ExileJedi

AppleTV and The Mysterious iTunesDB.tmp Files

2010-09-09T04:06:55Z

So after I upgraded to iTunes 10 and did the necessary bits of extra hackery to make the UI reasonable again, iTunes decided to lose track of my AppleTV (probably as a result of my fiddling with plists to try to fix this annoying regression), which forced me to do a full re-sync of my entire library.

Three days later (I pushed around 165GB over my wireless network), the sync was complete, but I noticed a giant 282GB blob of “Other” stuff on the disk allocation graph in iTunes. When I logged into the AppleTV to see what was going on, I discovered that during the sync process, something was causing my AppleTV to drop 78MB iTunesDB.tmp files in my /mnt/Media directory.

A lot of them.

Just north of 3600, in fact.

So… yeah, there’s my 280+ GB of “Other”. Ouch! So much for that nice new 500GB external drive! My initial testing didn’t seem to indicate that their presence or absence mattered at all for normal use, so I nuked them and freed up a ton of disk space. I have observed that I get one to three more of them every time iTunes syncs to the AppleTV, though, so eventually they’ll be a problem again.

Does anyone know what these files are or why they’re written to disk during syncs? Or more importantly, do you know what should be–but clearly isn’t–cleaning them up?

One Honking Great Idea

2010-06-08T14:32:40Z

I really enjoyed From Python Import Podcast’s two-parter on the Zen of Python, but I’ve been thinking that they may have missed something really interesting in the last item in the Zen:

Namespaces are one honking great idea — let’s do more of those!

For a long time, I had largely overlooked this one myself, because on its face it seems frivolous and perhaps too specific. Up to that point, the Zen is all broad strokes and elegant generalizations, and suddenly BAM! here comes this thing about namespaces that’s full of colloquialisms and exclamation points, and it feels very tacked on and strange and arbitrary, like a sort of gangly teenager trying to fit into a more mature crowd.

Naturally, the conversation in the podcast went straight down the nerd rabbit hole to talk about the meaning of namespaces, and completely neglected the real meat here, which is a pity because this might actually be one of the most important aspects of the Zen.

This is an expression of the enthusiasm and joy that pervade the Python community.

This is Python’s “Get Excited and Make Things.” This is a formal declaration that it’s all right to get excited about stuff that we make. This is a mission statement to go forth and create new delights, so that those who encounter them may be similarly inspired. That above all, this stuff should be fun.

Think about that the next time you’re crafting some Python code and see if it doesn’t change how you approach things.

Exceptions, Error Recovery, and Man Purses

2010-03-31T13:23:11Z

My friend and coworker Aaron Oliver has had a lightbulb moment about exceptions, error recovery, and man purses that Python folks might be interested in reading.

Ten Years

2010-03-09T05:43:21Z

Today (technically yesterday at this point, I suppose) was my ten year anniversary at AG Interactive.

I'm frankly astounded that it's been so long, so soon.

Once upon a time, there was a 23-year-old version of me, leaving behind the miseries of being an IBM road warrior to sling code for an internet startup with its sights set on an IPO, where lunches were free and the foosball was fast and furious. I was psyched to be able to see both my fiance and the inside of my apartment on a daily basis. I was a Perl zealot, but willing and curious to learn Python (in spite of my perception that it Just Wasn't That Great).

Since then I've fallen out of love with Perl (she was nuts, man!) and found that Python might in fact be my soul mate of programming languages. We didn't IPO, the free lunches have long since passed, and I don't play nearly as much foosball as I used to, but the culture's still a lot of fun. (At the very least, daily finger missile battles keep us on our toes!) The apartment has been upgraded to a house, the fiance to wife (that's another ten year anniversary coming up soon!), and we've added cats and a kid to the domestic mix.

All in all, it's been a decent ten years. I just can't believe they happened so fast!

"Teach Me Dependency Injection" at Clepy

2010-03-09T04:57:50Z

The stars finally aligned in a configuration that allowed me to return to Clepy, our local Python group. It was really nice to see some folks that I hadn't in forever, including some long-lost ex-AGI people that I hadn't caught up with in what seemed like forever.

