Technical Agile Coach and Trainer
The cut command in unix lets you specify which part of a line you want to echo. For example if
cat file.txt
produces something like:
12345678
23456789
34567890
Cut can also be used to specify particular columns in tab, space or other delimited data.
then you could pipe the file into the cut command to show only the 3rd character like this:
cat file.txt | cut -c 3
3
4
5
You can also specify ranges like this:
cat file.txt | cut -c 3-4,6-8
34678
45789
56890
This is a video showing how to open up a Mac Mini. I doubt that it is quite as easy as it looks in the video, but it looks very doable.
I guess it seems a little odd to be reviewing a vacuum cleaner here, but this is a very special vacuum cleaner. I first heard of the Dyson vacuum when talking to some graphic designers. They used it as an example of the design process. I looked into it because I was curious, but couldn’t picture myself spending $400 on a vacuum.
A few months later we had acquired some gift certificates for amazon.com. I was looking around and came across the Dyson vacuum on their site. I found that they had refurbished units for $279. The reviews for the refurbished units were favorable. $279 seemed like a much more reasonable price so after some deliberation we went ahead and ordered it.
When the box got her I opened it up and followed the instructions to assemble it. The handle actually fits inside of the hose, so it seemed odd at first, but it keeps the hose tucked neatly up against the vacuum unlike most units.
Continue reading “Dyson Vacuum Review”
Kathy Sierra has an interesting article about the impact of audio on people’s perception of video quality.
I don’t have a link handy, but there’s a study that showed that the quality of the audio causes people to change their evaluation of the quality of the visuals, but that it doesn’t work in reverse.
Creating Passionate Users: The effect of sound on users
Basically she is saying that on average people will rank the visual part of a video as higher quality if the sound is good and lower quality if the sound is bad. However, if you keep the sound quality constant and change the video quality it won’t impact their perception of the audio quality.
Continue reading “Creating Passionate Users: The effect of sound on users”
In the past I’ve been stuck using Nextel for mobile internet access. Nextel service seems to work ok, but it is very slow, has limited coverage, costs $79 per month, doesn’t support Bluetooth, requires third-party software to work with OS X. So when I had an opportunity to switch to a different carrier I went with T-mobile because they have Bluetooth phones and because they offer unlimited internet access for $20 per month when added to an existing cell phone plan.
Continue reading “Using Bluetooth and a Mobile Phone for Internet Access”