Today I was about to format my computer, but first I had to backup my files. So I dragged my home folder over to an external hard drive. Turns out the external drive was formatted as case-insensitive and my internal drive is case-sensitive (the true UNIX way). Anyway, the transfer failed because many of my files had the same name, just different case. I freaked out and thought that this would be impossible to fix. But then I remembered that I was a programmer, so I quickly wrote a couple ruby scripts to quickly find files with conflicting names.

I thought some of you might find these useful, so I’m posting them here:

Code

Usage

./casechecker_recursive.rb /path/to/directory

PS

Never format your Mac as case-sensitive, you’ll have major compatibility issues. Trust me.

This is a simple guide for automating dictionary lookups in Mac OS X. I constantly find myself looking up the definition of a word, or trying to find a synonym with the Dictionary app in OS X. But wouldn’t it be great if I could do this really easily from anywhere? Well you can!

Many people have long forgotton about the Services menu in OS X, which will take the currently selected text in any application – and do stuff with it. We’re going to be taking advantage of the Look Up in Dictionary action.

First, open up your Keyboard & Mouse preferences, and select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab.

Next you’re going to click the little plus button, to add your own keyboard shortcut. A dialog will appear; leave Application set to All Applications, set the Menu Title to Look Up in Dictionary (note: make sure it’s exactly that), and I set my Keyboard Shortcut to Control + Shift + Command + D.

That’s it! You’re done! Now from any application you can just select/hi-light a word and hit your shortcut, and it will automatically find it in the dictionary for you.

(Note: I am aware that there is already a “Look up in dictionary” shortcut in the system, however this shortcut does not work, for me at least.)

DJ Leto has finished a new techy mix for your overall enjoyment. If you like great music and fresh thinking, check out this mix!
Original photos by Luke Menzel and Christophe Libert. 

LanSchool, publisher of “classroom management solutions”, has threatened to take legal action against Dan and Tony (founders of the massively popular compsci.ca), for publishing a review and proof-of-concept exploit for an old version of their software over two years ago.

When the exploit was discovered in early 2006, Dan (one of the founders of compsci.ca) promptly notified the developers of the LanSchool application. LanSchool disregarded his discovery, and told Dan that his school could take action against him in the form of suspension, detention, &c… As such, after a period of time, a review of LanSchool including a proof-of-concept exploit was published online at compsci.ca.

Fast forward to 2008, LanSchool has released a new version of their self-titled software; exploit fixed. However, they have now decided to take legal action against compsci.ca. Their claims and demands are as follows:

Claims

1. “unauthorized use of its trade-mark” — even though they have no registered trademark in Canada.
2. “unauthorized use of its logo” — using their logo to refer to the company should fall under fair use.
3. “In other postings you offer detailed advice about how to use “LanSchooled” to breach the security inherent in our client’s software.” — but earlier in the document they stated “you identified and made LanSchool aware of a potential security flaw in LanSchool version 6.5 (which does not exist in the current version 7.1).”
4. “you describe our client’s software as a “trojan horse type program that is used by many school boards in Ontario to spy on their students as well as controlling one or all computers in a given lab … LanSchool has many flaws in its design, and thus many security holes….”” — this would amount to defamation only if the statement was untrue. Though considering that LanSchool is designed to allow remote access to the system, to monitor and log activity, I feel like that is an accurate description. Furthermore LanSchool’s #1 FAQ question is :
   

   My Anti-Virus software is reporting LanSchool as a virus, what should I do?

   Suggesting that the LanSchool software indeed acts in a manner similar enough to a malicious program, to trigger some Anti-Virus applications. The flaws in the design were demonstrated by the proof-of-concept application in question, and were true at the time of publication.

5. “It is evident that you have intentionally set out on a course to harm our client’s software and business.” — absolutely not. The original review explicitly states that “This page detials a proof of conspect expolite of the lanschool program. CompSci.ca and Hacker Dan do not support, condone or recomend the use of it in real life”. Once again, the company has been made aware of the issue well before the publication.

Demands

1. Removal of the critical review of their software.
2. Destruction of author’s intellectual property, in the form of the proof-of-concept application.
3. Not making use of any of LanSchool’s software in the future.

Support

Rogers,

Your new iPhone data plans are absolutely ridiculous. Virtually every other country offering the iPhone includes unlimited data at no extra premium. The fact that the data bandwidth offered for each iPhone plan is so low coupled with the latest 3G capabilities effectively renders the device useless. The estimated usage scenarios per plan are not realistic and do not factor in secondary data usage options (i.e. 3G applications, iTunes Store, &c…). Not to mention next to no minutes and SMS, and lack of a rollover minutes capability. It’s as if you are barely offering a service, and simply charging for iPhone ownership. You are locking Canadians in to what seem to be third world plans from nearly a decade ago. It’s not fair to your loyal customers who are being forced to pay these exorbitant prices.

It’s truly a sad day for Canadians and tech enthusiasts, knowing we have been abandoned by the one company that really could have made a difference.

Sincerely,

Gianni Chiappetta

Update: Rogers reply after the break, and yes they spelled my last name wrong.

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