We did tonight's meeting in the "Teach Me X" format made popular by Steve Holden's "Teach Me Twisted" open space at Pycon 2009. One of our newer compatriots, Chris Miller, had been hearing a lot of buzz about dependency injection and wanted a deeper exposure to it, so he played the questioner while David Stanek played ringleader to the group discussion. The format was a lot of fun, and a good way to engage the group without having a more straightforward and less-interactive "eyes-forward" Powerpoint extravaganza of death, though the conversation did seem to be dominated by a few voices that had had the most experience with DI in their professional lives. But overall it was good, and I think that at least a few people had lightbulb moments, and I suspect that even us seasoned DI nerds achieved some insights into the subject as well.

I'm eager to try out the "Teach Me..." format at work, where I've got some peer education to-dos that I've been struggling to figure out how to structure without causing roomfuls of eyes to glaze over.

In other news, Cleveland Give Camp is coming up in July, and they're eager for all types of participation--so whether you want to help organize the event or want to participate (they're particularly seeking code-slingers and graphic designers), this looks like a great opportunity to Do Some Good.

Clepy are a nice bunch of smart folks; meetings are held on the first Monday of the month aboard LeanDog's awesome boat. And now we have an official pizza and beer fund, so we can enjoy a bit of a treat whilst geeking about. If you're in Cleveland and are interested in Python, it's definitely worth joining in. I certainly hope to make it a regular part of my extracurricular life again.

What's That Awful Buzzing Sound?

2010-02-18T05:26:58Z

This is an experiment to see if Google Buzz (in its infinite wisdom) will stop posting my last blog entry every three hours if I give it something new to chew on, or if I will just have to have a Very Serious Conversation with it or any Google folk who cross my path in the coming days.

*stern look*

Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-18T10:02:00Z

Since last time:

09:24 Watched Zhang Yimou's "Raise the Red Lantern" last night. It was pretty, but basically a Lifetime movie of the week in Chinese.
09:26 .@mcantor Egon Value... your mucus.
10:23 Damn it, I've misplaced my good pen. The whole day will be out of whack now.
12:36 Really fading fast; guess I should have gotten more than 2 or 3 hours of sleep.
13:23 The NSA is "helping" with Windows 7 security. Which I read as "installing crypto backdoors." is.gd/4XgU7 Pass the tinfoil.
13:24 "Shatnerquake" is free today: jeffburk.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/download-shatnerquake-for-free-today-only/ #awesome
16:34 Hey @codemash, your xhtml strict is busted. Might want to look into that.
18:50 Kiddo, upon handing me her new Darth Vader clicky pen, just declared "This Star Wars." We don't know where she learned this, but I approve.
23:02 The QVC Slanket people look like members of a cult. A very cozy, warm one.
23:33 Holy crap, our iPhone app made it to an ad!!! #agi #ecards #woohoo twitpic.com/pya08

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-17T10:01:51Z

Since last time:

09:26 Cool--mix your own Adult Swim DVDs: bit.ly/24sdhB
15:05 The Internet is off. twitpic.com/ps81l
20:57 Reasons I love my wife: she's already set the DVR to record John Woo's "Red Cliff".
00:02 The horsey is infected! www.sampsonuk.net/B3TA/TrojanHorse.jpg
00:57 Am really not doing well at this whole "go to sleep at a reasonable and consistent time" thing.

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-16T10:01:35Z

Since last time:

09:05 Kiddo's got a fever and her breathing sounds bad when she's horizontal. Poor thing. :-( Today will probably be the opposite of yesterday.
20:13 Embarking on the ever-more-ridiculously epic annual health insurance benefits enrollment process. We are a nation of friggin' busywork.
20:35 Really? You're asking if my 2-year-old is being treated for *pregnancy*? American health insurance is soooo full of fail.
20:38 WebMD's health cost evaluator is the single most STUPID PIECE OF CRAP ever.
20:41 I'm seriously being asked to pick a health care plan without ANY details about what they cover? "Compare plans" = see 3 bar graphs? LIVID.
20:49 @holdenweb What really offends me is that in the past we've at least been told some details about what the plans cover. Not so this time.
21:12 WTF, chasehsa.com--is a user signup really that hard? Who do I have to fuck to check my HSA balance?
00:27 What kind of world do these health benefit people live in where their websites don't actually have to work? (I bet the hours are better...)

