geek stuff - 3 | lunatechian (lunatech-ian)

September, 2012

creating org-mode TODOs from wanderlust emails

If you are one of those five people in the world who use Emacs' wanderlust for email and org-mode, then you might find this tip useful. To create TODO items from emails, use the org-capture template. Below is the template that I use

(setq org-capture-templates '(("t" "Todo" entry
                              (file+headline "~/org/mygtd.org" "Tasks")
  " TODO %^{Brief Description} %^g\n%?\nAdded: %U" :prepend t)
                             ("j" "Journal" entry
  (file+headline "~/dump/journal.org" "")
  "\n %^{topic} %T \n%i%?\n" :prepend t)
                             ("e" "Email Todo" entry
                              (file+headline "~/org/mygtd.org" "Tasks")
                              "* TODO %^{Brief Description}\n%a\n%?Added: %U\n" :prepend t)
      ))

When you are reading an email and you want to create a TODO item from it, just do M-x org-capture and select the Email Todo (e).

February, 2012
gitosis hint: does not appear to be a git repository

You have successfully installed gitosis, and you have been able to add users into gitosis. Now, on a remote computer, you try to checkout.
```
tearlayneed-lm:tmp rshekhar$ git clone ssh://stormcrow@home:221/gitosis-admin
Cloning into gitosis-admin...
fatal: '/gitosis-admin' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
```
I am running the ssh server on port 221 and my username is stormcrow. If your reaction is WTF!, then I can sympathise with you. The correct clone command is
```
git clone ssh://stormcrow@home:221/~/gitosis-admin
Cloning into gitosis-admin...
remote: Counting objects: 24, done.
```
If you failed to notice, there is a ~ required.
Wednesday, February 1. 2012 No comments
December, 2011
rants by Kapil Sibal, with lolcats

Kapil Sibal, India's Telecoms minister has prompted an uproar after it was revealed he met with executives from Google and Facebook to pressure them into screening 'objectionable' content.

A side effect of Kapil Sibal trying to censor the internet is that he has been given a goldmine of comic quotes. And any quote looks adorable with a kitten. I converted his quotes to lolspeak and put them with pictures of cute kittens. The kittens should countereffect the increased blood pressure caused by his idocacy.

Without further ado, here are the cats with Kapil's quotes

U go and delete information on the Internet that might offend the sensibilities of people in India

U go and delete information on the Internet that might offend the sensibilities of people in India

We have to take care of the sensibilities of our people. Cultural ethos is very important to us.

We have to take care of the sensibilities of our people. Cultural ethos is very important to us.

There is some content on the Internet.. that any normal human being would be offended by

There is some content on the Internet.. that any normal human being would be offended by

I have seen subject matter which was so offensive that it hurt religious sentiments of large sections of community

I have seen subject matter which was so offensive that it hurt religious sentiments of large sections of community

I decline to define what, exactly, is offensive content I am not offensive

Image credits
Thursday, December 8. 2011 No comments
September, 2011
audit for incorrect engine

If you use innodb engine exclusively, and want to audit your databases for any tables that might have an incorrect engine, use the command below -
```
mysql -u root -p  information_schema -e \
"select TABLE_SCHEMA,TABLE_NAME, ENGINE from TABLES where\
 ENGINE != 'Innodb' \
 and TABLE_SCHEMA not in ('mysql','information_schema');"
```
Thursday, September 22. 2011 No comments
June, 2011
a bag of tips

When you require a fake US address, use the one below. It should clear validity filters
123 Fake Street
Compton, CA - 90222

In linux, to find files modified today, use find . -mtime -1 \! -type d -exec ls -l {} \;

Wednesday, June 22. 2011 No comments
mysql startup debugging tip

If you are not able to start the mysql daemon repeatedly using your linux distribution init scripts and you are ready to pull out your hair in frustration, here is a tip that might help you in finding the problem.

Try running the mysqld_safe from the command line (without using the init scripts). Try running /usr/bin/mysqld_safe -v, which should spit out some debugging information.

If that fails, try calling the mysqld daemon directly from the command line, with the "-v" option . mysqld is usually present under /usr/sbin/mysqld. mysqld can be called with --print-defaults to get the command line options it would be run with.

/usr/sbin/mysqld would have been started with the following arguments: --user=mysql --pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid ..... --max_binlog_size=100M

Try adding the -v option to these options to get more verbose details. When run from command line, mysqld will not detach from console and will print debugging info that might be useful in finding the cause of the error.

I suggest using 3 terminals to figure out what is going on
- one terminal with tail -f /var/log/mysql/mysqld.err
- one terminal with tail -f /var/log/messages
- one terminal where I ran the mysqld_safe / mysqld command
The init scripts are usually good for day to day work. However, sometimes the init scripts can impede a innodb crash recovery process on a large database. Some init scripts have timeout built into them and they can kill mysql while the innodb is still trying to recover its tables.

Defined tags for this entry: geek, geek stuff, mysql
Wednesday, June 8. 2011 No comments
May, 2011
happy star wars day!

MayThe4thBeWithYou

Celebrate the day by blowing up planets and kidnapping Princesses

Wednesday, May 4. 2011 4 Comments