Project Insomnia

The "comments" section under every SFGate.com article is a cesspool (I'm not the first person to say this but I can't immediately find where it was said first) filled with hate, bigotry, trolling and various evil. Sure, you don't -have- to click through to the comments but SFGate helpfully shows the three highest-rated comments below each article--and the worst, and most prolific, commenters have hacking scripts that artificially inflate their comments' ratings. Here's another view on SFGate's comment section: link.

Feeling that "out of sight, out of mind" is a good policy, my first UserScript hides several DIVs associated with comments on SFGate article pages. Here's the source:

// ==UserScript==
// @name SFGate-NoComments
// @namespace http://www.userscripts.org
// @description Hide comments on SFGate.com articles
// @version 0.2
// @include http://www.sfgate.com/*
// @copyright 2010+, Andrew Rich (http://www.project-insomnia.com)
// @license (CC) Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
// ==/UserScript==

var commentsDiv = document.getElementById('commentspage');
commentsDiv.style.display = 'none';
var commentslinksSpan = document.getElementById('commentslinks');
commentslinksSpan.style.display = 'none';
var commentBoxWrapperDiv = document.getElementById('articlePageCommentBoxWrapper');
commentBoxWrapperDiv.style.display = 'none';
var recCommentsDiv = document.getElementById('sfgate_recommended_comments');
recCommentsDiv.style.display = 'none';
var commentsListDiv = document.getElementById('commentslist');
commentsListDiv.style.display = 'none';
var commentsContainerDivAttrs = document.getElementById('Comments_Container_viewall').attributes;
commentsContainerDivAttrs.getNamedItem('class').value = '';
var commentsContainerDiv = document.getElementById('Comments_Container_viewall');
commentsContainerDiv.style.visibility = 'hidden';

I hope this is useful to you and thank you for reading. You can install it easily from the UserScripts.org link above. Tested in Safari 4.0.4 (5531.21.10) with GreaseKit 1.7 on Mac OS X 10.5.8 Build 9L30. Should work in other UserScript-supporting browsers (Firefox, Opera, Chrome "Dev Channel") without issue.

Labels: code monkeying, comments, safari, sfgate, userscript

How many times has this happened to you? You've downloaded a new Windows command-line tool and want to be able to use it from wherever your current directory happens to be, but the only way to add a folder to Windows' system PATH is via an unwieldy and hard-to-find modal dialog in the System Properties' Advanced tab. Well, I had just this problem last week when I was configuring some new machines and wanted to add some of my favorite command-line tools (mostly ports of Linux/Unix tools like which and less). I was about to go through System Properties to add their directory but figured there had to be a better way.

After a few minutes of Googling, I found this post by "/\/\o\/\/" which demonstrated a way of using Windows PowerShell (the next generation advanced command-line environment for Windows) to add a shell extension, used by right-clicking on any Explorer folder, which adds the selected folder to the system PATH.

Unfortunately, the code shown in the post didn't quite work as-is and besides I'm not too comfortable yet in PowerShell. So I decided to fix the code and build a script that does the same thing but from CMD (or by double-clicking). It's very simple to use; just execute the script from a CMD session or double-click it in Explorer. To uninstall, just run it again; it automatically backs out its changes when run a second time.

License and acknowledgement: The original (though non-working) code sample is by "/\/\o\/\/" and linked above; I claim no credit for it. However, I made it work and packaged it into a user-friendly script and so claim copyright over that portion under the GPL.

With that out of the way, here's the code:



You can copy, paste and save that as AddToPath.cmd, or just download it (I recommend downloading it because line wrapping doesn't show properly here). AddToPath.cmd.zip

I hope this is useful. Please send me feedback if you use it!

Labels: CMD, code monkeying, path, PowerShell, Windows

Source

It's been a cold winter here in the Bay Area. Yes, it's been colder on the east coast (even in Florida!) and for some people, low-40s isn't cold at all, but it's been cold FOR ME.

The Fireplace

My preferred method of staying warm during the winter is lighting a fire in the fireplace and curling up under a blanket with one or more cats. I'll turn on the central heat if necessary but prefer not to.

