SonicChicken blog

I love Mac OS X, but every once in a while I manage to screw up one (or more) of the network folders I dropped into the sidebar. (On this particular occasion I changed my mind after I started opening a network folder and clicked “Cancel” on the keychain access prompt.) Now every time I click on the network folder in the sidebar of Finder I’m getting the following message: The volume for “network-folder-name” cannot be found.

I’ve had this happen before, but I can never remember how to fix it. A quick search turned up this thread which suggests blasting the entire com.apple.sidebarlists.plist file, but that’s a bit harsh if you have a dozen folders in the sidebar and only one or two of them are broken! Instead I chose to edit the plist file and delete the broken folders.

Double-clicking on ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist should open the Property List Editor. (If it doesn’t, see “to Diana” comment on this post.) Click on the exposure triangles for Root, useritems, and CustomListItems. Find the broken folder–they’re in the same order that they appear in the Sidebar. You can click the exposure triangle for a numbered item and see if the Name property matches your broken folder. Once you’ve selected the correction Dictionary item, click the Delete button:

Now if you open a new Finder window you’ll notice… That you still have the same problem. Doh! You need to restart Finder. Click on the “Apple” menu (top left of the screen) and choose “Force Quit…” (or just hit Apple-Option-Escape on the keyboard). Select the Finder application and hit the Relaunch button.

This doesn’t really fix the problem–the broken folder is gone, not repaired. But it’s better (imo) than whacking the entire Sidebar preferences file.

I’ve been reading The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling by Edmund R. Burke, Ph.D. and Ed Pavelka. If you’re interested in LD riding, (i.e. more than 60 miles/100 km or so), this book has lots of advice. Some of it is pretty obvious, such as “drink water while riding”, but it’s all good to know.

One place where the book is a little scattered is the chapter on fitting a bike to the rider (chapter 3). There are 16 suggestions for sizing a road and/or touring bike, but they jump around between riding positions and component sizing in a seemingly random order. In fact, the most basic measurement (bicycle frame size) is the very last item mentioned. What’s up with that?!? I sifted the size/fitting suggestions from all the technique/posture tips, then I put the component suggestions in an order that made some sense to me. (I omitted information on custom-built frames, e.g. top tube length, as this isn’t financially realistic for me.) I use (fit #n) below to refer to the original fitting number scheme in The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling. Be sure to check the book for more advice, nuances, and trade-offs in fitting your road bike! Keep in mind that these are for long-distance cycling with a road/touring bike. If you’re riding for speed or you’re on a “mountain” bike, these may not be appropriate.

The first body measurement you need to know is, how long are your legs? To find this, stand in front of a wall with your feet about 6″/15 cm apart. Use a large hardback book to simulate a saddle. Put it square against the wall and slide it up (gently!) until it’s pushing firmly against your crotch. Mark the wall at this height and measure to the floor. This is your “inseam length”.

1. Multiply your inseam length by 0.67 to determine your frame size, from the center of the top tube to the center of the crank, along the seat tube. (Fit #16)
2. Multiply your inseam length by 0.883 to get the saddle height, the distance along the seat tube from the center of the crank to the top of the saddle. (Fit #10)
3. Use your inseam length to determine the proper crankarm length (fit #15):

   Inseam length	Crankarm length
   <29″	165 mm
   29-32″	170 mm
   33-34″	172.5 mm
   >34″	175 mm

That’s it for the math! Now that the basic frame components are set, we can move on to slightly more subjective measurements.

Shoes, cleats, toe clips: See (fit #14). It’s almost a page long, and all of it’s very important to people (like me) with knee problems. (It can also affect saddle adjustment, below.)

Saddle adjustments: The saddle should be level (fit #11). Sit in the center of the saddle and backpeddle until the cranks are horizontal. Slide the saddle front/back so that a plumb line from the forward knee touches the end of the crank. (Fit #12)

Your handlebars (drop bars) should be as wide as your shoulders or even a little wider, (fit #5). Position the brake levers per (fit #6) and your personal preferences.

