offline or simply busy on another call.
SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail complement Skype’s first premium service, SkypeOut, which allows global calling to public telephone numbers for local rates....
10.3.9 has a significant java bug
Best places to read about it: OS X hints: macosxhints - A fix for broken Java after 10.3.9 upgrade and Apple.
Overall 10.3.9 sounds promising but imperfect. I'll wait another week.
Update: Sounds like it's caused by having java running somewhere (other user space) preventing the update. In theory this is allowed, but in practice here's the superstition I follow for major OS X updates (XP updates, in my experience, have not required this sort of superstition):
Overall 10.3.9 sounds promising but imperfect. I'll wait another week.
Update: Sounds like it's caused by having java running somewhere (other user space) preventing the update. In theory this is allowed, but in practice here's the superstition I follow for major OS X updates (XP updates, in my experience, have not required this sort of superstition):
1. log in on my very plain admin account (no odd configuration, no startup items, etc). Run PCC (or similar) to flush caches.I sometimes "repair privileges after #4, but I think that's less important.
2. shut down, restart and login again to admin
3. run the update
4. shut down and restart
AutoIt: Scripting language for Windows apps
AutoIt
In DOS days I did far too much using Microsoft's Batch programming "language" (still a surprisingly useful skill). In OS/2 days I was fond of ReXX (spelling?). At various times since then Microsoft has had a variety of batch or scripting tools; they've never been very well accepted. Even AppleScript, often forgotten, has gotten more traction. (Recently AppleScript has become very useful, and it will be even more central and critical in Tiger.)
Disappointing.
AutoIt is one partial solution; open source and free.No 'build by recording' mode unfortunately (that peaked w/ AppleScript classic). Correction (thanks to a comment by the author of the scripting utility! see below) -- AutoIt has a recording tool - ScriptWriter. It is included in the SciTE distribution of AutoIt. I'll try it out and comment here. AutoIt is starting to feel like serious tool.
I've also used Hot Keyboard Pro, which is only a partial solution.
In DOS days I did far too much using Microsoft's Batch programming "language" (still a surprisingly useful skill). In OS/2 days I was fond of ReXX (spelling?). At various times since then Microsoft has had a variety of batch or scripting tools; they've never been very well accepted. Even AppleScript, often forgotten, has gotten more traction. (Recently AppleScript has become very useful, and it will be even more central and critical in Tiger.)
Disappointing.
AutoIt is one partial solution; open source and free.
I've also used Hot Keyboard Pro, which is only a partial solution.
Monday, April 18, 2005
Does 10.3.9 resurrect the iBook CPU fan?
Mac OS X 10.3.9
This was a very, very good upgrade for me thus far. The .7 and .8 upgrades for me went from bad to worse. Notably in networking, sharing printers, Finder weirdness, among other things. All of that is now fixed! and what's more important is a noise that I heard that I hadn't heard since .6 update ... the CPU cooling fan...IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!Ok, if this is true then I'll upgrade. I too have noticed how quiet my iBook fanhas been for a while. Quiet is good, but hot is not so great.
I thought for a few months that my iBook was turned into a convection-cooled device (as the infamous Cube) since the CPU fan never went off. Ever since I upgraded to .9 it's all (the CPU fan included) running again.
Saturday, April 16, 2005
OS X 10.3.9 includes Safari 1.3
Surfin' Safari
wow. This didn't get much discussion in the release notes! 10.3.9 includes a major Safari update. I wonder what else is in there. I'm waiting a few days before installing.
wow. This didn't get much discussion in the release notes! 10.3.9 includes a major Safari update. I wonder what else is in there. I'm waiting a few days before installing.
BlogAssist: make Safari a better Blogger client
BlogAssist is a clever OS X menubar application that applies simple operations on text in the clipboard to speed entering HTML. It's particularly relevant to blogging, especially when working with Safari and Blogger (Safari is not well supported in Blogger, so one has to type HTML directly).
For example, you could copy a URL from a web page, choose the Web Link option, paste the result into a blog comment, and then replace the placeholder display string. In other words:
via TUAW.
For example, you could copy a URL from a web page, choose the Web Link option, paste the result into a blog comment, and then replace the placeholder display string. In other words:
1. Select text and copy into clipboard (btw, it's easy to forget to copy!)
2. Apply BlogAssist operation (operations can be user modified or defined via menubar.
3. Paste into text area.
via TUAW.
Bloglines may be out of commission
Bloglines
As of this morning my public blogs are gone and I cannot login. I hope they have good backups!
Update: They're back.
As of this morning my public blogs are gone and I cannot login. I hope they have good backups!
Update: They're back.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Cringely likes Simple DNS Server
PBS | I, Cringely . April 14, 2005 - A Cup of Bandwidth
Cringely likes JH Software's Simple DNS Server. Actually, the entire article today is full of advanced network tips and hints.
"... This easiest of all DNS servers to implement requires almost no customization at all and runs beautifully behind my firewall, providing DNS service to every machine on my network. It worked just the same over the bootleg wireless links."
Cringely likes JH Software's Simple DNS Server. Actually, the entire article today is full of advanced network tips and hints.
"... This easiest of all DNS servers to implement requires almost no customization at all and runs beautifully behind my firewall, providing DNS service to every machine on my network. It worked just the same over the bootleg wireless links."
SSHFun: connect your laptop to a home machine
MacInTouch Home Page
"SSHFun 0.4 is an AppleScript Studio application designed to establish a secure connection between Macs. The application tunnels ports 548 (Apple File Share) and 3031 (Apple Remote Events) through port 22 (Secure Shell, SSH) using Terminal, allowing SSHFun to operate inside a secure environment. SSHFun is free (donations accepted) for Mac OS X 10.3."
"SSHFun 0.4 is an AppleScript Studio application designed to establish a secure connection between Macs. The application tunnels ports 548 (Apple File Share) and 3031 (Apple Remote Events) through port 22 (Secure Shell, SSH) using Terminal, allowing SSHFun to operate inside a secure environment. SSHFun is free (donations accepted) for Mac OS X 10.3."
nVu - more good news on this FrontPage replacement
MacInTouch Home Page
nVu is getting close to release.
nVu is getting close to release.
Nvu 1.0 Preview is an open source web authoring application based on Gecko, the Mozilla layout engine. It includes WYSIWYG page editing, integrated file management via FTP, HTML source editing, tabbed views, a CSS editor, and other features. This release adds support for HTML 4.01 Strict and Transitional and XHTML 1.0 Strict and Transitional, automatic disabling of UI elements not allowed by the DTD of the current document, new Help contents, and other changes. Nvu is free for Mac OS X 10.1.5 and up, Linux, and Windows.In addition to working with OS X, it's also bundled with Linspire.
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