Category Archives: Theory

PyWin32 Silent Install

Posted by JordanRinke on 20110622 Comments Off

Working on the MSI for the OpenWin project I ran in to an issue, how to silently install PyWin32. It took some digging, and I ended up having to open a feature request to get the answer (Mark Hammond replied very quickly), but here it is…

(Instructions specific to Python 2.6.x but should be easy to adapt)

Extract the .exe installer (I use UniExtract http://legroom.net/software/uniextract)

It will create 2 directories PLATLIB and SCRIPTS copy the contents of both directores in to c:python26libsite-packages

Then cd to c:python26libsite-packages and run “python pywin32_postinstall.py -install”

Remove pywin32_postinstall.py

That will install PyWin32 silently.

You may not have to copy the pywin32_postinstall.py script to site-packages or cd to that dir, but that is how I did it the first time and it worked, and I just haven’t tested it any other way.

USB Art

Posted by JordanRinke on 20110610 1 comment

Had an idea that slowly morphed in to a pretty cool concept after some extensive discussion with Will Kelly…

A plexigalss cube of USB devices, basically start with a small clear cube (corner balanced) that you can connect USB devices that is just a giant JBOD. People can send in their physical devices, the installation is read only. You plug the device in and it has a little blue read light that blinks when it is accessed or a scaled light from Green to Red depending on how much content on the drive is down voted or flagged as not fitting the acceptance agreement (nothing illegal etc). As more USB drives come in, another layer is added to the cube and another micro server to handle all the additional devices. The submission would be open for a certain period of time, or to a max limit of devices, then the cube is sealed and becomes a snap shot of files in time and is an interactive art installation since it would pulse and blink randomly as the files were accessed etc. There would be a website front end that randomly displays content from the drives on the main page, and it would all be searchable.

Thoughts?

Rackspace Cloud Builders

Posted by JordanRinke on 20110308 Comments Off

Rackspace Cloud Builders was announced today. Check it out: http://www.rackspace.com/cloudbuilders/

Catch me on twitter/aim/skype/IRC(freenode) if you would like to talk RCB/OpenStack – JordanRinke

Automating the email archive script

Posted by JordanRinke on 20101222 Comments Off

There is no way to actuall schedule an event in Outlook that I know of, however if you add the following code to the same session as the previous sub it will kick off whenever a task with the subject “MOVEOLDEMAILREMINDER” pops a reminder. To set this up create a new task, give it the subject “MOVEOLDEMAILREMINDER” and set a reminder. When the reminder fires, the code below will execute, moving the reminder to a day later. Simply dismiss the reminder popup and your email over 30 days old will have been moved to a personal folder. If you want to run this a week apart instead of daily, just change the DateAdd number from 1 to 7.

Private Sub Application_Reminder(ByVal Item As Object)
Dim objTask As Object
Set objTask = Item
If objTask.Subject = "MOVEOLDEMAILREMINDER" Then
    objTask.ReminderTime = DateAdd("d", 1, objTask.ReminderTime)
    objTask.Save
    MoveOldEmails
End If
Set objTask = Nothing
End Sub

Fiction

Posted by JordanRinke on 20101124 Comments Off

[14:37] <rackmike> write a story about MikeD’s fictional crimes

How geeks make plans

Posted by JordanRinke on 20101008 2 comments

This is pseudo code and a mix of various languages (i.e. it wouldn’t compile in anything) but this was how it went down in real time…

3:36:01 PM: Jordan Rinke:

define Night (Drinks as new Drinking, Pool as new Billiards, BBQ as new Dinner, optional Go_Out as new Bar) {
Arrive(Drinking.location)
Drinking.execute()
BBQ.execute()
Billiards.execute()

if defined Go_Out then {
  Go_Out.execute
  return hungover
} else {
  return maybe_hungover
}

}

main() {
If Wayne.Walls.Approve = 1 then {
  Drinking.location = “Patio”
  Billiards.location = “Wayne Enterprise”
  BBQ.location = Drinking.location
  retval = Night (Drinking, Billiars, BBQ)
  #
  #Optional Go_Out needs definition
}

return = retval

}
3:36:55 PM: Wayne Walls: 1

3:37:35 PM: Jordan Rinke: this deserves a blog post lol

3:37:41 PM: Wayne Walls: lol

3:37:47 PM: Wayne Walls: i agree

Must see movies for any geek.

Posted by JordanRinke on 20100808 5 comments

A friend recently had some free time to geek out and enjoy himself, he decided the best way to relax would be movies and video games. He had seen most of the must see / great movies etc so we decided to send an email out to everyone at work and ask them for a list of their must see movies. I qualified my question by asking for must see movies for a “geek dude”. Below is the list of movies I received, I have included anything that was part of a franchise so for instance if someone suggested Alien, then I included Aliens, Aliens3 and Alien Resurrection. I know there will be some grumbling about this but this is my blog and I think people should see an entire franchise even if some people thinks one or more of the films suck. Having said that, there are some movies on this list that I personally think aren’t worth watching… however movie reviews are such subjective things I have included them since they were recommended and who knows you might love them.

Admittedly not all the movies are geek specific, some are obscure, or interesting, horrific or hilarious etc. I think this ended up being a list of movies recommended by geeks instead of specifically for geeks hah.

If you have movies that should be on this list that have not been included, please post up in the comments and I will update the list to be as complete as possible.

Daily ToDo lists vs Perpetual ToDo lists?

Posted by JordanRinke on 20100806 2 comments

I have been trying to review material on todo lists and various life management aspects, I still have a lot of material to read, review, and contemplate but I am curious what everyone elses thoughts (and reading recommendations are) in regards to the topic. My manager Grant Herbon made a very insightful observation recently that the key to time/life management is simply using whatever system works best for you, with that in mind, what system works best for you?

The internal debate I am having right now (before even selecting a method/presentation medium) is if todo lists should be a time limited thing daily, weekly etc. or if they should be a perpetual list just consumed in small chunks. Where the perpetual todo list concept comes from is a period in my life when I practiced polyphasic sleep. Basically ever 4 hours I slept for 15 minutes for a total of 2 hours asleep per day, I did this for a number of months. One of the most interesting things that I observed while on that sleep schedule was a nearly continuous stream of consciousness and also the disappearance of the concept of completing stuff within a day proper. My todo list became a number of 4 hour long sprints and the list as a whole became a long list of things that were then broken down and consumed in 4 hours chunks. Not effective for a normal schedule but conceptually it interests me which leads me to where I am now. Trying to evaluate the systems that exist, and deciding if some modified perpetual program would be effective long term. Maybe something like this exists already and I just haven’t found the proper publication, or maybe I will end up with a blend of ideas. Much research is still needed but I am very interested to hear your thoughts and recommendations on the topics. I know that many of you who read this randomly when I actually post are very driven and successful people so I would love to hear from you.

(Most people find the polyphasic sleep stuff odd/interesting as well so I am totally open to comment/discussion around that as well if you have any questions)

Stepping it up

Posted by JordanRinke on 20100726 Comments Off

And by stepping it up I mean here is another blog post 40 days later! woooo!

Wow

Posted by JordanRinke on 20100610 Comments Off

I just realized that I haven’t posted a public blog post in over 6 months. What a boring blog. I will try to step it up.

Jordan Rinke

Rants, revelations and other absurdities

Category Archives: Theory

PyWin32 Silent Install

USB Art

Rackspace Cloud Builders

Automating the email archive script

Fiction

How geeks make plans

Must see movies for any geek.

Daily ToDo lists vs Perpetual ToDo lists?

Stepping it up

Wow

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