Powder Coated Goodness

Powder Coated PS Reservoir

Just got my custom high-capacity (pre-Clinton ban) power steering fluid reservoir back from the powder coaters. Thankfully, they did find a hole in it (explaining the otherwise inexplicable fluid hemorrhaging) which they’ve repaired. As you can see, it turned out pretty awesome. Hopefully being powder coated will prevent the sort of peeling that took place when it was previously just painted with Krylon.

(Yes, I know I need a wing nut to hold the lid in place.  The rezzie is just resting there while I get new innards and hoses for it.)

Those Pesky Gasoline Fumes in the Trunk

I finally reached my limit of tolerance of the gas fumes in the trunk of Dexter the token bavaria. I had previously inspected the fuel lines in the trunk and found all of them to be OK.  Also, the vent lines all appear (and smell) intact.  So yesterday, I drained and removed the tank from the trunk where it was originally installed 36 years ago. Needless to say, it didn’t give up easily. Nevertheless, it’s out, and it’s going to town for an inspection. If it comes back “viable,” then I’ll seal it and have it painted before reinstalling. Keep your fingers crossed!

Trunk

Building log4cpp Universal Binary on Mac OS X

Here’s the configure command I used to build a universal binary for log4cpp on Mac OS X:

$ env CFLAGS="-O -g -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk -arch i386 -arch ppc" \
LDFLAGS="-arch i386 -arch ppc" \
CXXFLAGS="-O -g -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk -arch i386 -arch ppc" \
./configure --disable-dependency-tracking

Duplicating Lines in Xcode

I’ve been working in TextMate for Rails development for the past year now. Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of Mac OS X and iPhone development in Objective-C. Of course, this puts me into Xcode for the vast majority of my day.

The one keyboard shortcut I missed the most in Xcode from TextMate was ctrl-shift-D or “Duplicate Lines.” It turns out it’s insanely simple to add this to your Xcode environment.

  1. In Xcode, go to the Script menu (the stylized S to the left of Help) and select Edit User Scripts…
  2. Decide where you want to place your new command (I put it at the bottom of the Text menu). Click there. Then click the + menu (lower-left corner of the window) and select New Shell Script.
  3. Double-click where it says “Shell Script” to edit the name of your new command. Double-clicking to the right of the name allows you to assign a keystroke to the command. I used control-shift-D — same as TextMate.
  4. The menus should read as follows:
    • Input: Selection
    • Directory: Selection
    • Output: Insert after Selection
    • Errors: Ignore Errors
  5. Now click in the script area of the window and type in the following new line:
    cat <&0

Here’s how mine ended up looking:

That’s it! Close the window and enjoy.

DLO Jam Jacket for iPod Touch

I bought one of these for my iPod Touch a week ago and I have to say I’m absolutely thrilled with it.  I like the grip and feel of the silicone jacket, it allows access to all controls (included the light-o-meter), but best of all it has an “earbud management system” so that I never have to detangle my headphones again!!!