Joe's Blog – Page 4 – Random thoughts about programming and technology

2 Color Chooser tool now available

I released my web based, interactive “2 color chooser” tool today. You can find it here or in the “USEFUL LINKS” section on my blog page.

This tool allows you to select two colors using RGB or HSV. Here are some of different uses that motivated me to me write it. Here is what it looks like in action:

Note that the little + sign next to the gradient allows you to see the CSS source code for the gradient commands.

The tool can be used to see how well two nested colors contrast which is useful for determining the effectiveness of color schemes. This is especially useful for determining how well a scheme works for fonts in page headers/footers or to determine whether color blind users can distinguish the colors.

It can also be used to see how well two colors work in a gradient. Different browsers support different gradient options. This tool is tuned for FF because that is what I use. Any suggestions for other browsers would be greatly appreciated.

Finally it can be used to test color differences on different monitors. You can bring it up side by side on two monitors and visually compare/contrast the color display. I have used it for tuning my HP and Dell monitors. I was surprised at the initial variation.

This tool demonstrates client side javascript programming techniques using JQuery including dynamic updates, slider bars and simple menus. If you are interested in the source code you can download it by selecting one of the links below.

The files that I wrote are 2-color-chooser.html, 2-color-chooser.js, 2-color-chooser.css and hdr.css. All of the rest are from various public domain packages.

You are free to modify or incorporate the software but I would be grateful if you would cite me as a source.

And last but not least, I would be remiss in not mentioning the book “Javascript, The Definitive Guide” by David Flanagan. If you are at all interested in the learning javascript this book is a must have. I have read both the 5th and 6th editions and heartily recommend both, although, in my view, the 6th edition is slightly better.

Have fun!

SecEd released

I officially released SecEd into the public domain today, you can find it here.

SecEd was written using Python 2.7 and the wxPython 2.8 package. It allows you to securely edit sensitive data. It also has a feature that allows you to rate the strength of your password.

Because it is written in Python it is portable and because it is open source you can use it to learn about wxPython and/or teach me more about it.

Have fun!

Find gcc/g++ header files and/or contents

There have been a number of times when I wanted to find out where an include file was in the default compiler search path and there have been other times when I wanted to find out which header file contained a specific setting so I created this simple little bash script that does both in the hopes that it will be useful.

#!/bin/bash

#
# This tool allows you to search for header files in the compiler
# search path using the find syntax.
#
#    % find-header.sh -name unistd.h
#    % find-header.sh -name syscall.h
#
# You can also search the contents of headers.
#
#    % find-header.sh -name '*.h' -exec grep -n __NR_ {} \; -print
#    % find-header.sh -iname '*.h' -exec grep -l __NR_ {} \;
#
# If you just want to see the include paths:
#
#    % find-header.sh
#

# Collect the arguments.
N=$#
ARGS=()
while (( $# > 0 )) ; do
    ARGS=( "${ARGS[@]}" "$1" )
    shift
done

# Get the compiler paths for gcc and g++.
$(g++ -print-prog-name=cc1plus) -v > /tmp/$$.txt 2>&1 <<EOF

EOF
$(gcc -print-prog-name=cc1plus) -v >> /tmp/$$.txt 2>&1 <<EOF

EOF
INCS=$(sort -fu /tmp/$$.txt | egrep '^[ ]+/' | uniq)
rm -f /tmp/$$.txt

# Search the include paths.
for INC in ${INCS[@]} ; do
    if (( $N == 0 )) ; then
	echo $INC
    else
	#echo find $INC -type f ${ARGS[@]}
	find $INC -type f ${ARGS[@]}
    fi
done