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-15T10:02:01Z

Since last time:

13:48 Today is asymptotically approaching perfection. #happy
16:17 RT @bethdean: Maybe the coolest looking record ever flic.kr/p/7fDao7
16:22 Stocking up on study materials (2 cases of wine) for @DrinkableGrape...
18:18 I end up using my daughter's magnetic doodle board way more than she does (and probably more than I should): twitpic.com/pjrkq
21:39 Mint.com sent me a spurious low balance alert... Now that I'm recovered from the panic, I'm just annoyed.
22:32 Holy crap, you can seriously get a 1TB external hard drive for $100? Never thought I'd see the day! (Get off my lawn.)

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-14T10:01:58Z

Since last time:

09:35 Behold the Stupid Filter! via @holdenweb: icio.us/cjr1g1 I think @mhebrank would approve.
10:43 Ah, the dawn of a DSL-free billing cycle from AT&T. Feels great to give them less money each month!
21:04 Mmm, whisky sour.

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-13T10:02:36Z

Since last time:

11:32 .@benjaminws Perhaps Go is really a plot to advance D?
11:33 @ttrygve Nine years--we wanted to be married in 2000 so that it'd make counting easier! :-D
13:05 @ttrygve Bingo. :-)
13:49 .@benjaminws bit.ly/1Uv9Dm
02:17 Woops, I really hadn't meant to take a run at the next big plot point in Blue Dragon... on the other hand, I finished disc 2. :-)

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-12T10:01:36Z

Since last time:

07:48 Still astonished by Bruce & the band's ability to play with 100% intensity for 3 solid hours without a break of more than a few seconds.
13:26 RT @tarek_ziade: ROFL - Another funny poster for Packaging propaganda, featuring @gvanrossum bit.ly/2RiBHY
13:31 .@benjaminws Perhaps reddit needs some of this? xkcd.com/481/
13:33 Happy anniversary, @Aquamindy! :-*
13:36 Cafeteria made yummy pupusas today: twitpic.com/p4ral
13:41 Traced a Javascript context problem to a function that's fired by a timeout in an event listener created in a closure in a callback. Ouch.
17:32 Damn it, this shouldn't be so hard. Perversely, I'm fighting with something that would actually be *easier* in IE.
17:39 @benjaminws You're not seriously surprised that Dollhouse is canceled, right?
17:54 Whoa, I totally just watched the space station fly over. We are *so* living in the future!

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-11T10:02:15Z

Since last time:

10:05 Sweet creeping zombie Jesus, this code is seriously horrible. Burning it down and starting fresh.
19:34 Arrived at the most expensive nosebleeds of my life, waiting for Springsteen: twitpic.com/p1y5o
19:42 Panoramic look from our seats: twitpic.com/p1z6d
23:54 Bruce Springsteen is a cyborg from the future, sent back to ROCK.
00:13 .@mcrute But Go does have a cute mascot!
00:24 .@mcrute But otherwise, at least at first blush, I agree. It's like the bastard love child of Pascal and C... No thanks!
00:57 @bobnoss You mean ⌘L?

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-10T10:02:21Z

Since last time:

10:17 Oh, sure, *now* the site of my flu shot decides to hurt...
11:51 RT @mcantor: Replacing $100k diagnostic chip with hand-fabricated Shrinky Dink molds - bit.ly/ZRGh2 | Too cool!
13:36 @dmw7 There's no such thing as "too early to go home."
14:57 Can I blame my intense desire to nap on the flu shot? (I think I shall anyway.)
16:37 .@mhebrank That's not an argument, that's just contradiction.
16:58 .@mhebrank Yes it is.
18:24 .@mcantor Please don't interrupt us when we're twittering classic Monty Python routines.
22:24 So, Chase wants to stop sending me statements, but still charge me late fees and randomly assess finance charges on paid balances? Buh-bye.
23:57 Starting to plan next year's anniversary travel...

