blog.thomaspan.com » Software http://blog.thomaspan.com Thomas Pan's Blog - finance, life, photography, technology, travelogue Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:41:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Hey, We Are On DST! http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/125 http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/125#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2007 07:33:18 +0000 Thomas daylight saving saving energy congress revert patch save http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/125 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Hey, I lived through this year’s DST excitement, which happened in Sunday. It was like a mini-Y2K since we had to work so hard to patch all the computer hardware and software to make sure that the whole Internet business wouldn’t be affected after the new DST change — thanks to Energy Policy Act of 2005. I even got phone call and SMS message from cell phone company, urging me to patch my Treo. Life cannot be more excited!

So, what’s the hype behind all the craziness to put 4 more weeks under DST? I know that DST stands for Daylight Saving Time. Mysteriously, it doesn’t save any energy in my life. As a typical software engineer, I spend most of the time sitting before a computer inside a building. Since I cannot afford a fancy house with big windows and/or glass walls, I have to keep lights on to protect my eyes, regardless of outdoor weather conditions.

Did I mention that the new DST doesn’t save energe? The quote below is taken from Section 110 of the energy bill:

Amends the Uniform Time Act of 1966 to extend standard daylight time from March to November (currently it runs from April to October). Requires the Secretary to report to Congress on the impact of this extension upon energy consumption in the United States. Retains the right of Congress to revert Daylight Saving Time back to the 2005 time schedules.

Folks, I am really sorry. I need to save more energy under DST. Because, if this year’s setup doesn’t work out for our nation, we have to revert everything back next year. Damn it! It was so easy for us to save energy in the good old days. More, we didn’t have computers to worry about. :-)

References:

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]]> http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/125/feed 0 MyDBGraffle4: Automatically MySQL Schema Drawing in OmniGraffle http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/105 http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/105#comments Mon, 22 Jan 2007 05:33:48 +0000 Thomas schema database generate automatically Omnigraffle DBGraffle MyDBGraffle MySQL http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/105 Paul Davis' DBGraffle4. MyDBGraffle4 supports MySQL 5 while DBGraffle4 works for PostgreSQL. You can download the tool as a zip file here. No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> MyDBGraffle4 automatically draws MySQL schema in OmniGraffle, given database information. It is based on Paul Davis’ DBGraffle4. MyDBGraffle4 supports MySQL 5 while DBGraffle4 works for PostgreSQL.

You can download the tool as a zip file here, which contains two files: MyDBGraffle4.py and MyDBGraffle4.scpt. It is recommended by Paul to use Script Editor to save the *.scpt as an *.app and placing it in the dock or on the desktop. After its there, you can double click it and follow the popups.

Here, I use a tagging system schema to show you how to use this tool. I name the database as TagSchema.

  1. Launch MyDBGraffle4.scpt in Script Editor and run it:
    >script_editor
    >
     
    		 >
     
    >

  2. Input the location of MyDBGraffle4.py:
    >python_script_location
    >
     
    		 >
     
    >

  3. Input the application name of OmniGraffle:
    >omnigraffle_name
    >
     
    		 >
     
    >

  4. Input the MySQL database server host name:
    >dbhost
    >
     
    		 >
     
    >

  5. Input the MySQL database server port:
    >db_port
    >
     
    		 >
     
    >

  6. Input database user name:
    >user_name
    >
     
    		 >
     
    >

  7. Input the database name:
    >db_name
    >
     
    		 >
     
    >

  8. The tool generates the beautiful schema diagram in OmniGraffle:
    >final_result
    >
     
    		 >
     
    >

Note that in order for this tool to work, you only need to setup a local MySQL 5 server with passwordless user root. Then, you load the database schema(s) that you want to have diagrams generated in OmniGraffle. Make sure that there are no overlapping between foreign key(s) and primary key(s) and foreign key(s) are defined before indexes. Of course, foreign keys only work for InnoDB tables under MySQL.

Feel free to report bugs and requirements as comments here.

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]]> http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/105/feed 1 Site Upgrade — WordPress http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/69 http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/69#comments Sat, 23 Dec 2006 07:16:53 +0000 Thomas wordpress deluxe plugins preview process spelling upgrade checker http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/69 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> The old blog system for this site is WordPress 1.5.1.3. I just pgraded it to 2.0.5, which is the latest version. The process was very straightforward. I followed the steps listed here from WordPress. It took me about 5 minutes to upgrade this blog site. I am glad that WordPress DID a very good job to make the upgrade process painless, which will definitely encourage more users. Now, I am enjoying all the new features, such as WYSWYG blog post editing, file upload, live post preview, etc.

