I have the best bash prompt ever. It took a lot of hacking and googling, but here she is:

Notice that the smiley face and text colors change depending on the exit code of the last run command (red = failed, green = happy). This is handy, for example, after a big long build that has error messages buried in it, and the last line of output just isn’t that useful.

To make your prompt awesome, put this in your .bashrc and enjoy:

BLACK="\[\033[0;30m\]" DARK_GRAY="\[\033[1;30m\]" LIGHT_GRAY="\[\033[0;37m\]" BLUE="\[\033[0;34m\]" LIGHT_BLUE="\[\033[1;34m\]" GREEN="\[\033[0;32m\]" LIGHT_GREEN="\[\033[1;32m\]" CYAN="\[\033[0;36m\]" LIGHT_CYAN="\[\033[1;36m\]" RED="\[\033[0;31m\]" LIGHT_RED="\[\033[1;31m\]" PURPLE="\[\033[0;35m\]" LIGHT_PURPLE="\[\033[1;35m\]" BROWN="\[\033[0;33m\]" YELLOW="\[\033[1;33m\]" WHITE="\[\033[1;37m\]" DEFAULT_COLOR="\[\033[00m\]" export PS1="\`if [ \$? = 0 ]; then echo -e '$GREEN--( $LIGHT_CYAN\u$YELLOW@$LIGHT_CYAN\h$GREEN )--( $YELLOW\w$GREEN )-- :)\n--\$$DEFAULT_COLOR '; else echo -e '$LIGHT_RED--( $LIGHT_CYAN\u$YELLOW@$LIGHT_CYAN\h$LIGHT_RED )--( $YELLOW\w$LIGHT_RED )-- :(\n--\$$DEFAULT_COLOR '; fi; \`"

Happy bashing!

What many people don’t know about Windows BSOD crashes is that almost all of them are caused by third-party drivers. In fact, given the millions of Windows-compatible devices out there, it’s a miracle of modern (computer) science that the Redmond OS runs at all! No other operating system can match Windows for the number of devices [...]

Just in time for the new servers I'm about to set up, FreeBSD 7.1 is out. Release notes here. Significant changes in this release include availability of DVD-sized install media on the download mirrors, and making the ULE scheduler the default in the i386 and AMD64 kernels (ULE was available before as an option, but the default was the older 4.4BSD scheduler). The new scheduler improves performance significantly for many workloads on multi-processor systems.

FreeBSD, Open Source

Nick O’Neill recently wrote about the possibility that if Facebook would just open up your status updates, Twitter could be put out of its tracks. Well, actually, Facebook updates are open - it’s just up to each user to release them. Any user on Facebook can provide their friends’ status updates to any third party provider, through a simple RSS feed, and this feed has been around since April of 2007!

To obtain the RSS feed is simple. Just click on “Friends” in the header at the top of Facebook and select “All Friends” in the drop-down. Now, look up in the URL bar of your browser (this works best in Firefox or Safari) - see the little RSS icon? Click on it, an voila, your friends’ status updates will come, in a live feed, straight to your RSS reader. There’s nothing stopping developers from creating a service around this, asking for this URL from users, and providing a Twitter-like interface around it. The URL goes in this format, and it’s completely controlled by the user, because a key must be provided to the app that wants to use it (this is for me and my friends, key obviously omitted):

feed://www.facebook.com/feeds/friends_status.php?id=683545112&key=xxxxxxxxxxx&format=rss20

This also works for your own updates. To get an RSS feed of just your updates, you have to go to your mini feed page at this url (I can’t find a way to get there through links on Facebook - if you know of a way please let me know in the comments). On the right hand side of the page, you’ll see a “My Status” link. Add that to your RSS reader and now all your personal Facebook status updates will go to your reader! Again, with a key you give out as a user, any app can now use this data to track your own status updates. In fact, FriendFeed is already utilizing this feed! The URL for personal updates is in the format of (I’m leaving my key in this case so you can see my own updates):

http://www.facebook.com/feeds/status.php?id=683545112&viewer=683545112&key=77b2714b66&format=rss20

Of course, any developer can also access these updates, with the user’s permission, via the Facebook API as well so theoretically you don’t even have to collect these URLs. However, through this method, anyone can track you, and your friends’ status updates with your permission. So your Facebook updates are public, sort of.

Gabe and I want to be sure that our start up company, Izeni, has a cash runway that’s long enough to ensure that we can have a proper lift off. To that end we’ve been doing some consulting and contract work (mostly low-hanging fruit) to slow our burn rate, and it’s worked fairly well because we’re in bootstrapping mode and our expenses are relativity low. So, although we’ve never really sought contract work, we do like it; and I thought I’d do a quick post officially soliciting it.

So without further ado, Izeni will be accepting all kinds of technical consulting and contract work. Our specialities are Python coding; website development (particularly using the Django framework); Linux systems administration (Apache, *SQL, Postfix, Mailman, IPtables, Samba, Bash, etc.); and VoIP-based telephony (Asterisk and Freeswitch).

We can also do general computer and network support, online marketing, and a myriad of other technical and business odds and ends.  :)

Izeni is based out of Utah, but we can also telecommute.

