Geek book

How to find if python running as 32 or 64 bit?

Gnu engineer — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:59:07 +0000

I don’t know if there is an easy or “standard” way of doing this. Did not bother to google and i do so using the sys module in the interpreter…

import sys
sys.maxint

64 bit ==> 9223372036854775807
32 bit ==> 2147483647

Personal wiki: wikidpad

Gnu engineer — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:55:38 +0000

I started using wiki at work and over the years it became one of the tool that i daily use. I started to use wiki personally for myself to capture design thoughts, todos, planning items and organizing all my files (importing into wiki folder) with some context descriptions making it a mashup or portal. I use wikidpad and dropbox to sync this with all my machines (mac and windows). This is DIY alternative to Evernote or Things. I don’t want my unencrypted data on cloud. In fact it is very easy to turn this tool into whatever you want as a personal doc portal/GTD/planner etc., Installing on mac is pain and more pain if you are on 64 bit. This is because it is based on wxPython which is based on Carbon for mac and they are supported only for 32 bit.

Here are some of my tips to install on mac and is based on the shell script provided by them.

1. Python 2.6 (comes with mac and is enabled by default as 64 bit if your kernel is 64).
2. Install wxPython 2.8 for 2.6. Just use the dmg.
3. Download the WikidPad source and copy into your preferred location. Like in my case ~/tools/
4. Create a shell script that does the following…
1. set the python to run in 32 bit mode for that session using “export VERSIONER_PYTHON_PREFER_32_BIT=yes”.
2. cd to the directory of the Wikidpad source.
3. start WikidPad: python WikidPad.py

Use the shell script to start wikidpad and create wiki files under dropbox sync directories so that it is synced to all your machines. The nice thing is that the wiki creates a .lock file and warns if you accidentally edit the same wiki from two places.

Note: If you by default run on the 32 bit python then just follow the steps for users which will avoid all the above steps and create you a nice app. I guess they use py2app for this.

SFTP tool for mac

Gnu engineer — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:34:53 +0000

I’ve been using Fugu for a while now but not happy with it. It is old but still buggy. The ui design and features are not in par with WinSCP that i use in windows environment. Was recently looking for other choices and found the following two which seems to be quite new and say they work with cloud services. Will give it a try and see how it goes…

1. muCommander.
2. Cyberduck.

Fantastic Objective C tutorial(cheat sheet) for geeks

Gnu engineer — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:51:14 +0000

If you have been into programming for most of your life and now had to learn and deal with Obj-C just as i do, then look no where other than this tutorial which is more of like a cheat sheet for the core language. I love it and I’m sure going to look this up many times before my first iphone app.

XCode 4 on snow leopard.

Gnu engineer — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:36:31 +0000

It seems like the only way to get XCode4 on snow leopard is through paid developer program which is $99. Wish i had installed it thru app store when it was free or $5. Now you can get free XCode 4 if you would rather pay for upgrading from snow leopard to Lion which is $29.

Is my mac 32 or 64 bit? How do i switch between the two?

Gnu engineer — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 19:26:59 +0000

Hardware: Look here to find out if your processor is 32 or 64 bit?

Software: Look here to see if you have 32 or 64 bit kernel.

If your processor supports 64 you can then switch back and forth between the two kernels. See here

Rock mongo

Gnu engineer — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 18:23:13 +0000

Among the list of admin guis available, i happened to pick this Rock mongo as it had many features compared to others. See below for details on installing this in ubuntu server…

Pre-requisites

1. Apt-get php5, php mod lib5 for apache2.
2. Apt-get php-pear (to get PECL) and php-dev.
3. sudo pecl install phpmongo.
4. Restart apache.

Installation

1. Follow the steps here. All it involves is download a zip and extract to a folder.
2. Now configure Apache to create a php app using the above the folder.
3. If required change the config.php to set the mongo server information like port, user name and password.

Rock mongo really rocks.

Installing mongodb on ubuntu server

Gnu engineer — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 18:08:28 +0000

See here for detailed instructions.The steps can be summarized at high level as below…

1. Add the 10gen server to the software repo list.
2. Add the 10gen GPG key via apt-key to trust and verify the 10gen repo server.

Note: if for some reason you have firewall issues to retrieve the key then you can save the GPG key into a file and import using apt-key. see here

How much water should I drink?

Gnu engineer — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 02:48:00 +0000

After reading various different health magazines/articles, i derived these simple guidelines…

Qty/day

Your weight in pounds / 2. For instance, i weigh 200 lbs and so i need to drink 100 ounces of water.

Distribute your consumption

Distribute the consumption through out your day and never exceed more than 12 ounces per hour. Except after workouts or morning.

Start your day with water

Water should be the first intake to your body. It is like cleansing your body before starting the day.

Is peanut a good food?

Gnu engineer — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:34:54 +0000

I love peanuts and eat them a lot. I often buy a sack of it in costco. Many suggests that i should avoid it to lower cholesterol. Is it true?

Key facts:
1. Peanuts contain no cholesterol.
2. It is rich in fats but good fats – mono and poly. Helps to lower LDL.
3. Has dietary fiber. Another good one.
4. It has “phytosterols” which helps reduce the consumption of cholesterol.

Personally I now feel (after reading these) that it has helped to lower my LDL and bring it back to normal. Three years ago my LDL was way high and now i’m back to normal. Peanut was one that I’ve added to my regular daily intake in the last 2 years and very happy to stick with it.

Links:
Peanuts help lower cholesterol.
Cholesterol and peanuts