I have the following plugins installed:

  1. Adsense-Deluxe+: This is for Google adsense and Yahoo publisher network.
  2. CaptCha!: This helps avoid spams.
  3. Gallery2 Integration
  4. Inline Google Maps
  5. Snap Preview Anywhere Plugin: This generates pop-up snapshot of web pages.
  6. Social Bookmarks
  7. Spelling Checker

I will keep blogging! :-)

Update: I have replaced Adsense-Deluxe+ with Adsense. I have added WP-Amazon. I turned off visual rich editor.

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]]> http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/69/feed 1 How to Block Blog Spam? http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/72 http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/72#comments Mon, 13 Nov 2006 07:27:26 +0000 Thomas spam wordpress captcha hotmail site portals prevent comments http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/72 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> My blogging site is based on WordPress. There are so many blog spams these days. For example, one of my post has got 588 meaningless comments. After talking to my friend Joy, I think that I need to do something to prevent my site from spam. WordPress has bunch of spam tools available. Which one is the best one? It is very easy to make the final decision after I check out popular web portals, such as yahoo, MSN hotmail, and google. CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) is the right way to go.

Finally, I choose Captcha! since it is easy to install and my web host has GDlib pre-installed. In order for the plugin to work, one needs to download some twisted TTF fonts freely available from this site.

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]]> http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/72/feed 0 Crunch Time http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/51 http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/51#comments Fri, 23 Jun 2006 08:29:45 +0000 Thomas crunch project morning energy beta final exercise body http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/51 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> In IT industry, crunch time represents the period of time immediately before a project (or other timetabled item) is due. It is typical for the crunch time to occur between the next-to-last scheduled milestone and the final due date. Depending on how many due dates a project could have, the duration of crunch time could be pretty long in modern IT projects. For example, there could be an internal beta, a public beta, and a final launch. If people are doing extreme programming, the release cycle could be as short as two weeks.

Since crunch time is unavoidable, how could we deal with it? I would like to share some personal experiences here:

  1. Get up early. It keeps one’s body clock right enjoying the sunshine. It helps maintain a positive attitude during the long day.
  2. Take a morning shower to help the body wake up.
  3. Prepare extra clothing for early morning or late evening if one lives in an area with large temperature diference between day and night. Cold will at least cause headache.
  4. Take a nap from time to time whenever one feels sleepy.
  5. Have enough exercise to keep the blood flow. However, don’t over-exercise to exhaust oneself.
  6. Keep energy bars or snacks handy in the working place. Don’t have energy crisis!
  7. Have good quality food!

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]]> http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/51/feed 0 Password Recovery from Mozilla/Firefox http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/32 http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/32#comments Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:43:39 +0000 Thomas passwords recovery mozilla profile login firefox input http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/32 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> The story started when my raid disk crashed early this year. I have lost all the passwords stored on that disk. Fortunately, that disk only contained user data. I have Windows system installed on the main hard-drive. Since I mainly use Mozilla as my primary browser and I am used to let it manage my on-line passwords, I still have the access to major web sites, including my personal web site. Hey, otherwise, I cannot post this blog!

But, still, it is important for me to extract passwords out of Mozilla and backup them a little more properly this time. By searching on-line, it took me less than 5 minutes to find this guide.

The path of Mozilla/Firefox password file is {Profile Root Path/{Profile Name}/{Random String}.slt/{String}.s. Each site block text contains 6 lines:

  1. Site address containing host and optional port
  2. Form login input name
  3. Base64 encoded login name wrapped around by ~ and =
  4. Form password input name
  5. Base64 encoded password wrapped around by ~ and =
  6. A period to end the block

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]]> http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/32/feed 0 Notes Taking By Microsoft Word for Mac 2004 http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/16 http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/16#comments Sat, 03 Dec 2005 16:33:46 +0000 Thomas word notebook audio layout notes taking view microsoft http://blog.thomaspan.com/?p=16 Microsoft Word for Mac 2004 is different from its Windows sibling. It gives us a Notebook layout view for easy notes taking, and allows us to record audio from any indoor conversation. No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Why Apple laptop? Why Mac? Here is one of the many reasons. Microsoft Word for Mac 2004 is different from its Windows sibling. It gives us a Notebook layout view for easy notes taking, and allows us to record audio from any indoor conversation.

1. Let’s new a Notebook Word document:

>Word_new
>
 
 >
 
>

2. Check out the Notebook layout view with the Audio Notes toolbar:

>Word_record
>
 
 >
 
>

3. Extract the audio as mp4 file:

>Word_export_audio
>
 
 >
 
>

This is definitely a gorgeous swiss army knife for students, scholars, and low budget podcasting.

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]]> http://blog.thomaspan.com/archives/16/feed 12