shards mvr

  • two words, for any time I ever hear “nice guys finish last”:

    Jimmy Carter

  • Wonder how many of us, faced with toll roads which now:

    • photograph the car & license plate
    • add a “convenience” fee
    • via some unknown 3rd party with our private info…
      instead:
    • simply choose to save our privacy and a bit of $
    • by spending a few more minutes
    • on a more pleasant road

  • not-so-temporary files

    hmm; I recently had the need to find where the “temporary” PDF was stored, as a result of selecting “Print > PDF > Open in Preview”, in an app - and found that it’s no longer simply in your user’s $TMPDIR - so:

    here’s a command-line to find recent ones and move them to the Trash, to review (and likely delete):

    find $TMPDIR ~/Library/Containers/*/Data/tmp/TemporaryItems -type f -mtime -7 -iname \*.pdf\* -print0 | xargs -0 -r -L1 -t -I% mv -i % ~/.Trash/; open ~/.Trash/

    (note: there may be several of the same name, and these will not overwrite each other, and thus not be moved - after disposing of previous results (as per your needs), run the command again. lather, rinse, repeat.)
    —

    it appears these dirs are not cleaned up on a schedule (though may be cleared via Safe Mode), so files may linger here for quite some time - including, depending on what you “Print to PDF”, some that you may not want hanging around (ex: bank statement).
    —

    BTW: depending what apps you use, you may want to check what else is in these TemporaryItems dirs:

    find $TMPDIR ~/Library/Containers/*/Data/tmp/TemporaryItems -type f \! -name .DS_Store -ls

    (as usual: caveat lector)

  • SCOTUS nixes injunction that limited Biden admin contacts with social networks [Ars Technica ]

    cool… that’s… oh…

    just ahead of SCOTUS plans / wishes for a 2nd Trump “administration”

  • Q&D cmd-line to show dependency graphs for `brew outdated`

    ```
brew outdated -q | while read searchRoot; do
    echo 'checking for '$searchRoot'...'
    searchIterations=10
    outFile=/tmp/$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)_brew_${searchRoot}.gv
    fullGraph=$(brew deps --installed --dot --graph --include-requirements --for-each --annotate)
    nodeList="$searchRoot"
    for i in $(seq 1 $searchIterations); do
        nodeListNew=''
        newNodes=$(echo "$fullGraph" | egrep " -> \"($nodeList)" | cut -d\" -f2,4 -s | tr '"' '\n' | sort | uniq | tr '\n' "|" | sed 's/|$//')
        if [ -n "$newNodes" ] 
        then
            nodeListNew=$(echo "$nodeList"$'\n'"$newNodes" | tr '|' '\n' | egrep -v '^$' | sort | uniq | tr '\n' "|" | sed 's/|$//')
        else
            break
        fi
        if [ "$nodeListNew" = "$nodeList" ] 
        then
            break
        fi
        nodeList=$nodeListNew
    done
    potOut=$(echo "$fullGraph" | egrep "$nodeList" | sort | uniq)
    echo 'digraph {'"$potOut"'}' > "$outFile"
    dot -O -Tpdf "$outFile"
    open "$outFile".pdf
done
```

    Code tested on macOS 14.4, with the following extras: brew, graphviz (containing dot)

  • dump iCloud Mail Rules to human-readable format

    github.com/mvgfr/uti…

  • mac file sharing settings cleared

    seems to have happened just after applying the 14.3.1 update (though has happened before):
    all settings missing from the GUI, and sharing -l shows the same - nothing. 😕

    easy enough to re-config - at least after I determined this was the problem, and scratched my head to remember what shares were defined.
    (might want to cron sharing -l, to keep a log of the config)

  • Interesting underscore artifact in recent versions of macOS Terminal

    a thin horizontal line, somewhere before the current cursor…
    it’s apparently a leftover bit of the cursor which (regardless what style cursor you have) displays in the underline format, where a cursor was.
    selecting that line (ex: triple-click) clears the artifact.

  • A refreshingly nuanced look at "AI"

    John Siracusa (famed of exacting investigation and insight) has some excellent ideas - and questions - about “Generative AI”. Which we’re now awash in, whether we know it or not: I Made This.

    My own, entirely separate, opinion:

    There is no AI that exists right now; “Generative AI” is a (marketing) label, for systems created on the backs of people, while giving them no credit - and certainly none of the revenue. Calling it “AI” is - at best - a stretch. And it’s the latest twist (of the blade) in the “gig economy”.

  • safety tip for using `tar` and `--option`s

    this will fail (it ignores the excludes - frustrating!):
    tar -cf /dev/null ./ --exclude-from=file-of-excludes

    this will work:
    tar -cf /dev/null --exclude-from=file-of-excludes ./

    (hint: put the options before the path to archive)

  • SMBC is brilliant - as usual:
    www.smbc-comics.com/comic/sel…

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