minding the gaps » Technology

A Dance with ThunderBolt – Update 2

Russ Leseberg — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 01:59:11 +0000

At the stroke of midnight tonight, I will have completed 3 full months of testing of a real-time web tracking solution that depends heavily on ThunderBolt technology. Though I continue to be plagued with drive issues, a single drive has been fast enough to deal with the current read/write requirements.

A Dance with ThunderBolt – Update

Russ Leseberg — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 04:47:15 +0000

Initial testing of the LaCie ThunderBolt drives on a MacMini Server looked pretty good… That is after I returned the fist MacMini Server that had a dead Thunderbolt port. More in the next day or so….

A Dance with ThunderBolt

Russ Leseberg — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 01:59:05 +0000

I began testing Lacie’s Big Little Disk ThunderBolt drives this last week. Lacie makes some pretty big claims for these little guys and I am determined to find out if they measure up. I have several coding projects in the hopper that will definitely put them to the test. More soon.

iPirate – The Bucs Go iPad

Russ Leseberg — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 21:58:14 +0000

A month before the launch of Apple’s original iPad, I predicted that sports teams would replace their playbooks with the tablet computer, see Countdown to iPad – Playbook (Use Case 18).

Recently the Tampa Bay Buccaneers bought iPads for their players to do just that, see Tampa Bay Buccaneers buy each player an iPad to hold playbook, videos.

As further predicted, the Buccaneer coaches and players not only watch plays on the iPads, but if the devices are ever lost, “You’ve got a way to wipe (everything) off with the push of a button,” according to Tampa Bay Bucs Coach, Raheem Morris. ~ quote from tampabay.com article.

iPad: Team Player

In the Countdown to iPad Series (early 2010), I presented possible use cases for the amazing device that had yet to be released into the wild. Now that iPads have been with us for more than a year, it’s interesting to see just how many predictions have come true.

Using Applescript & Python To Set Title Case (AppleScrunix)

Russ Leseberg — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:02:16 +0000

One way in which Apple has turned the Mac into the most powerful scripting/automation platform on the planet has been to provide a litany of scriptable languages as part of the standard install. Just some of the languages you will find in Mac OS X are JavaScript, Ruby, Python, and of course AppleScript. I refer to the mashing all these languages together as AppleScrunix.

Each of the languages has strengths and weaknesses. By bringing them all together on a single platform, and making it easy for them to be used together, Apple has put an amazing amount of automation power in our hands.

As shown in previous posts AppleScrunix allows me to work primarily in AppleScript and draw from other languages when my scripting language of choice comes up a bit short.

I often run across the need to do ‘simple’ title case conversion. ‘Simple’ meaning every word in the title has its first letter capitalized and all remaining letters are lowercase. Though this is possible using only standard AppleScript, the project quickly becomes complicated and ends up running slower than it needs to.

If you are interested in solving this problem just using AppleScript, you can get much of the code you need from my previous post, Applescript – Converting Uppercase & Lowercase (AppleScrunix Style).

Or you can do it using AppleScrunix and just 2 lines of code. I have messed up the title ahead of time to make it more interesting… thIs is thE stORY of a GIRL becomes This Is The Story Of A Girl.

Begin Script…



set myTitle to "thIs is thE stORY of a GIRL"
do shell script "python -c \"print " & quoted form of (myTitle) & ".title()\""

…End Script

Result: “This Is The Story Of A Girl”

AppleScript / AppleScrunix Examples – using the do shell script command in AppleScript.

Applescript – Converting Uppercase & Lowercase (AppleScrunix Style)

Russ Leseberg — Fri, 27 May 2011 00:23:44 +0000

As there are no built-in routines for changing the case of characters in AppleScript, the coder is required to add their own handlers. The following script (See credits below) shows one way to use AppleScript to change the names of files in a folder from lowercase to uppercase & vise-versa.

