I've updated the theme on this site and have done some fidgeting 'in the back' so some things may or may not work. Feel free to tell me if something doesn't work as expected :)
Oct17
Category Archives: geekery
Dec24
Books to read
I recently ordered an e-reader and because it did cost quite a bit more than a book I decided to challenge myself by first reading enough free books to compensate for its price. By free I really mean free, either public domain books or free as decided by the author. This means I've decided on reading a lot of classics I've either read as a kid (in Dutch) or 'always wanted to read'.
I discovered GoodReads and created a list of books to read. I planned on having 42 books on there -- we all know 42 is the only correct number -- and ended up with 44. I'll leave the extra two on, so I can skip a book or two because they suck.
Check out my readinglist:
my before-buying-ebooks shelf:
Also, I created a reading list page with links to books I've read and books I want to read. I spent the day geeking out and tweaking Goodreads-wordpress-plugins so I can have my shelves show up nicely.
Very excited, it got shipped today and should arrive tomorrow. Snow might interfere so keeping my fingers crossed!
Nov17
Creating subtasks in OmniFocus on iPhone
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And now, for some total geekery!
I don’t know if this always existed or if this feature appeared during some update. However, you can create subtask in OmniFocus on your iPhone. I didn’t know…
Oct30
Making my own medical file
Because of the crazy amount of medical data I have and have to deal with I decided I needed my own medical files. Not in the least because it seems to impress doctors when you slap your file on their desk and make it clear you know exactly what happened and what medication you take and what side-effects they cause.
To make my medical file, I used Scrivener, MultiMarkdown and eventually LaTeX.
First, I started out with a structure that made sense:
- Conditions (my various illnesses)
- Medication
-
- current medication
-
-
- prescribed
-
-
-
- unprescribed
-
-
- historic medication
-
-
- prescribed
-
-
-
- unprescribed
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- Medical contacts
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- doctors
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- hospitals
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- pharmacy
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- insurance
- Surgeries
- Log
- Diagnostics
Then, for each of the these parts I made a folder in Scrivener and put files in it for each section or subsection. In 'Log' and 'Diagnostics' I put a folder for each year, and a file for each incident.
Using MultiMarkdown I could easily make the tables for my blood-tests in 'Diagnostics', and refer to different sections of the document. I put it all in Scrivener because that way I can keep important files in my Research folder and easily refer to those.
With the new 'Folder Sync' feature in Scrivener 2.0 I can easily sync all the files to a folder and transfer that to my EEE1. I can either bring the EEE along with visits or a printed copy (or both, because with the EEE I can easily add new info to any of the files on the spot -- saves me a lot of writing it down and then typing it in later).
Because MultiMarkdown easily converts to PDF (through LaTeX) I have a fancy printable file with a coversheet, an index, my name and the date printed on each page, and a table of contents. All of this automatically, no fiddling with layout and such required after the initial set-up.
It took me quite some time and energy to make this file, but I feel really good about it. I have a better idea of what we have tried already and when I visited who and when my last blood-tests were (need to get that vit. D checked again).
It also showed me I have roughly one hospital visit every two weeks (average for the last five years). Wow!
-
In case you wonder, I created an encrypted container with a crazy long password for the medical info so no-one can accidentally see it or access it should I lose my EEE. ↩
Jun20
Software sucks
I spent a frustrating few hours yesterday and today trying to get things to work properly. I updated to WordPress 3.0 (it went well in a test-environment) and then stuff started to break big time.
I use Textile for markup and suddenly, that caused issues. I tried switching it off, and switching to a lighter version, and I still had trouble editing and displaying posts. Eventually I deleted the WordPress files and installed them again and tried to get everything to work again as I wanted.
Then my RSS-feed broke and Feedburner started to complain.
I think I fixed it...
I really hope I did...
May29
Camera and garden stuff
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I received my new camera a few days ago and have enjoyed using it. It has some big advantages over my older camera (insane zoom, wide-angle, remembers settings between off-on…
May26
Geeking out with procmail
I love procmail, not sure why I prefer it over other options, but I do. Recently I've found / figured out a few nice rules to help automate filtering a bit.
The following rule checks for the existence of various headers usually used by mailing-list and filters the mail into a mailbox with the list's name:
:0
* ^((List-Id|X-(Mailing-)?List):(.[< ]\/[^>]))
{
LISTID=$MATCH
:0
* LISTID ?? ^\/[^@\.]*
.$MATCH/
}
Some mailing-lists don't have a 'List-Id' and such, but they do have a 'Sender'. For these I use:
:0
* ^X-BeenThere:.*
* ! ^(List-Id|X-(Mailing-)?List):.*
* ^Sender: \/[^@-]+
.$MATCH/
For a lot of webforms I use an address with a '+' in (a completely valid symbol in an e-mailaddress btw). If I'd need to use an address for say, google.com, I'd fill in 'tannie+google@tanniespace' (and .com ofcourse). To filter out these addresses to their own folder I use the following rule:
:0
* ^TO.+\/([a-z].)\@(mydomain|otherdomain)
{
EXTENSION=$MATCH
:0
* EXTENSION ?? ^\/[^@.]*
.$MATCH/
}
May23
More geekery with twitter and flickr stuff
A couple of weeks ago I found and edited a php script to help me post photos to flickr from Tweetie for iPhone (now Twitter for iPhone -- do keep up...). After using it for a while I realised the title of the photos got a bit too long for my taste and I spend a little time tweaking. I've now changed it so that the first sentence (up to the first . or ! or ?) becomes the title. The rest becomes the description of the photo. For me this works out pretty well.