Stem adjustments: Try setting the stem height about 1″ lower than the saddle–if you cannot comfortably stay in “the drops” for several minutes, raise the stem until you are comfortable. As you gain flexibility and strength, lower the stem for a more aerodynamic position, (fit #7). A good guess for stem length (a fixed component, not an adjustment) can be derived by sitting in the saddle, grasping the brake hoods, and bending the elbows slightly (as if riding). Now look at the front hub–it should be slightly (or completely) obscured by the handlebars. If it’s not, try a longer or shorter stem (fit #8).

For completeness, (fit #1-4, 9, 13) have more to do with riding position and technique than fitting a bike, IMHO.

I came across an interesting page: How to eat sushi. I knew quite a bit of this etiquette and information already, but there were a few surprises for me.

Hat tip to John at Uneasy Rhetoric for pointing this out!

Update 2006-02-03 19:09 Yuji-san (Eugene Ciurana), author of the Sushi Eating HOWTO, dropped by and gave us the scoop on the origin of walmartdotcomaki. Thanks, Eugene!

A few days ago my family signed up for Netflix. I had some spare time to play over the Thanksgiving weekend, so I installed and set up MyNetflix2 on my blog. Here’s how I did it. These instructions cover installation of MyNetflix2.0 beta on my web server (running FreeBSD 4.8). YMMV

1. Download and uncompress the plug-in: cd my_wordpress_dir/wp-content/plugins fetch http://amphichon.com/wp-content/media/mynetflix20b.tar.gz tar -xzf mynetflix20b.tar.gz
2. The source file needs to be customized before it can be used. (I guess this isn’t technically a “plug-in” because of this.) First change needed is adding your personal Netflix RSS feed URL’s. To find these, login to your Netflix account and follow the link labeld “RSS” at the bottom of the Netflix page. Below the “Personalized Feeds” heading, you’ll find the RSS URL’s. Copy and paste them into MyNetflix source code.
3. You may also need to modify other settings, particularly if you don’t have the “3-at-a-time” plan.
4. Activate the plugin from the admin / Plugins page.
5. Add some code to your WordPress theme (typically on a sidebar) to display however much of your queue, current DVD’s, and/or recent rentals that your wish. I’m using the code below to display the DVD’s we’re currently watching:

       <?php if (function_exists('mynetflix')) { ?>
           <h4><?php _e('Recent NetFlix Activity'); ?></h4>
           <?php mynetflix('out'); ?>
       <?php } ?>
   

6. I’ll probably add some code to display recently returned DVD’s in the future. (We haven’t returned any discs yet, so this breaks the MyNetflix code right now.)

That’s all there is to it. I’m going to see if I can hack up an Options page for this code to make it a true plugin. This would handle the RSS ID string(s) and the $plan settings, and possibly the image layout options. If/when I finish that, I’ll send the changes to herichon for inclusion in the next release.

Want to know who your Representative is? Check out Project Vote Smart! Just enter your 9-digit ZIP code and you’ll get a whole list of both federal and state elected officials, each linked to an information page containing contact information (among lots of other things).

Looking for the most recent action on a bill in Crongress or the Senate? Go to THOMAS and enter the bill number, including the prefix letters. For example, to see House Resolution 3824, enter “hr3824″ in the Search Bill Text box. Be sure to check the button for searching by bill number instead of keyword. You can find the most recent status of the bill (e.g. sent to a committee, reported to the House, etc.) by following the “Bill Summary & Status file” link. For more information on THOMAS, see the THOMAS FAQ. Bloggers/netizens note:

How do I link a particular part of THOMAS to my own web site? You can create a permanent link to a bill … by using UNIX GET or POST protocols… It is necessary to use these protocols because the URL addresses you see when you execute a search are temporary addresses… – from the THOMAS FAQ

Be sure to check out the POST instructions in the link above. I used them to whip up the button below to show the bills that my so-called Representative, Dan Lungren, sponsored or cosponsored in this (the 109^th) session of Congress: