Apachectl: Use Wget instead of Lynx

A common error with apachectl is 'cannot find lynx'. This is a silly error because lynx is a text mode browser that is just used to retrieve the server-status page and grep out pertinent information.

Building Lynx just for use starting, stoppping, restarting, graceful, status, statusfull, etc. on Apache is silly. Most servers already have Curl or Wget. I prefer wget because it's simple and easy to use.

To use wget instead of lynx, modify your apachectl file as follows:

1. add a line near the top with:

# PIDFILE
PIDFILE='/home/username/local/apache/logs/httpd.pid'

2. About line 90-ish, you'll see status) - you should make it look like this:

configtest)
$HTTPD -t
ERROR=$?
;;
status)
# $LYNX $STATUSURL | awk ' /process$/ { print; exit } { print } '
/usr/bin/wget $STATUSURL -q -O - | egrep '(Current|Restart|uptime)' | sed 's/<[/]*dt>//g'
if [[ -f $PIDFILE ]] ; then
echo "PID: " `cat $PIDFILE`
else
echo "No PID file."
fi
;;
fullstatus)
$LYNX $STATUSURL
;;
*)

This uses wget to grab the status (uptime, restart time, etc.) instead of Lynx, which as I said should be discontinued as a dependency. As you can see, Wget solves the problem easily.

Note that the bottom section for fullstatus) is not changed; I didn't need the fullstatus, if you do, feel free to improve on this text.

Enjoy!

had horrid trouble with Sybase Python interaction with escaping parameters. Problem was evinced by passing string ''' I'm ''' into an update statement with the simple:

'update table set field = %s where id = 1' % (instr)

The trouble with this is the sql string has a quote, and it dies.

Turns out, you have to escape by passing it into the c.execute(sql, paramHash)

code is as follows:

c=db.cursor()
sql = '''update Answer set answerText=@at where answerid=2'''
c.execute(sql, { '@at':'hello'} )
c.rowcount
c.close()

This solves the parameterization. CRUCIAL POINT: HAVE TO USE @VAR NOT JUST VAR.

FYI.

JQuery Autocomplete and the Back Button

JQuery's autocomplete plugin is great. No problems with it so far, easy to use, etc. However, one of my testers just found a problem:

1. Autocomplete is on Page Main. Enter text, choose option. Result function does redirect to page Other.
2. User hits back button on browser. Main shows up again.
3. form focus is still on autocomplete, so hit backspace and ... UG! space is cleared and now browser is trying to autocomplete something else into that field (usernames of all things).

So, after trying several things, including a window.onbeforeunload() method and clearing the autocompleted field, found that problem is solved by CHANGING FOCUS AWAY AND BACK.

Yes, it's that simple. Main's document ready function is called again after the user comes back using back button (thank goodness), so I just put a pair of lines in:

$("#othertable").focus();
$("#orgName").focus();

and it was fixed.

JQuery: TableSorter AJAX Zebra Fix

Just had a day of yuckky dealing with a 'bug' / nonfeature of JQuery's Tablesorter dealing with an AJAX call. Problem was that once I make the ajax call, the zebra striping goes all to hell.

This was due, it turns out, to 2 things:
1. I had a hidden/openable div in one of the table cells;
2. I didn't have the update call after the ajax return.

IMPORTANT: TO SEE FULL CODE, CUT AND PASTE. STUPID LAYOUT OF THIS BLOG. The text/code is really there, the viewable div below prevents it from displaying. Just cut and paste the code fragments below to see the full code...

So, step one:

function actionCount() {
   $.ajaxSetup({
       cache:  false,
       type:   "POST",
       success:  function(html) {
           $("#myprojectstable").trigger("update");
           // console.log("Inside Success function..");
       }
   });
   var orgid = $("#orgID").val();
   var projidlist = <%= self.fields.projidlist %>;
   $.post("ActionsCountJSON", { projids: projidlist }, function(raw){
       var rawData = raw['resultSet'];
       var rawList = raw['resultListing'];
       for (f in rawData) {
           var divloc = "#pActionsProjid" + f;
           var divobj = $(divloc);
           divobj.html(rawData[f]);
           divloc = "#pActionDataProjid" + f;
           var divobj = $(divloc);
           divobj.html(rawList[f]);
       };   
       $("#myprojectstable").trigger("sorton", [0,0]);
       $("#myprojectstable").trigger("applyWidgets");
       $("#myprojectstable").trigger("update");
       //console.log("done with AJAX POST.");
       //stripe("myprojectstable");
   }, 'json');
}

Having the update there made the widget trigger after the ajax returned, a vital thing because otherwise tablesorter doesn't know the underlying data has changed. After I had this, it resorted after the ajax came back.

Next, I had a widgets: [zebra] in my document ready function, but this widget wasn't working right.

So, I replaced it with my own widget by specifying widgets: ['zebraKJR']
then creating that widget as:

$.tablesorter.addWidget(
{
    id: "zebraKJR",
    format: function(table) 
    {
        var even = false;
        // console.log("zebraKJR called.");
        // if arguments are provided to specify the colours              
        // of the even & odd rows, then use the them;                
        // otherwise use the following defaults:                     
        var evenColor = arguments[1] ? arguments[1] : "#fff";        
        var oddColor  = arguments[2] ? arguments[2] : "#cde4ff";         
                                                                 
        if(table.config.debug) { var time = new Date(); }
            
        //var tbody = $("tr:visible",table.tBodies[0]);
        // by definition, tables can have more than one tbody
        // element, so we'll have to get the list of child
        // <tbody>s 
        var tbodies = table.getElementsByTagName("tbody");
        // and iterate through them...
        // for (var h = 0; h < 1tbodies.length; h++) {
        for (var h = 0; h < 1; h++) {
            // find all the <tr> elements... 
            var trs = tbodies[h].getElementsByTagName("tr");
            // ... and iterate through them
            for (var i = 0; i < trs.length; i++) {
                if (trs[i].id != 'stripeMe') {
                    // console.log("SKIPPING thru tr's, h="+h+", i="+i+", len="+trs.length+", trs data:"+trs[i].id);   //innerHTML
                    continue;
                }
                // console.log("COLORING thru tr's, h="+h+", i="+i+", len="+trs.length+", trs data:"+trs[i].id);   //innerHTML
                
                trs[i].style.backgroundColor = even? evenColor : oddColor;
                // avoid rows that have a class attribute
                // or backgroundColor style
                if (true) { //(! hasClass(trs[i]) && ! trs[i].style.backgroundColor) {
                    // get all the cells in this row...
                    var tds = trs[i].getElementsByTagName("td");
                    // and iterate through them...
                    for (var j = 0; j < tds.length; j++) {
                        var mytd = tds[j];
                        // avoid cells that have a class attribute
                        // or backgroundColor style
                        if (true) { //(! hasClass(mytd) &&! mytd.style.backgroundColor) {
                            mytd.style.backgroundColor = even ? evenColor : oddColor;
                        }
                    }
                }
            // flip from odd to even, or vice-versa
            even =  ! even;
            }
        }
    }
});

That's it!

I also have a parser method for parsing text out of HTML tags:

// add parser through the tablesorter addParser method
$.tablesorter.addParser({
   // set a unique id
   id: 'noUrlSorter',
   is: function(s) {
       // return false so this parser is not auto detected
       return false;
   },
   format: function(s) {
       // format your data for normalization
       beforeString = trim(s);
       t1 = s;
       t2 = t1.replace(/\"/ig,"");
       t3 = t2.replace(/(<([^>]+)>)/ig,"");
       t4 = t3.toLowerCase();
       //alert(" t1="+t1+
       //      ",t2="+t2+
       //      ",t3="+t3+
       //      ",t4="+t4);
       //console.log("parsing, b4="+beforeString+", returning: "+t4);
       return t4
   },
   // set type, either numeric or text
   type: 'text'
});

diffdir

One thing Solaris does nicely is let you find the differences between directories and show 'em side by side so you can figure out what files are where.

I'm using Ubuntu (and Bash, like normal) and need to find a dir diff showing files in one dir and not in another, etc .

this is simply the command diff -q -r dir1 dir2.

However, I'm using source controlled directories, so this shows up with a whole mess of gall-durn .svn directories, etc. So I need to filter this out and an alias won't work.

