Mike Cohen

Getting Closer

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All of the cabinets are in place, including the one over the refrigerator, which was a special order. The knobs and most of the trim is in place. We’re just waiting for the sink & countertops, which should be here by the end of the week.

Getting Close Getting Close
Getting Close Granite Sample

AppleScript from the command line

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Here’s a Leopard feature I had overlooked until now. Shell scripts can now be written in AppleScript. Simply put the following line at the start of your script and save it as plain text:


#!/usr/bin/osascript

Previously, the AppleScript interpreter would choke on that line, so you had to do some ugly workarounds for it.

I haven’t had a chance to post too much for the last few days since I’ve been pretty busy with work. I just found out I’ll be going to Vancouver at the end of this month. I’ll try to post more about it later, and some more Leopard notes.

Kitchen almost done

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The guys were back today and finished putting in the cabinet lights, so they were able to put the doors on the cabinets. I picked out the granite counter tops, which should be ready by the end of next week.

Kitchen Almost Done

Google OS

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I downloaded gOS, the operating system for Wal-Mart’s $199 PC and found that I can run it nicely under VMware. Unfortunately the developer’s page is down right now. The OS is available for download as a torrent.

gOS
Uploaded with Skitch!

It’s pretty obvious that gOS is based on Ubuntu. Just before the desktop appears, there’s a quick flash of Ubuntu’s tan background. All of the desktop icons are web applications that open in Firefox.

Time Machine tip

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Although Time Machine only backs up changed items in its hourly backups, since it backs up the entire drive, it also includes cache files which change frequently.

If you use VMware or Parallels, your virtual disk images are several gigabytes and will change continuously as long as the VM is running. That can take up a lot of space in your Time Machine backups and can take a long time to back up. To avoid that, exclude your VM folder in Time Machine options. You should still back up your VMs manually, though.

Endangered Species – The Chemistry Set

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I feel sorry for today’s kids who won’t get to experience chemistry sets like we did when I was a kid. I had fun creating spectacular color changes, colored flames, explosions, and filling the room with noxious fumes. Unfortunately those days are gone.

What do Islamofacism, methamphetamine production, tort lawyers, and homemade fireworks have in common? The answer is that they are all part of the seemingly inevitable process of destroying the childhood Chemistry Set. A.C. Gilbert, in 1918 was titled the “Man who Saved Christmasâ€? with his innovative ideas of packaging a few glass tubes and some common chemicals into starter kits that enabled a generation to learn the joy of experimentation, and the basis for the scientific method of thought.

(thanks to kottke.org for linking to this)

High schools always had a well-stocked chemistry lab, usually with hazardous materials like phosphorus, mercury, metallic sodium, and uranium. Now it isn’t possible to buy even tiny amounts of those materials without an extensive background check.

The US is falling further behind in science & technology as it becomes more difficult for kids to get an education in science.

We really need to end our culture of fear and stop overreacting to threats and get back to common sense. The sad part is this won’t change even if Democrats are elected, because they’re all too afraid of being labeled “soft on terrorism” or “soft on crime” to change anything.