Please let me know if you have any contracting and consulting opportunities or know of any companies looking for web guys, programmers, or other technical contractors. Otherwise, feel free to repost this (pass the word along), or just keep us in mind.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
like a Diamond, in the sky.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
How I wonder what you are.

When the blazing sun is gone,
When the nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the traveller in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He couldn’t see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveller in the dark,—
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

–Jane Taylor

Original Photo (Jesse Stay)

This family’s loss breaks my heart. They are friends of ours, and live in our neighborhood. Here is the obituary:

“Shelbi Kay Elwell 2002 ~ 2008 Our little princess, Shelbi Kay Elwell, age six, passed away from a sudden illness on Dec. 30, 2008.Shelbi was born to her loving parents, Rian and MeLea Elwell on Feb. 26, 2002. Shelbi loved princesses, Barbies, playing with her cousins, her brothers, and her many friends. She was a happy and fun loving little girl. She shared hugs and kisses with her family. She attended Pony Express Elementary School where she was in the first grade. Survived by her parents, her brothers, Cameron, Nathan and Carter, grandparents, Brad and Debra Sheppard, Ted and Roxene Kresser, Jack and Marsha Elwell, great grandparents, Grant and Karen Stubbs, RueLeen Sheppard, Susan Elwell, Frankie Barney, aunts, uncles, and many cousins. Funeral services will be held Saturday, Jan. 3, 2009 at 11 a.m. at the Eagle Mountain East Stake Center, 4506 E. Pony Express Parkway, Eagle Mountain, Utah. Viewings Friday evening from 6-8 p.m. at the church and Saturday 9:30-10:45 a.m. prior to the funeral. Burial, American Fork Cemetery.”

I went to the viewing on Saturday morning, and to her funeral. She was a beautiful little angel of a child.

If you can, please donate to help them with the mounting hospital, funeral, and burial costs. To make a contribution, go into any Zion’s bank branch, and state that you would like to make a donation to the account under the name of Shelbi Kay Elwell. You will then be able to make your contribution.

Here is the original obituary

Another way you can help is to post this same message on your blog or website, or send it to those in your address book. If you do, please include the information about her donation account. Let’s all help the Elwells as they work through their grief during this difficult time.

I just updated all my blogs to Wordpress 2.7. I like the new admin interface. The upgrade was pleasantly easy and quick.

Okay, I know no one at Apple reads my blog, but this is wishful thinking on my part. I’m getting really desperate, and so are what seems to be hundreds of others who have recently upgraded to the 10.5.6 update on the various Mac and Apple forums on the internet. The issue lies around Safari, and Facebook, and Gmail, and sessions. When I use Safari, no matter what I do, after about 30 seconds, Facebook logs me out. I can’t use Facebook in Safari. After 30 minutes or so on Gmail, it becomes unresponsive, and refreshing returns a 400 Bad Request error.

The only way I’ve found to fix this is to reset Safari, reboot, or clear all my cookies, but then, another 30 minutes later or so, all the other problems resurface again. I tried downloading the latest Webkit build, still no go. I tried reinstalling Leopard, still no go. I tried installing the full package from Apple.com for 10.5.6 and it still gives me the same issue. Each time I think it gets fixed, but a few minutes to hours later the problem comes right back.

It would appear that I’m not alone on this issue, either. Just doing a google search for “10.5.6 safari cookies session” or “safari gmail 400 bad request” returns page after page of users having issues. Threads like this one and this one prove there’s a serious issue here, with no response at all from Apple.

I’ve switched to Firefox, which actually I prefer, but Firefox is extremely slow for me on my Mac when compared to Safari for some reason. I want my Safari back! Apple, please, if anyone is listening, we need a fix soon! I am powerless without this update, and I’m really, really close to just getting a PC.

Back in March, I reported the occurance of a new worm on Facebook, which surfaced due to a phishing scam, and took over users’ profiles.  It would appear that a similar scam is surfacing on Twitter as we speak.  The scam comes in the form of a direct message to a user’s followers, stating “hey! check out this funny blog about you…”, followed by a URL.  When you click on the URL it takes you to a phished version of Twitter, looking exactly like the original Twitter site, which collects your username and password.  I’ve received about 5 of these just in the past hour so it is spreading rampantly. Twitter just reported the incident here.

Asking those that have sent the message, it would appear most of them filled out the form thinking they were logging into Twitter, so it is most likely one person that sent such a message to all their followers, starting the domino effect of spam and password collection.  This begs the question, though, which I’ve brought up multiple times in the forums and Chris Messina blogged about today on the urgency of Twitter requiring OAuth or similar Key-based authentication in the API.  It would take any application, similar to Twtply, to be sold to a spammer, full of usernames and passwords to set off such a worm.  Essentially, any application which collects your username and password right now has the potential to turn its users into Twitter zombie accounts, similar to this worm spreading currently, spreading false information, collecting bank account information, or you name the possibility.

I hope Twitter has this as their number one priority currently - stopping this worm is important, but implementing some sort of key-based authentication such as OAuth should be the next thing on Twitter’s mind, and in my opinion, that should occur even before the new API push they are getting ready to launch.  Twitter - it sounds like you need a patch applied to your service!