Here's the code for my dirdiff or diffdir bash script:

#!/bin/bash
#--verbose
if (!(test -d $1))
then
echo "bad dir 1";
exit;
fi
if (!(test -d $2))
then
echo "bad dir 2";
exit;
fi
out=`diff -q -r $1 $2 | egrep -v svn `;
# echo "Result of diff: $out";
if [ -z "$out" ]
then
echo "Same";
else
echo "Difference between $1 and $2: "
echo "$out"
fi
# echo "Done";

Submission to FCC Re: Broadband

Who I Am / Use Cases:

1. I am a computer professional and use a large amount of bandwidth connecting with my workplace's VPN.

2. Further, I regularly download and upload large amounts of source code as part of my work on Linux and open-source related projects.

3. Futher, I have a great interest in downloading movies via Hulu.com, NetFlix.com, etc.

My requests / Interests:

1. My cable TV provider (Comcast, Inc.) provides my internet connection. They currently have a cap on usage of about 250 GB per month, but no way for me as a user to track my usage level. They also have a penalty for overuse of 'banishment' which would leave me with far fewer options for broadband.

Proposal: Require all providers that provide ISP services that have a cap on overall bandwidth usage to provide a free, auditable, accessible via automated tool (website, etc., vs. calling in by phone), means of finding out our usage.

Proposal: Require any cap on bandwidth to have reasonable overage charges in line with actual usage. That is, if there is an overage, an email would notify me, and my account would be charged a fee at the same rate or less than the original usage. This prevents them from setting a $10,000 fine on a small overage. If my monthly bill is $50, then doubling the bandwidth usage would ONLY double my bill, or less.

3. Describe in law that any collusion between ISPs (comcast, AT&T and/or other DSL providers, etc.) in setting prices, contract terms, or making available services or not, would be punishable under anti-trust statutes.

4. PROHIBIT MANDATORY COLLECTIVE BARGAINING in ISP broadband contracts. These massively favor the corporate interests and are well-known to almost never result in outcomes favorable to the 'little guy'.

5. Alternatively, require publication of all collective bargaining cases in the form of submission to a public civil federal court to establish if the cases are being resolved / adjudicated fairly. No outside judicial review of these cases ever occurs and this practice is organized fraud under the guise of allegedly fair practices in a gamed system.

6. I agree that all federally funded road and bridge projects require installation of large scale conduit in public rights of way affording access to the installation of dark or used fiber optic or other communication cables. Such space to be leased in a manner to prevent monopolizing of said conduit capacity by any one provider.

Your Confirmation Number is: '2009811037388 '
Date Received: Aug 11 2009
Docket: 09-51
Number of Files Transmitted: 1

Summer Reading Ideas

I recently wrote this as recommendations for good books for a trip:

Reading is all about what's right FOR a person. Not knowing you well, difficult to say.

However, one of the best science fiction books I've read in years is "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi (sp?). If you liked Heinlein (best: 'To Sail Beyond the Sunset", "Stranger in a Strange Land", or "Have Spacesuit Will Travel"... Or perhaps "Starship Troopers" which was 100x better than the movie), or Asimov (best: "Caves of Steel"), you'll like Old Man's War.

If you're more into NonFiction, "The World Is Flat" is good despite being several years old. "Eat the Rich" is very funny and an excellent economics bit told with lots of jokes and irreverent humor.

"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is fantastically funny science fiction, again 100x better than the movie.

I recently read a thing called The J Curve which has completely changed my understanding of international politics, talking about how countries behave in general terms, and evolve from autocracies to pluralistic democracies, or NOT, as the case may be. Feel free to skim, this has great parts and boring bits, but it's worth skimming to get there.

I was traveling in Europe many years ago and found a copy of Rob Roy, which was great reading on the trains. Long, yet very engaging.

Anything by Mark Twain makes great reading for travel - easy to put down and pick up again.

All in all, your best bet is a librarian, someone older who's been there a while. Tell them what you've read and liked, and be honest. My mother in law is a librarian, and she is one of the least judgemental people I know. She's found me great books, because she knows my taste and can match books to it.