Coffee
Coffee brings me back to life in the morning. It's not just a preference, it's a requirement. I usually like it with milk or half-and-half and sugar (real "raw" sugar, please) but if it's the good stuff I might forgo the milk.

Pancakes
I've always liked pancakes though I don't smother them in butter and syrup like most people. A little butter and, hold your breath, a little salt is all I need. A friend sent us a "breakfast kit" from LL Bean that includes buttermilk pancake mix, coffee (see above), real maple syrup and blueberry jam.

Bagel with lox, cream cheese and veggies
A meal in itself, but the bagel had better be nicely toasted and the smoked salmon had better be very very fresh. Appropriate veggies include red onions, capers, cucumbers and perhaps a little mesclun salad.

I have long hair. Really long hair. I don't get it cut often (or as some would say, often enough) but the second-to-last time was on our 2008 cruise on the Disney Magic. The lead hairdresser in the onboard Vista Spa, Alex, took care of me personally and did a terrific job.

I don't recommend booking a Disney Cruise just to get your hair done, but if you are on the Magic and it's due (or overdue) then you can't go wrong with Alex.

The time: early 2000s, probably mid 2001.



The place: Cerritos Pontiac, Cerritos, California.



We were on our way down to Disneyland for MouseAdventure, and a strange and troubling noise had started coming from my car, a 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP, as we went through Kettleman City. The mechanic at a local gas station said it was a transmission problem but they couldn't do anything unless I wanted to leave the car for a few days. In Kettleman City.




View Larger Map



We had (and have) AAA Plus service, so elected to keep going and hope we'd make it to Southern California, knowing that if the car failed we could get a tow pretty much all the way. We made it to Cerritos Pontiac, where I'd originally bought the car a few years before, an hour or so before the service department closed.



The service professionals there took a quick look and determined that the transmission was toast and needed to be replaced. The service coordinator, a woman named Solange (memorable name), looked over my warranty details and informed me that although I was still within the 36 month period, I'd gone just a bit over the 36,000 miles and therefore the repair wouldn't be covered.



And then she said, "But we'll cover it anyway, because clearly a three year old transmission shouldn't just fail like this."



We rented a car to drive home and I drove back down a week later to pick up my car, fully repaired and good as new.



I don't know if Solange is still at Cerritos Pontiac, and given GM's troubles I don't even know if they still sell Pontiacs, but this is definitely the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for me and I wish her the best in whatever she's doing.

Chinese take-out
Like many dishes that are combinations of many ingredients, a day or so in the refrigerator gives the flavors a chance to meld and deepen. One day later, it's better than it was when we brought it home.



My favorite local Chinese take-out place is Jing Jing, on Emerson St in downtown Palo Alto. They specialize in hot-and-spicy Szechwan Hunan‎ cuisine and, barring a couple of missteps, almost everything I've tried has been very tasty and well executed.




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Back before MouseAdventure got to its current maximum size of 200 teams / 700 players, we occasionally had actual "scavenger hunts" as some of the quests. These days having 200 teams actually bringing us things during the event would be... a little more difficult to deal with.

Tabasco sauce packet


Having teams bring us Tabasco packets was just part of one of the quests, but it did ensure that we had a ready supply of travel-size seasoning whenever we needed it. For a year.

Invalid FastPass


To get an invalid FastPass, you first have to have a valid one. Most teams figured this out quickly and just hit the same FastPass machine twice in succession to get an invalid one.

Whiz ticket
I couldn't find a picture of this, and it's part of the history shared by just a very few people who played the first two a.d.d-quests. One of the items Kevin asked us to find, without explaining, was a "whiz ticket". I don't remember how we thought to ask at City Hall, but as it turns out a "whiz ticket" was used, back in the days before ubiquitous credit card terminals, for Disneyland cash handling paperwork. Needless to say City Hall would not let our team have one, but they would let me take a picture and Kevin accepted that.

...but that's only because "half a day" wasn't an available option. Of possible mini-OCDs/fetishes, needing to be clean (take showers) and wear clean clothes is surely among the least disruptive or difficult. And that's how Andrew "C"s it.