zen.org Communal Weblog

Where I work we have to processes files from many sources, we have found three different line endings: “\n”, “\r\n”, and “\r”. We didn’t want to process all the files before, er, processing them so I wrote the following:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

until (($/ = getc(STDIN)) =~ m/[\r\n]/) {
die “no new line!” if (eof(STDIN));
};
if ($/ eq “\r”) {
$/ .= “\n” if (getc(STDIN) eq “\n”);
}
seek(STDIN,0,0); # rewind()

This will set $/ to which ever of the three file endings we have so you can then process them without thinking. Well, almost no thinking, you will need to use chomp instead of chop. I’m sure it could be nicely abstracted too, bit I didn’t.

According to Wikipedia, the attack on Perl Harbor killed 2,388 people, the September 11, 2001 attacks killed 2,993. The 9/11 sum includes the terrorists, I don’t think the Perl Harbor deaths include any invaders, but all but 55 of them where military. The 9/11 deaths were predominantly civilians.

The Japanese invasion united the country, al Qaeda united the country. As I watch Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s The War I am amazed at the lessons forgotten. I would of bought a war bonds, I would of (I did) limit my gas usage, I wanted to sacrifice. When George W. Bush was first running for President I remember hoping John McCain would win, and there is only one Republican I have ever voted for, but Mr. Bush won, so I wanted him to succeed. I’m a patriot, what the masses thought was more impartant then what I thought. One of these posts I’ll figure out what I think now.

Like, Oh Em Gee, there was a Mac OS X update today and I didn’t have to reboot! Praises from Summerland! The only problem was it didn’t tell me that until it was done and I had already saved and quit out of all my applications by the time it finished.

My life is whole again now that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are on the air again, but I fear the next time they have a vacation. I don’t know what I would do without it. Mr. Colbert and Mr. Stewart should be chained to there desks and be forced to report 24/7.

I wonder if Alberto Gonzales choose to resign now because Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert just started a two week hiatus.

The Princeton Protein Orthology Database (P-POD): A Comparative Genomics Analysis Tool for Biologists.

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night, and spoiler alert! In the end everybody gets ice cream.

Grist sez the New York Times sez Al Gore sez to commit civil disobedience!

I watched David Beckham make is starting début for the LA Galaxy last night. Well, I watched the first half and went to bed, it started at 22:00 and I need my ugly sleep! I’ve read that a few days ago, in Washington, DC United defeated the LA Galaxy even after they subbed in Mr. Beckham in the second half. That was a regular MLS game, but then last night in SuperLiga, in Carson California, Mr. Becham showed his stuff. Apart from a mediocre showing in the World Cup I’ve never seed him play, and wondered what all the hype was about. In the start DC United dominated, then the unfit Mr. Beckham got tackled, he stood up with a huge grin on his face and he was on. Until Philadelphia gets a team, I’m a DC United fan, but with a goal and an assist last night I see why fútbol fans love or hate him.

Try not to miss the Perseid meteor shower this weekend. I would not normally post such a thing, but it also happens to be a new moon. Unless it’s cloudy you will not get better viewing then this.