Some frost built up on a window in the garage. Lit with a halogen work lamp shining through an old lava lamp. How’s that for a gel?

It’s been cold lately (around -20°F’ish)… so facets are forming all over the place. This isn’t good for the avy season… but nature’s fractals sure make for nice pictures.

» See the rest on Flickr

Put your mouse over the image above.

Docs / Examples | Download

rrdtool is a data logging and graphing utility that's great for system monitoring.

Compiling the latest RRDTool

cd ~
wget http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/pub/rrdtool-1.4.1.tar.gz
tar xzvf rrdtool-1.4.1.tar.gz
cd rrdtool-1.4.1
INSTALL_DIR=/opt/rrdtool-1.4.1
sudo mkdir $INSTALL_DIR
sudo chmod 777 $INSTALL_DIR
./configure --prefix=$INSTALL_DIR && make && make install
cd $INSTALL_DIR
sudo cp -r * /usr
rm -r ~/rrdtool-1.4.1

sudo apt-get install librrd2-dev rrdtool

PHP Extension

cd ~
wget http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/pub/contrib/php_rrdtool.tar.gz
tar zxvf php_rrdtool.tar.gz
sudo mv ./rrdtool /usr/include/php5/ext/rrdtool

cd /usr/include/php5/ext/rrdtool
sudo phpize
sudo ./configure --with-php-config=/usr/bin/php-config --with-rrdtool=/usr
sudo make
sudo make install

sudo nano /etc/php5/conf.d/rrdtool.ini

; Enable rrdtool extension module
extension=rrdtool.so

sudo service apache2 restart

The Result

Where to go from here...

• PHP RRDTool tutorial
• Graph Gallery (inspiration)

Well this is great. *sigh* Now how do you go about sending legitimate messages back and forth between the two documents?

The Solution

xcom_send

var xcom_send = function(win, msg, origin){
	if (document.all ? document.documentMode : window.postMessage){
		win.postMessage(msg, origin ? origin : '*');
	}else{
		win.location.hash = '#xcom-' + msg;
	}
};

xcom_listen

var xcom_listen = function(win, cb, origin){
	if (document.all ? document.documentMode : win.postMessage){
		var receiveMessage = function(e){
			var safe = origin == null || origin == '*';
			if (!safe){									
				if (origin instanceof Array){
					for (var i = 0; i < origin.length; i++){
						if (origin[i] === e.origin){
							safe = true; 
							break;
						}
					}
				}else{
					safe = e.origin === origin;
				}
			}
			if (safe && cb) cb(e.data);
		};
		if (win.addEventListener) win.addEventListener('message',receiveMessage,false);
		else if(win.attachEvent) win.attachEvent('onmessage',receiveMessage);
		else win.onmessage = receiveMessage;
	}else{
		var l = win.setInterval(function(){
			if (win.location.hash.substring(0,6)=='#xcom-'){
				//window.clearInterval(l);
				var msg = win.location.hash.substring(6);
				win.location.hash = '';
				if (cb) cb(msg);
			}
		}, 250);
	}
};

Usage Example

var frame = document.getElementById('myframe');
xcom_listen(
    frame.contentWindow || frame, 
    function(msg){
        alert('From the iframe: ' + msg);
    }, ['http://mydomain.com', 'http://www.mydomain.com']);

xcom_send(window.top, 'I like to talk and be heard!');

This evening, a friend taunted me with Coda screenshots, and I decided enough is enough—it’s time to give code highlighting in Aptana a facelift. Well, here it is: a custom color scheme just for Aptana! I call it “Autumna.”

How it looks

HTML, JavaScript, and PHP all at once

CSS

PHP

Download & Install

1. Download and extract autumna-1.1.zip.
2. In Aptana, go to: Window > Preferences.
   • In the search box in the upper left of the dialog that comes up, type in “colors”. This’ll hide almost all the fields you’re not interested in.
   • For each language listed under Aptana > Editors, there will be a “Colors” node. When you click on each, you’ll see an “Import…” button that will allow you to install the color scheme for the language.

Follow Me on Twitter

We got to marvel at tumbleweeds (apparently mystical to Aussies), take a giant roadtrip through Yellowstone and into Jackson,wrestle with bears, walk through heaps of snow, fine-tune my Aussie accent, delve into a pitch-black cave, laugh at cowboy hats, bake little creatures in the oven¹, pillage McDonald’s like Vikings, geek out, and all sorts of other awesome.

Day 3: Pasquale about to follow Brandon into a shimmy over a decent-sized drop in Spirit Mountain cave. Unfortunately we weren’t able to find “The Descent” creatures down there…

Also, I finally got to witness how the illustrating fiend can draw any creature (real or imaginative) in thirty seconds flat… even on the back of the car.

At Old Faithful: A remedy for the hiding bears…

The only disappointment of the trip was not getting to see a real bear—the January-like wintery conditions probably didn’t help. Anyways, it’s sure going to be hard to say “snow” without pronouncing it as “snaaaar” now…

Twas a totally awesome time! Now to make it up to Vancouver sometime!

1. @PETA: clay creatures

What was it?

A nifty, visual way to visualize the 1’s and 0’s that make up digital files. It was a brainchild from a dull lecture on Mesoamerican Culture.

It lives again

Yesterday, about 10 levels deep into my “heap” folder, I found it. For those who’re wondering: my “heap” folder is what I throw everything into when my three monitors get filled with icons. Old “heap” folders get thrown in, too. The folders hold what’d you find behind your bedroom dresser after three years—in a digital sense.

http://thirdroute.com/projects/bitalizer/

• The very first one got killed after I forgot to renew the domain (brianreavis.com) and then GoDaddy, being the awesome company that they are, stole it out from under me.
• The second blog died after an experimental server setup exploded (basically).
• This one is here to stay.

cat publickey.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

#!/bin/bash
keypub="/root/github.pub"
keyprivate="/root/github"
while read line; do 
	keydata=$line
done < $keypub
keydata="${keydata#"${keydata%%[![:space:]]*}"}"
keydata="${keydata%"${keydata##*[![:space:]]}"}"
keyfound=`fgrep "${keydata}" ~/.ssh/authorized_keys`
if [[ -n "${keyfound}" ]]; then
	echo "${keydata}"
	echo "SSH key already loaded into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"
	exit 1
else
	keypubname=`basename $keypub`
	keyprivatename=`basename $keyprivate`
	sudo cp -f "$keyprivate" "/root/.ssh/${keyprivatename}"
	sudo cp -f "$keypub" "/root/.ssh/${keypubname}"
	sudo cat "/root/.ssh/${keypubname}" >> "/root/.ssh/authorized_keys"
	echo "${keydata}"
	echo "Key successfully loaded into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"
	exit 0
fi

keypub="/root/github.pub"
keyprivate="/root/github"