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-09T10:02:13Z

Since last time:

17:32 Sitting outside by the fire with the kiddo, singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" as the twilight deepens. Life is good.
18:00 Showing kiddo how to roast marshmallows and make s'mores. Life is good.
18:18 Kiddo opted out of marshmallows in favor of Elmo movie. *sigh* priorities...

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-08T10:02:16Z

Since last time:

12:35 Whoa, they have Tagalongs as a Blizzard ingredient?!?! Awesome!!
16:14 I wish waking up felt as good as the nap.
17:35 Took kiddo to opening of new toy store; she got her face painted to look like a kitty, and is now the proud owner of "Claire's ROCKETship!".
18:01 @benjaminws Just a guess, it's doing something wrong. :-)
18:02 Got some good pics of the kiddo at pony riding today. Fear the cuteness of a toddler on horseback!
18:21 @mw44118 Little did you know what they were selling was the fabled and extremely rare anti-rake.
22:08 Almost bought a space book for the kid until it mentioned the Enterprise's "FLT" drive.

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-07T10:01:58Z

Since last time:

07:51 Watching rocket launch videos with the kiddo. Thanks, internet!
20:28 Kiddo loves rockets a lot more than she likes going to bed. (Wow is she upset tonight!)
00:25 @pperon Congratulations!!!

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-06T10:02:31Z

Since last time:

09:13 Lots of interesting-looking talks selected for PyCon 2010: us.pycon.org/2010/conference/talks/
11:01 @codeshaman @aaron_oliver That's standard unix-fu, not anything puTTY-specific.
13:03 Back me up on this--chili + Fritos = awesome. Nobody seems to believe me that this is a normal, rational combination.
13:17 .@benjaminws Is Petro's as awesome as it looks from that diagram?
13:19 If I hadn't just come back from lunch... I would totally want one of these: is.gd/4O4Ix (thanks @benjaminws)
13:43 @benjaminws You lost me on the noodles, I think. It's all about the crunch from the chips to me.
13:56 Okay, so everyone who loves chili+Fritos... Is it a regional (south, southwest) thing? Coworkers native to Cleveland think I'm crazy.
14:02 @UncleGramps Seriously, we're having this conversation on Twitter *and* Facebook?
19:07 Kiddo loves her new rocketship wall decals: twitpic.com/of29c
22:40 Preordered a tauntaun sleeping bag. Not quite sure if that's awesome or pathetic. Maybe both.

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-05T10:06:26Z

Since last time:

07:04 Way to go, Ohio, you just wrote the fox guarding the henhouse into the constitution. What could possibly go wrong?
08:26 Lots to love about Lego Rock Band; it might even be a blog-worthy amount of goodness. Definitely worth playing standalone (vs exporting).
10:07 Blog:: Lego Rock Band = Awesome bit.ly/2Hb9X3
12:20 Hooray for @DrinkableGrape for passing her master-level Rhône wine exam!! Yaaaaay!!
18:37 In case you hadn't heard, ACTA is going to hurt the 'net very very badly: bit.ly/2HkNyy

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Lego Rock Band = Awesome

2009-11-04T15:09:06Z

If I could have finished Lego Rock Band in a single evening without permanently melting my wrists, I would have. What I expected to treat as a glorified song pack and simply export to my 360's hard drive ended up being one hell of a fun standalone game, worthy of both the Rock Band and Lego names. There's a lot to love in Lego Rock Band--here are a few highlights:

Never fail out of songs. If your audience meter drops into "fail-out" territory you just start losing points from your total, but are given a special recovery mode that gives you a chance to claw your way back into positive territory.

