paxed

Whoa, has it been this long already? Anyway...

Assume you have an ncurses program that is used remotely (either via telnet or ssh) and it resides in a chroot. The program (of course) needs terminfo files inside the chroot.

Usually, ncurses mode is started with:

initscr();


But what happens when user uses some strange terminal (for which you have no terminfo file for) to connect? The program will show a black screen or quit, because initscr fails.

Use newterm instead:

if (newterm(NULL, stdout, stdin) == NULL) {
if (newterm(DEFAULT_TERM, stdout, stdin) == NULL) {
/* Die! */
}
setenv("TERM", DEFAULT_TERM, 1);
}


Just #define DEFAULT_TERM "xterm" or whatever you want to use and have terminfo file for. The setenv is optional, but good if you plan on exec'ing other programs.

a script for volume adjustment, with on-screen display. Uses aumix and xosd.


#!/bin/sh
aumix -v"$1"
DAT=`aumix -q | head -1 | awk '// { print $2 }' | sed -e 's/,//'`
osd_cat -b percentage -p middle -A center -d 1 -P "$DAT"


• Goldfrapp - Head First: Pretty good, in a vaguely 80s way, though it probably works best as background music.
  
• Goldfrapp - Supernature: More "modern" sounding than Head First, but I can't say which of the Goldfrapp albums I like more...
  
• Joan Osborne - Little Wild One: For some reason, this album felt a bit religious to me. Good, though.
  
• Kids of 88 - Sugarpills: Perhaps a bit too noisy(?), but not a bad album.
  
• The Green Children - Encounter: Weirdly, I like this when listening, but immediately forget about it.
  
• Morcheeba - Blood Like Lemonade: Stealth album, I didn't even know they'd had another one out. Like this, but it does sound a bit similar to the other Morcheeba albums.
  

I'm trying to avoid buying total crap, that's why no real negatives here. OTOH, there wasn't anything really remarkable here either...

Recently read:

• Terry Pratchett - Nation: Excellent. In tone this was closer to the Amazing Maurice, than the Discworld stuff. Almost got teary eyed at some parts. 4/5
  
• Dru Pagliassotti - Clockwork Heart: Steampunk. Somewhat predictable, but the setting was pretty nice. 3/5
  
• Alaya Johnson - Moonshine: Set in 1920s. Contains traces of non-sparkly vampires and other assorted creatures. Also somewhat predictable, but still a goodish read. 3/5
  
• Steve White - Saint Antony's Fire: Scifi Alt history, set in 17th century. Okayish. 3/5
  
• Brenda Clough - Revise the World: Scifi, Timetravel. Not too bad, and main character was nicely and believably done. 3/5
  
• Diana Wynne Jones - Hexwood: Fantasy/Scifi. Excellent. Reminded me a lot of Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock. 4/5
  
• A. Lee Martinez - Divine Misfortune: Comedic Fantasy set in modern times. Fun, but nothing extraordinary. 3/5
  
• R. Scott Bakker - The Judging Eye: Epic Fantasy, first book in the series. This is off to a good start, if you like 'em epic... 4/5
  

Recently read books, not in any order:

• Ian Tregillis - Bitter Seeds: Worked for me, though the German language felt a bit strange. A linguist friend took one look and decided against the book. There's a short story online set in the same universe at tor.com.
  
• Robin Wasserman - Skinned: Pretty good (for a YA), actually.
  
• Skyler White - And Falling, Fly: Lost me at the supernatural "hotel" in Ireland. Blah.
  
• Greg van Eekhout - Norse Code: Started, but for some reason, it didn't catch me. Might try again later.
  
• Kelly McCullough - SpellCrash: Liking the Ravirn series, and this too was pretty nice.
  
• Anna Katherine - Salt and Silver: This was fun "romcom", but nothing too deep. Liked the language, for some reason, but the authors are ex-Tor editors or something...
  
• N. K. Jemisin - Hundred Thousand Kingdoms: Excellent, definitely recommended.
  
• Greg Egan - Diaspora: Standard Egan, with dozen extraneous technological ideas per page. Readable, but didn't feel it was as good as Permutation City.
  
• Carrie Vaughn - Voices of Dragons: YA. Lost me at the dragons hiding underground. It's not the 1930s anymore...
  

Dear small bands: You don't want my money, do you? If you really, truly do: make it easy for me to give my money to you.

I was listening to SlayRadio, and they played a song by mind.in.a.box. I wanted to buy their R.E.T.R.O. album, but I'd like to get the MP3s only, not the physical CD. Checking their site, I can see where to get them.

Which is a big fat FAIL.

• Musicload.de - Fail on several levels: It's German only, for Germans (and Swiss and Austrians) only.
  
• iTunes? I don't have iTunes. Nor Mac, nor a "PC" as it says on the itunes site.
  

I heard on IRC that they're also on Spotify. Which is Yet Another Fail: Free only if you have invites. ...Now who I know who might have invites...?

Oh, oops. My urge to spend the money passed.
So, Sorry mind.in.a.box: No money for you, I got annoyed enough.

One place that Does Things Right is C64audio.com; You buy the CD, and get to download the MP3s immediately. Or buy the MP3s (or FLACs even!) only.

Just to remind myself, here's the recipe for simple salsa:

• crushed tomatoes
  
• onion
  
• jalapeno
  
• garlic
  
• coriander leaves (aka cilantro)
  
• black pepper
  
• oregano
  

Chop up an onion, the jalapenos and the garlic gloves. Add the spices (coriander leaves, black pepper and oregano). Add the crushed tomato sauce. Mix well. Put into a container and keep in the fridge overnight.

I got a bicycle last wednesday. Been biking about 25km a day since then, and have been adding lots of new roads to OSM. I think I'm getting used to it already: no more sore ass!

Perl CPAN FAQ says:

How do I install Perl modules?

Installing a new module can be as simple as typing perl -MCPAN -e 'install Chocolate::Belgian'.

I assume they're not actually lying about it, but in my experience it doesn't work. Perl goes "Mwahahah! You need [this module]? It requires [these modules], one of which I will now FAIL!"

I just ordered a T-shirt with a custom NetHackish image on the back. Took me quite a while to find a place on-line that does short runs of black shirts with print on the back. Now I'll be ready for RopeCon!