KeeFox is a plugin for Firefox that communicates with the KeePass2 password manager. I like KeePass2 because I can maintain a local secure password database without involving a server. It works great under Windows, and runs with Mono on Linux. However, KeeFox was complaining that the KeePassRPC.plgx plugin (in ~/.keepass/plugins) was incompatible. To fix it, I had to install the mono-complete package.
Sadly, this describes me: CSH Programming Considered Harmful
I’ll try to be better.
I found the article referenced above while trying to solve something that was turning out convoluted in my csh script (redirect just stderr to /dev/null). It was trivial in sh.
It is a definite trade-off, though, when it’s something you don’t use daily, where maintainability is a concern, and where you work with people who pull their hair out even at the csh syntax.
3DS is an aging binary interchange format for 3D models. OBJ is another aging, but ASCII-based format for 3D models.
Here is a simple Python script that converts one or more files from 3DS format to OBJ format using Blender:
# Convert 3ds to obj using Blender
#
# Run as follows:
# blender -b dummy.blend -P bl_3ds2obj.py -- file.3ds ...
#
# dummy.blend is just an empty Blender file needed as an argument.
# Put one or more .3ds files on the end of the command.
# The .obj files will be created with the same name (and path) as
# the .3ds file, but with the .obj extension.
# The export creates a .mtl file for each .obj file also.
import bpy
import sys
import os.path
for i in range(1, len(sys.argv)):
if sys.argv[i] == "--":
break
for file in sys.argv[i+1:]:
# Start with an empty scene
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action="SELECT")
bpy.ops.object.delete()
# Read a .3ds file
bpy.ops.import_scene.autodesk_3ds(filepath=file)
# Write a .obj file
outfile = os.path.splitext(file)[0]+".obj"
bpy.ops.export_scene.obj(filepath=outfile)
Save the script code in a file named blender_3ds2obj.py. You will also need a Blender file to use as a placeholder in the command line. You can save an empty file from Blender, or use an existing one. Assume it is called dummy.blend.
To convert 3DS files, use the following command:
blender -b dummy.blend -P bl_3ds2obj.py -- file1.3ds file2.3ds file3.3ds
Tack on as many 3DS files to the end of the command as you want.
Note: This assumes that dummy.blend and bl_3ds2obj.py are in the same folder as your 3DS files. If not, you will need to specify the proper path to each.
Segway, iPad, Heinz Ketchup? No, its…
You never have all the tools you need. For Cygwin, I used to hunt through the package list and guess which package had what I was looking for. Well there is a better way. And someone else has already written about it.
This link tells you how to determine which Cygwin package contains a file.
In case that site disappears, here’s how (pretend we are looking for the strings command):
http://cygwin.com/cgi-bin2/package-grep.cgi?grep=strings.exe
cygcheck -p strings.exe
…and the answer is… binutils!
Today I upgraded my laptop, which dual boots Ubuntu and Windows 7, to Lucid Lynx (Ubuntu 10.4). Towards the end of the upgrade it said it was upgrading Grub (the multi-OS boot loader) to Grub2. It then asked me some questions about which partitions to modify.
Apparently I answered wrong, because when the upgrade finished and I rebooted, I got an error message from Grub: “Error 4: Symbol ‘grub_puts_’ not found“. I ended up at a prompt that said “grub-rescue>” where very few commands worked. Even “help” was not recognized.
Thankfully, others had blazed the trail. A little web searching turned up a procedure for repairing the Grub install. (Note: the first command should be “sudo fdisk -l” with a space dash lower-case L). I just booted from the Ubuntu LiveCD and followed the procedure. That resurrected Grub and allowed me to boot successfully into Linux.
Well, as you might have guessed, my Windows 7 boot had also been clobbered. To fix that, I had to boot from the Windows 7 CD and follow these instructions.
Finally, here are a couple of other informational references for Grub 2:
Many thanks to those who went before, battled the dragons, lived to tell the tale, and took the time to tell it.
In Cygwin version 1.7 they added a “feature” that would warn you about using DOS-style paths on the command line.
my-cygwin-pc> cd c:/<TAB>cygwin warning:
MS-DOS style path detected: c:/
Preferred POSIX equivalent is: /cygdrive/c
CYGWIN environment variable option "nodosfilewarning" turns off this warning.
Consult the user's guide for more details about POSIX paths:
http://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using.html#using-pathnames
At least this only happens the first time during the session, but I still wanted it gone.
So I tried to turn it off, but the instructions were a little ambiguous to me. I tried setting a nodosfilewarning environment variable in my .cshrc. I actually tried it several different ways:
setenv NODOSFILEWARNING 1 setenv nodosfilewarning 1 set nodosfilewarning=1
Turns out none of these are right. You need to set a Windows environment variable named CYGWIN:
Mystery solved.