Mac OS & Python: An introduction for the Applescripter

Applescript is a great tool for us Mac users. It’s a scripting language that’s easy and simple enough to not scare away true beginners. A fun feature of Applescript is how to write code, since almost looks like regular English sentences. Applescript was the first scripting language I felt comfortable using. However, its ceiling of limits is pretty low. For some tasks it’s better to turn to other tools.

When jumping from the Applescript ship to Python, the water seems mighty cold. There is a lot more ‘computer code’ and all the commands are new and foreign. Plus, the language’s name is a type of snake! You’ll be feeling homesick for the ease of Applescript, but these feelings will pass.

Python’s developers wanted to create a language that was fun to learn and use, that’s why they named it after the British comedic troupe, Monty Python. And when compared to other languages, like C and Pearl, it is easy to pickup and learn.

Terminal: Compressing multiple folders

You have a directory full of important folders, and you want each one compressed separately. Doing this by hand would take waaay to much time. Of course, we can do this in terminal, and with one line of code (sweet!) so it’s easy to use.

For this we use the “Find” command built in into our computer. From there we’ll have two choices, to use compress it to a zip file for a dmg file.

Snazzy Peer-to-Peer In Your Browser

I am really impressed with this little piece of software made by Patrick Williams over at bittorrent.

Paddleover allows you to share your files with anyone in the world using the power of torrents, but is simple enough for even the most basic of users to understand.

In this image you can see me, and the user “Patrick” sharing files with each other. I currently have none shared, but Patrick has four. I can browse those files, and choice to download them if I want. To grab a file, I just click and drag it over to my name, and it is automatically added to my download folder on my computer. Pretty snazzy!

This circle view can be expanded into sharing multiple files with multiple people, each with their own folder select shared content. Each computer is now like a remote hard disk, but using a torrent backend to transmit the data. I would like to see this simple method applied to content distribution of digital products, like videos and games.

Mac OS: Zipping with your terminal

The basic command structure for compressing a file into the zip format with the terminal is:

zip -r <destination> <source>

If you want to compress more than one folder or item:

zip -r <destination> <source1> <source2>...

The source can be a file or folder.

Unfortunately zip is not very smart when it comes to folders and it will save not only the file, but the path to the file as well. We can fix this behavior by adding just a little bit to the original command.

We’re All Equal In Our Differences

Gender Inequality For Women in Japan

I am an American who works at a Japanese company in Japan, with Japanese co-workers and a Japanese boss. I try to avoid commenting about social issues while at the office, but today the topic of women’s equality was brought up, or as I view it: inequality.

Original Statement

Even though women in Japan show higher rates of gender inequality on the Global Gender Gap Report, this does not mean they are ‘oppressed’ in society. Becoming a housewife is a goal for most [Japanese] women, so naturally there are less female politicians and managers.

My Counter-Argument

Women in Japan show higher rates of gender inequality than their counterparts from other developed nations because they have  fewer equally available life and career choices available to them. I would call this a form of oppression.

FileMaker: Code 128 barcodes, the free and easy way

I wasn’t willing to pay $49, $99, or $199 to add barcodes to my databases. Luckily, we don’t have to pay for something that we can do ourselves for free!

The first step will be to insert a custom function the converts ASCII text into Code 128, which requires both a check sum and character conversion. I have supplied the necessary code at the bottom of this post, and even though it’s not my code, it’s quite awesome. Just save it as a custom function in your database with the name “cfCode128” and with inputs “pString” and “pCodeSet”.

So once you have the function setup, use it to convert data in a field and apply a Code 128 font, like this one.

Mac OS: Command basics – “cd” and “ls”

For those out there that are new to using Terminal, or need a quick review, this is a quick overview of the “cd” and “ls” commands. These two commands are the basic tools for navigating the file structure “inside” of your Mac. Once these two are mastered, you will be able to comfortably move onto doing cooler, more complicated commands that can be run in Terminal.

FIleMaker: Fixing The Annoying Error 101

When creating loops that traverse through all the records of a found set, most all of us use the useful “Go to Record/Request/Page [Next; Exit after last]” function. It’s quite nice, since it prevents a loop from continuing into infinity when you reach the last record of a found set. However, you will always get an Error 101 from this.

Error 101 is telling us that the record we want is not found. For this case, the record we want is the next record, which doesn’t exist because we’re already at the end. You would think the built in function would suppress this error when you select to option to exit after the last record, but the error still gets logged, and will pop-up if we use the debugger window or if we are running a server script.

What can we do?

We we have two choices: ignore the benign error or use another method. I chose the latter, a method that won’t trigger the error.

Fixing Adobe Applescript Errors

Fixing Adobe Applescript Errors

If you are still using an Adobe Photoshop CS3 or CS4, you might have run into some funky Applescript errors. These errors sometimes pop-up as, “Error loading /Library/ScriptingAdditions/Adobe Unit Types.osax”, or “Can’t make 720 into type traditional points”, or something similar.

The fix for this is easy, and is provided straight from Adobe. The error comes from a conflict between the old 32-bit component and the newer 64-bit scripting environment of Mac OS X 10.6+ (Snow Leapard, Lion, and Mountain Lion).

There are three ways to fix the issue, but simplest is to download the updated file and install it into the “/Library/ScriptingAdditions” folder of your Mac, then restart your computer.

Setting Pidgin and Google Talk (GTalk) with A Custom Domain

Pidgin does a great job of connecting all the chat & IM protocols together, and is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux (yeah!), plus it’s open-source and free! Its interface is dead-simple, but sometimes its setup can be confusing for beginners.

If you have a custom email domain for your gmail account, setting up to use Google Talk through Pidgin needs a couple extra tweaks to the settings. Follow these easy steps to get started.