My commands

yes > yes.txt
^C
dhermanmac:file dherman$ ls -lh
total 508504
-rw-r--r--  1 dherman  EDIETS1\domain users   248M Feb 18 15:25 yes.txt
dhermanmac:file dherman$

//div/div[2]/div/div/div[2]/div/div/div[2]/div[2]/div[2]/div[2]/div/form/input[13]

Now I spent a bit of time trying to figure it out manually and quickly gave up.  I figured firebug might have something and sure enough if you “Inspect Element” on the button firebug pops up with the full html path to the element shown across the top of the firebug window.  Hovering over each element gives you the full XPath and right clicking lets you do a few different operations such as Copy Html and Copy XPath.  Now the XPath that it gives you will look like

/html/body/div/div[2]/div/div/div[2]/div/div/div/div[2]/div[2]/div[2]/div/form/input[13]

I removed the /html/body and replaced with // to match the rest of the XPath that selenium generates, replaced the name=fieldname in my test and it worked.

*Please NOTE*

This is horrible don’t ever use it – All joking aside if you have the option to add a class or an id(as rasenplanscher points out in the comments below) to an element on the page that you need to target you should do that instead.  If you can’t like this situation, this will work for you.

["https://www.googleadservices.com",
"https://roia.biz",
"https://www.emjcd.com",
"https://nmargin.com",
"https://ssl.google-analytics.com",
"https://www.ifactz.com",
"https://secure.interclick.com",
"https://r.turn.com",
"https://secure.trafficmp.com",
"https://secure.fastclick.net",
"https://ads.revsci.net",
"https://conv.opt.fimserve.com",
"https://ds.contextweb.com",
"https://ad.yieldmanager.com",
"https://beacon.dedicatednetworks.com",
"https://flex.atdmt.com",
"https://seal.verisign.com",
"https://sealserver.trustkeeper.net"].each{ url ->
println "nslookup ${url[8..-1]}".execute().text
}

Ok let’s look whats going on here. First thing you’ll notice if you’re coming from the java world is there is no class definition, there’s an implicit class created for you so for simple scripts especially run once scripts like this, it’s not necessary.

The first part is a list which is created with []

["https://www.googleadservices.com",
"https://roia.biz"]

Next we are calling a method on the list called .each which accepts a closure which is in this case

{ url ->
println "nslookup ${url[8..-1]}".execute().text
}

Contained in this closure is what I really needed to do, which was do an NSLOOKUP on each url, but only the domain, I had to strip out the protocol (I know this could have easily been done with a search and replace in my editor but then you don’t have any example code)

We start by creating a groovy string – denoted by the"" which allows us to substitute the url in with the ${url} syntax. Another niceity is to omit the {}’s if you do not need to run any additional methods on the variable you are substituting – had the https:// not been in the url i could have written it like so:

println "nslookup $url".execute().text

What you’ll notice is by using the array index notation with a range I am able to get all chars starting at position 8 and go all the way to the end (in groovy -1 means the end of the string, -2 would be 2 from the right -3, 3 from the right etc. – no more subString(pos, string.len - pos)) This same syntax also works with lists

Now that I have the portion of the domain I need, we call .execute() on it. In groovy a .execute method is added to the String class and when doing so the entire string will be passed to the command line and executed. The following would print out the directory listing where the script was running.

"ls -la".execute().text

Finally we call .text (equivalent of .getText()) since .execute only returns a java.lang.UNIXProcess and the text property gives you back the output

Also note that println is the equivalent of System.out.println("text") – it’s just another groovy shortcut.

At work I often find myself doing certain search tasks (more go to url.com/x/ where x is a variable) all the time. Enter alfred’s custom searches.  You define your keyword, your url and it replaces a token “{query}” with your search term.  Now opening a track ticket is ⌘ SPACE t 12345 which translates to trac.site.com/ticket/12345.  I have also added trac searching, stack overflow searching and a few others.

As well as app launching and searching it’s also got commands for various system commands such as activate screensaver, logout, lock, empty trash, and shutdown (yes there are already shortcuts for these, this just provides alternate ways of doing it). Another great feature is access the OSX dictionary, spell {word} will give you options on how to spell the word and define {word} will give you its definition.

The product is still in beta but it seems very well thought out and has given me no problems as of yet.

ps: As a bonus I changed the default behavior of ⌘ SPACE in OSX preferences to ⌘ SHIFT SPACE and mapped alfred to ⌘ SPACE instead

The show is great let me make that clear, but they should just stop trying to bust the un-bustable myths.  I’d love to read your comments on this, has this bothered you as well?

Just wanted to write a quick note about Brew.  Had some time to kill before going to a show with Amalia so I went over to Brew based on recomendations from a friend. I’m a big fan of espresso, especially machiattos, and had the perfect machiatto on Wednesday night.  For once I was able to order a machiatto without having to explain to the barista that a it’s not a little latte, nor is it espresso with whipped cream (never order something complex from *$ on the turnpike).

The espresso was rich and extremely bold without being overly bitter, and the locally roasted beans seem to make quite a difference.  Now if only they had a location closer to my office. Like I said, a quick note, wasn’t there long enough to write a full review.  What’s your favorite coffee “joint” as they say?

The install instructions are:

1. Copy the pods .htaccess file and overwrite yours
2. Change the permalink to /%postname%/
3. Activate plugin

I followed those instructions and got the following warnings

Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /purpleasphalt/wp-content/plugins/pods/init.php on line 33

Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /purpleasphalt/wp-content/plugins/pods/sql/update.php on line 4


Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /purpleasphalt/wp-content/plugins/pods/sql/update.php on line 11


Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /purpleasphalt/wp-content/plugins/pods/init.php:33) in /purpleasphalt/wp-includes/classes.php on line 1569


On I trudged ignoring the errors. I was able to create a new pod, or at least it showed up on the screen, but when I refreshed, it was gone.

I started poking around the comments section of the site and found that the warnings would be cleared up in the next release. I also noted that issues can be cleared up by removing the associated pods tables, and that they would be re-created. However it looks like from my warnings that pods could not determine if it had already installed itself. My suspicions were correct when I checked mysql and found that there were no pods tables found.

I’ll post more when 1.2.1 hits and the warnings go away.

Web Forms:
The default behavior it seems is to tab between text and list boxes only.  That checkbox that says “Remember Me”, good luck selecting that with your keyboard.

Dialog Boxes:
I’m also used to using the arrow keys to hit Cancel or Ok, which ever is not the default option.

To fix this problem change the settings from “Text boxes and Lists only” to “All Controls”

Get your keyboard back!

This has now fixed one of the main pain points for me and my new mac.  There’s not much that I have issues with but this was one that really bothered me.  I just wish it was the default setting.  I’d love an application that would list all of the “newb” settings all in one place so that I could more easily change them, or know that they exist for that matter.

Some other things that I have found:

fn + delete = makes delete key a delete key and not a backspace key.

Speaking of the ‘fn’ key, have an app that loves the F Keys like Eclipse?  You can default them to F1,F2 etc with the following change:

Use function keys by default

Any other keyboard tips and tricks? Let me know in the comments.