Computer bits & bobs

As well as the Unix banner command, Figlet is also useful:

[ben@lemon] ~ 501 $ figlet figlet_test
  __ _       _      _      _            _
 / _(_) __ _| | ___| |_   | |_ ___  ___| |_
| |_| |/ _` | |/ _ \ __|  | __/ _ \/ __| __|
|  _| | (_| | |  __/ |_   | ||  __/\__ \ |_
|_| |_|\__, |_|\___|\__|___\__\___||___/\__|
       |___/          |_____|

To convert a datetime field into a date, use convert,

select count(*) from inputs where convert(datetime,date) > '2008-11-13';

To get a list of distinct dates from a table called inputs with a field called datetime containing datetimes, use

select distinct convert(datetime,date) from inputs;

The default collation of MySQL causes problems whereby it thinks that pairs of kanjis like 伊 and 会 are the same.

To solve this problem, change the collation of the table with collate utf8_bin, as in

alter table tests modify kanji varchar(12) collate utf8_bin

There are a lot of Jabber clients.

After finally managing to get the Jabber2 server working, I started messing around with some clients.

I tried using two of the plugins at Wordpress.org for Google Adsense. I first of all tried the "all in one adsense and ypn" plugin. However, this creates its own code which I'm not sure is allowed by Google. Then I tried the "Post Layout" plugin. This is much better, because it lets me add the Google adverts from Google instead of making its own. Instantly I found that the Google adverts had started to show up correctly on my Adsense page. But it adds too many. Google says that I should only put a maximum of three adverts onto each page. So I hacked the code of "Post Layout" so that it only incorporates the ads three times. In the file post-layout/plugin.php, I added a line

$pstl_options['done']=0;

and at the start of the routine pstl_the_content I added some code so that the "extra" stuff only gets incorporated three times:

// Make sure we don't get more than three ads on the page.
    $pstl_options['done']++;
    if ($pstl_options['done'] > 3) {
       return $content;
    }

As you can see from this page, it seems to be working correctly.

The whole thing then looks like this.

$pstl_options['done']=0;

function pstl_the_content(&$content)
{
    global $pstl_options;

// Make sure we don't get more than three ads on the page.

    $pstl_options['done']++;
    if ($pstl_options['done'] > 3) {
       return $content;
    }

The following files live in FreeBSD's /etc/ directory:

export

I've found that I have a lot less problems dealing with Japanese text if I always

use utf8;

in Perl scripts. However, on a Japanese Windows OS this creates problems, because directory and file names may contain kanji or kana. For example the Desktop directory on English-language Windows becomes

C:\\Documents and Settings\bkb\デスクトップ\

on a Japanese Windows PC. Although Windows uses Unicode internally, unfortunately as far as Perl is concerned, if I want to manipulate files, I have to send the file name as CP932 (code page 932) encoded text.

However, if I have a use utf8; section at the top of my Perl file, then a non-UTF-8 encoded directory name will cause all kinds of problems with editing.

The way I have solved this problem is, to continue to use utf8; at the top of the page, but to also

use Encode 'encode';

to encode the UTF-8 directory names into CP932 before sending them to functions like open. For example, here is how to make a directory called test on the desktop:

#! perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use utf8;
use Encode 'encode';
my $desktopdir = encode ('cp932',
			 'C:\\\\Documents and Settings\bkb\デスクトップ\\');
my $newdir = $desktopdir."test";
mkdir $newdir or die "Can't make directory '$newdir': $!\n";

Notice the double backslashes, which are necessary for the cases when there are two backslashes in a row, or an apostrophe after the backslash. Also notice that I use single quotes around the name of $desktopdir in order to avoid problems with the slashes.

To create a Windows shortcut to a directory in Perl, use the Win32::Shortcut module as follows:

use Win32::Shortcut ();
my $s = Win32::Shortcut->new();
$s->Path('C:\\Documents and Settings\bkb\My Documents');
$s->Save('C:\\Documents and Settings\bkb\Desktop\sips.lnk');

If you use a path name like

"C:/Documents and Settings/bkb/Desktop"

then the link will be munged.
If you use

'C:\\Documents and Settings\bkb\Desktop'

then the shortcut is created correctly. The picture below shows a good and bad shortcut, next to the Cygwin icon:

There is a long discussion at Perlmonks but the above is the correct answer to the original question.