Begin Script…



tell   application  "Finder"  to   set   the   source_folder   to   choose folder 

 


 
tell   me   to   activate 

 


 
display dialog  "Change case to:"  buttons  {"Cancel", "UPPER", "lower"}

 
set   the   button_pressed   to   the   button returned   of   the   result 

 
tell   application  "Finder"

 
	 repeat   with   this_item   in   entire contents   of   source_folder 

 
		 set   the   current_name   to   the   name   of   this_item   as   text 

 
		 if   the   button_pressed   is  "lower"  then 

 
			 set   the   name   of   this_item   to   my   change_case ( the   current_name , "lower")

 
		 else 

 
			 set   the   name   of   this_item   to   my   change_case ( the   current_name , "upper")

 
		 end   if 

 
	 end   repeat 

 
end   tell 

 
display dialog  "Process complete"

 


 
-- AppleScript 'change_case' handler
on   change_case ( this_text ,  this_case )

 
	 if   this_case   is  "lower"  then 

 
		 set   the   comparison_string   to  "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"

 
		 set   the   source_string   to  "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"

 
	 else 

 
		 set   the   comparison_string   to  "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"

 
		 set   the   source_string   to  "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"

 
	 end   if 

 
	 set   the   new_text   to  ""

 
	 repeat   with   thisChar   in   this_text 

 
		 set   x   to   the   offset   of   thisChar   in   the   comparison_string 

 
		 if   x   is   not  0  then 

 
			 set   the   new_text   to  ( the   new_text  &  character   x   of   the   source_string )  as   string 

 
		 else 

 
			 set   the   new_text   to  ( the   new_text  &  thisChar )  as   string 

 
		 end   if 

 
	 end   repeat 

 
	 return   the   new_text 

 
end   change_case

…End Script

The following handler ‘change_case’ was rewritten using AppleScrunix. Not only is there less code, but the script runs faster. Replace the AppleScript version of the handler in the above script with the unix based handler below.

Begin Handler…



-- AppleScrunix 'change_case' handler
on   change_case ( this_text ,  this_case )

 
	 if   this_case   is  "lower"  then 

 
		 set   the   new_text   to   do shell script  "echo " &  quoted form   of  ( this_text ) & " | tr A-Z a-z"

 
	 else 

 
		 set   the   new_text   to   do shell script  "echo " &  quoted form   of  ( this_text ) & " | tr a-z A-Z"

 
	 end   if 

 
	 return   the   new_text 

 
end   change_case

…End Handler

The above AppleScrunix example uses shell command ‘tr’ to translate uppercase to lowercase, etc. Refer to the tr Mac OS X Man (Manual) Page for other uses.

Credits: I picked up the initial example script almost verbatim from Apple Support Communities. It was posted by a user I only know as V.K., on April 16, 2009 @ 10:13 am. ~Thanks VK!

AppleScript / AppleScrunix Examples – using the do shell script command in AppleScript.

Sorting with AppleScript (AppleScrunix Style)

Russ Leseberg — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:50:03 +0000

As there is no built-in sort function in AppleScript you have to create your own. A common way of sorting lists is to use the repeat function… cycling through the list comparing items as you progress. One of the more efficient approaches is a bubble sort. You can find an excellent example in Lesson 18, “Working with Lists and Records” in Sal Saghoian’s book, AppleScript 1-2-3.

This AppleScript bubble sort was taken in part from Sal’s book:


set fruit to {"pears", "bananas", "apples", "grapes", "watermelon", "pineapple"}
set last_swap_position to length of fruit
repeat while last_swap_position > 0
 set comparisons_needed to last_swap_position - 1
 set last_swap_position to 0
 repeat with i from 1 to comparisons_needed
 if item i of fruit > item (i + 1) of fruit then
 set swap_item to item i of fruit
 set item i of fruit to item (i + 1) of fruit
 set item (i + 1) of fruit to swap_item
 set last_swap_position to i
 end if
 end repeat
end repeat
return fruit
 = {"apples", "bananas", "grapes", "pears", "pineapple", "watermelon"}

Using AppleScrunix you can sort the same list using a shell script sort command:


set fruit to {"pears", "bananas", "apples", "grapes", "watermelon", "pineapple"}
set text item delimiters to {ASCII character 10}
set fruit to fruit as string
set fruit to paragraphs of (do shell script "echo " & quoted form of (fruit) & " | sort -f")
set text item delimiters to ""
return fruit
 = {"apples", "bananas", "grapes", "pears", "pineapple", "watermelon"}

Though it doesn’t save much coding, it executes faster, especially as the lists get longer. Using sort, via shell, also allows for files/lists to be sorted without having to open them. I will cover that in a future post.