The drum pedal is optional. You can turn on a modifier that will let you completely ignore the drum pedal. About time, and definitely a good idea for getting families playing.

Super-easy mode. This will probably be a hit for the younger players.

Points = Cash. The points you accumulate translate directly into Lego studs, the coin of the realm in all Lego games.

Fan loyalty. I didn't lose any fans after turning in a 3-star performance after a long string of 5-star shows; this should make this aspect of the game less frustrating, especially to younger players.

Fun venues. The venues are fun and imaginative; my favorites so far are the pirate ship and the haunted mansion, and there are strong implications we'll eventually be playing in space.

Cut albums. There are special setlist challenges where you first pick out album art, name the album, and choose songs. Once you've played the set, it's immortalized in your record collection. If you've ever said to yourself "hey, that'd make a great name for a record," your moment has finally arrived.

Your characters are used in the cutscenes. This is just plain cool, and a nice payoff for taking the time to customize your minifig band members.

Whimsy. The joy and whimsy and sense of humor of the other Lego games produced by Travelers Tales pervade Lego Rock Band, from big sight gags to amusing little details.

Famous Lego musicians. David Bowie and Freddie Mercury are freaking awesome as minifigs. Seriously.

Songs that are party/spouse-friendly. My wife often bows out of playing Rock Band with me because she doesn't think she knows many of the songs. Last night I kept catching her singing along to things from the couch, so that's a good sign. Okay, so there's still a bunch of songs I'd never heard before, but I'm going to blame that on the fact that I haven't really been listening to the radio since 1995ish.

DLC. You've got access to a certain "family-friendly" subset of your existing downloads, and there's a "family-friendly" version of the music store. The identification of what's "family-friendly" seems to fall a bit on the conservative side, but I suspect this will be tuned as time goes on.

Customize your "rock den" (aka menu screens). You'll unlock various items throughout the game that you can use to decorate your "rock den"--hang posters on the walls, set a tuba next to your guitar case, customize your lights and jukebox... It's a nice bit of extra detail that feels very Lego.

I have only a couple of minor quibbles:

Difficulty ratings have changed again. Finally, proof that "Behind Blue Eyes" is not a measly 2-dot difficulty on guitar. Still, it would be nice if the RB family of games could report the difficulty level consistently.

Some pretty hard songs at the beginning of the game. I navely jumped right into playing the first song of the game on Expert... Turns out it's rated at 4 dots of difficulty on guitar! Ouch!

Repetition of some songs. In a couple places, you'll be presented with a special rock challenge... where you start by playing the song you literally just finished playing. It's not common, but when it happens it's really irritating, especially if you weren't that into the song to begin with.

Anyway. I'm overall very pleased with it and can't wait to play through the rest of the game. After all, I have to find out what Freddie Mercury's doing on that flying saucer!

Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-04T10:01:36Z

Since last time:

14:38 Oooo Lego Rock Band is showing as "delivered". Yay!
21:55 Shot through the heart and you're to blame, you give love a bad naaaaaaame.......!

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-03T10:01:43Z

Since last time:

20:07 It's a nice night to listen to Mike Oldfield's "Amarok".

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-02T10:01:22Z

Since last time:

06:19 Wishing kiddo understood the whole "fall back" extra hour of sleep thing.
08:00 Kiddo's rocketship obsession has finally got me to bust out DVD of "For All Mankind"; she seems pretty into it so far. "Rocket FAST!!"
14:03 Yeah, it's totally a listen-to-Iron-Maiden-on-headphones-while-kiddo-naps sort of day. \m/
14:50 Seriously, how did I never get into Iron Maiden before now? What the hell was wrong with me?
17:55 Guess who doesn't like finding out that she's had enough candy today and isn't getting any more? That's right, my surly 2-year-old!

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Yesterday's Tweets

2009-11-01T10:01:44Z

Since last time:

12:10 @excuseoftheday And this is his sofa?
21:46 I think the kiddo did okay for a 2-year-old: twitpic.com/nse90

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