misterfinn’s Neighborhood

if your fs is case-insensitive, please make globbing case-insensitive...

$ ls -l | grep -i graphics
drwxr-xr-x     7 nharkins  nharkins       238 Apr  9 23:20 Graphics

$ ls -ld graphics
drwxr-xr-x   7 nharkins  nharkins  238 Apr  9 23:20 graphics

$ ls -ld graph* 
ls: graph*: No such file or directory

(reformatted the drive case-sensitive for a while, but various osx apps don't like it)

$ python -c 'print -1**0'
-1
$ perl -e 'print -1**0 ."\n";'
-1
$ echo '-1^0' | bc
1
$ python -c "print pow(-1,0)"
1

Got asked about bigint math last week, and although I know how it's done, I don't think I ever actually coded it (instead relying on the dozens of libs that surely were built for speed), so yesterday I wrote one, and while checking some results, I learned something interesting about Apple's Desk Calculator app:

AppleDeskCalc

Just heard about what sounds like a new spammer technique from my dad: apparently, someone signed up a myspace account using his email address, and now he's getting friend requests, and no doubt the link about the other person has spam links on it. Somewhat similar to the old the-bounce-is-the-spam technique, the spammers are banking (their time and effort) that mail from myspace will get through the intended victim's spam filters.

Of course since read access to an external email address is the most common, albeit high-latency, form of delegated authentication (sorry openid, maybe someday! :), my dad could easily claim control of the myspace account via a Forgot-Password? link, change event->email preferences, and most importantly also change the Forgot-Password? question/answer if it exists (tangent: I wonder how many bloggers have mentioned their Mother's Maiden Name, First Pet, or Elementary School publicly).

But ideally no spams (or confusing links to links to spam) should ever arrive, so in my opinion, all web2.0 sites should add an email confirmation step (same as if they lost their password) to their signup process, and keep accounts in limbo/unable to ping others until it is completed.

I'm sure usability freaks (i say that with much love, a dear friend is one :) will cringe at this suggestion, as they likely did to captchas ("now you want both!?"), but it's common sense, really. It prevents devaluing your product's communications (if your company's emails are blocked everywhere and you can't get it unblocked by cooperating, might as well close up shop!), and it provides a trail. It took 10 years for the feds to figure out how to catch email spammers, so it'll be a while until web2.0 has the same level of attention, but if you can force the criminals to use the known vector of email, you're making it easier for them to eventualy get caught, and stop abusing your service. (Just finished watching Season 5 of HBO's The Wire, and yes in some things I'm hopelessly optimistic. :)

    I have to eat protein in the morning or else I crash by 10am. Thing is, I don't like breakfast to be that sweet. These bars/muffins are low in fat, high in fiber and protein. This is a master recipe that you can customize to your taste. I've even made them pizza flavor with tomato sauce, low fat mozzerella and soy pepperoni. The recipe was inspired by Alton Brown's protein bar recipe that you can find at food.com. Yeah, I really use a scale for this recipe, it comes out perfect every time.

Protein Nuggets

Makes 24 pieces (2 WeightWatcher's points per piece)

Ingredients

• 4 oz soy protein powder (NOT soy flour)
• 2.75 oz whole wheat flour
• 2.25 oz oat bran
• .75 oz wheat germ
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• spices (I usually put 1tsp of cinnamon and some nutmeg and allspice. Any pie/cake spice combo will be good.)

• 1 box of soft silken tofu (12.3 oz)  The boxes are great because they are shelf stable but I've used used refrigerated soft tofu as well.
• 1/2 cup milk or juice
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup of applesauce or canned pumpkin. (Pumpkin is great but then you'll have most of a can left over. I buy the little cups of applesauce so I don't have a whole bottle of applesauce to use up before it goes fuzzy)
• 2 heaping tablespoons of something sweet. (I've used  pumpkin butter, jam, and maple syrup. I've also forgotten to put sweetener in and the nuggets are still edible but it's better with the sweetener in.)
  

Preheat the oven to 350
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, mix each of the wet ingredients thoroughly before adding the next ingredient. You want the silken tofu completely whisked into a smooth consistency. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix thoroughly. Fold in the fruit. The batter will be stiff and not very pretty.

Grease your pan! I use two 12 cup mini muffin pans and baker's spray (the flour and oil stuff) but you can just use oil. The mixture will not rise or spread in the oven. It will bake into whatever shape it's in when you put it in the oven. Put the pans in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Bars might take 5 minutes longer depending on the thickness.

Storing
Let the nuggets cool completely (completely) before storing. I pop the nuggets out of the muffin tins right away and cool them on a rack. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge. I microwave them at work for 5 sec before eating. I eat three for breakfast and make a batch almost every weekend.

Variations
As I said, I've made a pizza flavored version. The original recipe called for peanut butter but the taste is very strong and it adds a lot of fat to the recipe. I made a gluten free version for a friend using a mixture of gluten free flours and a wheat free breakfast cereal. I like to use a mixture of dried fruits. My most recent batch was apricots, cranberries, apples, and candied ginger.

Hope you like them!

O ME! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;  

Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;  

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)  

Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;  

Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;         

Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;  

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?  

Answer.

That you are here—that life exists, and identity;  

That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.  

Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass. 1900.

By health I mean the power to live a full, adult, living, breathing life in close contact with what I love — the earth and the wonders thereof — the sea — the sun, all that we mean when we speak of the external world. I want to enter into it, to be part of it, to live in it, to learn from it, to lose all that is superficial and acquired in me and to become a conscious, direct human being. I want, by understanding myself, to understand others.

• The Journal of Katherine Mansfield (1927), entry for Oct. 14, 1922

I gave in and got a facebook account. Now I learn about my friends through their status lines. The friends without accounts I have to actually call because they don't publish their moods publicly. That's weird and maybe wrong.

"to stimulate discussion on a timely environmental topic of interest to all citizens".