#!/bin/bash

# This tool allows you to search for header files in the compiler

# search path using the find syntax.

# % find-header.sh -name unistd.h

# % find-header.sh -name syscall.h

# You can also search the contents of headers.

# % find-header.sh -name '*.h' -exec grep -n __NR_ {} \; -print

# % find-header.sh -iname '*.h' -exec grep -l __NR_ {} \;

# If you just want to see the include paths:

# % find-header.sh

# Collect the arguments.

N=$#

ARGS=()

while (( $# > 0 )) ; do

ARGS=( "${ARGS[@]}" "$1" )

shift

done

# Get the compiler paths for gcc and g++.

$(g++ -print-prog-name=cc1plus) -v > /tmp/$$.txt 2>&1 <<EOF

EOF

$(gcc -print-prog-name=cc1plus) -v >> /tmp/$$.txt 2>&1 <<EOF

EOF

INCS=$(sort -fu /tmp/$$.txt | egrep '^[ ]+/' | uniq)

rm -f /tmp/$$.txt

# Search the include paths.

for INC in ${INCS[@]} ; do

if (( $N == 0 )) ; then

echo $INC

else

#echo find $INC -type f ${ARGS[@]}

find $INC -type f ${ARGS[@]}

done

iPad2 Model Numbers

I was looking for a simple a comparison of iPad models but could not find one so I created one by gleaning information from various sites. I cannot vouch for the accuracy but it should be pretty close.

iPAD2 Models

Model Name	Model Number	RAM	Color	WIFI	3G	Type	Carrier	Notes
MC755LL/A	2340071	16GB	Black	Yes	Yes	CDMA	Verizon
MC763LL/A	2340502	32GB	Black	Yes	Yes	CDMA	Verizon
MC764LL/A	2340557	64GB	Black	Yes	Yes	CDMA	Verizon
MC769LL/A	1945531	16GB	Black	Yes	No
MC770LL/A	2339322	32GB	Black	Yes	No
MC773LL/A	1918159	16GB	Black	Yes	Yes	GSM	AT&T
MC774LL/A	1918229	32GB	Black	Yes	Yes	GSM	AT&T
MC775LL/A	1918265	64GB	Black	Yes	Yes	GSM	AT&T
MC916LL/A	1945674	64GB	Black	Yes	No			This one seems out of sequence.
MC979LL/A	1945595	16GB	White	Yes	No
MC980LL/A	2339386	32GB	White	Yes	No
MC981LL/A	2339877	64GB	White	Yes	No
MC982LL/A	2339904	16GB	White	Yes	Yes	GSM	AT&T
MC983LL/A	2339986	32GB	White	Yes	Yes	GSM	AT&T
MC984LL/A	2340017	64GB	White	Yes	Yes	GSM	AT&T
MC985LL/A	2341061	16GB	White	Yes	Yes	CDMA	Verizon
MC986LL/A	2340478	32GB	White	Yes	Yes	CDMA	Verizon
MC987LL/A	2340487	64GB	White	Yes	Yes	CDMA	Verizon

Model Name Model Number RAM Color WIFI 3G Type Carrier Notes

MC755LL/A 2340071 16GB Black Yes Yes CDMA Verizon

MC763LL/A 2340502 32GB Black Yes Yes CDMA Verizon

MC764LL/A 2340557 64GB Black Yes Yes CDMA Verizon

MC769LL/A 1945531 16GB Black Yes No

MC770LL/A 2339322 32GB Black Yes No

MC773LL/A 1918159 16GB Black Yes Yes GSM AT&T

MC774LL/A 1918229 32GB Black Yes Yes GSM AT&T

MC775LL/A 1918265 64GB Black Yes Yes GSM AT&T

MC916LL/A 1945674 64GB Black Yes No This one seems out of sequence.

MC979LL/A 1945595 16GB White Yes No

MC980LL/A 2339386 32GB White Yes No

MC981LL/A 2339877 64GB White Yes No

MC982LL/A 2339904 16GB White Yes Yes GSM AT&T

MC983LL/A 2339986 32GB White Yes Yes GSM AT&T

MC984LL/A 2340017 64GB White Yes Yes GSM AT&T

MC985LL/A 2341061 16GB White Yes Yes CDMA Verizon

MC986LL/A 2340478 32GB White Yes Yes CDMA Verizon

MC987LL/A 2340487 64GB White Yes Yes CDMA Verizon

Spammed into oblivion

My Drupal implementation kept getting spammed into oblivion. I was not able to upgrade – possibly because the site was hacked so I decided to switch to WordPress.

I have not done any posting for more than a year because of the spam. It is really annoying and serves no useful purpose.

Interestingly much of my work in cloud architecture/development is focused on security but like so many other things, it is easier to find time to address security issues at work rather than at home.