I added the following lines (changing the last line of my previous tweak to prevent confusion):
$string = preg_replace("/#\w+/i", '', $title);
//previously the above line said: $title = preg_replace("/#\w+/i", '', $title);
if (preg_match("/^.*(\.|\!|\?)/U", $string, $matches)) {
$title = $matches[0];
$description = preg_replace("/^.*(\.|\!|\?)/U", '', $string);
}
else {
$title = $string;
$description = "";
}
right before:
$parameters = array(
'api_key' => API_KEY,
'auth_token' => API_TOKEN,
'tags' => $tags,
'title' => $title,
'description' => $description,
);
Note that I also added that last field in there ('description'). I haven't completely tested it, however, my limited tests seemed to work fine. I don't really know much about php, so I probably used more lines than I needed. This way I could keep track of what I did though, and I think I'll still understand my changes a couple of months from now.
May2
Geeking out with twitter and flickr stuff
Recently I found a php script by Chris Morrel which allows you to post photos to flickr (and get the correct flic.kr short url back) from Tweetie 2. I tweaked it a little to get used hashtags as flickr-tags and to have them removed from the title (the script uses the message as the title).
Right after:
$tags = FLICKR_TAGS;
if (TAG_WITH_HANDLE) {
$tags .= ' @' . $_POST['username'];
}
I added:
preg_match_all('/#(\w+)/', $title, $matches);
foreach ($matches1 as &$tag) {
$tags .= ' ' . $tag;
}
$title = preg_replace("/#\w+/i", '', $title);
It worked as I wanted, so yay!
Jan26
Snoozing, deferring and other things in OmniFocus
A while back I wrote about snoozing and deferring tasks in OmniFocus and Dan's scripts. He has since added two more scripts, to move tasks to today and tomorrow quickly. Sometimes I don't check my task-list for a few days (for whatever reason) and then I may ==cough== have tons of overdue items. These two scripts easily let me put them on the right day, either today or tomorrow, and helps me clean up fast.
I've set up the same shortcut keys in Fastscripts.
Today I've also edited my task-list. I had too many things on them and felt overwhelmed. After listening to one of Michael Nobbs' audioboo in which he mentioned his three things to do list and the twenty minute trick (I go for fifteen), and also mentioned that once something becomes a habit he just does it and doesn't add it to the list anymore, I decided to remove a few items that I know I do anyway. It looks much smaller and much easier to manage.
I might actually go and do something today...
Jan20
The iPhone saga, part 6
I went to the T-shop to check on my phone because I hadn't heard anything yet, and I noticed they had the wrong number on my form. Turns out, they had my (replacement) phone there. The lady was very nice and I hope this one works better than the other one. At least it doesn't have any dead parts in the screen (so far) and it seems to work properly. I give it another week before I slap my Zagg shield on it.
Dec31
The iPhone saga, part 6
Unfortunately, I had to continue my iPhone saga. The iPhone I received worked but showed some issues. It took a while before I figured out what exactly, but it turned out that randomly, the middle part of the screen would stop responding to touch. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't (as shown on the picture). Sometimes the entire screen would stop responding, which I could usually solve by pressing that top-button to lock it and then unlock it.
I returned it today and expect it (or another one) back in a week or two. In general I've had no issues with the process, just too bad I got a bad phone in return. When I pick it up, I'll make sure to test it before taking it home though :)
Dec18
The iPhone saga, part 5
I crawled out to the T-shop to pick up my phone and got a replacement one. As far as I can tell, I got a brand new one, yay! I didn't put the backup back; instead, I went for a clean install, selecting the apps I wanted and setting it up from scratch. So happy to have it back!
Dec15
The iPhone saga, part 4
The T-mobile site updated my repair status with:
bq.. Result of repair: You can pick up your phone at the T-shop. Warning: if you get the confirmation that you can pick up your phone, it could take up to 3 workingdays before you can.
p. They should give me a ring from the T-shop when they have it, hopefully Thursday or Friday. I suspect they'll send it out today, so maybe even tomorrow, yay!
So far, everything went pretty smoothly and if it works when I get it back, I'll feel very happy %{color:purple}{:)}%
I miss my touchscreen...
Dec12
The making of an iPhone app, part I
Because my favourite shopper app has now gone mental, I decided I should write my own. I have no idea how to, and have so far not tried writing anything for the iPhone, it should turn into a neat little adventure.
So far, I have read a little on Apple's iPhone Developer site about Human Interface Guidelines and Planning your app. I've also did some looking around and thinking about a database structure, and what kind of things I do and what I don't want in my app. Currently I have:
- multiple lists
- checkboxes to check of items
- a cart
- separate totals for 'in cart' and 'on list'
- item info including: name, category (sort-per-store) and / or aisle, note, store, per-store-price, photo
I haven't made my mind up about coupons / discounts, because I rarely use them. However, when I do, I like them showing up in the price.
I'd also like to make it so that the lowest price has a visual feedback if you have selected a store -- something Handyshopper always did very well. I want the interface as clutterfree as possible, and from what I can tell, I have some pretty good options with the default iPhone thingies.
