Spencer Mathews spencermathews

KML to GPX converter

Download GPS data from Google Latitude

Google Latitude location history KML export is very interesting. GPS track log is easy to handle geotagging photos than Google Latitude KML data file. I wrote a perl program to convert from KML to GPX track log.

Google Latitude / KML data download

Google Latitude

Each of these commands will run an ad hoc http static server in your current (or specified) directory, available at http://localhost:8000. Use this power wisely.

Discussion on reddit.

Python 2.x

$ python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000

Force RGB mode in Mac OS X to fix the picture quality of an external monitor (Original)

Update: I have heard that 10.8.3 has solved this problem for some people, so I rolled back my changes and installed the update. No change on my monitor. Nevertheless, it’d be a good idea to update OS X before trying this, since it may fix the issues with your particular hardware.

I recently bought a MacBook Pro (with ‘Retina’ screen), but when I hooked it up to my Dell U2410 monitor via HDMI cable I was shocked by the poor picture quality. The contrast was all wrong and text was misshapen. No amount of calibration in the monitor or software would fix it.

Short answer: OS X thinks my monitor is a TV, and is using the YCbCr colour space rather than RGB. I had to override an EDID setting to force the RGB colour space, and it is now working correctly.

Long answer: I haven’t owned a Mac for a while and h

Notes:

I've tried to break up in to separate pieces, but it's not always possible: e.g. knowledge of data structures and subsetting are tidy intertwined.
Level of Bloom's taxonomy listed in square brackets, e.g. http://bit.ly/15gqPEx. Few categories currently assess components higher in the taxonomy.

Programming R curriculum

Data structures

Opening and closing an SSH tunnel in a shell script the smart way

I recently had the following problem:

From an unattended shell script (called by Jenkins), run a command-line tool that accesses the MySQL database on another host.
That tool doesn't know that the database is on another host, plus the MySQL port on that host is firewalled and not accessible from other machines.

We didn't want to open the MySQL port to the network, but it's possible to SSH from the Jenkins machine to the MySQL machine. So, basically you would do something like

ssh -L 3306:localhost:3306 remotehost

Git

Global Settings

Related Setup: https://gist.github.com/hofmannsven/6814278
Related Pro Tips: https://ochronus.com/git-tips-from-the-trenches/
Interactive Beginners Tutorial: http://try.github.io/
Git Cheatsheet by GitHub: https://services.github.com/on-demand/downloads/github-git-cheat-sheet/

Reminder

Press minus + shift + s and return to chop/fold long lines!

	# put this in your .bash_profile
	if [ $ITERM_SESSION_ID ]; then
	export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033];${PWD##*/}\007"; ':"$PROMPT_COMMAND";
	fi

	# Piece-by-Piece Explanation:
	# the if condition makes sure we only screw with $PROMPT_COMMAND if we're in an iTerm environment
	# iTerm happens to give each session a unique $ITERM_SESSION_ID we can use, $ITERM_PROFILE is an option too
	# the $PROMPT_COMMAND environment variable is executed every time a command is run
	# see: ss64.com/bash/syntax-prompt.html

	#!/bin/bash
	if [ ! -r "/usr/local/git" ]; then
	echo "Git doesn't appear to be installed via this installer. Aborting"
	exit 1
	fi
	echo "This will uninstall git by removing /usr/local/git/*/, /etc/paths.d/git, /etc/manpaths.d/git"
	printf "Type 'yes' if you sure you wish to continue: "
	read response
	if [ "$response" == "yes" ]; then
	sudo rm -rf /usr/local/git/

	echo "Expanding the save panel by default"
	defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool true

	echo "Why is this not default anymore?! Enabling full keyboard access for all controls (e.g. enable Tab in modal dialogs)"
	defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleKeyboardUIMode -int 3


	echo "I'm in yer computer, hax0ring yr passwords!"
	echo "Requiring password immediately after sleep or screen saver begins"
	defaults write com.apple.screensaver askForPassword -int 1

	# Bulk convert shapefiles to geojson using ogr2ogr
	# For more information, see http://ben.balter.com/2013/06/26/how-to-convert-shapefiles-to-geojson-for-use-on-github/

	# Note: Assumes you're in a folder with one or more zip files containing shape files
	# and Outputs as geojson with the crs:84 SRS (for use on GitHub or elsewhere)

	#geojson conversion
	function shp2geojson() {
	ogr2ogr -f GeoJSON -t_srs crs:84 "$1.geojson" "$1.shp"
	}