We will continue to delve deeper into AppleScript & AppleScrunix in future posts.

The Birth of AppleScrunix

Russ Leseberg — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:20:30 +0000

On March 24, 2001 Apple introduced it’s ‘Unix’ based version of Mac OS, Mac OS X. Steve Jobs said, “Mac OS X is the most important software from Apple since the original Macintosh operating system in 1984 that revolutionized the entire industry.” See Mac OS X Hits Stores This Weekend. The following 10 years saw Apple morph from has-been to has-it-all. Check out Adam Rosen’s fun piece chronicling the evolution of OS X, Welcome to Mac OS X: An Illustrated Introduction [10th Anniversary], on Cult of Mac.

While reinventing the Mac, Mac OS X also revitalized my favorite scripting language, AppleScript. In addition to providing “control of scriptable applications and of many parts of the Mac OS,” OS X gave AppleScript access to the power of Unix, and introduced me to what I like to call AppleScrunix.

AppleScript has long offered Mac power users a way to do what they love to do better and faster. Sal Saghoian, AppleScript Product Manager at Apple, and de facto king of AppleScript, rightly states in his book, AppleScript 1-2-3, that AppleScript is the “power to make the computer do what you want and need it to do for you.”

The mashup of Applescript and Unix, AppleScrunix, brings two automation powerhouses together, creating (arguably) the most powerful automation platform on the planet. A simple example can be illustrated by solving a common problem in scripting, that of creating a date/time string for the unique naming of files.

In order to create a date/time string to append to a file name consisting of Year, Month, Day, Hours (military time), Minutes and Seconds, such as 20110331155523…

…straight AppleScript might look like this:

set cd to (current date)


set text item delimiters to ""
set dateTime to year of cd & text items -2 thru -1 of ("0" & (month of cd as integer)) & text items -2 thru -1 of ("0" & (day of cd)) & text items -2 thru -1 of ("0" & (hours of cd)) & text items -2 thru -1 of ("0" & (minutes of cd)) & text items -2 thru -1 of ("0" & (seconds of cd)) as string

…with AppleScrunix you can do this:

set dateTime to do shell script "date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S"

We will delve deeper into AppleScrunix in future posts.

MobileMe & the iDisk Gap (Bridging the gap)

Russ Leseberg — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:58:35 +0000

I am a fan of most Apple products and usually do not hesitate recommending them. MobileMe has been a glaring exception. While I consider the overall value of MobileMe to be well worth the $99 per year, the iDisk service has been slow and buggy. Despite an extended marathon on the Apple Tech Support Line and a myriad of in-store genius attempts, the performance has remained ‘iffy’ at best.

Enter Transmit 4 software by Panic Inc. Add Transmit 4 to iDisk and you more than solve the problem, you blow it away. Combining Transmit 4 and iDisk gives you a glimpse into the flexibility and power of cloud-based storage. So Steve, ehh… Mr. Jobs, how about buying Panic Inc. and making iDisk the cloud storage solution it was born to be. Cloud-based computing is only as good as the bridge you take to get there.

My iPad and I take to the Skies

Russ Leseberg — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 02:30:54 +0000

I fly a lot and it seems as if the space between plane seats narrows a bit more every year. So much so, I gave up using a laptop to get any work done on most flights. When I got my iPad I gained back much of the work time I had lost, but it meant giving up one of my favorite seats, 8A, at least on a CRJ (Canadair Regional Jet).

CRJ 8A - iPad Unfriendly Seating for Right-handers

Row 8 window seats on the CRJ are great because they remove the arm rest toward the exit door giving you an extra 2 inches of width. Width a man of my… ehm… build thoroughly appreciates. Since I hold my iPad with my left hand and navigate with my right, however, 8B is less than thrilled.

Who would have guessed we would be changing airplane seats to accommodate gadgets? Note to self, let travel agent know… 8D is the new 8A.